The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-04-08
URGES SIMPLER LIVING.
Continued from Page ~

a date on next years program would be
desirable.
In introducing Mrs. Frederick, Mrs.
Waterman referred to the speakers wide
experience her ability as an authoress,
lecturer and home maker. In her opening
remarks Mrs Frederick, who is manager
of Applecroft experiment station, said
that she would endeavor to show why
the simple, old task of running a home,
house and family, was perhaps as inter
esting as other lines in which women are
interested today There were three
great words, she said, which had meant
great deal to the country-organiza
tion. efficiency, and reconstruction-and
the reconstruction of the home was the
question with which she was to deal. be
cause the home has suffered two or three
vital changes owing to the recent war.
| There has been a shifting of economic
! levels whereby those at the bottom
receive much more than formerly, then
there are those at the top, and the middle
class, which Is ground between. There
| is an increasing shortage and increasing
demands not only in the home, but in the
offices and in industry.
Because of the tremendous economic
shift housewives do not have as much to
spend as formerly, servants are almost
| impossible to obtain. There must be a
modified house construction. She called
to mind the old Colonial type of architec-
ture of homes and said that servants
could not be secured to keep up that Kind
Iof house. 1t must now be a self -seryice
TYPE of house and women architects are
Ineeded for the task.
/ Simpler standards of living, which are
! more easy to maintain, must be adopted.
The question is a grave national situa-
ton since % per cent of the women are
doing their own work today. There must
be simplifed standards of eating. Here
the speaker said she was not interested
in cooking, but was interested in feeding
and advocated that young women in the
home should learn food values as it saves
time and it saves The poclsetbook Brief
|, explanation was made cf chart showing
balarced ration and many of which viii
be distributed among the members of The
: club. A one piece meal was favored will
5 little meat, a quantity of cereal and vege
tables. In America, she said Is times a:
Y much meat is consumed by the average
4 adult as in any other country. Clothes
viii have to be simplitied and in this con
nection the speaker told of her observa
: tions while living seven years in Russi
: and several years in France.
The employer, too, is facing shortag
J. of help, which calls more of the servant
from the homes. She recommended
! more democratic treatment of servant
in the home. which would tend to hol
rather than drive away the home helpers
| The attitude of the housewives, said Mr.
| Frederick. toward her servants has bee
| too autocratic there has not been enoug
freedom given and enough respect show
If an employer finds he is short of labC
he invents a machine to do the work
10 and puts one man in charge of it. I'll
reason mems work is so much easier tina
women's is because the man is lazy N
invents a machine to do his work. r
construction in the homes is by labo
saving machines. The girl in high schoC
said the speaker, should be trained
practical mechanics, for the girls can
taught Just as well as boys.
OF the labor saving devices in Il
home the three most important in t
mind of the speaker are the fireless COO
er, good vacuum cleaner, and an il
proved motor washing machine. NJ
, chanical devices will have to be install
if the home is to be reconstructed
meet the demands of the changed conc
tions.
The question of spending also is Wit
We have reached condition where the
is more buying and more spending til
producing. and as long as this conditi
exists prices viii remain high. Befc
the war So per cent of the produce
were employed producing Injuries and
per cent in producing the necessaries. I
G way to make an economic level is to [
to get more people into producing
necesaries and less people into product
e the luxuries. We have large power
consumers Mrs Frederick urged
hearers to refuse to buy, to refuse to g
in to the exorbitant demands. If
standards of clothes, shoes, etc, are 81
plified this will help in lowering
prices, as the manufacturer produ
what the public wants and the dema1
of the public for special or freak
styles is what raises and keeps up
high prices. Keeping household accou
and conducting the home on budget S
a tenn were urged
o. In referring to the oft-repeated rem
- that woman's place is in the home \
c. Frederick said: mo woman can live
herself alone" All civic things are
as much housekeeping as the work
the home, as they affect the home.
: old attitude that it was not the ri
thing for woman to try to manag
home and work is wrong, according to
mind of the speaker, who made |
for more democracy toward trai
women. She advocated training
l., lyoung women for home management
= of these things. she said, are needed