The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1919-07-10

OF moderate means ana to women who want to
do something besides keep house. 1t Is fast coming
to the time when only two
!. !
classes can keep house with n a WlM
any satisfaction: the very II IL INN
rich, who can hrfe profession III w
al servants at high wages; /S\I(\ K
the poor who do without Ii in ~
servants The moderately ~~ y
well-tO-do must 2L~X
choose between homework -\|%
and all other activities. She
cannot get servants. because -1~
we have servant class In
this country. Working TII
en- Will not do domestic work Vii
when thay can get other Vii
work. eyfsn though the other VII
work pays less. "~Il
These conditions have
raised widespread interest ~
in the proposition of COM
munty cooking Notwithstanding the high
prices of food and the scarcity of cooks
the American people like good things to eat just
well ever The question is where these
good things be had? A large proportion of twen-
tleth century married women cannot cook accept
ably and would not cook if they could 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 ineffciency in restaurant
cooking as in most other things and menu prices
are even higher in proportion than raw material
prices.
Iva Lowther Peters, PHI d., of me woman's 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 then believed that if the continued COM
munity kitchens would have to be established In
larger cities to food and fuel.
England was already running great many Of
them, with encouraging results and Doctor Peters
not only studied these, but undertook thorough
investigation of the cooperative movement from
the time it 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 community kitchen that
was opened in 1907 in Carthage, Mo. 1t was To-
Gated i'm private residence and the various fami-
lies of the neghborhOod came to it for their meals.
Each family furnished It's 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 S150
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
adult and $3.50 for child per week. After the
third month several families stepped coming.
When the number decreased to 80 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
finally 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 community 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 now being established
in several cities.
Chicago and many of its suburban cities have
their attention Evanston ILL.,, just now. Evans
ton is a 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
Evanston Is called the "City of Churches" Is the
seat of Northwestern university and is what may
be called high-class American small city.
Yes, Evanston is city of homes. There are
streets of dwellings and comparatively few flats
in evidence There are trees and lawns The
houses look as IL they had kitchens-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
old-fashoned kitchens In these old-fashioned
homes is delusion and snare. The kitchens are
there but they are as idle painted ship a
painted ocean. Cause why-there are no cooks.
There time not long ago. when an occa
sional cook could be enticed out to Evanston and
pampered into cooking. But even that time IL
past.
SO Evanston Is going to have community kitch-
en- and has made a beginning. That's why Chicago
aad Illinois are watching Der with interest