Smyrna times., 1886-12-01
A Social Puzzle.


There are some two hundred thous-
and women in New York earning the
scantiest of livings by working in fac
tories or at their homes making cloth
ing. Mrs. Helen Campbell's articles
IN the Sunday Tribune are showing the
bitter poverty and constant privation
attendant upon this kind of work. 1t
is unquestiOnably the most Inadequate
method of gaining subsistence. and il
cannot be believed that any of these
wOrklngwOmen would hesitate to
abandon it for more profitable, easier
and more comfortable employment, if
they saw an opportunity so to improve
their condition. But it is a curious
fact that while these 100000 women
are toiling and half-starving, house
keepers everywhere are bewailing the
difficulty of securing domestic servants
and the class of women devoted to such
work find themselves so much sought
after that they are becoming at once
more eXacting, more capricious, less
efficient and less trustworthy cOntin-
ually. It's notorious that it is harder
every year to find good house servants.
The standard of performance is falling
and the standard of wages is rising all
the time. How can these facts be rec
Onciled?
1t may be said that the working
women who slave over the sewing ma
chine are in large proportion Of cases
wives and mothers, and therefore could
not leave their families and 20 into
service. No doubt this is true Of a GER
tain number, but not, we believe. of
the majority, and it is questionable
whether even those who have children
could not, with advantage to them
selves and their families, make the
change suggested. 1t may also be OBJ
jected that few of the wOrkingwomen
know anything of the duties demanded
OF servants. That objection, however,
has no validity, for it would be impos-
sible to conceive of deeper ignorance
than the majority of the green immi-
grants who go into service bring to
their work when they begin it. Nor
indeed is the efficiency of those who
have had considerable experience any.
thing to be proud of, for the problem
which seems to absorb the attention of
most OF them is how to get the most
wages for the least work. In the ranks
of the working women starvation
wages are maintained as much by the
competition Of ther fellows seeking
work as by the competition among
manufacturers. If this surplus popula-
ton, which now presses so heavily upon
the women workers, could be diverted
into other channels of industry, the
workingwOmen could probably obtain
better pay. But why is it that the
manifest advantages of domestic SER
vice DO not attract those who are com
PEELED to maintain themselves
The position of the servant is almost
ideally good. She is well housed. well
fed, well paid, and her daily work is as
rule mere pastime in comparison
with that of a sewing woman. She has
a comfortable room, lives as well as
her employers, has her appointed times
of recreation and outing, and can al
ways if prudent save more in a wear
than her less fortunate sisters can in a
lifetime. Why is it then that while
the hOusework is much pleasanter.
lighter and better paid than that of the
factories, the supply of good servants
Is never equal to the demand, and
thousands of women wear out their
lives in misery and indigence, while
this honorable and advantageous
means of livelihood is at their doors ?
1t can hardly be believed that prejudice
against domestic service is the explana-
ton of this anomalous state of things.
for certainly the social position of a
self-respecting servant is not below
that of an employe in a factory. There
is no humiliation in the work. 1t is
perfectly respectable and even honor
able when performed with sense of
duty, as George Herbert long ago
pointed out. The women who are
now shaving at their machines could
assuredly do it quite as we'll as it is
done in nineteen cases out of twenty.
They would find no difficulty in OBJ
tanning situations, for hOusekeepers all
over the city are ransacking the intel
ligence offices for help. Perhaps what
is needed is just the initiative. During
the Irish famine of 1916 people died of
starvation within few miles of maga-
zines crammed full of provisions, solely
because there was no machinery to
bring the food and the mouths together.
Society, however, ought to be better
organized now, and there should be no
such mysterious barrier as SCENE to
exist between needy workers and prof
liable employment.-N. y. Tribune.