DOMESTIC SERVICE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1837, 25 August 1913, Page 8

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

ITS UNPOPULARITY.

ENGLISH INQUIRY INTO THE [CAUSES.

"The aversion felt by working-class girls to 'the most despised form of employment.' and their preference for mill or shop or factory over Iritclien or servants' hall, are sufficiently marked throughout England, and nowhero more than in Lancashire. It is increasingly difficult- 'to get good servants, and often very' difficult to got any at all," says the "Manchester Guardian," in reviewing a remarkable inquiry by the Women's Industrial Council, which, in "attempting to improve domestic service as a career," had begun "by a widespread investigation into tho servants' as well as the mistresses' point of view." This investigation is nearing completion, and tlio "Guardian" publishes a survey of tho replies so far received .from the servants, and sonio of tho conclusions which may bo drawn from them. Would You Advise Anyone }o go into Service? "Tho inquiry into the conditions of domestic servico has been conducted by means of two series of questions circulated respectively among mistresses and 1 maids. The servants were addressed by a set of twenty-four questions, of which two of the most striking were: (1) 'Would you advise any young friend to go into service? If not, why not?' and (2) 'What do you tliink could be done to make domestic service a more dfesirablo occupation?' and the answers so far received,' especially in, reply to these cited questions,- provide an unequivocal condemnation of our whole system of household organisation. The inquiries .ivere sent forth broadcast throughout tho United Kingdom, and have penetrated into homes in London,

in other towns, and in the country, and have Teached every grade of domestic service, from tho 'between-maid' earning £12 a year to the butler who has visited fourteon countries, and who, according to his wife, a cook-house-keeper, 'is an honoured correspondent of many of tho intellectual giants of the world.' Some Decisive Answers. "From theso varying social levels the answer returned is clear, dccisivo, and, for the most part, reasoned; the -profession is felt to be -undesirable, if not repulsive, -under its present conditions. The fact is, indeed, made jnanifest that domestic servants feel their occupation to bo a retrograde trade. Organisation has mado steady headway, in factor}' and shop, but has left the household! beyond its ken; household workers consequently realise vaguely that they are out of joint with their century. "Tho symptoms of the malady from which they are suffering are, however, only too'evident, so that criticism and complaint centre monotonously round certain outstanding grievances, of which tho worst are:—(l) The lack of free time and of 'liberty,' and (2) tho loss of social' status of thbso employed in this class of work.

"A cook of 24 years who has been ten years at work laments: 'When you are in domestic service you are not treated as human beings, and you are never ablo to go anywhere for a pleasure-trip the same as your girl friends, but have to stay in and work whilo your mistress takes her pleasure.' And then, with unexpected organising instinct, she adds that Sunday work

might bo better arranged, 'for if they (i.e.. the family) had cold supper wo could havo everything ready, and wo pould take it in turns and ono como in early ono Sunday and tho other the next to clear and wash up. and then we should have Sunday a little different to a week-day.' Need for Concessions. "On a strict supply-and-demand theory this shortage of servants should lead mistresses to make concessions up to a point sufficient to restore the popularity of domestic service, and renew tho supply of servants," says tho "Manchester Guardian" in a leading article. "In point of fact , this does not happen, and though concessions are made and the averago servant has many advantages to-day that she had not thirty years ago, the eligibility of her career, as compared with other careers open to her, seems to havo steadily diminished. Hence tho familiar 'servant question.'

"It would be a mistake to suppose that it is confined to tliis country. It is "quite as acute in the industrial countries of the Continent, such as Germany or Belgium, and much more so in the United States. A phenomenon so widespread cannot bo mainly (though it may bo locally and partially) accounted for by the particular grievances on which somo of our correspondents lay stress —for instance, the development of week-end parties which Drovont servants in certain types of houses from enioying a Sunday outing. The first

tiling to do is to recognise that the competing employments which hare taken young girls off the servant-mar-ket liavo como to stay, and that domes-, tic service, as a trade in competition with tliem, is under certain disadvantages which may not provo insurmountable, hut must ho -understood. Housework Not Attractive. "To begin with, few people, whether men or women, find housework an attractive task. If not actually dirty and disagreeable, it is menial and petty —as dull as machine-minding, yet far more troublesomo and never automatic. Porcep.tion of this is not confined to servants, but accounts for a definite aversion among many middle-class girls to tho career of marriage. "Then a 'living-in' form of employment must, if other things be equal, compare unfavourably with one where tho employee can live at home. Tho good mistress who is confident that she . houses her servants much better than their parents would too often forgets the drawbacks of the system as a whole

—the suggestion of servilo status which it carries at best, tho gross dangers and temptations which it involves at worst, its deprivation; of companv. or else , its close infliction of the possibly uncongenial and nearly always unchosen com-

pany of fellow-servants, its tendency to mako all waking hours working hours. A Small Scale Industry. "Again, tho "small-scale' character of the domestic industry is prejudicial to the worker. The employee in a factory with a thousand or more hands not only has- the social advantages which como from numbers, but slio goes to work- under conditions which are well known and standardised. But tho domestic servant, who usually can learn nothing about a prospective placo and mistress, oxcept what slio sees at an interviow, must make, not without serious risks, a leap in the dark every timo. Tho isolation, of each workingplace is bad for both employer and employed. If a good mistress has a bad servant she lias really no remedy short of dismissing lier; if a good servant has a bad mistress she has none but to give notice. "In iwork-places whore employees are numerous there is a sort of public vigilance and public opinion, which protect and' help both tho good employer and the good employee, and the clumsy weapons of last resort .need not often be used. Probably in no employment which is not (as the building trades are, or as casual labour is) in its nature discontinuous is tho average length of nn onc;nu;omont so eliort as in domestic Borvioo."