Women Wage-Earners Part 12

Why such determined opposition still meets every attempt to bring about the same inspection for mercantile establishments cannot be determined; but thus far, though admitted to be necessary, the act has at each reading been laid upon the table. Another effort will be made in the coming winter of 1893-94.

In spite, however, of much agitation of all phases of woman's work, it is only some wrong as startling as that involved in the sweating-system that seems able to arouse more than a temporary interest. One of the most able and experienced women inspectors of the United States Bureau of Labor, Miss de Grafenried, has lately written:--

"It is an open question whether woman's pay is not falling, cost and standards of living considered. Could partly supported labor and children be eliminated, shop employees would get higher rates.

Still there are other economic anomalies that affect women's wages.

'Wholesalers' and manufacturers shut up their factories and 'give out' everything--umbrellas, coats, hair-wigs, and shrouds--to be made,--they know not in what den, or wrung they care not from what misery ... Again, wages are depressed by over-stimulating piece-work; and its unscrupulous use by proprietors who hesitate to confess to paying women only $3 or $4 a week, yet who scale prices so that only experts can earn that sum. Many employers cut rates as soon as, by desperate exertions, operatives clear $5 a week. Then, underbidding from the unemployed is a fruitful source of low wages.

Ma.s.sachusetts has 20 per cent of her workers unemployed."

These conditions, while varying as to numbers, are practically the same for the work of women in all parts of the United States, and are matters of increasing perplexity and sorrow to every searcher into these problems. At its best, woman's work in industries is intermittent, since it is only textile work that continues the year round; dress and cloak making, shoe and umbrella making, fur-sewing and millinery, have specific seasons, in the intervals between which the worker waits and starves, or, if too desperate, goes upon the streets, driven there by the wretched compet.i.tive system, the evils of which increase in direct ratio to the longing for speedy wealth. In short, matters are at that point where only radical change of methods can better the situation, even the most conservative observer, relying most thoroughly upon evolution, feeling something more than evolution must work if justice is to have place in the present social scheme.

It is at this point that some consideration of domestic service naturally presents itself. Though regarded often as no part of the labor question, there can be no other head under which to range it, since the last census gives over a million persons engaged in this occupation, the lowest rough estimate of wages being $160,000,000 and the support included forming a sum at least as large. It is through the hands of the domestic servant that a large part of the finished products of other forms of labor must pa.s.s, and the economic aspects of the question grow in importance with every year of the changing conditions of American life. In no other occupation is a just consideration of the points involved so difficult a task, since the mistress who faces the incompetence, insubordination, and all the other trials involved in the relation, suffers too keenly from the sense of individual wrong to treat the matter in the large. Till it is so treated, however, understanding for both sides is impossible, and to bring about such understanding is the first necessity for all.

From the employer's standpoint the advantages to be stated are as follows: First and most obvious is the fact that wages are not only relatively but absolutely high; for aside from the actual cash there are also board, lodging, fuel, light, and laundry, all of which the worker in trades must provide for herself. There is no capital required, as for type-writer, sewing-machine, or any appliances for work, nor is the girl forced to expend anything in preparation, since under the present system housekeepers take her untrained fresh from Castle Garden, and willingly give the needed instruction, at the same time paying the same wage as that given to competent service. Professor Lucy Salmon, of Va.s.sar, who has devoted much time to this subject, reports that, on examination of testimony from three thousand employees, it is found that on a wage of $3.25 a week it is possible to save annually nearly $150 "in an occupation involving no outlay, no investment of capital, and few or no personal expenses." The wages received are relatively higher than those of other occupations; for in Professor Salmon's comparison of wages received by three thousand country and the same number of city employees it was found that of six thousand teachers in the public schools the average salary actually paid is less than that paid to the average cook in a large city.

The second advantage lies in the healthfulness of the work, which includes not only regularity but variety; the third, that a home, at least in all externals, is insured; the fourth, that a training which makes the worker more fit for married life is certain; and a fifth, that the work is congenial and easy for those whose tastes lie in this direction.

These are the facts that are constantly urged upon the army of under-paid, half-starving needlewomen in our great cities, and no less upon another army of girls in shops and factories, who are implored to consider the advantages of domestic service and to give up their unnecessary battle with the limitations hedging in every other form of labor. Astonishment that the girls prefer the factory and shop is unending, nor is it regarded as possible that substantial reason may and must exist for such choice. As a means of arriving at some solution of the problem, some six hundred employees of every order were interviewed, under circ.u.mstances which made their replies perfectly free and full; and the results tallied exactly with others obtained by an inquiry in the Philadelphia Working-Woman's Guild, a society then representing seventy-two distinct occupations.

A report of this inquiry was made by Mrs. Eliza S. Turner, the President of the Guild, and is given as the most suggestive view of the whole subject yet secured. She writes as follows:--

"Why do not intelligent, refined girls more frequently choose house service as a support?" The replies here given are as nearly as possible _verbatim_:

1. Loss of freedom. This is as dear to women as to men, although we don't get so much of it. The day of a saleswoman or a factory hand may be long, but when it is done she is her own mistress; but in service, except when she is actually out of the house, she has no hour, no minute, when her soul is her own.

2. Hurts to self-respect. One thing that makes housework unpleasant--chamber-work, for instance, and waiting on table--is that it is a kind of personal service, one human being waiting on another. The very thing you would do without a thought in your own home for your own family seems menial when it is demanded by a stranger.

3. The very words, "service" and "servant," are hateful. It is all well enough to talk about service being divine, but that is not the way the world looks at it.

4. Say that a young woman well brought up undertakes to do chamber-work; she is obliged to a.s.sociate with the other girls, no matter how uncongenial they may be, what may be their language or personal habits or table manners. If she tries to keep to herself, the rest think she is taking airs, and combine to make her life unbearable.

5. Or say she takes a place for general housework; to be alone in the midst of others is crushing,--quite different from being alone in one's own lodgings.

6. I suppose a soldier doesn't mind being ordered around by his captain; but in a family the mistress and maid are so mixed up that it is much harder to keep the lines from tangling. It takes a very superior person, on both sides, to do it.

7. I knew an educated woman--a lady--who tried it as a sort of upper housemaid. The work was easy, the pay good, and she never had a harsh word; but they just seemed unconscious of her existence.

She said the gentlemen of the house, father and son, would come in and stand before her to have her take their umbrellas or help them off with their coats, and sometimes without speaking to her or even looking at her. There was something so humiliating about it that she couldn't stand it, but went back to slop shop sewing.

8. Many mistresses have no standard of the amount of work a girl ought to do. They know nothing about housework themselves. If a girl is deliberate and saves herself, they call her slow; if she is ambitious, and gets her work done early, and they see her sitting down in working-hours, they conclude that she is not earning her wages, and hunt up some extra job for her. No matter if you can't find anything undone, if she is found sitting about she _must_ be lazy.

9. Some employers think that after the more violent work is done, it is only a rest for the girl to look after the child awhile. They don't seem to realize that if the mother finds it such a relief to get rid of her own child for an hour or so, it is likely to be still less interesting to take care of somebody else's child.

10. Many people think the position of a child's nurse is very light work indeed,--mostly just sitting around; so they don't hesitate to give her the care of one or two children all day, not even arranging for her to get her meals without the oversight of them; and then most likely put the baby to sleep with her at night. Any one minute of such a day may not be heavy, but to have it for twenty-four hours is enough to wear out the strongest human being ever made.

11. I knew a school-teacher who thought more active occupation would better suit her health; she took a place as child's nurse.

She loved children, and found no objection to the work; but soon the employer concluded to put her in a _bonne's_ cap and ap.r.o.n. My friend would have worn and liked a nurse's uniform, but she objected to a family livery. On this question they parted; and her employer hired an uncouth, ignorant woman to be her child's companion and to give it its first impressions.

12. In most houses, however elegant, the girls have no home privacy; they must sleep, not only in the same room, but most frequently in the same bed; it is rarely thought necessary to make that room pleasant or even warm for them to dress by or to sit in to do their own sewing. The little tastes and notions of each member of the family, down to the youngest, are provided for; but a "girl" is not supposed to have any. She is just a "girl," as a gridiron is a gridiron, an article bought for the convenience of the family. If she suits, use her till she is worn out and then throw her away.

13. To go into house service, even from the most wretched slop or factory work, is to lose caste in our own world; it may be a very narrow world, but it is all to us. A saleswoman or cashier or teacher is ashamed to a.s.sociate with servants.

14. The very words, "No followers," would keep us out of such occupation. No self-respecting young woman is going to put herself in a position where she is not allowed to entertain her friends, both male and female; nor where, if allowed, the only place thought fit for them is the kitchen.

Now, the above is not theory, but testimony, taken by the present writer from the lips of intelligent working-girls, many of whom would be better off at housework than at their present occupations, except for the objections. And from a consideration thereof results this query: Given a certain number of young women of a cla.s.s superior to the imported, willing to take service under the following conditions, how many housekeepers would agree to the conditions?--

1. The heaviest work, as washing, carrying coal, scrubbing pavements, and the like, to be provided for, if this be asked, with consequent deduction in wages.

2. In families, where practicable, certain hours of absolute freedom while in the house, especially with the child's nurse.

3. Such a way of speaking, both to and of your house help, as testifies to the world that you really do consider housework as respectable as other occupations.

4. A well-warmed, well-furnished room, with separate beds when desired; and the use of a decent place and appointments at meals.

5. The privilege of seeing friends, whether male or female; of a better part of the house than the kitchen in which to receive them; and security from espionage during their visits,--this accompanied by proper restrictions as to evening hours, and under the condition that the work is not neglected.

6. No livery, if objected to.

Turning from this informal examination of the subject to the few labor reports which have taken up the matter, it becomes plain that domestic service is in many points more undesirable than any other occupation open to women. The Labor Commissioner of Minnesota reports, while stating all the advantages of the domestic servant over the general worker, that "only a fifth of those who employ them are fit to deal with any worker, injustice and oppression characterizing their methods."

Figures and detailed statements bear him out in this conclusion. The Colorado Commissioner gives even more details, and comes to the same conclusion; and though other reports do not take up the subject in detail, their indications are the same.

The first general and rational presentation of the subject in all its bearings, both for employed and employer, has lately been made during the Woman's Congress at Chicago, May, 1893, in which the Domestic Science section discussed every phase of wrongs and remedies.[48] The latter sum up in the formation of bureaus of employment in every large city, fixed rates, and full preparatory training. A keen observer of social facts has stated: The intelligence offices of New York alone receive from servants yearly over three million dollars, and are notoriously inefficient. This, or even half of it, would provide a great centre with training-schools, lodgings for all who needed them, and a system by which fixed rates were made according to the grade of efficiency of the worker. Till household service comes under the laws determining value, as well as hours and all other points involved in the wage for a working-day, it will remain in the disorganized and hopeless state which at present baffles the housekeeper, and deters self-respecting women and girls from undertaking it. To bring about some such organization as that suggested will most quickly accomplish this; and there seems already hope that the time is not distant when every city will have its agency corresponding to the great Bourse du Travail in Paris, but even more comprehensive in scope. Co-operation within certain limited degrees, so that private home life will not be infringed upon, must necessarily make part of such a scheme, and has already been tried with success at various points in the West; but details can hardly be given here. It is sufficient to add that with such new basis for this form of occupation the "servant question" will cease to be a terror, and the most natural occupation for women will have countless recruits from ranks now closed against it.

FOOTNOTES:

[41] Fifteenth Annual Report of the Ma.s.sachusetts Bureau of Labor, p.

68.

[42] Ibid.

[43] House of Representatives Report No. 2309: Report of the Committee on Manufactures on the Sweating-System, House of Representatives, January, 1893.

[44] Child Labor. By William F. Willoughby, A.B. Child Labor. By Miss Clare de Grafenried, Publications of the American Economic a.s.sociation, vol. v. no. 2.

[45] Our Toiling Children. By Florence Kelley, W.C.T.U. Publishing a.s.sociation, Chicago.

[46] Married Women in Factories. By W. Stanley Jevons, Contemporary Review, vol. xli. pp. 37-53.

[47] Miss Alice Woodbridge, Secretary of the Working-Woman's Society, 27 Clinton Place, New York.

[48] The a.s.sociation then formed, and from which much is hoped, made the following summary of its objects:--

"The objects of this a.s.sociation shall be: 1. To awaken the public mind to the importance of establishing a Bureau of Information where there can be an exchange of wants and needs between employer and employed in every department of home and social life. 2. To promote among members of the a.s.sociation a more scientific knowledge of the economic value of various foods and fuels; a more intelligent understanding of correct plumbing and drainage in our homes, as well as need for pure water and good light in a sanitarily built house. 3. To secure skilled labor in every department of women's work in our homes,--not only to demand better trained cooks and waitresses, but to consider the importance of meeting the increasing demand for those competent to do plain sewing and mending."

XII.

REMEDIES AND SUGGESTIONS.