The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-01-11
NEW SOLUTION
. OF HARD PROBLEMS
SCHEME FOR DEALING WITH DO.
MESTIC SERVICE.
Chicago Women Are Promoting
Project for a Clearing house for
Workers, a Domestic Training
School, Lodging-house and an En-
dowed Employment Bureau.

No more comprehensive scheme for
the solution of the domestic service
problem was ever, conceived than the
one now being promoted by the Chi
cago Woman's club. A great central
clearinghouse for workers, combining
a school for the training of specialists
in cookery and the arts of home
making, with free scholarships as in.
ducements to proficiency, a lodging
house for students and graduates, and
an endowed employment agency, to
be conducted upon the most advanced
principles, is proposed.
Some of the best-known women of
the city are enlisted in this cause.
There is already nucleus for such an
institution in the School of Domestic
Arts and Sciences, which. founded
three years ago, has been successfully
conducted by Mrs. LINDEN Evans.
And in the distance looms the pos
sibility that the University of Chicago
| may render substantial financial as
sistance to the project. Inasmuch as
| two of the women connected with the
| university's work are deeply interested
| in the progress of the clubs plans, it
| is thought to be a not unreasonable
hope that the favorable attention of
I DR.. Harper and the university trus-
or not this be done, the movement
will continue to receive the aid and
encouragement of an element that rep
resents not a little Of the brains and
money Of the city.
! The ever-recurring servant girl
problem, the war on fraudulent or
| unreliable employment agencies and
the general desire to raise the STAN
dard Of household work are the basic
reasons for the formation Of the am
bilious plans outlined. The recent
visit of Miss Frances Kellor, a social
settlement worker of New York, her
! denunciation of employment agencies
and her proposal for a central train
| ing school for domestics, gave an i'm
petus to the work, and now the di-
rectors Of the club are discussing ways
and means.
A housekeepers' association. for the
particular study of all matters direct
| ly concerning woman and her home
| duties, is proposed as a first step.
The problem of good food and the
proper serving of it is declared to be
as important to nations welfare as
territorial expansion, the tariff, the
/ money question or any of the issues
OF political campaign. And the sue
cess or failure of their plans they
assert to be more vital to the real
interests of the people in general -har
the question OF VINO is next TO pc
elected president.
TIE suggestions of Miss Kellor seem
to have met the general idea of thest
women more fully than anything
heretofore spoken or written on the
subject. After outlining the sort q
institution needed for the training G:
domestics, she said:
s"rhe building should be centrall,
| located and should be provided will
slit ng-rooms for a large number o
girls. It should serve as a home ant
l,nighborhoodp house. Excellent fea
lures would be an endowed employ
) snent agency with a fee of from S
5 to So, complaint department, ref
erence department which would pas
upon all references and investigat
their genuineness, an application an
: adjustment department, and perhaps
savings bank that would pay the larg
est percentage of interest possible.
'"There is little doubt that such a
5 institution could be made self-sup
: porting in a short time. 1t could b
conducted largely upon co-operativ
basis, A training school for high
: class domestics, with the inducemen
r &C free scholarships to the most pro
/ 6cient, would attract clever girls t
S such work, whereas now househol
= duties are looked down upon by tn
: majority of such. Specialists traine
8 in an institution of this kind coul
: command good salaries which man
" peopie would be quite willing to pa
when assured that only the best wor
e was to be expected from the grad
Il uateS' -.,as@