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Show i ' - - 1 1 1 N rf J w M4t ll 1 1 JHM 1 It l ill 1 p I It ml ml c ,v v fetj IfiJ 1 If ft All tV M . va V ta rliT ,1 1 1 1 v - - - m -m- - 1 1 I I ' - a J Twentieth Century Housekeeping a Science ' N if I V ,-vv' I of Economics, Declares President or National f p' vf ; ; . ' ; ' 1 1 Housewives' League, Who Advises Women J. '; j j 1 L. 2.;"-,Vw-L vl to Learn Values and-Buy to Save Pennies ,v- " ' It is better to ignore the phone and be "on the c5w - , - S ? Wx , ground" when you do your irarketing, but if you i ' 2 -," ' , 4m. . . feel you must telephone, re- - , i u f1 i V t " . r i ' strict your order to standard ov t V ff! ' ' ' trade-mark goods, so you . I ' f : y ' t i J ' i"' 1 S - know what you are getting. J . - ' . '1 ' ' - - k ,lf 5 4 v. y i t r & s s i " inT'' a '? I 1 'uJuw?' f ' ' f V s vlj:;::::::::s:::ii i ut$lKJ i .........a J ? , . . ' . I; - E::::::::::::::uu " ).4; s lis ' .,r 1 ! Learn to Nx , -t-v' , ! -, f ? 'JWhen you toy vege- s' f V, I! L 5J Don't be so dealhiy afraid of cold storage products. The cold storage ,' j $ v . v ' , " buv oota- rabies and Iruits ' , x ? plant is a great American institution. , , " ''i' toes inwst it is ihat aM in sea -- , ''j'" " ii'ij'p'T yr Friv,!ege to Learn to nJcv ' y ' - I oy v e g e - nv. s' v t-iIes and fruits "sx 4 ' y that are in sea- son. Many a ii--housewife runs " up her butcher or greengrocer bill 1 by insisting on getting some product that the tradesman has paid a fancy price for. , By Mrs. Julian Heath. (President of the National Housewives' Lcaijuc.) ' f"' 'IE Qiii'stion has been fir I nskl!t1' "Wllut should the U T' Vf ll0l!scwlfe koira' whou v i iv sllc t'"es 0 mal'liet '" kj A. gL lu general it ciia bo iv uns'oi'od iu two words, ("XJfJV'Sj "Know values." Kne-oilically, Kne-oilically, however, to J know -alues requires study and thought, j. which leads us into the labyrinth of the ' world's iiroduetiou, Into industry, com merce, trade and the laws which affect industry, in-dustry, commerce, trade and the home. This is twentieth century housekeeping the new housekeeping brought abyut by the change in woman's economic function from that of a producer within the home to a purchasing gont for the home. This problem did not concern the housewives of generations ago, because they produced ' within tiie home all, or nearly all, that the family consumed. A knowledge of wise spending for the home, therefore, does include the wise spending of money for housing, elolhing, feeding and educating the family. Marketing, then. Is the chief function (hat 1 lie housewife performs daily in her administration of housewifery. Suppose you go to market with me and let me point out to you a few things you should bear lu mind when you go alone. Must Learn Marketing. Let us suppose, then, that our menus are arranged and our shopping program is to be as follows: At the market we wish : to buy lamb for a roast, beef for soup, bacon for breakfast, a vegetable for dinner, some potatoes, some groceries and fruit, i (if course, I lake it for granted that the v ernge housewife knows the different cuts of moat, their nutritive and money value. "We have lamb on our list, but suppose i liP v. Jill i.;... . w....':..a.., lAVU' I : " "'- Why buy fish only on Friday? It is as good on any other day. Jf ycu find veal is two cents a pound more than you wanted to pay, tell your butcher you'll try some fic-h. the price of lamb is very high, while that of fish is low. Why not substitute lish for lamb? The daily menu must be carefully planned, but the good buyer will uot adhere too rigidly to the original list. We must make our menus tit flic market and not the market fit our menus. The fundamental lesson, then, for the housewife to learn is general marketing conditions the seasons of production and the market value of the goods she is to buy. Let us say that having found lamb too high today we buy fish. To be sure, it may not be Friday, but after all isn't fish just as good as on any other day'.' Did you ever stop to consider that the universal demand for fish ou Fridays alone has had its effect upon tlit; price during the entire week? The retail lish .merchant must net enough profit in one day to carry his covering charges for six. Had we bought the lamb for a roast we would not have purchased just the leg alone. When purchased alone a leg of lamb costs from S to 10 cents a pound more than if the whole hind quarter is purchased fit one time. The hind quarter includes the leg and chops. I know that you will think this a big purchase for a possibly small family, but an accommodating butcher will always hang the chops in his ice box until wanted. The vegetables and fruit which wo buy today will, of course, be those in season. On a certain duy last summer there was a general complaint about Ihe cost of fresh vegetables. I met u neighbor shopping who said: "Oh, how dear the vegetables are!" It happened that I had just completed com-pleted my purchase and found prices quite low. So I inquired: "What are you buying'.'" buy-ing'.'" "Croon peas," said my neighbor. Therein lay the trouble. Personally I had started out with green pens on my list, but, finding the price too high, had bought string beans at the very low cost of 5 cents a quart. My neighbor, on the other hand, w as buy ing out of season ; she was buying tin a rising market. Our next item is potatoes. There are Housewives who buy whole sides of lamb and large cuts of beef save considerable con-siderable money and time. An accommodating butcher will keep hanging in his icebox the part that you want him to save. potatoes and potatoes. To be sure, a potato po-tato can be spoiled in the cooking just the same as anything else. At the same time we should know how to test potatoes. The other day a tradesman sold a bushel of potatoes po-tatoes to a customer by telling her that they were smooth and clean. A customer should not be satisfied with such a statement. state-ment. She should break the potato and press each end together. If they stick a bit she has a good potato, one that will cook mealy and white. If the halves do Vot stick the potato is too watery to give satisfaction. Know Just What You Want. Niiw we will go to the grocery store. Our iist includes oatmeal, a can of soup, a ' can of salmon, crackers, cocoa, soap, peanut pea-nut butler. Hour, sugar, tea. coffee, eggs and butter. We ask for a can of soup and a can of salmon. Of course, you know Ihe kind of soup and the kind of salmon you want. .Vim are uot going to depend upon the grocer's clerk I" ell you, nor are you going to say, "Oh, any kind of soup," or "Any kind of salmon." The question of "brand goods" is vital to the wise buyer. I repeat, the twentieth century housewife buys with money that which her grandmother produced out of raw material. Do we pay more for trade-marked goods? Xot in the end, when quality, sanitation sani-tation and full weight are taken into consideration. con-sideration. Suppose you bring to me a handful of oatmeal and ask me If it is good, if It is steam cooked, if it is of the quality you think it Is. My first question to you will be: "What is the brand who produced pro-duced it?" If your answer Is, "I don't know," then I will be obliged to say to you frankly: "I cannot tell you whether the oatmeal is of good quality." If, on the other hand, you bring me oatmeal bearing a brand and the maker's name 1 can tell you on the Instant. In-stant. I may have been to the factory I know from personal observation the conditions condi-tions surrounding its productiou. Don't you see, then, that in going to , jj'When you ' ' ' -yy buy pota- ' '' toes inbist it i3 ! , i'i your privilege to SS-" break cne cpen and look for black specks or rot spots. ' market we must be acquainted with the goods we buy? And the only way of becoming be-coming acquainted with them is to have the maker's name standing back of the goods. On our list we lin.ve eggs and butter. At some seasons of the year the hens are not lay ing and wo can buy only cold storage stor-age eggs. We know that a good storage egg is better at certain seasons of the year than the so-called fresh eggs. A tradesman trades-man told me recently that he displayed the cold storage sign required by law very reluctantly re-luctantly because it drove so many customers custo-mers away. It is absurd for (he housewife not to know the value of the cold storage industry and t lie cold storage products. In passing I want to speak of a sign which I saw in a store window the other day. It read: "Five pounds of granulated sugar given with one pound of tlU-cent tea." Xo doubt many a housewife was hoodwinked by this misleading advertisement and really believed that she was getting five pounds of sugar and a really CO-cent tea for the price of the latter. Serious thought would have shown them the absurdity of such nu offer. At the time sugar was worth at the lowest figurt 5 cents a pound, so that the live pounds of sugar would be 25 cents. Here is a fact that we should know In regard to butter: That between the so-called so-called "best" butter and the second grade there is only about '1 per cent difference In quality, but a vast difference in price. Butter But-ter merchants have admitted this to m and have requested me to ask the housewife house-wife not to always demand the "very best." The question has been asked over and over again: "How am I to know the market price of anything?" Read the market mar-ket quotations in the daily papers. These, of course, are the wholesale prices and are not printed for the trade. Toi these wholesale whole-sale prices we can add a certain percenfage to cover expenses in h.'indling. I am told by Hie tradesmen that r cents a pound on butter, for instance, and 1 cents a dozen on eggs leaves a fair margin or profit. Judge other products accordingly. ICo. lik-Iit. 1516, by J. Kccley.) |