Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-04-24

not social.
A MIDDLE AGED woman,
| ~ forced by the:SNdeath of her
| husband to earn her own liv-
| ing, has wisely turned to the only
thing she knew how to do, cooking
and homework.
So far she has had three places
in which the wages and the living
conditions were perfectly satisfac-
tory, and in which she was treated
kindly and courteously by her en-
| ployers. But she complains bitterly
| because she was not made one of
the family. In one place, she had
her meals with the family, but when
| they went OUT in their automobile
! they didn't take her along with
them. In another place she was not
asked to sit with the family of an
| evening, and in the. third she felt
herself mortally insu1ted because
some guest treated her coolly when
| leaving.
Therefore, she packed her grip
and left each situation and says that
women who do domestic work are
looked down upon, and that she does
not wonder that girls would rather
starve in a sWeatshop than feast in
the kitchen.
| 1t seems to me that this woman
takes very narrow and one-sided
view of the situation, She forgets
that the relationship between the
employer and the employed is
financial, and not social. If she were
the private secretary of a banker
she wouldn't expect to ride around
in his limousine. If she were a clerk
in a big department store, she
wouldn't expect to spend her eve.
nings in the bosom of the proprie-
tors family. If she were a writer,
or an actress, or doctors assistant,
she wouldn't expect her employers
guests to fall on her neck at their
| departure.
| None of these women consider
themselves sighted or looked down
upon because they are never invited
| to their employers houses, and are
| not introduced to their employers
family and friends, nor. made one
of the circle of their employers in
Inmates. Their business is to do a
certain amount of work for a Ger,
tain amount of pay. Their right is
to be treated Justly and civilly, and
these obligations having been full
| filled by both parties the matter is
ended, and the contract between
the party of the first part and the
| party of the second part automati-
cally ceases.
The employer is under no obliga-
| tions to supply the employee with
Social diversion, and, as a matter
of fact, the employee is generally no
more anxious to continue the asso-
citation outside of the shop than the
employer is. Many a woman who
takes a mans dictation and stands
behind his counters is far better
bred and better educated than he is,
and she has no desire to know him
or his friends in a social way.
1t is only the woman in dones-
tic service who resents this separa-
| ton of the business life from the
social life, who demands an init
mate relationship with those for
whom she works and, curiously
enough, she is the only e1nploye
who ever attains this unique po-
sition. For woman may work in
| an office or store for 80 or 40
years, and give an absolutely faith
| full and devoted service, and get no
more personal feeling than respect
and gratitude. But the old house
keeper, the old nurse, the old cook
who has been with a family
through birth, and death, and sick
ness, and sorrow, and weddings and
merrymakings, does become a part
of it, and is held in almost as much
affection as mother and grand
mother themselves.
The domestic employee who re-
sents not being made member of
the family circle should remember
| that every household is little
world within itself, with it's secrets,
| it's. anXieties, its problems, with
which a stranger has nothing to
do, and which it is neither well nor
| wise to tell an outsider. 1t is not
! pride, but prudence that keeps Mr..
Jones from discussing with Mrs.
| Jones before others how he shall
meet the note that is coming due
next week, or that keeps them from
| tal!lin" about the trouble that
John has got into at college, or
| wondering whether Mary's latest
| beau means business or is one of
| the many who have jazzed and rid
| den away
And. surely any woman, who
wouldn't like to tell any of her pri-
waite affairs to a chance acquaint-
ance who might Dlab them all over
| the neighborhood, should have
enough sense to realize this, and
should not have her feelings hurt
when she isn't asked to sit in at the
domestic powwows.
Women who are willing to do
twice the work in factories and
| sweatshops for half the money that
they could get in kitchens complain
that domestic service is looked
down upon. If this is true, it is
because domestic labor is habitual-
ly the worst done work in the
world. 1t is work that is done
without pride of craftsmanship,
without ambition, without desire for
efficiency, without even the COM
mon honesty that makes the work
er want to give good work for fair
pay.
Here and there are exceptions to
this rule, but they are as scarce as
hens teeth, and when you do find
a domestic worker who is conpe-
tent and anxious to please, she does
not need to complain about her pO-
sition in a family. She is the queen
of the household, and every one is
down on Bonded knee trying to
make things pleasant for her SO
that she will not leave.
The dignity of any calling rests
with the people who follow it, and
the intelligence, the finesse and the
skill that they put into their work.
Those who follow what we call the
learned professions, college profe5
sors, doctors, lawyers, were once
looked down upon by lordly knights
and men-at-arms as mere scriVen-
ers. Artists and writer's were de-
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