Page:Co-operative housekeeping.djvu/63

50 children that it has often seemed to me a misnomer to call our country "Father-land,"—Mother-land she is for the whole earth, with her broad lap of plenty sloping from the Rocky Mountains down to the very Atlantic shore, as if inviting the hungry nations to come over and be fed. What feasts fit for the immortals might grace every table, if we only knew how to turn our treasures to the best advantage,—and to think that millions of us live on salt pork, sour or saleratus bread, and horrible heavy pies!

When the co-operative housekeepers have heard the reports of their various committees, have adopted their constitution and decided upon their working plans, they should call the Council of their husbands, and submit the whole to them for approval or final amendment. These gentlemen must also decide whether they will advance the funds wherewith to start the enterprise, or whether, like the Rochdale Pioneers, their wives shall save up small sums from their current expenses,—say ten dollars a month each, until a capital is accumulated sufficient for their purposes. The last step of all will be, immediately after the ratification of the constitution by the higher powers, to proceed to the elections, under it, of the executive committee, the board of directresses, and the officers and agents of the different departments. All the persons elected, who do not perfectly understand the duties to which they are assigned, will have to qualify themselves for them as thoroughly as possible; and it would be better to spend two years in fitting every officer perfectly to her post, than to attempt so great a revolution with any chance of failure.

Here, now, dear friends and fellow-sufferers in house-wifery, ends my plan for your and my relief. Excepting one, I will freely admit any criticism you may pass upon it. It is vague, sketchy, unpractical, extravagant,—any adjective you choose. But what can you expect of a single