On still another side the subject has de veloped as the result of a growing demand for vocational education. The arts by which satis factory homes are maintained, cooking, sewing, cleaning, etc., have always been followed by women outside of the home as a means of earn ing a livelihood. The opportunities for such employment have increased as changed condi tions of living have called for the establish ment of a greater number of hotels, restaurants, boarding-houses, public institutions and other places where food is prepared in large quan tities. A vocation which can be followed in maintaining a home and also as a means of livelihood is particularly desirable for women who as a rule spend a comparatively short time in industrial work outside their own homes. This fact has been recognized by the Federal government in the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act in 1917. This gives Federal aid to voca tional education in many subjects, including home economics. Under this form of educa tion according to the provisions of the act, home making and industrial activities which may be the means of earning a livelihood are included within the range of home economics.
Shortly after the passage of the Smith Lever Extension Act the Nutrition Investiga tions work of the Department of Agriculture, which since 1892 had been a large contributor to the subject matter of home economics, was expanded into the Office of Home Economics of the States Relations Service. The appropriation for this work is made "to investigate the rela tive utility and economy of agricultural prod ucts for food, clothing and other uses in the home, with special suggestions of plans and methods for the more effective utilization of such products for these In a general way the Office of Home Economics provides, as a result of laboratory and other technical studies, material for the use of teachers, students and trained workers, as well as a great amount of both popular and more technical literature for general distribution, and also gives attention particularly to subject matter for the instructional work of extension offices of the States Relations Service of the Depart ment. The United States Bureau of Education also deals with home economics, being con cerned particularly with methods of teaching in schools of all grades, collegiate, secondary, ele mentary and normal.
During the progress of the Great War the machinery for teaching home economics was used by government agencies for the purpose of transmitting and interpreting the message of conservation, and the fact that it proved itself useful in the great world crisis without doubt reacted favorably on the subject itself by estab lishing it in public favor. There can be no doubt that its organization facilitated the carry ing out of the programs of the Food and Fuel Administrations and the emergency work of the various permanent departments of the govern ment. In turn its workers were brought into close touch with those who were studying food, clothing and fuel in the light of national and world needs and learned to see home problems in their larger relations.
Although the subject matter of home economics has been formulated in institutions of many different grades and purposes, and al though as a field of investigation it has been marked off as the result of the recognition of the large number of social needs, the tendency is not toward further separation into a large number of subjects, but toward formulation into a systematic body of knowledge which can be presented progressively from the lowest schools to the highest. So broadened, it is a
subject of universal interest, and deserves a place in general education, since it deals with the natural, social and economic foundations of home life. The tendency is to give to the broad, general, inclusive subject the name home economics, and to apply such terms as household economics, domestic science, cooking, sewing, textiles, etc., to its various branches. This usage is favored by the tendencies in the field of general economics, which though it originally considered little besides the produc tion and the distribution of material wealth now includes the consumption or use of wealth Even when the satisfactory consumption of wealth, involving, as it necessarily does, health ful food, clothing and shelter, is looked upon merely as a means of increasing the productive ness of the individual it must include the home making subjects. There is, however, another tendency in economics which is often described as humanizing. This tendency reflects a tend ency in society to recognize the individual's value to himself apart from the value of the material wealth which he is able to create.. This naturally directs attention to the import ance of leisure in the life of the individual. It tends to emphasize the value of the home as the most satisfactory place for the child during the years of preparation for life, for the adult during periods of recuperation after labor, and for the aged during the period of rest at the close of life. Home economics is, therefore, being recognized as a branch of economics con cerned largely with the consumption of wealth and its direction toward the enrichment of the individual life, In this form it includes not only a study of the materials that enter into the construction of the house and those that are used for food, clothing, household equipment, furniture and decorations, but also a considera tion of the social and economic forces that affect the homes, put them within the reach of different groups of people, and determine their usefulness.
As a pedagogical subject home economics has been systematically codified in a syllabus of home economics which was prepared by the Department of Agriculture in co-operation with the American Home Economics Associa tion.
The literature of the subject is large and growing rapidly.
Bibliography.— Bevier, Isabel, and Usher, S., The Home Economics Movement> (Part I, Boston 1906) ; Hunt, C. L., 'Home Problems from a New Standpoint> (Boston 1908); Richards, E. H., The Art of Right Living' (Boston 1904) ; (Syllabus of Home F-cononucs) (American Home Economics Association, Balti more, Md., 1913) ; (Home Economics Library' (American School of Household Economics, Vols. I-XII, Chicago 1907); Bulletins and Reports of the United States Department of Agriculture and the State colleges of agri culture.
C. F. LArrawoirsir, United States Department of Agriculture.