ased respect on
the part of economists for the industrial function which woman
performs," for "there is no economic function higher than that of
determining how wealth shall be used," so that "even if man remain the
chief producer of wealth and woman remain the chief factor in
determining how wealth shall be used, the economic position of woman
will not be considered by those who judge with discrimination to be
inferior to that of man."

Mr. Devine then lays out for the economist a task in the discharge of
which the innocent bystander will sincerely wish him a pleasant trip
and a safe return.

"It is the present duty of the economist," says Mr. Devine, "to
accompany the wealth expender to the very threshold of the home, that
he may point out, with untiring vigilance, its emptiness, caused not
so much by lack of income as by lack of knowledge of how to spend
wisely."

Mr. Devine's proposition therefore would seem finally to sanction some
such conclusion as this:

Physical science and social science (and common sense) are making such
important contributions to the subject of the rearing of children and
to the subject of the maintenance of wholesome and beautiful living
conditions and to the subject of the use of leisure that, while the
home woman has lost almost all of the productive industries which she
once controlled, she has simultaneously gained a whole new field of
labor. Consumption has ceased to be merely _passive_ and has become
_active_. It has ceased to be mere _Absorption_ and has become
_Choice_. And the active choosing of the products of the world (both
spiritual and material) in connection with her children, her house,
and her spare time has developed for the home woman into a task so
broad, into an art so difficult, as to require serious study.

We have quoted at length from Mr. Devine's discourse because it is
recognized as the classic statement of the case and because it has had
the warm personal commendation of such women as the late Mrs. Ellen H.
Richards, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose skill as
scientist and vision as philosopher made her the most authoritative
personality in the American Home Economics Association. (That
association, by the way, has some fifteen hundred due-paying
members.)

The scales fall from our eyes now and we see at least one thing which
we had not seen before. We had supposed that sewing and cooking were
the vitals of the home economics movement.