Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-08-19
OUR FALSE STANDARDS.
A Crying Need of the Nation Caused
by Snobbish Notions.

The Ithaca Daily Journal publishes
the following which speaks for itself:
WANTED-10 ,OG0 girls to help around the
house. Must be honest and willing to
work. Good homes for those who suit.
Such ii want advertisement expresses
one of the needs of the people of
Maine. Think of it. There are 10000
homes in Maine in which there is a
demand for competent girl who is
willing to work for good wages under
congenial and healthful conditions.
Maine is famous the world over for
its hospitality, it's home comforts and
its home life. Girls are needed to
maintain the standards set in the
days before the store, the office and
the factory made such inroads on the
supply of girl workers
Maine wants 10000 girls at once. She
( needed as many as 10000 three years
ago and conditions have not improved.
The wages paid are equal to or better
than those paid in stores and many
Offices. First class girls are offered
from three dollars to six dollars a
week and all reasonable privileges. A
further advantage is that there are
no long periods of unemployment.
There is always demand for her
services.
Maine, however. is no worst off than
her sister states. From Plymouth
Rock to the Golden Gate and from
Duluth to New Orleans there goes up
continually a cry for domestic help
that is competent, Industrious and
trustworth. Girls and young women
who can meet the requirements of
those who are crying aloud for serv-
ants are sure of steady employment
at salaries vastly better than those
that are earned in fctories, stores and
offices where the seekers after posi-
tions outnumber the vacancies ten to
one.
The impossibility of obtaining COM
petent help in the home has, more
than anything else. been responsible
for the decadence of home life in
America. Unable to keep their homes
in order and at the same time to dis
charge their multfarious social duties,
the women of the present day are
taking up their residence in the big
hotels where they lead lives that are
devoid of high purpose and that fail
10 COII1OTIn " d nigh stdhNoiu VI
womanhood Yet while luxurious
homes are being closed because of the
inability of their owners to obtain
competent servants, thousands upon
| thousands Of young women are eking
out a pitiful existence by shaving from
early in the morning until late in the
afternoon in hot. stuKy offices where
| the work is continuous and exacting:
| behind the counters of the department
stores where they are made the tar
| gets for the sarcasm of ill-humored
customers, and spending their nights
| in hall bedrooms in which no up-to-
date farmer would keep a pig.
| The conditions that exist at present
are due to false ideas that have been
set up by snobbish people and which
i have been accepted far too universally
by those who do not think deeply. The
notion that it is more dignified tc
manipulate a typewriter than it is tc
wliirl an egg beaten in a large. electric
ally-cooled kitchen, needs to be elm.
mated. The conviction that girl Of
| Young woman is pursuing a loftiel
calling in standing behind counter
| than she is when she is engaged IL
I making beds or washing dishes must