Housing problems have also been approached in research, as in studies of ventilation and sewage, of the lighting and heating of dwellings, and kitchen equipment, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; engineering laboratory of the University of Missouri; the model house at the University of Illinois and elsewhere. There are numerous problems which merit critical study, as the materials of house building, house plans, with special attention to convenience in doing housework, and such matters as sleeping porches in cities, provision for children, for the sick, rural housing, institutional housing of all kinds-hospitals, dormitories, etc.; house fixtures and equipment; labor-saving machinery and devices. Painstaking and critical study of domestic architecture is worthy of scientific attention to the end that human health may be promoted, energy-waste in housework eliminated, costs of construction reduced, and in general proper standards for city, town, and rural housing established. The economic and social problems of the home, as comprised in the field of household management and the community relations of the family group, have scarcely been approached by the scientific method. As regards management problems there are two notable American studies of household service, one undertaken by a university professor of history and economics ("Domestic Service," Lucy M. Salmon, 1896), and the other by a group of public-spirited women in Boston, with university affiliations (Report of the Household Aid Co., Boston, 1902-41)-an experiment in furnishing trained household "aids" by the hour on call. As regards wider social studies of the home, there are the investigations of household budgets of industrial families made by labor bureaus, settlements, and charity organizations, which one finds well summarized in Streightoff's "Standard of Living Among the Industrial People of America," and Nearing's "Financing the Workingman's Family."

Certainly in the problems of food, clothing, shelter, household management, and the economic and social relations of the family group, viewed from within and viewed from without, both for the domestic home and the institutional household, there are most promising fields demanding that kind of unbiased patient study that science gives. The college and university laboratory will do much more in this field than has thus far been indicated, and if Government experiment stations are also given funds for research in home economics, lasting foundations will be formed for the art of right living. The Smooth bill proposing Government aid for research in this field has appealed to many as the most certain method in the proposed national legislation to aid education for the home. Home progress is most fundamental to welfare, and yet slowest to come, because of the isolated detached position of the individual home

1 May be obtained through Journal of Home Economics, Roland Park, Baltimore, Md. See p. 179.

unit, which by its unique nature is not open to the competitive influences which vitalize practically every other human enterprise.

Mention should be made in this connection of two or three private undertakings in this field of household experimentation. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Barnard established at Darien, Conn., a few years ago, a "Housekeeping Experiment Station," which published a number of useful bulletins on household equipment. Two years since the station was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Alfred T. Child, who have continued it at Stamford, Conn., while Mr. and Mrs. Barnard have organized another "station" at Pasadena, Cal. Mr. and Mrs. Child, who are trained workers, have investigated kitchen and cooking problems which have been reported in a recently published book, "The Efficient Kitchen" (McBride, Nast & Co.), and are prepared to render service in lectures, consultations, kitchen planning, information, etc. "The Housekeeping Experiment Station of the New Jersey Federation of Women's Clubs" which was maintained for several years by Mrs. Mary Pattison at her home in Colonia, N. J., brought together selected types of labor-saving machinery. A book reporting the work of the Colonia station, "Domestic Engineering in the Servantless House," is soon to be published by Mrs. Pattison. Another recent enterprise is Mrs. Christine Frederick's "household efficiency kitchen" at her Greenlawn, Long Island home, which has aimed to apply to household problems, shop efficiency methods; her results have been reported in magazine articles, in a book, "The New Housekeeping" (Doubleday, Page & Co., 1913), and in a bulletin, "The New Womanhood Magazine."

Section 23. THE AMERICAN HOME ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION.

The American Home Economics Association is a professional society including in its membership teachers in schools and colleges, professional workers in hospitals, college dormitories, lunch rooms, and other institutional households, and many home women who take a scientific interest in household progress. The association is the direct outgrowth of the Lake Placid Conference on Home Economics, which was organized in 1899 by Mr. and Mrs. Melvil Dewey, of the Lake Placid Club of New York, and the late Ellen H. Richards, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Lake Placid conference held annual summer meetings for 10 years and a winter meeting for 3 years, with an educational section devoted to problems of home economics teaching. In 1908 the conference which had been a personally conducted meeting of leaders was merged in the American Home Economics Association which held its initial meeting in January, 1909, starting with a membership of upward of 1,000 and establishing the Journal of Home Economica professional paper devoted to this field.

The association holds annual national meetings and has many local branches in different cities and States, as well as a vigorous section devoted to institution management problems. The Journal of Home Economics is a publication of 10 issues a year, with about 600 pages of reading matter containing articles on scientific and practical topics for teachers, for persons concerned with institution management, and for those interested in the problems of the home. The journal began in February, 1914, a special housekeepers' section which will present the results of laboratory and other scientific studies in practical form for the housewives' use. The journal publishes the scientific papers presented at the various meetings of the association and includes a comprehensive bibliography of current literature in home economics. It is published at Roland Park,

Baltimore, Md.

The association assisted in maintaining for several years the graduate school of home economics, intended particularly to present the latest progress in this field of applied science. It had its rise in a summer school organized by the late Prof. Atwater, at Wesleyan University. The successive meetings of the school were held at the University of Illinois, Cornell University, Iowa State College, and Michigan State College; but in view of the development of graduate work in the universities, the school has now been given up.

The basis of organization for the association provides for individual membership and also for the affiliation of local societies. Among the branch associations are the following: The Home Economics Associations of New England, Connecticut, Greater New York, New York State, Philadelphia, Washington (D. C.), Ohio, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Chicago, Iowa, Missouri, Utah, Texas, Seattle, Nebraska, and the Pacific coast. The presidents of the association have been the late Ellen H. Richards, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Prof. Isabel Bevier, of the University of Illinois; Dean Sarah Louise Arnold, of Simmons College, Boston; and Prof. Martha Van Rensselaer, of Cornell University. In addition to its annual and local meetings, the association carries on investigations, the results of which are published. Among the noteworthy pieces of work so accomplished are the reports on education, elementary and secondary and collegiate, of the Lake Placid conference; the syllabus of home economies," compiled by a committee of the association; reports on institutional accounting, school lunch work, and on laundries; and the establishment of a fund for research and publication in memory of Mrs. Richards. The purpose of the association, as stated in the constitution, is "the bettering of conditions in the home, the school, the institution, and the community." The association publishes a number of pamphlets and bulletins.1

1 See bibliography, Part IV of this report, Bulletin, 1914, No. 39.

Section 24. THE NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE

FAMILY.

The New England Divorce Reform League, organized in 1881, renamed as the National Divorce Reform League in 1885, and later the National League for the Protection of the Family, has concerned itself with

the improvement of public sentiment and legislation to protect the institution of the family, especially as affected by existing evils relating to marriage and divorce, and to secure its proper efficiency in individual and social life.

The annual reports of the league are a source of information regarding the progress in legislation and social efforts for the protection of the family institution. That it has done a work of publicity and education of great value is recognized by students of the field. The corresponding secretary of the league from its beginning was the late Rev. Samuel W. Dyke, Auburndale, Mass., who devoted himself to investigation and publicity work on the divorce problem in America, beginning about 1878. This organization has largely stimulated the modern public discussion of this matter and secured statistical investigations by the Government; it has aided in drafting laws and in forwarding the movement toward uniform legislation on marriage and divorce. It has contributed to the fundamental need in this field, the development of ideals to control home life. Its phrase "protection of the family" indicates one important end point in education for the home of which the present homeeconomics education movement is not yet adequately conscious. The secretary of the league is Rev. John L. Seawell, 11 Foster Street, Worcester, Mass.

Section 25. INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON HOME EDUCATION.

The first congress was held in 1905 at Liege, the second congress in 1906 at Milan, and the third congress in 1910 at Brussels. The fourth congress was to be held in Philadelphia September 22 to 29, 1914, but had to be postponed because of the European war. The congress is composed of individuals and representatives of organizations interested in home training and the welfare of childhood and youth. The program comprises nine sections, as follows: Child study; family education; before school age; during school age; after school age; abnormal child; organizations relating to childhood; vocational relations between home and school.

National committees have in charge the arrangements in some 15 different countries. The president of the congress is Dr. M. G. Brumbaugh, superintendent of the Philadelphia schools, and the general secretary is Mrs. J. Scott Anderson, directress of Torresdale House, Torresdale, Philadelphia.

International Congress for the Teaching of Household Economy.An international congress has been twice held in Europe on the teaching of household economy, the proceedings of which are available. The second congress was held during the International Exhibition at Ghent, Belgium, June, 1913. Representatives from America attended the congress and contributed to the program a valuable series of papers on the organization of home-economics teaching in the United States. Many of these papers have been reprinted in the Journal of Home Economics.

The international office of domestic economy, Fribourg, Switzerland, is an outgrowth of these congresses; this office has a membership of persons in various countries, publishes a bulletin, and is charged with organizing future meetings of the congress.

Section 26. MOTHERS' CONGRESS AND PARENT-TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS.

The National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers' Associations is devoted to "child welfare in home, school, church, and state." It aims to raise standards of home life and of training for parenthood, to bring home and school into closer relations, to secure legislation for juvenile courts and special officers, to provide probationary care of children in individual homes rather than in institutions, and, in general, to work for all measures for the betterment of homes and the standards of child care. The mothers' congress, which was formed in 1897 by Mrs. Theodore W. Birney and Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst, is a national organization, with State organizations in about 30 States, and with several hundred local mothers' circles, parentteachers' associations, and other affiliated organizations which altogether embrace nearly 100,000 members. National meetings are held each year, and an International Congress on Child Welfare is held every third year in Washington, D. C. The congress has departments of work as follows: Education, children's books, mothers' literature, home economics, juvenile court and probation, child hygiene and prevention of infant mortality, child labor, rural child welfare, legislation, playgrounds, loan papers on child nurture, marriage sanctity, children's literature, and book lists for mothers.

Especially notable is the form of local organization, the ParentTeachers' Association, which has been a force in many communities in uniting home and school interests that educational leatlers have spoken of highly. The congress has done a national work of great importance, too, in bringing together mothers in its local mothers' circles, "mothers' child study circles," "young mothers' league," "women's clubs," etc., which have provided a flexible form of organization for the study of home problems by home women. The national office of the congress in Washington sends out loan papers