Cavalier County farmers press. (Langdon, N.D.) 1920-1921, 1921-05-19
COME UP AT next SESSION
10 Not an Expensive Measure and 10
Of Far-reaching lmportance-Urged
by Dozen Big National Woman's
Organizations and any Number Of
State
Committee Convinced of Worthiness
of Cause.

frowned over and finally passed to
it's successor. The committee that in
vestigated the need for federal as
sistance to train housewives was read
lily convinced Of the worthiness Of the
cause. But the bill providing a gov
eminent fund for home economics
courses got pushed aside in the final
rush of imperatively important legis-
lation, writes Frederic J. Haskin in
the Chicago News.
The bill is not lost, however. 1t is
sure to come up in the next congress,
possibly at the extra session. 1t is
not an expensive measure as expendi-
lures go in congress, but it is a bill
Of far-reaching Importance and mi
that offers an opportunity to every
state and it is being urged by a dozen
big national woman's organizations
and any number. of state organiza-
tons.
The foundation for the home eco
nomics bill is the old story-for sew
eral of them:
Twenty-six million of the 100000
women and girls in the United States
keep house, and as homemakers these
26,00O,00O women constitute the larg-
est class of workers in the country.
1t is further estimated that more than
nine-tenths uf women keep house at
some time in their lives.
More than 90 per cent of the buying
for the home is done by women.
Nutritive food in the proper proper
tons, sanitary home conditions, econ
omy in the home, are the basis of
Americas, or any country's health,
wealth and happiness.
But there is a negative fact of equal
Importance: The housewife who is so
largely responsible for the American
digestion and bank account is for the
most part an unskilled laborer, where
as with training she might properly
class her work among the professions,
Homes Badly Run.
The home has been called the most
costly institution in America, and it
might equally well be called the most
inefficient. 1t is largely because Of
unfortunate home conditions that we
have with us juvenile delinquency,
malnutrition, indigestion, the grouchy
business man and other problems"
Up to now it has been taken for
granted that the homemaker got ade-
quate training as a girl in her par
ents' home, or, failing that, she picked
up housekeeping naturally, by expert
ence. If a girl elected to delve in
to the technical business of calories
and budgets at school, well and good.
She was merely rounding out her ed
ucation with extra accomplishments.
This idea of how housekeepers
should be made is losing credence,
partly because housekeeping has be-
come a recognized field for science,
and partly because the home school
Of household training is practically
extinct.
Rarely is a girl given the thorough
training in household affairs by her
mother that the daughter of the house
q generation or two back received.
Mother is generally too busy getting
through with Homework so as to make
time for clubs and politics, and daugh-
ter's well meaning offers to help make
the pies are likely to be met with dis
tracted II can do it while I'm showing
you how"
Girls themselves, we are told, are
more interested in home economics
now than they have been for several
years. Girls by the thousands have de
serted the kitchen range for the fac
tory bench, and if they have to keep
the home fires burning too. they pick
up something sketchy on the way home
and exc out the meal with canned
goods and raw fruits.
Women Want to Learn.
The greater concern over housekeep.
ing now being displayed is attributed
to the wave of economy and the reduc.
ton of wages. 1t is not, however, 8
return to the old Housekeeping view.
point Of before the war. Women arr
beginning to accept what home eco.
nomics experts have so long and pa.
tiently explained-that Homework need
not be drudgery, that the principles
of balanced meals can be grasped bs
any woman who will take time to
study them. and, in general, that home
economics is not a subject limited t.
college text books, but that it is simply
honsework by methods tested by ex'
perts.
The bill which extends the pppor.
tnnity for women and girls to become
competent housekeepers provides $500,
600 AT the start, TO be divided among
the states according to population, Tt
receive Its share OF the money, what
ever It liny be. each state has to put
up q similar sum to be used for The
same Iolrpose. With the money teach
ers are 70 be engaged 10 take charge
Of classes and girls are 20 be trained
rs home economics teachers, The
bin stipulateg that these student tench
era mast be given q four'xear course