The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-03-27
10 MAKE DOMESTICS'
LIVES MORE uVADLE
Social Requirements Bureau
Plans for More Ser
wants Clubs.
NEED REGULAR HOURS OFF
Mrs. NJ. II. Pell and Prof. An
drcws Plead for House
Employees.

The bureau OF social requirements
wants n servants club in every neigh
borhood II In willing to have its rooms.
at 90 East Forty fourth street. used ~ .
headquarters for these clubs and to -.
tabiish a training school with q model
bedroom and dining room.
A n maid changes her position she
automatically becomes member Of the
nearest club. Mistresses can get ser
wants through the bureau. They too will
be organised.
tho recreation hours OF domestic SER
wants are absolutely unguarded." said
Mrs. Mary Hutton Peii. president of the
bureau, at a meeting last night. Most OF
them are country girls from closely
guarded homes. We take them into our
beautiful establishments. where there 10
no provision for their comfort. The most
elaborate house. with twenty servants. has
emily a small servants hall. There 10 no
privacy.
"And when the servant girl 10 engaged
she 10 as much engaged as the daughter
Of tho house. She goes TO the dance hall
Or the moving picture theatre--then to
the night court
employers have found that they can't
neglect the recreational hours OF their
employees. but I never heard OF a single
society to look after the recreation or edu-
cation Of domestic servants
''rhere Ia n club on the upper East
Side established by Mrs. Hooker. The
girls can meet there when they have
positions and live there when they have
not. We need such 4 club In each neigh
borhood. We must standardize the hours
Of work. SO that the girls may have some
time on. Domestic service requirements
now depend on the within of the Individual
mistress. We must organize the mis-
tresses. for when we organize the ignorant
~ get only the bad points Of socialism"
Prof Benjamin r. Andrews Of Teach
ers College said that even the students
who work In professors families object to
the term servant and call themselves
domestic engineers. A college ten years
ago gave that degree, he added, and 1t
ought to be revived.
"0irls don't go into domestic service
because II Isn't good business" he added.
The girl doesn't sell her labor for
DEFINITE period OF time and she II partly
paid In board and lodging. The Msssa-
chusetts Bureau OF Labor says the girls
keep doubles her wage. why not pay her
the difference and let her live out OF the
house like other employees? She doesn't
like to be called Mary. Why not Miss
Smith?
Another difficulty is the lack Of stan
dards in work. In Boston ten years ago
q household aid company tried to solve
the servant problem. 1t had twenty girls
whose services could be paid for by the
hour. II you wanted a waitress for din
ner you could get her. And then they
found that one mistress wanted her to
Ibid the glass OF water while she filled Il
and another wanted her to set II on the
table. SO the company failed.
I'VE will have to send our tasks out Of
the house and simplify them The darn
ing will follow the laundry. In 14l coll
leges and 300 high schools we are train
ing housewives II not servants
Rose Young said that sc per cent. OF
women criminals have been domestic ser
wants.
Fourteen hours a day of work Ia so
unattractive that a woman won't under
take 1t IL she can make a go OF anything
else" she added. Hotels and restaurants
are beginning TO professionalism the home
There Is the same cutlery over II that
there was fifty years ago when mother
ceased to make fathers trousers. But
we'd be sorry for father II she had to
make them now"
Mgr. Mcmahon said the life OF a SER
want girl Is more lonely than that OF a
nun and she must be allowed to live out
side the home
The meeting was attended by about fifty
because she had no one with whom TO
leave him. He was overcome by the
heat and had to be famed, but otherwise
h hehaye,f well