The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-02-27
Mrs. Orr Says Organization
Will Start When 500 Mem.
bers Have Enrolled
IMPROVED METHODS
OF HOUSEKEEPING
Points Out Advantages of Giving
More Encouragement to Alabama
Producers and Keeping in
Close Touch With Them

Mrs, c. =. Orr, chairman of the organi-
zation committee of The Housewives
league Of Birmingham. has issued pre-
liminary statement of the purposes of the
proposed organization Organization viii
not be perfected until at least 500 men-
bers have been enrolled. In her state-
ment Mrs. Orr says:
THE Housewives league of Birmng-
ham is not organized, and will not lie
until 500 housekeepers have signifed their
interest in the movement by enrolling
their names as members of such an or
ganizaton. The ordinary way of expect
ing few to do the work will NOT go
here. We have now more than 125 names,
and l have been asked TO make a state-
ment of our hopes and intentions provid-
ed We get the necessary members inter-
ested
I'VE will not be a militant body We
will not even sell eggs, but are already
buying them at reduced rates, unoffi-
cially, for our own use. We have no de-
signs on the retail grocer or his profits
When we ask for any concessions from
them we will. probably give as well as
get.
I'VE have discovered that the eggs, but
ter and chickens we buy from the retail
grocer come from any other state than
Alabama; that our canned goods conie
from some far point of the compass,
when knowledge might enable us to get
them closer. Our town is a manufacture
ing centre, and we are not giving home
products the careful consideration they
deserve. We want to nail over our doors,
Birmingham first, then Alabama.
Encourage Alabama Producers
Realizing that infant Industries need
encouragement, our intention is to give
that announcement by dealing directly
with the Alabama producer we hope
to devise some means of communication
between farm and home which will be
both stable and elastic.
Already we have had an offer from a
woman in a small ltown, within our first
zone, to organize the housekeepers In her
town and get them to put together the
small amounts of produce each has ~
sell and ship it to us.
.Such organization I'm country towns
and villages would be an ideal arrange
ment for both the country and the city
housekeeper. The surplus from the coun-
try place, probably too small to market
satisfactorily under other conditions,
would be taken care of by cooperation.
The distribution of even small lsums OF
money which go directly to the producef
cannot fail to help build up the country
We will promote such organizations az
far as lies in our power.
I'VE realize that the southern house.
keeper is peculiarly unfortunate-also pc.
cuiarly fortunate. Fortunate in her ops
bortunities when she chooses to learn how
te use them, and unfortunate that shs
bas no exact traditions to guide her
I'VE are emphatically new people. We
are immigrants, without having emgrated.
We must not only learn the way of this
new country, but we must make ways
for it, one of the subjects to which we
will give serious consideration is what
we may reasonably expect. We will bo
always an experienced meeting, and our
deductions from our composite experiences
will be the ground for our expectations.