Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1919-07-17

appearing. People are living in
apartments and residential hotels,
- buying cooked food at the delicates-
sen shops, eating at restaurants. Why?
Well, largely because they have to. The old
fashioned home in a dwelling, with servants and
home cooking is still an American ideal. But the
increasing lack of servants, especially of cooks,
makes the old-fashioned home a burden to people
of moderate means and to women who want to
do something besides keep house. 1t is fast coming
to the time when only two
s s s : !" !. !" e. !" !. !; !: !: J ! J. !. !. !: :: !. ! ! !; ! dfBSS|
classes can keep house with n a WlM
any satisfaction: the very mn
rich, who can hire profession WI
al servants at high wages; /AN S~
the poor, who do without in ~
servants. The moderately ~&TN
well-to-do woman must 1YN
choose between housework -@<%
and all other activities. She ~
cannot get servants, because 0E~,
we have no servant class in
this country. Working wom- WB
en- Will not do domestic work lCU
when they can get other
work, even though the other Will
work pays less. |u
These conditions have -A
raised a widespread interest 49,
in the proposition of com
munity cooking. Notwithstanding the high
prices of food and the scarcity of cooks,
$500 RNOPNS AS 6ObN IIlhSS = " ga JoeS
as well as ever. The question is where can these
good things be had? A large proportion of twen-
tieth century married women cannot cook accept
ably and would not cook if they could. A modern
city woman who can cook can hardly be blamed
for unwillingness to spend all her time in home
work. 1t is an age of ineficiency in restaurant
cooking as in most other things and menu prices
are even higher in proportion than raw material
prices.
Iva Lowther Peters, Ph. d. of the woman's divi-
sion of the council Of national defense, made in
1918 a complete survey of the various cooperative
and community food enterprises of this country.
1t was then believed that if the war continued COM
munity kitchens would have to be established in
our larger cities to save food and fuel.
England was already running a great many Of
them, with encouraging results, and Doctor Peters
not only studied these, but undertook a thorough
investigation Of the cooperative movement from
the time it was born In the eighteenth century.
AS 1t happened, the signing of the armistice came
just In time to make the survey useless to the
United States food administration, but it is going
to be of great assistance to those individual Amer
leans who are thinking Of cooperating with other
individual Americans in bringing down the price of
eating.
An object lesson Is a community kitchen that
was opened In 1907 In Carthage, Mo. It was To-
Gated in a private residence and the various fami-
lies of the neighborhood came to it for their meals.
Each family furnished its own table, chairs, dishes,
linen, silver, thus maintaining its own tastes and
standards. To provide the original equipment for
the kitchen an assessment Of So per adult and $1.5O
per child was made. In the beginning there were
60 members, including 10 or II children. For the
first three months the price of meals was SO for an
adult and $3.50 for a child per week. After the
third month several families stopped coming.
When the number decreased tc so the price of
board was advanced to $3.50 per week. AS the
kitchens patronage decreased and the cost of food
increased the price of board kept advancing until
SinaIly, in 1911, four years after its opening, the
Kitchen went quietly out Of existence.
Most of the community cooking enterprises sur.
veyed by Doctor Peters for the council of national
defense tell practically the same story-a brief
popularity, a brief decline, then extinction.
But the communit cooking enterprises tell one
other story and 1t is this:
The only community cooking enterprises showing
unmistakable signs of success are those where the
central kitchen delivers the cooked meals to the
homes. These kitchens are now being established
in several cities.
Chicago and many Of its suburban cities have
their attention on Evanston, ILL.,, just now. Evans
ton is a few miles north of Chicago on Lake Mich
igan. 1t has about 10000 people. 1t is a city Of
homes. Many Of the men do business in Chicago.
Evanston is called the "City Of Churches" is the
seat Of Northwestern university and is whet may
Oe CaIleu u HlBH-CluSS american small city.
Yes, Evanston Is a city Of homes. There are
streets Of dwellings and comparatively few flats
are In evidence. There are trees and lawns. The
houses look as II they had kitciens-good, big,
roomy, old-fashioned kitchens, where things were
~cooked-"pies like mother used to make and
doughnuts to compare even with those Of the Sal.
walton Army.
But the Imagination that sets you to shifting in
the hope of catching delectable odors from these
aold-fashioned kitchens In these old-fashioned
homes is a deluslon and a snare. The kitchens are
there, but they are as idle as a painted ship on a
painted ocean, Cause why-there are no cooks.
There was a time, not long ago, when an occa-
sional cook could Ire enticed out to Evanston and
pampered into cooking. But even that time is
past
So Evanston is going to have a community kitch-
en- and has made a beginning. That's why Chicago
and Illinois are watching her with interest.