The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1899-05-26
The Servent Question.

A writer in Harper's Bazaar argues that
since women find it hard to get and keep
good servants, women must be unfit to
vote.
But do men so generally succeed in
their own especial realm" of business?
1t is said that of the men who go into
business in Boston, ninety per cent fail.
This may not be based on accurate sta
tistics, but the fact that it is popularity
believed shows how frequent failures
must be. Certainly, there are not more
than ninety per cent Of women who make
failure of their house keeping.
Harper's Bazaar says: "There are on
ly two alternatives; either the servant
question is bigger than any question
which man grapples with, or woman is
less fitted to grapple with difficult ques-
tons than man. hardly think the most
daring suffragist would choose the first
Yet eminent anti-suffrage authority
might be quoted for this view. DR.. Ly-
man Abbott's paper, The Outlook, in des-
cribing the qualifications necessary for
successful house-maker and home
maker, lately said that her Executive
ability must be that of a railroad presi-
dent, her financiering ability that of
banker, her diplomacy equal to that of
minister at foreign court" There are
at least as many successful housekeepers
as men who combine the abilities of a
railroad president, banker and foreign
minister.
There are two main reasons for the
trouble women have with servants. The
first is women's false education and lack
of business training. 1t has been held
reproach to woman to woman to be
"strong-minded." But the weak-mind-
ed woman from Dora Copperfield down,
is not likely to be good housekeeper.
Col. 7. w. Higginson, quoting the FAM
Gus dictum. "The perfection of charact-
er in a woman is to be characterless, :"
says that man may think so when he is
counting, but it is doubtful if in later
years he really enjoys having to act as
mediator between his weeping wife and
and the enraged Second girl"
The other reason lies in the difficulty
of the domestic problem itself, under
modern conditions. The problem is to
find large supply of young women who
will choose kind of work involving
: long hours, loneliness, and certain
amount of social stigma. when they have
their choice of many other occupations
that offer shorter hours, greater oppor-
tunities for companionship and amuse-
,ment, and no social stigma.
Farmers find it as hard to get good
farm hands as housekeepers to get good
kitchen girls. and for the same reason,
the long hours and the loneliness of the
work. A hundred years ago, neither
farmers nor housekeepers had any trou-
BILE in getting help, because then agricu!-
ture was the chief pursuit of men, and
homework almost the only employment
open to women. The difficulty has
grown up with the changed conditions
Of modern life, which have opened a
great variety Of more attractive occupa-
TONS
Parodying the article in Harper's
Bazaar, we might say: ''since Adam
delved in Eden, men have been struggl.
ing with agriculture, yet the farmers of
the 10Th reae,,ry find it almost impossi-
bic to get and keep good help. Evident
~, farmers are not fit to vote" How
absurd such reasoning sounds in the case
Of men! Is it any less absurd when APP
piled t. women?
ALICE SroNR BLACKWELL