The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-12-10

Condition Is
Bad as Ever
Many Wives Mistreat
Servants, Underpay,
Overwork Them.
BY EVELYN SEELEY
Times Special Writer

NEW YORK, Dec. 10.-It must
l have done lot of women
good the other day-on both sides
Of the kitchen door-when the
maids Of Chicago told Chicago
housewives what they thought of
them. If more maids could talk
back to more housewives without
getting fired for their pains, it woulu
do more good than all the commit
tees against domestic exploitation.
The maids said, at Y. w. G.. A.
meeting staged for maids and house
wives in Chicago, that wives expect
too much; talH too much at bridge
parties about their maids; ask maids
to work too many of their regular
nights off when they have dates;
don't want to pay for part-t ne
work.
The housewives said a few things,
too, but they get their say all the
time, anyway. And I don't think
in general they have leg to stand
on.
Some housewives can not get past
a selfish, unrealistic, SNUG attitude
toward those who work for them in
their homes. Are their egos so de-
f1ated that they must build up a
sense Of power on the shoulders of
one underpaid servant? Have they
never worked for a living them
selves?
1t is foolish to say that women
are changing for the better They're
getting worse. A woman recently
called to my attention a book Lii
liam Pettengill wrote in 1908, called
THE Toilers of the Home; she
said that from her observation con-
ditionS are worse now than they
were then, 81 years ago!
slavery" Increases
A year ago last summer I did
some research on domestic service
and the unemployed girl and found
what social workers termed "the
worst form Of slavery since the Civil
War"
And I got letter asking my CO.
operation in finding a maid to take
care of three-room apartment and
do the baby's laundry for $40 to
$25 a month, Gust one who is in
need OF a decent home and few
dollars to clothe herself with
That is not the worst of it. The
worst Of it is this-she had called
the Y. w. G. A, the Salvation Army,
Social Service, State Employment,
ito no avail" because they want
to know if the girl gets room for
herself and such other silly and alb
surd questions!"
The Y. w. G. A. and others asked
that question for the simple reason
that they have sent out hundreds
of girls, needing home and willing
to earn that home, who worked IL
hours a day, for nothing week or
81 to SIS pin money, and then were
allowed to sleep in the foyer, in
the living room after the family
retired or in the bath tub!
Maid Adds Prestige"
Nor are their questions silly and
absurd" when you observe the depths
to which some women will sink
socially speaking-in order to be
able to brag smugly of my maid"
in the presence Of other women.
It is a. type of snobbishness that
seems to have nothing to do with
ones I. c., for faculty wives in
dulge in it in intellectual commune
ties with as many smirks as do
wives in any other category.
The depression, bringing cheaper
domestic service, has only increased
the number of wives who can sit at
bridge while my maid" labors at
home for enough cash to go to the
movies one night a week.
If every housewife who has a
maid had once been maid herself
there would be none of this snob-
bishness. If she had worked for a
living anywhere it would help.
My correspondent asks if we know
of such a girl-one who will do all
the dirty work for $40 month and
no absurd questions" asked as to
whether she shall have a room OF
her own.
No, Mrs. X, We do not And if
we did we would tell her TO walk
the other way-and to run, not
walk.