Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-06-26
Visiting Housewives

Visiting nurses have Ions since he.
come an established factor in reduci,r
inc amount Of sickness among families
"hich Tor one reason or another have
not become acquainted with the great
Eaiue or sanitation. But the visiting
housewife is a later institution no, so
wen known. II is her business 10 helm
families Of limited income TO live with
IN mat income. If such a thing Is pos.
s!h!e. In the past it has been the chs.
tom OF many charitable societies TO
provide FUNDS for the relief of impover.
ishod families. This would be good
system were IL not for the fact that AS
long as the family expenses exceed tic
| FAMILY income there will be q constant
need FOR help The New York Associa-
| tion Tor Improving the Condition OF the
! Poor has in it's cmplc Miss Wiuifred
| 6. Gibbs, whose title IS supervIsor of
! the home economy division. and whose
business II is 10 assist families to ut
! their requirements in the way of living
! to their incomes. Under her charge is
staff o: expert dietitions. sewing
! teachers. visiting housewives and in.
| vestiGators trained in food values.
/ heating and lighting, and sanitary con-
ditions. IN an interview in the New
York sun she recently made public
( SOME Of the aims and methods OF her
department.
! We aim FIRST" she says. 80 aid in
preventing dependency. secondly. 10 as
! sist in stamping out dependency by
/ teaching the wise use OF relief: thirdly.
to aid in preventing illness, and lastly,
| 10 relieve illness If possible by dietary
measures great many OF the fani-
lies which apply to the association for
aid are below what is called the pow
! crty i!nc-that is, no amount OF econ
! omy Will enable them to live within
J their income; but II has also been found
that many others are able, with the
u .,.l, Iii
they make. Some 200 families have
been shown that ii is possible 10 do
| this. In one instance woman applied
at the milk station for milk. saying
that She could not afford it. Upon in
quiry IL developed that her husband
was making $50 a month, and that be-
sides the husband and wife the family
I consisted Of girl four years old and
/. baby two years old An expert dieti-
| tian visited the home. became acquaint-
ed with the family, and reported that
! it should be able to live comfortably on
! S39.54 month. \ visiting housewife
was then assigned to the family, and
she discovered that the husband ac-
! cused his wife of being wasteful and
f, indolent. Investigation showed that
she did waste a great deal of food, and
that she did not keep the tenement
clean. The wife said that her husband
! i'll treated her and spent money outside
| the home. This also proved to BIO true
! to a degree.
The woman was taught that under
! the circumstances it was better for her
I to set an example for her husband than
, to try 10 force him to change his habits.
y clean home and well-cooked food was
| the prescription. AT first the woman
, rebelled, but she was persuaded to give
the plan n trial. She was told to select
! the food not so much for its taste as
| for its nourishinG qualities. ard she
was taught 10 keep an expense account.
| BY experiment the society has fixed
! food cost at 81 cents unit a day, and
the unit is an adult man. Although this
seems very low. 1t has been shown that
! ii is adequate. IN the case of this fam
/ lily it proved so. In less than year the
husband yielded to the pressure Of en-
ample, reformed his habits to meet the
higher standard observed by the wife.
and the morale of the family was raised
with snug savings account thrown in
for good measure. In this case the
| family allowance for food was fixed
at S21.29, which proved sufficient.
| Where it is found impossible to
stretch the income to meet all expenses.
the association supplies the difference
until the husbands wages are increase
or some member of the family begins
to contribute to the payment of ex-