The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-10-29

an and the menace to industrial condi-
tons of womans invasion of the fields
of labor formerly monopolized by men
Topeka woman who has interested
| herself in the sociological and philan-
| thropical study gives it as hR opinion
! that the solution of the whole problem
will be reached when women of
brains, gentlewomen who are forced to
earn a living, waken to the need of the
| hour and enter domestic service. ut
/ is want of brains rather than elbow
grease that is undermining American
homes" she says. 1.-THE cry of every
| housekeeper is for intelligent, trained
domestic help. There are good situa-
lions with easy, agreeable work for
women in thousands of homes in this
country in which tor want of better,
lazy, ignorant, incompetent servants,
time one has only to investigate the
/ condition of the great army of shop
/ and factory and Office girls a very lit
| tie to learn under what difficulties and
against what disbursements they
| earn their scanty living. Then too
| there is the objection. and it is no SER
| ious one, that in competing with men
they reduce wages and this tends to
| the decrease of marriages as all sta
| tistics prove. If these girls who are
! learning typewriting and stenography
and applying for positions In ofnces,
in domestic science and accept posi-
lions as housemaids. cooks and wait
resSeS they would not only elevate the
work but they would help matters Tor
their wage earning sisters in other
lines of work. What is the use of wear
ing out body and soul in working at
something for which there is no mar
ket demand when the crying need CT
the country is intelligent domestic SER
1 wants"
But the girls you speak of think
themselves above such work, her COM
panion objected.
And why?" she demanded. That's
Just a notion. A working woman is a
working woman and has no social po-
sition anyway. 1t is the class OF peo-
Die who engage in an occupation that
makes it respectable, desirable ana
honorable. If girls of good education,
J good family and good breeding took
positions as domestic servants the
work would rank with the arts and
professions at which such girls now
, | adays work to earn their Hyings.
. | good servant can almost command her
/ wages now. She need not put up with
: an attic room and the kindred disad-
vantages suffered without complaint by
, !, ignorant servants. In the houses OF
l Deople of wealth the servants quar-
tiers are ideals of comfort, beauty and
even luxury. 1 am sure no saleswo-
man. stenographer or factory girl couid
. AFFORD to rent such apartments as are
fitted up in the homes of the million
= aires for their servants. In the miles
of palaces flanking Fifth avenue II
( New York city from Fifty-nlnth street
live women in various capacities OF
I household service who are reveling IL
= material comforts and a peace OF m1nc
: to which hundreds of their intellectual
college-bred sisters struggling for
: raeagre living in the arts and profes'
n sions in the same city are total strang
e ers and in all probability will remain
. so unto the end of the chapter"
. Ida Rose McCabe writing on thli
: sIbiect for a New York paper says:
4 | tHT,here is no question but brains am
f common sense, tempered with 1eiIoV
k feeling are the forces needed to reform
1 nrsrrTn
brought about by individual effort, AM
the more women of education an
4 training go into domestic service, tn
: sooner will the whole status OF mouse
/, cial and industrial world. AS for socia
lie position, what does it amount TO l
a New York unless one has untoE
,e wealth? What social position over tina
n of the seIf-respecting domestic has tn
e intellectual breadwinner restricted t
"a a hall bedroom or a fourth-rate board
t. ing house?"
e. OF course all this is entirely in op
to position to the well known views Q
Mrs Charlotte Perkins Stetson CHINA
land others of that i1k who are foreye
Is blessing the day that saw the beginnin
] of woman'S emancipation from the COO
e stove and the cradle. and who hail eve
s. the growing practice OF living IN apart
Ia rnent houses and hotels as an improve
st Inent on woman's old-fashioned positio
m of what they witheringly describe as
at sshousehold drudge And it is proba bl
a. tr1Ie that many women do not like dc
- lmestic service but the fact remains tina
II IL is a kind of work that most wome
are eminently fitted for and can q
without suffering physical deterioratfo
in consequence, that there is grea
demand for it, that good wages ar
a / paid and that it offers safe, respectable
~ sheltered employment IN many way
ID vastly superior to the hideous circuu
ST stances under which so many well Dor
Id and well educated women driven b
70 force of necessity earn wretched hy
% ing.
y who does the gadding? Men, the
natural judges and executioners, hay