The sun., 1919-08-07
Employment Expert Asserts
Shortage Of Domestic Help
Seems Permanent.
INDUSTRIES LURE GIRLS
High Wages and Freedom Sun
days and Evenings Attract
immigration Scanty, Too.

guaranteed (if tried in the right spirlt)
to oil the clogged wheels of the Amer
loan home and set them spinning as
is the remedy:
Let Mrs. would-Be Mistress do her
own work.
Let her turn nurse-maid and get ac-
quainted with her own baby. Let her
forget tea-rooms, window shopping and
peacock-alleys, and put on a neat little
singham dress and earn the delight of
seeing her family enjoy the food she
herself has prepared Maybe they
wouldn't enjoy 1t just at first, but any
And in the opinion Of employment
agency people who have been watching
the trend OF things Mrs. would-Be Mis-
tress has got to learn to cook-or
starve.
Yes, this drastic suggestion comes
from employment agency heads. II Is
one their well-to-do patrons won't like !;
but they should worry What are
patrons to employment agencies now7
| They come in swarms they haunt the
doors. holding out swollen purses In
frenzied appeal, and the employment
agency people. outwardly polite, look
upon them with blase and weary eyes,
wishing that about three-fourths of
them were husky girls from Ireland
looking for place. Patrons! What
are patrons when the market In what
they arc after is so short?
Sees No Other Solution.
Miss Isobel Shea, 80 East Forty-second
street, who has been running an employ
ment agency for twenty years, who has
watched the changes from the days
when immigrant girls poured into this
country in shoals asking nothing better
than to work in somebody's kitchen and
send their savings back to the folks at
home, down to the difficult present when
there Is almost no immigration and when
the working girls already here are 80 in
demand in factories telephone ex-
changes, offices and shops that they
, turn up their noses at domestic service
Miss 1sobel Shea Is one who emphat.
ically says that American women have
got to learn to do their own work
II don't see any other solution" che
said yesterday. ut Is getting more and
more hard to get girls to go out to do.
! nestle service. The lack Of immigra.
ton Is one great reason that the supply
Is cut down. and then SO many VIII,
: were cooks and mattresses and nurse.
maids few years ago are now in tn,
Industries. They left the kitchen TO e,
/, into war work and now they won't gc
back. They don't have to. And dom
blame them" said Miss Shea with tn,
, pleasant accent which. with her name
proclaims her Irish ancestry. Work
Ing In shops and factories they hav,
their evenings and Sundays, they hav,
their freedom. and that il what the,
like. We all do, don't we7
: May be in the long run a girl &
= better of financially to work in n house
hold. for she has her board and lodginl
\ and can save most Of her wages which
. In these days are good. But the wa,
4 she looks at It she gets more out of If
II she works eight hours in a factory O
. store and then goes out with her eve
= ming to herself and that rs what w
= live for, isn't TITO get what we ca,
: out OF life. So all I can see for II 4
y for American women, those who hav
been idling. to roll up their sleeves an,
&, go to work"
= Rich Ruin Wage Standards.
y When THE SUN woman asked con
n corning the wages OF good domesti
IL
= Anything they care to ask" sh
= said There is 10 rule, rhyme or rea
10 son In the domestic service situatio
l. now. 1t Is all a question OF Individual
l. lily. A woman comes here to seek
It cook. and she will pay anything to ge
u one. She has the money. and will pa
10 anything. 1t Is this that is disorEar
70 izinB the help situation 30 that I car
s. not see what its future will be.
l II see no reason to hone for N To ro.
h supply OF domestic help-the ADVERT,
t. Ing columns OF the newspapers al
10 enough to tell us that shops and ia,
lie tories and offices haven't half the wome
y they need, and as l said before thei,
Is the voice the girls will listen to, an
g small wonder. Some writer's have tol
l. US that 1t would solve the problem
II put domestic labor on the same basis q
" shop and factory work-have the hel
" live outside and come In to serve eigi
b. hours day, then be free for the rel
10 of the twenty-four hours. / don't thin
10 that Is practical"
Is Many employment agencies were inte
IN viewed by THE Sun woman, uptown an
IS downtown. east and west-the styiis
y ones on or near Fifth avenue, Il
" others in crowded districts where wome
AZ searching for help they know will |
70 inefficient. And everywhere the answ,
"a was the eame--a great and increasr
4. shortage OF domestic help.
Help Is very hard to get" said Mi
Margaret Smith. rs West Forty-secor
street. "Plenty of clients, but sms
- material with which to satisfy ther
N The lack Of immigration is, OF cours
the leading reason, and next to that Il
-, fact that 80 many girls are going in
other work. They want their indepel
dence-or think they do"
Miss r. E. Harper, manager of h
no National Industrial and Benevolent A
e. ISOLATION, 1923 West 13lst street, whit
nd advertises to supply negro help. testifi,
ed that she was struggling with the san
10 difficulties as those which beset 9th
n employment agencies.
Aren't negro girls coming In from d
a. South?" she was asked.
Il, mot many now" she answered. al
"a we don't deal with the raw help, b
~ | with girls who have been here and kno
a. the ways. And 30 many of our cir
o1 we used to depend on before the war a
~ now working at other things. I dor
= wonder. Some of our girls are earnil
~ $40 and S26 a week In factories. Al
N they are free when they leave the ia
tory. They have leeway to live the
m own lives for awhile.
- i've often thought that II some
:. the ladies' would only give their mai
-,, a little leeway there wouldn't be
much of a servant problem. AS thin
are going now, I am afraid many ladi
lin rs ue IN allow mora leeWay or lea