The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-03-18
Reviving Home Crafts
 By Standardization
How Home Made Goods May Be Popularized- The Preside Industries of Berea = DemOcratizing Food Productions.
David c. Davis

David c. Davis
 l Exclusive Service The Survey Press Bureau)
 The offer by students of hand wov- en bed coverlets as payment for their tuition led the president of Berea College to establish the Berea Fire side Industries. Repair that loom'' became a slogan which awakened in> terest in the remotest cabins and
 aroused the whole neighborhood to possibilities of making the mountain homes centers of profitable industry. A few of the coverlets found their way to Louisville Cincinnati ana New York. They were admired so much that orders soon began to over whelm the women weavers in the Ken lucky mountains. The energetic ac-
 tion of the president of Berea, who organized Home Spun Fairs and
 awarded premiums for the coverlet,
 blankets, etc., and for new designs, checked a threatened decline in
 quality which would have killed in it's infancy the accidentally awakened industry.
 The Preside Industries now 1n> clude chairs. saddles, axe-handles, wooden plates, forks, spoons, baskets in addition to blankets, linen towel covers, ramie towels and rag rugs of many colors and designs Because linen spun in factories broke when used in hand looms, as the flores had been injured in spinning. Berea Col lege now raises its own flax which hn of %I@ pa{r noA spin. The mountaineers often come days journey on horseback to the | fairs or to get detailed instruction. An unlocked for source of revenue has been not only created but what | is better still saved and regulated. IL l was only the prompt action taken to maintain the standards of quality which prolonged and made permanent | the sudden revival of industries sup | posedly long since banished from the home.
 l Not only around Berea but in ev- cry community there are people who | make in the home useful and artis> ! tic articles, the sale of which would furnish them a good living if an or> l ganized market could be developed l for the products. One way to accom- plish this is to establish in each 1 community a cooperative store for | the sale of such goods. By exchange | l itfes, arrangements could be made for l disposing of any over supply.
 l Through county and state cOnven- | tions each locality could learn the needs and markets of various parts | of the country. The conventions, also could establish rules and regulations so that all will turn out a single product l from recognized standard recipe in | uniform way and in uniform | packing which will help them to com>
 pete with the uniform factory pro- | duct.
 The demand for homemade pro- ducts, particularly in the case Of | food, is undeniably strong. Even l now most first class grocers have l customers who prefer to purchase l goods guaranteed as coming from the
 home. The superiority of food pro- l ducts carefully manufactured in | small quantities in the home from | fresh stock grown on the premises,
 makes the mouths of city epicureans
 water Summer vacations spent in
 the country are followed by regrets
 because it is nearly impossible to get
 in the larger cities at least good
 homemade products
 The National Home Products League 1 is sponsor for scheme to revive | home crafts by standardization. The 1 League asserts that the cost of food | products made in the home is less l tudL IL IS III the IdCtOTy, because | much of the time and labor used
 would otherwise go to waste. The
 farmer, too. if he were a manufac-
 turer as we'll as a producer would
 from the double profit grow more 1 prosperous. This it is urged might
 check the abandonment of farms in
 the East and stem the tide of mi | grafton to the cities.
 If all this is true why have the great packing houses and other firms
 secured such grip upon the mar | kets? One answer is that the pri- | mary requirement of trade conditions is for a steady and sure supply of a
 uniform standard quality, whereas
 in the past each family produced its
 goods by it's own recipe and there was
 no machinery, as in the great manu-
 factories that have developed, for in-
 surfing a steady dependable supply. Az evidence of the possibilities for
 such a scheme there is cited the sue.
 cessful sale. through the cooperation | of the Woman's Exchange of New | Orleans. of the cottonades woven by l the Acadians in Louisiana, descend-
 ants of those expelled from Nova