Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Home Economics - Challenge of Home Economics [PAGE 44]

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hold fabrics have taken on a new look. No longer are cotton, wool, and linen the key fibers. Complementing and supplementing them are the man-made fibers — nylon, dacron, orlon, etc. Fabrics made of these various fibers, and blends thereof, have been put to multitudinous uses. Actually, very little is known about the role and function these fibers play in meeting the requirements of textiles for clothing and household uses. All vary in respect to durability, wearability, ease of maintenance, comfort, beauty, and adaptability to different uses. In addition they vary in the way a person reacts to them, both physiologically and mentally. As a result of requirements of the military, a considerable back-log of basic research is behind recommendations for fabrics to be used for the construction of clothing for various services in the Armed Forces. Similar research is needed on civilian clothing. How may desired warmth or coolness of clothing be achieved? What factors contribute to comfort in wearing? Which fabrics have particular characteristics that contribute to hygienic quality? It is important that people know what qualities can be expected in clothing made of different fabrics and blends of fabrics. People will be asking research workers these and many other questions. And now, in recapitulation, how can we define the challenge of home economics research? Its essence, I think, can be found in the verb, "to stretch." Why? Because to stretch means to grow in length and breadth. Surely, this has been happening as home economics research first recognized and then began to solve problems associated with the attainment of physical and mental health, with the personality development of family members and their relations to each other, with family security and management practices, with the collection of information about consumer goods in respect to wise buying practices. Surely, home economics research is standing on the threshold of great accomplishment, but it must go on stretching. To stretch has another meaning. It also means "to reach out," And this too the home economics of the future will be doing when it reaches out to increase its opportunities by working for a new research agency in the government dedicated to the betterment of family life, i.e., a Research Foundation for the American Home.7 Through it research programs of enduring quality — of length, of breadth, and also of depth — may be catalyzed. May I salute our own national American Home Economics Association for undertaking the Herculean task of working for the passage of a bill by our Congress that would create such a foundation. 44