The Labour-Saving House

Extract: CHAPTER I What this Chapter is About Why Labour-Saving Houses are Needed THE LABOUR-SAVING HOUSE CHAPTER I Why Labour-Saving Houses are Needed Why do we need Labour-Saving Houses? Because: 1.-Life is too short and time too valuable to waste in doing work which is unnecessary and which adds little or nothing to our comfort. 2.-There is a scarcity of labour. Girls of the class from which domestic servants were drawn formerly now dislike service. The would-be employer finds it difficult to obtain servants and to keep them when obtained. 3.-Unless great changes are made in our houses and households it will become even more difficult to obtain servants, because so many professions are now open to young women that they are in a position to choose how they will earn a living. 4.-When servants are not obtainable, the mistress is driven to turn to and do the work of her own house. That is why a demand for labour-saving mechanism is making itself felt. 5.-Owing to modern inventions, it is now possible to achieve a house in which a family may be housed and fed in comfort at half the cost of labour which is absorbed in the labour-making house. 6.-It is pleasanter to spend money on the things one likes than to squander it on unnecessary coals and kitchenmaids.