DAY OF OPPORTUNITY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 81, 31 December 1919, Page 4

DAY OF OPPORTUNITY

RECONSTRUCTION IN THE HOME. .At this after-war crisis the economic fate of the country lie's more in the hands of the British housekeeper tliuii perhaps she realises, ami the unrepentant profiteer should remember that those things that arc done wholesale ill factories now were once mere household arts, practised in every domestic kitchen (states a writer in (lie "Manchester Guardian"). N'ot one of them is mi art. lost beyond recovery. These aro days of opportunity for women with practical minds, and housekeepers may learn to snap their fingers at the profiteer Ijv returning to the stillroom arts of their grandmothers. Also tlicy may laugh ai. the drudgery ajid wearied routine of the servanlless liotiso if they j will set their minds to achieve scientific triumphs of their own along the line of labour-savin? houses and devices. Manufacturers know Hint, it is a financial | investment, and also excellent economy, to equip the factory with labour and time-saving dcvices, - believing, with the twentieth century sociologist, Jliat better conditions suggest better lives, that better lives mean improved health and strength, and that, this goes In produce a higher l.nm of individual, .[lousework is considered drudgery, and in the past this has been in .many cases only too true. It is for the women whose advice is being asked concerning the new housing schemes, now being approved by the Ministvv of Health, to see that it is not so in the future, but that the new imu'-es being built shall be such as will enable women to express llie srience of living without a condition of exhausted energy and. worry over unaccomplished mid often unimportant details. It is pen"ible lliat there will be greater social demands in the future outside Hi? home. Daily menus call for more careful planning if iliev are lo' be kept within the limils of, incmiie. Children require more and more each year where education is concerned, and good heln at a mod era to wage is almost impossible lo obtain. Let housekeepers grasp the feet that as times have changed so must the construction and the working of the home' chanire, and let them seize the day of oi)»ortunily to have both moro efficient and laboursaving houses. Labour-saving Schemes. Stairs—as few of them, rtnd those as easy in tread as possible—washable. ; walls, tiled floors, and fireftss cookers are some of the essentials tint ycouire thought and will awaken interest. In the kitchen ■study tlie 'arrangement of all fittings in their relation to each otl/er. Have the rink as near the range as may be, and the dish rack near the sink. ITnvc t]ic supply cupboard and the work-table near one another, and, if possible, plan for a coniriaet kitchen cabinet, such e.s American iicu-"ewive? use, and. which save many e\ba steps. Pevhans it is not within the means of all to obtain on rt of the new <ireles-. cookers, but the old-time havbox, made at home, saves fuel, worry, time, and energy. A. zinc covering oil the kitchen tal;l» saves labour and looks well. ( And n hundred oilier improvements raav be "IYfcM by women who set their mind? to if. "Being an explorer H as hard W"i'k ;is there is in thp world," c avs Sir Ernest film'klflon, "but for nil that T would '•ather be an explorer tb»n a house. keepe' l . and have to do all Hie little evfvvdev chores in gettinar Hie house rea'lv fc (lie when )"> comes home to it." Now is the t ;, ne wh°n' Hie ho"sel(o"ner niiv turn explorer ill the realms of domestic science. flunks to the scinn{■ifie ?.chivoments of this century, if-n----cliines eve H"in" made io do much of the work hitherto done 'by hand, and this is the moment for women t" bring nivrtical miorls to bear o" th" acTiievcm"nt <\ f converHns household drudgery into the art. of bome-'unkinc. in such a manner that, while ell th«t ic essential is done for the welfnr" of the human race, a woman'f health and hao'-iiness are not sacrificed in it.