Domestic service

by Lucy Maynard Salmon

CONTENTS

	PAGE
[CHAPTER I] Introduction
Frequency of discussion of domestic service	[1]
Personal character of the discussion	[2]
Omission of the subject from economic discussion	[2]
General reasons for this omission	[2]
Specific reasons for this omission	[4]
Fundamental reason for this omission	[5]
Can this omission be justified?	[6]
[CHAPTER II] Historical Aspects of Domestic Employments
Condition of industries in the eighteenth century	[7]
Inventions of the latter part of the century	[7]
Immediate result of these inventions	[8]
Co-operating influences	[8]
Effect of inventions on household employments	[9]
Release of work from the household	[9]
Diversion of labor from the household to other places	[10]
Results of this diversion to other places	[11]
Diversion of labor from the household into other channels	[11]
Household labor becomes idle labor	[12]
Outlets for idle labor	[12]
General result of change of work in the household	[13]
Division of labor in the household only partial	[13]
Interdependence of all industries	[15]
[CHAPTER III] Domestic Service during the Colonial Period
Domestic service has a history	[16]
Three periods of this history	[16]
The colonial period	[16]
Classes of servants during this period	[17]
Early reasons for colonizing America	[17]
Advantage to England of disposing of her undesirable population	[17]
Protests against this method of settlement	[18]
The freewillers	[19]
Proportion of redemptioners	[20]
Place of birth of redemptioners	[20]
Social condition of redemptioners	[21]
Methods of securing redemptioners	[22]
Form of indenture	[22]
Servants without indenture	[22]
Virginia law in regard to servants without indenture	[23]
Early condition of redemptioners	[25]
Subsequent improvement in condition	[27]
Wages of redemptioners	[28]
Legal regulation of wages	[30]
Character of service rendered by redemptioners	[31]
Service in Virginia	[32]
Service in Maine	[33]
Service in Massachusetts	[34]
Colonial legislation in regard to masters and servants	[37]
Laws for the protection of servants	[38]
Physical protection	[39]
Laws for the protection of masters	[40]
Laws in regard to runaways	[40]
Harboring runaways	[41]
Inducements to return runaways	[43]
Corporal punishment	[44]
Trading or bartering with servants	[45]
Miscellaneous laws protecting masters	[46]
Obligation of masters to community	[47]
Redemptioners after expiration of service	[48]
Indian servants	[49]
Negro slavery	[51]
General summary of character of service during the colonial period	[52]
[CHAPTER IV] Domestic Service since the Colonial Period
Second period in history of domestic service	[54]
Substitution for redemptioners of American “help”	[54]
Democratic condition of service	[55]
Observations of European travellers	[55]
Characteristics of the period	[61]
Third period in the history of domestic service	[62]
The Irish famine of 1846	[62]
The German revolution of 1848	[63]
Opening of treaty relations with China in 1844	[64]
Abolition of slavery in 1863	[65]
Effect of these movements on domestic service	[65]
Development of material resources	[66]
Effect of this on domestic service	[67]
Immobility of labor of women	[68]
Change in service indicated by history of the word “servant”	[69]
Early meaning of the word “servant”	[69]
Use of word “help”	[70]
Reintroduction of word “servant”	[71]
Impossibility of restoring previous conditions of service	[72]
[CHAPTER V] Economic Phases of Domestic Service
Domestic service amenable to economic law	[74]
Many domestic employees of foreign birth	[74]
Geographical distribution of foreign born employees	[75]
Concentration of foreign born women in remunerative occupations on domestic service	[77]
The foreign born seek the large cities	[77]
Foreign countries having the largest representation in large cities	[78]
Foreign countries having the largest representation in domestic service	[78]
Conclusion in regard to foreign born domestic employees	[80]
General distribution of domestic employees	[80]
Domestic employees few in agricultural states	[80]
The number large in states with large urban population	[80]
The number not affected by aggregate wealth	[82]
The number somewhat affected by per capita wealth	[82]
Domestic employees found in largest numbers in large cities	[83]
Proportion of domestic employees varies with geographical location and prevailing industry	[84]
Neither aggregate nor per capita wealth determines number of domestic employees in cities	[86]
Prevailing industry of city determines number of domestic servants	[87]
Competition for domestics between wealth and manufacturing industries	[88]
Wages in domestic service	[88]
Conformity of wages to general economic conditions	[89]
Skilled labor commands higher wages than unskilled labor	[89]
The skilled laborer a better workman than the unskilled	[90]
The foreign born receive higher wages than the native born	[91]
Men receive higher wages in domestic service than women	[92]
Tendency towards increase in wages	[93]
Comparison of wages in domestic service with wages of women in other occupations	[93]
High wages in domestic service do not counterbalance advantages in other occupations	[103]
Domestic service offers few opportunities for promotion	[103]
Time unemployed in domestic service	[104]
High wages maintained without strikes	[105]
Conclusions in regard to wages in domestic service	[106]
Conclusions in regard to general economic conditions	[106]
[CHAPTER VI] Difficulties in Domestic Service from the Standpoint of the Employer
Conditions of the average family	[107]
Difficulties in domestic service	[108]
Prevalence of foreign born employees	[108]
Restlessness among employees	[109]
Employment in skilled labor of unskilled laborers	[112]
Difficulty in changing employees	[114]
Recommendations of employers	[114]
The employment bureau	[115]
Indifference of employers to economic law	[117]
Illustrations of this indifference	[117]
Difference between the employers of domestic labor and other employers	[121]
Difficulties considered are not personal	[122]
Difficulties not decreasing	[125]
Difficulties not confined to America	[127]
The question in England	[127]
Condition of service in Germany	[128]
Service in France	[129]
Summary of difficulties	[129]
[CHAPTER VII] Advantages in Domestic Service
Personnel in domestic service	[130]
Reasons why women enter domestic service	[131]
High wages	[131]
Occupation healthful	[132]
It gives externals of home life	[133]
Special home privileges	[133]
Free time during the week	[134]
Annual vacations	[135]
Knowledge of household affairs	[137]
Congenial employment	[137]
Legal protection	[138]
Summary of advantages	[138]
[CHAPTER VIII] The Industrial Disadvantages of Domestic Service
Reasons why women do not choose domestic service	[140]
No opportunity for promotion	[141]
Work in itself not difficult	[142]
“Housework is never done”	[142]
Lack of organization	[143]
Irregularity of working hours	[143]
Work required evenings and Sundays	[146]
Competition with the foreign born and negroes	[146]
Lack of independence	[147]
Summary of industrial disadvantages	[149]
[CHAPTER IX] The Social Disadvantages of Domestic Service
Lack of home life	[151]
Lack of social opportunities	[152]
Lack of intellectual opportunities	[153]
Badges of social inferiority	[154]
Use of word “servant”	[155]
The Christian name in address	[156]
The cap and apron	[157]
Acknowledgment of social inferiority	[158]
Giving of fees	[158]
Objections to feeing system	[159]
Excuses made for it	[161]
Other phases of social inferiority	[162]
Social inferiority overbalances industrial advantages of the occupation	[163]
Comparison of advantages and disadvantages of the occupation	[165]
[CHAPTER X] Doubtful Remedies
Difference of opinion in regard to remedies possible	[167]
General principles to be applied	[168]
The golden rule	[169]
Capability and intelligence of employer	[170]
Receiving the employee into the family life of the employer	[170]
Importation of negroes from the South	[172]
Importation of Chinese	[176]
Granting of licenses	[177]
German service books	[178]
Convention of housekeepers	[179]
Abolishing the public school system	[179]
“Servant Reform Association”	[179]
Training schools for servants	[180]
Advantages of such schools	[180]
Practical difficulties in the way	[182]
Not in harmony with present conditions	[184]
Co-operative housekeeping	[186]
Advantages of the plan	[187]
Objections to it	[188]
Practical difficulties in carrying it out	[190]
Co-operative boarding	[191]
Objections to the plan	[192]
Mr. Bellamy’s plan	[192]
Reasons for considering these proposed measures impracticable	[193]
[CHAPTER XI] Possible Remedies—General Principles
Remedies must take into account past and present conditions	[194]
Industrial tendencies	[194]
Concentration of capital and labor	[194]
Specialization of labor	[195]
Associations for mutual benefit	[195]
Specialization of education	[195]
Profit sharing	[196]
Industrial independence of women	[196]
Helping persons to help themselves	[196]
Publicity in business affairs	[197]
The question at issue	[198]
Impossibility of finding a panacea	[199]
General measures	[199]
Truer theoretical conception of place of household employments	[199]
A more just estimate of their practical importance	[200]
Removal of prejudice against housework	[201]
Correction of misconceptions in regard to remuneration for women’s work	[201]
Summary of general principles	[203]
[CHAPTER XII] Possible Remedies—Improvement in Social Condition
Social disadvantages	[204]
Possibility of removing them	[204]
Provision for social enjoyment	[205]
Abolishing the word “servant”	[207]
Disuse of the Christian name in address	[209]
Regulation of use of the cap and apron	[209]
Abandoning of servility of manner	[210]
Principles involved in freeing domestic service from social objections	[211]
[CHAPTER XIII] Possible Remedies—Specialization of Household Employments
Putting household employments on a business basis	[212]
Articles formerly made only in the household	[212]
Articles in a transitional state	[213]
Articles now usually made in the house	[213]
Removal of work from the household	[215]
This change in line with industrial development	[215]
Indications of its ultimate prevalence	[216]
The Woman’s Exchange	[217]
The opening up to women of a new occupation	[218]
Ultimate preparation of most articles of food outside of the individual home	[219]
Advantages of this plan	[219]
Objections raised to it	[221]
These objections not valid	[221]
Laundry work done out of the house	[222]
Advantages of the plan	[223]
Possibility of having work done by the hour, day, or piece	[223]
Improved method of purchasing household supplies	[225]
Operation of unconscious business co-operation	[226]
General advantages of specialization of household employments	[228]
Objections raised to the plan	[230]
These objections not valid	[231]
Illustrations of success of the plan	[233]
[CHAPTER XIV] Possible Remedies—Profit Sharing
Industrial disadvantages of domestic service	[235]
Industrial difficulties in other occupations still unsettled	[236]
Possible relief through profit sharing	[236]
Definition of profit sharing	[236]
History of profit sharing	[237]
Advantages of profit sharing in other occupations	[237]
Lessons to be learned from profit sharing	[240]
Domestic service wealth consuming rather than wealth producing	[240]
The wage system not satisfactory in the occupation	[241]
Application of the principle of profit sharing to the household	[242]
Advantages of the plan in the household	[244]
Its advantages in hotels, restaurants, and railroad service	[244]
Substitution of profit sharing for fees	[244]
Objections to profit sharing in the household	[245]
These objections do not hold	[246]
Experiments in profit sharing in the household	[248]
[CHAPTER XV] Possible Remedies—Education in Household Affairs
Lack of information one obstacle in the household	[251]
Difference between information and education	[251]
What is included in information	[251]
Difficulty of obtaining information in regard to the household	[252]
Advance in other occupations through publicity of all information gained	[252]
What is included in education	[252]
Information and education necessary in the household	[254]
Progress hindered through lack of these	[254]
Cause of inactivity in household affairs	[254]
Assumption that knowledge of the household comes by instinct	[254]
Assumption that household affairs concern only women	[256]
Belief that all women have genius for household affairs	[257]
Theory that household affairs are best learned at home	[258]
Tendencies in the opposite direction	[259]
Establishment of school of investigation	[259]
Necessity for investigation before progress can be made	[260]
[CHAPTER XVI] Conclusion
Summary of points considered	[263]
Failure to recognize industrial character of domestic service	[264]
Conservatism of women	[264]
Summary of difficulties	[265]
Explanation of difficulties	[265]
Responsibility of all employers	[266]
Results to be expected from investigation	[266]
Removal of social stigma	[266]
Simplification of manner of life	[267]
Household employments on a business basis	[268]
Profit sharing	[268]
Investigation of household affairs	[269]
Readjustment of work of both men and women	[270]
Difficulty of dealing with women as an economic factor	[270]
Advantages of their working for remuneration	[272]
Division of labor in the household	[272]
Reform possible only through use of existing means	[273]
General conclusion	[274]
[CHAPTER XVII] Domestic Service in Europe
Opinion held in America	[275]
Ideal service not found in Europe	[275]
Influences that affect the question	[276]
External conditions that affect the question	[277]
Architecture a factor in the problem	[277]
Difficulties of the European employer	[278]
Advantages of service in Europe	[280]
Baking and laundry done out of the house	[280]
Legal contracts in Germany	[281]
The German service book	[284]
Employment of men	[286]
Wages in domestic service in Europe	[288]
Supplementary fees and profits	[290]
Allowances	[292]
Insurance	[292]
Difficulty of determining exact wages	[293]
Character of the service	[294]
Other factors affecting the question	[295]
Social condition of the employee	[296]
In England	[297]
In France	[299]
In Italy	[299]
Benefactions for servants in Germany	[299]
Conclusion	[301]
Appendix I. Copy of schedules distributed	[305]
Appendix II. List of places from which replies to schedules were received	[314]
Appendix III. Circular sent out by the social science section of the Civic Club of Philadelphia	[315]
Bibliography	[317]
Index	[323]

DOMESTIC SERVICE

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

Domestic service has been called “the great American question.” If based on the frequency of its discussion in popular literature, foundation for this judgment exists. Few subjects have attracted greater attention, but its consideration has been confined to four general classes of periodicals, each treating it from a different point of view. The popular magazine article is theoretical in character, and often proposes remedies for existing evils without sufficient consideration of the causes of the difficulty. Household journals and the home departments of the secular and the religious press usually treat only of the personal relations existing between mistress and maid. The columns of the daily press given to “occasional correspondents” contain narrations of personal experiences. The humorous columns of the daily and the illustrated weekly papers caricature, on the one side, the ignorance and helplessness of the housekeeper, and, on the other side, the insolence and presumption of the servant. In addition to this, in many localities it has passed into a common proverb that, among housekeepers, with whatever topic conversation begins, it sooner or later gravitates towards the one fixed point of domestic service, while among domestic employees it is none the less certain that other phases of the same general subject are agitated.

This popular discussion, which has assumed so many forms, has been almost exclusively personal in character. A somewhat different aspect of the case is presented when the problem is stated to be “as momentous as that of capital and labor, and as complicated as that of individualism and socialism.” This statement suggests that economic principles are involved, but the question of domestic service has been almost entirely omitted, not without reason, from theoretical, statistical, and historical discussions of economic problems. It has been omitted from theoretical discussions mainly because: (1) the occupation does not involve the investment of a large amount of capital on the part of the individual employer or employee; it therefore seems to be excluded from theoretical discussions of the relations of capital, wages, and labor; (2) no combinations have yet been formed among employers or employees; it is therefore exempt from such speculations as are involved in the consideration of trusts, monopolies, and trade unions; (3) the products of domestic service are more transient than are the results of other forms of labor; this fact must determine somewhat its relative position in economic discussion. Its exclusion, as a rule, from the statistical presentations of the labor question is also not surprising. The various bureaus of labor, both national and state, consider only those subjects for the investigation of which there is a recognized demand. They are the leaders of public opinion in the accumulation of facts, but they are its followers as regards the choice of questions to be studied. Public opinion has not yet demanded a scientific treatise on domestic service, and until it does the bureaus of labor cannot be expected to supply the material for such discussion.[2] Again, it is not surprising that the historical side of the subject has been overlooked, since household employments have been passive recipients, not active participants, in the industrial development of the past century. Yet it must be said that this negative consideration of the subject by theoretical, practical, and historical economists, and the positive treatment accorded it by popular writers, seems an unfair and unscientific disposition to make of an occupation in which by the Census of 1890 one and a half millions of persons are actively engaged,[3] to whom employers pay annually at the lowest rough estimate in cash wages more than $218,000,000,[4] for whose support they pay at the lowest estimate an equal amount,[5] and through whose hands passes so large a part of the finished products of other forms of labor.[6]

It is not difficult, however, to find reasons, in addition to the specific ones suggested, for this somewhat cavalier treatment of domestic service. The nature of the service rendered, as well as the relation between employer and employee, is largely personal; it is believed therefore that all questions involved in the subject can be considered and settled from the personal point of view. It follows from this fact that it is extremely difficult to ascertain the actual condition of the service outside of a single family, or, at best, a locality very narrow in extent, and therefore that it is almost impossible to treat the subject in a comprehensive manner. It follows as a result of the two previous reasons that domestic service has never been considered a part of the great labor question, and that it has not been supposed to be affected by the political, social, and industrial development of the past century as other occupations have been.