Opportunities for promotion and advancement, which play a very important part in stimulating to effort in other employments, are almost wholly lacking in the present methods of conducting domestic service. The most that can be hoped for through a change is an easier place, a slight increase in wages, a pleasanter employer or some trival gain. The work is so ungraded that the unskilled, inefficient worker receives practically the same wages as the skilled and capable.

Disparity in wages is sometimes offered as a reason for the choice of other work, but this is readily proved to. he invalid. A comparison with the pay in any other form of employment would be favorable for the wages of the domestic employee at the present time. Wages differ greatly in different sections, vet they bear sufficiently close relation to other expenses so that general comparisons may be made. Miss Salmon in her admirable work on Domestic Service makes the comparison between the average wages received by the domestic employee and the school teacher. In this she clearly shows that, considering the fewer demands made upon the domestic employee in maintaining her position in contrast with those made upon a teacher, and also the many aids and comforts which are not easily measured in full money values, such as board, lodging, laundry and the like, the average wages of the domestic employee is higher by a generous margin.

Promotion

Wages

The average salary of women teachers is $545 a year; $260 must be deducted for board and lodgin and $25 for laundry. There is left $260 with which she must meet such necessary expenses as clothing, traveling, social obligations and working capital, as books, etc. If one considers in addition, as is certainly legitimate, the necessary outlay for training in the one case, in contrast with the low requirements in the other, it becomes very apparent that one must look elsewhere for an explanation of the great popularity of the one form of service and the unpopularity of the other.

There remains a final objection, which is in reality first in importance and which has more to do with keeping desirable helpers from choosing this kind of employment than any other. It is the reason invariably given first by those who express their feeling frankly and unreservedly. This is the social disadvantage experienced by those who engage in such service. This stigma is subtle, but very real in its resultant evils. It takes its rise in the false attitude of many employers toward housework, and the utterly false idea of what equality in this free American country really means by those whose limitations of ignorance or opportunity have led them to take a wrong view of the entire matter.

When we turn to the employer's point of view there is much to be said considering the unsatisfactory situation. Taking the present-day employee into the home is attempting to introduce into the life there one who is of different nationality and who has little in common with the other members of the family from any point of view. Inheritance, former environment and experiences could hardly be more unlike in the majority of cases. There can be little expectation of accomplishing or even approximating perfect assimilation.

As there is no opportunity, in the majority of households, to rise in this employment, the desire for change or betterment finds lively expression and diversion through new places. As a result the employer is put to her wit's end to cope with this tendency, and is often exasperated, and rightly, by her neighbor, who resorts to illegitimate means of influence by overpaying, and who ignores the fact that she is thereby only multiplying the difficulties. Much selfishness is revealed in the methods employed by harassed employers, who are often placed in so hard a position that it becomes a supreme test of character to decide what to do to secure and keep the needed help. The majority of employees are astonishingly oblivious to real present opportunities, so eagerly do they grasp after vague advantages through change. As a result, the average length of service in one place is less than one and a half years in cities, and in towns where the desire to go to the cities is strong it is still shorter.

The ignorance of the average employee of the present time is profound and very exasperating, the more difficult to cope with because of the assumed intelligence in most cases. The perplexities and trials of being forced to employ untrained helpers for work which requires skilled labor can hardly be exaggerated. That more of this crudeness is to be found in this line of work than in any other is indisputable. It is accounted for partly in the present failure to show appreciation of good work or to properly reward it. This is one of the greatest menaces to satisfactory service.

These, then, are the objections to household service: It provides no real social life; it takes the worker from her own home and places her where, however comfortable she may be, she is an alien, often losing caste among her friends, hence having no social place; it offers no incentive to rise, no spur to ambition, except that of personal pride or desire to please, and this, if not lacking in the first place, may cease, because there is no real competition.

Also, it should be stated that all places are not comfortable; a cold, cheerless, illy furnished room cannot seem a rest or refuge after a hard day's work. Work over a hot stove, however neatly done, certainly does seem to demand for the person engaged in it proper hot water bathing facilities.

Fresh air is an essential to happy, healthy living. One afternoon weekly cannot enable the maid to store away sufficient fresh air to keep her through the following six days.

Simply from the selfish standpoint, that of getting the best work from the machine, reasonable forethought should be given, not only for the comfort, but for the personal freedom of the employee. This means that if the best work is expected from the worker an endeavor should be made to keep her in the best physical condition for that work. When the prescribed work is finished it is normal for anyone to desire to get out and away from the place in which she has been working. If a maid's sitting room were or could be a part of every house there would not be the temptation to seek the street or a friend's kitchen for rest and recreation. This sitting room is often an entire impossibility; it is frequently considered in that light because it entails a sacrifice of space or some expense. There is far too frequently an utter disregard of the actual condition of what may be termed the rolling stock of this business. It is economy to keep the machine well oiled, well repaired and well housed.