Whatever solution the future may hold, employers are beginning to realize that it is not through greater individual indulgences, more equality or higher wages that the problems are to be solved. Employees do not ask to be admitted, to the family circle. Self-respecting helpers would not feel comfortable were this provision made, nor is it a practical way of removing the difficulty. What they desire as a class is, rather, the opportunity of independence which other forms of employment afford and which is missed in this-a chance to perform their work and, apart from that, to live their own lives in their own way.

However desirable any opening or advantage, the spirit of liberty demands that it be chosen rather than forced upon one. What domestic service is really claiming for itself is some adjustment whereby definite hours shall be secured, and, outside that, free choice of amusement, personal improvement, friendships-life.

This, when secured, will prove one of the most reasonable and satisfactory aids to the solution of difficulties of both employers and employees. The final adjustment to the same basis as all other industrial and business activities will be a work of time, no doubt, but it seems to be the inevitable goal.

As employers and the world at large grain and keep in mind a truer conception of the importance of household employment in the economic world there will follow better practical results. As long as employers express scorn of these duties little can be hoped for in the way of "dignifying labor" in the home. The efficiency of the housework cannot be expected to rise above that of the mistress as manager. There is deep significance in the words of one who wrote: "To know the workman one must have been a workman himself, and, above all, remember it." The housekeeper must know the household affairs and respect them if she would have others do the same.

There are some experiments being carried on at the present time that all should follow with interest. These go far to prove that the preceding statements are not without foundation. Notable among these is the attempt which has been made in Boston to create an attractive home center for helpers, from which they go each day for a definite number of hours for employment in various homes which desire their services. The helpers are classified and graded, as already suggested, according to efficiency, the wages paid corresponding to the degree of skill attained. There is adequate stimulus to advancement, as instruction is given at the home center. The home life is natural and congenial, every attempt being made to enhance the wholesome pleasure to be derived from such a place. The rapidly increasing popularity of the experiment shows that no mistake has been made in the diagnosis of the employee's point of view. For the employer there is the difficulty of arranging the work to fit such a plan so that the desirable work shall be secured at a price not exceeding the expense of resident help. This is a difficult thing to do, a thing not yet accomplished, but which the ingenuity of woman will yet solve. Without doubt it will mean the simplifying of life in some homes, but if this is wisely arranged it will be a gain rather than a loss.

Household Aid Society