New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-25
THE DOMESTIC CHAOS.
Women Who WoaIld Put Mistress
and Maid on Better Footing.

ssThere is really no respectable private business
Iu America which affects the American home as
r1uch tbs intelligence Office" said Miss Frances
KeIlor. general secretary Of the Intermuncipal
Committee for Household Research, IN her recent
lecture ct the Brooklyn Institute.
"cIew-York Offices send men TO Europe every
GUNNER to the Slav countries for mate
nal for the American kitchen immigration Of
Irish and Scandinavian girls IS steadily decreasing
and It is these Hungarian Austrian and Bohemian
girls who offered TO the American housewife to
mould into something ike Americanized beings.
These girls are OF a distinctly lower grade than
household help has been in the past- They know
nothing Of American life, custo4..s household
duties and not word Of the language when they
reach their first place AS they progress from place
place by the simple process of sapping the vital
ity Of their successive employers, they learn some
thing OF ell four.
The intelligence Office affects the homo in other
ways. The manner Of treating the girls prejudices
them against household service at the outset. They
go into II expecting neither kindness nor justice
from their employers and prepared 70 maintain an
attitude Of Euen defiance. N pursuing our investi-
cations prior to securing the new New-York law
governing intelligence Offices we investigated over
eight hundred Offices IN Supplying for work in the
character OF q household employee I was often
pushed out Of the room and downstairs because
refused 10 pay the fee. L IS very common TO swear
at the girls.
TRIED TO BORROW REFERENCE
"One day when was IN an employment agency
with colleague the agent tried 10 borrow her
reference for the benefit Of another girl A woman
had said she would take this girl If she had a
reference and as she had none the agent came to
my associate and Demanded hers. On my asso-
ciate refusing the agent swore at her and ordered
her out OF the place. Nothing about household
service is made 70 seem pleasant 10 the girl She
is pretu6iced against II at the start
There Is a very great need Of a different class
Of Ia 70 Er,.TI -,~.
have some interest IN the sociological problems in
volved as well as the money they make. It IS an
ideal opening for college women interested in social
service. There IS much or more money in II than
the average college woman can make by her great
resource, teaching. That IS one thing our commit
seeks 10 do It has already induced one college
woman to open intelligence Office and hopes
that Others viii follow.
The Intermunicipal Committee represents or
Eanzations OF women IN three cities-Boston Phila
delphia and New-YOTk. IN this city the body be-
hind It IS the Bureau Of Household Research, at
No. III East THenty-third-st. We are trying TO
get at the true tnwsrdness OF the Servant prob
lem; TO ind out Just where the trouble is. the
source OF supply. the immigrant girl the American
girl the negro girl; the questions Of wages, hours
and competency, the places where girls live when
they are out % employment and the possibility OF
training schools 70 elevate domestic service TO
the rank Of skilled and recognized trade. At the
outset we were confronted by the intelligence Of
fee Il was only through that that information and
personal experience could be gained of both sides
% the question
The Wonau's Municipal League got the new
"eEY-1ork law governing intelligence Offices the
effects Of which are Just beginning to be felt
For instance. when We presented the bill many
people scofHed the idea OF g. 900 bond for the
employment agent taking out a License It was
declared that there necessity for such a
bond Just the other day the first case Of that
And came uO under the new law. The agent
o"rrowed $50 Of his clerk, and vanished over night
Inc next morning one hundred and fifty men were
oiAoTing at the door Cor the return Of their fees