"The saving clause is unnecessary," he said, somewhat sarcastically. "I know your opinion of me quite well, Lydia."

She looked quickly at him. Detecting the concern in her glance, he shook his head sadly, saying, "I must go now, Lydia. I leave you in charge of the housekeeper until Miss Goff arrives."

She gave him her hand; and a dull glow came into his gray jaws as he took it. Then he buttoned his coat and walked gravely away. As he went, she watched the sun mirrored in his glassy hat, and drowned in his respectable coat. She sighed, and took up Goethe again.

But she began to be tired of sitting still; and after a little while she rose and wandered through the park for nearly an hour, trying to find the places in which she had played in her childhood during a visit to her late aunt. She recognized a great toppling Druid's altar that had formerly reminded her of Mount Sinai threatening to fall on the head of Christian in "The Pilgrim's Progress." Further on she saw and avoided a swamp in which she had once earned a scolding from her nurse by filling her stockings with mud. Then she found herself in a long avenue of green turf, running east and west, and apparently endless. This seemed the most delightful of all her possessions; and she had begun to plan a pavilion to build near it, when she suddenly recollected that this must be the elm vista of which the privacy was so stringently insisted upon by her invalid tenant at the Warren Lodge. She fled into the wood at once, and, when she was safe there, laughed at the oddity of being a trespasser in her own domain. She now made a wide detour in order to avoid intruding a second time: consequently, after walking for quarter of an hour, she lost herself. The trees seemed never-ending: she began to think she must possess a forest as well as a park. At last she saw an opening. Hastening towards it, she came again into the sunlight, and stopped, dazzled by an apparition which she at first took to be a beautiful statue, but presently recognized, with a strange glow of delight, as a living man.

To so mistake a gentleman exercising himself in the open air on a nineteenth century afternoon would, under ordinary circumstances, imply incredible ignorance either of men or statues. But the circumstances in Miss Carew's case were not ordinary; for the man was clad in a jersey and knee breeches of white material; and his bare arms shone like those of a gladiator. His broad pectoral muscles, in their covering of spun silk, were like slabs of marble. Even his hair, short, crisp, and curly, seemed like burnished bronze in the evening light. It came into Lydia's mind that she had disturbed an antique god in his sylvan haunt. The fancy was only momentary; for she perceived that there was a third person present: a man impossible to associate with classic divinity. He looked like a well-to-do groom, and was contemplating his companion much as a groom might contemplate an exceptionally fine horse. He was the first to see Lydia; and his expression as he did so plainly showed that he regarded her as a most unwelcome intruder. The statue-man, following his sinister look, saw her too, but with different feelings; for his lips parted; his colour rose; and he stared at her with undisguised admiration and

sprung up entirely because of a commercial demand. Their basis is business, not social theory. Yet they carry out, in a different way no doubt, part of Owen's plan. What is omitted as things are, is the unity of interest and the educational value of some local social organization which would more fully utilize these possibilities of material economy. It is therefore worth the consideration of modern constructive Socialism whether, with the advantages of to-day some return could not profitably be made to the earlier ideal.

The

Many of the large groups of blocks of dwellings are built very much on the same general plan as the "model industrial community" advocated by Owen.. There is this great difference however. The "community" was a unit working on a common centre while in the London block every one, two or perhaps three rooms out of the five or six hundred rooms comprising the group of blocks is a separate kingdom complete in itself and entirely independent of the others. The "community' idea was one central kitchen and a wholesale cooking for the entire population. modern block idea is a kitchen in almost every room, which in many cases is also a bed-room. Could not a union and modification of these two extremes very easily be effected with advantage to those concerned? The first, the community idea, is certainly the most economical, otherwise the "penny dinners we hear so much about would not be possible. The second, the block idea, is certainly the most wasteful and full of discomfort. It is supposed to be the most "English" and "homely." Surely it is a misapplication of the word to suppose that home cannot exist if the family food is not prepared in the family sitting-room or bedroom. Those having a room or rooms in the Grand Hotel at Charing Cross would think it strange if told to do their cooking or even dining in them. Step a few yards north east to the Peabody Blocks in Bedfordbury and you will find another class of people who think it strange not to do their cooking in their own little rooms. The fact that those in the Hotel employ others to cook and clean for them is not sufficient explanation. The dwellers in Bedfordbury and other blocks employ the baker to cook their bread. When they learn that matters can be equitably organised so that all their food may be more cheaply and better cooked than they can do it individually, they will also cease to purchase their two ounces of tea, quarter of a pound of butter etc., in separate uncooked portions. The public cook shops and dining rooms are now sometimes used as supplementary to household preparations. A good deal yet requires to be done in bringing into closer and more mutually helpful relations wholesale purchase, cooking, and distribution of food as a matter of better domestic arrangement, and not merely for the male members of society who are more in the streets and about town. This is a practical business question of mutual co-operation. It is not a question of fine theories of the brotherhood of man. Yet both these elements enter into it and it is only by a careful recognition of both points that the matter can be suitably settled. There must be a strict business basis of justice to the individual and also a joint interest as a bond of union. The business connection must be close enough for economic efficiency, yet there must be freedom enough for social liberty.

*

This general statement of the case is not a mere begging of the question. The associated home idea which these phrases express (or cover a cynic may say) is a voluntary union which may be either much or little either economically or socially as each individual of the Associated Home may desire. It is not a boarding house or a hotel but the voluntary union of various people (whose homes are situated close to each other, in the same house in fact) for their mutual advantage in certain departments of domestic work. In the large blocks of dwellings now being built, such as Queen's Buildings, Southwark Bridge Road, the homes are now closely associated in the matter of the arrangement of the varfous apartments. The complement to such material association is a social and mutually helpful relation between the persons occupying these apartments. Each block or each group of blocks if not too large should be a unit, just as a large house or a large hotel is a unit serving common purposes from a single centre. There are large old city houses, used at one time by a single family and its attendants but now divided up with separate families in every one or two rooms. The new houses built with the idea of division for separate families is not unfavourable to a re-union of the larger whole on terms in keeping with modern ideas and methods. With the single family there is one purse and one authority. That is the small unit of the past. This is in keeping with the time when the family coach slowly and laboriously carried its owner up to London from the country. The larger unit of the present and future has a joint stock purse and a joint delegated authority. This latter is in keeping with the railway express flying along with five hundred passengers. A similiar union is possible to the dwellers in the small rooms of our large blocks with equally good results. How? By a further adoption of the principle of co-operation which has successfully established stores all over England, especially in the northern counties. The present stores exist to purchase provisions. wholesale and distribute in retail. The Associated Home would simply cook the provisions before delivery, and delivery could be made either in a central dining hall or at the private rooms of members as arranged. The Associated Home would also make more complete arrangements by public rooms of the nature of a club for the social life of its members than the co-operative stores do at present. By this process and by what it implies in other details. one large kitchen would almost entirely supersede many little kitchens all over the block. As pointed out earlier in this article the wholesale kitchen is not either a new idea or a new fact to-day. Public dining rooms abound in all large towns. What is new about the present proposal is that those living close together in the modern block should form themselves into a co-operative society for the supply of household meals. There is no reason why the women and children who wait at home should not have the advantage of wholesale purchase and cooking from a common centre in the same way as the husbands and brothers who dine in the city. There is every reason why they should do so because they could

* This division of the orginal home unit is a process of disintegration and decay, the converse process of uniting houses built with the idea of separate homes is one of construction and growth.

Vol. III. No. 5. New Series.

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secure an additional economy by forming a society and doing it for themselves. The co-operative domestic society combines all the conditions. The economy of united interests on a distinct business basis of justice to the individual.

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Co-operative societies are usually formed on the basis of £1 shares. Each member must hold not less than one share. After it is fully paid up interest at 5 per cent. per annum is allowed. Interest on capital having been paid, all the profits (except a variable amount usually put to a reserve fund") are divided in proportion to purchases. This dividend in Stores ranges from 6d. to Is. 6d. per £1. The books are made up and dividend declared every three months in all Co-operative Stores on the "Rochdale" system. Thus if a member has purchased £20 worth of goods during the quarter, and the dividend for that quarter is Is., he receives £1. This the "Rochdale" system-is what co-operators call "equitable distribution." It provides for a fair interest (a fixed first charge) on the capital invested, a fair wage to the workers employed (many societies give a percentage to employés on the trade done), and then returns all the surplus profit to those on whose trade it was earned. In the co-operative store the capital belongs to the members, who are also the customers. As they take the risk they also take the profits. In the co-operative system the customer often takes more personal trouble than in individual trade. In a domestic co-operative society this greater mutual helpfulness between shopman and customer would most likely be increased. Provision for it would indeed be made in the constitution of the society. Women's work, it is said, is never done. This is because they are expected to attend to everything and everybody from early morn to late at eve. This, again, is because the unit of a single family is not large enough to admit of proper division of labour. In the Associated Home this could be remedied to a large extent. Within the larger number united for a common work there would be room for a proper division of labour. Instead of a few people doing everything, a much larger number would arrange to take turns in doing various duties. To begin with, the total amount of work would be greatly reduced. The work of preparing food for 200 people is much less when undertaken with the special appliances of a single large kitchen, as compared with doing it in thirty small kitchens. For the present the Associated Home as a society would leave out of consideration the work of the private rooms of members-the cleaning and dusting, etc., of bedrooms and sitting-rooms. The necessary work of the associate interests would be much less. It would also be centred in the Society's rooms, which would be related to the private rooms of the members much in the same way as are the public and private rooms of a large hotel. The work would also be done under the supervision of a manager, as is usual in cooperative societies. With one or two permanent and responsible officials the most of the work would be done by members of the Society as part of their regular household duties. That is to say the self-helpfulness of the co-operative customer would be systemized into a regular relay of employés for different times and duties. Some would come down for three hours in the morning and prepare

and serve breakfasts. Others would attend to the preparation and service of dinner, tea, and supper, and so on. All three would be paid servants of the Society, but of course, as each one's work was but a small part of a great whole, her wages would also be but small. Small as it is, however, she is being paid for doing what is really her own family work, and doing it under a better system. The few hours daily taken for the general work of the Society would not interfere with proper attention to the necessary work of members' private rooms. This arrangement of work is based on the idea that those who do the home work are not dependent on the money earnings of that home work for support. The wives, sisters, and daughters who now do the housework of private families are not wage-earners in the usual sense of the term. Their work doubtless is wage worthy, but it is not yet reckoned in that way. Of course these " part time" services to the united work of the Society are by members of the Society, and do not disqualify in any way, except when " on duty," for the enjoyment of the full social privileges of the Society as a club. In the individual home the men and women who go out to business are on the same social level as those who do the household work when they meet either at home or abroad, as they would be in the Associated Home. Of course only those would be employed by the Society who were competent to do the work required. The working-out of this system of mutual service on part time, and on a business basis of efficiency, would have many advantages which need not be detailed at present. Enough has been said to show that the Associated Home idea has no practical difficulties that a one or two years' experience would not wear away.

D. MCEWEN.