3.—The Communistic Kitchen.In the matter of nutritionqualityis far more important than quantity. Much food is not beneficial if the food is not good. But quality may be greatly improved by the manner in which food is prepared.The preparation offood should be conducted as scientifically as any other human activity, in order to be as advantageous as possible.This requires knowledge and proper equipment.That our women who are chiefly engaged in the preparation of food do not possess this knowledge and cannot possess it, requires no further proof. The equipment of the large kitchen has already attained a degree of perfection that the best equipped domestic kitchen cannot come up to. The kitchen equipped with electricity for lighting and heating is the ideal one. No more smoke, heat, or disagreeable odors! The kitchen resembles a workshop furnished with all kinds of technical and mechanical appliances that quickly perform the hardest and most disagreeable tasks. Here we see potato and fruit-paring machines, apparatus for removing kernels, meat-choppers, mills for grinding coffee and spice, ice-choppers, corkscrews, bread-cutters, and a hundred other machines and appliances, all run by electricity, that enable a comparatively small number of persons, without excessive labor, to prepare a meal for hundreds of guests. The same is true of the equipments for house-cleaning and for washing the dishes.To millions of women the private kitchen is an institution that is extravagant in its methods, entailing endless drudgery and waste of time, robbing them of their health and good spirits, and an object of daily worry, especially when the means are scanty, as is the case with most families. The abolition of the private kitchen will come as a liberation to countless women. The private kitchen is as antiquated an institution as the workshop of the small mechanic. Both represent a useless and needless waste of time labor and material.The nutritive value of food is heightened by its easier assimilation; this is a decisive factor.[268]Only the new society will be able to provide a rational nutrition for all. Cato sets forth with especial praise that in ancient Rome, up to the sixteenth century of the city (200B. C.), there were men versed in the art of healing, but that they found little occasion to practice their art. The Romansled such simple and temperate lives that sickness was rare among them, and most people died from old age. Only when extravagance and idleness, in short, a dissolute life, set in, on the one hand, and poverty and excessive work on the other, matters were completely changed. In the future, extravagance, idleness and dissoluteness will be impossible, but misery, want and privation will be impossible likewise. There is an abundance for all. Heinrich Heine has sung ere now:Sufficient grain is grown on earthWith bread all beings to provide,Roses and myrtles, beauty, mirth,And sugar-peas are there beside.Yes, sugar-peas for every one!When want no longer harrows,Then heaven gladly shall we leaveTo angels and tosparrows.[269]“He who eats little lives well” (that is, long), said the Italian Cornaro, in the sixteenth century, as quoted by Niemeyer. Finally, chemistry, too, will be active in the future to produce new and improved articles of food. To-day this science is frequently abused to adulterate food; but it is clear that a chemically prepared article of food that has all the qualities of a natural product, serves the same purpose. The manner in which food is obtained is a matter of secondary importance, provided that it answers all requirements.[268]The power of assimilation of food by each individual is the standard. Niemeyer: Hygiene.[269]Heinrich Heine: Germany. A Winter’s Tale.
3.—The Communistic Kitchen.In the matter of nutritionqualityis far more important than quantity. Much food is not beneficial if the food is not good. But quality may be greatly improved by the manner in which food is prepared.The preparation offood should be conducted as scientifically as any other human activity, in order to be as advantageous as possible.This requires knowledge and proper equipment.That our women who are chiefly engaged in the preparation of food do not possess this knowledge and cannot possess it, requires no further proof. The equipment of the large kitchen has already attained a degree of perfection that the best equipped domestic kitchen cannot come up to. The kitchen equipped with electricity for lighting and heating is the ideal one. No more smoke, heat, or disagreeable odors! The kitchen resembles a workshop furnished with all kinds of technical and mechanical appliances that quickly perform the hardest and most disagreeable tasks. Here we see potato and fruit-paring machines, apparatus for removing kernels, meat-choppers, mills for grinding coffee and spice, ice-choppers, corkscrews, bread-cutters, and a hundred other machines and appliances, all run by electricity, that enable a comparatively small number of persons, without excessive labor, to prepare a meal for hundreds of guests. The same is true of the equipments for house-cleaning and for washing the dishes.To millions of women the private kitchen is an institution that is extravagant in its methods, entailing endless drudgery and waste of time, robbing them of their health and good spirits, and an object of daily worry, especially when the means are scanty, as is the case with most families. The abolition of the private kitchen will come as a liberation to countless women. The private kitchen is as antiquated an institution as the workshop of the small mechanic. Both represent a useless and needless waste of time labor and material.The nutritive value of food is heightened by its easier assimilation; this is a decisive factor.[268]Only the new society will be able to provide a rational nutrition for all. Cato sets forth with especial praise that in ancient Rome, up to the sixteenth century of the city (200B. C.), there were men versed in the art of healing, but that they found little occasion to practice their art. The Romansled such simple and temperate lives that sickness was rare among them, and most people died from old age. Only when extravagance and idleness, in short, a dissolute life, set in, on the one hand, and poverty and excessive work on the other, matters were completely changed. In the future, extravagance, idleness and dissoluteness will be impossible, but misery, want and privation will be impossible likewise. There is an abundance for all. Heinrich Heine has sung ere now:Sufficient grain is grown on earthWith bread all beings to provide,Roses and myrtles, beauty, mirth,And sugar-peas are there beside.Yes, sugar-peas for every one!When want no longer harrows,Then heaven gladly shall we leaveTo angels and tosparrows.[269]“He who eats little lives well” (that is, long), said the Italian Cornaro, in the sixteenth century, as quoted by Niemeyer. Finally, chemistry, too, will be active in the future to produce new and improved articles of food. To-day this science is frequently abused to adulterate food; but it is clear that a chemically prepared article of food that has all the qualities of a natural product, serves the same purpose. The manner in which food is obtained is a matter of secondary importance, provided that it answers all requirements.[268]The power of assimilation of food by each individual is the standard. Niemeyer: Hygiene.[269]Heinrich Heine: Germany. A Winter’s Tale.
In the matter of nutritionqualityis far more important than quantity. Much food is not beneficial if the food is not good. But quality may be greatly improved by the manner in which food is prepared.The preparation offood should be conducted as scientifically as any other human activity, in order to be as advantageous as possible.This requires knowledge and proper equipment.That our women who are chiefly engaged in the preparation of food do not possess this knowledge and cannot possess it, requires no further proof. The equipment of the large kitchen has already attained a degree of perfection that the best equipped domestic kitchen cannot come up to. The kitchen equipped with electricity for lighting and heating is the ideal one. No more smoke, heat, or disagreeable odors! The kitchen resembles a workshop furnished with all kinds of technical and mechanical appliances that quickly perform the hardest and most disagreeable tasks. Here we see potato and fruit-paring machines, apparatus for removing kernels, meat-choppers, mills for grinding coffee and spice, ice-choppers, corkscrews, bread-cutters, and a hundred other machines and appliances, all run by electricity, that enable a comparatively small number of persons, without excessive labor, to prepare a meal for hundreds of guests. The same is true of the equipments for house-cleaning and for washing the dishes.
To millions of women the private kitchen is an institution that is extravagant in its methods, entailing endless drudgery and waste of time, robbing them of their health and good spirits, and an object of daily worry, especially when the means are scanty, as is the case with most families. The abolition of the private kitchen will come as a liberation to countless women. The private kitchen is as antiquated an institution as the workshop of the small mechanic. Both represent a useless and needless waste of time labor and material.
The nutritive value of food is heightened by its easier assimilation; this is a decisive factor.[268]Only the new society will be able to provide a rational nutrition for all. Cato sets forth with especial praise that in ancient Rome, up to the sixteenth century of the city (200B. C.), there were men versed in the art of healing, but that they found little occasion to practice their art. The Romansled such simple and temperate lives that sickness was rare among them, and most people died from old age. Only when extravagance and idleness, in short, a dissolute life, set in, on the one hand, and poverty and excessive work on the other, matters were completely changed. In the future, extravagance, idleness and dissoluteness will be impossible, but misery, want and privation will be impossible likewise. There is an abundance for all. Heinrich Heine has sung ere now:
Sufficient grain is grown on earthWith bread all beings to provide,Roses and myrtles, beauty, mirth,And sugar-peas are there beside.Yes, sugar-peas for every one!When want no longer harrows,Then heaven gladly shall we leaveTo angels and tosparrows.[269]
Sufficient grain is grown on earthWith bread all beings to provide,Roses and myrtles, beauty, mirth,And sugar-peas are there beside.Yes, sugar-peas for every one!When want no longer harrows,Then heaven gladly shall we leaveTo angels and tosparrows.[269]
Sufficient grain is grown on earthWith bread all beings to provide,Roses and myrtles, beauty, mirth,And sugar-peas are there beside.
Sufficient grain is grown on earth
With bread all beings to provide,
Roses and myrtles, beauty, mirth,
And sugar-peas are there beside.
Yes, sugar-peas for every one!When want no longer harrows,Then heaven gladly shall we leaveTo angels and tosparrows.[269]
Yes, sugar-peas for every one!
When want no longer harrows,
Then heaven gladly shall we leave
To angels and tosparrows.[269]
“He who eats little lives well” (that is, long), said the Italian Cornaro, in the sixteenth century, as quoted by Niemeyer. Finally, chemistry, too, will be active in the future to produce new and improved articles of food. To-day this science is frequently abused to adulterate food; but it is clear that a chemically prepared article of food that has all the qualities of a natural product, serves the same purpose. The manner in which food is obtained is a matter of secondary importance, provided that it answers all requirements.
[268]The power of assimilation of food by each individual is the standard. Niemeyer: Hygiene.[269]Heinrich Heine: Germany. A Winter’s Tale.
[268]The power of assimilation of food by each individual is the standard. Niemeyer: Hygiene.
[269]Heinrich Heine: Germany. A Winter’s Tale.