Then she reached for the bookcase and produced her evidence, sparingly, but with effect. She showed me that the difference between the expense of hiring separate service and the same number of people patronizing a service company was sufficient to reduce expenses to the patrons and leave a handsome payment for the company. Owen looked on, interpreting to my ignorance. "You never kept house, old, man," he said, "nor thought much about it, I expect; but you can figure this out for yourself easily enough. Here were a hundred families, equal to, say, five hundred persons. They hired a hundred cooks, of course; paid them something like six dollars a week--call it five on an average. There's $500 a week, just for cooks--$26,000 a year!" "Now, as a matter of fact (our learned daughter tells us this), ten cooks are plenty for five hundred persons--at the same price would cost $1,300 a year!" "Ten are plenty, and to spare," said Hallie; "but we pay them handsomely. One chef at $8,000; two next bests at $2,000 each, four thousand; two at $1,000 apiece, two thousand; five at $800, four thousand. That's $13,000--half what we paid before, and the difference in service between a kitchen maid and a scientific artist." "Fifty per cent, saved on wages, and 500 per cent, added to skill," Owen continued. "And you can go right on and add 90 per cent, saving in fuel, 90 per cent, in plant, 50 per cent, in utensils, and--how much is it, Hallie, in materials?" Hallie looked very important. "Even when they first started, when food was shamefully expensive and required all manner of tests and examinations, the saving was all of 60 per cent. Now it is fully 80 per cent." "That makes a good deal all told, Uncle John," Jerrold quietly remarked, handing me a bit of paper. "You see, it does leave a margin of profit." I looked rather helplessly at the figures; also at Hallie. "It is a shame, Uncle, to hurry you so, but the sooner you get these little matters clear in your head, the better. We have these great food furnishing companies, now, all over the country; and they have market gardens and dairies and so on, of their own. There is a Food Bureau in every city, and a National Food Bureau, with international relations. The best scientific knowledge is used to study food values, to improve old materials and develop new ones; there's a tremendous gain." "But--do the people swallow things as directed by the government?" I protested. "Is there no chance to go and buy what you want to eat when you want it?" They rose to their feet with one accord. Jerrold seized me by the hand. "Come on, Uncle!" he cried. "Now is as good a time as any. You shall see our food department--come to scoff and remain to prey--if you like." The elevator took us down, and I was led unresistingly among their shining modernities.