The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-09-04 00:00:00

A SERVANT'S UNION.

It is sincerely to be hoped (says the Daily Tele-
graph), that none of the Colonial visitors now in this
country will think of bringing over to our shores one
of the indigenous products of Melbourne. We refer
to a Domestic Servant's Union which has just started
into existence in that city, and which has issued a
circular of a truly portentous character. In this docu-
ment the banded domestics explain that their object is
to resist oppression and to help such of their number
as suffer at the bands of cruel masters and mis-
tresses; further it will be the endeavour of the
novel trades-union to "settle any dispute
between employers and employed." If they imi-
tate other unions, the servant-girls of Melbourne
will have to indulge in " strikes " for higher
wages, and to endure "lock-outs" at the hands of
indignant " rcissuses." Possibly things may even
get so far in Melbourne that the new cock
will be "rattened" for daring to take a place
horn which a member of the union has been dismissed.
All these, no doubt, are very terrific possibilities.
They seem to add a new horror to life; but, luckily,
the plague of the Servants' Union has not yet reached
our shores. In some ways the importation would be
likely to do a little good. It might make inconsiderate
mistresses more careful of Mary Jane's feelings, and
prevent any wrongful attempt to curtail her Sunday
evening's outing. In spite of the advance of civilisa-
tion, it may be true that here and there mistreises
exist who render their servants' lives burdens to
them; though it certainly seems odd that individuals
who are gifted with free will and the power of loco-
motion should endure to stay in a " place " a minute
longer than they find it suit them. The engine which
a mistress posseeaes to terrorise over 'a maid is the
threat of not giving a "character." And nobody can
affect to despise this as an idle menace. The servant-
girl knows full well that, if she tries to get ad-
mission in the domestic capacity in any respect-
able family, ilea will be at once asked the
name and address of her last employer. On the other
hand, servants are quite shrewd enough nowadays to
be aware that they have a right to a " character" from
a mistress, and that, for any misstatements made
out of obvious spite, the law of slander or libel can be
invoked. This, however, is not a very comforting
thought to a servant, because in 99 cases out of 100
cook would prefer being tarred and feathered to an
appearance in a law-court. It is a difficult thing,
moreover, to compel a mistress to give a favourable
report of her servant's conduct and capacity. Opinions
proverbially differ, and it would be useless for Eliza
to protest that she cooked beautifully if her "milieus"
asserted that her potatoes were never thoroughly
"done," and that her soups were watery.
The fact is that, these matters all regulate them-
selves, if a little common sense is brought to bear.
The introduction of a trades-union would hardly tend
to render the rsbeticens between mistress and maid
more amioable. Sere ants are well enough acquainted
with the fact, whiela is known to all employers of
domestic labour, that the supply of good cooks, house-
maids, parlounnaids, kitchenmaids, nurses, under-
nurses, and housekeepers is not always equal to the
demand. The cry of many a modern materfamilas is
that she is unable to get a good cook; as for parting
with her treasure when the finds one, she would rather
increase her wages to ally reasonable extent, and let
her have a follower home to tea every evening.
And the really respecte'ele, alert, capable domestio
knows that she mead never be long out of a good place.
Under these circumstaeces, it would appear that
the best servants need no extraneous organisetion to protect them; they are able to look after
themselves. Is the Australian Servants' Trades-
union, then, only a device for enabling an inferior
class of servants to get a superior class of wages?
Possibly niiistressee in that part of the world are
more hard-hearted than those in England, although
this is not likely to be the fact, considering the
supreme difficulty of procuring servants in the
colonies. More probably the universally diffused
spirit of demoeracy render domestics" uppish," and,
knowing that they are few in number and corres-
pondingly in dertand, they have determined
to show their eneployers that they are not
to be crushed with impunity. The Melbourne
servants, in their prospectus, say rather vaguely
that they intend "to seek to obtain a mitigation
of the difficulties under which they at present
labour." At the came time they are careful to
warn people that they have no wish to go in for a
day of eight hours only, or for any h arbitrary steps
against their employers ;" and so far, of course, this
is very proper and comforting language. When the
union is once at work we shall be better able to judge
of What the " difficelties " are which is sought to
"mitigate." Is the prohibition of perquisites and
followers one of the difficulties? Is the compulsory
wearing of caps and ()lean aprons a grievance which
rankle 3 in the breasts of the Australasian maiden of
the pantry? It would be interesting to know how it
is proposed to "mitigate "a mistress who refuses to
allow her servants bear, and who offers them lemonade
instead, on teetotal principles.
One of the ideas of the Melbourne servants iecer-
tainly a good notion. They propose to establish a
" bureau " where sereants' needs can be registered,
and the profits of such a place are to be used towards
founding a home for members when out of employ-.
ment. This would be an innovation in a right direc-
tion; it is this sort of self-help which is so valuable,
and which shows plainly that the Australian servant-
girls are persons of practical minds and sensible to
boot. They protest against the registry offices of
Melbourne, which they accuse of extortion. Until
servants do succeed in establishing registry offices of
their own, it is difficult to see how they can dispense
with the services of these establishments. Ser-
vants in search of a situation were once
upon a time treated with less allowance for their
natural feelings than is the rule at present. In
the old days of statute fairs—or "mops," as
they were called if held after Michaelmas—it was
part of the duty of the magistrates to see that such
servants as refused to go into service were placed in
situations; if they still proved obdurate, they were
visited with the terrors of the law. At these fairs
the sheriffs and magistrates rode about like King
Arthur's knights, "redressing human wrongs," or, in
other words, seeing that the servants who could not
obtain places were finally suited with masters or mis-
tresses, and regulating the wages which they were to
receive. This benevolent despotism ceased long ago,
but the statute or hiring fairs still continue in some
parts of the country. Servants for the field and
for the house are still selected in this way in agricul-
tural districts, and the emblems of service are still
to be seen in the hats of the young men who stand
idle in the market-place—for instance, the
would be milk-boy has a tuft of cow-hair, the
carter a piece of whip-cord, and the shepheri a lock
of wool. These fairs are of course, used for other pur-
poses than that of merely engaging servants. They are
popular rural holidays, anticipated with eagerness,
and looked back on with regret. All sorts of shows
prevail, and in the evening dancing usually breaks out
on the village green, if there is one. In towns the
registry office has taken the place of a statute fair for
hiring purposes. No respectable housemaid would
think of demeaning herself by waiting in a field until
somebody was good enough to choose her as their
domestic; yet she waits cheerfully enough for hour
after hour on a hard bench in a London shop or front
parlour. The ordeal which she goes through
of inspection and interrogation and cross-
examination must, no doubt, be trying ; but
it must be recollected that mistresses find it
almost equally distasteful. For a mistress to
have to confess in the presence of ten or twenty
listeners what wages she is willing to give, and what
her domestic arrangements are in the important
matters of washing and Sunday evenings "out," is of
course very painful, and requires a great display of
moral firmness. If, as not unfrequently occurs, the
servant ends by saying that the mistress will not suit,
it will be seen at once that we have got a long way
from the days of compulsory service and slave-labour.
The Melbourne Trades Union is merely the last stage
in the transition from the old feudal relation of ser-
vant and mistress and the modern trade and business
footing of employer and employed.