THE DOMESTIC PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 375, 28 April 1910, Page 4

THE DOMESTIC PROBLEM.

Most people who argue the servant question suffer from strong Was. They write either as mistresses or servants, and usually from a strongly partisan standpoint. Yet most of the trouble that arises between mistresses and maids is due not to dissimilarity but to actual likeness between the two high contending parties. Both are women, both want as easy a time as possible, both want to be treated with as much respect as possible. Men hold it as an axiom that if they had the running of the house they could manage a great deal better than the women do. The reason for this is that men have a much wider experience as employers and employed, and have, consequently, a much more accurate idea as to discipline and business methods. A 'wife does not get that training, and consequently may; err in her treatment of her servant by being either too hard or too soft; too | confidential or too aloof; too mean or too generous. This may not find acceptance with the gentler sex, hut there are several facts which go to support it. Men are successful in managing male servants and such servants attain a very high efficiency. In dealing with the vexed question of the present scarcity of servants and the troubles that arise ■ with those* that are available, the. capacity of. t£e men does

■nod apply, for it is not probable tli.it any method can be devised to take advantage of it as a general thing. Ihen, again, the question of manners conies in. Men have better manners than women, simply because the unmannerly nien.ine individual who shows want of consideration for others, is speedily told about it by some follow man, and if this conduct be too strongly marked the odds are that he will not go very far without meeting with some very convincing proofs of the disapproval of his fellow men. Snobs, prigs, cads, bounders, liars and other undesirables find themselves penalised by the tribunal of public opinion, and thus a standard of conduct is insisted upon, and harmonious relations are established between man and man, class and class, so that most 01 the numberless transactions among men run along smoothly. Women, however, are subject to a far less rigorous censorship. The\' are in no danger of personal chastisement, they have'no business interests which can be injured by want of tact, and, therefore, lacking these salutary cheeks, they fail to do accurate justice to one another. They are keenly sensitive to what they consider to bo the respect due to their own status as individuals, but they often fail to realise adequately the rights of other women. Now, anybody can stand on his or her dignity, but the essential difference between the man who is not so, is that the former thinks of the inherent personal dignity of the man he meets, and endeavors to recognise it and conserve it, whatever the station in life of the other man may lie. The same ditinction exists between the lady and the notlady, whether they are servants or served. And no amount of condescension, or .patronising, or, to use the current idiom, "smoodging," can make up for lack of the essential quality indicated. | As both mistress and maid suffer from the same psychological impulses, so they are both* a fleeted by the same economic facts. The increase in general prosperity not only increases the number of would-be mistresses, but it decreases the number of servants. The industrial development which is a cause and an accompaniment of that prosperity, provides numerous other avenues for female labor, and thus not improves the status of the servant by limiting the supply. The servant has thus the opportunity of bringing effective pressure to bear in order to obtain better treatment, shorter hours, higher wages, greater consideration and a high level of social esteem. That is the process that is taking place now, but it cannot co-operate without causing a great deal of inconvenience to those who cannot or will not pay for the best service, and must, therefore, grumble when they have to employ an inferior quality. Much of the trouble at present is due to the fact that plenty of people require servants who cannot pay for the quality that they would like. There is no remedy for such a state of things. The odds are that the scarcity of servants will increase rather than diminsh. Providence has not decreed that there shall always be enough servants, any more than that there shall be enough champagne, pate de foie gras, or quail on toast to supply everybody nvho thinks that his or her dignity requires those comestibles. Nobody complains, however, that they have a prescriptive right to those luxuries, hut cannot obtam them. Why, then, should they complain about the lack of servants?