The mother of the future will bring to bear upon the clothing question not only more knowledge, but more serious thought, than she does to-day.  For the children she must provide comfortable, serviceable play clothes in generous quantity, that they may pursue their development unhampered in either body or mind.  She must know the hygiene of childhood and the psychology of children’s clothes.  For the growing girls there must be a proper recognition of the growing interest in adornment, avoiding the Scylla of vanity on one hand and the Charybdis of unhappy consciousness of being “different from the other girls” on the other.  For the sons there must be careful provision for the athletic life so dear to the boy, together with due recognition of the approaching dignities of manhood, with special care for the small details which mark the well-groomed man.

As in the matter of the food supply, there must be knowledge of markets and skill in buying.  And, as in that case, there should be knowledge of the process of transforming materials into the finished product.  Processes involving a great degree of technical skill, such as the tailor’s art, the average woman will not attempt; but the simpler forms of garment making present no special difficulty to those who wish to try them or who find it expedient to do so.

[Illustration:  Photograph by Brown Bros.  Buying clothing ready made.  The question of buying clothing ready made or of making it will find individual solution according to means, inclination, and ability]

A wholesale assumption that it is only a question of a short time before all garment making will be done in the factory is probably without warrant.  We read again and again of late, “The day of buying instead of making is here!  We may like it or not like it, but the fact remains, it is here!” And then we look all about us, and find that the day is apparently not here for at least several thousands of people of whom we have personal knowledge.  That discovery gives us courage to look farther.  We find paper-pattern companies flourishing; dress goods selling in the retail departments as they have always sold; seamstresses fully occupied; and we conclude that for some time yet the question of buying or making will find individual solution, according to means, inclination, and ability.  What we wish to guard against in the upbringing of our future mothers is the necessity of buying because of a lack of the ability to make.  The woman trained to a knowledge of the making of garments is the only woman who can intelligently decide the question for her own household.  The others are forced to a decision by their own limitations.

[Illustration:  Photograph by Brown Bros.  In a community preserving kitchen questions of food supply may sometimes be solved and community interests unified]