GIFT OF DALINDA COTEY http://www.archive.org/details/domesticserviceOOsalmrich •* % I A i ^s* «• % DOMESTIC SERVICE 'j^^y^ DOMESTIC SERVICE BY LUCY MAYNARD SALMON Neijj gork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 1897 All rights reserved 4±^ OOPTEIOHT, 1897, By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. NorSuootJ i^regjs J. S. Cushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A. " The reform that applies itself to the household must not be partial. It must correct the whole system of our social living. It must come with plain living and high thinking ; it must break up caste, and put domestic service on another foundation. It must come in connection with a true acceptance by each man of his vocation, — not chosen by his parents or friends, but by his genius, with earnestness and love." EMERSON. 417860 PREFACE The basis of the following discussion of the subject of domestic service is the information obtained through a series of blanks sent out during the years 1889 and 1890. Three schedules were prepared — one for employers, one for employees, and one asking for miscellaneous informa- tion in regard to the Woman's Exchange, the teaching of household employments, and kindred subjects.^ These schedules were submitted for criticism to several gentle- men prominent in statistical investigation, and after revision five thousand sets were distributed. These were sent out in packages containing from five to twenty-five sets through the members of the Classes of 1888 and 1889, Vassar College, and single sets were mailed, with a state- ment of the object of the work, to the members of different associations presumably interested in such investigations. These were the American Statistical Association, the American Economic Association, the Association of Col- legiate Alumnae, the Vassar Alumnae, and the women graduates of the University of Michigan. They were also sent to various women's clubs, and many were distrib- uted at the request of persons interested in the work. 1 These schedules are given in Appendix I. yii viii PBEFACE Of the five thousand sets of blanks thus sent out, 1025 were returned filled out by employers, twenty being received after the tabulation was completed. These gave the facts asked for with reference to 2545 employees. The returns received from employers thus bore about the same proportion to the blanks distributed as do the returns received in ordinary statistical investigation carried on without the aid of special agents or legal authority. The reasons why a larger number were not returned are the same as are found in all such inquiries, with a few pecu- liar to the nature of the case. The occupation investi- gated is one that does not bring either employer or em- ployee into immediate contact with others in the same occupation, and it is therefore believed that the relations between employer and employee are purely personal, and thus not a proper subject for statistical inquiry. Another reason assigned was the fear that the agitation of the subject would cause employees to become dissatisfied, while a third reason was the large number of questions included in the blanks, and the fact that no immediate and possibly no remote benefit would accrue to those filling them out. Another reason frequently assigned was that all of the questions could not be answered, and that, therefore, replies to others could not be of service. Several of the questions, however, were framed with the understanding that in many cases they could not be defi- nitely answered ; as the question, " How many servants have you employed since you have been housekeeping ? " The fact that often no reply could be given, was as sig- PREFACE IX nificant of the condition of the service as a detailed state- ment could have been. No success had been anticipated in securing replies from employees; but as any study of domestic service would be incomplete without looking at it from this point of view, the attempt was made. As a result, 719 blanks were returned filled out. In some instances employees, hearing of the inquiry, wrote for schedules and returned them answered. In a few cases correspondence was car- ried on with women who had formerly been in domestic service. The influences that operated to prevent employ- ers from answering the inquiries made had even greater force in the case of employees. In addition, there was present a hesitation to commit anything to writing, or to sign a name to a document the import of which was not clearly understood by them. The limited amount of information that could be given explains the small number of returns received to the third schedule, — about two hundred. The returns received were sent to the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, where, by the courtesy of the chief of the bureau, they were collated during the spring and summer of 1890, under the special direction of the chief clerk, in accordance with a previously arranged scheme of tables. The general plan of arrangement adopted was to class the schedules with reference to em- ployers, first alphabetically by states and towns, and second alphabetically by population. The schedules were then classed with reference to employees, first by men X PREFACE and women, and second by place of birth. The various statistical devices used in the Massachusetts Bureau were employed in tabulating the material, and greatly facili- tated the work. Fifty large tables were thus prepared, and by various combinations numerous smaller ones were made. The classification thus adopted made it possible to give all the results either in a general form or with special reference to men and women employees, the native born and the foreign born, and to all of the branches of the service. It was also possible to study the conditions of the service geographically, and with reference to the population and to other industrial situations. The most detailed tables made out concerned the wage question, including a presentation of classified wages, average wages with the percentage of employees receiv- ing the same wages as the average, and also more or less than the average, a comparison of wages paid at different times and of wages received in domestic service and in other employments. For the purposes of comparison, the writer also classified the salaries paid to about six thousand teachers in the public schools in sixteen repre- sentative cities, as indicated by the reports of city superintendents for the year during which information concerning domestic service had been given on the sched- ules. Through the courtesy of a large employment bureau in Boston, the wages received by nearly three thousand employees were ascertained and used for com- parison. The most valuable results of the investigation ' PREFACE xi possibly were those growing out of the concensus of opinion obtained from employers and employees regard- ing the nature of the service considered as an occupation. The greater proportion of these tables can be found in Chapter V. The question must naturally arise as to how far the returns received through such investigation can be con- sidered representative. It has seemed to the writer that they could be considered fairly so. Investigations of this character must always be considered typical rather than comprehensive. It is difficult to fix the exact number to be considered typical as between a partial investiga- tion and a census which is exhaustive. In some cases it is possible to obtain a majority in numbers, in others it is not. If the number of returns, however, passes the point where it would be considered trivial, the number between this and the majority may perhaps be regarded as representative. By the application of a similar prin- ciple, the expression at the polls of the wishes of the twentieth part of the inhabitants of a state is recognized as the will of the majority. But, while the returns can be considered only fairly representative as regards num- bers, they seem entirely so as regards conditions. It is believed that every possible condition under which do- mestic service exists, as regards both employer and em- ployee, is represented by the returns received, and that, therefore, the conclusions drawn from these results cannot be wholly unreasonable. Moreover, the circulars were sent out practically at random, and, therefore, do not XU PREFACE represent any particular class in society, except the class sufficiently interested in the subject to answer the ques- tions asked. If the returns thus secured can be regarded in any sense as representative, the results based on them may be considered as indicating certain general condi- tions and tendencies, although the conclusions reached may be modified by later and fuller researches. The question must also arise as to what it is hoped will be accomplished through this investigation. It is not expected that all, or even any one of the perplexing questions connected with domestic service will be even partially answered by it; it is not expected that any individual housekeeper will have less trouble to-morrow than to-day in adjusting the difficulties arising in her household ; it will not enable any employer whose in- competent cook leaves to-day without warning to secure an efficient one without delay. It is hoped, however, that the tabulation and presentation of the facts will afford a broader basis for general discussion than has been pos- sible without them, that a knowledge of the conditions of domestic service beyond their own localities and house- holds will enable some housekeepers in time to decide more easily the economic questions arising within every home, that it will do a little something to stimulate dis- cussion of the subject on other bases than the purely personal one. The hope has also come that writers on economic theory and economic conditions will recognize the place of domestic service among other industries, and will give to the public the results of their scientific PBEFACE xiii investigations of the subject, that the great bureaus of labor — always ready to anticipate any demand of the public — will recognize a demand for facts in this field of work. The writer has followed the presentation of facts by a theoretical discussion of doubtful and possible remedies. But if fuller and more searching official investigation, establishing a substantial basis for discussion, should point to conclusions entirely at variance with those here given, no one would more heartily rejoice than herself. It may reasonably be said that in view of the character of the investigation no conclusions at all should have been advanced by the investigator. Three things, however, seemed to justify the intrusion of personal views ; a recog- nition of the prevalent anxiety to find a way out of exist- ing difficulties, a belief that improvement can come only as each one is willing to make some contribution to the general discussion, and a conviction that no one should criticise existing conditions unless prepared to suggest others that may be substituted for them. The following discussion would have been impossible without the hearty co-operation of the thousand and more employers and the seven hundred employees who filled out the schedules distributed. The great majority of these were personally unknown to the writer, and she can express only in this public way her deep appreciation of their kindness, as she also wishes to do to the many friends, known and unknown, who assisted in distribut- ing the schedules. She also desires to express her obli- xiv PREFACE gation to the Hon. Carroll D. Wright, for help received in preparing the schedules and for the receipt of advance sheets from the Census of 1890 ; to the Hon. Horace G. Wadlin and Mr. Charles F. Pidgin, for the courtesies extended at the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, and also to Professor Davis R. Dewey, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; to Dean Marion Talbot of Chicago University, and to Professor Mary Roberts Smith, of the Leland Stanford University ; to Mrs. John Wilkinson of Chicago, Mrs. John H. Converse of Philadelphia, and Mrs. Helen Hiscock Backus of Brooklyn, for their constant encouragement and assist- ance in the work. Most of all the writer is under obli- gation to Miss A. Underbill for her assistance in reading both the manuscript and the proof of the work, and for the preparation of the Index. Articles bearing on the subject have at different times appeared in the Papers of the American Statistical Asso- ciation, The New England Magazine^ The Cosmopolitan, and The Forum. These have been freely used in the work, and the writer acknowledges the courtesy of the publishers and editors of these periodicals in allowing this use of her papers. January 18, 1897. CONTENTS CHAPTEB I Intboductiow FAffB Frequency of discussion of domestic service 1 Personal character of the discussion 2 Omission of the subject from economic discussion .... 2 General reasons for this omission 2 Specific reasons for this omission 4 Fundamental reason for this omission 6 Can this omission be justified ? 6 CHAPTER n HisTOBiCAL Aspects of Domestic Emplotmsnts Condition of industries in the eighteenth century .... 7 Inventions of the latter part of the century 7 Immediate result of these inventions 8 Co-operating influences 8 Effect of inventions on household employments .... 9 Release of v•:..: poMJ^STlc service towards the one fixed point of domestic service, wliile among domestic employees it is none the less certain that other phases of the same general subject are agitated. This popular discussion, which has assumed so many- forms, has been almost exclusively personal in character. A somewhat different aspect of the case is presented when the problem is stated to be " as momentous as that of capital and labor, and as complicated as that of indi- vidualism and socialism." This statement suggests that economic principles are involved, but the question of do- mestic service has been almost entirely omitted, not with- out reason, from theoretical, statistical, and historical discussions of economic problems. It has been omitted from theoretical discussions mainly because : (1) the occupation does not involve the investment of a large amount of capital on the part of the individual employer or employee ; it therefore seems to be excluded from theoretical discussions of the relations of capital, wages, and labor; (2) no combinations have yet been formed among employers or employees; it is therefore exempt from such speculations as are involved in the considera- tion of trusts, monopolies, and trade unions ; (3) the products of domestic service are more transient than are the results of other forms of labor; this fact must determine somewhat its relative position in economic dis- cussion. Its exclusion, as a rule, from the statistical pres- entations of the labor question is also not surprising. The various bureaus of labor, both national and state, consider only those subjects for the investigation of which there is a recognized demand. They are the leaders of INTEODUCTION 8 public opinion in the accumulation of facts, but they are its followers as regards the choice of questions to be studied. Public opinion has not yet demanded a scien- tific treatise on domestic service, and until it does the bureaus of labor cannot be expected to supply the mate- rial for such discussion. 1 Again, it is not surprising that the historical side of the subject has been overlooked, since household employments have been passive recipi- ents, not active participants, in the industrial develop- ment of the past century. Yet it must be said that this negative consideration of the subject by theoretical, prac- tical, and historical economists, and the positive treatment accorded it by popular writers, seems an unfair and un- scientific disposition to make of an occupation in which by the Census of 1890 one and a half millions of persons are actively engaged,^ to whom employers pay annually at the lowest rough estimate in cash wages more than $218,000,000,3 for whose support they pay at the lowest 1 Partial discussions of the subject can be found in the First Biennial B^ort of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Minnesota, pp. 131-196 ; First Biennial Beport of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Colorado^ pp. 344-362 ; Fifth Annual Beport of the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics of Kansas, pp. 281-326 ; Third Biennial Beport of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the State of California, pp. 91-94 ; Fifth Biennial Beport of the Department of Statistics, State of Indiana^ pp. 173-229. The last is especially full and excellent. 2 The total number of domestic servants is given as 1,454,791. This does not include launderers and laundresses, paid housekeepers in private families and hotels, or stewards and stewardesses. It excludes also the veiy large number of persons performing the same duties as domestic servants, but without receiving a fixed compensation. 3 This estimate is based on the supposition that the average wages paid are $3.00 per week, and that two weeks' vacation is given with loss of wages. Both of these are probably underestimates, as will be seen farther on. If the wages paid launderers and laundresses are included, and also 4 DOMESTIC SERVICE estimate an equal amount,^ and through whose hands passes so large a part of the finished products of other forms of labor.2 It is not difficult, however, to find reasons, in addition to the specific ones suggested, for this somewhat cavalier treatment of domestic service. The nature of the service rendered, as well as the relation between employer and employee, is largely personal ; it is believed therefore that all questions involved in the subject can be considered and settled from the personal point of view. It follows from this fact that it is extremely difficult to ascertain the actual condition of the service outside of a single family, or, at best, a locality very narrow in extent, and therefore that it is almost impossible to treat the subject in a comprehensive manner. It follows as a result of the the fees paid for hotel and restaurant service, $300,000,000 seems a fair estimate for the annual cash wages paid for domestic service. 1 This estimate supposes the actual cost of board for each employee to be $3.00 per week, which is probably less than would be paid by each employee for table-board of the quality furnished by the employer. It excludes the cost of house-rent furnished, and also fuel and light, all of which are factors to be considered in computing the cost of service received. 2 It is difficult to estimate the value of the materials of which domestic employees have the almost exclusive control. If the number of domestic servants and launderers and laundresses in private families, hotels, and restaurants is placed at 1,700,000, the number of employees in each family as two, and the number of persons in each family, including servants, as seven, it will be seen that at a rough estimate the food and laundried articles of clothing of six million persons pass through the hands of this class of employees. It was formerly a common saying, "a servant eats her wages, breaks her wages, and wastes her wages." If this verdict of experience is taken as approximately true rather than as scientifically exact, it will be seen that the actual expense involved in domestic service is probably double that included under the items of wages and support. INTRODUCTION 6 two previous reasons that domestic service has never been considered a part of the great labor question, and that it has not been supposed to be affected by the political, social, and industrial development of the past century as other occupations have been. These various explanations of the failure to consider domestic service in connection with other forms of labor are in reality but different phases of a fundamental reason — the isolation that has always attended household ser- vice and household employments. From the fact that other occupations are largely the result of association and combination they court investigation and the fullest and freest discussion of their underlying principles and their influence on each other. Household service, since it is based on the principle of isolation, is regarded as an affair of the individual with which the public at large has no concern. Other forms of industry are anxious to call to their assistance all the legislative, administrative, and ju- dicial powers of the nation, all the forces that religion, philanthropy, society itself can exert in their behalf. The great majority of housekeepers, if the correspondent of a leading journal is to be trusted, " do not require outside assistance in the management of their affairs, and conse- quently resent any interference in the administration of their duties." The question must arise, however, in view of the inter- dependence of all other forms of industry, whether it is possible to maintain this perfect separation with regard to any one employment, whether household employments are justified in resenting any intrusion into their domain, whether the individual employer is right in considering 6 DOMESTIC SERVICE household service exclusively a personal affair. An an- swer to the question may be of help in deciding whether the difficulties that are found in the present system of domestic service arise in every case necessarily from the personal relations which exist between employer and em- ployee, or are largely due to economic conditions over which the individual employer has no control. Still fur- ther, the conclusions reached must determine somewhat the nature of the forces to be set in motion to lessen these difficulties. CHAPTER II HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF DOMESTIC EMPLOYMENTS It is impossible to understand the condition of domestic service as it exists to-day without a cursory glance at the changes in household employments resulting from the inventions of the latter part of the eighteenth century. These changes, unlike many others, came apparently without warning. At the middle of the last century steam was a plaything, electricity a curiosity of the labo- ratory, and wind and water the only known motive powers. From time immemorial the human hand unaided, except by the simplest machinery, had clothed the world. Iron could be smelted only with wood, and the English parliament had seriously discussed the suppression of the iron trade as the only means of preserving the forests. But during the last third of the century the brilliant inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton, and Cartwright had made possible the revolutionizing of all forms of cotton and woollen industries ; Watt had given a new motive power to the world; the uses of coal had been multiplied, and soon after its mining rendered safe ; while a thousand supplementary inventions had followed quickly in the train of these. A new era of inventive genius had dawned, which was to rival in importance that of the fifteenth century. 7 8 DOMESTIC SERVICE The immediate result of these inventions was seen in the rapid transference of all the processes of cotton and woollen manufactures from the home of the individual weaver and spinner to large industrial centres, the cen- tralization of important interests in the hands of a few, and a division of labor that multiplied indefinitely the results previously accomplished. But the factory system of manufactures that superseded the domestic system of previous generations has not been the product of inventions alone. It has been pointed out by Mr. Carroll D. Wright ^ that while these inventions have been the material forces through which the change was accomplished, other agencies co-operated with them.. These co-operating influences have been physical, as illus- trated in the discoveries of Watt ; philosophical, as seen in the works of Adam Smith ; commercial, or the indus- trial supremacy of England considered as a result of the loss of the American colonies; and philanthropical, or those connected with the work of the Wesleys, John Howard, Hannah More, and Wilberforce. All these act- ing in conjunction with the material force — invention — have operated on manufacturing industries to produce the factory system of to-day. It is, indeed, because the factory system is the resultant of so many forces working in the past that it touches in the present nearly every great economic, social, political, moral, and philanthropic question. Although comparatively few of these inventions have been intended primarily to lessen household labor, this era of inventive activity has not been without its effects 1 The Factory System, Tenth Census, II., 533-537. HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF EMPLOYMENTS 9 on household employments. A hundred years ago the household occupations carried on in the average family included, in addition to whatever is now ordinarily done, every form of spinning and weaving cotton, wool and flax, carpet weaving and making, upholstering, knitting, tailoring, the making of boots, shoes, hats, gloves, collars, cuffs, men's underclothing, quilts, comfortables, mattresses, and pillows ; also, the making of soap, starch, candles, yeast, perfumes, medicines, liniments, crackers, cheese, coffee-browning, the drying of fruits and vegetables, and salting and pickling meat. Every article in this list, which might be lengthened, can now be made or prepared for use out of the house of the consumer, not only better but more cheaply by the concentration of capital and labor in large industrial enterprises. Moreover, as a result of other forms of inventive genius, the so-called modem improvements have taken out of the ordinary household many forms of hard and disagreeable labor. The use of kerosene, gas, natural gas, and electricity ^ for all purposes of lighting, and to a certain extent for heating and cook- ing; the adoption of steam-cleaning for furniture and wearing apparel; the invention of the sewing-machine and other labor-saving contrivances; the improvement of city and village water-works, plumbing, heat-supplying companies, city and village sanitation measures, including the collection of ashes and garbage, — these are all the results of modern business enterprise. These facts are familiar, but the effects more easily 1 A. E. Kennelly, " Electricity in the Household," Scribner''s Magazine, January, 1890 ; E. M, H. Merrill, " Electricity in the Kitchen," American Kitchen Magazine, November, 1895. 10 DOMESTIC SERVICE escape notice. The change from individual to collective enterprises, from the domestic to the factory system, has released a vast amount of labor formerly done within the house by women with three results : either this labor has been diverted to other places, or into other channels, or has become idle. The tendency at first was for labor thus released to be diverted to other places. The home spinners and weavers became the spinners and weavers in factories, and later the home workers in other lines became the operatives in other large establishments. As machin- ery became more simple, women were employed in larger numbers, until now, in several places and in several occu- pations, their numbers exceed those of men employees.^ This fact has materially changed the condition of affairs within the household. Under the domestic system of manufactures nearly all women spent part of their time in their own homes in spinning, weaving, and the making of various articles of food and clothing in connection with 1 In Massachusetts, in 1885, the numher of women employed in manu- facturing industries exceeded the number of men in eight towns. These were Dalton, Dudley, Easthampton, Hingham, Ipswich, Lowell, Tisbury, and Upton. Census of Massachusetts , II., 176-187. A weaver in Lawrence, Massachusetts, reported in 1882: "One of the evils existing in this city is the gradual extinction of the male opera- tive." Fall Biver, Lowell, and Lawrence, p. 10. Reprinted from Thir- teenth Annual Beport of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, p. 202. In Massachusetts, in 1875, women predominated in fifteen occupations, eleven of them manufacturing industries. In 1885 there were also fifteen occupations in which women exceeded men in numbers, twelve of them manufacturing. These were manufacturers of buttons and dress-trim- mings, carpetings, clothing, cotton goods, fancy articles, hair work, hosiery and knit goods, linen, mixed textiles, silk and silk goods, straw and palm- leaf goods, and worsted goods. Beport of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1889, pp. 556-557. HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF EMPLOYMENTS 11 their more active household duties. When women came to be employed in factories, the division of labor made necessary a readjustment of work so that housekeeping duties were performed by one person giving all her time to them instead of by several persons each giving a part of her time. The tendency of this was at first naturally to decrease the number of women partially employed in household duties, and to increase the demand for women giving all their time to domestic work. This readjustment of work in the home and in the fac- tory brought also certain other changes that have an im- portant bearing. The first employees were the daughters of farmers, tradesmen, teachers, and professional men of limited means, women of sturdy, energetic New England character. They were women who, in their own homes, had been the spinners and the weavers for the family and who had sometimes eked out a slender income by doing the same work in their homes. for others disqualified for it. As machinery was simplified, and new occupations more complex in character were opened to women, their places were taken in factories by Irish immigrants as these in turn have been displaced by the French Canadians. All these changes in the personnel of factory operatives have meant that while much labor has been taken out of the household, that which remained has been performed by fewer hands, and also that women of foreign nationali- ties have been pressed into household service. Another and later result of the change from the domes- tic to the factory system was the diversion of much of the labor at first performed within the household into entirely different channels. The anti-slavery agitation beginning 12 DOMESTIC 8EBVICE about 1830 enlisted the energies of many women, and the discussions growing out of it were undoubtedly the occa- sion for the opening of entirely new occupations to them. Oberlin College was founded in 1833 and Mount Holyoke Seminary in 1837, thus forming the entering wedge for the entrance of women into higher educational work. Medical schools for women were organized and profes- sional life made possible, while business interests began to attract the attention of many. Another part of the labor released by mechanical in- ventions and labor-saving contrivances became in time idle labor. By idle labor is meant not only absolute idleness, but labor which is unproductive and adds neither to the comfort nor to the intelligence of society. Work that had previously been performed within the home without money remuneration came to be considered unworthy of the same women when performed for persons outside their own house- hold and for a fixed compensation. The era of so-called fancy-work, which includes all forms of work in hair, wax, leather, beads, rice, feathers, cardboard, and canvas, so offensive to the artistic sense of to-day, was one product of this labor released from necessary productive processes. It was a necessary result because some outlet was needed for the energies of women, society as yet demanded that this outlet should be within the household, and the mechan- ical instincts were strong while the artistic sense had not been developed. It is an era not to be looked upon with derision, but as an interesting phase in the history of the evolution of woman's occupation.^ 1 George Eliot in Felix Holt speaks of Mrs. Transoms as engaged in "a little daily embroidery —that soothing occupation of taking stitches HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF EMPLOYMENTS 13 Still another channel for this idle labor was found in what has been called " intellectual fancy-work." Literary- clubs and classes sprang up and multiplied, affording oc- cupation to their members, but producing nothing and giving at first only the semblance of education and culture. Many of them became in time a stimulus for more thor- ough systematic work, but in their origin they were often but a manifestation of aimless activity, of labor released from productive channels. The era of inventions and resulting business activity has therefore changed materially the condition of affairs within the household. Before this time all women shared in preparing and cooking food ; they spun, wove, and made the clothing, and were domestic manufacturers in the sense that they changed the raw material into forms suitable for consumption. But modern inventions and the resulting change in the system of manufactures, as has been seen, necessarily affected household employ- ments. The change has been the same in kind, thougli not in degree, as has come in the occupations of men. In the last analysis every man is a tiller of the soil, but division of labor has left only a small proportion of men in this employment. So in the last analysis every woman is a housekeeper who " does her own work," but division of labor has come into the household as well as into the field, though in a more imperfect form. It has left many women in the upper and middle classes unemployed, while many in the lower classes are too heavily bur- dened ; in three of the four great industries which absorb to produce what neither she nor any one else wanted was then the re- source of many a well-bom and unhappy woman." 14. DOMESTIC SEBVICE the energies of the majority of women working for remu- neration — manufacturing, work in shops, and teaching — the supply of workers is greater than the demand, while in the fourth — domestic service — the reverse is the case. But it cannot be assumed that all of those in the first three classes have necessarily been taken from the fourth class. It has been well said that "through the intro- duction of machinery, ignorant labor is utilized, not created." Many who under the old order would have been able to live only under the most primitive condi- tions, and whose labor can be used under the new order only in the simplest forms of manufacturing, would be entirely unfit to have the care of an ordinary household in its present complex form. One more effect must be noted of this transference of many forms of household labor to large centres through the operation of inventive genius. It has been seen that i many women have thus been left comparatively free from the necessity of labor. The pernicious theory has there- fore grown up that women who are rich or well-to-do ought not to work, at least for compensation, since by so doing they crowd out of remunerative employment others who need it. It is a theory that overlooks the historical fact that every person should be in the last analysis a producer, it is based wholly on the assumption that work is a curse and not a blessing, and it does not take into consideration the fact that every woman who works without remuneration, or for less than the market rates, thereby lowers the wages of every person who is a bread-winner. It is a theory which if applied to men engaged in business occupations would check all indus- HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF EMPLOYMENTS 15 trial progress. It is equally a hindrance when applied to women. This revolutionizing of manufacturing processes through the substitution of the factory for the domestic system has thus rendered necessary a shifting of all forms of house- hold labor. The division of labor here is but partially accomplished, and out of this fact arises a part of the friction that is found in household service. Household employers and employees may be indifferent to the changes that the industrial revolutions of a century have brought, they may be ignorant of them all, but they have not been unaffected by them, nor can they remain unaffected by changes that may subsequently come in the industrial system. The interdependence of all forms of industry is so complete, that a change cannot revolution- ize one without in time revolutionizing all. The old industrial regime cannot be restored, nor can household employments of to-day be put back to their condition of a hundred years ago. CHAPTER III DOMESTIC SERVICE DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD It has been seen how great a change the inventions of the past century have made in the character of household employments. A change in the nature of household ser- vice no less important has taken place by virtue of the political revolutions of the century, acting in connection with certain economic and social forces. The subject of domestic service looms up so prominently in the fore- ground to-day that there is danger of forgetting that it has a past as well as a present. Yet it is impossible to understand its present condition without comprehending, in a measure, the manner in which it has been affected by its own history. It is equally impossible to forecast its future without due regard to this history. Domestic service in America has passed through three distinct phases. The first extends from the early coloni- zation to the * time of the Revolution ; the second, from the Revolution to about 1850 ; the third, from 1850 to the present time. During the colonial period service of every kind was performed by transported convicts, indented white ser- vants or " redemptioners," "free willers," negroes, and Indians.^ 1 Eddis, p. 63. 16 DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 17 The first three classes — convicts, redemptioners, and free willers — were of European, at first generally of English, birth. The colonization of the new world gave opportunity for the transportation and subsequent em- ployment in the colonies of large numbers of persons who, as a rule, belonged to a low class in the social scale. ^ The mother country looked with satisfaction on this method of disposing of those " such, as had there been no English foreign Plantation in the World, could probably never have lived at home to do service for their Country, but must have come to be hanged, or starved, or dyed un- timely of some of those miserable Diseases, that proceed from want, and vice."^ She regarded her "plantations abroad as a good effect proceeding from many evil causes," and congratulated herself on being freed from "such sort of people, as their crimes and debaucheries would quickly destroy at home, or whom their wants would confine in prisons or force to beg, and so render them useless, and consequently a burthen to the public."^ From the very first the advantage to England of this method of disposing of her undesirable population had been urged. The author of Nova Britannia wrote in 1609 : " You see it no new thing, but most profitable for our State, to rid our multitudes of such as lie at home, 1 DeFoe, ilfotZ Flanders, Colonel Jack; Mrs. Alpha Behn, The Widow Banter. 2 Sir Joshua Child, pp. 183-184. 3 Charles Davenant, II., 3. Velasco, the minister of Spain to England, writes to Philip III. from London, March 22, 1611 : "Their principal rea^ son for colonizing these parts is to give an outlet to so many idle and wretched people as they have in England, and thus to prevent the dan- gers that might be feared from them." Brown, p. 456. o 18 DOMESTIC SERVICE pestering the land with pestilence and penury, and in- fecting one another with vice and villanie, worse than the plague it selfe."^ So admirable did the plan seem in time that between the years 1661 and 1668 various pro- posals were made to the King and Council to constitute an office for transporting to the Plantations all vagrants, rogues, and idle persons that could give no account of themselves, felons who had the benefit of clergy, and such as were convicted of petty larceny — such persons to be transported to the nearest seaport and to serve four years if over twenty years of age, and seven years if under twenty.2 Virginia and Maryland ^ were the colonies to which the majority of these servants were sent, though they were not unknown elsewhere.* Protests were often made against this method of settle- ment, both by the colonists themselves ^ and by English- men,6 but it was long before the English government 1 Force, Tracts, I., 19. 2 Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1661-1668. Abstracts 101, 772, 791, 858. An admirable discussion of " British Convicts Shipped to American Colonies," by James D. Butler, is found in The American Historical Review, October, 1896. 8 Eddis says, p. 66, that Maryland was the only colony where convicts were freely imported ; but Virginia seems to have shared equally in the importation. * In Pennsylvania and Virginia transported criminals were so numer- ous that laws were passed to prevent their importation. 5 William Smith, History of the Province of New York from its Dis- covery to the Appointment of Governor Golden in 1762, pp. 207-210. John Watson, pp. 485-486, quotes from contemporaneous writers in op- position to the practice in Pennsylvania, circa 1750 ; Hening, II., 509-511. 6 " It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of people and wicked, condemned men, to be the people with whom you plant ; and not only so, but it spoileth the plantation ; for they ever live like rogues, and not fall to work ; but be lazy, and do mischief, and spend DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 19 abandoned the practice of transporting criminals to the American colonies.^ Of the three classes of white, or Christian servants, as they were called to distinguish them from Indians and negroes, the free willers were evidently found only in Maryland. This class was considered even more un- fortunate than that of the indented servants or convicts. They were received under the condition that they be allowed a certain number of days in which to dispose of themselves to the greatest advantage. But since ser- vants could be procured for a trifling consideration on absolute terms, there was no disposition to take a class of servants who wished to make their own terms. If they did not succeed in making terms within a certain number of days, they were sold to pay for their passage. ^ The colonists saw very little difference between the trans- ported criminals and political prisoners, the free willers, and the redemptioners who sold themselves into slavery, and as between the two classes — redemptioners and con- victed felons — they at first considered the felons the more profitable as their term of service was for seven years, while that of the indented servants was for five years only. 3 victuals, and be quickly weary, and then certify over to their country to the discredit of the plantation." Bacon, Essays, Of Plantations. 1 Bruce, I., 606, says that the order of the (General Court of Virginia prohibiting the introduction of English criminals after January 20, 1671 (Hening, II., 509-511), was confirmed by a royal order aunouncing that the importation of Newgate criminals was to cease, and that this rule was to apply to all the Colonies. But the frequent protests against the practice found in other Colonies at a much later date would seem to show that it could not have been generally observed. 2 Eddis, pp. 71-75. *Ibid., pp. 69-71. 20 DOMESTIC SERVICE It is impossible to state the proportion of servants be- longing to the two classes of transported convicts and redemptioners, but the statement is apparently fair that the redemptioners who sold themselves into service to pay for the cost of their passage constituted by far the larger proportion. These were found in all the colonies, though more numerous in the Southern and Middle colo- nies than in New England. In Virginia and Maryland they outnumbered negro slaves until the latter part of the seventeenth century. ^ In Massachusetts, apprenticed servants bound for a term of years were sold from ships in Boston as late as 1730,^ while the general trade in bound white servants lasted until the time of the Revolu- tion,3 and in Pennsylvania even until this century.* The first redemptioners were naturally of English birth, but after a time they were supplanted by those of other nationalities, particularly by the Germans and Irish. As early as 1718 there was a complaint of the Irish immigrants in Massachusetts.^ In Connecticut "a parcel of Irish servants, both men and women," just imported from Dublin, was advertised to be sold cheap in 1764.^ In 1 Berkeley's Report, Hening, II., 515. Brantly, in Winsor, III., 545. 2 "In the year 1730 . . . Colonel Josiah Willard was invited to view some transports who had just landed from Ireland. My uncle spied a boy of some vivacity, of about ten years of age- and who was the only one in the crew who spoke English. He bargained for him." — "Mrs. Johnson's Captivity " in Indian Narratives, p. 130. 3 Hildreth, III., 395. * Samuel Breck writes under date of August 1, 1817, " I went on board the ship John from Amsterdam, . . . and I purchased one German Swiss for Mrs. Ross and two French Swiss for myself." Becollections, pp. 296- 297. 5 Winthrop Papers, Pt. VI., p. 387, note. 6 Barber, Connecticut Collections, p. 166. DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 21 1783 large numbers of Irish and German redemptioners entered Maryland, and a society was formed to assist the Germans who could not speak English. ^ It has been said that a great majority of the redemp- tioners belonged at first to a low class in the social scale. A considerable number, however, both men and women, belonged to the respectable, even to the so-called upper classes of society. ^ They were sent over to prevent dis- advantageous marriages,^ to secure inheritances to other members of a family,* or to further some criminal scheme. 1 Scharf, p. 209. 2 Some improvement was soon seen in Virginia. " There hane beene sent thither this last yeare, and are now presently in going, twelue hun- dred persons and vpward, and there are neere one thousand more remain- ing of those that were gone before. The men lately sent, haue beene most of them choise men, borne and bred vp to labour and industry." Declaration of the State of the Colonie and Affairs in Virginia, 1620. Force, III., 5. Hammond in Leah and Rachel, p. 7, also speaks of the improvement. 3 A well-known case was that of Thomas, son of Sir Edward Vemey, who at the age of nineteen wished to marry some one of lower rank than himself. He was sent to Virginia to prevent the marriage, not, however, as himself a servant. Vemey Papers, Camden Society Publications, vol. 66, pp. 160-102. A niece of Daniel DeEoe is said to have been sent to America as a redemptioner for the same reason. The Sot -Weed Factor says of a maid in a Maryland inn, "Kidnap'd and Fool'd, I hither fled, To shun a hated Nuptial* Bed, And to my cost already find. Worse Plagues than those I left behind. * These are the general Excuses made by English Women, which are sold or sell themselves to Mary-land^ p. 7. * James Annesley when twelve years old was transported to Pennsyl- vania. His father died soon after, and his uncle succeeded to the peer- age. The boy was sold to a planter in Newcastle County, but his title to the peerage was subsequently proved. Anglesea Peerage Trial, Howell, State Trials, XVII., 1443-1454. 22 DOMESTIC SERVICE Many of these bond servants sold themselves into servitude, others were disposed of through emigration brokers,^ and still others were kidnapped, being enticed on shipboard by persons called " spirits. "^ The form of indenture was simple, and varied but little in the different colonies. Stripped of its cumber- some legal phraseology, it included the three main points of time of service, the nature of the service to be per- formed, although this was usually specified to be "in any such service as his employer shall employ him," and the compensation to be given. ^ It sometimes happened that servants came without 1 Neill, Virginia Carolorum, p. 108 ; The Verney Papers, Camden So- ciety Publications, vol. 56, pp. 160-162, give a long and detailed account of the method of obtaining and transporting servants. 2 Neill, Terra Mariae, pp. 201, 202, " In better Times, e're to this Land, I was unhappily Trapann'd." Sot -Weed Factor, p. 6. A young woman in search of employment was told that by going on board ship she would find it in Virginia, a few miles below on the Thames. Another young woman was persuaded to enter the ship, and was then sold into service. Cited by Bruce, I., 614, from Interregnum Entry Book, vol. 106, p. 84, and British State Papers, Colonial, vol. XIII., No. 29, 1. The evil of "spiriting away" both children and adults became so great that in 1664 the Committee for Foreign Plantations interposed, and the Council created the office of Kegister, charged with the duty of keep- ing a record of all persons going to America as servants, and the state- ment that they had voluntarily left England. This act was soon followed by another fixing the penalty of death, without benefit of clergy, in every case where persons were found guilty of kidnapping children or adults. But even these extreme measures did not put an end to the evil ; and it is stated that ten thousand persons were annually kidnapped after the passage of the act. Bruce, I., 614-619. 3 " The Forme of Binding a Servant " is given in A Belation of Mary^ land, pp. 62-63, and reads as follows : DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 23 indenture. In such cases the law expressly and defi- nitely fixed their status, though it was found extremely difficult to decide upon a status that could be perma- nent. Virginia, in particular, for a long time found it impossible to pass a law free from objections, and its experience will illustrate the difficulties encountered else- where. An early law in Virginia provided that if a servant came without indenture, he or she was to serve four years if more than twenty years old, five years if between twelve and twenty years of age, and seven years if under twelve.^ Subsequently it was provided that all Irish servants without indenture should serve six years " This Indenture made the day of in the yeere of our Soveraigne Lord King Charles, dc. hetweene of the one party ^ and on the other party, Witnesseth, that the said doth hereby covenant promise, and grant to, and with the said his Executors and Assignes, to serve him from the day of the date hereof, untill his first and next arrivall in Maryland ; and after for and during the tearme of yeeres, in such service and imployment as the said or his assignes shall there imploy him, according to the custome of the countrey in the like kind. In consideration whereof, the said doth promise and grant, to and with the said to pay for his passing, and to find him with Meat, Drinke, Apparell and Lodging, with other necessaries during the said terme ; and at the end of the said terme, to give him one whole yeeres provision of Come, and fifty acres of Land, according to the order of the countrey. In witnesse whereof, the said hath here- unto put his hand and seale, the day and yeere above written. Sealed and delivered 1 in the presence of J Neill, Virginia Carolorum, pp. 5-7, gives a similar copy. Bruce, 11. , 2, gives the indenture of one Mary Polly whose master was to "maintain ye s* Mary noe other ways than he doth his own in all things as dyett, cloathing and lodging, the s^ Mary to obey the s** John Porter in all his lawful commands within ye s* term of years." 1 Hening, I., 257, 1642. 24 DOMESTIC SERVICE if over sixteen and that all under sixteen should serve until the age of twenty-four,^ and this was again modi- fied into a provision requiring those above sixteen years to serve four years and those under fifteen to serve until twenty-one, the Court to be the judge of their ages. 2 It was soon found, however, that the term of six years " carried with it both rigour and inconvenience " and that thus many were discouraged from coming to the country, and "the peopling of the country retarded." It was therefore enacted that in the future no servant of any Christian nation coming without indenture should serve longer than those of the same age born in the country. 3 But as the law was also made retroactive, it was soon ordained that all aliens without indenture could serve five years if above sixteen years of age and all under that until they were twenty-four years old, " that being the time lymitted by the laws of England."* This arrangement was equally unsatisfactory, since it was found that under it " a servant if adjudged never soe little under sixteene yeares pays for that small tyme three yeares ser- vice, and if he be adjudged more the master looseth the like." It was then resolved that if the person were ad- judged nineteen years or over he or she should serve five years, and if under that age then as many years as he should lack of being twenty-four.^ This provision was apparently satisfactory, subsequent laws varying only in minor provisions concerning the details of the Act.^ 1 Hening, I., 411, 1655. * Ibid., IL, 113-114, 1661. 2 Ibid., I., 441-442, 1657. ^ jj^u, IL, 240, 1666. 8 Ibid., L, 538-539, 1659. 6 Ibid., 1705, 1748, 1753. In Nortli Carolina no "imported Christian" was to be considered a DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 25 The condition of the redemptioners seems to have been, for the most part, an unenviable one. George Alsop, it is true, writes in glowing terms of the advantages enjoyed in Maryland: " For know," he says, " That the Servants here in Mary-land of all Colonies, distant or remote Plantations, have the least cause to com- plain, either for strictness of Servitude, want of Provisions, or need of Apparel : Five dayes and a half in the Summer weeks is the alotted time that they work in ; and for two months when the Sun predomi- nates in the highest pitch of his heat, they claim an antient and cus- tomary Priviledge, to repose themselves three hours in the day within the house, and this is undeniably granted to them that work in the Fields. In the Winter time, which lasteth three months (viz.), December^ January, and February, they do little or no work or employment, save cutting of wood to make good fires to sit by, unless their Ingenuity will prompt them to hunt the Deer, or Bear, or recreate themselves in Fowling, to slaughter the Swans, Geese, and Turkeys (which this Country affords in a most plentiful manner) : For every Servant has a Gun, Powder and Shot allowed him, to sport him vrithall on aU Holidayes and leasurable times, if he be capable of using it, or be willing to learn." ^ Hammond also says of Virginia: "The Women are not (as is reported) put into the ground to worke, but occupie such domestique employments and houswifery as in England, that is dressing victuals, righting up the house, milking, servant unless the person importing him could procure an indenture. IredeU, 1741, chap. 24. In West New Jersey servants over twenty-one without indenture were to serve four years, and all under twenty-one to serve at the discretion of the Court. Leaming and Spicer, 1682, chap. XI. In Maryland servants without indenture of over twenty-one years of age were to serve five years; if between eighteen and twenty-two, six years ; if between fifteen and eighteen, seven years ; if imder fifteen, until twenty-two years old. Browne, 1692. 1 Alsop, pp. 57-68. 26 DOMESTIC SERVICE imployed about dayries, washing, sowing, &c. and both men and women have times of recreations, as much or more than in any part of the world besides. . . . And whereas it is rumoured that Servants have no lodging other then on boards, or by the Fire side, it is con- trary to reason to believe it: First, as we are Christians; next as people living imder a law, which compels as well the Master as the Servant to perform his duty ; nor can true labour be either expected or exacted without sufficient cloathing, diet, and lodging ; all which both their Indentures (which must inviolably be observed) and the Justice of the Country requires." ^ A Glasgow merchant under date of January 19, 1714, also writes : " The servants are all well cloathed and pro- vided with bedding as ye will see," adding that some servants prefer "Mariland, the reason whereof is that Virginia is a little odious to the people here." ^ But these enthusiastic descriptions must be taken cum grano salis. The object of Alsop's book was to stimulate emigration to Maryland, as is evident from the dedication to Lord Baltimore and to " all the Merchant Adventures for Mary-land." The object of Leah and Rachel was the same, and others who wrote in a similar strain had evi- dently little personal knowledge of the condition of the redemptioners. The real life is more truly portrayed in the accounts given by the redemptioners themselves, and many of these are preserved. The Anglesea Peerage Trial brings out the facts that the redemptioners fared ill, worked hard, lived on a coarse diet, and drank only water sweetened with a little molasses and flavored with ginger.^ Eddis says the redemptioners were treated worse than the negroes, since the loss of a negro fell on his master ; inflexible severity 1 Leah and Bachel, pp. 12,14. 2 Neill, Terra Manae, pp. 201-202. 3 Howell, State Trials, XVII., 1443-1454. DUBING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 27 was exercised over the European servants who " groaned beneath a worse than Egyptian bondage."^ Richard Frethorne, writing from Martin's Hundred, gives a pitiful tale of the sufferings of the indented servants. " Oh! that you did see my daily and hourly sighs, groans, tears and thumps that I afford my own breast, and rue and curse the time of my birth with holy Job. I thought no head had been able to hold so much water as hath, and doth daily flow from mine eyes."^ The maid who waited on the Sot-Weed Factor says : " In better Times, e're to this Land, I was unhappily Trapann'd ; Perchance as well I did appear, As any Lord or Lady here, Not then a slave for twice two Year. My Cloaths were fashionably new, Nor were my Shifts of Linnen Blue ; But things are changed, now at the Hoe, I daily work, and Bare-foot go, In weeding Corn or feeding Swine, I spend my melancholy Time."* Undoubtedly, in time, servants of all kinds received more consideration than had at first been given them ; * 1 Eddis, pp. 69-70. 2 Neill, Virginia Carolorum, p. 58, Neill adds : " While some of these servants were treated with kindness, others received no more considera- tion than dumb, driven cattle." 8 P. 7. * A negro servant in the family of Judge Sewall died in 1729, and the latter writing of the funeral says: "I made a good Fire, set Chairs, and gave Sack." Diary, III., 394. ' The Xew England Weekly Journal, Feb- ruary 24, 1729, has a detailed account of the funeral: "A long train followed him to the grave, it's said about 150 black, and about 50 whites, several magistrates, ministers, gentlemen, etc. His funeral was attended with uncommon respect and his death much lamented." 28 DOMESTIC SERVICE in 1704 Madame Knight even complained of what she considered too great indulgence on the part of the Con- necticut farmers towards their slaves. ^ Yet, even at the North, the lot of a servant was not an enviable one, though much was done by the laws of all the colonies to mitigate the condition of the redemptioners, as will be seen later in discussing the legal relations of masters and servants. The wages paid were, as a rule, small, though some complaints are found, especially in New England, of high wages and poor service. ^ More often the wages were a mere pittance. Elizabeth Evans came from Ireland to serve John Wheelwright for three years. Her wages were to be three pounds a year and passage paid.^ 1 She complains of the great familiarity in permitting the slaves to sit at table with their masters " as they say to save time " and adds, " into the dish goes the black hoof, as freely as the white hand." She relates a difficulty between a master and a slave which was referred to arbitration, each party binding himself to accept the decision. The arbitrators or- dered the master to pay 40 shillings to the slave and to acknowledge his fault. " And so the matter ended : the poor master very honestly stand- ing to the award." — The Journal of Madame Knight. 2 John Winter writes from Maine, "I Can not Conceaue which way their masters Can pay yt, but yf yt Continue this rates the servants will be masters & the masters servants." Trelawny Papers, p. 164. John Winthrop makes a similar comment in narrating " a passage between one Rowley and his servant. The master, being forced to sell a pair of oxen to pay his servant his wages, told his servant he could keep him no longer, not knowing how to pay him the next year. The servant answered, he would serve him for more of his cattle. But how shall I do (saith the master) when all my cattle are gone ? The servant replied, you shall then serve me, and so you may have your cattle again." Winthrop gives as a reason for high wages the fact that "the wars in England kept servants from coming to us, so as those we had could not be hired, when their times were out, but upon unreasonable terms, and we found it very difficult to pay their wages to their content, (for money was very scarce)." — History of New England, II., 219-220. « Lechf ord, Note-book, p. 107. DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 29 Margery Batman, after five years of service in Charles- town, was to receive a she-goat to help her in starting life.i Mary Polly, according to the terms of her indent- ure, was to serve ten years and then receive "three barrells of corn and one suit of penistone and one suit of good serge with one black hood, two shifts of dowlas and shoes and hose convenient." ^ Peter Kalm writes of Pennsylvania in 1748 : " A servant maid gets eight or ten pounds a year : these servants have their food besides their wages, but must buy their own clothes, and what they get of these they must thank their master's goodness for." He adds that it was cheaper to buy indented servants since " this kind of servants may be got for half the money, and even for less ; for they commonly pay fourteen pounds Penn- sylvania currency, for a person who is to serve four years. "3 Even at the beginning of the present century wages had scarcely risen. Samuel Breck writes of two redemptioners whom he purchased in 1817: "I gave for the woman seventy-six dollars, which is her passage- money, with a promise of twenty dollars at the end of three years if she serves me faithfully; clothing and main- tenance of course. The boy had paid twenty-six guilders toward his passage-money, which I agreed to give him at the end of three years ; in addition to which I paid fifty- three dollars and sixty cents for his passage, and for two years he is to have six weeks' schooling each year. " * iLecMord, Note-hook, p. 81. 2 Bruce, n., 2. s Travels, I., 303-304. * Recollections, p. 297. "Before the Revolution no hired man or woman wore any shoes so fine as calf -skins ; course neats leather was their every day wear. Men and women then hired by the year, — men got 16 to 20Z., and a servant 30 DOMESTIC SERVICE For the protection of both masters and servants the law sometimes interfered and attempted to regulate the matter of wages received at the end of an indenture. In Virginia by the code of 1705 every woman servant was to receive fifteen bushels of Indian corn and forty shillings in money, or the value thereof in goods. ^ In 1748 it was enacted " that every servant, male or female, not having wages, shall, at the expiration of his, or her time of service, have and receive three pounds ten shill- ings current money, for freedom dues, to be paid by his, or her master, or owner," ^ and in 1758 the same law was re-enacted, but excepting convicts from the provisions of the Act.3 In South Carolina all women servants at the expiration of their time were to have "a Wastcoat and Petticoat of new Half -thick or Pennistone, a new Shift of white Linnen, a new Pair of shoes and stockings, a blue apron and two caps of white Linnen."* The laws of Pennsylvania provided that every servant who served faithfully four years should at the expiration of the term of servitude have a discharge and be duly clothed with two complete suits of apparel, one of which should be new,^ while in Massachusetts and New York it was provided that all servants who had served diligently and faithfully to the benefit of their masters should not be sent away empty. ^ In North Carolina every servant woman 8 to lOl. Out of that it was their custom to lay up money, to buy before their marriage a bed and bedding, silver teaspoons, and a spinning-wheel, &c." — Watson, Annals, p. 165. 1 Hening, III. ,451. 3 jf^i^i, , VI. , 359. 2 Ibid., v., 550. " Trott, 1736. 5 Purdon, Act of 1700 ; Carey and Bioren. « Body of Liberties, chap. 88, Laws of 1672 ; Laws of the Duke of York. DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 31 not having yearly wages was to be allowed at tlie ex- piration of the term of service three pounds Proclama- tion money, besides one sufficient suit of wearing clothes.^ In East New Jersey the law was more liberal and gave every servant two suits of apparel suitable for a servant, one good felling axe, a good hoe, and seven bushels of good Indian corn.^ West New Jersey gave ten bushels of corn, necessary apparel, two horses, and one axe.^ In Maryland a woman at the expiration of her term was to have the same provision of corn and clothes as men ser- vants, namely, " a good Cloath suite either of Kersey or broad Cloath, a shift of white Linnen to be new, one new pair of shoes and stockings, two hoes one Ax and three barr^^ of Indian corn."* A later act specified that women servants were to have " a Waist-coat and Petty- coat of new Half-thick, or Pennistone, a new Shift of White Linen, Shoes and Stockings, a blue Apron, Two Caps of White Linen, and Three Barrells of Indian Corn." 5 The test question to be applied to any system of ser- vice is — Is the service secured through it satisfactory ? It has been seen that a considerable number of servants could be secured through the system of indenture, though probably less than the colonists desired, and that the wages paid them were, as a rule, remarkably low. But it must be said that the service received from indented servants was, as a rule, what might be expected from the class that came to America in that capacity. 1 Iredell, Acts of 1741, chap. XXIV. 2 Learning and Spicer, Acts of 1682, chap. Vm. 3 Ibid., chap. X. * Browne, 1692. « Bacon, 1715. 32 DOMESTIC SERVICE It is easy to surmise the character of the service ren- dered at first in Virginia and the difficulties encountered by employers. Many of the redemptioners had been idlers and vagabonds, and for idlers and vagabonds, there as elsewhere, stringent laws were necessary. In 1610, under the administration of Sir Thomas Gates, various orders were passed with reference to pilfering on the part of launderers, laundresses, bakers, cooks, and dressers of fish. " What man or woman soeuer, Laundrer or Laundresse appointed to wash the f oule linnen of any one labourer or souldier, or any one else as it is their duties so to doe, performing little, or no other ser- uice for their allowance out of the store, and daily prouisions, and supply of other necessaries, vnto the Colonie, and shall from the said labourer or souldier, or any one else, of what qualitie whatsoeuer, either take any thing for washing, or withhold or steale from him any such linnen committed to her charge to wash, or change the same willingly and wittingly, with purpose to giue him worse, old or torne linnen for his good, and proofe shall be made thereof, she shall be whipped for the same, and lie in prison till she make restitution of such linnen, withheld or changed." ^ Even more stringent penalties are attached to purloining from the flour and meal given out for baking purposes.^ 1 Force, Tracts, III.: "Articles, Lawes, and Orders, Diuine, Poli- tique, and Martiall, for the Colony in Virginea Brittania." 2 " All such Bakers as are appointed to bake bread, or what else, either for the store to be giuen out in generall, or for any one in particular, shall not steale nor imbezell, loose, or defraud any man of his due and proper weight and measure, nor vse any dishonest and deceiptfull tricke to make the bread weigh heauier, or make it courser vpon purpose to keepe backe any part or measure of the flower or meale committed vnto him, nor aske, take, or detaine any one loafe more or lesse for his hire or paines for so baking, since whilest he who deliuered vnto him such meale or flower, being to attend the businesse of the Colonie, such baker or bakers are imposed vpon no other seruice or duties, but onely so to bake for such as DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 33 But it is not alone in Virginia that perplexed employers were found. John Winter, writing to Trelawny from Richmond Island, Maine, under date of July 10, 1639, says of a certain Priscilla: " You write me of some yll reports is given of my Wyfe for beat- inge the maid ; yf a f aire waye will not do yt, beatinge must, some- times, vppon such IdUe girrells as she is. Yf you think yt fitte for my wyfe to do all the worke & the maide sitt stiD, she must forbeare her hands to strike, for then the worke will ly vndoun. She hath bin now 2 yeares \ in the house, & I do not thinke she hath risen 20 times before my Wyfe hath bin vp to Call her, & many tymes light the fire before she Comes out of her bed. She hath twize gon a mechinge in the woodes, which we haue bin faine to send all our Company to seeke. We Cann hardly keep her within doores after we ar gonn to beed, except we Carry the kay of the doore to beed with us. She never Could melke Cow nor goat since she Came hither. Our men do not desire to haue her boyle the kittle for them she is so sluttish. She Cannot be trusted to serue a few piggs, but my wyfe most Com- monly must be with her. She hath written home, I heare, that she was faine to ly vppon goates skins. She might take som goates skins to ly in her bedd, but not given to her for her lodginge. For a yeare & quarter or more she lay with my daughter vppon a good feather bed before my daughter being lacke 3 or 4 daies to Sacco, the maid goes into beed with her Cloth & stockins, & would not take the paines to plucke of her Cloths : her bedd after was a doust bedd & she had 2 Coverletts to ly on her, but sheets she had none after that tyme she was found to be so sluttish. Her beating that she hath had hath never hurt her body nor limes. She is so fatt & soggy she Cann hardly do any worke. This I write all the Company will Justify. Yf this do worke, and this shall bee take notice of, vpon paine for the first time offending herein of losing his eares, and for the second time to be con- demned a yeare to the Gallies, and for the third time offending to be condemned to the Gallies for three yeares." The same penalties are attached in case cooks or those who dress fish withhold any part of the provision given them. Every minister was to read these laws publicly every Sunday before catechising. Force, Tracts, III.: *' Articles. . . for the Colony in Virginea." 34 DOMESTIC SERVICE maid at her lasy tymes, when she hath bin found in her ill accyons, do not deserue 2 or 3 blowes, I pray Judge You who hath most reason to Complaine, my wyfe or the maid. . . . She hath an vnthankefull oflBce to do this she doth, for I thinke their was never that steward yt amonge such people as we haue Could giue them all Content. Yt does not pleas me well being she hath taken so much paines & Care to order things as well as she Could, & ryse in the morning rath, & go to bed soe latte, & to haue hard speches for yt." ^ Winter's letters and reports to the London Company are as full of his trials with his servants indoors and out, as are the conferences to-day between perplexed em- ployers. Even when fortune smiled on him and one promised well, misfortune overtook her. " The maid Tomson had a hard fortune. Yt was her Chance to be drowned Cominge over the barr after our Cowes, & very little water on the barr, not aboue ^ foote, & we Cannot Judge how yt should be, accept that her hatt did blow from her head, & she to saue her hatt stept on the side of the barr. ... I thinke yf she had lived she would haue proved a good servant in the house : she would do more worke then 3 such maides as Pryssyllea is."^ It is true that Maine was a remote colony and the dif- ficulty of obtaining good servants was presumably greater than in places more accessible. Yet the same tale of trial comes from Boston and from those whose means, charac- ter, and position in society would seem to exempt them from the difficulties more naturally to be expected in other places. Mrs. Mary Winthrop Dudley writes re- peatedly in 1636 to her mother, Mrs. Margaret Winthrop, begging her to send her a maid, "on that should be a 1 Trelawny Papers, Collections of Maine Historical Society, III., 166-168. 2 Ibid., 169. DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 35 good lusty seruant that hath skille in a dairy." ^ But how unsatisfactory the " lusty servant " proved a later letter of Mrs. Dudley shows: " I thought it convenient," she writes, " to acquaint you and my father what a great affliction I haue met withal by my maide ser- vant, and how I am like through God his mercie to be freed from it ; at her first coming me she carried her selfe dutifully as became a servant; but since through mine and my husbands forbearance towards her for small faults, she hath got such a head and is growen soe insolent that her carriage towards vs, especially myselfe is vTisuf- ferable. If I bid her doe a thinge shee will bid me to doe it my selfe, and she sayes how shee can give content as wel as any servant but shee will not, and sayes if I loue not quietnes I was never so fitted in my life, for shee would make mee haue enough of it. K I should write to you of all the reviling speeches and filthie language shee hath vsed towards me I should but grieue you. My husband hath vsed all meanes for to reforme her, reasons and perswasions, but shee doth professe that her heart and her nature will not suffer her to confesse her faults. If I tell my husband of her behauiour towards me, vpon examination shee wiQ denie all that she hath done or spoken : so that we know not how to proceede against her: but my husband now hath hired another maide and is resolved to put her away the next weeke."2 Other members of the Winthrop family also have left an account of their trials of this kind. A generation later, July 7, 1682, -Wait Winthrop wrote to Fitz-John Winthrop, " I f eare black Tom will do but little seruis. He used to make a show of hanging himselfe before folkes, but I believe he is not very nimble about it when he is alone. Tis good to haue an eye to him, and if you think it not worth while to keep him, eyther sell him 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., Fifth Series, I., 64-67. ^Ibid., 68. 86 DOMESTIC SERVICE or send him to Virginia or the West Indies before winter. He can do something as a smith. " ^ In the third genera- tion John Winthrop, the son of Wait Winthrop, wrote to his father from New London, Connecticut, 1717: " It is not convenient now to write the trouble & plague we have had w*^ this Irish creature the year past. Lying & unfaithful! ; w* doe things on purpose in contradiction & vexation to her mistress ; lye out of the house anights, and have contrivances w* fellows that have been stealing from o' estate & gett drink out of y" cellar for them ; saucy & impudent, as when we have taken her to task for her wicked- ness she has gon away to complain of cruell usage. I can truly say we have used this base creature w**" a great deal of kindness & lenity. She w^ frequently take her mistresses capps & stockins, hanckerchers &c., and dress herselfe, and away w^'out leave among her companions. I may have said some time or other when she has been in fault, that she was fitt to live nowhere butt in Virginia, and if she w* not mend her ways I should send her thither ; tho I am sure no body w* give her passage thither to have her service for 20 yeares, she is such a high spirited pernicious jade. Robin has been run away near ten days, as you will see by the inclosed, and this creature knew of his going and of his carrying out 4 dozen bottles of cyder, metheglin, & palme wine out of the cellar amongst the servants of the towne, and meat and I know not w*." ^ The trials of at least one Connecticut housekeeper are hinted at in an Order of the General Court in 1645, providing that a certain "Susan C, for her rebellious carriage toward her mistress, is to be sent to the house of correction and be kept to hard labor and coarse diet, to be brought forth the next lecture day to be publicly corrected, and so to be corrected weekly, until order be given to the contrary. "^ ^Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll, Fifth Series, VIII., 427. 2 Winthrop Papers, Pt. VI., 353-354, note. 8 Trumbull, Blue Laws, p. 155. DUEING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 37 But it is undoubtedly in the legislation of the colonial period that one finds the best reflection of colonial service, and one may say of it, as Judge Sewall wrote to a friend when sending him a copy of the Statutes at Large for 1684, "You will find much pleasant and profitable Reading in it."^ Numerous acts were passed in all the colonies determiniug the relation between masters and servants, and these laws were most explicit in protecting the interests of both parties — a fact often indicated by the very name of the act, as that of 1700 in Pennsylvania, entitled " For the just encouragement of servants in the discharge of their duty, and the prevention of their deserting their master's or owner's service." ^ In the legislation in regard to service and servants, it is. impossible always to discriminate between the general class of either bound or life servants and the particular class of domestic employees. But the smaller class was comprised in the larger, and household servants had the benefit of all legislation affecting servants as a whole. Few or no laws were passed specifically for the benefit of domestic employees. These laws worked both ways. On the one hand, they were intended to protect the servant from the selfishness and cruelty of those masters who would be inclined to take advantage of their position; on the other hand, they protected the master who had invested his capital in servants, and asked protection for it at the hands of the law, as he sought protection for any other form of property. 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., Sixth Series, 11., 112. 2 Purdon, Digest. 38 DOMESTIC SERVICE Several general classes of laws are found for the pro- tection of servants. The first provides that no servant, bound to serve his or her time in a province, could be sold out of the province, without his or her consent. ^ A second class of laws compelled masters and mistresses to provide their servants with wholesome and sufficient food, clothing, and lodging; ^ and a third provided that if a servant became ill during the time of his service, his mas- ter should be under obligation to care for him, and heavy penalties were sometimes incurred by a master who dis- charged a servant when sick.^ 1 Purdon, Digest^ Act of 1700. In East New Jersey the privilege was restricted to white servants. Learning and Spicer, Acts of East New Jer- sey^ 1682. In Massachusetts no servant was to be put off for more than a year to another master without the consent of the Court. Body of Lib- erties^ § 86, Act of 1672. In New York no servant, except one bound for life, could be assigned to another master for more than one year, except for good reason. — Laws of the Duke of York. 2 Iredell, Acts of 1741, chap. XXIV., § 4; Learning and Spicer, Acts of East Neio Jersey^ 1 682, chap. XXVI. Any white servant burdened beyond his strength, or deprived of necessary rest and sleep, could complain to the justice of the peace. This officer was empowered, first, to admonish the offending master ; second, to levy on his goods to an amount not ex- ceeding ten pounds ; and third, to sell the servant's time. Trott, Act of 1717. In New York and Massachusetts servants were to have conven- ient time for food and rest. — Laws of the Duke of York; Massachusetts, ♦Act of 1672. In Maryland the penalty for insufficient meat, drink, lodging, and clothing, burdens beyond their strength, or more than ten lashes for one offence, was for the first and second offence a fine of not more than a thousand pounds of tobacco, and on the third offence the servant recovered his liberty. Permission to exceed ten lashes could be obtained from the Court, but the master could not inflict more than thirty- nine lashes. — Dorsey, Laws of 1715, chap. LXIV. 8 Trumbull, Public Becords, p. 263 ; Massachusetts, Act of 1700 ; Ire- dell, Acts of 1741, chap. XXIV. In North Carolina if a master did not use means for the recovery of a servant when ill, and turned him away, he forfeited five pounds for each servant so turned away, and if this was not DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 39 The law went even further and protected servants against unjust cruelty, especially against every form of bodily maiming. If a white servant lost an eye or a tooth at the hands of his master or mistress, he gained his free- dom, and could sometimes recover further compensation, if the Court so adjudged. ^ If servants fled from the cruelty of their master, they were to be protected, though notice of such protection was to be sent to the master and the magistrate. 2 In New York if a master or dame tyrannically and cruelly abused a servant, the latter could complain to the constable and overseers, who were in- structed to admonish the master on the first offence, and on the second, to protect the servant in the house until relief could be obtained through the Courts. ^ In North Carolina no Christian servant could be whipped without an order from the justice of the peace ; if any one pre- sumed so to do, the person offending was to pay forty shillings to the party injured.* Immoderate punishment sufficient the Court was empowered to levy an additional amount. Such servants on their recovery were to have their freedom, provided they had not brought the illness on themselves. In Connecticut if the injury came at the hands of the master or any member of his family, the master was obliged to provide for the maintenance of the servant, even after the ex- piration of his term of service, according to the judgment of the Court. But if the injury "came by any providence of God without the default of the family of the governor," the master was released from the obli- gation of providing for him after his term of service expired. In South Carolina masters turning away sick or infirm servants were to forfeit twenty pounds. 1 Leaming and Spicer, East New Jersey, 1682 ; Body of Liberties, § 87, Act of 1672 ; Laics of the Duke of York. In Maryland the Act of 1692 freed a mulatto girl whose master had cut off both her ears. ^Body of Liberties, § 85, Act of 1672 ; Laws of Connecticut, 1673. ^ Laws of the Duke of York. * Iredell, 1741, chap. XXIV. 40 DOMESTIC SERVICE also subjected the master to appear before the County- Court to answer for his conduct. ^ When New Jersey became a royal province in 1702, the instructions of the Crown to Lord Cornbury included a provision that he should " endeavor to get a Law past for the restraining of any inhuman Severity, which by ill Masters or Overseers, may be used towards their Christian Servants, and their Slaves, and that Provision be made therein, that the wil- f ull killing of Indians and Negroes may be punished with Death, and that a fit Penalty be imposed for the maiming of them. "2 Moreover, in North Carolina complaints of servants against their masters could be heard without formal process of action. ^ In Pennsylvania the law of 1771 provided that every indented servant should obtain a legal residence in the city or place where he or she had first served his or her master sixty days, or if he had afterwards served twelve months in any other place, he was at liberty to choose his residence in either place. In South Carolina a master denying a certificate at the ex- piration of a servant's time was to forfeit two pounds.* Important as these provisions were in the interest of the servant, the law protected the master even more care- fully and specifically. The great danger to him was in the loss of servants through their escaping from service and being harbored by friendly sympathizers or rival employers. The law dealt rigorously with both classes of offenders. In South Carolina stubborn, refractory, 1 Learning and Spicer, East New Jersey^ 1682, chap. VIII. 2 Instructions of the Crown, November 16, 1702. 3 Iredell, 1741, chap. XXIV. * Carey and Bioren, chap. 635. DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 41 and discontented servants, who ran away before their term of service expired, were obliged to serve their masters three times the period of their absence.^ In Pennsylvania every servant absenting himself without leave for one day or more was to serve, at the expiration of his time, five days for every day's absence, and in addi- tion, to give satisfaction to his master for any damages or charges incurred through his absence. ^ In East New Jersey runaways were to serve double the time of their absence, and also to give satisfaction for the costs and damages caused by their absence.^ In North Carolina runaways who would not tell the name of their master, either because unable to speak English or through obsti- nacy, were to be committed to jail and advertised for two months. Servants absenting themselves were to serve double time.* In South Carolina a servant who ran away was to serve one week for every day's absence, but the whole time was not to exceed two years. ^ Servants run- ning away with slaves were to be considered felons. In Maryland absenting servants were to serve additional time at the discretion of the Court, ten days, or not ex- ceeding that, for every day's absence, and to give satis- faction for costs incurred.^ The temptation to harbor runaways was great, not so much from philanthropic motives as because of the scar- 1 Trott, Act of 1717. 2 Act of 1673. 3 Learning and Spicer, Act of 1682. This is practically the re-enactment of a similar law in Carteret's time, 1668, and of the law of 1675. * Iredell, Act of 1741. s Trott, Act of 1717. 6 Browne, 1692 ; Dorsey, 1715, chap. XLIV. 42 DOMESTIC SERVICE city of labor, and every colony supplemented its legislation against runaways by corresponding acts carrying penalties for harboring them. In East New Jersey the offender was fined five pounds and was to make full satisfaction to the master or mistress for costs and damages sustained because of the absence, while any person who knowingly harbored or entertained a runaway, " except of real char- ity," was to pay the master or mistress of the servant ten shillings for every day's entertainment and concealment and to be fined at the discretion of the Court. ^ In Con- necticut the presumption was that if servants were enter- tained after nine o'clock at night they were runaways, and the head of the family so entertaining them was to forfeit five shillings to the complainer and five shillings to the town treasurer. Any Indian hiding a runaway was to forfeit forty shillings for every such offence or suffer a month's imprisonment. ^ In South Carolina runa- ways were not to be harbored under a penalty of two pounds for every day and night the servant was so enter- tained, but the total amount forfeited was not to exceed treble the value of the servant's time remaining to be served.^ In New York any one proved to have connived at the absence of a servant was to forfeit twenty pounds to the master or dame and five pounds to the Court. Any one knowingly harboring a runaway was to forfeit ten shillings for every day's entertainment.* In Penn- sylvania any one concealing a servant forfeited twenty 1 Learning and Spicer, Act of 1682. The Acts of 1682 and 1675 had similar provisions. 2 Act circa 1784 ; Trambull, Public Becords, 1665-1678. 8 Trott, Act of 1717. * Laws of the Duke of York. DURING THE COLONIAL PEBIOB 43 shillings for each day's concealment.^ In Rhode Island any person entertaining a servant after nine o'clock at night forfeited five shillings for each offence.^ In Mary- land, by an act of 1692, persons harboring runaways were to forfeit five hundred pounds of tobacco for every hour's entertainment, one half to the government and one half to the informer. 3 By a later act the person harboring runaways was to forfeit one hundred pounds of tobacco for every hour's entertainment, one half to go to the public schools and one half to the party aggrieved.* This was intended to meet evasions of the previous laws on the part of those who harbored runaways a few hours at a time and then helped them on their way. Free negroes or mulattoes harboring runaways were to forfeit one thou- sand pounds of tobacco for every such offence, one half for the use of free schools and one half to the party aggrieved.^ By a later act, servants harboring runaways were to be punished by the magistrate by lashes, not to exceed thirty-nine, on the bare back.^ On the other hand, every incentive was held out to assist in the return of runaways. In North Carolina any person who assisted in taking up runaways was rewarded, the reward being gauged by the number of miles away from the master's house that the servant was taken. "^ In Pennsylvania any one apprehending a runaway servant and returning him or her to the sheriff of the county was to receive ten shillings if the runaway was taken within 1 Purdon, DigesU Act of 1700. « Browne, 1692 ; Dorsey, 1716. 2 Act of 1704. » Bacon, 1748. 3 Browne, 1692 ; Dorsey, 1715. * Bacon, 1748. 44 DOMESTIC SERVICE ten miles of the master's house and twenty shillings if at a distance of more than ten miles. ^ In Connecticut any- Indian who returned a runaway to the nearest authority was to receive as a reward two yards of cloth.^ In Maryland the allowance was two hundred pounds of tobacco, while Indians were to receive a match coat or its value. 3 Persons in Virginia, Delaware, or the northern parts of America, who apprehended runaways from Mary- land, were to receive four hundred pounds of tobacco, and the servant was to reimburse his master by additional servitude.* Every precaution to prevent runaways was taken. Indian, negro, and mulatto servants were not to travel without a pass,^ nor were slaves to leave their plan- tation without leave, except negroes wearing liveries.^ In Connecticut servants were not to go abroad after nine o'clock at night,^ in Massachusetts they were not to fre- quent public houses,^ and in South Carolina and Massa- chusetts innkeepers were not to harbor them.^ Yet the life under a master or mistress was often such as to tempt a servant to escape ; added to a condition that often involved hard work, poor lodging, and insuffi- cient food and clothing, was the infliction of humiliating corporal punishment in case of disobedience or disorder. 1 Carey and Bioren, Act of 1700. ^TrmnbxiW, Public Becords. 8 Acts of 1692 and 1716. 4 Act of 1692. ^ Connecticut, circa 1784 ; New York, Act of 1672 \ Maryland, Acts of 1692, 1715. 6 Iredell, Act of 1741. 7 Act circa 1784. 8 Act of 1646. 9Trott, 1717; Massachusetts, Act of 1698. DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 45 In Connecticut a servant could be punished by the magis- trate not to exceed ten stripes for one offence. ^ The Rhode Island law was similar. ^ In North Carolina runa- ways were to receive from the constable as many lashes as the justice of the peace should think fit, " not exceed- ing the Number of thirty-nine, well laid on, on the Back of such Runaway," while disobedient servants were to be punished with corporal punishment, not to exceed twenty- one lashes. In cases where free persons suffered punish- ment by being fined, servants were whipped.^ In South Carolina a servant for striking his master or mistress was to serve not more than six months' additional time, or be punished with not more than twenty-one stripes.* In Massachusetts and New York any servants who had been unfaithful, negligent, or unprofitable in their service, not- withstanding good usage from their masters, were not to be dismissed until they had made satisfaction according to the judgment of the civil authorities.^ In nearly every colony heavy penalties followed at- tempts to carry on trade or barter with servants. In North Carolina a freeman trading with a servant forfeited treble the value of the goods traded for and six pounds in addition ; if unable to pay the fine he was himself sold as a servant. A servant trading or selling the property of his master was to serve his master additional time, the lActof 1646. 2 Act of 1728. 3 Iredell, Act of 1741. But corporal punishment was not to deprive the master of such other satisfaction as he might be entitled to by the Act. * Act of 1717. 5 Body of Liberties, § 88, Act of 1672 ; Lavss of the Duke of York. 46 DOMESTIC SERVICE length to be fixed by the Court. ^ In East New Jersey the penalty was five pounds for the first offence and ten pounds for each subsequent one ; the offending servant was to be whipped by the person to whom he had ten- dered such sale, the reward of half a crown being paid by the master or mistress to the person administering the punishment. 2 In Pennsylvania any one trading secretly with a servant was to forfeit to the master three times the value of the goods, and the servant at the expiration of his time was to render satisfaction to the master to double the value of the goods, and, if black, was to be whipped in the most public place in the township. ^ Trading with servants was prohibited in Connecticut* and in Massa- chusetts.^ In South Carolina any one buying, selling, or bartering with a servant was to forfeit treble the value of the goods and ten pounds to the informer ; the offending servant was to be whipped on the bare back in the watch- house at Chariest on. 6 In New York servants were for- bidden to trade under penalty of fine or corporal punish- ment. Those trading with servants were to restore the commodities to the master and to forfeit double their value to the poor of the parish. ^ In Maryland the pen- alty was two thousand pounds of tobacco, one half to go to the king and one half to the master.^ Many miscellaneous provisions in different colonies must have seemed oppressive. In New Jersey and South Carolina servants could not marry without the consent of 1 Iredell, 1741. 6 Laws of 1672. 2 Learning and Spicer, Act of 1682. ^ Act governing white servants, 1717. 3 Purdon, Digest, 1700. ^ xaios of the Duke of York. 4 Act circa 1784. 8 Browne, 1692 ; Dorsey, 1715. BURIN G THE COLONIAL PERIOD 47 their masters.^ In Massachusetts no covenant servant in the household with any other could be an office holder. ^ In Pennsylvania innkeepers were forbidden to trust them.3 In North Carolina servants making false com- plaints in regard to illness were to serve double the time lost, and the same penalty followed if they were sent to jail for any offence.* No slave was to go armed in North Carolina, and if one was found offending, the person mak- ing the discovery was to appropriate the weapon for his own use, and the servant was to receive twenty lashes on his or her bare back. One servant on each plantation, however, was exempted from the law, but such an one must carry a certificate of permission.^ In Massachu- setts servants were to be catechised once a week^ and were not to wear apparel exceeding the quality and con- dition of their persons or estates under penalty of admo- nition for the first offence, a fine of twenty shillings for the second, and forty shillings for the third offence." The obligation of the master to a servant-owning and slave-owning community was recognized in North Caro- lina in a positive law prohibiting a master from setting free a negro or mulatto on any pretence whatsoever, except for meritorious services to be judged and allowed by the County Court, and even in this case a license was to be previously obtained.^ In Massachusetts Bay ser- vants were not to be set free until they had served out 1 Learning and Spicer, Acts of 1668, 1675 ; Trott, Act of 1717. 2 Massachusetts Bay, Act of 1636. 8 Carey and Bioren, Act of 1721. 4 Iredell, 1741. 5 Ibid. « Laws of 1672. 7 /^j-^, 8 Iredell, 1741. 48 DOMESTIC SERVICE their time.^ In Connecticut a slave set free was to be maintained by his master if he came to want.^ In view of all these restrictions on servants of a per- sonal, industrial, and political character it seems strange that even any from their number should have been able, at the expiration of their term of service, to break away from the spirit of this bondage and reach a higher posi- tion in the social scale; yet many of the redemptioners became in time, especially at the North, respectable and even prominent members of the community. ^ The women often married planters* and in turn became the employers of servants. Yet these are the exceptions. For a long time the redemptioners were considered the 1 Act of 1636. 2 Act of 1784. 8Neill, Founders of Maryland, pp. 77-79, gives the names of eighty servants brought over by Cornwallis between 1634 and 1651 ; and of these, five became members of the Assembly, one became a sheriff, and two were signers of the Protestant Declaration. Other noteworthy in- stances are found in Virginia. Neill, Virginia Carolorum, p. 297. Some- times, however, the trail of the serpent remained. R. G., in a treatise published about 1661, says of the burgesses that they " were usually such as went over servants thither, and though by time, and industry, they may have attained competent estates, yet by reason of their poor and mean condition, were unskilful in judging of a good estate, either of church or Commonwealth, or by the means of procuring it." — Virginia Carolorum, p. 290. George Taylor, a Pennsylvania redemptioner, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. * The Sot- Weed Factor describes a quarrel in which one says : "... tho' now so brave, I knew you late a Four- Years Slave ; What if for Planter's Wife you go, Nature designed you for the Hoe." — P. 21. DeFoe says : " When their Time is expir'd, sometimes before it, (they) get marri'd and settl'd ; turn Planters, and by Industry grow rich ; or get to be Yearly Servants in good Families upon Terms." — Be- haviour of Servants, p. 140. DUBING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 49 ofF-scourings of English cities, and they formed a distinct class in the social order lower than their masters or employers. In view of this fact, a reproach was of necessity attached to all belonging to the class and to the designation applied to them. Their descendants ultimately formed the class of poor whites, — the lowest stratum in the social order whose members were held in contempt even by the negroes. It has been said that the redemptioners were found in all the colonies, though they were more numerous in the Middle and Southern colonies than in New England. But it was difficult to keep white servants for any length of time in a country where land was cheap and the servant soon in turn became a master.^ It was undoubtedly this difficulty that led to the substitution for white servants of Indians and negro slaves. Indian servants were appar- ently more numerous in the New England colonies, while negro slavery gained its strongest foothold in the South. The employment of Indians as servants grew up natu- rally in New England and was continued for at least a hundred years.^ Their presence was regarded as 1 Elkanah Watson, writing from London in 1782, compares the silent attention given by English servants with the volubility of those in France, and then adds: "In America, our domestic feels the conscious- ness, that he may in turn become a master. This feeling may, perhaps, impair his usefulness as a servant, but cannot be deprecated, whilst it adds to his self-respect as a man." — Men and Times of the Eevolutiont pp. 169-170. 2 Numberless advertisements are found like the following: " An Ind- ian maid about 19 years of Age, brought up from a Child to all sorts of Household work, can handle her Needle very weU and Sew or Flower and ingenious about her Work: To be sold on reasonable terms." — Bos- ton News Letter, June 8, 1719. "An Indian Woman Aged about 30 Years fit for all manner of House- 50 DOMESTIC SERVICE almost providential by the New Englanders, hard pressed for assistance in house and field. When the question of the right and wrong of the matter was suggested by the troubled conscience, an easy answer was found : was it not sin to suffer them longer to maintain the worship of the devil when they were needed so sorely as slaves?^ But like the redemptioners, their service so eagerly sought often proved unsatisfactory. Hugh Peter wrote to John Winthrop, September 4, 1639, " My wife desires my daughter to send to Hanna that was her mayd, now at Charltowne, to know if shee would dwell with vs, for truly wee are so destitute (hauing now but an Indian) hold work either for Town or Country, can Sew, Wash, Brew, Bake, Spin, and Milk Cows, to be sold by Mr. Henry Hill." — Ibid., January 4, 1720. "A Very likely Indian Womans Time for Eleven Years and Five Months to be disposed of ; she's a very good Servant, and can do any Household work, either for Town or Country." — Ibid., March 21, 1720. "An Indian Woman aged Sixteen Years, that speaks good English; to be sold.'" — Ibid., February 20, 1715. "A Stray Spanish Indian Woman named Sarah, Aged about 40 Years taken up, which the Owner may have paying the Charges." — Ibid., January 4, 1720. 1 "A warr with the Narraganset is verie considerable to this planta- tion, ffor I doubt whither yt be not synne in vs, hauing power in our hands, to suffer them to maynteyne the worship of the devill which theire paw wawes often doe ; 21ie, If vpon a Just warre the Lord should deliuer them into our hands, wee might easily haue men woemen and children enough to exchange for Moores, which wilbe more gaynefuU pilladge for vs than wee conceive, for I doe not see how wee can thrive vntill wee gett into a stock of slaves sufficient to doe all our buisines, for our children's children will hardly see this great Continent filled with people, soe that our servants will still desire freedome to plant for them selues, and not stay but for verie great wages. And I suppose you know verie well how wee shall maynteyne 20 Moores cheaper than one Eng- lishe servant." — Emanuel Downing to John Winthrop, 1645. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., Fourth Series, vol. VI., p. 65. DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 61 that wee know not what to doe."^ More unfortunate still was the young clergyman, the Rev. Peter Thatcher. He records in his diary at Barnstable, May 7, 1679, " I bought an Indian of Mr. Checkley and was to pay 5<£ a month after I received her and five pound more in a quar- ter of a year." A week later he writes, "Came home and found my Indian girl had liked to have knocked my Theodora on head by letting her fall, whereupon I took a good walnut stick and beat the Indian to purpose till she promised to do so no more."^ In every section negro slavery grew up side by side with white and Indian slavery ,3 though its hold even ^Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., Fourth Series, vol. VI., p. 101. James Eussell Lowell commenting on this letter says, " Let any house- wife of our day, who does not find the Keltic element in domestic life so refreshing as to Mr. Arnold in literature, imagine a household with one wild Pequot woman, communicated with by signs, for its maid of all work, and take courage. Those were serious times indeed, when your cook might give warning by taking your scalp, or chignon, as the case might be, and making off with it into the woods." — "New England Two Centuries Ago," in Among My Books, I., 263. 2Teele, History of Milton, Massachusetts, 2640-1887, Journal of Eev. Peter Thatcher, Appendix B, pp. 641-642. 3 The Report of a French Protestant Refugee in Boston, 1687, evi- dently submitted to guide friends in France thinking of coming to America, says : " You may also own negroes and negresses ; there is not a house in Boston, however small may be its means, that has not one or two. There are those that have five or six, and all make a good living." — Pp. 19-20. The New England papers, even in the first part of the eighteenth cen- tujry, are full of advertisements like the following: "A Negro Wench with a Girl Four Years old both bom in the Country, used to all Family work on a Farm, to be sold on reasonable Terms." — Boston News Letter, October 5, 1719. " A very likely young Negro Wench that can do any Household Work to be sold, inquire of Mr. Samuel Sewall." — Ihid., April 9, 1716. " Lately arrived from Jamaica several Negro boys and girls, to be sold by Mr. John Chamock & Co.''' — Ibid., May 11, 1719. 52 DOMESTIC SERVICE upon the South was far from strong until the end of the seventeenth century. It is both unnecessary and impossible to discuss in this place the question of slavery ^ I and its relation to the larger subject of service. The close of the colonial period saw it firmly established at the South, where it supplanted the system of white servi- tude, while at the North both black and white slavery I gave place to free labor. The details of the history of domestic service during the colonial period may seem unnecessary to an under- standing of domestic service as it is to-day, but an ex- amination of them must show the existence during that period of principles and conditions that must modify the judgment concerning the conditions of to-day. No wish is more often expressed than that it might be pos- sible to return to the Arcadian days when service was Most of the axivertisements describe those offered for sale as "very likely," and add the specially desirable qualification that he or she " speaks good English." Judge Sewall, in 1700, gives this account of his first pro- test against negro slavery: "Having been long and much dissatisfied with the Trade of fetching Negros from Guinea ; at last I had a strong Inclination to Write something about it ; but it wore off. At last read- ing Bayne, Ephes. about servants, who mentions Blackmoors ; I began to be uneasy that I had so long neglected doing anything." — Diary, II., 16. 1 But it is of interest in passing to note two contemporaneous judg- ments on the effect of slavery. Elkanah Watson, writing of his journey through the South in 1778, says : " The influence of slavery upon southern habits is peculiarly exhibited in the prevailing indolence of the people. It would seem as if the poor white man had almost rather starve than work, because the negro works." — Men and TimeSj p. 72. Thomas Anburey writes, "Most of the planters consign the care of their plantations and negroes to an overseer, even the man whose house we rent, has his overseer, though he could with ease superintend it him- self ; but if they possess a few negroes, they think it beneath their dignity, added to which, they are so abominably lazy." — Travels, II., 328. \ DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 63 abundant, excellent, and cheap. But those days did not exist in America during the colonial period. The condi- tions at that time bear a marked resemblance to those of to-day. The social position of all servants was lower than that of their employers, and the gulf between the two was more difficult to span. Service was difficult to obtain and unsatisfactory when secured. Servants com- plained of hard work and ill treatment, and masters of ungrateful servants and inefficient service, and both masters and servants were justified in their complaints. The legal relations between master and servant were explicitly defined as regards length of service, wages paid, and the mutual obligations of both parties to the contract during the period of service. But this very definiteness of the contract was due to the fact that the relationship between the two parties was an arbitrary one and could not have been preserved without this legal assistance. In default of a better one, the system of white servitude may have served its age fairly well; but its restoration, if the restoration were possible, would do nothing to relieve in any way the strain and pressure of present conditions. CHAPTER. IV DOMESTIC SERVICE SINCE THE COLONIAL PERIOD It has been said that domestic service in America has passed through three distinct phases. The second phase began about the time of the Revolution, when at the North the indented servants as a class were gradually supplanted by free laborers, and at the South by negro slaves who inherited with large interest the reproach attached to the redemptioners. The social chasm that had existed at the North between employer and employee, under the sys- tem of bonded servants, disappeared. The free laborers, whether employed in domestic service or otherwise, were socially the equal of their employers, especially in New England and in the smaller towns. They belonged by birth to the same section of the country, probably to the same community; they had the same religious belief, attended the same church, sat at the same fireside, ate at the same table, had the same associates; they were often married from the homes ^ and buried in the family lots of 1 A New England woman writes : " In several instances our ' help ' was married from our parlor with my sisters for bridesmaids. I correspond with a woman doctor in Florida whose sister was our cook when I was a child, and who shared her sister's room at our home while she earned her education, alternating work in the cotton mills and going to school.' ' This is but one illustration of hundreds that have doubtless come within the experience of most persons living in New England fifty years ago. 54 SINCE THE COLONIAL PERIOD 55 their employers. ^ They were in every sense of the word "help." 2 A survival of this condition is seen to-day in farming communities, especially at the West. In the South, on the contrary, the social chasm became impassa- ble as negro slavery entirely displaced white labor. This democratic condition at the North seemed espe- cially noteworthy to European travellers,^ and it was one to which they apparently never became accustomed. Harriet Martineau, in planning for her American journey, was perplexed by the difficulty of securing a travelling companion. "It would never do," she says, "as I was aware, to take a servant, to suffer from the proud Yan- kees on the one hand and the debased slaves on the other."* On arriving here, she found "the study of domestic service a continual amusement," and what she saw "would fill a volume."^ "Boarding-house life," she says, "has been rendered compulsory by the scarcity of 1 A visit to many New England burying grounds will illustrate this statement. It was doubtless a survival of the English custom. A curious and interesting collection of epitaphs of servants has been made by Arthur J. Munby. 2 " , . . Help, for I love our Yankee word, teaching, as it does, the true relation, and its being equally binding on master and servant.'* — J. R. Lowell, Letters, I., 105. ^ Even Americans commented on it. John Watson writes: "One of the remarkable incidents of our republican principles of equality is the hirelings, who in times before the war of Independence were accustomed to accept the names of servants and to be drest according to their condi- tion, will now no longer suffer the former appellation ; and all affect the dress and the air, when abroad, of genteeler people than their business warrants. Those, therefore, who from affluence have many dependents, find it a constant subject of perplexity to manage their pride and assump- tion." — Annals^ p. 165. * Autobiography, I., 331. ^ /Society in America, II., 248. 56 DOMESTIC SERVICE labour, — the difficulty of obtaining domestic service."^ But she was quick to appreciate the difference between the spirit of service she found in America and that with which she was familiar in the old world. She writes : " I had rather suffer any inconvenience from having to work occa- sionally in chambers and kitchen, and from having little hospitable designs frustrated, than witness the subservience in which the menial class is held in Europe. In England, servants have been so long accustomed to this subservience ; it is so completely the established custom for the mistress to regulate their manners, their clothes, their intercourse with friends, and many other things which they ought to manage for themselves, that it has become diflicult to treat them any better. Mistresses who abstain from such regulation find that they are spoiling their servants ; and heads of families who would make friends of their domestics find them little fitted to reciprocate the duty. In America it is otherwise : and may it ever be so ! . . . One of the pleasures of travelling through a democratic country is the seeing no liveries. No such badge of menial service is to be met with through- out the States, except in the houses of the foreign ambassadors at Washington." She then gives illustrations to show "of how much higher a character American domestic service is than any which would endure to be distinguished by a badge." ^ 1 Society in America, 11., 245. 2 7&f(2., II., 254-255. It is of interest to contrast this picture of service in America by an Englishwoman with one given a little earlier of service in England by an American. Elkanah Watson writes from London in 1782 : " The servants attending upon my friend's table were neatly dressed, and extremely active and adroit in performing their ofi&ces, and glided about the room silent and attentive. Their silence was in striking contrast with the volu- bility of the French attendants, who, to my utter astonishment, I have often observed in France, intermingling in the conversation of the table. Here, the servant, however cherished, is held at an awful distance. The English servant is generally an ignorant and servile being, who has no aspiration beyond his present condition." — Men and Times oftheBevolu- tion,^. 169. SINCE THE COLONIAL PERIOD 67 De Tocqueville, also, found that "the condition of domestic service does not degrade the character of those who enter upon it, because it is freely chosen, and adopted for a time only; because it is not stigmatized by public opinion and creates no permanent inequality between the servant and the master." ^ Francis J. Grund was also able to appreciate the differ- ence between external servility and true self-respect, for he writes in 1837: " There are but few native Americans who would submit to the degradation of wearing a livery, or any other badge of servitude. This they would call becoming a man's man. But, on the other hand, there are also but few American gentlemen who would feel any happier for their servants wearing coats of more than one color. The inhabitants of New England are quite as willing to call their servants 'helps,' or 'domestics,' as the latter repudiate the title of 'master' in their em- ployers." And he adds, "Neither is an American servant that same indolent, careless, besotted being as an Euro- pean." He has another word of praise too for the Ameri- can servants, "who work harder, and quicker than even in England. "2 The absence of livery was a subject of constant com- ment. William Cobbett, in 1828, asserts that " the man (servant) will not wear a livery, any more than he will wear a halter round his neck. . . . Neither men nor women will allow you to call them servants, and they will take 1 Democracy in America, II., 194. 2 The Americans in their Moral, Social, and Political Belations, pp. 236-237. Thomas Grattan also says, "The native Americans are the best ser- vants in the country." — Civilized America, I., 260. 58 DOMESTIC SERVICE especial care not to call themselves by that name." He explains the avoidance of the term " servant " by the fact that slaves were called servants by the English, who hav- ing fled from tyranny at home were shy of calling others slaves; free men therefore would not be called servants.^ But while the democratic spirit that prevailed during this period found commendation in the eyes of those of similar tendencies, it often evoked only mild surprise or a half sneer. Mrs. TroUope found that "the greatest difficulty in organizing a family established in Ohio, is getting servants, or, as it is there called, ' getting help,' for it is more than petty treason to the Republic to call a free citizen a servant,'^ ^ Chevalier asserted that "on Sunday an American would not venture to receive his friends ; his servants would not consent to it, and he can hardly secure their services for himself, at their own hour, on that day." 3 Samuel Breck considers that "in these United States nothing would be wanting to make life perfectly happy (humanly speaking) had we good ser- vants."* Isabella Bird wrote of Canada in 1854, "The great annoyance of which people complain in this pleas- ant land is the difficulty of obtaining domestic servants, and the extraordinary specimens of humanity who go out in this capacity." "The difficulty of procuring servants ^ A Yearns Besidence in the United States, p. 201. Charles Mackay also says that "service is called 'help,' to avoid wounding the susceptibility of free citizens. " — iz/e and Liberty in America, I., 42. 2 Domestic Manners of the Americans, I. , 73. 8 Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States, p. 284. * He adds the interesting facts that cooks usually received $1.50 per v^reek; chambermaids, $1.26 ; gardeners, |11 per month, and waiters $10 per month. — Becollections, pp. 299-300. SINCE THE COLONIAL PEBIOD 59 is one of the great objections to this colony. The few there are know nothing of any individual department of work, — for instance, there are neither cooks nor house- maids, they are strictly ' AeZpa,' — the mistress being ex- pected to take more than her fair share of the work.''^ The conditions she found there were the same as in the United States. Thomas Grattan wrote of the condition : " One of the subjects on which the minds of men and women in the United States seem to be unanimously made up, is the admitted defi- ciency of help. . . . Disguise it as we may, under all the specious forms of reasoning, there is something in the mind of every man which tells him he is humiliated in doing personal service to another. . . . The servile nature of domestic duties in Europe, and more particularly in England, is much more likely to make servants liable to the discontent which mars their merits, than the common under- standing in America, which makes the compact between ' employer ' and * help ' a mere matter of business, entailing no mean submission on the one hand, and giving no right to any undue assumption of power on the other. . . . Domestic service is not considered so dis- graceful in the United States, as it is felt to be in the United Kingdom." a Grattan's observations lead him to believe that the democratic spirit is not always to be deplored. " An American youth or * young lady ' will go to service willingly, if they can be better paid for it than for teaching in a village school, or working on a farm or in a factory. . . . They satisfy themselves that they are helps, not servants, — that they are going to work with (not for) ISir. so and so, not going to service, — they call him and his wife their employers, not their master and mistress." * 1 The Englishwoman in America, pp. 43, 214. 2 Civilized America, I., 256-258. •i&id., L,259. 60 DOMESTIC SERVICE But like all Europeans, he never ceases to be surprised by this spirit, particularly by those manifestations of it that led to active work on the part of the mistress of a home and to the use of the word "help." " There are no housekeepers," he writes, "or ladies' maids. The lady herself does all the duties of the former. . . . Servants are thus really justified in giving to themselves the favor- ite designation of 'helps.' "^ But he closes a long and interesting chapter on the subject with the prophecy, " They (employers) will, by degrees, give up the employ- ment of native servants who will be in future less likely than even now to submit to their pretensions, and confine themselves to the fast increasing tribes of Irish immi- grants." ^ Curiously enough nearly forty years earlier Madame d'Arusmont had written of friends who thought of com- ing to America and urged, "Let them by all means be advised against bringing servants with them. Foreign servants are here, without doubt, the worst ; they neither understand the work which the climate renders necessary, nor are willing to do the work which they did else- where."^ She, like all travellers, found that however subservient domestic servants might be when they left Europe, the first contact with the democratic atmosphere of America wrought a sudden change ; subserviency dis- appeared, and the servant boasted of his equality with all. She explains that those educated in America perceive the difference placed between the gentleman and the laborer 1 Civilized America, L, 264. 2 Ibid., I., 269. * Views of Society and Manners in America, p. 338. SINCE THE COLONIAL PERIOD 61 by education and conditions, but the foreigner taking a superficial view of the matter sees no difference. ^ y/ This second period in the history of domestic service continued from about the time of the Revolution until 1850. It was the product of the rapid growth of demo- cratic ideas fostered by the Revolution and the wide- spread influence of the French philosophical ideas of the latter part of the eighteenth century. It was a period chiefly characterized by social and industrial democracy, as the political system was also in its spirit democratic. This democratic industrial spirit showed itself in the uni- versal use at the North of the term " help," in the absence of liveries and all distinguishing marks of service, in the intolerance on the part of both employer and employee of servility and subserviency of manner, in the bridging of the social chasm between master and servant as long as the free employment of native born Americans continued, and in the hearty spirit of willingness with which service was performed. The results of this democratic regime were the difficulty of securing help, since new avenues of independent work were opening out to women and the class of indented servants had disappeared ; the lack of all differentiation in household work, since the servant conferred a favor in " going out to work " and did what she knew how to do without troubling to learn new kinds of work ; and, most important, the subtle change that the democratic atmosphere everywhere wrought in the servants who came from Europe. This condition of free, democratic, native born white service at the North and compulsory slave service at the 1 Views of Society and Manners in Americay pp. 338-342. 62 DOMESTIC SERVICE South continued practically unchanged until about the middle of the century. Between 1850 and 1870 four im-V portant political changes occurred which revolutionized the personnel in domestic service and consequently its character. These changes brought about the third period /' in the history of the subject. The first of these changes was due to the Irish famine of 1846. Previous to this time the immigration to this country from Ireland had been small, averaging not more than twenty thousand annually between 1820 and 1846. In the decade preceding the famine the average number of arrivals had been less than thirty-five thousand annually. In 1846 the number was 51,752, and this was more than doubled the following year, the report showing 105,536 arrivals in 1847. In 1851 the number of arrivals from Ireland had risen to 221,253. Since that time the number has fluctuated, but between fifty and seventy-five thousand annually come to this country from Ireland. ^ A large proportion of these immigrants — forty-nine per cent dur- ing the decade from 1870 to 1880 — have been women who were classed as "unskilled laborers." Two occupations were open to them. One was work in factories where as manufacturing processes became more simple unskilled labor could be utilized. The Irish immigrants, therefore, soon displaced in factories the New England women who had found, as has been seen,^ new opportunities for work of a higher grade. The second occupation open to the ri Arrivals of Alien Passengers and Immigrants in the United States \ from 1820 to 1890, pp. 16, 23. By the Census of Massachusetts for 1886 it is seen that forty-nine per cent of all women in that state of foreign birth are Irish. I., 574-575. 2 Ante, p. 11. SINCE THE COLONIAL PERIOD 63 Irish immigrants was household service. Here physical strength formed a partial compensation for lack of skill and ignorance of American ways, and the Irish soon came to form a most numerous and important class engaged in domestic employments. ^ A second important European change, influencing the condition of domestic service, was the German Revolution of 1848 with the events preceding and resulting from it. Before this period the emigration from Germany had been insignificant, fewer than fifteen thousand having come to this country annually between 1830 and 1840. In 1840, owing to political reasons, the number had risen to 29,704. It soon became evident that the hopes raised by the accession of the new monarch were without foun- dation, and emigration rapidly increased until the number of emigrants coming to America reached 74,281 in 1847. During the year of the Revolution the number decreased, but the failure of the cause of the revolutionary party and the political apathy that followed again increased the movement towards America. This reached its climax in 1854, when the sympathies of the Court had been openly expressed during the Crimean War in favor of Russian despotism. During this year the number of Germans arriving in this country was 215,009 — a number equalled but once since that time, although the number has aver- aged nearly a hundred and fifty thousand annually during 1 Lowell says of the Irish immigration, *' It is really we who have been paying the rents over there [in Ireland], for we have to pay higher wages for domestic service to meet the drain." — Letters, II., 336. A racy discussion of the influence of the Irish cook in the American household is given by Mr. E. L. Godkin under the title " The Morals and Manners of the Kitchen," in Befiections and Comments^ p. 66. 64 DOMESTIC SERVICE the last decade.^ A large number of these immigrants have been women, the proportion of women emigrating from Germany being greater than from any other foreign country except Ir eland. ^ The ranks of domestic service have been recruited from their number also, the Germans being second only to the Irish as regards the number and proportion engaged in this occupation.^ A third political influence affecting the question was the establishment of treaty relations between the United States and China in 1844. This fact and the discovery of gold in California in 1848, together with the building of the Union Pacific railroad in 1867-1869, opened the doors to the immigration of considerable numbers of Chinese. Many of these found their way into domestic service, and on the Pacific coast they became formidable competitors of household servants of other nationalities.* The political and economic conditions in Europe and the breaking down of long-established customs in Asia have thus since 1850 brought to this country large num- bers of men and women who have performed the house- hold service previously done by native born Americans. The presence of the Irish in the East, of the Germans in the West, of the Scandinavians in the Northwest, and of the Chinese on the Pacific coast has thus introduced a ^ Arrivals of Alien Passengers and Immigrants in the United States from 1820 to 1890, pp. 15, 22. 2 Women constituted 41.8 per cent of the total number of German immigrants arriving here during the twenty-two years ending June 30, 1890 ; the Irish forming 48.5 per cent. — Ibid., p. 11. 3 The United States Census for 1890 gives the number of domestic ser- vants born in Ireland as 168,993 ; the number born in Germany was 95,007. * The number of Chinese in domestic service in 1890 was 16,439. SINCE THE COLONIAL PERIOD 65 new social, as well as a new economic, element at the North. It has led to a change in the relation of em-\ ployer and employee ; the class line which was only faintly drawn in the early part of the century between employer and " help " has been changed into a caste line which many employers believe it to their interest to pre- y serve. The native born American fears to lose social ^ position by entering into competition with foreign labor. While this change, owing to political conditions in the Old World, was taking place at the North in the character of the service, a similar change was taking place at the South growing out of the abolition of slavery in 1863. The negroes who had previously performed all domestic service for their personal expenses have since then re- ceived for the same service a small remuneration in money. This fact prevents now as effectually as during the slavery period any competition in domestic service on the part of native born white employees. It does not prevent all competition on the part of foreign born white employees, since prejudice against the negro does not exist in Europe owing to the fact that negro slavery has not prevailed there. The effects of these great move- ments upon the nature and personnel of domestic service will be discussed later in considering its present condi- tion. They have had a direct and conspicuous influence on the condition of domestic service and even in the use of the term applied to those who engage in it. But other political influences more subtle and possibly more far-reaching in their effect have been at work. Our loose naturalization laws, and the determining of the qualifications for the right of suffrage by as many 66 DOMESTIC SERVICE standards as there are states, have made the enormous number of men coming to this country annually an easy prey to scheming politicians and demagogues. The labor vote, the Irish vote, the German vote, have been flattered and sought by party managers until the wage-earning man feels that "like Atlas of old he carries the world on his shoulders." If the laboring man feels the weight of the world, his wife and daughter believe that some share of the burden rests on them. The democratic tendencies of the country, the political practices of the day, have everjrwhere broken down the high wall of separation between employer and employee. They are subversive even in the household of that patriarchal re- lationship that has been driven from every stronghold but this. While the political movements of the century have thus changed the personnel of domestic service in America, the development of the material resources of the country has affected its status. Before the present century employees of every kind were in a sense stationary. This was due partly to the influence of the English poor laws ; partly to the system of indenture which bound a servant for seven, five, or four years, and to the system of slavery which bound the servant for life ; partly to the system of apprenticeship which made the servant a member of the family of his master ; partly to the custom prevailing in the country districts and small towns for unmarried work- men in all industries to board with their employers ; and partly to the lack of facilities for cheap and easy means of communication between different sections of the country. There was no mobility of labor as regards either employ- SINCE THE COLONIAL PERIOD 67 ment or place of employment — a fact true alike of domes- tic service and of other occupations. But this condition of affairs gradually changed. As has been seen, indented servants disappeared and every employee was free to break as well as to make an engagement for service. The es- tablishment of the factory system of manufactures and the consequent substitution of mechanical for skilled processes of labor broke down the system of apprentice- ship, and workmen of every occupation, except domestic service, ceased to be members of the families of their employers. A mobility of labor was made possible such as could not have been secured under the old system. At a later time the great era of railroad development and similar enterprises gave opportunity for a certain mobility as regards place of employment. The tide of western emigration due to the discovery of gold and the cheap- ness of western land caused much shifting of labor among the non-capitalist class, and this was increased as means of communication were rendered more easy. The establish- ment of companies to encourage foreign immigration with the object of developing the material resources of the country was another weight in the scale in favor of greater mobility of labor as regards both place and em- ployment. The abolition of slavery removed the last important legal barrier against perfect mobility=. All of these industrial movements have been important factors in changing the condition and character of domes- tic service. It is true, in a general sense, that every great change in economic conditions affects all occupations. But domestic service has through these causes been affected in certain specific ways. The employee who J 68 DOMESTIC SERVICE disliked housework, but to whom no other occupation had been open, could go into a factory or a mill, since no time was consumed in learning the simple processes of mechanical work. Every invention formed the basis for a new occupation. Domestic service had a hundred competitors in a field where before the era of inventions it had stood alone. Moreover, these new occupations required little skill, no preparation, and possessed the charm of novelty. Again, the rapid development of railroad interests, with the increase of competition and consequent lowering of passenger rates, often influenced families emigrating to the West to take with them their trusted employees. The same fact made it possible for women seeking new employments to go from place to place in ways unthought of in the early part of the century. In view of these changed and changing economic con- ditions it may be said that the immobility of labor, which has seemed to some economists so great an obstacle to the industrial advancement of women,^ has practically ceased to exist in the case of domestic service. In fact, industrial development has so far changed conditions that the problem has now come to be how to make this form of labor not more mobile, but more stable. One illustra- tion of this is found in the fact that when seven hundred domestic employees represented on the schedules were asked how many of them had ever been engaged in any other occupation, twenty-seven per cent replied that they had. The mobility as to the place of labor was found to be even greater. Twenty-seven per cent of the native born employees did not reside in the same state in which 1 Walker, Wagesj pp. 376-377. SINCE THE COLONIAL PEBIOD 69 they were born, and adding to these the number of foreign born, it was found that sixty-eight per cent did not reside in their native country or state. Moreover, this statement is below the truth as it does not take into account the number of changes made within a single year and refers to only one change from place of birth to present residence. ^ An indication of these various changes in the condi- tion of domestic service during these different periods is seen in the history of the word "servant." As used in England and in law at the time of the settlement of the American colonies it signified any employee, and no odium was in any way attached to the word.^ But five 1 An illustration of these various changes is seen in the case of one employee, who was bom in Ireland, engaged in service in New York, and afterwards drifted to Minnesota, where the report was made. 2 This is indicated by the various definitions given in early dictionaries. It is a curious fact that The New World of Words or General English Dictionary, large quarto, third edition, London, 1671, does not contaui the word "servant." Phillips' Universal English Dictionary, London, 1720, has ^''Servant, b, man or woman who serves another." Bailey's Dictionary, London, 1721, 1737, and 1770, defines servant as "one who serves another." The Boyal Standard English Dictionary, first American edition, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1788, "being the first work of the kind printed in America," defines servant as " one who serves." The second edition, Brookfield, 1804, has ^'•servant, one who serves for wages." Some interesting illustrations of this early use of the word are found in colonial literature. Thus Thomas Morton in his New English Canaan, p. 179, says, "In the month of June Anno Salutis, 1622, it was my chance to arrive in the parts of New England with thirty servants and provisions of all sorts fit for a plantation." Governor Bradford in his History of Plymouth, pp. 235-236, speaks of "Captaine TVolastone and with him 3. or 4. more of some eminencie, who brought with them a great many servants, with provisions & other implments fit for to begine a plantation." A "Narrative concerning the settlement of New England," 1630, says, 70 DOMESTIC SERVICE things led to its temporary disuse : first, the reproach connected with the word through the character and social rank of the redemptioners ; second, the fact that when the redemptioners gave place at the South to negro slaves the word " servant " was transferred to this class, ^ and this alone was sufficient to prevent its appli- cation to whites ; ^ third, the levelling tendencies that always prevail in a new country ; fourth, the literal inter- pretation of the preamble of the Declaration of Inde- pendence ; and fifth, the new social and political theories resulting from the introduction of French philosophical ideas. At the North the word " help " as applied espe- cially to women superseded the word "servant," while at the South the term "servant" was applied only to the negro. From the time of the Revolution, therefore, until about 1850 the word "servant" does not seem to *' This yeare there went hence 6 shippes with 1000 people in them to the Massachusetts having sent two yeares before betweene 3 & 400 servants to provide howses and Come against theire coming, to the charge of (at least) 10,000^., these Servants through Idlenes & ill Government neglected both theire building & plantinge of Come, soe that if those 6 Shippes had not arived the plantation had ben broke & dissolved." — Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc, 1860-1862, pp. 130-131. The same use of the word is found a number of times in the list of the Mayflower passengers. 1 J. F. D. Smith says, London, 1784, " However, although I now call this man (a backwoodsman of the AUeghanies) my servant, yet he him- self never would have submitted to such an appellation, although he most readily performed every menial office, and indeed every service I could desire." — Tour in the United States, I., 356. 2 Fanny Kemble writes, "They have no idea, of course, of a white person performing any of the offices of a servant ; " then follows an amusing account of her white maid's being taken for the master's wife, and her almost unavailing efforts to correct the mistake. — Journal of a Hesidence in Georgia, pp. 44-46. SINCE THE COLONIAL PERIOD 71 have been generally applied in either section to white persons of American birth. ^ Since the introduction of foreign labor at the middle of the century, the word " servant " has again come into general use as applied to white employees, not, however, as a survival of the old colonial word, but as a reintro- duction from Europe of a term signifying one who per- forms so-called menial labor, and it is restricted in its use, except in a legal sense, to persons who perform domestic service. The present use of the word has come not only from the almost exclusive employment of for- eigners in domestic service, but also because of the increase of wealth and consequent luxury in this coun- try, the growing class divisions, and the adoption of 1 An illustration of this change is seen in the different definitions given to the word. In the Boyal Standard English Dictionary, 1813, a servant is "one who attends and obeys another, one in a state of subjection." Johnson's Dictionary, London, 1818, gives : " (1) One who attends another and acts at his command ; the correlative of master. Used of man or woman. (2) One in a state of subjection." Richardson's New Dictionary of the English Language, London, 1838, defines servant as the correlative of master. The American usage was practically the same. The first edition of "Webster, 1828, gives: " (1) Servant, a person, male or female, that at- tends another for the purpose of performing menial offices for him, or who is employed by another for such offices, or for other labor, and is subject to his command. Servant differs from slave, as the servant's subjection to a master is voluntary, the slave's is not. Every slave is a servant, but every servant is not a slave." Worcester, 1860, says of servant: "(1) One who serves, whether male or female ; correlative of master, mistress, or employer. (2) One in a state of subjection ; a menial ; a domestic ; a drudge ; a slave." These various definitions all suggest the class association of the terms "servant" and "slave." 72 DOMESTIC SERVICE many European habits of living and thinking and speaking. 1 These simple historical facts are one explanation of the unwillingness of American women to engage in work stig- matized by an offensive term applied to no other class of laborers. In studying the question of domestic service, therefore, the fact cannot be overlooked that certain historical influences have affected its conditions ; that political revolutions have changed its personnel, and industrial development its mobility. It is as impossible to dream of restoring the former condition of household service as 1 A curious illustration of the social position of servants in Europe is seen in their lack of political privileges. The French Constitution of 1791 was preceded by a bill of rights declaring the equality and brotherhood of men, but a disqualification for the right of suffrage, indeed, the only one, was "to be in a menial capacity, viz., that of a servant receiving wages." Title III., chap. 1, sec. 2. The Constitution of 1795, after a similar preamble, states that the citizenship is suspended "by being a domestic on wages, attending on the person or serving the house." Title II., 13, 3. The Constitution of 1799 has a similar disqualification. Title I., art. 5. It is probable that these provisions were intended to punish men who would consent to serve the nobility or the wealthy classes when it was expected that all persons would be democratic enough to serve themselves, not to cast discredit on domestic service per se. — Tripier, pp. 20, 105, 168. During the revolutionary movement in Austria, the Hungarian Diet at its session, in 1847-1848, passed an act providing that the qualification for electors should be "to have attained the age of twenty years ; Hun- garians by birth or naturalized ; not under guardianship, nor in do- mestic service, nor convicted of fraud, theft, murder, etc." Act 5, sec. 2. — Stiles, II., 376. The qualifications for suffrage in England also excluded domestic servants, but there was no discrimination against them as a class. The Declaration of Independence, declaring all men free and equal in the presence of African slavery, thus has its counterpart in these free constitutions disfranchising domestic servants. SINCE THE COLONIAL PERIOD 73 it is of restoring former household employments, and neither is to be desired. In each case the question is one of preparing for the next step in the process of evolution, not of retrograding toward a condition impossible to restore. Any attempt to secure a change for the better in the present condition of domestic service must be in- effective if it does not take into consideration these his- toric aspects of the subject. CHAPTER V ECONOMIC PHASES OF DOMESTIC SERVICE^ The attempt has been made in the foregoing chapters to indicate the extent to which domestic employments and domestic service have been influenced by industrial and political events arising outside of the household, and apparently having little or no connection with it. That domestic service is amenable to some of the general eco- nomic laws and conditions which affect other occupations and that it is also governed by economic laws developed within itself will perhaps be evident from an examination of a few of these economic conditions and principles. These may be stated for the sake of brevity in the form of propositions. The first group of propositions to be suggested con- cerns the number and distribution of persons of foreign birth engaged in domestic service. (1) A large proportion of the domestic employees in the United States are of foreign birth. This is evident from the following table prepared from the schedules sent out : 2 1 Some of the figures given in this chapter have heen taken from advance sheets kindly furnished by the Census Bm*eau, and hence it is impossible to give in every case page references. 2 Preface, p. 1, and Appendix I. 74 ECONOMIC PHASES OF DOMESTIC SERVICE T5 TABLE I Place of Birth of Employees Number Peb Cent Pebson kkpobtiko Native born Foreign born Not given Native born Foreign born Not given Employer 922 324 1,212 395 411 36.23 45.06 47.62 54.94 16.15 Employee The statement may be more fully illustrated from the Eleventh Census, which shows that the number of foreign born in domestic service is 30.86 per cent of the entire number. 1 The geographical distribution of the different classes of domestic employees is seen from Table II on the following page. Another illustration of the same point is found by an examination of the relative number of native born and for- eign born domestic employees in the individual states and territories. In nine states and territories the number of foreign born domestic employees exceeds the num- ber of native born white employees,^ in sixteen about one half of the white domestic employees are of foreign birth,^ in twenty-four states and territories the number of native born white employees largely exceeds the foreign born,* 1 The percentage of foreign bom as given here differs slightly from that given on page 80, as it includes a small number of Chinese and Japanese. 2 Arizona, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island. 3 Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, Michigan, Montana, Ne- braska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming. * Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, (Jeorgia, Idaho, Indiana, 76 DOMESTIC SERVICE TABLE II Domestic Employees in the United States, 1890 Gkogeaphioal Section Number • Pee Cent Total Native white Foreign white Colored Native white Foreign white Colored Pacific Coast 1.... Eastern ' 78,700 134,016 394,062 388,920 251,544 207,549 29,576 52,419 176,194 233,274 79,611 34,812 28,198 74,004 175,819 128,761 16,649 6,432 20,926 7,593 42,049 26,885 155,284 166,305 37.58 39.11 44.71 59.98 31.65 16.77 35.83 55.22 44.62 33.11 6.62 8.10 26.59 5.67 Middle' 10.67 Western* Border ^ .... 6.91 61 78 Southern" 80.18 United States.. 1,454,791 606,886 429,863 419,042 41.65 29.55 28.80 while in fifteen states colored employees are in excess. ^ It will be seen that the states in which the number of native born white domestic employees exceeds the num- ber of the foreign born are those states having relatively Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Mis- souri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia. 1 Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming. 2 Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont. 3 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. * Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin. 5 Delaware, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia. 6 Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas. This classification is made with reference to conditions apparently similar as regards domestic service. ■^ Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Caro- lina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia. ECONOMIC PHASES OF DOMESTIC SERVICE 77 a small number of foreign born residents.^ A still more specific illustration is found in the experience of one state. In Massachusetts in 1885 the foreign born domestic servants formed 60.24 per cent of the entire number.2 These different illustrations seem to show the truth of the proposition stated. (2) The converse of the preceding proposition is also true — the concentration of women of foreign birth engaged in remunerative occupations is on domestic service. The Eleventh Census shows that, in 1890, 59.37 per cent of all foreign white women at work were engaged in domestic and personal service. This leaves only 40.63 per cent to be distributed among all other gainful occupations.^ A specific illustration in the case of an individual state is seen in Massachusetts. Here the per- centage of the foreign born in the entire population is 27.13, while, as stated above, the number of foreign born women in domestic service is 60.24 per cent.* (3) The foreign born population as a class seek the large cities. In 1890 the persons of foreign birth in the United 1 Eleventh Census, Population, Part I., p. IxYxiii. 2 Census of Massachusetts, 1885, Part II., p. 38. ^Eleventh Census, Occupations, p. 20. It is interesting to note the increasing proportion of women of foreign birth who go into domestic service. The Tenth Census shows that, in 1880, 49.31 per cent of all women of foreign birth employed for pay were engaged in domestic ser- vice ; thus in ten years an increase of 10.06 per cent was made. * Census of Massachusetts, 1885, Part II., pp. xxxvi, xxxviii. In this statement only the number of women engaged in domestic service for remuneration is considered. 78 DOMESTIC SERVICE States formed 14.77 per cent of the entire population. But of the total foreign population, 44.13 per cent was found in the one hundred and twenty-four cities having a population of twenty -five thousand or more.^ (4) The foreign countries having the largest absolute representation in the largest cities are Ireland, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, and Canada and Newfoundland, The following table shows the relative number of persons born in these countries who are found in the United States as a whole, and in the large cities : TABLE III Proportion op Persons op Foreign Birth in the United States OOTJNTBY OF BiBTH United States Number in principal Per cent in principal cities Ireland Germany Great Britain Canada and Newfoundland Sweden and Norway 1,871,509 2,784,894 909,092 980,938 800,706 1,047,432 1,328,675 369,979 307,660 219,112 55.97 47.71 40.70 31.36 27.36 (5) The foreign countries having the largest absolute and relative representation in domestic service are, in order, Ireland, Germany, Sweden and Norway, Great Britain, and Canada and Newfoundland. This will be evident from the following table, which indicates the place of birth of all persons of foreign birth engaged in domestic service and the per cent of each nationality so engaged : 1 Eleventh Census, Population, Part I. , p. Ixxxix. ECONOMIC PHASES OF DOMESTIC SERVICE 79 TABLE rV Place of Birth of Domestic Employees CotnSTTBY OF BiBTH Number of foreign born persons, 10 years of age and over, in domestic service Per cent of foreign born persons, 10 years of age and over, in domestic service Ireland Germany Sweden and Norway Great Britain Canada and Newfoundland Other countries 168,993 95,007 58,049 34,537 31,213 61,195 37.64 21.16 12.93 7.69 6.95 13.63 Similar results were reached through individual sched- ules sent out. The returns as made by employers and employees show that the place of birth of foreign born employees and the relative percentages are as follows : TABLE V Number of Foreign Born in Domestic Service PeESON BEPOBTtNG Place of Bibth Employer Emplotkk Number Per cent Number Per cent Ireland 653 147 128 122 104 58 53.88 12.13 10.56 10.07 8.68 4.78 217 50 37 32 42 17 54.94 Sweden and Norway 12.66 Germany 9.37 Great Britain 8.10 British America 10.63 Other countries 4.30 Total 1,212 100.00 395 100.00 80 DOMESTIC SERVICE This group of ^ye propositions in regard to the num- ber and distribution of the foreign born engaged in domestic service seems to indicate that in this country, with the exception of the sections employing colored ser- vants, domestic service is as a rule performed by persons of foreign birth belonging to a few well-defined classes as regards nationality, who prefer city to country life. The facts given are an understatement of the influence exerted on domestic service by persons of foreign extraction, since they do not take into consideration the factor of foreign parentage. A second group of propositions may be suggested in regard to the general distribution of domestic employees. (1) The number of domestic servants is absolutely and relatively small in agricultural and sparsely settled states. This will be evident by the reference to the accom- panying chart, which shows the number of persons to each domestic servant in each of the states. The states last in the list, where the smallest relative number of servants is employed, are all large in area, and as a rule have the smallest population in proportion to the area of settle- ment. This condition is probably due to the two facts that all housework is as a rule performed without re- muneration by housewives, since they are more free from social and other interruptions than are women in cities, and also to the aversion of domestics as a class to country life. (2) The number of domestic servants is absolutely and relatively large in those states containing a large urban population. This is also made evident by the diagram. Forty-nine ECONOMIC PHASES OF DOMESTIC SERVICE 81 Chart showing the Xdmber of Persons to each Domestic Employee in THE Various States and Territories and the District of Columbia Dist. of Col. . Maryland . . New York . Massachusetts Virginia California . Nevada . . Delaware . New Jersey Connecticut Montana . Ehode Island Minnesota . Pennsylvania Vermont . Colorado . "Wyoming . , North Dakota Washington Illinois . . Louisiana . Kentucky . "Wisconsin . Georgia . . Michigan . North Carolina Ohio . . Arizona . Nebraska Florida . N. Hampshire Missouri . Oregon . . Tennessee . Maine . . Utah . . . South Dakota Alabama , South Carolina Idaho Iowa . . Indiana . Mississippi West Virginia New Mexico Texas . . Kansas . . Arkansas . Oklahoma . -H, 1 1 1 1 1 1 \ I 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 66 156 82 DOMESTIC SERVICE of the fifty largest cities in the United States are found in the first thirty-four states in the list ; only one of the fifty is found in the last fifteen states. The fact is appar- ently most clearly shown in the case of the District of Columbia, which has an almost exclusively urban popula- tion and ranks first with reference to the number of ser- vants employed. The condition here, however, is due not so much to its urban character as to the employment of colored help and the fact that the city contains an abnor- mally large number of temporary residents requiring a disproportionate amount of service. The truth of the proposition is better indicated by the examples of New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, which stand nearly at the head of the list and contain seventeen of the fifty largest cities. (3) The aggregate wealth of a state has little appreci- able effect on the relative number of domestic servants employed. This is evident from a study of the relative true and assessed valuation of real and personal property in the different states.^ In more than one half the states it has no apparent connection whatever with the relative num- ber of servants. (4) The per capita wealth of a state has, with the excep- tion of the Southern states as a class, a somewhat important bearing on the relative number of servants employed. This will be seen from an examination of the per capita assessed valuations of real and personal property in the various states. ^ The rank of each state in the class of 1 Eleventh Census, Wealth, Debt, and Taxation, Part II., p. 16, Chart. 2i6id., p. 59. ECONOMIC PHASES OF DOMESTIC SERVICE 83 per capita wealth and in the relative number of domestic servants employed, with the exception named, does not vary materially. The variation in the Southern states is due to the presence of negro employees. The extremely low wages paid by employers enables them to command the services of a larger number of persons for the same expenditure of money than is possible at the North. These facts may be considered as indicative in a general way of the truth of the current opinion that an increase in income generally shows itself first in the employment of additional service. They prove nothing absolutely on this point, however, as they are too general in character. (5) Domestic employees are found in the largest num- bers, relatively and absolutely, in the large cities. The fifty largest cities in the United States contain 18.04 per cent of the total population of the country. They have, however, 32.82 per cent of the total number of domestic servants. To put the same fact in another way, domestic servants constitute 2.32 per cent of the total population, but 4.07 per cent of the population of the fifty largest cities. The force of gravity exerted, therefore, by the large cities seems to act with nearly twice the power on the class of domestic employees that it does on the popu- lation as a whole. The conclusion seems to follow that in general em- ployers in large cities have less difficulty in securing servants than have persons living elsewhere, but that they are practically restricted in their choice to those of foreign birth. The conclusion does not follow that these employers have less difficulty than have others in dealing with the question of domestic service, since the facts given 84 DOMESTIC SERVICE concern only the number of servants, not the quality of service. (6) The proportion of persons engaged in domestic service varies with geographical location and prevailing industry. This fact is indicated by the chart, which shows that in Southern cities, where the colored population is large, and in New York and Boston, which are ports of entry and therefore able to secure a large number of foreign born servants, the proportion of servants to the total population is large. In cities where the leading occupa- tion is manufacturing, as Lowell, Paterson, and Fall River, the proportion of servants is small. In cities where the industrial conditions are similar the proportions are similar. The same fact may be illustrated in two other ways. In Washington, Richmond, Atlanta, Memphis, and Nashville, — the five cities having the largest number of domestic employees in proportion to the population, — the domestic employees constitute in each city more than fourteen per cent of the entire number of persons engaged in all gain- ful occupations. In these five cities more than one third of all women engaged in remunerative occupations are in domestic service. On the other hand, in Camden, Tren- ton, Lowell, Paterson, and Fall River, — the five cities having the smallest number of domestic employees in proportion to the population, — the per cent of domestic employees with reference to the total number of persons engaged in all gainful occupations is less than seven, while in Lowell and Paterson only ten per cent and in Fall River only seven per cent of all women engaged in ECONOMIC PHASES OF DOMESTIC SERVICE 85 CiLABT SHOWKfG THE NUMBEK OF PERSONS TO EACH DOMESTIC EMPLOYEE IN THE Fifty Largest Cities "Washington, D.C. . Bichmond, Va. . . Atlanta, Ga. . . , Memphis, Tenn. "NashviUe, Tenn. New York, N.Y. . Boston, Mass. . . St. Paul, Minn. . . Minneapolis, Minn. Omaha, Neb. . . . San Francisco, Cal. Baltimore, Md. . . Louisville, Ky. . . Worcester, Mass. . Beading, Pa. . . . New Orleans, La. , Denver, Col. . . . Philadelphia, Pa. . Cambridge, Mass. . St. Louis, Mo. . . Cincinnati, Ohio . Albany, N.Y. . . Indianapolis, Ind. . Chicago, m. . . . New Haven, Conn. Providence, E.L Syracuse, N.Y. . . Wilmington, DeL . Columbus, Ohio . Pittsburg, Pa. . . Brooklyn, N.Y. . Detroit, Mich. . . Grand Kapids, Mich. Kansas City, Mo. . Toledo, Ohio . , . Allegheny, Pa. . . Buffalo, N.Y. . . Troy, N.Y. . . . Cleveland, Ohio . . Milwaukee, Wis, , Eochester, N.Y. . Dayton, Ohio . . Jersey City, N.J. . Scranton, Pa. . . Newark, N.J. . . Camden, N.J. . . Trenton, N.J. . . Lowell, Mass. . . Paterson, N.J. . . FaU Eiver, Mass. . 40 43 ] 68 _]T3 86 DOMESTIC SERVICE remunerative occupations are in domestic service. The following table will show these contrasts: TABLE VI Domestic Servants and "Women compabed with those in Gainful Occupations CrriBS \ Per cent of domestic servants as compared with the total num- ber of persons in all gainful occupations Per cent of women in domestic service as compared with the total number of wo- men in all gainful occupations Washington 17.10 16.66 5.43 6.21 4.61 5.89 6.13 4.48 3.34 2.82 40.46 Ricliniond 40.36 Atlanta 36.72 Memphis 39.07 Nashville 38.69 Camden 26.13 Trenton 26.07 liOwell 10.29 Paterson 10.84 Fall River 6.98 (7) Neither per capita wealth nor aggregate wealth has an appreciable influence in determining the number of servants in cities. Three illustrations of this are seen : (1) Washington, Richmond, Atlanta, Memphis, and Nashville rank respec- tively as regards per capita wealth, 13, 27, 19, 24, and 41, although they are the five cities that head the list in the proportion of servants to the total population; (2) Lowell and Fall River are at the foot of the list as re- gards the proportion of servants, but rank 10 and 12 in per capita wealth ; (3) Nashville ranks fifth in the num- ber of servants and Paterson forty-ninth, while both rank ECONOMIC PHASES OF DOMESTIC SERVICE 87 nearly the same in point of wealth.^ There are indeed many instances where there is apparent connection be- tween these two conditions, but they seem rather to be illustrations of the following point: (8) The prevailing industry of a city, rather than its population or wealth, determines the number of domestic employees. This conclusion seems to follow naturally as a result of the two previous propositions, but a few other facts in support of it may be mentioned. In eleven of the fifty principal cities the proportion of domestic servants to the total population is smaller than is the proportion in the states in which they are severally located.^ The leading occupation in each of these cities is some form of manu- facturing, and in each of them the proportion of persons engaged in manufacturing processes is larger than, with few exceptions, in the other cities. This fact explains the apparent contradiction between this statement and the one that domestic servants are found in the largest proportions in the largest cities. That manufacturing industries tend to decrease the number of domestic employees in a city is both a cause and a result. The competition in industry draws women from domestic service, and at the same time a large part of the population in a manufacturing city is unable or does not care to employ large numbers of servants. It has been seen, however, that several of the manufacturing cities rank comparatively high in per capita wealth. ^Eleventh Census, Wealth, Debt, and Taxation, Part II., pp. 376-403. 2 Brooklyn, Buffalo, Camden, Fall River, Jersey City, Lowell, Newark, Paterson, Rochester, Trenton, Troy. 88 DOMESTIC SERVICE It seems possible in view of the facts stated in this second group of propositions to draw these conclusions. In states containing a relatively high urban population it is possible for wealth to command the services of a large proportion of persons for work in domestic service. But in cities where wealth comes into competition with manu- facturing industries the proportion of domestic servants is small. Where such competition does not exist the pro- portion is large. In other words, persons are willing to enter domestic service for a consideration in cities where no other avenues of work are open to them with the qualifications they possess. They are unwilling to do so where such openings do exist. A third group of propositions remains to be considered concerning the subject of wages. They may be thus stated : (1) Wages in domestic service vary in different sec- tions according to the economic conditions of the several localities. TABLE VII Average Weekly Wages by Geographical Section Geogeaphical Section AvEKAGB "Weekly Wages Men Women Pacific coast $7.57 8.68 7.62 6.69 4.86 3.95 $4.57 Eastern section 3.60 Middle section 3.21 Western section 3.00 Border section 2.55 Southern section 2.22 United States $7.18 $3.23 ECONOMIC PHASES OF DOMESTIC SERVICE 89 This principle is illustrated by Table VII on the preceding page based on a classification of the returns received through individual schedules relating to 2,545 employees. The difference indicated apparently conforms to the general variation in wages in different sections indicated by the Fourth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor,^ and by examination of a considerable number of reports of various state bureaus of labor. The slight exception in the case of the wages of men on the Pacific coast is accidental, owing to the small number of returns. (2) Skilled labor commands higher wages than un- skilled labor. This will be evident from Table VIII on the follow- ing page based on the schedules received from employers and employees and the returns from a Boston employ- ment bureau. In every instance it is seen that it is the skilled laborer — the cook — who commands the highest wages. The general servant who is expected to unite in herself all the functions of all the other employees named in the list becomes, on account of this fact, an unskilled worker, and, therefore, receives the lowest wages. The same principle holds true in the case of the seamstress and the laundress, the gardener and the choreman. It is diffi- cult to make a deduction in the case of men employed in household service, since no universal custom prevails, as with women employees, in regard to adding to the wages paid in money, board, lodging, and other personal expenses. 1 P. 68. 90 DOMESTIC SERVICE TABLE VIII Average Weekly and Daily Wages by Occupations Weekly Wages OOOTJPATION General schedule of Boston Employer Employee employment bureau Women Cooks $3.80 3.50 3.31 3.23 3.04 2.99 2.94 7.84 6.54 6.11 6.08 $3.64 3.27 3.47 3.15 3.27 3.21 2.88 $4.45 3.94 Parlor maids Cooks and laundresses Chambermaids 3.86 Waitresses 3.76 Second girls 3.34 Chambermaids and waitresses. . . General servants 3.16 Men Coachmen Coachmen and gardeners Butlers .... Cooks Daily Wages Women Seamstresses $1.01 .82 1.33 .87 .... Laundresses Men Gardeners Choremen A corollary to the proposition may be added. The skilled laborer is a better workman than the unskilled laborer. The question was asked of employers, " What is the nature of the service rendered ? Is it ' excellent,* ECONOMIC PHASES OF DOMESTIC SEBVICE 91 * good,' ' fair,' or ' poor ' ? " The replies show that in pro- portion to the number of answers the largest percentage of service characterized as " excellent " is rendered by cooks, while the largest percentage characterized as " poor " is given by the general servants. These are, it is true, matters of opinion; and without a fixed standard, which it is impossible to secure, such judgments can have no absolute value. But the fact is of interest as showing the opinion of a large number of housekeepers. The fol- lowing table will show the results in regard to these two classes of employees : TABLE IX Natukb op Sebtice rendeked Total number of re- plies Not an- Bwered Kind of Sekvick kkndeked Occupation Excellent Good Fair Poor Num- ber Per cent Num- ber Per cent Num- ber Per cent Num- ber Per cent Cooks 262 586 80 53 83 151 82 26 113 221 43 88 58 177 22 80 8 86 3 €teneral servants. 6 (3) The foreign born in domestic service receive higher wages than the native born. This was found to be true in every class of occupations, in every section, in the case of both men and women, and in the returns made by both employers and employees. But two trifling exceptions were found, both accidental. The principle cannot of course be stated absolutely as the facts at command are far from exhaustive, but so striking a uniformity cannot be considered purely acci- 92 DOMESTIC SERVICE dental. An explanation is found in three facts : (1) the preference of the foreign born for the large cities, where wages in domestic service are higher than in the country ; (2) the large proportion of negroes among the native born; (3) the relatively better class of foreign born than of native born women who enter domestic service. This statement must be made somewhat dog- matically here, since its proof demands a discussion of the entire subject of the unwillingness of native born women to enter domestic service. (4) The wages of men engaged in domestic service are higher than the wages of women. This will be evident by reference to Table VII and to Table VIII. Two things, however, must be borne in mind : first, that nearly all the men classified as cooks are employed on the Pacific coast, where wages are relatively high; second, that forty per cent of the men in domestic service do not receive board and lodging in addition to wages in money, while only two per cent of women so employed, principally laundresses, do not receive board and lodging. But although these facts modify the dis- crepancy between the wages of men and women, they do not wholly remove it. Whether the difference is as great as in other occupations cannot be stated. (5) A tendency is found towards an increase in wages paid by employers, as is seen in Table X on the follow- ing page. An interesting historical illustration of the same fact is given in a summary of wages and prices in Massachu- setts from 1752 to 1860. In 1815, the first time the work of women is mentioned specifically, domestic ser- ECONOMIC PHASES OF DOMESTIC SERVICE 93 vants received with board i.50 per week, while at the same time women were able to earn as papermakers $6.50 a week.i TABLE X Comparison of Wages paid Number Pee Cent Men Women Total Men Women Total Same as last year More than last year Less than last year 414 54 4 1638 368 67 2052 422 71 87.72 11.44 .84 79.02 17.75 3.23 80.63 16.58 2.79 (6) The wages received in domestic service are rela- tively and sometimes absolutely higher than the average wages received in other wage-earning occupations open to women. A comparison may be made between the wages received by domestic employees and by two other classes — teachers in representative city schools and the wage-earning women included in the investigations made by the Commissioner of Labor. As illustrating the wages received in domestic service, the following tables are given, showing (1) the classified weekly and daily wages received and (2) the average weekly and daily wages with the percentages receiving more or less than the average. These facts are taken from the general schedules. Similar tables are given showing a somewhat higher rate of wages in all domestic occupations in the special city of Boston. JSeport of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor ^ 1885, pp. 196-312. 94 DOMESTIC SERVICE 1 H ?0 1— 1 T-l (>» rH tH I— 1 i rH ,—1 i IS : : : : : : : : : : • CO ; CO $18, but under $14 II II I I I I I rH thco ; 00 $12, but under $13 II II I I I I I : rH CO • ■^ $11, but under $12 II II I I I I I TH ^^ I CO rH $10, but under $11 II I*"* I I I"* I iC Qo«* Tti ^o S <© ooco Tj<0 (M (N CO rH r^ ^ 1 (NO 050 O !M 00 es'a^Tf 00 rl C4CO rH rH f-H 1-* «&J2«» • • 1— t CO .« 2 • o « CO r-l OS H s= J OS o 2 !=» §1 o o 5 1^ 03 O ^1 C 3 - o 2 ^ .4 I O ■* t- O t- tH i 1 o o» oq > th oi 1-4 oi oi ,-; 00 o" oj oi CO CO <>» OS Ti< 3 . o TM r-( o o o «o (N OS ■* ; (M acococo(M«o I «:> eo OS o oD o I(Mt-I 1-It-itH ) lO '^ OS OS CO CO CO i^s" ^SiM^ «oeocoo«ooos (SIM-* « T-ll ! ■gi « ■* CO (M rf (N QO«ot-osTHTj2 T-! o id t^ ffJ t^ »rf rH t-: ei o ^' T-((M can be entirely removed, or so modified as to become unobjectionable. It is useless to look for any improvement in the charac- ter of domestic service until these oppressive conditions have been removed; but it is not vain to hope for an emancipation from them in time. The social ban has been removed from other occupations in which women have become wage earners — it has been removed from 204 IMPROVEMENT IN SOCIAL CONDITION 205 teaching,^ the practice of medicine and law, and business industries — women can engage in all of these without fear of being ostracized. The relative social position of different occupations in which men engage has also changed. In colonial New England, the minister, not the lawyer, had the social precedence ; in the Southern colonies the lawyer was an honored guest, while the chaplain of the plantation was a hireling who often married an indentured servant on the same planta- tion. Dentists, men " in trade," brewers, and veterinary surgeons have in other localities all felt the lack of an assured place in society. Social barriers against both men and women are everywhere breaking down in the presence of high character, ability, education, and technical training ; they will ultimately fall before men and women engaged in domestic service, who can bear these same tests of character, ability, education, and technical training. In considering the specific social disadvantages, it must be conceded that the desire for greater social and intel- lectual opportunities is most reasonable. Mr. Higginson says in answer to the question, "Why do children dis- like history ? " " The father brings home to his little son, from the public library, the first volume of Hildreth's United States, and says to him, ' There, my son, is a book for you, and there are five more volumes just like it.' He then goes back to his Sunday Herald, and his wife 1 Mr. Charles Dudley Warner asserts that women teachers have no social position (Harper^ s Monthly, April, 1896). But his statements can apply only to some of the ultra-fashionable finishing schools in two or three large cities. 206 DOMESTIC SERVICE reverts to But Yet a Woman, or Mr. Isaacs.''^ The atti- tude of society towards social opportunities for domestic employees is much the same. Society demands the thea- tre, the opera, the parlor concert, the lecture, the dinner, the afternoon tea, the yacht race, the tennis match, the bicycle excursion, the coaching party, and expects the class lacking at present all resources within themselves to stay quietly at home and thus satisfy their desire for pleasure and intellectual opportunity. Country life some- times proves lonely and distasteful to employers educated in the city. Is it less so to the employee lacking the opportunity for change enjoyed by others ? ^ Comparatively little can be done in the ordinary pri- vate home to meet these difficulties ; but even if much could be done, it is at least an open question whether this would be the true remedy. In large establishments sit- ting-rooms can be provided for employees, but such estab- lishments are few in number, and the fact that such rooms are in the home of another prevents that "good time," the craving for which is so natural. Many em- ployers are glad to give personal instruction evenings, but solitary instruction is even more defective for the domestic than it is for the children of the family. Enthusiasm must always come with numbers, and com- paratively little can be done for employees through this means. But social opportunities and intellectual advan- tages can be provided, as has been done so successfully 1 It is the testimony of more than one employer that those domestics remain longest in a place and are most content who have a taste for sewing and reading. Those who are wholly dependent for pleasure on excite- ment and change form of necessity a restless class. IMPROVEMENT IN SOCIAL CONDITION 207 in the case of the employees of shops and factories. Social life everywhere tends towards clubs, societies, and organizations. Domestics can be encouraged to form clubs and societies through which parlors can be pro- vided for social intercourse, and reading-rooms where in- tellectual needs will be met. If the domestic employee were taken from the home of the employer and encour- aged to find for herself avenues of improvement and entertainment, her social condition would be greatly improved. She must be made to see that the reason why she does not rise to the social position to which she aspires, is not because her work is degrading, but because her conversation is often ungrammatical and lacking in interest, her dress sometimes untidy and devoid of taste, and her manner not always agreeable. She must do her part towards improving her social condition. It is true, that probably at first comparatively few domestics would avail themselves of such privileges, but just as long as social and intellectual advantages do not exist anywhere for this class^ just so long will the intelligent and capable young woman most needed in this occupation shun it for others where such opportunities do exist. The stumbling-block in the use of the word " servant " is easily removed. The exclusive application of this word to domestic employees must be abolished before the class most desired in the occupation will enter it. As has been done in every other occupation, a word like "em- ployer " must be substituted for " master " and " mistress," — terms associated only with a system of apprenticeship or slavery, — while "domestic," "housekeeper," or some other descriptive term must be used for " general servant," the 208 . DOMESTIC SERVICE words " cook," "waitress," and " maid " being unobjection- able for other classes of service.^ As a matter of fact the word as now used is inappropriate in characterizing the work expected of an efficient domestic employee. Division of labor has made her in reality, though not in position, not a menial, a drudge, a slave, but a co-operator in the work of the household. The cook who prepares the raw mate- rial for consumption is not more a servant than is the farmer who produces the raw material ; indeed her work is justly considered skilled labor, while that of the agricult- ural laborer is often unskilled. The cook is the co-oper- ator with her employer in the same sense as the farmer is a co-operator in the industrial system ; and the term " ser- vant " as indicating a menial applies to her as little as it does to him. New words are coined and pass into famil- iar usage in a short time, old words become obsolete, new meanings are given old terms, and it is possible in the course of a few years to substitute for the present objec- tionable usage of this word a term which will describe more definitely the duties of the position and at the same time remove one of the most serious obstacles in the way of improving the character of the occupation. ^ 1 The word "servant" has been used many times in this work, but it has seemed unavoidable in the absence of any other generally recognized term. 2 It has been suggested that the word " homemaker" be applied to the mistress of the house and "housekeeper" to the employee; "working housekeeper" is often used of an efficient caretaker who does her work without direction ; "domestic" and "house helper" seem wholly unob- jectionable. It certainly is not necessary in abandoning one objectionable word to adopt another equally so. The Lynn, Massachusetts, papers, for example, advertise under "wants" for a "forelady in stitching room," "a position as forewoman by a lady thoroughly familiar with all parts of IMPROVEMENT IN SOCIAL CONDITION 209 The inferiority implied in the use of the Christian name in address is less clearly seen and less easily removed be- cause its effects are more subtile. It may not be possible to attempt any immediate or general change, but a com- promise is possible in giving the title to married men and women in domestic service, since marriage is supposed to carry with it added dignity. The Japanese' custom of addressing one's own employees by a familiar term, but the employees of another by a title of respect,^ is also a possible compromise. It seems difficult to find weighty arguments in favor of refusing to a class of self-support- ing men and women the title of respect accorded in all other occupations. The cap and apron are in themselves not only unobjec- tionable, but they have certain very definite advantages. They are conducive to neatness and economy and more- over form a most becoming style of dress. The pictu- resque effect of both is appreciated by all young women who take part in public charitable entertainments, it was understood by the matrons of an earlier generation, and it has formed the theme of many letters written on foreign soil. No costume in itself could be more desirable or better adapted to the work of the wearers, and a more general rather than a more restricted use of this form of dress should be advocated on theoretical grounds. But the cap and apron as worn do not always indicate a desire on the part of the wearer for neatness, economy, and tasteful shoe stitching,'^ " on millinery an experienced saleslady." In other places one finds "a gentlewoman who desires employment at twenty-five cents an hour." The public has much to answer for in the misuse of both " ser- vant" and "lady." 1 Japanese Girls and Women, p. 304. 210 DOMESTIC SERVICE attire, nor always an appreciation of these things on the part of the employer. They are regarded as a traditional badge of servitude, and while so regarded it seems unwise to force them on those unwilling to wear them. More- over the cap and apron while serving admirably their place within the house have no raison d'etre out of doors ; the cap affords no protection from heat, cold, or storms, and the apron is inappropriate for street wear. The cap and apron are appropriate and desirable in all places where they would be worn by the employer under the same circumstances, they are inappropriate elsewhere and hence out of taste. If employees as a class would recog- nize the many advantages of the costume within doors and adopt it universally, and if employers would accept its limitations out of doors and abandon the requirement of it there at all times, the vexed question of livery would seem to be answered. The servility of manner demanded — at least in public — of all domestics is an anomaly in a country where there is no enforced recognition of social and political superiors. The price paid for it — high wages, poor service, constant change, household friction — seems a heavy one and the excuse for it small. As long as domestic service lacks the safety valve of personal independence and the out- ward expression of self-respect, just so long is there danger of too great repression and consequent explosion.^ No genuine reform in domestic service is possible while this theory of outward servility is enforced. The most objectionable of all the manifestations of social inferiority — the feeing system — has its economic as well as its social side and will be considered by itself in the chapter on profit sharing in domestic service. IMFBOVEMENT IN SOCIAL CONDITION 211 These social barriers that now prevent so effectually the entrance into domestic service of intelligent, well- educated, capable, and efficient persons can all be swept away if employers as a class are willing to make the effort. This effort will involve in some cases the relin- quishing of a favorite theory that employees can be made a part of the family with which they are externally con- nected and, instead of this, assisting them to live their own independent lives as citizens of the community in a normal, happy way. It will involve in other cases abandoning the assumption that domestic employees be- long to a separate and obnoxious class in society and cannot be met as individuals on the same plane as are other persons of like attainments. It will involve in still other cases the sacrifice of that personal vanity that is gratified by the constant presence of those deemed to be of an inferior station. If employers are willing to yield all of the points now often unconsciously maintained by them in opposition to the teachings of political and industrial history, the social objections that now hold against domestic service as an employment will disap- pear. Sir Henry Sumner Maine has well said, "The true equality of mankind lies in the future, not in the past." It is this true equality of the future, not the ficti- tious equality of the past, that must free domestic service from the social ill-repute it now bears. CHAPTER XIII POSSIBLE EBMEDIES — SPECIALIZATION OP HOUSEHOLD EMPLOYMENTS The efforts to remove the social stigma that now brands domestic service will not alone accomplish the desired result. (Another means of lessening the difficul- ties in the modern household is to put all household employments on the same business basis as are all em- ployments outside of the household. The principles which lie at the foundation of modern business activities are division of labor and unconscious co-operation. This statement does not mean that both of these principles are carried out perfectly, but that industrial progress has been made and is being made along these lines, that the advance already made by household employments has been in the same direction, and that the reforms proposed for the household that diverge from these lines, however wise in themselves, cannot lead to the best results because they are out of the current of general progress. In considering the historical phase of the subject, a long list of articles was suggested ^ which were formerly made within the household, but are now made out of the house both better and more cheaply than they could be made at home. ^Ante, Chap. II. 212 SPECIALIZATION OF EMPLOYMENTS 213 A list can be drawn up of other articles made out of the house, which if made in factories are inferior, and if purchased through the woman's exchanges, though as well or even better prepared, are more expensive be- cause the demand for such articles made in the homes of others has up to this time been limited. The articles in this transitional state are vegetable and fruit canning, the making of jellies, pickles, and preserves, the baking of bread, cake, and pastry, the preparation of soups, pressed meats, cold meats, ice-cream, and confectionery, condensed, sterilized, and evaporated milk, and the mak- ing of butter not yet abandoned in all rural homes. The transitional list also includes the making of under- clothes for women and children, which can be made more cheaply out of the house but not always so well ; and millinery and dressmaking, which can be done better but at greater expense. There is every indication that all the articles in this transitional state must soon be enumerated among those articles made both better and more cheaply out of the house than within. A third list can be made of articles that are now sel- dom if ever manufactured out of the house but which can be made elsewhere. This list includes in the first place bread and cake of every description ; it is possible by tak- ing all of this work out of the house to save, considered in the aggregate both as regards the individual and the community, an enormous waste of time and fuel and at the same time to secure through the application of scien- tific principles articles often more uniform and superior in quality to what can be produced in the home.^ A iThis does not refer to ordinary baker's bread, but to that made 214 DOMESTIC SERVICE second class includes the preparation of all vegetables for cooking. It is not sentiment but economic principle that should release the human hand from performing this part of housework, more purely mechanical and more justly entitled to be called drudgery than any other work carried on in the house. A few years since coffee was roasted in every kitchen. If it has been found that an article requiring such delicate treatment as this can be prepared by business firms better than it can be in the household oven, there can be no serious obstacle in the way of delivering at the door all vegetables ready for cooking. 1 Compensation for the additional cost at first incurred would be found in the hygienic advantage of removing from many cellars the supply of winter vege- tables. A third class of articles includes the preparation of all cold meats, half-cooked meats, as croquettes, all stuffed meats, as fowl and game, all "made" dishes, as salads and cold desserts, and the cooking of aU articles which need only heating to make ready for use. The careful study of a large number of elaborate menus as well as of more simple bills of fare shows a very small proportion of arti- cles which could not be made out of the house and sent in ready for use or requiring only the application of heat. according to scientific principles, such as is sold at the New England Kitchen in Boston and by the Boston Health Food Company. 1 A beginning in this direction has already been made in the case of vegetables canned for winter use. In the canning factories of "Western New York an ingenious pea huUer is in use which does away with much of the laborious process hitherto necessary. In a trial of speed it was recently found that one machine could shell twenty-eight bushels of peas in twenty minutes. In some of the largest cities the principle has been applied, and this vegetable is delivered ready for use ; but such prepara- tion should be made universal and all other vegetables added to the list. SPECIALIZATION OF EMPLOYMENTS 215 The Aladdin oven constructed on scientific principles renders the cooking and heating of food a most simple matter. The sending of hot food to individual homes has in no case as far as can be learned proved a success, but the delivery of all articles ready for the final applica- tion of heat is possible through business enterprise and scientific experiment. This partial, although not entire, solution of the prob- lem of domestic service, by taking a large number of servants out of the house and by having a large part of the work now done by them in the house done else- where, is in direct line with the progress made in other occupations. It was estimated by Mr. Gallatin in 1810^ that two- thirds of the clothing worn in the United States was the product of family manufacturing — then in a flourishing state. During the twenty years following, a part of this family weaving and spinning was transferred to factories, and this transfer created the great factory industry. Its rapid growth was due to the fact that the power loom and the factory took the place of the hand loom and of home manufacturing. A similar change has taken place in the manufacture of cheese. Until about 1830 all cheese was made at home, and in 1860 not more than twenty cheese factories had been built. ^ After that time factories multiplied rapidly, until now practically all cheese is factory made. The demand for ready-made clothing for men was a generation ago very small. It grew out of a demand on the part of sailors, and was in- creased in large proportions at the time of the Civil War ; 1 Cited by BoUes, p. 413. 2 BoUes, p. 130. 216 DOMESTIC SERVICE the manufacture of such articles is now so firmly estab- lished in our industrial system that a return to the home system of manufacturing, even in the most isolated and primitive communities, would be as impossible as the revival of the spinning wheel. The demand for ready- made clothing for women is nearly as great and is annu- ally increasing through the facilities offered by all large retail houses for shopping by mail. The tailoress and the maker of shirts have disappeared from the homes of their employers and have set up establishments of their own, or have become responsible to large business houses ; the dressmaker and the seamstress are fast following in their footsteps, and the cook must set her face in the same direction. The trend in this direction can be seen in many ways. The growing prevalence of camping has increased the demand for articles of food ready for use, and even tea, coffee, and soups are delivered hot for the benefit of pleas- ure seekers.^ The development of Western resources by Eastern capitalists has also increased the demand for such articles, and at least one housekeeper among the Black Hills of South Dakota, one hundred miles from a railroad station, speaks casually of doing her marketing in Chicago, and a housekeeper in North Carolina gives fre- quent and elaborate lunches through caterers in Phila- delphia. The tendency even among persons of moderate means is more and more towards the employment of 1 The Oriental Tea Company of Boston sends out coffee and guaran- tees it to maintain a temperature of 150° Fahrenheit for twenty-four hours. The experiment has been tried of sending it from Boston to St. Louis, with the result of maintaining a temperature of 148° at the end of three days. SPECIALIZATION OF EMPLOYMENTS 217 caterers for special afternoon and evening entertainments, although in villages and small towns this course as yet involves the employment of persons from large cities. The practice is not uncommon for the women connected with church organizations to hold every Saturday after- noon sales for the benefit of the society, of all articles of food that can be prepared the previous day for Sunday dinners and teas.^ The most important medium for the sale of such com- modities is the Woman's Exchange. ^ It has already become an economic factor of some little importance, and it will become of still greater importance when it is taken out of the domain of charity and sentiment and becomes self-supporting on a business basis. One of its most valuable results is that it has set a high standard for work and has insisted that this standard be reached by every consignor, not only once or generally, but inva- riably. It has maintained this standard in the face of hostile criticism and the feeling that a charitable organi- 1 The women connected with two churches in a city in Indiana have maintained for some time such sales, and they have proved very remunera- tive. In one city in New Jersey $1,200 was raised in a few weeks to pay a church mortgage. In a Long Island village several hundred dollars was raised for a similar purpose by the women of the church, who took orders for cooking and sewing. In an Iowa city funds were obtained in this way for missionary purposes. In a village of five hundred inhabi- tants, in Central New York, the women of one of the churches have sold, every Saturday afternoon for eight years, ices and ice-creams, and have cleared annually about seventy-five dollars. In another town, several women of limited incomes began paying their contributions to the church by baking bread and cake for other families, and finding it re- munerative continued the work as a means of support. In one Western city an annual sale is held at Thanksgiving time, and about one hundred dollars netted for home missionary purposes. 2 The Woman's Exchange, The Forum, May, 1892. 218 DOMESTIC SERVICE zation ought to accept poor work if those presenting it are in need of money. It has shown that success in work cannot be attained by a simple desire for it or need of it pecuniarily. It has taught that accuracy, scientific knowledge, artistic training, habits of observa- tion, good judgment, courage, and perseverance are better staffs in reaching success than reliance upon haphazard methods and the compliments of flattering friends. It has raised the standard of decorative and artistic needle work by incorporating into its rules a refusal to accept calico patchwork, wax, leather, hair, feather, rice, splat- ter, splinter, and card-board work. It has taught many women that a model recipe for cake is not "A few eggs, a little milk, a lump of butter, a pinch of salt, sweetening to taste, flour enough to thicken; give a good beating and bake according to judgment." But still more it has opened up to women what has been practically a new occupation. Domestic work within the house performed by members of the family without fixed compensation and by those not members of the family with compensation had been the previous rule. The Exchange has shown that it is possible for the women of a family to prepare within the house for sale outside many articles for table consumption, both those of necessity and luxury. Innumerable instances are on record of women who within the past fifteen years have supported themselves wholly or in part by making for general sale or on orders different articles for the table.i 1 Many illustrations of this can be given outside of those connected with the Exchange : SPECIALIZATION OF EMPLOYMENTS 219 It seems inevitable that eventually all articles of food will be prepared out of the house except those requiring the last application of heat, and that scientific skill will reduce to a minimum the labor and expense of this final stage of preparation. This change is in direct line with the tendency towards specialization everywhere else found in Mrs. A, in Central New York, has made a handsome living by mak- ing chicken salad to be sold in New York City. Mrs. B, in a small Eastern village, has for several years baked bread, pies, and cake for her neighbors, and in this way has supported herself, three children, and a father. She has recently built a separate bake- house, and bakes from thirty to one hundred loaves daily, according to the season, and other things in proportion. She says she always had a "knack" at baking, and that when she employs an assistant she has nearly every afternoon to herself. Mrs. C, in a Western city, supports herself, three children, and an in- valid husband, by making cake. Mrs. D makes a good living by selling Saratoga potatoes to grocers. Mrs. E has cleared $400 a year by making preserves and jellies on private orders. Mrs. E partially supports herself and family by making food for the sick. Mrs. G supports a family of five by making jams and pickles. Mrs. H has built up a large business, employing from three to five assistants, in making cake and salad. Mrs. I, in a small Eastern city, began by borrowing a barrel of flour, and now has a salesroom where she sells daily from eighty to one hun- dred dozen Parker House rolls, in addition to bread made in every possi- ble way, from every kind of grain. Mrs. J, in a small Western city, sells salt-risings bread to the value of $30 a week ; and Mrs. K, in the same place, Boston brown bread to the value of $75 a week. Mrs. L, living on a farm near a Southern city, has built up "an ex- ceedingly remunerative business" by selling to city grocers preserves, pickles, cakes, and pies. "One cause of her success has been the fact that she would allow no imperfect goods to be sold ; everything has been of the best whether she has gained or lost on it." Mrs. M supports herself by taking orders for fancy cooking. Mrs. N, living in a large city, sells to grocers baked beans and rolls. 220 DOMESTIC SERVICE that it thus becomes possible for every person to do exclu- sively that thing which he or she can do best ; it allows the concentration of labor and capital and thus by econo- mizing both secures the largest results ; it permits many women to retain their home life and at the same time engage in remunerative business ; it improves the quality of all articles consumed, since they are produced under the most favorable conditions ; it brings the work of every cook into competition with the work of every other cook by providing a standard of measurement now lacking and thus inciting improvement; it is the application of the principle of unconscious co-operation and therefore in harmony with other business activities. More definitely, as one illustration, it permits all fruits to be canned, pickled, and preserved in every way in the locality where they are produced at a cost ulti- mately less than can now be done when fruit is shipped Mrs. O, in New York City, has netted $1,000 a year by preparing mince-meat and making pies of every description. Mrs. P, in a small village on Lake Superior, has large orders from cities in Southern Michigan for strawberry and raspberry jam. Mrs. Q, in a country village of five hundred inhabitants, sells thirty loaves of bread daily. Mrs. R and two daughters last year netted $1,500 (above all expenses except house rent) in preparing fancy lunch dishes on shortest notice, and delicacies for invalids. Mrs. S puts up pure fruit juices and shrubs. Mrs. T prepares consomm^ in the form of jelly ready to melt and serve. Mrs. U has made a fair income by preparing and selling fresh sweet herbs. These illustrations can be multiplied indefinitely. They have come to notice in nearly every state in the Union, and in places varying in size from country villages without railroad stations to such cities as Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York. SPECIALIZATION OF EMPLOYMENTS 221 to cities and there sold at prices including high rents; it prevents a glut in the market of such perishable arti- cles by providing for their preservation on farms and in villages and subsequent transportation to cities at leisure ; it makes it possible to utilize many abandoned farms in the East which could be used as fruit farms but are too remote from shipping centres to permit the trans- portation of ripe fruit ; it ultimately lightens the labors of many women on farms by enabling them to purchase in cities many articles now produced by them at a dis- advantage. The canning in cities, by individual families, of fruits, often in an over-ripe condition, is as anomalous as would be to-day the making of dairy products in city homes. The preservation of fruit is but one example of articles that could be prepared better and more cheaply in the country than in the city. Miscellaneous articles of every description, as plum-pudding, boned turkey, chicken broth, jelly, croquettes and salad, minced meat, pressed veal, bouillon, calf's-foot jelly, pure fruit juices, blackberry cordial, and a score of other articles, could be added to the list. It is sometimes objected that this plan of taking out of the house to as great an extent as possible all forms of cooking lessens the individuality of the home by requir- ing all persons to have the same articles of food. But the objection presupposes a limited variety of articles, while the method suggested must result in an unlimited variety, as has been the case in regard to articles used for wearing apparel since the custom has been established of having so many made out of the house. It presupposes also that individuality depends on externals. The gentleman 222 DOMESTIC SERVICE who wishes to preserve his individuality through his cook could also preserve it through employing a private tailor, but he gladly sacrifices it in the latter case for the better work of one who serves a hundred other customers as well. Individuality is preserved when a person builds his own house, but the doubtful benefit of the result is suggested by Oliver Wendell Holmes when he says, "probably it is better to be built in that way than not to be built at all." The individuality of the present generation is certainly not less than that of the preceding one when all clothing worn by a family was made up in the house, or of an earlier one when all cloth was spun and woven, as well as made up, in the house, or of a still more remote one when our ancestors troubled themselves comparatively little about either the weaving or the making. The very perfection of the principle of the division of labor makes possible the expression of the greatest individuality in that it offers the possibility of selection from a hundred varieties whereas before no choice was given. The ability to choose between the work of a hundred cooks permits a truer individuality than does the command of the services of but one. Whims, caprices, and eccentricities sometimes masquerade as individuality and are not always entitled to respect. Another form of work now done in the house that could be done outside is laundry work. The inconven- iences resulting from the derangement of the household machinery according to the present method have formed the theme of many jests ; a serious consideration of the subject must lead to the conclusion that this system results in great waste as well as in unnecessary wear SPECIALIZATION OF EMPLOYMENTS 223 and tear of the household machinery. An objection on hygienic grounds is sometimes made to the proposal to have articles of clothing laundered out of the house to- gether with articles sent by other families. But science has already accomplished much at the bidding of business enterprise, and this objection can be overcome. Even as it is the question may well be asked whether the price paid is not a heavy one for individual laundresses. The vast army of persons who board are compelled to send out articles to be laundried, and this is apparently done with- out serious results. A beginning has been made in many families where a competent laundress cannot be secured by sending to public laundries all starched clothing, especially all collars and cuffs. The laundries of Troy, New York, have branches for the reception and delivery of goods in all parts of the country, and laundry many articles better and more cheaply than can be done at home. The amount of space now occupied in cities for laundering purposes that could be used for business or for homes is far from inconsiderable. It seems not alto- gether unreasonable to believe that if the space now occu- pied by laundries in individual homes could be used for other purposes rents would be perceptibly lower. On economic grounds alone this generation should relegate the washing machine and the wringer to the attic or the front parlor, where it has already placed the spinning wheel of its ancestors. Still another field is open for business enterprise in connection with the household. A very large part of the work connected with it concerns the care of the house and grounds. This includes the semi-annual house-cleaning 224 DOMESTIC SERVICE and the cleaning of windows, floors, brass, silver, and lamps ; the sweeping, dusting, and general care of rooms, including the special attention that must be given to books, pictures, and bric-a-brac ; the care of lawns, walks, porches, and furnaces ; the repairing of articles of cloth- ing and furniture ; table service and chamber service. Here again economic tendencies are showing themselves. Much if not all of this work can be done by the piece or by the hour, and men and women are everjrwhere taking advantage of the fact.^ A very large part of the work of 1 Mrs. A has for several years gone from house to house at stated times sweeping and dusting rooms containing fine bric-a-brac. Mr. B cares for all of the lawns of a large number of gentlemen, each of whom pays him a fixed sum for the season in proportion to the size of his grounds. Mr. C cares for all of the furnaces and clears the walks in a city block. Mrs. D earns a partial support by arranging tables for lunches and afternoon teas. Mrs. E washes windows once in two weeks for a number of employers. Mrs. F takes charge of all arrangements for afternoon teas. Mrs. G earns $3 a day as a cook on special occasions. Miss H waits on a table in a boarding house three hours a day. Miss I distributes the clothes from the laundry in a large city school. Mrs. J is kept busy as a cook, serving as a substitute in kitchens tem- porarily vacant. Mrs. K derives a considerable income from the supervision of party suppers. "Her social position is quite unaffected by it." Mrs. L "makes herself generally useful" at the rate of ten cents an hour if regularly employed and twenty cents when serving occasionally. Mrs. M goes out as a waitress at lunches and dinners. Mrs. N employs a young man working his way through school to keep wood-boxes and coal-hods filled. Many college students in cities partially pay their expenses by table service. Hotels and restaurants frequently send out waiters on special occasions. One employer writes, "I think a central office in this city at which competent waitresses could be hired by the hour would be largely patronized." SPECIALIZATION OF EMPLOYMENTS 225 the household can be thus done, especially if house- keepers are willing to waive the tradition that silver must be cleaned on Thursdays, sweeping done on Fridays, and all sleeping-rooms put in order before nine o'clock in the morning. One other measure of relief concerns the purchase of supplies. Marketing is a science and might be made a/ profession. At present it is usually done in a haphazard,: makeshift fashion. It is done by the head of the house- hold on his way to business and thus done in haste ; or orders are given through a clerk who goes from house to house and thus serves primarily the firm he represents, while at the same time the purchaser loses the benefit of competition in the markets ; or commissions are given by telephone and the customer has no opportunity of inspecting the goods before purchase ; or marketing is done by the mistress of the household, who is unable to reach the markets in time to make her purchases with the care that should be given ; or it is done by the cook, who may know the best articles to purchase but is igno- rant of their money value. It requires time, skill, and experience to purchase judiciously the supplies for a household, and in many households time, skill, and ex- perience are lacking. It would seem possible for one person to do the marketing for fifteen or twenty families, taking the orders at night and executing them in the morning. Supplies could then be purchased in quan- The Syracuse, New York, Household Economic Club publishes a Household Begister, giving the names and addresses of aU persons in the city who do by the piece, hour, or day all forms of household work. Thirty-five different classes of work are enumerated. Q 226 DOMESTIC SERVICE tity, this gain would pay the commission of the pur- chaser, and marketing would be done in a much more satisfactory manner than it is at the present time. At the same time such a plan would relieve the members of individual households of the burden and care of a difficult part of household management. All of these measures suggested must tend ultimately to take as far as possible the domestic employee out of the house, letting her perform her work through the operation of unconscious business co-operation. This method would enable a large number of women to go into household employments who have ability in this direction but who now drift into other occupations which permit them to maintain their own home life. It is gen- erally assumed that an unmarried woman has no desire for a home and no need of a place that she can call her own. When she goes into domestic employment, there- fore, she must merge her individual life into that of her employer and relinquish all the social instincts, although as strong in her as in another. But this is what many are not willing to do. If the opportunity were pre- sented of performing housework and remaining at home, large numbers would in time enter the work. Many who have no homes would still be glad to share the home of an employer, but where no alternative is pre- sented, as under the present system, except where negroes are employed, the requirement of residence be- comes irksome and is a hindrance in this as it would be in any other industry. It is also true that many employees particularly dislike to live in flats. The sleeping accommodations are generally poor, with little SPECIALIZATION OF EMPLOYMENTS 227 light or ventilation, and all parts of the household are cramped and crowded. To take the employee out of the modern flat and let her go to her own home or lodging place would be a boon to both employer and employee. The plan proposed also lessens materially the amount of care and responsibility now incurred by the employer, since it decreases the number of personal employees. The presence of the employee in the family is a disadvantage to the household of the employer as well as to the employee. Again, it enables large num- bers of women who have only a few hours each day or week to give to outside work to do it in their own houses or in the homes of others without neglect of their own households. Moreover, it lessens much of the difficulty that now exists owing to the migratory habits of the mod- ern family. The question of what shall be done with the employees of a household during the summer and how new ones shall be secured in the autumn is answered in a measure if the work performed by them can be done by the piece, hour, or season and a large part of the family supplies can be purchased ready for use. Then, too, it renders both employer and employee more independent. Whether the desire for independence is right or wrong is not the question — it is a condition and must be met. It has often been pointed out that the aristocracy of the Church broke down at the time of the Reformation, that the aristocracy of the State was overthrown by the Bastile mob, that aristocracy in education is yielding to the democratic influences of university extension, and that aristocratic economics are disappearing in the light 228 DOMESTIC SERVICE of the industrial discussions of the day. The aristocracy of the household must succumb to this universal desire for personal independence on the part of employees. The plan suggested of specializing household industries to as great an extent as possible and encouraging the domestic employee to live in her own home has much in its favor. It substitutes for the responsibility to an in- dividual employer, so irritating to many and so contrary to the industrial spirit of the age, the responsibility to a business firm. It throws the responsibility for success on the individual employees by bringing them into more immediate competition with other workers in the same field. It provides a channel through which advance becomes possible and also independent business life if executive ability is present. It reduces house rent in proportion as the number of employees is lessened, or it places at the disposal of the family a larger portion of the house than is now available for their personal uses. It simplifies the problem in all families where there is more work than can be done by one employee but not enough for two. It makes possible such a division of labor in the household as will discriminate between skilled and unskilled labor. Under the present system the employer expects to find in one individual for |3 per week and expenses, a French chef, an Irish laundress, a dis- creet waitress, a Yankee maid-of-all-work, a parlor maid a Quaker in neatness, all this, "with the temper of a saint and the constitution of a cowboy thrown in." Ex- jpectations are often disappointed and the blame is thrown, ; |not on a bad system, but on the individual forced to carry V it out. The separation of skilled and unskilled labor per- SPECIALIZATION OF EMPLOYMENTS 229 mits each one to do a few things well and prevents the friction inevitable when the skilled workman is called upon to do unskilled work, or the unskilled laborer to perform tasks requiring the ability of an expert. It is a more flexible system of co-operation than the one techni- cally known as such, since all articles are purchased, not of a certain manufacturer or dealer whom it has been agreed upon by contract to patronize, but wherever it is most convenient. It is easily adapted to the present sys- tem of living in flats and apartment houses rendered almost necessary in some places by high rents ; this way of living makes it diJB&cult to employ a large number of domestics, but on the other hand it makes it possible to do without them. It enables the domestic employee to have the daily change in going back and forth from her work which the shop-girl and the factory-girl now have. The domestic employee now has out-of-door exercise not oftener than once or twice a week, and the effect is as deleterious physically, mentally, and morally as a similar course would be in other walks of life. It must decrease that pernicious habit, so degrading to the occupation as well as to the individual, of discussing the personal char- acteristics of both employers and employees, since the relationship between the two is changed from the per- sonal to the business one. It elevates to the rank of distinct occupations many classes of housework now con- sidered drudgery because done at odd moments by over- worked employees. It must in time result in many economic gains, one illustration of which is the fact that the kitchen could be heated by the furnace and all cook- ing done by kerosene, gas, or electricity ; on the other \ 230 DOMESTIC SERVICE hand, the necessities of employers would cease to be the gauge for measuring the minimum of work that could be done by employees without losing their places. Two objections are sometimes raised to this plan. The first is that the cost of living would be increased. This would undoubtedly be the effect at first, but it is not a valid objection to this mode of housekeeping. The list of articles now made out of the house shows that every article of men's dress is made more cheaply and better than formerly when made at home. This is due to the fact that in the transitional period men of means were willing to pay a higher price for goods made out of the house for the sake of obtaining a superior article. Com- petition subsequently made it possible for men of moderate means to share in the same benefit. The same tendency is seen among wage-earning women. They could make their own dresses at less expense than they can hire them made, but it would be done at a loss of time and strength taken from their own work, and they prefer to employ others. Moreover cost of living is a relative term — an increase in the family income makes it possible to employ more service and therefore to live better than before. Families of wealth now have two alternatives, either to employ more domestics within the home, or to purchase more ready-made supplies. The alternative usually chosen is the former, but if such families would choose the second and instead of employing additional domestics would, as far as practicable, purchase ready-made supplies for the table and have more work done by the hour, day, or piece, as great ease of living would be secured as through the employment of additional service within the SPECIALIZATION OF EMPLOYMENTS 231 house under the present system. Though the cost of living might be increased, it is a price many would be glad to pay for a release from the friction of a retinue of domestics in the home. When it has become the custom for families of wealth to have few or no domestics under their own roofs, the great problem of how people of limited incomes can have comfortable homes will be solved. The second objection is the fact that it would take from the women of the household much of their work. The problem, however, has not been to provide a means of excusing from their legitimate share in the work of the world one half of its population, but to use that labor at the least cost of time and strength. The argument that would maintain the present system because it pro- vides women with work is the same as that which de- stroyed the machines of Arkwright and Crompton; it is the argument that keeps convicts in idleness lest their work should come into competition with the work of others ; it is the opposition always shown to every change whereby the number of workers in any field is at first lessened. But the plan proposed does not contem- plate abolishing household work for women, but changing its direction so that it may be more productive with less expenditure than at present. It calls for specialization of work on a business basis, rather than idleness or charity. It asks that the woman who can bake bread better than she can sweep a room should, through unconscious co- operation, bake bread for several families and hire her/ sweeping done for her by one who can do it better than' she. It asks that the woman who likes to make cake and fancy desserts but dislikes table service should dispose of 232 DOMESTIC SERVICE the products of her labor to several employers, rather than give her time to one employer and do in addition other kinds of work in which she does not excel. It asks that the woman who cannot afford to buy her preserves and jellies at the Woman's Exchange but crochets for church fairs slippers that are sold at a dollar a pair shall dispose of the products of her industry at a remunerative rate and buy her jellies put up in a superior manner. The plan allows the person who has skill in arranging tables and likes dining-room work, but dislikes cooking, to do this special kind of work, when otherwise she would drift into some other light employment. It provides that women in their own homes who are now dependent for support on the labors of others shall have opened to them some remunerative occupation. The preparation of food in small quantities always secures more satisfactory re- sults than when it is prepared in larger amounts. Women in their own homes can give foods the delicate handling necessary for the best results and at the same time use the spare hours that are now given to unprofitable tasks. It makes every member of the family a co-operator in some form in the general family life. What is needed indeed in the household is more co-operation among the different members of it rather than conscious co-operation with different families. It has been recently pointed out that the carrying of electricity as a motive power to individ- ual houses may cause a partial return to the domestic sys- tem of manufacturing which will be carried on under more favorable conditions than was the old domestic system.^ 1 See also article on the " Revival of Hand Spinning and "Weaving in Westmoreland," by Albert Fleming, Century Magazine, February, 1889. SPECIALIZATION OF EMPLOYMENTS 233 This is in the future — its possibility is only hinted at. But the domestic system of housework, if that expression may be used to distinguish it from the present individual system, and the proposed system of unconscious co-opera- tion, enables women to work in their own homes and, by exchange of such commodities and services as each can best dispose of, to contribute to the general welfare. The plan of specialization of household employments has already been put into partial operation by many housekeepers and its success attested by those who have tried it.^ Conscious co-operative housekeeping has in 1 One writes, ** I find it much better to employ one servant and to hire work by the piece, and to purchase from the Exchange, rather than to employ an extra servant." Another housekeeper writes: "I began housekeeping twelve years ago with three servants and had more than enough work for all. I now have two and have not enough work for them, although my family is larger than at first. The change has come from putting work out of the house and hiring much done by the piece." A business man writes : " Our family is happier than it ever dared hope to be under the sway of Green Erin. We purchase all baked articles and all cooked meats as far as possible. A caterer is employed on special occasions, and work that cannot be done by the parents, three children, and two aunts, who compose the family, is hired by the hour. Since we signed our Declaration of Independence in 1886, peace has reigned." Still another says: "I used to employ a laundress in the house at $i per week and board. I was also at expense in furnishing soap, starch, bluing, and paid a large additional water tax. Now my laundress lives at home, and does my laundry there for $4 per week, and we are both better satisfied." Several small families who do "light housekeeping," have found that they have in this way been able to live near the business of the men of the family, and thus have kept the family united and intact, as they could not have done had it been necessary to employ servants. One employee writes, "If more housework were done by the day so that more women could be with their families in the evening, I think it would help matters." 234 DOMESTIC SEBVICE nearly every case proved a practical failure, but the unconscious co-operation that comes through business enterprise has brought relief to the household in many directions and it is one of the lines along which progress in the future must be made. CHAPTER XIV ipOSSIBLE REMEDIES — PROFIT SHARING Domestic service, as has been seen, is accompanied by- certain social conditions that prevent many from enter- ing the occupation. The present unclassified state of household employments operates in the same way. But in addition to this lack of organization, other indus- trial disadvantages are found. These are the lack of all opportunity for promotion within the service, the lack of kindred occupations opening out from it, the irregularity \ of working hours, and confinement evenings and Sun- ■ days, the necessary competition between those of Ameri- can birth and foreign born and colored employees, and the lack of personal independence. These, in addition \ to the unorganized condition of the work, are the indus- trial disadvantages that tell most strongly against the occupation ; they are the economic maladies that can be alleviated only by the application of economic remedies. The attempt has been made to show how the lack of organization in household employments can be partially met by taking out of the house a large part of the work now performed there, and having much of what must necessarily remain done by the piece, hour, day, or sea- son, thus securing better specialization of work and direct- ing it into the current of industrial progress. The second 236 DOMESTIC SERVICE group of industrial difficulties enumerated must in a similar way be met by measures that have proved suc- cessful in similar fields. The vexed questions of wages and hours of labor in the industrial world are still unsettled, but in certain indus- tries some little progress towards a solution of those diffi- culties has been made through the introduction of the profit-sharing system. In order to answer the question whether profit sharing could be introduced with advan- tage into domestic service, it is necessary to consider somewhat in detail the question. What is profit sharing, and also the question, What have been its advantages in general economic society ? Profit sharing, as defined by Mr. Carroll D. Wright, is the term that " may be applied to any arrangement whereby labor is rewarded in addition to its wages, or in lieu of wages, by participation in the profits of the business in which it is employed. Benefits of various kinds — as insurance, schools, libraries, and beautiful surround- ings, so far as maintained by employers out of their profits and enjoyed by employees as an addition to what their wages would purchase — would have to be regarded, in a strict analysis, as an indirect form of profit sharing." ^ Mr. Nicholas Payne Oilman defines it as " the method of rewarding labor by assigning it a share in the realized profits of business in addition to wages." ^ Mr. D. F. Schloss considers it " an arrangement under which an employer agrees with his employees that they shall re- 1 Seventeenth Annual Beport of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, p. 157. 2 Profit Sharing between Employer and Employee, p. 8. PROFIT 8HAEING 237 ceive, in partial remuneration of their labor, and in addi- tion to their ordinary wages, a share, fixed beforehand, in the profits of his business." ^ The International Con- gress on Profit Sharing, held in Paris, in 1889, declared it to be "a voluntary agreement, by virtue of which an employee receives a share, fixed beforehand, in the profits of an undertaking." The history of profit sharing is short, and can easily be recalled. It began in 1842 with the Maison Leclaire in Paris, and has been subsequently introduced into many business houses in France and Switzerland, countries where the economic conditions lend themselves readily to its progress. Its adoption in Germany has been less extensive, while the English industrial system has hitherto seemed hostile to it, although Mr. D. F. Schloss in his recent Report claims that a larger number of experiments in profit sharing have been made in England than in any other country. Probably about one fourth of the busi- ness establishments conducted on this principle are found in the United States. What are the advantages that have resulted from this fifty years of more or less extensive experience with the system ? There is first the fact that it results in the de- velopment of what Mr. Carroll D. Wright has called "the group of industrial virtues." This group includes diligence, zeal, caretaking, vigilance, punctuality, fidelity, continuity of effort, willingness to learn, a spirit of co- operation, and a personal interest in all business affairs. In addition to these virtues, other positive advantages have been noted by those who have tried the system. ^ Methods of Industrial Remuneration^ p. 158. 238 DOMESTIC SERVICE "An appreciable percentage of the occasions of worry, which all large employers experience, have disappeared," writes Mr. T. W. Bushill, of Coventry, England. ^ M. Bil- lon, of Geneva, states as one result of his experiment, " Superintendence became easy for us, and from that time we could^ without fear of offending any one., show ourselves exacting in details to which previously we were obliged to close our eges.^^^ The Peace Dale Manufacturing Com- pany began profit sharing "not to make money in the positive sense, but to save waste." ^ This saving of waste is seen in the efforts to economize time and mate- rials and in the additional care with which machinery and all appliances for work are used. Various English firms have been most successful in attaining this end, stating that they find "increasing care to avoid spoilt work and waste both of time and material "; that " waste is guarded against " ; that there is care in handling materials, and that "especially waste of raw material is avoided."* Another gain is found in the identification of the interests of employer and employees and the con- sequent harmony between capital and labor ; " the occur- rence of a strike in a profit-sharing establishment is believed to have been a rare event," says Mr. Schloss.^ The advantage to the employer of this identification of interest is seen in the ability to obtain " a steadier and superior class of workers " ; in the fact that "the knowl- 1 Schloss, Methods of Industrial Bemuneration^ p. 173. 2 Gilman, Profit Sharing, p. 189. * Seventeenth Annual Beport of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor, p. 178. * Schloss, Beport on Profit Sharing, p. 167. 6 Ibid., p. 160. PROFIT SHARING 239 edge that there is such a scheme brings all the best work- men " to the firm employing it ; that " workers remain year after year"; and that "it tends to secure and re- tain the best workers." Its good effects on the charac- ter of the work are seen when " an efficient man is very soon pricked up to greater diligence by his fellow work- ers"; in securing through it "the maximum of effort"; " in a steady pulling up all around"; when it " makes the men keener after business and sharper in keeping down expenses." ^ It would seem difficult to introduce the scheme into a business like that of tea-blending, but a London firm that has practised it thirteen years states that the effect is "to make the clerks willing to exert themselves in an especial manner, when the occasion arises, because they know that if they show themselves unable to cope with the mass of work to be done, then the staff must be increased ; and they do not care to see their bonus di- minished by an augmentation of the numbers entitled to participation." 2 The question naturally arises as to how far these gains reimburse the employer for the financial cost of profit sharing. The chairman of the South Metropolitan Gas Company of London writes, " I state unhesitatingly that the Company is recouped the whole of the amounts — some £40,000 — paid as a bonus since the system was started." ^ The managing director of the New Welsh Slate Quarry Company gives it as his personal belief 1 Schloss, Report on Profit Sharing, pp. 158-169. 2 Schloss, Methods of Industrial Remuneration, pp. 173-174. 3 Schloss, Report, p. 168. 240 DOMESTIC SERVICE "that we are recouping every penny of bonus and more ;" and similar testimony comes from others. Yet this is putting the matter on the lowest plane. The system "converts the industrial association of em- ployer and employees into a moral organism, in which all the various talents, services, and desires of the com- ponent individuals are fused into a community of purpose and endeavor. " ^ A natural result, moreover, is a general elevation in the standards of morals. Most of all, in an individual way it is of help to the employee ; " to assist a person in improving his condition by his own efforts is to make a man of him." ^ What can be learned from these successful experiences in profit sharing that will be of value in domestic service ? The usual difficulties that beset the employer of domes- tic labor are lack of interest, desire for change, negli- gence, waste of time, extravagance in the use of materials, in a word, the absence of the industrial virtues. If these very difficulties — all of which exist elsewhere — are par- tially or entirely obviated by the employer of other forms of labor through the system of profit sharing, may it not reasonably be expected that they could be met in domes- tic service by the employment of similar means ? Domestic service, it is true, is not a wealth-producing occupation, but it is wealth-consuming probably beyond any other employment. The profit, therefore, must be negative, that is, economy in the use of time, materials, and appliances for work. It is in precisely these ways that profit sharing has been most successful, and the wage 1 Wright, Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1886, p. 231. 2/6id., p. 172. PROFIT SHARING 241 system most unsatisfactory. Under the wage system the employer of domestic labor pays for time rather than for quality of service, and employers therefore constantly complain that employees do not accomplish one half as much as they should, and employees that employers exact twice as much as can be done. Neither party to the con- tract under the wage system can have a true notion of the working value or the money value of time ; thus it is not strange that the one requires more than can be performed, and the other does less than might be reasonably demanded. The same ignorance and carelessness prevails in the use of materials. The employer may provide the best the markets afford, but if the cook has never had brought home to her a realizing sense of the money value of these materials, she is not altogether to blame if she fries doughnuts in butter costing fifty cents a pound, and makes angel food daily when eggs are forty cents a dozen. The employer may also provide the finest of furnishings for the dining-room and china closet, but if the maid-of-all-work does not associate a money value with these furnishings, she uses table napkins for holders, and carelessly drops fine china into an iron sink. From the selfish point of view the chief interest of the employer is to keep the bills down and to get the greatest possible amount of service even at the cost of the greatest expendi- ture of human strength ; among employees, it is to do sufficient work to retain a good place, and to use whatever materials are most convenient. Mr. Nicholas Payne Oilman has well said, "The defi- ciency in the daily wage system as a motive power to pro- cure the desirable maximum of effort and performance is 242 DOMESTIC SERVICE extreme." Precisely the same objections that hold in all other employments to the wage system hold as well in domestic service. In other occupations it has been seen that the almost universal testimony of those who have tried profit sharing is that the system results in economy in the use of materials, care in the handling of machinery and implements of work, and a feeling of partnership, the spur of which as a motive " is only excelled in sharpness by complete proprietorship." Mr. Oilman sums up the advantages of the system when he says, " Profit sharing advances the prosperity of an establishment by increasing the quantity of the product, by improving the quality, by promoting care of implements and economy of materials, and by diminishing labor difficulties and the cost of super- intendence." In a word, whatever arguments can be advanced in favor of profit sharing in productive indus- tries can be used with equal force in its favor in domestic service. The application of the principle to the household is simple. It is possible to allow a fixed sum, as $50, f 100, or $500 per month for living expenses, which shall include the purchase of all food for the table, fuel, lights, ice, breakages, and the replacement of worn-out kitchen uten- sils, and to allow a pro rata amount for guests during the month. If by care in the use of food materials, fuel, and kitchen and dining-room furniture, the expenses amount to $45, $90, or $450 per month, the $5, $10, or $50 saved can be divided according to a ratio previously agreed upon between the employer and the one or more em- ployees. The cook is in the position to save the most, and therefore ought to receive the greatest percentage of PROFIT SHARING 243 the amount saved; but it is a part of the work of the waitress to be careful of glass and china, of the laundress not to waste fuel, soap, and starch, and of all, including parlor maid, seamstress, and nursery maid, not to waste gas, fuel, or food at the table, and therefore each employee is entitled to a share in the profits. Thus each keeps watch over the others to prevent undue waste, and the employees are given a personal interest in the establish- ment now so often lacking. In addition to this, it is pos- sible to allow a gardener and a coachman who have taken special care in the improvement of lawns, gardens, and stables a small percentage on the annual appreciation of property. " Comprehension is wonderfully quickened by the payment of a bonus or two in cash, and there is no more efficient instructor than self-interest." Moreover, it is possible to allow a fixed sum for service, as ^18 per month, out of which the employee may choose to have a small sum spent in hiring by the day some one to wash windows and clean verandas, or she may choose to economize her time and strength and do this work her- self. In either case the financial outcome to the employer is the same, while either arrangement makes the employee a partner in the domestic company and gives her an active interest in its welfare. It is possible to apply the principle in still other ways. If the general servant likes to cook but dislikes other parts of housework, she may contribute to the Woman's Exchange and with part of the money received hire with her employer an assistant to come in a certain nimiber of hours each day to care for the rooms, the silver and brass, and wait on the table. It is possible also to give the cook 244 DOMESTIC SERVICE a certain amount of time for making articles to be sold at the Woman's Exchange, the employer furnishing capital and implements of work and receiving a certain share in the profits. In employment bureaus it would be possible to give a certain percentage of the profits of the bureau to all employees who have kept their names on the books of the bureau and remained at least one year in the place found by them through its agency. The ways indeed are numberless in which the principle of profit sharing can be applied ; and if the ingenuity and fertility of resource possessed by so many employers were once turned in this direction, the good resulting would be incalculable. Great as would be the gain for domestic service if this principle could be adopted in private families, the advan- tage would be if possible even greater could it be intro- , duced into hotels, boarding houses, and restaurants, and also the dining-car, parlor-car, and sleeping-car service. In all hotels, restaurants, and public institutions the waste is enormous — perhaps proportionately greater than in private families, largely because as a rule the superin- tendents of such establishments are also employees on wages. Ignorance is often the chief cause of waste, and the best corrective of this ignorance is the experience gained through profit sharing. But the greatest advantage of profit sharing in restau- rants and hotels, dining-cars and sleeping-cars, is that through it the feeing system could be abolished. In all such business enterprises where the feeing system is es- tablished there is in effect a combination of the general public and the employees of the establishments against PROFIT SHARING 245 the proprietors of them. Such is the case because the feeing system prevents the proprietors from receiving a fair amount of patronage unless each employee is feed for performing the service he ought freely to give and for which he will presumably be paid by his employer. The money profit in all these establishments depends largely on the good service rendered by the employees, and thus it would be possible to divide a positive profit as well as a negative saving. The feeing system, if it prevails in any branch of personal service, drags down with it in the social and industrial scale every other branch of the ser- vice. The substitution of profit sharing in hotels and restaurants and in the dining-car and sleeping-car service for the system of fees so increasingly prevalent would do more than any other one thing to remove the social stigma from domestic service and make of all such em- ployees self-respecting men and women. It may be urged against the proposition to introduce profit sharing into domestic service that few employees are of such stability of character as to warrant making the experiment. But the great desideratum is to intro- duce into the service some principle that will develop the best qualities of those already in it, that will sift out the worthless and compel them to undertake unskilled labor, that will draw from other occupations, where they are less needed, able persons whose natural tastes and abilities would attract them to this. M. Levasseur is quoted as saying that of one hundred firms that begin business, ten per cent succeed, fifty per cent " vegetate," and forty per cent go into bankruptcy. The statement character- izes with possibly sufficient accuracy the result in the 246 DOMESTIC SEBVICE case of the establishment of a corresponding number of households. Could an industrial partnership be formed between employer and employee, with the agreement to divide, not positive profits, but negative savings, some- thing might be done to save the forty per cent who now give up housekeeping and go into the bankruptcy of hotels and boarding houses, and also to lessen the fifty per cent who " vegetate " through the employment in the household of obsolete industrial methods. It may also be said that profit sharing appeals to a selfish motive and therefore is objectionable. But much of the waste and extravagance in the household comes from ignorance ; profit sharing is one way of teaching the value of raw materials. The comfortable theory is often entertained that to be born poor is to be born with a knowledge of all household affairs. As a matter of fact, there is doubtless far more waste and extravagance in the households of the poor than in those of the rich. But extravagance is in reality a relative term ; " tender- loin steak for breakfast and rump roast for dinner," which may be simple fare in the household of the em- ployer, becomes an impossible luxury to the employee in such a family when she goes to a home of her own. Profit sharing would be of value in the household not because it would appeal to a selfish motive, but because it would teach the value of materials used and incidentally do something to prevent this prevalent waste and ex- travagance. Neither of these objections to profit sharing holds in the face of all that can be said in its favor. The gen- eral arguments for it are many. It is usually assumed PROFIT SHABING 247 that the interests of the employer and those of the em- ployee are antagonistic. The introduction of profit shar- ing could easily prove that this assumption in domestic service is wrong, as it has already made similar proof in other occupations. If the employers of other forms of labor find themselves relieved of much of the worry and friction that have previously resulted from the mutual relation of employer and employee, it would seem reason- able to expect a like result in the household. If it has been found elsewhere that the extra services called out, and the manner in which they are called out, constitute an invaluable educational discipline, and promote zeal, efl&ciency, and economy, a similar result might be looked for here. If other employees have learned through it to be careful of their methods of work, punctual in the per- formance of their duties, and economical in the use of materials ; if it has become " a moral educator, and sub- stituted harmony and mutual good-will for distrust and contention in the relations of employer and employee,'* then, indeed, may it not be considered, not as a panacea^ but as one measure among many that may be of help in lessening some of the serious difficulties that now attend domestic service ? At the present time a public discussion of domestic service meets with little else but jest and ridicule, while in private life the social stigma is cast on all engaged in it, as is the case in no other occupation. To attempt to dignify labor by saying, " we must dignify labor," savors of the old problem of trying to raise one's self by the boot-straps. No concrete method by which this is to be done is ever suggested, and until some plan is adopted 248 DOMESTIC SERVICE by which the personal dignity and independence of the employee is recognized, and his industrial and financial independence is secured, domestic service will continue to be under the industrial and social ban. When this improved condition is brought about, there will be estab- lished what Professor Jevons considers the best of all trade-unions — that between the employer and employee. It must be frankly said that the plan of adopting profit sharing in the household is a theoretical one ; and to say it is "mere theory" is often considered an unanswerable argument with which to meet every new proposition. But theory lies at the basis of all successful action ; diffi- culties have come in household service often because it has been conducted without theory — in a short-sighted, haphazard, hand-to-mouth fashion. It is known, how- ever, that the experiment has been tried successfully in a private family, and this perhaps saves the proposition from the charge of being only theory. It has been tried by Mrs. X, a university graduate, after one and a half years' experience in housekeeping. The experiment was made in a college town where the cost of provisions was rather above than below the average. The family com- prised four adults, including the Irish maid rather above the average in intelligence and ambition. The plan pro- vided for an allowance of $40 a month for living ex- penses, including groceries, meats, fish, poultry, butter, milk, cream, ice, candles, kerosene oil, and incidental expenses. The last included breakage and the replace- ment of worn-out kitchen utensils. The best materials of all kinds were purchased, and practically nothing was ever thrown away. The food was simple but abundant. PROFIT 8HABING 249 The co-operation between employer and maid consisted on the part of the employer in planning the menu, espe- cially the making up of left-over materials, the pricing of all articles in the market, and keeping the accounts accu- rately ; the maid gave all orders and carried them out. The profit sharing consisted in dividing equally between employer and maid whatever had been saved at the end of the month out of the ^0 allowed for running expenses. The results of four months' experiment were as follows : Average monthly expenses before profit sharing began $41.25 Expenses first month after 36.74 « second « " 43.751 « third « « 41.58 2 « fourth « « 36.28 The plan for carrying on the dining association using the Memorial Hall of Harvard University is essentially one of co-operation, and contains some points that could be tried with advantage elsewhere. The steward receives a fixed salary and in addition a small sum each week for every person who boarded that week at the hall ; but this " head money " is proportionately diminished as the average weekly price of board exceeds the amount agreed upon. At Placid Club, a social club established in the Adiron- dacks, all fees are prohibited, and the rule is strictly en- forced ; but the past season (1896) a dividend of ten per cent on the wages received was declared out of the profits ^This included the purchase of two new labor-saving appliances for the kitchen, costing $5.70. The maid was given the choice of having the new utensils or dividing a surplus ; she chose the former. 2 This included the presence in the family of two guests for two weeks. 250 DOMESTIC SERVICE of the club, and this was given to all house employees who had remained throughout the season and whose services had been satisfactory to the manager. The financial success of the club depended largely on the efficiency, good-will, and ready co-operation of its em- ployees, and the dividend declared was in recognition of this fact. Beginnings in a small way have been made elsewhere.^ They are indeed but beginnings, but they seem to in- dicate one direction in which progress is possible. 1 One housekeeper reports that she gives her cook five cents for every new soup, salad, made-over dish, or dessert that proves acceptable to the majority of the family. She thus secures variety and economy in the use of materials. One reports that she has a German cook who understands thoroughly the purchase and use of all household materials. The cook is given a fixed sum each week with which to make purchases, and she keeps what- ever sum remains after these have been made. The family report that they have never lived so well, or with so much comfort and so much econ- omy as since the plan has been tried. Another states that she adds at the end of the month twenty per cent to the wages of her waitress if no article of glass or china has been nicked, cracked, or broken during the time. These are all variations of the same principle. CHAPTER XV POSSIBLE REMEDIES — EDUCATION IN HOUSEHOLD AFFAIRS One of the greatest obstacles in the way of improving domestic service has been the prevailing lack of informa- tion in regard to household affairs and of careful, system- atic education of housekeepers. Information and education are often used as synony- mous terms, but the two words carry with them entirely different ideas. Information concerning household affairs includes a ready knowledge of the history of all house- hold employments and household service, of the economic basis on which the household rests, and of the economic principles on which it is conducted. Much of this in- formation it is now difficult to obtain. Many houses are found in Southern Germany without windows looking towards the public highway. Light and air are admitted through openings in the rear or on a court, but no chance passer-by is permitted to look within. The household has always been constructed on the same plan. No out- sider has been permitted to know the percentage of the family income that goes for service, fuel, gas and water- tax, groceries, meats, fruits, and vegetables. In the great majority of households not only is there no disposition to give others the benefit of such information, but the 261 252 DOMESTIC SERVICE information itself does not exist. Each new generation of housekeepers practically begins its work where the previous generation began. Its only heritage is recipes for desserts, rules for making furniture polish, methods of dealing with moth and mildew, which are handed down like family property from one generation to another in a way as primitive as that in which books were pre- served before writing was known. Advance is not thus made, as is evident from the course followed in other occupations that have shown greatest progress. A vast accumulation of knowledge in regard to law has come through the added experience of individual members of the profession. It is said that every lawyer owes a debt of gratitude to his profession which can be paid only by some personal contribution to the sum total of legal knowledge. The constant progress made by the profes- sion of medicine is due to the untiring investigations carried on by its members, the wide publicity given the results of these investigations, and the fact that every discovery made by one member becomes the common property of all. Until every housekeeper is willing to recognize her obligations to her profession and to share with other members the results of her experience, of her acquired information, and of her personal investigations, no progress in household affairs can be expected. Much of the information to be gained in regard to household affairs is a direct product of education, but education includes much more. Education gives a cer- tain amount of information that is of direct service, and it gives a training that is of indirect but even greater value. The information more immediately gained comes EDUCATION IN HOUSEHOLD AFFAIRS 253 through the study of art, chemistry, economics, physi- ology, psychology, and history. The study of art should enable the housekeeper to build and furnish her home with taste ; of chemistry, to provide for its sanitary con- struction and for the proper preparation of all food mate- rials ; of economics, to manage her household on business principles ; of physiology, to study the physical develop- ment of her children; of psychology, to observe their mental growth and base their training upon it; of his- tory, to know the progress made in all these departments of knowledge and avoid repeating as experiments what others have advanced beyond the experimental stage. These are the gains on the side of information. The real work of education in supplying the needs of the house- hold is far more important. There are constantly arising in every household emergencies for which the housekeeper is, and must be, totally unprepared as regards the amount of available information she possesses. There are de- mands made every hour, every moment, for the exercise of reason, judgment, self-control, alertness, observation, accuracy, ingenuity, inventive genius, fertility of re- sources. The training received by the housekeeper must be such as to prepare her to meet at any moment any emergency that may arise within her home. In all ordi- nary circumstances she avails herself of the information gained in school or college and through her general read- ing, but this is of no avail in the decision of questions which arise outside of the field of this information, and could by no possibility be anticipated by it. If progress is to be made in the household, it must be no longer assumed that an establishment can be well managed by 254 DOMESTIC SERVICE a young woman whose reasoning powers have never been cultivated, who has never been taught self-reliance and self-control, who has no conception of accuracy, who has never acquired the habit of observation, and whose inven- tive genius and fertility of resource are expended in pro- viding for the pleasures of a day. No improvement is possible in domestic service until \ every part of the household comes abreast of the progress /made outside of the household; until the profession of housekeeping advances, like the so-called learned profes- sions, through the accumulated wisdom of its individual members ; until it ceases to be merely a passive recipient of the progress made elsewhere, and becomes on its own \ part an active, creative force. So much has progress up to this time been hindered by this inactivity in the household, and so great is the interdependence of all parts of the household, that it seems necessary to consider somewhat more in detail the causes of this condition. Inactivity in all household affairs has largely come from three things. It has in the first place been gener- /ally believed that a knowledge of all things pertaining j to the house and home, unlike anything else, comes by [ instinct. It is assumed that the housekeeper is born with an intuitive knowledge of the right proportions of all materials to be used in cooking — this knowledge some- times supplemented by an inherited cook-book and one purchased to aid a benevolent society soliciting funds for a charitable purpose. Her knowledge of the mental, moral, and physical training to be given her children is also to be gained through instinct and experience and the EDUCATION IN HOUSEHOLD AFFAIRS 256 traditions handed down with regard to her own family. Instinct may sometimes be dormant, and experience prove an expensive schoolmaster through the exaction of heavy fees, but no other avenue of information has been open to her. Again, a very large proportion of all moneys spent for legitimate household purposes passes through the hands of housekeepers; yet no thorough investiga- tion on an extensive scale has ever been carried on in regard to the expenditure made within or for the house- hold. Few women when they assume the care of a household know the exact value of the household plant ; the amount to be deducted each year for wear and tear ; the relative proportions expended annually for rent, fuel, food, clothing, and service ; the number of meals served and the approximate cost of each ; the amount of profit, waste, or unproductiveness that results from all expendi- tures made. Every manufacturer, every business man knows the value of his plant, its increasing or diminish- ing value, the cost of materials used and of service employed. This information constitutes a part of the intellectual capital with which he begins business ; he does not acquire it by instinct or tradition, but by careful and exact study of all the factors involved. It is diffi- cult to see how a household can be successfully carried on except through the application of the same principles. If we turn to the construction and decoration of the house, ignorance, masquerading as instinct, quite as often prevails. It is true we have houses in which we live, many of them expensive and artistic, yet as a rule little or no attention is paid in their construction to the specific use each of the several parts is to serve. Libraries are 256 DOMESTIC SERVICE built with little or no regard to the place to be occupied in them by book-shelves, desk, or library table, and no attention is paid to the question of the best methods of providing them with natural and artificial light. Draw- ing-rooms and parlors are built without a place for a piano, dining-rooms without regard to the position of a sideboard, butlers' pantries without an entrance to the kitchen, kitchens with absolutely no regard to the conven- iences of the work to be carried on there, and bedrooms with no normal place for a bed, bureau, or dressing-table. Something has of late been done in deference to public sentiment towards applying the principles of sanitation to the construction of public and private buildings, yet much still remains to be done, both in the investigation of the principles and in their application. Many of our private homes are pleasing to the eye, yet if we accept that definition of art which considers that it is its highest province to serve best the useful, many of the so-called artistic homes must be otherwise classed. Before im- provement can be looked for in any of these directions, I the position must be abandoned that the household, or \ any single part of it, can be managed by instinct. A second explanation of the prevailing inactivity in regard to household affairs arises from the fact that it is always assumed that these subjects concern only women. The husband of the family often excuses his absolute ignorance of the affairs of his own household by the lame apology, " I leave all these things to my wife and daugh- ters." It is certainly not the intention in such remarks to belittle the affairs of the household, yet that is the natural and inevitable result. A knowledge of house- EDUCATION IN HOUSEHOLD AFFAIRS 257 hold affairs has never been considered a part of a liberal education as is a knowledge of literature, science, and politics, but when it is so regarded by men as well as by women a great gain will have been made. Moreover, it must be said that the natural tastes of some men would lead them to take up housekeeping as an occupation, as the natural tastes of some women lead them into different kinds of business. Inactivity in the household will cease when the arbitrary pressure is removed that now tacitly compels many women to become housekeepers in violence to their natural tastes, and at the same time prevents any man whose abilities lie in this direction from giving them scope. The time must come when each person will take up the work in life for which he or she is best adapted, be it the care of a house for a man or business for a woman, when it will cease to be a matter of odium for the husband to direct the affairs of the house and for the wife to be the breadwinner. When the fact is every- where recognized that both men and women have a vital concern in the affairs of the house, the relation between the different parts of the household will become an or- ganic one, and its highest development reached. A third explanation of this inactivity in the household is the belief that all women have a natural taste for household affairs, which without cultivation grows into positive genius for carrying them on. But a young man with a genius for law or medicine is not only not ex- pected, he is not permitted, to exercise his untrained genius in legal and medical cases. The greater the genius he gives promise of, the more careful, systematic, and prolonged is the training he receives. In a similar 258 DOMESTIC SERVICE way the woman with a natural taste for housekeeping duties is the one who should have most training in them, while in no other way can an interest in such duties be ^ created in women who have not an inborn love of them. These three common errors — that a knowledge of ^"^ housekeeping affairs is a matter of inspiration, that men j , have no active interest in the management of a household, I 'and that all women have a natural love for such affairs i which supplies the place of training — are perhaps suffi- cient explanation of the present lack of all opportunity for the investigation of the household in a professional way. I It has always been assumed, and asserted without fear / of contradiction, that the best place to learn everything pertaining to the household is the home. But the same change must come here as has already come in the pro- \ fession of medicine and in nearly every other department of knowledge. The period is not remote when every housekeeper made, as well as administered, the family tonics, bitters, pills, salves, and liniments, and every household contained a copy of Every Man his Own Practitioner. Happily that day has passed and the era of scientific investigation and practice of medicine has dawned. It was once assumed that an adequate knowl- edge of law could be obtained by any young man who spent six months in reading law in any lawyer's office. But the leading members of the bar to-day have been trained in less haphazard ways. It was formerly believed that any person could be fitted for a librarian by doing the routine work of librarian's assistant in a small coun- try library. Such training has been supplanted by library schools open only to college graduates and offering a two EDUCATION IN HOUSEHOLD AFFAIRS 259 years' course of study. Less than a hundred years ago boys and girls of sixteen or seventeen years of age began teaching without even a high school education, while the tendency to-day is everywhere to insist not only on ad- vanced academic but also on professional training. The system of apprenticeship is everywhere being supplanted by systematic, technical training given by experts. There is evidence that this same spirit is slowly invad- ing the household. Cooking schools are springing up that teach all the intricacies of the science " in ten easy lessons," while the lecturer on cooking with her demon- stration lessons has found her way into nearly every town. Sewing is taught in the public schools, and the free kitchen garden is following fast in the train of the free kindergarten. All this is good in its way, but it is super- ficial work. No permanent advance will be made as long as only those schools are found that teach simply the mechanical parts of housekeeping. New recipes for salads and puddings, new ways of cleaning brass and silver, new methods of caring for hard- wood floors — all these may be helpful in a sense, but the knowledge of these and a thousand other mechanical contrivances will never put the household on a scientific basis and turn its face towards progress. One thing, and only one thing, will turn the household into the channels where every other occupation has made advancement. This is the establishment of a great pro- fessional school, amply equipped for the investigation of all matters pertaining to the household and open only to graduates of the leading colleges and universities of the country. This work cannot and should not be done by 260 DOMESTIC SERVICE the college. The college offers courses in physiology and hygiene, but the college graduate is permitted to practice medicine only after a long and thorough course in a medi- cal school. The college offers courses in constitutional law, but the college student is admitted to the bar only after technical training in the law school. The college offers courses in chemistry and economics, but the col- lege student who expects to have the care of a home should prepare herself for this work by technical study of all that concerns the household. The mechanical parts of housekeeping can be learned in the home, providing the head of the household herself understands the intricacies of the mechanism over which she has charge, and has the gift of imparting knowledge. These assumptions, how- ever, cannot always be made, nor can it be assumed that even all the mechanical parts of housekeeping can be learned in any single home any more than that all forms of library work can be learned from a single library. Some of these mechanical parts of housekeeping can be learned in the kitchen-garden, the public school, the cook- ing school, but progress is never made by treadmill methods, by mechanical repetition, by giving attention only to those things already known. Professional training and inves- tigation must supplement home and collegiate instruction in the case of the housekeeper, as the professional school supplements private and collegiate instruction for the physician, the lawyer, and the clergyman. i The household has been up to this time a terra incog- nita. Until but yesterday absolutely nothing had been I done in any educational institution towards investigating its past history, its present condition, its future needs. EDUCATION IN HOUSEHOLD AFFAIRS 261 The beginning has scarcely been made, although the field for such investigation is limitless. Comparatively little is known of artistic house-building and furnishing, scarcely more of household sanitation ^ and the chemistry of foods,2 even less of the economic principles underlying the household; fashion, not art, governs every question of costume, while, with a few notable exceptions, Porter's Development of the Human Intellect contains the sum and substance of our knowledge of the mental development of children. Years of patient, laborious, unremitting inves- tigation must be given to all household affairs before any appreciable advance can be made by them. The histori- cal and scientific investigation of all the great subjects of art, economics, chemistry, physiology, and psychology in their application to the household, and the publication of the results of these investigations, would not indeed settle to-morrow all the difficulties that arise to-day in regard to household affairs ; but such investigation and publica- tion would take the subject out of the domain of senti- ment and transfer it to a realm where reason and judgment have the control. Household affairs would in time come to receive the respect now accorded the learned professions. Household service, instead of being taken up as a last resort by those who themselves say "have not education enough to do anything else," would be digni- fied into a profession that would attract large number^ who now seek other occupations. 1 An admirable work on Household Sanitation has been published by Miss Marion Talbot and Mrs. Ellen S. Richards. 2 The work in this direction carried on by Professor W. O. Atwater of Wesleyan University has been of the greatest value, and indicates the lines along which future investigation must be made. 262 DOMESTIC SERVICE It has already been said that "educational forces do not push from the bottom, they pull from the top." When a strong educational force exerted from the top shall have pulled the household and all questions con- nected with it out of the slough of stagnation in which it has been for so long a time, then, and not till then, will training schools for domestic employees be successful. Progress in every other field of human activity has been made only through investigation and the widespread dif- fusion of the results of such investigation; on similar investigations rests the only hope of making progress in household affairs. CHAPTER XVI CONCLUSION Any study of the subject of domestic service must lead to the conclusion that household service and house- hold employments do not occupy an isolated position; that while they may be indifferent to the political, in- dustrial, and social changes constantly occurring, they cannot by virtue of this indifference remain unaffected by them; that the inventions of the past hundred years have revolutionized household employments, and that the present generation must adapt itself to these new conditions ; that while a century ago domestic , service had no competitors as an occupation for women, y it now has hundreds ; that the personnel in the domes- tic service of America has been transformed through industrial, political, and social revolutions ; that it has been affected by the democratic tendencies of the age and by the commercial and educational development of the country; that because of these constantly recurring changes in the conditions surrounding domestic service the questions connected with it vary from year to year ; that it is governed by the same general economic laws as are all other employments, and that it has developed within itself other economic laws peculiar to it ; that the increasing wealth and luxury of the country are 263 264 DOMESTIC SERVICE introducing new complications into a problem already- far from simple; that both employer and employee are heirs of conditions which their ancestors could not con- trol, and that they are surrounded by difficulties which no person single-handed and alone can hope successfully to overcome. It has been seen that many of these difficulties arise from the failure to recognize domestic service as a part of the great industrial questions of the day. It is not so recognized because economic writers have not as yet discussed the subject, and because those who come in daily contact with it overlook its economic side. The housekeeper who completes her round of morning shop- ping by a visit to an employment bureau where she engages a new cook regards that and her other business transactions all in the same light; she has both in shopping and in securing a cook been guided solely by her taste, her necessities, and her bank account. The economist must include domestic service in his discus- sions of the labor question, and the housekeeper must differentiate the various parts of her housekeeping duties before improvement is possible. It must also be recognized that another difficulty has been the natural conservatism of many women — a con- servatism arising from the isolated, home-centred lives many housekeepers lead, and that prevents that intel- lectual hospitality which is the presager of all true progress. The typical housekeeper, like the Turk, is a born fatalist; because things are as they are, they must always have been so and they must continue so to be. Many persons take pride in being "old-time CONCLUSION 266 housekeepers" and look with disfavor on any change. " That plan might succeed in some families, but it would not in mine " is for many others the final settlement of the question. This lack of mental elasticity and the dislike of taking the initiative in any movement must be another obstacle in the way of immediate improvement. It has also been seen that other causes partially explain the difficulty — the love of ease and pleasure, the attempt to keep up appearances, a pretentious manner of living, the frequent desire of both employers and employees to get everything for nothing, the willingness of mistresses to find maids who will do their work half right and of maids to find mistresses who will treat them half right, the endeavor to get " the largest expenditure of woman for the smallest expenditure of money," a natural ten- dency among women toward aristocracy and a dislike of everything savoring of social democracy. Some of the difficulty arises from conditions to be ex- pected in a country comparatively new and possessing great possibilities of wealth. The growing luxury among the middle classes not only creates a demand for more employees but it also increases the requisitions upon those rendering service. Those who have lately ac- quired riches make increasing demands upon their em- ployees, and they must become accustomed to their riches before these demands will be modified. Bishop Potter has said, "Luxury has its decent limits, and we in this land are in danger in many directions of over- stepping those limits."^ Persons with moderate means are the greatest sufferers from this thoughtless trans- 1 LeUer to the Clergy of the Diocese of New York, May 15, 1886. 266 DOMESTIC SERVICE gression of the bounds of luxury. The remedy lies in such education of the wealthy classes, especially where wealth has been suddenly acquired, as will give a more practical knowledge of general and household economics, a realization of the ethical as well as of the economic principle involved in paying high wages for poor ser- vice and abnormally high wages for good service, such an education as will result in greater simplicity in man- ner of living because it will be governed by ethical, economic, and hygienic principles. It is true that in thousands of households no difficulty in regard to domestic service exists, but this fact does not relieve those in charge of such households from further responsibility in the matter. A political club recently formed to secure better municipal government in Mon- treal took as its watchword, " Every man is individually responsible for just so much evil as his efforts might prevent." 1 In a similar way the responsibility of the employer does not end with his own household, but he is responsible for as much evil in the general condition of domestic service as he could have prevented by his investigation and discussion of the subject. The first result of this investigation, discussion, and action must be the attempt to remove from domestic service the social stigma attached to it. During the feudal period every occupation was inferior socially to that of warfare ; physicians were leeches, clergymen were held in disrepute, bankers were usurers, and merchants and traders were tolerated only because they could fur- nish the ready money necessary for military campaigns 1 The Century, June, 1894. CONCLUSION 267 — social position belonged only to the profession of arms. The substitution of higher ideals for those of feudalism and the spread of democratic ideas have removed the social ban from every occupation except domestic ser- vice. Industrial and social evolution point to its ulti- mate removal from this employment as has been the case in others. A second result of investigation and discussion must be the working out of ways and means for taking both work and worker out of the house of the employer. This must result in a simplification of household manage- ment and a greater flexibility in household employments. It simplifies the household because it takes out of it a cumbersome, unwieldy machine long since become anti- quated. It is possible to arrange a series of mechanical contrivances operated by electricity that will enable a person to open any window or door in his house without rising from his chair, but it is as a rule easier to open a window without such assistance than it is to keep the batteries in running order. A retinue of employees in a household becomes like a complicated mechanism used to attain simple ends. Taking the employee out of the house of the employer brings flexibility into household employments, since it results in greater personal inde- pendence and in openings for specialized work. An ambitious and energetic office boy is pushed on by his employer into more responsible positions, but the domes- tic employee is held back by impassable barriers. Indus- trial promotion is impossible as the occupation at present exists. "I suppose there must be a screw loose some- where, or a man of his age would not be my coachman," 268 DOMESTIC SERVICE said a lawyer recently in reply to a question concern- ing a new employee. The industrial barriers within the occupation must be removed before domestic service will attract large numbers of capable, efficient persons; this can be at least partially accomplished by taking the em- ployee out of the house and allowing him or her to become a self-reliant, independent, business person. Another direction in which progress lies is in the effort to put the employment on a business basis. This must be accomplished if any improvement is to come. No man takes his watch to a blacksmith to be repaired, or employs a mason as bookkeeper, or a longshoreman as superinten- dent of a mill, or a hod-carrier as floorwalker, yet practi- cally the same thing is done when a housekeeper employs an inexperienced young woman as seamstress, installs a girl just from Ireland as cook, takes a tenement-house woman into her home to care for her table linen and bric- a-brac, and then adds to the incongruity of the situation by paying high wages for this unskilled labor. Some agreement must be reached by employers in regard to standards of work and wages before domestic service can be classed as skilled labor. ^ The suggestion of profit sharing is in line with the effort to put the occupation on a business basis. Only where there is absolute equality, when employer and employee stand on the same business level, can amia- bility of manner and a spirit of helpfulness on the part of the employee be prevented from being interpreted as 1 An excellent classification of standards of work and wages has been drawn up by the committee on Household Economics of the Civic Club of Philadelphia. See Appendix III. CONCLUSION 269 springing from a desire to curry favor with the employer. Not until the domestic employee feels he has no reason to court the favor of his employer for the sake of possi- ble perquisites will he be self-respecting, and therefore entitled to respect from others. The practice in many private houses of subsidizing employees by numerous and valuable gifts is as subversive of the best interests of all concerned, as is the giving of fees in large establish- ments. It fosters subserviency rather than responsi- bility, and creates dissatisfaction among the employees in families where the custom does not and perhaps can- not prevail. Profit sharing appeals not to selfishness but to intelligence, and has in it elements that tend to make the employee a self-respecting and therefore a better man. Improvement in all these directions, or in other ways far better, can come only through the investigation of all household affairs by both men and women. Travellers in other countries often lament the sight, still so common in some places, of a woman harnessed to a cart with a dog, or dragging the cart by her own efforts, or weighed down by the heavy burdens placed upon her back. But a more unfortunate condition in such countries than the woman harnessed to a cart is the fact that wherever this is found the highest opportunities for education are not open to women. The woman and the cart will remain in every country where university education is not made possible for her. Until university investigation of do- mestic affairs is made possible for every one having the proper qualifications, the woman and the cart — the over- burdened, ignorant, and hopeless worker — will remain in the household. 270 DOMESTIC SERVICE If progress is to be made in the same direction that it has been up to this time, it must bring a still further readjustment of the work of both men and women. It must result in attracting every man and woman to the work for which he or she is best fitted. Just as other forms of work once held in low estimation have been elevated by scientific advancement, so the time will come when it will be honorable to do housework of any kind for remuneration. A woman with no talent for art has been known after four lessons in oil painting to offer for sale the products of her work without blushing for her audacity or incompetence. But though ignorant of art, she may have been competent in cooking, and if the way had been open to gain an honorable support by the exer- cise of this talent, she might have been saved the attempt to secure a living by means from which nothing but fail- ure ought to result. The mistress of a large and costly establishment said recently, " One of the most diflGlcult things about housekeeping is to dispose of old fancy work." Much of this work represents idle labor in boarding houses, done by women in various walks of life who will not keep house under present conditions, but who would be glad to do so if the conditions could be made more favorable. It is in many ways difficult to deal with woman as an economic factor, since many elements of uncertainty enter into her life which do not hamper men. A young man is reasonably sure of two things in his future life, — that he will have to support himself and that he will marry. But many young women are not certain of either mar- riage or the necessity of self-support. If a young woman CONCLUSION 271 marries, she is not permitted by the conventions of so- ciety to be a breadwinner ; on the other hand, she may find herself obliged, without preparation for it, to provide support, not only for herself but also for her family. If she marries and boards, she probably finds herself obliged to become a drone, and leads an aimless life. If, without deference to convention, she engages in business, her occupation may be broken up through the removal of her husband's business to another locality. For economic reasons it is impracticable for the married woman to en- gage in any industry involving the use of capital that cannot be readily transferred, unless this business is the same as that of her husband, or unless she bears the entire burden of support and has unrestricted control of the business enterprises of the family. A thorough knowledge of some one line of domestic work which would yield compensation would often lessen many of the perplexities surrounding a married woman. More- over, it seems not unreasonable to consider marriage on its practical side as a business partnership to which the woman as well as the man is to contribute. If she con- tributes a practical knowledge of housekeeping, the busi- ness agreement is a fair one ; if she does not contribute this knowledge, but brings a knowledge of other things as valuable, it is also a fair arrangement ; but if she brings no knowledge of household affairs, and no equiva- lent for it, the partnership on its business side is unfair. There should be a definite understanding when a woman marries whether she is to keep house or not, and if so, that she knows how. The time ought to come when, in case she marries and boards, she will be willing and able. 272 DOMESTIC SERVICE and society will allow her, to contribute her share in a business capacity to the life partnership. Thousands of ambitious and talented women in the upper and middle classes are crying for work, as women in a lower walk cry for bread. It is impossible for society to maintain the former in idleness and at the same time to pay full wages for work to the army of working women. The pay of wage-earning women will never rise above the starvation point while the women of the upper and middle classes are permitted to live without work. The boycotting of dealers in ready-made clothing whose names are not on the " white list " is but a sop thrown to Cerberus, — until the cause of the evil is removed, until women now living in idleness become co-operators in the work of the world, all women who work for remuneration must do their share of the work for half-pay. Women want work for all the reasons that men want it, but as long as so many of them, when they do work, persistently give their work for nothing, just so long will women's work in general be undervalued. This readjustment of work and the willingness of larger numbers of women to work for remuneration would be as productive of improvement in all household affairs as division of labor has been elsewhere. A more far- reaching benefit is suggested by Maria Mitchell when she says : " The dressmaker should no more be a universal character than the carpenter. Suppose every man should feel it his duty to do his own mechanical work and all kinds, would society be benefited? would the work be well done ? Yet a woman is expected to know how to do all kinds of sewing, all kinds of cooking, all kinds of any CONCLUSION 273 woman's work, and the consequence is that life is passed in learning these only, while the universe of truth beyond remains unentered."^ In seeking for some measure of relief from the present oppressive conditions, it must be said in conclusion that little can be accomplished except through the use of means which already exist, developing these along lines marked out by industrial progress in other fields. In the foregoing suggestions, — that the historical study of the subject points to relief through the removal of the social stigma ; that the specialization of household employments in consequence of the removal of as much work as possi- ble and the removal of the domestic employee as well from the home of the employer leads to a simpler and better manner of life for both employer and employee ; that the introduction of profit sharing is one means of plac- ing household employments on a business basis ; that the establishment in connection with one of our great univer- sities of a school of investigation open only to graduates of the leading reputable colleges is the only opportunity for the scientific advancement of the household and all questions connected with it ; and that together with the last, a recognition of the necessity for the readjustment of the work of both men and women must result in mak- ing any form of housework for remuneration honorable for any person, man or woman, — in these suggestions nothing either novel or original has been presented. Progress has been made through such means ; it seems not unreasonable to believe that further progress will be made through their use. 1 Maria Mitchell, p. 26. T 274 DOMESTIC SERVICE Yet this view of the subject does not diminish, it rather increases, individual responsibility. Sir James Stephen said, when civil-service reform was first agitated in England, that a moral revolution was necessary in that country before the reform sought could become an ac- complished fact. For a reform in domestic service a moral revolution is everywhere needed, bringing with it to every person an appreciation of his responsibility to all connected with the employment, whether employer or employee. Reforms begin at the top, revolutions at the bottom. It rests with the men and women of the so-called upper classes, whether raised to their position by birth, wealth, intellect, education, or opportunity, to work out in the best way a satisfactory solution of the vexed question of domestic service. APPENDIX I SCHEDULE No. I. — EMPLOYERS STATISTICS OF DOMESTIC SERVICE The graduates of Yassar College, Classes of '88 and '89, desire to collect statistics in regard to the subject of domestic service, and ask your assistance. The work has grown out of a belief that a knowledge of some of the actual conditions of such service, as viewed from the standpoint of both employer and employee, is essential to an intelligent discussion of this question. It is hoped to tabu- late the results obtained, showing the average wages paid in each occupation, the length of time employed, etc. The sta- tistics, to be of value, must represent the experiences of many housekeepers in many localities, and the co-operation of all who are interested in the subject is earnestly solicited. Three schedules are sent you upon which to supply information. ScHEDTJiiE No. I. — For Employers (mistresses of house- holds). Schedule No. II. — For Employees (domestic servants of all kinds). Schedule No. III. — For Educational Statistics (from teach- ers, etc., in the kinds of schools specified). These schedules are sent to all housekeepers and their em- ployees who can be communicated with by the members of the Classes of '88 and '89 and the Department of History. 276 276 DOMESTIC SERVICE Will you please fill out the following blank and return it to the person sending it to you, or to the address given below? Please complete all the columns relating to each person in your employ. Only estimates can be given in reply to Questions 7, 10, and 12. If any question — as No. 17 — is not applicable to you, this sign — X — may be used. A prompt reply will be considered as a special favor. All personal information will be treated as confidential. The name is asked as a guarantee of good faith, to avoid sending duplicates, and to render possible further correspondence in regard to special points of experience. It may, however, be omitted if desired. Please return to — Depabtment of History, Vassar College, December 1, 1889. POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. APPENDIX I 277 NUMBER ETC. WAGES LABOE OCCUPATIONS I §1 = III II Ill o II IV 4 V 1 VI li VII VIII 1 IX II ill X Us sir WOMEN General Sebvajjts Second Gibls $ Cooks aitd Latjn- DRESSE8 Cooks LAtrNDEESSES Chambermaids and Waiteesses "Waitbesses $ Nurses Seamstbesses MEN Biitlers Coachmen and Gardeners COACmfEN Gardeners 1 If foreign born, state the number of years each employee has resided in this country. 278 DOMESTIC SERVICE 1. Name of Employer, _ 2. Post Office, 3. County, 4. State, 5. Date, 6. Do you live in a city, in a town, or in the country ? 7. Estimated present population of city or town, 8. Leading industries of city or town, 9. Are women and girls employed in these industries ? 10. Estimated total number so employed, 11. Are women and girls employed as clerks ? 12. Estimated total number so employed, 13. Length of time you have been housekeeping, 14. Total number of domestic servants employed during that time, 15. Length of time without servants, 16. Length of time you have boarded, 17. Length of time you have boarded since marriage, 18. Number of persons in your family, 19. Name any special privileges granted your servants, such as single rooms, the use of a sitting-room, etc., APPENDIX I 279 20. Have you paid, as a rule, higher or lower wages this year than last year, and in what branches of occupation, respectively? 21. Nature of the service rendered. Is it "Excellent," "Grood," "Fair," or "Poor" ? Please specify by kinds of employment, 22. Have you found it difficult to obtain good domestic ser- vants? 23. What explanation of the difficulty can you give ? 24. How do you think the difficulty can be lessened or removed? SCHEDULE No. n.— EMPLOYEES STATISTICS OF DOMESTIC SEKVICE 1. Name, 2. Place of birth, 280 DOMESTIC SERVICE 3. Present residence (city or town, and state), 4. Name of present employer,. 5. Present occupation, 6. Years of service in present occupation, 7. Years of service with, present employer, 8. Number of previous employers (domestic occupations), 9. Whole number of years engaged in domestic occupations, 10. Present wages received, per week, $ ; per month, $ 11. Highest wages received from previous employers, per week, $ ; per month, $ 12. Lowest wages received from previous employers, per week, $ ; per month, $ 13. Have you ever had any regular employment other than housework ? 14. Name such kinds of employment, 15. Highest wages received in other than domestic occupa- tions, per week, $ ; per month, $ 16. Lowest wages received in other than domestic occupa- tions, per week, ^ ; per month, $ UEPAKTM,,..:, .„ ,,OME 17. Why do you choose housework as your regular employ- ment ? 18. What reasons can you give why more women do not choose housework as a regular employment? 19. Would you give up housework if you could find another occupation that would pay you as well ? Note. — All personal information will be treated as con- fidential. Please return the Schedule to the person giving it to you, or to — Depabtment of History, Vassar College, December 1, 1889. Poughkeepsie, N. Y. SCHEDULE No. HI. — SCHOOLS, Etc. STATISTICS OF DOMESTIC SERVICE Schools fob Tralning Domestic Servants 1. City or Town, and State, 2. Number of such schools, 282 DOMESTIC SERVICE 3. How supported, 4. Number that can be accommodated at the present time, 6. Present number in attendance, 6. Greatest number ever in attendance, 7. Total number in attendance since organization, , Public Schools where Household Employments are Taught 8. City or Town, and State, 9. Number of such schools, 10. Kinds of employment taught, 11. Is instruction compulsory or optional ? 12. Is the object of such instruction technical or general? 13. Present number receiving such instruction, Private Schools where Household Employments are Taught 14. Names of schools, 15. City or Town, and State, 16. Present number receiving such instruction, APPENDIX I 283 Women's Exchanges, Etc. 17. Please give, below, instances with whicli you are axj- quainted of 1. Women's exchanges. 2. Co-operative housekeeping. 3. Food prepared at home for sale outside. 4. Housework, not including ordinary day labor or sew- ing done by persons other than regular servants, and state also how far the results in these cases have been remunerative. Name, , Address, Please return the Schedule to the person giving it to you, or to Department of Histort, Vassar College, December 1, 1889. PoUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. 284 DOMESTIC SERVICE APPENDIX II The following table shows the geographical distribution of the replies received to the schedules sent out. NUMBERS STATES CrriEB AND Towns Bepbbbbnted Employees Ehplo\:eeb Alabama California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia . . Florida Illinois Indiana Ibwa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts .... Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire . . . New Jersey New York North Carolina .... Ohio Pennsylvania .... Bbode Island South Carolina .... South Dakota .... Tennessee T-exas Utah Vermont ...... Virginia Washington Wisconsin 2 13 2 18 1 3 27 11 14 4 2 2 4 1 53 21 5 1 4 4 1 5 16 58 2 10 18 4 8 2 1 5 1 3 2 2 9 2 30 2 37 13 3 58 45 38 6 6 2 6 5 199 45 6 1 26 12 2 5 42 231 2 30 58 8 23 2 1 31 2 3 3 2 19 11 76 2 86 32 8 146 94 68 9 9 2 6 16 486 80 12 1 90 21 2 6 126 606 2 81 202 32 94 2 3 72 4 8 9 3 38 Total 339 1005 2545 APPENDIX UI 285 APPENDIX m The following circular letter was sent out in November, 1895, to the members of the Civic Club of Philadelphia : The Committee on Household Economics to the Members of the Civic Clvb : The following standards of work and wages are submitted by the Committee on Household Economics to the members of the Civic Club for their consideration, with a view to taking some action on the subject duriag the next season. If any amendments or additions suggest themselves to the members of the Club, will they please note them in the blank space left for that purpose, and send the paper to the Chair- man of the Household Economics at the address given below ? In case an applicant for service fails to come up to these standards, the employer agrees to furnish instruction in the points of failure, the employee agreeing to share half the expense of such instruction by accepting a corresponding reduction of weekly wages until skill is attained. It is understood, of course, that the employer furnishes the proper materials and utensils for the performance of the labor. STANDARDS OF WORK AND WAGES IN HOUSE- HOLD LABOR Cooks at $ 3.50 or $ 4.00 per Week Must understand care of range or stove. Must understand care of sinks and drains. Must understand care of kitchen, cellar, and ice-chest. Must understand care of utensils. Must understand making bread, biscuit, muffins, and griddle cakes. 286 DOMESTIC SERVICE Must understand making soup stock. Must understand roasting, boiling, and broiling meats. Must understand dressing and cooking poultry. Must understand cooking eggs, fish, and oysters. Must understand cooking vegetables, fresh or canned. Must understand making tea and coffee. Must understand making plain desserts. Waitresses at $3.00 or $3.50 per Week Must understand care of dining-room. Must understand care of silver, glass, and china. Must understand care and attention in waiting on the table. Must understand care of parlor and halls. Must understand answering the door-bell properly. Chambermaids at $ 3.00 or $ 3.50 pee Week Must understand care of bedrooms. Must understand care of beds and bedding. Must understand sweeping and dusting. Must understand care of toilet and bath-rooms. Must understand care of hard-wood floors. Child's Nurse at $3.00 or $3.50 per Week Must understand washing, dressing, and feeding of children. Must understand general care of the health and well-being of children. Laundress at $3.50 or $4.00 per Week Must understand washing and ironing. Must understand general care of bed- and table-linen and clothes. Seamstress at $3.50 or $4.00 per Week Must understand plain sewing. Must understand mending and darning. Must understand use of sewing machine. BIBLIOGRAPHY FULL TITLES OF WORKS REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT Alsop, George. A Character of the Province of Maryland. New York, 1869. Anburey, Thomas. Travels through the Interior Parts of America. 2 vols. London, 1789. Arrivals of Alien Passengers and Immigrants in the United States from 1820 to 1890, see United States Treasury Department. Arusmont, Madame Frances Wright D'. Views of Society and Manners in America, 1818-1820, &y an Englishwoman, New York, 1821. Bacon, Alice M. Japanese Girls and Women. Boston, 1891. Bacon, Thomas. The Laws of Maryland at Large. Annapolis, 1765. Barber, J. W. Connecticut Historical Collections. New Haven, Conn., 1838. Bird, Isabella. The Englishwoman in America. London, 1856. BoLLES, Albert S. Industrial History of the United States. Norwich, Conn., 1879. Booth, Charles . Life and Labour of the People in London. Vol. VllL London, 1896. Bouniceau-Gesmon. Domestiques et Maxtres. Paris, 1886. Bradford, William. History of Plymouth Plantation. Boston, 1856. Breck, Samuel. Recollections. Edited by Horace E. Scudder. Phil- adelphia, 1877. Brown, Alexander. Genesis of the United States. 2 vols. Boston, 1890. Browne, William Hand. Archives of Maryland; Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland, 1684-1692. Baltimore, 1894. Bruce, Philip Alexander. Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century. 2 vols. New York, 1896. 287 288 DOMESTIC SERVICE Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, see Sainsbury. Camden Society. Publications. London, 1849-. Carey, M., and Bioren, J. Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsyl- vania, 1700-1802. Philadelphia, 1803. Chevalier, Michel. Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States. Boston, 1839. Child, Sir Josiah. A New Discourse of Trade. London, 1694. CoBBETT, William. A Year's Residence in the United States of America. London, 1828. Combe, George. Notes on the United States of North America. Phil- adelphia, 1841. Connecticut Bureau of Labor Statistics. First Annual Report. Hartford, Conn., 1885. Connecticut Historical Collections, see Barber, J. W. Cook, E. The Sot- Weed Factor, in Shea's Early Southern Tracts. Baltimore, 1865. Daly, Charles P. Reports of Cases in the Court of Common Pleas for the City and County of New York. New York, 1874. Davenant, Charles. Political and Commercial Works. 5 vols. London, 1771. Defoe, Daniel. The Great Law of Subordination Considered; or, the Insolence and Unsufferable Behaviour of Servants in England, Duly Inquired Into. London, 1724. DoRSEY, Clement. General Public Statutory Law of Maryland, 1692- 1839. 3 vols. Baltimore, 1840. Doyle, J. A. English Colonies in America. 3 vols. New York, 1882-1887. Duke of Yorke's Book of Laws, 1676-1682. Harrisburg, Pa., 1879. Eddis, William. Letters from America, Historical and Descriptive; Comprising Occurrences from 1769 to 1777, Inclusive. London, 1792. Force, Peter. Tracts and Other Papers, Relating Principally to the Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America. Washington, 1838-1846. 4 vols. Gilman, Nicholas Payne. Profit Sharing between Employer and Employee. Boston, 1893. Grattan, Thomas Colley. Civilized America. 2 vols. London, 1859. Grund, Francis J. The Am£ricans in their Moral, Social, and Political Relations. 2 vols. Boston, 1837. BIBLIOGRAPHY 289 Hamilton, Thomas. Men and Manners in America. Philadelphia, 1833. Hammond, John. Leah and Rachel^ or the Two Fruitful Sisters, Vir- ginia and Mary-land. 1656, in Force, Tracts, Vol. III. Hening, William Waller. Statutes at Large ; Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia. 13 vols. Richmond, Va., 1809-1823. HiLDRETH, Richard. History of the United States. 6 vols. New York, 1882. Howell, T. B. State Trials. 34 vols. London, 1813. Indian Narratives. Claremont, N. H., 1854. Iredell, James. Laws of the State of North Carolina. Edenton, 1791. Kalm, Peter. Travels into North America. 3 vols. Warrington, 1770-1771. Kemble, Frances Anne. Journal of a Residence in Georgia in 1838- 1839. New York, 1864. Kent, James. Commentaries on American Law. 3 vols. New York, 1836. Knight, Sarah. The Private Journal of a Journey from Boston to New York in 1704. Albany, 1865. Leaming, Aaron, and Spicer, Jacob. The Grants, Concessions, and Original Constitutions of the Province of New Jersey. Philadel- phia, 1752. Lechford, Thomas. Note-book, 1638-1641. Cambridge, Mass., 1885. Mackay, Charles. Life and Liberty in America. 2 vols. London, 1859. Maine Historical Society. Collections. Second Series. 4 vols. Portland and Cambridge, 1869-1889. Martineau, Harriet. Autobiography. 2 vols. Boston, 1877. Society in America. 2 vols. New York, 1837. Massachusetts Body of Liberties, see Whitmore. Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor. Seventeenth Annual Report. Boston, 1886. Massachusetts. Censws /or 1885. 4 vols. Boston, 1887-88. Massachusetts Historical Society. Collections. 58 vols. Boston, Mass., 1806-1896. Proceedings. 31 vols. Boston, Mass., 1859-1896. MooRE, George H. Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts. New York, 1866. Morton, Thomas. New English Canaan, in Prince Society Publi- cations. 290 DOMESTIC SERVICE Mrs. Johnson's Captivity, in Indian Narratives. MuNBY, Arthur J. Faithful Servants; being Epitaphs and Obituaries Recording their Names and Services. London, 1876. Neill, Edward D. The Founders of Maryland. Albany, 1876. Terra Marice. Philadelphia, 1867. Virginia Carolorum. Albany, 1886. New Hampshire Historical Society. Collections. 9 vols. Con- cord, N. H., 1824-. New York Historical Society. Collections. 9 vols. New York, 1811-1859. Nova Britannia, in Force, Tracts, Vol. I. O'Callaghan, E. B. Documentary History of the State of New York, 4 vols. Albany, 1865-1866. ' Parsons, Theophilus. The Law of Contracts. Boston, 1873. PuRDON, J. W. Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania from 1700 to 1830. PhHadelphia, 1831. A Relation of Maryland. Edited by Francis L. Hawks. New York, 1865. Report of a French Protestant Refugee in Boston, 1687. Brooklyn, 1868. Sainsbury, W. N. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series (1574- 1676). 9 vols. London, 1860-1893. Scharf, J. Thomas. Chronicles of Baltimore. Baltimore, 1874. Schloss, D. F. Report on Profit Sharing. London, 1894. Methods of Industrial Remuneration. London, 1894. Schouler, James. Law of the Domestic Relations. Boston, 1874. Smith, J. F. D. Tour in the United States. 2 vols. London, 1784. Smith, William. The History of the Province of New York from its Discovery to 1762. 2 vols. New York, 1829-30. Sot- Weed Factor, see Cook, E. Starkie, Thomas. A Treatise on the Law of Slander and Libel. Edited by H. C. Folkard. Albany, 1877. Stiles, Henry R. History of the City of Brooklyn. 3 vols. Brook- lyn, N. Y., 1867. Stiles, William H. ^ws^rm in 1848-49. 2 vols. New York, 1852. Stimson, F. J. American Statute Law. 2 vols. Boston, 1888-1892. Teele, a. K. History of Milton, Massachusetts, 1640-1887. Boston, 1888. '"--^^Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. 2 vols. New York, 1841. BIBLIOGBAPHT 291 Tripier, L. Constitutions qui ont regi la France depuis 1789. Paris, 1879. Trollope, Mrs. Frances E. M. Domestic Manners of the Americans. 2 vols. London, 1832. Trumbull, J. Hammond. The True Blue Laws of Connecticut. Hartford, Conn., 1876. Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut from 1665 to 1678. Hartford, Conn., 1852. Trott, Nicholas. Laws of the Province of South Carolina before 1734. 2 vols. Charleston, 1736. United States. Tenth Census. Washington, 1883-1888. Eleventh Census. Washington, 1892-1897. Treasury Department. Arrivals of Alien Passengers and Immigrants in the United States from 1820 to 1890. Washington, 1893. Walker, Francis A. The Wages Question. New York, 1886. Watson, Elkanah. Men and Times of the Revolution. New York, 1857. Watson, John F. Annals of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, 1830. Whitmore, William H. The Colonial Laws of Massachusetts. Re- printed from the edition of 1672 with the Supplements through 1686. Boston, 1890. Wensor, Justin. Narrative and Critical History of America. 8 vols. Boston, 1889. WiNTHROP, John. The History of New England. 2 vols. Boston, 1853. INDEX Advertisements of Indian servants in colonial times, 49, n. Aladdin oven, 215. Alsop, George, on condition of redemp- tioners in Maryland, 25. American Ekjonomic Association, as- sistance of, in obtaining statistics, preface, vii. American domestic employees, dislike of, of competition with foreign bom and negro elements, 147. American Statistical Association, as- sistance of, in obtaining statistics, preface, vii. Anburey, Thomas, on effect of slavery upon people of the South, 52, n. Anti-slavery agitation, new occupa- tions for women opened by, 11, 12. Apartment house, a necessary evil at the present time, 191, 229. Aristocracy, yielding of, to democracy, 227. Arusmont, Madame d', on influence of democratic spirit upon domestic em- ployees in America, 60. Atwater, W. O., investigations of, in chemistry of foods, 261, n. Australia, domestic service in, 128, n. Bacon, Alice M., on domestic service in Japan, 148, n., 209. Bacon, Francis, protest of, against transportation of convicts to Amer- ica, 18, 19, n. Bakers, colonial laws in Virginia to punish pilfering of, 32, n. Batman, Margery, wages of, 29. Bellamy, Edward, on co-operative housekeeping, 192. Billon, M., on benefit of profit sharing, 238. Bird, Isabella, on difficulty of procur- ing good servants, 58, 59. Boarding, co-operative, 191, 192. Booth, Charles, on domestic service in London, 128, n. Boston, poor service in 1636 in, 35. Boston, negro servants in, about 1700, 51, n. Boston Health Food Company, bread made by, 213, n. Boston Oriental Tea Company, 216. Boston Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 126, n. Boston Young Women's Christian As- sociation, employment bureau of, 116, n., 126, n. Braddon, M. E., on domestic service in England, 128. Bradford, Governor, his use of word " servant," 69, n. Bread, made better and more scien- tifically out of the home, 213. Breck, Samuel, purchase of redemp- tioners by, 20, n. ; on wages paid to redemptioners by, 29 ; on scarcity of good servants, 1817, 58. Bruce, P. A., on legal prohibition of introduction of English criminals into colonies, 19, n. Bulley, Amy, on domestic service in England, 128. Bushill, Mr., of Coventry, England, on benefit of profit sharing, 238. Butler, James D., on "British Con- victs Shipped to American Colonies," 18, n. Butlers, average wages of, statistics, 89, 94-96. CAMBRroGE, Mass., Co-operative Housekeeping Association, 187, 188. 294 INDEX Camping, prevalence of, has increased demand for prepared articles of food, 216. Canadians, Irish in factories displaced by, 11; number of, in the United States, 78 ; in domestic service, 79. Cap and apron, as badge of servitude, 157, 210 ; not mark of attainment or desire for neatness, 157, 209; not necessarily badge of servitude, 209, 210; regulations for wearing should be reasonable, 210. Caterers, services of, growing in de- mand, 217. Chambermaids, average wages of, statistics, 89, 94-97. Chambermaids and waitresses, aver- age wages of, statistics, 89, 94-96. Charleston, S.C, Employment Bureau, 173, n. Cheese, manufacture of, transferred from home to factories, 215. Chevalier, Michel, on Sunday privi- leges of servants, 1839, 58. Child, Sir Joshua, on benefit to Eng- land of shipping convicts to Amer- ica, 17. Chinese, in domestic service, number of, 64, n. ; have lowered its social position, 147, n. Chinese domestics, character of ser- vice, 176, n. Chinese immigration, 64. Chinese treaty, 1844, effect on domestic service in America, 64. Choremen, average wages of, statistics, 89, 95, 96. Christian name, use of, in case of do- mestic employees, 156 ; applied to no other class of workers, 156 ; implies lack of dignity, 156; allows unpleas- ant familiarity, 156 ; custom should be abandoned or modified, 209. Church sales of articles of food, 217. Cities, majority of foreign born found in, 77, 78 ; majority of domestic em- ployees found in, 83; manufactur- ing, have smallest relative number of domestic employees, 84. City life, attraction of, for domestic employees, 83. Clothing, men's, manufacture of, trans- ferred from the home to business houses, 215. Clothing, women's, increase of its man- ufacture outside the home, 213, 216. Clubs and societies, among domestic employees, 207. Coachmen, average wages of , statistics, 89, 94-96. Coachmen and gardeners, average wages of, statistics, 89, 94r-96. Cobbett, William, on self-respect of servants in America, 1828, 57, 58. Coffee, roasting of, transferred from the kitchen to business firms, 214. Coffee, sent hot from Boston to St. Louis, 216, n. College students, experiments of, in co-operative boarding, 191. College students, table service per- formed by, 142, Colonial laws, regarding servants, 22- 48 ; law in Virginia binding servants coming without indenture, 23, 24 ; in North Carolina, 24, n. ; in Maryland, 25, n. ; in West New Jersey, 25, n. ; laws regulating wages, 30, 31 ; to prevent pilfering on part of servants, 32 ; laws not specifically for house- hold employees, but for all servants, 37 ; law to protect servants against ill-treatment from masters, 38-40; to protect masters, 40-46; latter more specific, 40; relate chiefly to runaways, 40; penalties for harbor- ing runaways, 41-43; rewards for capture of runaways, 43, 44 ; means for prevention of runaways, 44; laws for infliction of corporal pun- ishment upon servants, 45 ; for pre- vention of bartering with servants, 45, 46 ; examples of laws placing op- pressive restrictions upon servants, 47 ; laws to prohibit freeing servants, 47,48. Colonial period of domestic service, see Domestic service. Colored servants, see Negro domestic employees, Negro slaves. Competition of other industries with domestic service, 68. INDEX 295 CJoncentration of capital and labor, an industrial tendency, 194. C!onnecticut, redemptioners in, 20, 28 ; instances of troubles with servants in colonial times, 36; colonial law protecting servants against injury from master, 39, n. ; fixing penalties upon those who harbored runaways, 42; fixing reward for capturing runaways, 44; allowing corporal punishment, 45; to prevent barter with servants, 46; to prevent free- ing of servants, 48. Convicts, transported, among the early colonial settlers, 17, 18 ; as servants, 19; term of service, 19. See also Redemptioners. " Cook," as an appellation unobjec- tionable, 208. Cooks, average wages of, statistics, 89, 94-97; receive highest wages, 90; give better satisfaction than general servants, 91; social ostracism of, instance, 153, n. ; as skilled workers, should not be called " servants," 208. Cooks and laundresses, average wages of, statistics, 89, 94-96. Co-operation, an industrial tendency, 196. Co-operation, in the family versus co- operation with other families, 232. Co-operation, unconscious, character- istic of modern industry, 212; al- lowed to operate by having work done out of the house, 226. Co-operative boarding, 191, 192; bene- fits of, 192. Co-operative housekeeping, 186-193; Mrs. Peirce's description of, 186, 187 ; advantages, 187 ; Rochdale Pio- neers, 187; Cambridge, Mass. Co- operative Housekeeping Associa- tion, 187, 188 ; weak points, 188-191 ; does not allow for weaknesses of human nature, 188-190; practical difficulties in serving food, 190 ; not desired by majority, 190, 191 ; " The Roby," 191 ; experiments usually co-operative boarding, simply, 191; Mr. Bellamy's scheme of, 192. Corporal punishment of servants, colonial laws concerning, 45. Cost of living as affected by specializa- tion of household employments, 230. Dabwin, Mrs. E. W., on domestic ser- vice in England, 128, n. Davenant, Charles, on England's good fortune in being able to ship convicts to America, 17. DeFoe, Daniel, Behaviour of Servants, 48, n., 114, 115, 120, n., 128. Delaware, colonial law fixing reward for capturing runaways, 44. Democratic spirit, prevalence of, in early part of century, 61 ; character- istic of native bom servants of early part of century, 61; revival of, 66, 228. Desserts, prepared out of the house, 214. District of Columbia, largest number of domestics employed in, 82. Division of labor, see Labor, division of. "Domestic" recommended as substi- tute for "general servant," 207. Domestic employees in early New Eng- land, native born and of high char- acter, 11 ; their self respect, 49, n. Domestic employees in colonial period, see also Convicts, transported, Free- willers, Indians, Negroes, Redemp- tioners. Domestic employees, number of, in the United States by latest census, 3; average wages paid, 3, n., 88, 90-98; average cost of board for each, 4, n. ; demand for, greater than supply, 14, 125 ; democratic spirit of, at the North, 54-60; in early part of century, difficult to procure, 56, 58, 61 ; democratic spirit of, a sub- ject of complaint, 59 ; compared with domestic employees in Europe, 59; causes of democratic spirit, 61 ; negro slaves at the South, 61 ; changes in kind among, between 1850 and 1870, 62 ; introduction of Irish, 62 ; of Ger- mans, 63 ; of Chinese, 64 ; a new so- cial and a new economic element introduced by foreign born domestic 296 INDEX employees, 64, 65 ; change in kind at the South through abolition of slav- ery, 65 ; lack of political privileges of, in Europe, 72, n. ; mostly of for- eign birth, 74^77 ; geographical dis- tribution of, in the United States, 76 ; number of Irish, 79 ; number of Ger- man, 79; number of English, 79; number of Canadian, 79 ; nimiber of Swedish and Norwegian, 79 ; few in agricultural and thinly settled states, 80 ; relative number large in states containing large cities, 80 ; smallest relative number in Oklahoma, 81; greatest relative number in District of Columbia, New York, Massachu- setts, and New Jersey, 82; relative number unaffected by aggregate wealth of state, 82 ; affected by per capita wealth of state, 82 ; high rel- ative number in cities, 83 ; relative number most affected by prevailing industry, 84, 87, 88 ; relative number small in manufacturing towns, 84; relative number large in the South, 84; foreign born receive higher wages than native born, 91, 92; savings, 102, 103; small nimiber of unemployed, 104, 105 ; number in av- erage family, 107 ; nationalities rep- resented in schedules forming basis of this work, 108, n. ; foreign born an extraneous element difl&cult to assimilate into household, 109; brief tenure of service, 109-112 ; ignorance of, 112, 113; dislike of occupation, 127 ; industrial independence of, 130 ; other occupations engaged in, 130, n. ; reasons for entering service, 131; special privileges given, 133, 134; hours of work, 143; disadvantages — social deprivations, 152-154; en- forced loneliness, 154, n. ; obnoxious term "servant," 156; address by Christian name, 156; wearing of livery, 157 ; servility of manner ex- pected, 158; ignored socially, 158; required to obey absurd orders, 158 ; degraded by offering of fees, 158- 162 ; often required to go out at night unprotected, 162 ; exposed to contam- ination in intelligence offices, 162; do not care" to be treated as mem- bers of the family, 170-172; desire opportunity to live their lives in their own way, 172; their demand for more social opportunities reason- able, 206 ; demand cannot be met in private home, 206 ; solitary instruc- tion unsatisfactory, 206; social op- portunities more satisfactory if pro- vided by them than for them, 207 ; taken from the home of employer through specialization of household employments, 213-234 ; independence of, secured through specialization of household employments, 228 ; moral education acquired through profit sharing, 247. See also Hours of work, Wages. Domestic employments, see Household employments. Domestic service, " the great American question," 1 ; discussed frequently, in a popular manner, 1; has been omitted from economic discussion, 2; omitted from theoretical discus- sion, 2; reasons — capital not in- volved, 2 ; no combinations formed, 2 ; products of labor transient, 2 ; omitted from official statistics be- cause of no demand by public for its investigation, 2, 3 ; references to par- tial discussions, 3, n. ; subject has not been considered historically, 3 ; an important question, considering numbers involved, 3; nature of, has been regarded as personal only, 4; regarded as an isolated form of in- dustry, 5; difficulties in domestic service due partly to incomplete di- vision of labor, 15 ; three phases of, in America, 16; in the colonial period, 16-53 ; implied social inferi- ority even more than now, 53; un- satisfactory to both master and servant, 53 ; accompanied by definite legal exactions, 53; in New Eng- land, early part of century, 54; described by Harriet Martineau, 55, 56 ; since 1850, 62-68 ; at the North, change of personnel from native INDEX 29T born to foreign, 62-66 ; at the South, no change till later, 62; causes of change — Irish famine, 62, 63; Ger- man Revolution, 63, 64; treaty be- tween United States and China, 1844, 64 ; effect of change, lowering of social status, 65; at the South, condition changed with abolition of slavery, 65 ; foreign born domestics introduced, 65; the employment as affected by development of material resources, 66, 67 ; mobility of, 67-69; new rival occupations to compete with, 68 ; changes indicated by his- tory of "servant," 69-71; economic phases of domestic service, 74-106; the occupation includes more for- eign born women than any other occupation, 77 ; includes majority of foreign born wage-earning women, 77 ; employees prefer city to country life, 77, 78, 83; nationalities most represented, 79; effect of aggregate wealth of state upon number, 82, 83 ; statistics representing effect of lo- cality, 85 ; effect of per capita wealth, 86-88 ; effect of prevailing industry greatest, 87; character of service rendered, 91 ; wages higher than av- erage wages in other occupations, 93 ; average annual earnings, 98 ; re- mvmeration compared with that in teaching, 101, 102 ; wage limit sooner reached, 103, 104; offers constant oc- cupation and least loss of time, 104, 105 ; free from strikes and combina- tions, 105; conforms to economic conditions, 106; difficulties of em- ployer, 107-129; not confined to America, 128, 129; cannot be reme- died without economic treatment, 129, 264; advantages in domestic service, 130-139; reasons given for entering, 131; high wages, 132; healthful occupation, 132; exter- nals of a home, 133 ; free hours and vacations without loss of wages, 134-136; useful training, 137; the employment congenial to many, 137 ; legal protection in, 138 ; legal rights — freedom from physical punish- ment, sufficient food, support dur- ing illness, good character, wages, damages for discharge, 138 ; advan- tages are inherent in the occupation, 139; summed up, are those of "wages, hours, health, and mor- als," 139; advantages unavailing to attract, 139; industnal disadvan- tages, 140-150 ; independent of per- sonal relationship, 140; list of rea- sons given for not entering service, 140, 141 : little chance for promotion, 141 ; lack of stimulus for the efficient and ambitious, 141, 142 ; "housework never done," 142, 143 ; lack of organ- ization in housework, 143; irregu- larity of working hours, 143-146; limited free time, 146; in case of Americans, competition with for- eign born and negroes, 146, 147; strictures on personal independence, 147-149 ; summary of industrial dis- advantages, 149, 150; social disad- vantages, 151-166, 204-211, 266, 267; no real home life for employees, 151 ; being in a family and not of it, 152 ; regulations in regard to visitors necessary, 152 ; lack of opportunity to receive or give hospitality, 152; exclusion from general social life of commimity, 153 ; deprivation of op- portunities for personal improve- ment, 153, 154; appellation of "ser- vant," 155; use of Christian name in address, 156 ; requirement of liv- ery, 157 ; requirement of servility of manner, 158; custom of offering fees, 158-162 ; lack of protection and exposure to vice, 162 ; discrimination according to ordinary social stand- ards not expected, 163, n. ; social in- feriority weighs more than anything else against the employment, 163; other disadvantages, 164; advan- tages and disadvantages compared, 165; latter outweigh former, 166; remedies adapted to nature of diffi- culties required, 168; no panacea, 168 ; reform must be in line with in- dustrial progress, 168; must be an evolution, 168; cannot be immedi- 298 INDEX ate, 168, 169; real problem of do- mestic service, 198; the subject neglected by economic students and writers, 199; its importance under- estimated in public sentiment, 200, 201 ; improvement dependent on wider general education and more scientific investigation, 203; social disadvantages can be removed or modified, 204; removal of social barriers will remove social ban, 211 ; improvement impossible, till house- keeping as a profession advances, 254 ; improvement hindered by par- tial treatment of labor question, 264 ; by conservatism of many women, 264, 265; by tendency of women toward aristocracy, 265; by ten- dency to display of wealth, 265, 266 ; responsibility of introducing im- provement rests on all, 266 ; investi- gation and discussion will result in removal of social stigma, 266, 267; in removal of work and worker from home of employer, 267; in placing the employment on a busi- ness basis, 268; in readjustment of work of both men and women, 270 ; suggestions as to means of attaining results, 273. See also Convicts, trans- ported, Freewillers, Redemptioners, Remedies, Wages. Domestic system, see Home manufact- ures. Dudley, Mrs. Mary Winthrop, descrip- tion of a refractory servant by, 35. Earnings of domestic employees, 98. See also Wages. Economic discussion of domestic ser- vice neglected, 2, 199. Economic gains from specialization of household employments, 229. Economic laws, disregard of, by em- ployers of domestic service, 117-122. Economic phases of domestic service, 74-106. Economic tendencies, see Industrial tendencies. Education, views of effect of, on do- mestic service, 179. Education in household affairs, 251- 262. Electricity in the household, 9, 232. "Employer," use of, for "master" and " mistress," 207. Employers, their personal point of view, 4 ; difficulties of, 107-129 ; as- similation into household of foreign and ignorant employees, 109; rest- lessness of domestic employees, 109- 112; ignorance of domestic em- ployees, 112, 113; the choice of a domestic a lottery, 114-117 ; general disregard among employers of eco- nomic principles, 117-122 ; individual irresponsibility of employers, 121, 122; difficulties of, increasing, 125, n. ; fewer under certain conditions, 126; difficulties also in England, Germany, and France, 127; due to a defective and antiquated system, 129 ; individual standpoint of many employers, 170; each responsible to all, 266. See also Housekeepers. Employment bureau, unsatisfactory, 115-117; application of profit shar- ing to, 244. Employments of men and women need readjustment, 270-272. England, domestic service in, unsatis- factory, 127, 128. English custom of using surname for domestics, 157. English in the United States, number of, 78 ; in domestic service, number of, 79. Ethics of domestic service given too exclusive attention, 167. Evans, Elizabeth, wages of, 28. Extravagance of domestics checked through system of profit sharing, 241, 242. Extravagant habits acquired in domes- tic service, 150. Factory system, substituted for the domestic system, 8-15; agencies which brought about, 8; released labor from the home, 10; changed personnel of domestic service, 11 ; diverted labor into other channels, INDEX 299 11, 12; made some labor idle, 12; produced social prejudice against labor of women for remuneration, 12, 14 ; mobility of labor introduced by, 67. Faithful, Emily, on domestic service in England, 128, n. Family, average, 107. Family life marred by introduction of domestics, 171, 172. Fancy work, as result of idle labor, 12 ; George Eliot on, 12, n. ; " intel- lectual fancy work," 13. Feeing, 158-162; effects of, 159; hu- miliates giver and receiver, 159; creates eye service, 159; degrades and demoralizes, 159; excuses of- fered for, 161, 162 ; feeing of a few, brands all domestics as a class, 162, 245; abolition of feeing, 210; abol- ished through adoption of profit sharing, 244, 245. Fees, offered to no other class of workers, 159; undemocratic, 159; brand the recipient socially, 160; are bribes, 160 ; objectionable man- ner of giving, 160, 161 ; given to eke out wages of imderpaid employees, 161 ; same principle not practised in regard to other underpaid employ- ments, 161. Feudge, F. R., Chinese cook qaoted by, 148, n. Flats, custom of living in, makes it desirable to dispense with domestics, 227,229. Food, list of articles of, whose prepa- ration outside the home is increas- ing, 213 ; preparation of, out of the house for final application of heat, 214, 215, 219, 220; prepared for church and missionary sales, 217, n. ; in some cases better if prepared in small quantities, 232. Foods, chemistry of, 261. France, domestic service in, unsatis- factory, 129. Free laborers, indented servants at the North supplanted by, 54. Freewillers, 19. French constitutions, 1795, and 1799 right of suffrage denied servants by, 72, n. Frethorne, Richard, sufferings of in- dented servants described by, 27. Fruits, canned, preparation of, outside the home increasing, 213. Fruits better canned where they grow than after transportation, 220, 221. Galultin, Albert, on change from home to factory manufacture of clothing materials, 215. Gardeners, average wages of, statis- tics, 89, 94-96. Gardeners, see Coachmen. Gas, natural, use of, in the household, 9. Greneral servant, average wages of, statistics, 89, 91-97. German immigration, 63. German redemptioners, 20, 21. Grerman Revolution, 1848, effect of, on domestic service in America, 63. German service-books, their introduc- tion proposed, 178. (Jermans in the United States, number of, 78 ; in domestic service, number of, 64, n., 79. Germany, domestic service in, unsatis- factory, 128, 129. Gilman, Nicholas Payne, on modern industry, 189; on profit sharing, 236, 238, 241, 242. Godkin, E. L., on influence of the Irish cook, 63, n. Golden rule, application of, inadequate to reform domestic service, 169. Grattan, Thomas, in praise of Ameri- can servants, 57, n. ; on scarcity of "help," 59, 60. Grund, F. J., on self-respect of Ameri- can servants, 57. Hadley, a. T., on social standing in occupations, 163. Hammond, J., Leah and Rachel, 21, n., 25,26. Harvard University Memorial Hall, boarding at, 249. "Help," 55, 57, 59, 60, 61, 65, 70. Higginson, Col. Thomas, on children's dislike of history, 205. 300 INDEX Holidays and half-holidays, 134, 135, 145. Home industries which are now obso- lete, 9, 215, 216. Home instruction in household affairs inadequate, 258, 259. Home life secured through specializa- tion of household employments, 220, 226, 228. Home life, lack of, in domestic ser- vice, 151. Home-made bread, 213, Home-made men's clothing the rule in 1810, 215. Home-made cheese formerly common, 215. **Homemaker" suggested for "mis- tress," 208, n. Home manufacture of articles of food and clothing decreasing, 213. Home manufactures superseded by factory system, 8, 215, 216 ; may be revived by introduction of electri- city into household, 232. Hotel service, the only kind offering chance of promotion, 141; advan- tages of profit sharing in — waste avoided, 244 ; feeing abolished, 244, 245. Hours, free, in domestic service, 134, 145, 146. Hours of work, varied and irregular, 143-146 ; statistics, 144. Housecleaning, done by specialists, 224. Household affairs, education in, 251- 262 ; information regarding conduct of, difficult to obtain, 251, 252; one cause of slow progress, 252; kinds of information needed in con- duct of, 252, 253; supplementary special education needed still more, 253; university education in, 259- 262; results of, removal of social stigma from domestic service, 266, 267; removal of work and worker from house, 267, 268; placing of domestic service on business basis, 268. Household employments, isolation of, 5 ; changes introduced by inven- tions, 7, 9; lightened by modern improvements, 9 ; preferred to other kinds of occupation, 137; avoided on accoimt of disadvantages, 140, 141; mistaken idea that results are transient, 142, 143 ; the only employ- ments not officially investigated, 198; importance of, must be better appreciated, 199, 200, 202 ; performed without remimeration, honored, per- formed for remuneration, scorned, 202 ; specialization of household em- ployments, 212-234; preparation of food, 213-221 ; takes work from home, 213-234; opens new occupa- tion to women, 218; practical in- stances, 219, n., 220, n., 224, n., 233, n. ; the transference need not lessen individuality of the home, 221, 222 ; laundry work, 222, 223 ; houseclean- ing, sweeping, care of rooms, etc., 224; marketing, 225; specialization would attract more able women, 226, 227 ; would reduce house rent, 228 ; would raise standard of work, 228 ; would make discrimination possible between skilled and unskilled labor, 228; a flexible system of co-opera- tion, 229 ; adapted to " apartments," 229; would lessen monotony of life of employee, 229 ; would change per- sonal relation of employer and em- ployee into a business relation, 229; would elevate drudgery to forms of distinct occupation, 229; economic gains from, 229; objections raised to, 230, 231; found successful by those who have tried it, 233 ; house- hold employments as taught in schools, mechanical, 259; must re- ceive their due respect, 270. Household sanitation, 261, n. "Housekeeper," as substitute for "general servant," 207, 208, n. "Housekeeper, Working," as substi- tute for " servant," 156. Housekeepers, average wages of, sta- tistics, 94-96 ; reluctance of some to express dissatisfaction, 124 ; conven- tion of, of little avail, 179; need of technical and scientific training, 200 ; need of information and educa- INDEX 301 tion, 253, 254 ; conservatism of many, 264, 265 ; responsibility of each to all, 266. See also Employers. Housekeeping, small advance made in profession of, 254 ; reasons for, 254- 258 ; belief that instinct supplies the knowledge, 254-256 ; belief that men have no active interest in it, 256, 257 ; that all women have an interest and need no training, 257, 258 ; home in- struction in, inadequate, 258, 259; university education needed, 259- 262; co-operative, see Co-operative housekeeping. Housework, see Household employ- ments. Ho wells, W. D., on feeing, 162, n. Hygienic advantage in having vege- tables prepared out of the house, 214. Idle labor, 10, 12, 270. Idleness forced upon women, 202. Improvement, enlarged opportunities for personal, 197. Indented servants, see Redemptioners. Indenture, form of, 22, 23, n. ; included time of service, nature of service and compensation, 22; cases without, provided for bylaw, 23; law of, in Virginia, 23, 24. Indian Narratives, 20, n, Indian servants not allowed to travel without a pass, 44. Indians as servants in New England, 49-51 ; advertisements of, 49, n., 50, n. Industrial changes affecting domestic service in early part of century , 66, 67. Industrial tendencies — concentration of capital and labor, 194 ; specializa- tion of work, 195; association and combination of workers, 195; in- crease of technical training, 195 ; co-operation, profit sharing, 196; entrance of women into business occupations, 196 ; estimate of work for its quality rather than for its kind, 197 ; official investigation of business relations, 197, 198. Industries, interdependence of, 15; some which are now obsolete, 215, 216. Intelligence office, see Employment bureau. Inventions of the 18th century, co- operating influences with, produc- ing factory system, 8 ; effect of, on household employments, 10-15. Irish famine, 1846, effect of, on domes- tic service in America, 62. Irish immigration, 62. Irish immigration in Connecticut, 1764, 20 ; in Massachusetts, 1718, 20. Irish in the United States, number of, 64, n., 78; in domestic service, 79. Japan, domestic service in, 148, n. Japanese custom of addressing em- ployees, 209. Johnson, Mrs., Captivity, 20, n. Kalm, Peter, on wages in Pennsylva- nia, 1748, 29. Kemble, Fanny, on experience of her white maid in the South, 70, n. Kent, Chancellor, on legal relation of masters and servants, 138. Kitchen gardens, object and experi- ence of, 185. Elnight, Madame, on treatment of ser- vants in 1704, 28. Labor, division of, in women's work, caused by factory system, 11; has resulted in unequal distribution of work, 13, 14 ; in household employ- ments only partially accomplished, 15; characteristic of modern indus- try, 212 ; results in greater variety of products, 222. Labor of women more productive through specialization of household employments, 231, 232. Labor question, domestic service a part of, 129, 264. Laundresses, average wages, statistics, 89, 94-97. See also Cooks. Laundry work, better done out of the house, 222, 223. Laws protecting domestic employees, 138. Laws, colonial, see Colonial laws. 302 INDEX Leclaire, M., on knowledge of the workman, 200. Leclaire, Maison, 237. Legal status of domestic employees, 138. Levasseur, M., on proportion of fail- ures among business firms, 245. Library strictures in regard to domes- tic employees, 154, n. Licenses for domestic employees, 177, 178. Livery, absence of, in early times at the North, 57, 61. See also Cap and apron. Living, cost of, affected by specializa- tion of household employments, 230. London, domestic service in, 128, n. London South Metropolitan Gas Com- pany, profit sharing in, 239. Lowell, J. R., on Indian servants, 51, n. ; on "help," 55 ; on influx of Irish domestic employees, 63. Lyman, O. E., on legal status of do- mestic employees, 138, n. Mackay, Charles, on "help," 58, n. " Maid " as substitute for " servant," 156 ; unobjectionable, 208. Maid-of-all-work, present require- ments of, 228. Maine, high wages of redemptioners • in, 28, n. ; instance related by John Winter of unsatisfactory service in, 33,34. Maine, Sir Henry Sumner, on equality, 211. Maison Leclaire, 237. Manufacturing industries, number of women in, in Massachusetts, 10, n. ; women employees in, largely out- number men, 10, n. ; greater demand for servants created by increase of, 11 ; manufacturing industries utilize ignorant labor, 14 ; relative number of domestic employees diminished by, 87. Marketing, made a specialty by one person for many families, 225, 226. Martineau, Harriet, on democratic condition of service in America, 55, 56. Maryland, transported convicts in, 18 ; free willers in, 19; redemptioners in, 21, 25; colonial law regulating wages of redemptioners in, 31; to protect servants in, 38, n. ; concern- ing runaways in, 41 ; concerning those who harbored runaways in, 43 ; fixing reward for capturing runa- ways in, 44 ; preventing barter with servants in, 46 ; redemptioners who rose to distinction in, 48, n. Massachusetts, number of women in manufacturing industries in, 10, n. ; redemptioners in, 20; colonial law concerning wages of redemptioners in, 30; to protect servants in, 38, n. ; in regard to punishment of servants in, 45; to prevent barter with servants in, 46 ; debarring ser- vants from holding public office in, 47; concerning wearing apparel of servants in, 47; prohibiting setting servants free in, 47 ; proportion of foreign born domestic employees in, 77 ; large relative number of domes- tic employees in, 82. Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Sta- tistics, returns from schedules col- lated by, preface, ix, x. "Master," as a term should be abol- ished, 207. Meats, stuffed, delivered ready for final application of heat, 214. Michigan, University of, women gradu- ates of, assistance of, in obtaining statistics, preface, vii. "Mistress," as an appellation should be abolished, 207. Mitchell, Maria, on woman's work, 272. Mobility of labor made possible, 67; developed to an inconvenient extent, 68. Morton, Thomas, use of word " ser- vant," 69, n. Munby, A. J., Epitaphs of Servants, 55, n. Music lessons, desire for, ridiculed, 153, n ; of a domestic, 154, n. Negro domestic employees, their in- INDEX 303 crease at the North a doubtful remedy for difficulties, 172-175 ; un- satisfactory service of, in the South, 173-175 ; deteriorating, 174, n. ; char- acter of employees, 175, n. Negro slavery, influence of, on people of the South, 1778, 52, n. Negro slaves, not allowed to travel without pass, 44 ; in colonial Boston, 51, n. ; in the South, 51, 52. Neill, E. D., on character of redemp- tioners, 48, n. New England, redemptioners in, 20; high character of domestic employ- ees in early, 54, 57. See also Con- necticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island. New England Kitchen, Boston, bread made at, 214. New Jersey, colonial law regulating wages in, 31 ; to protect servants in, 38, n., 40; concerning runaways in, 41 ; concerning those who harbored runaways in, 42 ; to prevent barter with servants in, 46 ; large relative number of domestic employees in, 82. New York, colonial law concerning wages of redemptioners in, 30; to protect servants in, 38, n., 39; con- cerning those who harbored runa- ways in, 42; regarding punish- ment of servants in, 45 ; preventing barter with servants in, 46; large relative number of domestic em- ployees in, 82. New Zealand, law providing half -holi- day discussed, 135, n. North, the, introduction into, of more negro domestics a doubtful remedy, 172-175. North Carolina, colonial law regu- lating wages of redemptioners in, 30, 31 ; to protect servants in, 38, n., 39, 40 ; concerning runaways in, 41 ; fixing reward for capturing runa- ways in, 43; regarding corporal punishment of servants in, 45; to prevent barter with servants in, 45 ; to punish feigning of illness or carry- ing of arms in, 47 ; prohibiting set- ting a servant free in, 47. Northbrook, Earl of, footman of, tips received by, 160, n. Norwegians, in the United States, see Swedes and Norwegians. Oklahoma, fewest domestics em- ployed in, 81. Organization in household employ- ments, lack of, an industrial disad- vantage, 143. Oriental Tea Company, Boston, 216, n. Outlook, on feeing, 162, n. Parlor maids, average wages of, sta- tistics, 90, 97. Pea-sheller, 214, n. Peace Dale Manufacturing Company, 238. Peirce, Mrs., on co-operative house- keeping, 186-188. Pennsylvania, transported convicts in, 18, n. ; wages of redemptioners in, 29 ; colonial law regulating wages of redemptioners in, 30; purpose of Act of 1700 regarding servants in, 37 ; colonial law to protect servants in, 40; regarding runaways in, 41; fixing reward for capturing runa- ways in, 43 ; to prevent barter with servants in, 46; forbidding inn- keepers to trust servants in, 47. Personal relation between employer and employee usually alone regarded, 4, 167 ; changed to business relation through specialization of household employments, 229. Philadelphia Ci\ic Club, classification of wages by, 268, n. Placid Club, profit sharing at, 249. Polly, Mary, indenture of, 23, n., 29. Poor whites descendants of redemp- tioners, 49. Porter, hotel, instance of a fortune ac- quired by, in fees, 160. Porters, railway, profit sharing, in case of, advantages— waste avoided, 244 ; feeing abolished, 244, 245. Potter, Bishop, on luxury, 265. Privileges, special, kinds given to em- ployees, 133, 134. Profit sharing, an industrial tendency, 304 INDEX 196; defined, 236, 237; history of, 237; benefits of, in its trial else- where, 237-242 ; advantages — de- velops "group of industrial virtues," 237; lessens worry, 238; checks waste, 238 ; identifies interest of em- ployer and employee, 238, 239, 247 ; not a loss to employer, 239 ; applied to domestic service, 240-250, 268, 269; secures economy of time, ma- terial, appliances, 240, 241; appli- cation, methods of, 242-244; in case of hotel employees and railway porters, 244, 245; advantages — waste avoided, feeing abolished, 244, 245; objections raised to, 245- 247 ; instances of its trial given, 248- 250. Promotion in domestic service rare except in hotels, 141. Public schools said to over-educate do- mestics, 179 ; introduction of house- work into, advocated by some, 179. Recommendations of domestic em- ployees unsatisfactory, 114, 115. Redemptioners, 1&-49; term of service, 19; probably outnumbered trans- ported convicts, 20 ; more in South- ern and Middle colonies than in New England, 20; of English, German, and Irish birth, 20 ; not always from lower classes, 21 ; methods by which they were obtained and transported, 22; "spirited away," 22, n. ; form of indenture, 22, 23, n. ; easy life of some described by Alsop, 25 ; unen- viable condition of majority, 25-28 ; wages of, 28-31; high in New Eng- land, 28; generally low, 28; poor quality of their service, 31-36 ; colo- nial laws concerning their relation to masters, 38-48; legal protection, 38-40; legal precaution against their escape, 40, 41 ; legal punishment for harboring any who escaped, 41, 42 ; legal reward for their capture when escaped, 43, 44 ; laws to prevent their escape, 44; discomforts and hard treatment, 44; laws for corporal punishment, 45; laws to prevent barter with, 45, 46: restricted by minute and oppressive laws, 47; laws to prevent their being set free, 47, 48 ; a few rose to high social po- sition, 48 ; supplanted by free labor- ers at the North, 54 ; supplanted by negro slaves at the South, 54. See also Colonial laws, Indenture, names of colonies. Remedies, doubtful, 167-193; many proposed, 167 ; why ineffective, 167 ; application of golden rule inade- quate, 169; application of intelli- gence not sufficient, 170; receiving employee into family unsatisfac- tory, 170-172; bringing negroes to the North, of doubtful benefit, 172- 175 ; importation of Chinese domes- tics would tend to drive out Euro- pean domestics, 176, 177; licenses, not applicable, 177, 178; German service books, not feasible, 178 ; ab- olition of higher grades of public schools, 179; introduction of house- work into public schools, 179 ; " Ser- vant Reform Association," 179, 180; training schools do not promise success, undemocratic, 180-186; co- operative housekeeping, 186-193 ; causes of its failure, 193. See also Co-operative housekeeping, Train- ing schools. Remedies, possible, must have histori- cal and economic basis, 193, 194; gen- eral principles, 194-203 ; must be in line with industrial tendencies, 194 ; cannot be immediate in effect, 199 ; creation of social opportunities, 206, 207; abolition of term "servant," 207, 208; disuse or less free use of Christian name, 209; reasonable regulations for wearing cap and apron, 210; relinquishment of de- mand for servility of manner, 210; abolition of fees, 210 ; specialization of household employments, 212-234 ; measures must conform to principles of division of labor and unconscious co-operation, 212 ; practice of put- ting work out of the house, 213-234, 267, 268 ; removing worker from the INDEX 305 house, 213-234, 267, 268; education in household affairs, 251-262; im- provement must be an evolution, 273. See also Industrial tendencies. Profit sharing. Rents, possible lessening of, through removal of necessity for laundries in individual homes, 223. Rhode Island, colonial laws concern- ing those who harbored runaways, 43 ; for corporal punishment oi ser- vants, 45. Richards, Mrs. Ellen S., and Talbot, Marion , Household Sanitation, 261, n. " The Roby," 191. Rochdale Pioneers, 187. Rowe, C. J., on domestic service in Australia, 128, n. Runaways, legal punishment of, 41; legal punishment of those harbor- ing, 42, 43 ; legal rewards for capt- uring, 44. Sanitation, household, 261, n. Savings of domestic employees, 103. Schloss, D. F., on profit sharing, 237- 239. Schouler, James, on relation of master and servant, 138. Seamstresses, average wages of, sta- tistics, 89, 94r-97. Second girl, average wages of, statis- tics, 89, 94-97. " Servant," as an appellation, 57, 58, 69-72, 155, 208 ; history of its use in America, 69-71; term offensive to American employees, 72; not de- meaning in itself, 155; may be ap- plied to any one, 155 ; ordinary usage restricted to one who does house- work for wages, 155 ; protests against the term, 155, n. ; as used at present will continue to be a mark of social degradation, 155, 156; should be abolished, 207. "Servant Reform Association," 179, 180. Service books, see German service books. Servility of manner, absence of, at the North, in early colonial period, 61 ; required of domestics, 158; an anom- aly in a democratic country, 210. Sewall, Judge, description by, of fu- neral of his negro servant, 27, n. ; protest of, against negro slavery, 52, n. Sewing women of New York City, 199, n. Slavery, abolition of, opened compe- tition in domestic service between negroes and foreign born, 65 ; aboli- tion of, assisted in making labor mobile, 67. Smith, J. F. D., on use of term "ser- vant," 70, n. Social condition of domestic service, improvement in, see Remedies, pos- sible. Social disadvantages of domestic ser- vice, see Domestic service, social disadvantages. Social opportunities for domestics, the demand for more, reasonable, 206; cannot be met in private home, 206. Social position of different occupations changes, 205, 266, 267. Social stigma attached to domestic ser- vice, its greatest disadvantage, 163. Sot-Weed Factor, 21, n., 22, n.,27, 48, n. South Carolina, colonial law regulat- ing wages of redemptioners, 30 ; to protect servants, 40; concerning runaways, 41 ; concerning those who harbored runaways, 42; con- cerning punishment of servants, 45 ; to prevent barter with servants, 46 ; difficulty of obtaining good domes- tics in, 173, n. Specialization of labor, an industrial tendency, 195. Specialization of household employ- ments, see Household employments. Spinning, revival of, as home industry in Westmoreland, 232, n. Statistics, basis of, for this work, obtained through distribution of schedules, preface, vii-xi. Stephen, Sir James, on civil service reform, 274. Suffrage, right of, denied domestic servants in Europe, 72, n. 306 INDEX Sunday, free hours on, in domestic service, 134, 146, 147. Sunday privileges of domestics in early part of century, 58. Swedes and Norwegians in the United States, number of, 78; number in domestic service, 79. Syracuse, N.Y., Household Economic Club, 225, n. Table service an art, 142; may be performed by specialist, 224. Talbot, Marion, and Richards, Mrs. Ellen S . ,Household Sanitatio n ,261 , n . Taylor, George, signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, a Pennsyl- vania redemptioner, 48, n. Tea Company, Oriental, Boston, 216, n. Teachers, wages of, compared with wages of domestics, 99-102 ; salaries of, statistics, 99, 100. Technical training, demand for, an industrial tendency, 195. Texas, preference in, for German and Swedish domestics, 173, n. Thatcher, Rev. Peter, Indian servant of, 51. Tips, see Feeing. Tocqueville, A. de, on democratic con- dition of service in America, 57. Training schools for domestics, 180- 186 ; possible benefits from, 180, 181 ; demand for, from employers, 181; scheme for their establishment in connection with World's Fair, 1893, 181; few established and those un- successful, 181; reasons for their failure, 182-186; admit pupils too young, 182; course too short, 182; attendance not voluntary, 182, 183; ignorance of employers, 183; not analogous to training schools for nurses, 183, 184 ; methods superficial, 184, 185 ; undemocratic, 185, 186. Trollope, Mrs., on difficulty in obtain- ing servants, 58. Troy, N.Y,, laundries, 223. Tutwiler, Julia R., on feeing, 162, n. Unconscious co-operation, character- istic of modern industry, 212. Unemployed, number of, among do- mestic employees, very small, 104, 105. University education in household af- fairs needed, 259-262, 269. Vacations, of domestic employees, 135, 136. Vassar College, Associate Alumnae of, assistance of, in obtaining statistics, preface, vii; Classes of 1888 and 1889, assistance of, in obtaining sta- tistics, preface, vii. Vegetables, preparation of, for cook- ing, 214; canning of, 214, n. Verney, Thomas, a redemptioner, 21, n. Virginia, transported convicts in, 18; General Court of, prohibits intro- duction of English criminals, 19, n. ; redemptioners in, 21, n,, 23, 25, 27, 48, n. ; colonial law of indenture in, 23, 24; laws binding servants not indented in, 23, 24; law regulating wages of redemptioners in, 30; to punish pilfering of bakers in, 32, n. ; fixing reward for capturing runa- ways in, 44. Wages in domestic service, total ag- gregate paid, 3, n. ; average paid in 1817, cited by Breck, 58, n. ; present average of, statistics, 88, 90, 94-97 ; by geographical sections, 88 ; by oc- cupations, statistics, 90, 94-97 ; high- est for skilled labor, 89 ; higher paid to foreign born than to native born, 91, 92 ; higher paid to men than to women, 92; tending to increase, 93; exceed average wages in other occupations, 93; compared with wages of teachers, 99-102; main- tained without strikes, 105 ; conform to economic laws, 106; in average family, 108; imderrated in popular estimate, 164, n. ; not officially in- vestigated as are wages in other occupations, 198. Wages of redemptioners, 28-31. " Waitress," as an appellation unob- jectionable, 208. Waitresses, average wages of, statis- INDEX 307 tics, 89, 94-97. See also Chamber- maids. Warner, Charles Dudley, on social posi- tion of teachers, 205, n. Washing, see Laundry work. Waste lessened through profit sharing, 240, 241, 243, 244, 246. Watson, Elkanah, on self-respect of domestic employees in America, 1782, 49, n. ; on effect of slavery upon people of the South, 52, n. ; on high character of service in America, 56, n. Watson, John, on increase of demo- cratic spirit in servants, 55, n. Weaving, transferred from home to factories, 215; revival of, as home industry in Westmoreland, 232, n. Winter, John, on high wages of re- demptioners in Maine, 28, n. ; de- scription of an unprofitable servant, 33,34. Winthrop, John, on high wages de- manded by servants in New Eng- land, 28, n. Winthrop, John, Jr., complaint of his Irish servant, 1717, 36. Winthrop, Wait, complaint of his " black Tom," 1682, 35. Woman's Exchanges, articles offered for sale at, better but more expen- sive, 213; high standard for work maintained by, 217; management of, should be put on business basis, 217; new occupation for women opened by, 218. Women, as affected by the release of labor from the home through intro- duction of factory system, 10-13; number of, in manufacturing indus- tries, 10, n. ; new opportunities for, about 1830, 12; unwillingness of many to work for remuneration, a hindrance, 14, 202, 272 ; progress of, hindered by their failure to put a just money value on their services, 14 ; foreign bom wage-earning, ma- jority of, domestic employees, 77 ; wages of, in domestic service lower than wages of men, 92 ; entrance of, into business occupations, 196; can engage in many more occupations than formerly without social ostra- cism, 205; new occupation opened through Woman's Exchange, 218; new opportunities through speciali- zation of household employments, 226, 227, 232 ; their release from cer- tain kinds of work through speciali- zation of household employments, 231; opportunity thus opened to specialize in some branch of work on a business basis, 231, 232; con- servatism of many, a hindrance to improvement in domestic service, 264, 265 ; tendency of many toward aristocracy, a hindrance to improve- ment, 265 ; work of, needs readjust- ment, 270-273. Work, standard of, improved by re- quirements of Woman's Exchanges, 217, 218. " Working housekeeper," as substitute for "servant," 156. World's Fair, 1893, efforts in connec- tion with, to establish national training schools for domestic em- ployees, 181. Wright, Mr. Carroll D., on agencies producing change from domestic to factory system, 8 ; on profit sharing, 236, 237, 240. OUTLINES OF ECONOMIC THEORY. BY HERBERT JOSEPH DAVENPORT. Cloth. 8vo. $2.00. This was not primarily intended as a text-book, yet it is well adapted to the pedagogical need. The feature which first attracts attention is the short list of "suggestive questions" which open and close each chapter, serving in part as a review of the text and in part to indicate the bearing of the theoretical discussions upon subjects of current and practical interest. The author has found it serviceable in his own class- room work, and it can hardly fail to be helpful to the independent reader. 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