WOMAN'S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 94, 11 October 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD.

(Conducted by •'Eileen"). j THE DOMESTIC HELP PROBLEM. AMERICA'S .METHODS. In America they arc trying to grapple with the domestic help problem in a scientific way, and' something like a possibility of a change is indicated. The American plans which are now being tested aim either at removing the objections as to the lower social status of the domestic, helps and the long hours and want of freedom, or making them inoperative. The Herman Housewives' Society of New York goes on the theory that the fewer changes there are in the domestic stall' the better for both employed and employer. The society provides means of recruiting servants on thp one hand, and limiting work for them on the other, and offers a sort of rank to any girl who can show two years' continuous service with pne member. This is a gold badge in the form of a bee engraved on the back with the winner's name. Anyone I possessed of a bee badge is more or less guaranteed effective, and the girls are ; very proud of the decoration. There is t a further reward for every additional I year's service. Girls will refuse to take a better-paid place rather than lose the premium that rs coming, and steady workers always come off the best in the end. This idea, however .only touches the fringe of the subject. The real difficuulty arises from the fact that the demand is twice as great as the supply. Domestic Reform Lt agues tried to divert girl labor from shops and factories to homes to remedy this, and failed dismally. They showed that domestic workers were better paid, had good food and (|uarters provided, etc.. but the "working girls" would not be tempted. The Household Aid Company of Huston lias hit upon another plan. It produces and send* out a new kind of domestic craftsman (or craftswoman). who goes to the house to do domestic work, and is paid by the hour. All uhe applicants have to prove is a certain amount of ability, and must be fairly educated. They must be good-looking and have a certificate of character. They have a fortnight's probationary trial, and if successful are admitted for six or eight weeks' training. During this term they have board and lodging free. Then they are qualified to go out to different kinds of work, at prices ranging from 8d to 4s per hour. Household managing and skilled ironing brought the higher figure; waitress work anil others Is u'd to Is Ski, furniture polishing and cooking about 2s. They were guaranteed a minimum wage by the institution, and paid a regular sum for board and lodging. Over the fixed minimum they retained all their earnings except a percentage which was paid to the home. This institution was run successful!v for over two years, and when it disbanded the workers themselves carried on the scheme, and find it a great success. Similar societies have done and are doing great work in other parts of the Uni<">.

These demonstrations of scientific management have, as was hoped for. opened up a new supply of domestic workers. They attract a much higher grade of girl worker than ordinarily goes into domestic service. At the same time, these aids raised none of the objections ii.-ually made against household work. The parttime system has made available also the married women, many of whom were domestic employees before their marriage, and by this plan are. able to continue their work without sacrificing their homes. Moreover, this kind of household labor is being adopted as a tern porary source of income by workers who are preparing themselves for a university training. Those in the Columbia University neighborhood are students who cook a meal or wash dishes during the intervals between study. It is an interesting fact that with this change in the system \ of domestic service the social stigma .' seems to disappear, and the aids who \ come and go on schedule time are con- | scions of no inferiority to their sisters who work in shops or factories. Industrializing housework not only givis it a dignity in the eyes of worker.-, but endows it with new interest. One notable feature of the system is its economy in households where economy i- an essential. The housewife who can do part of the housework, and prefers to do it. callin aid for the work she cannot do. and does not like to do. and to the extent she can afford. The system al-o avoids the necessity for accommodating servants in the hou-e. and for their maintenance, and gets rid of them when thev are not wanted. The system is really' applying industrial organi.-ation to ieuiscwork. Men have been forced to do this in almost every department of men's \vork : and in such varieties of women's work as came to their business. It is claimed that women can apply the same principles with advantage', and the experiments referred to prove that, so far as the system has been applied, it is successful.

MAGGIE'S CRITICISM. Miss Maggie Papakura. who has heee elevated by the London newspapers to I the rank of '•The Maori Queen." has been | stating her impressions of Britain and i its people. Her enthusiasm for the fields and woods of the English counties is boundless, but the famous Maori guide is, very frank in her condemnation of some phases of social life in the Mother Country. She objects to seeing love treated as a jest or as a matter of no importance. "I look around me in this White City." she says, "and I see all sorts of young people 'flirting.' as you ! call it. I go to a dinner party and 1 | hear marriages being discu-5,.,|. '-Oli, yvs, I like him well enough, but I like'his money better.' was a pbra-e that caught my ear only the other dav. ft sent a shudder through my whole body." Maggie insists that love should be treated always, a- .-nmething sacred and splendid. She i- sorry, too. to have noticed in the Mother Coimtrv a tendency to hypocrisy. -| e„ t o your At Homes," she says, "and r find people who have been saying they hate one another a moment before throw their arm« round each other's necks and tell ail sorts of falsehoods. We Maoris never do that. If we do not like anyone we recognise that there is no nf<ed'to sav so. hut we dou'l make prole-i- of aff.clion. With ns, of course, personal like- anJ c?.i,lik M don't count so much as with von. It is a question of the tvihe." |:„'i Maggie admits frankly that the hapi.v communal life of the Maoris cannot be'adapted to the conditions of modern Britain, and she tells her new friends that her little disappointments do not prevent her from admiring and loving ihe Kn-li-h. -above all the quiet, ohl-fa-hi, d country people.'' The town folk, judged by her experiences in London, are "too noisy and frivolous." This candid critic has\som-e reason to be proud of the popularity that she lias won in London. There are verv few women indeed who would be given the attention that she ha- received from the newspapers of the metropolis.