The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-05-10
in WOMAN'S REALM.
A housekeeping POSSIBILITY.
FRONT Sharing Applied to the Serv-
ant Girl Question.

'FRONT.' SHARING Applied to the Serv-
ant Girl Question.
Here Is q suggestion for housekeepers who
are tormented with the servant question. At
club where social and Industrial problems
were discussed the subject of profit sharing
was dealt with especially. 1t was put forward
as panacea for all Industrial ills. Jane
Marsh Parker writing of the event in the
North American Review says: Zone
speaker remarked that the review Of the
prescriptions for Industrial discomfort re-
minded her of that custom of ancient Babylon
the taking OF the sick into the market-place
that every passer-bY might pass an opinion
upon the malady and prescribe cure, the
| majority to have control of the sufferer. For
| the fever of Industrial discomfort with which
| all hand-workers were said to be more or less
afflicted, she could believe that the popular
remedy was profit-sharing. What she wanted
| to know was If proflt-sharing was sufficient
| for all forms of Industrial discomfort? Was
| it equal to that malignant type with which
housekeepers were so familiar, usually called
| the servant trouble? Had it ever been tried
| in the kitchen? Would someone Of the club
members who had made an exhaustive study
| OF proft-sharing, and knew all the details OF
system demonstrated in the Bon Marche OF
Paris, inform the housekespers who had little
| leisure for study, and had we'll nigh lost hope
of having their lot improved until the Mil
| lennium came In. If they, the distressed
housekeepers. might safely build any expee-
tations upon proft-sharing as the cure for
Industrial discomfort in domestic service? Her
heart had been strangely thrilled at hearing
| OF working man in one of the great profit
sharing mercantile concerns who had reproved
fellow laborer for breaking something by
nj thaf
| costs us five dollars?' She had forseen what
the exercise of such spirit would mean in her
kitchen, what it would be if her china could
be handled as II it belonged to us, and what
might result when frugality in groceries and
gas was put upon business basis.
IF it could be done in the factory, the big
store, why not in the home? Had it ever
been tried? That was what she most of
al wanted to know.
only one woman had ever known of profit
sharing as applied to housework. But she
could not give the details of what had proved
eminently successful A friend of hers, some
ten years ago, had made careful estimate
of what she could pay yearly for her house
keeping expenses-her service, table, etc.
and had offered to pay her housemaid that
amount in monthly payments, upon condftic ms
specified in a carefully worded contract,
signed by both parties. All that the house
maid could save of the allowance was to
be her own. She had to replace loss by
breakage, and see that the work was always
well done. The partnership had been an
exceptionally happy one. the housemaid fol-
lowing her mistress, who as the wife OF an
itinerary had moved from city to city, from
the Atlantic to the Pacific coast.
'Now, who can give another illustration
of profit sharing as applied to domestic serv-
ice? And the figures please? Is 1t In profit
sharing that help cometh to housekeepers
at last? Then why mot movement in the
women's clubs fastening its approach-stop-
ping what threatens to be a general stam-
pede to boarding houses and hotels? II
profit sharing is really the cure for industrial
discount, then may it not be applied wher-
ever there is symptom of the disorder?
Who will tell housekeepers how to introduce
it and give it practical trial?