The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-12
sERvANT-eIRL PROBLEM.
A Million Places Provided for Domes-
 tics of New York Every Year.

James Creelman in the New York World. Cut of the new departmen of licenses
 which for nearly six months has been
 supervising the six hundred and odd em- ployment agencies of the metropolis
 comes a rough estimate which throws
 much light on that complicated and ex-
 asperating question, the New York do-
 mestic servant.
 The fearsome subject has never yet
 been reduced. to exact figures, for the
 sociologist and economist, usually a mar ried and therefore cautious man has
 shrunk away from the wrath of a contro- Versy from which he might not escape even in his own home.
 Nor does MT. Heating opinon that the
 employment agencies of New York fur
 nlsh about 100000 engagements a year to domestic servants. This, of course. does not inculde the vast multitude of domes- tics who secure employment through the Worlds Want directory" and the ad- vertising coulmns of other newspapers. It touches only those who have been em- ployed through the regular licensed agencies now under official supervision. If the national census figures are to be
 believed there are not less than 135,000 do- mestic servants in New York city-31 211
 male and 103,963 female.
 Dividing the 100000 engagements furn-
 shed in a year by the 135.00O domestics certified by the federal government it
 seems to be clear that the average house.
 hold servant in New York changes places
 about seven times a year, not to speak of
 engagements through newspaper advertise
 ments. which would bring up the aver
 age of changes enormously.
 It seems almost incredible that the domestics of a rich and comfortable city,
 in wholesome climate, should be on an
 average find 1t necessary to detatch | themselves from their employment and seek new homes more than ever two
 months. Yet there are the figures, with
 Commissioner Heating and the United
 States census as witnesses!
 The truth is that a large number of
 New York servants change places every
 week or two, and that makes the aver age consistent with the well known fact
 that thousands of homes retain the same domestics from year to year.
 The moderate estimate of the average cost of an engagement through an em- ployment agency, counting what the em- ployer pays, as well as the fee taken from the empoye. places 1t at about s. So that a million engagements a year
 mean not less than s3000,000 year in fees in this one city, of which the employers
 pay probably s1. 1.250000 and the domestics
 S1, 75O, ,0O0 All this aside from the charges
 not recorded in the licensed employment
 agencies.
 One does not have to be very inquisitve
 to catch at a glimpse of the vista of the domestic unhappiness and social disorder
 revealed in these figures. rough estimates
 though they may be. Nor must it be for gotten that New York is the busiest city
 in the world. with the most intense and
 nerve straining life. and therefore most desperately in neeu of tranquil home conditions.
 The enormous multiplication of hotels in the American metropolis-wlrich so as- tonishes and mystifies foreign visitors may find some explanation in this startl- ing demonstration of the difficulties att tending housekeeping here.
 Another pregnant fact delivered up by Commissioner ef<atmg Is that of the hundreds of complaints investigated by him and his twenty deputies not
 one in twenty concerned a cook. Now that statement seems to clear the air.
 The cook is mistress of craft. She has | specified duties and a well defined jur- | isdiction Moreover she has Authority | over vital things and can usually compel | good treatment, regular hours and sat | isfactory maintenance She orders and | governs her environment
 | l. is the genera. servant, tfe maid of all l work. who changes employment so often | in New York She is the victim of the l ignorance and irregularity of her mist | ress A majority of these general ser | wants are more or less fresh from the rude peasant life of Europe unaccustom.