The Tupelo journal., 1910-04-08

be able to train her from the start"
not only raises the relative rate OF
wages, but puts a premium on incom-
potency. She repudiates her obliga-
tions to her own family, for nowhere
else is the employment of unskilled
labor more ~extravagant than in do
nestle service, where processes are
so intricate and varied and where
routine counts for. so little and unskil-
full experimenting can hardly produce
the best conditions for bodily health
and comfort. There are natural laws
that governin the economic world in
%exorably. without respect to sex or
person. and one of them is that the
nature of the supply is governed by
the demand,
The common expedient for balan-
cling the extravaganza of incompetent
service is using poorer quality Of ma.
terials and there again the same law
holds; less price mea less of some
thing. For example. we hear house
keepers say, "Oh, yes, l know these
extracts are perfectly pure and much
superior in every way, but they are so
expensive and the cook is no more
careful about wasting them than the
cheap ones, so l buy the cheap ones"
The facts are that the cheap extracts,
IL really taken from the fruits or
spices they represent, are so diluted
that a much larger quantity must be
used to get the same result. In the
case of foodtstuffs the lower grades
have a smaller percentage of nourish-
ing power-an objectionable sin. Ev-
cry housekeeper is by her demand in
fuencing the quality of the supply for
every other housekeeper. 1t is the
demand of the economical ~ house
keepers that has made the problem Of
adulterated foods assume such proper
tons.
Large numbers of industries are de-
pendent upon the home for the con;
sumption Of their products-the mar
ket gardener, the dairyman, manufac-
turers of grocers' supplies and all the
multitude of industries engaged in the
production of supplies for house dec
Grafton and furnishings, and every
change in the economic conditions
there is registered in some disturb
ance throughout this whole system of
dependent industries.
The real worth of the decorative
and esthetically valuable things lies
in the artistic skill put into them, in
combination of colors, design or work
manship, and the degree of intelli-
gence necessary in the proper care
OF them is in almost direct proportion
to such value. When such intelligence
is lacking in the housemaid the care
of these things falls upon the mistress
of the house and the wise woman of
today very often to the con-
clusion that her life and time have
too many more important demands
upon them to be used up in the way
that ownership of many of these valu-
able things makes necessary. Conse-
quently the demand for the really
high-class commodities falls off and
those of cheaper quality. limitations,
etc, take their places and the skilful
and artistic employees are supplanted
by cheaper and unframed workers.
AS a rule, low-class labor can be en-
ployed p%rofitably only upon the cheap
er grades of products. The compe-
tency and intelligence of those en-
ployed as cooks and housemaids has
al important influence upon the quail
ity of the suDDlieS demanded nv the
housekeeper and it depends upon
these demands whether the employers
in the production of these supplies,
who furnish honest, first-class quality
and pay good wages to a high class
of workers, shall be able to prosper
or whether the market shall be mo-
nopolized by the law-grade products.
These are some of the responsible
ties that the housekeeper assumes
when she becomes an employer. To
study them and meet their demands
would not only lead to the solution of
that modern riddle of the Sphinx, the
domestic service problem, but would
help conditions throughout the in
dustrial world.
The thoughtful women of the coun-
try should become actively interested
in these questions. The great need
is for general organized effort among
intelligent women to put the one in
dustry exclusively controlled by them
into its proper place in the social
order.