The Elbert County tribune., 1919-07-11

increasing lack of servants, especially of cooks
makes the od-fashoned home 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
T: ! ! ! M
classes keep house with n w
any satisfaction: the very III II nm
rich, who can hire profession i'll III W.
nj servants Mt high wages /S\/CN K
the poor who do without Ii in n
servants. The moderately ~&i
weto-do woman must Z[~N
! ! 4: |. 1
choose between housework -<<-N
and all other activities. She 4 S
cannot get servants. because
we have servant class in ~
this country. Working wom- ~TU
en- will not do domestic work VII
when they get other Will
work. even though the other VfiI
work pays less -@l
These conditions have TX
raised widespread interest
In the proposition of com
munty cooking. Notwithstanding the high
prices of food ard the scarcity of cooks,
the American people like good things to eat Just
as well The question is where can these
good things be had? large proportion of twen-
tleth century married cannot cook accept
ably and would not cook If they could. modern
city woman who can cook hardly be blamed
for unwilljDgness to spend all her time in home
work. 1t is an age of ineflicency In restaurant
cooking as in most other things and menu prices
are even higher IN proportion than material
prices.
Iva Lowther Peters. Phi. D., of .he womans divi-
sion of the council of national defense, made in
1913 complete survey of the various cooperative
and community food enterprises of this country.
1t was then believed that If the continued
munity kitchens would have to be established In
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 armstice
just In time to make the survey useless to the
United States food administration but 1t 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 community kitchen that
opened In 1907 in Carthage. Mo. 1t was To-
Gated in private residence and the various fami-
lies of the neghbcrhood to 1t for their meals
Each family furnished its table, chairs dishes,
linen. silver. thus maintaining its tastes and
standards To provide the original equipment for
the kitchen an assessment of So per adult and 80
per child was made. In the beginning there
GO members, including 10 or 10 children For the
first three months the price of meals SO for an
adult and S1.50 for child per week. After the
third month several families stopped coming
When the number decreased to so the price OF
board advanced to $3.50 per week. AS the
Kitchens patronage decreased and the of food
increased the price of board kept advancing until
finally. In 1911, four after Its opening the
kitchen went quietly out of existence
Most of the community cooking enterprises
veyed by Doctor Peters for the council of national
defense tell practically the same story-a brief
popularity brief decline then extinction.
But the community cooking enterprises tell
other story and it is this
The only community cooking enterprises showing
unmistakabe signs of success those where the
central kitchen delivers the cooked meals to the
homes These kitchens being established
in several cities.
Chicago and many of its suburban cities have
their attention Evanston. Ill.,, just now. Evans
ton is n few miles north of Chicago ON Lake Mich
igan. 1t has about 10000 people. 1t is city of
homes Many of the men do business in Chicago
seat of Northwestern university and is what may
be called highclass 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 If they had sktcllens-gocd big
roomy. od-fashioned kitchens, where things were
cooked-"pies like mother used to make" and
doughnuts g compare with those of the Sal
walton Army.
But the Imagination that sets you to shifting in
the hope of catching delectable odors from these
od-fashloned kitchens in these old-fashioned
homes is delusion and snare. The kitchens are
there. but they as Idle a painted ship on
painted ocean. Cause why-there no cooks
sionn cook could be enticed out to Evanston and
pampered into cooking. But even that time Is
past.
So Evanston In going to have community kitch
en- and has made beginning That's why Chicago
and Illinois are watching her with interest.