What clothes are to the body, that the house is to the family. Just as clothes show the taste of their wearer, so the house expresses the character of those who live within it.
Is the family hospitable, or are there never guests at the table or for the night? Has the family an appreciation of things that are beautiful? Is it orderly? Are any of its members fond of reading? Is it a family that knows how to enjoy itself at home or is it one which is dependent upon others for recreation and relaxation? Do its members have a good time being together or are they usually to be found away from home, each busy about his own interests?
These and many other questions are answered by the house. The house is indeed far more than a shelter in which to sleep and dress and eat. It is a place where character is formed. Therefore its physical condition is of great importance to the welfare of the enlisted man's family.
The army and navy have been recruited from every rank in society, from rich and poor alike. While some have left luxurious homes to enter the service, others have enlisted from houses miserable in surroundings and construction. Thus, indeed, Home Service workers, in the course of their visits to families of soldiers and sailors, have discovered one or-more of the four principal housing evils that are to be found in cities and villages throughout the country:
A. Lack of suitable water supply—failure to have running water in the house where this is possible.
B. Lack of proper sanitation, lack of proper ventilation and of sanitary toilets.
C. Lack of privacy because of not enough rooms.
D. Structural defects, i. e., leaky roofs, damp walls, cellars flooded with water, thin board walls that do not keep out the cold.
In larger cities there is, in addition, the lack of space about the houses, no yards, and buildings erected so close to one another that the dwellings have not enough light and air. Moreover, despite all the improvements that have been made in city housing, there are still to be found thousands of rooms which have no outside windows and which obtain their light and air either through a door or a window cut into another room.
When a Home Service worker finds a family living under any of the conditions that have just been described, she immediately urges them to move into better surroundings. She tells the members of the family to require three things of the house in which they desire to make their home—cheerfulness, sanitation, privacy.
This means that every house should have fresh air and sunlight, that it should be in good repair, that the plumbing should be of such kind and in such condition that waste matter moves quickly into sewers. It means that there should, of course, be running water in the dwelling. When scrubbing the floor or taking a bath involves carrying a bucket from a hydrant in the yard or from a faucet in the basement or in the hall of a tenement, cleanliness becomes so difficult as frequently to be neglected.
Particularly important to the moral welfare of the family is privacy. What sort of home life is possible when parents and children can never be alone together? What sort of morals is it possible to maintain when, as frequently happens, four or five, sometimes as many as eight or nine, people sleep in the same room?
To be sure, it is not often that the families of soldiers and sailors are to be found living under such conditions, but these things exist; and the Home Service worker who desires to protect the children of the men in the army and navy must have a knowledge of what she may meet in the course of her work.
The lodger comes as an additional problem to many families. In a desire to add to the income which is received from the government allowance, the mother or the wife is often tempted to rent one of her rooms. The inducement to do this is especially strong in towns where unusually large numbers of men are engaged in the manufacture of munitions or in shipbuilding or in the production of other war materials. For some women the taking of lodgers may be a desirable thing. None the less, there are dangers involved. Keeping a lodger may mean overwork for a woman who is already as busy as she ought to be. It may mean overcrowding a home that already has as many occupants as it ought to have. Usually the lodger arrives from the family knows not where. He becomes an intimate acquaintance of the household when perhaps if his character were known he would not be permitted to pass the door. The Home Service worker having particularly in mind the welfare of the daughters of the family, encourages the mother to talk about her plans before she decides to take a lodger. In this way much harm has been avoided.
Sanitation and cheerfulness cannot be secured simply by selecting the proper kind of house. These things depend also upon the way in which the house is kept. Where there is a yard it should be cleared of litter. The garbage cans should be covered, refuse should not be allowed to collect in the cellar, and the rooms and halls should be clean and orderly.
All this may seem to be simple and something to be taken for granted, yet there are families where the home life is unsuccessful because of lack of proper housekeeping. From the clutter of unwashed dishes on the kitchen table to the unmade beds, everything in the house makes a disagreeable impression.
This failure of the housekeeper is particularly noticeable in many of the larger cities of the country. Although people living in the crowded streets know their neighbors better than is generally supposed, they do not exchange visits with so great a variety of people as does the person living in a small town. Here the woman, inexperienced in housekeeping, sees frequently the homes of women of greater experience and better taste. In the city the housekeeping methods of a whole neighborhood may be so similar that a woman has little incentive to improve her work.
This is also true of families living in the colonies which immigrants form in towns and villages in every part of the United States. When these people have poorly kept homes it is only because they do not know any better. They have never been taught the art of housekeeping. They do not know that it is an art. They do not know that there is any better way of living than the way to which they have been accustomed. Their only hope of advancement lies in having someone show them what the care of the house means, and what pleasure and comfort, what a wholesome family life can be had from a home in which the art of housekeeping has been practised.
The Home Service workers have a great opportunity to raise the ideals of many women about the care of their homes. Whenever the family of a soldier or a sailor is suffering for lack of a knowledge of housekeeping, the Red Cross tries to introduce to it someone who can show the mother, the wife, or the daughter how to do her work better, not only the housework but also the cooking and the buying of food and clothes. Whenever possible, this person is a domestic science teacher in the public schools or one of the home demonstration agents who are at work in the counties of many states. Home Service Sections which have not been able to obtain the services of these specialists have depended upon housekeepers of experience who have been willing to volunteer their time for this work. Through these women the Red Cross has been able to help spread the rules, instructions, and requests of the Food Administration. Families have been reminded of the wheatless and meatless days and about conserving sugar and fats. They have also been encouraged to start war gardens when there has been space for them to do this.
Families which have been reached with this form of Home Service have learned to take a pride in the appearance of their houses and yards. They have cultivated the art of home-making with greater interest and in so doing have strengthened their whole family life, for, as indicated at the beginning of the chapter, the house is primarily to be regarded as a place where character is formed. The house which is selected and maintained from this point of view can, indeed, become a fortress because of which the man in the trenches or on the high seas may feel certain that his family is secure.
Review of Chapter VI
1. How do dwellings show the characteristics of those who live within them?
2. Why is the house an important place?
3. Mention four of the prevalent evils of housing to be found throughout the country.
4. What are some other housing evils found, especially in cities?
5. What are the three things which the Home Service worker desires the members of the family to require of the house in which they live?
6. What does each of these three things involve?
7. Why is the taking of a lodger into the family a matter for serious consideration?
8. Why are many of the homes in large cities, or in colonies formed by immigrants, poorly kept?
9. How do the Home Service workers try to improve these homes?
10. How is Home Service helping the Food Administration?