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Show The Housewife Seeks Escape From Monotony J Rather Than From Drudgery By MRS. JOHN D. SHERMAN, in Woman's Home Companion. WHAT conclusions shall we draw from these advance findings of the Home Equipment Survey of the General Federation of Women's Clpbs? The sociologist and economist who bases findings on statistics statis-tics and observation of the home from the outside will probably say that housekeepers, like society in general, place a low valuation on the time and the labor of the woman in the home. Sentimentalists will say that the men do not supply funds to equip the kitchen, which is the woman's workshop. But we club women who study conditions from the inside of the home probably understand the situation better than either the learned economist or the unthinking sentimentalist. Women no longer undervalue under-value their services in the home. Many of them engaged in gainful occupations oc-cupations before marriage and know the value of their time to the minute. They have chosen marriage, home-making and the daily round of domestic duties deliberately. They run their homes on the budget plan and have personal allowances to spend as they like. Then why does the auotomobile take precedence over the stationary tub, the telephone over the vacuum cleaner and the radio over the power-run power-run sewing machine? Because the housewife for generations has sought escape from the monotony rather than the drudgery of her lot. She can and does endure toil, actual physical labor, patiently and cheerfully; but she breaks physically physi-cally and nervously under monotony. The automobile, the telephone and the talking machine or radio offer the modern home-maker the escape from that monotony which drove many of her predecessors insane. The telephone is the housewife's first protection against loneliness. The automobile carries her far beyond the scene of her dull round of household duties. The voices of human beings, the lilt of music coming to her through the air stimulate her mind and soothe her spirit while she works. She does not mind washing stacks of supper dishes under the glow of an electric globe, but the task doubles or trebles if she must do it by the smoky, dim light from a kerosene lamp. She does not mind sweeping sweep-ing if at the end of the task she can chat via the telephone with a neighbor five miles away and she will beat rugs for an hour if the evening brings the relaxation of an automobile drive. We intend to inaugurate a drive for more labor-saving devices in the home. It can be done. It will be done. 'And when it has been done the American home-maker will have more time for companionship with her husband and children, more time for self -improvement, more time for the relaxation which will prolong her life and increase her efficiency. |