838 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
of the greatest skill in the use of money. Mrs. Richards claims that the homes of such families fail in the more important essentials of comfort, taken in the best sense. She cites in illustration several clumsy and unintelligent household arrangements and says : "House architecture is fifty years behind shop building and factory construc- tion." She asserts that " the ignorance of the housewife as to what is possible and her traditional conservatism are the causes for this state of things." And if the observer is inclined to question the justice of this severe arraignment and to call upon the other sex to bear part of the blame, there is little ground for demur when the question passes beyond methods of construction and becomes one of administration. In this field, though she is not always the undisputed " queen of her sphere," the housewife has a much freer hand. This is particularly true in regard to the food supply. " In no other department of household expenditure is there so great an opportunity for the exercise of knowl- edge and skill with so good results for pocket and health." " In most families there is ample margin in food from which to take a respectable slice without harming anyone." It is stated that 10 per cent, of the income is squandered in five ways : (i) needlessly expensive material, providing little nutrition; (2) a great deal thrown away; (3) bad preparation ; (4) failure to select rightly, according to the season ; (5) badly constructed ovens. A saving effected here would appre- ciably lift the family to a higher plane of efficient living.
Although the style of the book is somewhat marred by inconse- quential arrangement of the paragraphs, its pages are full of sug- gestiveness ; and that is what the author seeks rather than a complete exposition of the subject. She throws down the gauntlet to the modern housewife in her closing paragraph : " The twentieth-century household demands of its managers, first of all, a scientific understand- ing of the sanitary requirements of a human habitation ; second, a knowledge of the values, absolute and relative, of the various articles which are used in the house, including food ; third, a system of book- keeping that shall make possible a close watch upon expenses ; fourth, affability to secure from others the best they have to give, and to m^ntain a high standard of honest work. If the housewife cannot an^ will not apply herself to the problem, let her not stand longer in the way of progress, as she is surely doing today."
There is every hope that the challenge will soon be accepted.
Marion Talbot.
