Another plan, perhaps less widely but even more earnestly advocated by its supporters, is that of co-operative housekeeping. There has been much looseness of phraseology in referring to this plan, and many experiments have been called co-operative housekeeping which are such in no sense of the word. Co-operative housekeeping, pure and simple, as described by the pioneer in the movement, Mrs. Melusina Fay Peirce,[289] means the association in a stock company of not fewer than twelve or fifteen families. The first step is the opening of a co-operative grocery on the plan adopted by the Rochdale Pioneers, and this to be followed by the opening of a bakery, and later by a kitchen for cooking soups, meats, and vegetables. The next department to be organized is that of sewing, beginning with the establishment of a small dry-goods store, and developing from this the making of underclothes, dresses, cloaks, and bonnets. The last step is to organize a co-operative laundry. The main industries pursued in every house—cooking, sewing, and laundering—are thus to be taken out of the house and carried on at a central point, while the profits on all the retail purchases are ultimately to accrue to the purchasers. The advantages in the scheme are in the saving of expense in buying, economy in the preparation of all the materials consumed, a division of labor on the part of the co-operators which enables each to follow her own tastes in work, and a removal of all difficulties with the subject of service by making the servants responsible to a corporation, not to individuals. The essential point in the whole plan, and that which justifies the name, is that each housekeeper is to take an active part not only in the management, but also in the actual work of the association, since co-operation ceases to be such if one individual or “manager” is paid for assuming the responsibility of the business. The Cambridge, Massachusetts, Co-operative Housekeeping Association was organized in 1870 with forty shareholders and continued about one year. It approached more nearly than any other experiment that has been made to the ideal of its chief promoter, Mrs. Peirce, but failed in the opinion of its founder for three reasons: because all the shareholders did not patronize the co-operative store; because three departments of work—a bakery, kitchen, and laundry—were begun at the same time instead of being allowed to develop as experience should dictate; and because the whole was given over to the charge of a board of seven directors, one of whom was to be a paid officer and the manager of the entire business. The theory in its realization, therefore, lacked some of the essentials of a true co-operative enterprise, but even in this form it is believed to have been the only experiment that can in any real sense of the word be called co-operative housekeeping.