“GIVEN a number of human beings, with a certain development of physical and mental faculties and of social resources, how can they best utilize these powers for the attainment of the most complete satisfaction?” Thus J. A. Hobson states what he calls The Social Problem, adding that if “complete satisfaction” seems too indefinite, owing to the various interpretations of which it is capable, we may adopt Ruskin’s words and say that the end to be sought is “the largest number of healthy and happy human beings.” It is as a factor in the Social Problem, thus broadly stated in terms of human life, that this series of papers will consider The Home.

There was a time when the home could hardly have been said to be a factor in the Social Problem. It had a problem of its own, to be sure, that of the proper management of its internal affairs, and upon the wisdom of that management the welfare of society was largely dependent. This problem, however, was not greatly affected by conditions in the world at large. The home was independent industrially and in no way involved in the general labor problem. Its women members were not tempted to prepare themselves for and to enter upon occupations unconnected with its administration and welfare; the question whether a woman could have a career and a home had not then arisen. The home was at that time independent also of public work, looking to city or village boards for assistance neither in maintaining cleanliness nor in warding off disease.

Now all has changed. The home, by consenting to use factory products and by employing outside help, has involved itself in the great labor problem; by educating its daughters to support themselves in occupations unconnected with its management it has complicated its original problem of household administration; by entrusting the education of its little children to schools, the care of its sick to hospitals, the protection of its water supply, and other important interests, to town councils or to village boards, it has entered into public affairs. It has brought to itself new problems and to women and to men new responsibilities, new opportunities, and new privileges. These new responsibilities, opportunities, and privileges will be considered in the pages that follow.