IfiJoMm AS^VOME ve» ** T
S V EMPLOYERS NA 7 SITO ° N - MIIB I
7
AnA KB wage-earning woman
; is pretty well aware of
H her Importance to soci
-8 tty In the modern world,
but the wage-paying
Ni'SQfp' woman seems, for the
most part, entirely un
conscious of any neces
sary connection between herself
and the world outside her home.
The expression "employer" brings
to mind the few women of these
modern days who, by very unusual
ability, have become directors of
large business enterprises, rather <
than the great number of house- {
wives, who are the employers in
an important occupation. Domes- 1
tic service is an occupation In
which, in this country alone, over
3,000,000 wage earners are en
gaged; it is not only the consumer
of the products of large numbers
of other important industries, but
its products or achievements serve
the most vital interests of society
The employer owes it to society ,
to make the occupation in whict
he employs others an efficient
means of satisfying some numan
need in a way that shall be con
ducive to the economic welfare of
society. The obligations of the
employer imposed upon him by
this position in the social order
may be put into three classes: to
those he employs, in the regulation of
wages, standards of efficiency, etc..
and in maintaining proper conditions
for the preservation of health and so
cial welfare; to other employers, in
the same occupation, in regulation of
wages, class of service and standards
of efficiency, and to the employers en
gaged in the production of supplies
for this occupation, in the stability
and character of the demand; to
those whose needs the occupation sup
plies. in reliability and quality of sup
ply.
In domestic service, in which wom
en figure as workers and employers in
overwhelming majority, there are
unique conditions, which make it an
interesting problem to unravel tho
purely economical relationships from
the tangle of closely related social and
personal ones
In the first place, the products or
achievements are such as cannot be
defined in terms of the market. The
selection and preparation of the food
of the world and the cleaning and
sanitary care of its dwellings is the
work of the occupation, and the prod
ucts ill*- '<fr necessity found in the
quality of the bodily life of the com
munity Then, too, those whose needs
this occupation supplies—the "con
sumers" —are members of the em
ployer's immediate family, bound to
him by the closest and tenderest ties,
and the employes, more often than
not, are dwellers under the same roof,
thus making of employer, consumer
and employe one household group,
with a mixture of personal, social and
economic relationships that no law
yer, PI iladelpliian or otherwise, not
to speak of any "mere woman," has
ever been able to adjust satisfactorily.
From the nature of the case the ob
ligations to the "consumer" have re
ceived the bulk of attention given to
domestic service. Long centuries of
isolation have bred in women its char
acteristic evil of selfishness and obli
gations to her family not only appear
to her as her first duties, but, in the
majority of cases, have obscured all
Though this obligation of
maintaining the healthful and com
fortable conditions of the home is so
completely recognized, the fact that it
is most imperfectly met is lamentably
evident. This is commonly attributed
to the inefficiency of the available
supply of employes and. at first glance,
would put the whole responsibility for
the evils in the present to the work
ers in it. The methods of the prepa
ration of food in the modern family
are for the most part governed by tra
dition, based upon the more or less
intelligent experiments of a long line
of female ancestors, or the fads and
fancies generated in idle brains or by
misused stomachs, rather than any
knowledge of the value for support
and upbuilding of human bodies based
upon scientific experiment.
From the position of the employe In
the employer's household the exist
ence of obligations to them is gener
ally recognized, but any general idea
as to the definition and scope of
these obligations is extremely vague.
Right here is a very delicate adjust
ment of the personal and economic re
lations. The training that men have
gotten in the business world, where
the distinctions between personal and
business relations are sharply drawn,
has been almost unknown to women
in the past and the'r propensity to
mix sentimentality, prejudice and pre
sonal caprice with all their business
transactions is notorious.
In the economic relation the em
ployer owes to the employe a definite,
reasonable wage for a definite amount
of service, and, since she is also the
educator, she owes such training as
shall bring efficiency. She is also un
der obligations to maintain proper
conditions in the occupation for the
preservation of- health and social wel
fare Such obligations certainly in
clude a place to sleep, having the
requisite amount of air space and sun
light, with comfortable and wholesome
bee! and proper facilities for bathing,
etc I3ut this has been so entirely
ignored that our homes have been
built with "the girl's room" irnarl
ubly in the most uncomfortable part
of the house and rooms that will be
considered impossible for any other
human being even casually spending
the night in the house. They are fre
uqently bare of even common necessi
ties.
The position of those employed In
this service, as dwellers under the
same roof with their employers, gives
the latter no more right to interfere
in their private personal affairs than
with those of her tailor. When the
service for which she pays Is properly
rendered, economic rights end. It
may be her privilege to suggest or
wisely guide in personal affairs, but it
must be willingly granted her. Cer
tain personal restrictions are neces
sarily imposed upon anyone living In
another's household, but they must be
only such as any self-respecting per
son would naturally comply vyith t or
they become intolerable.
The housekeeper who does her
whole duty to those who are members
of the household —may her tribe in
crease! —rests seienely in the confi
dence of having performed the whole
duty of woman. Nevertheless, every
once in a while her home is invaded
by the reprehensible methods of her
neighbors, introduced by one of the
nomadic host that forms the constant
procession through our American
kitchens, witb uncomfortable and
sometimes calamitous results; or a
sudden demand for an increase of
wages from a carefully trained and
reliable maid reveals the fact that
some other housekeeper in the neigh
borhood, in dire stress of circum
stance, or for a less honorable rea
son lias been tempted to offer higher
wages. The good woman cannot un
derstand how she becomes the victim
of such unmerited disaster and won
ders "why people can't mind their
own business and let her alone," and
she forthwith goes to the intelligence
office and fills the place of the com
petent. intelligent maid with a wholly
inexperienced and untrained emigrant,
at the same rate of wages she paid
for competency and the next order
she sends to her grocer calls for an
inferior quality of goods, because
"such are good enough for an incom
petent cook to spoil."
The whole course of human devel
opment has had a tendency to make
woman the conservative, self-centered
being that she is, and through that
characteristic the home, her special
province, became and remained a sup
posedly self-sufficing social unit. Here
are enshrined the deepest mysteries
and sanctities of human life, rightly
protected from public interference. As
the manufacturer is entitled to keep
secret the processes wherewith he
combines his raw materials into the
finished product, but. the plant and
machinery may be matters of public
interest, so in the home the life itself
is a personal affair, but the machin
ery whereby it is carried on is a so
cial affair.
In the days of simpler housekeep
ing the domestic wage earners were
few in number and the ministrations
of each individual were confined to
one or at most perhaps a half dozen
families, and it mattered comparative
ly little if the training consisted large
ly of unwholesome processes of cook
ing and unsanitary methods of clean
ing, since the mischief was not dis
seminated through a whole commu
nity, neither disease germs nor other
results of crude experimenting were
carried from family to family by the
constantly moving stream of domestic
employes we have to-day.
The woman who raises the rate of
wages in her own household compels
every other employer In her neighbor
hood to do likewise, either absolutely
or by accepting inferior service, and
this result follows whether her motive
in so doing was to raise a wage un
justly acquired through some other
woman's careful training, or whether
it was done in pure thoughtlessness
The woman who ikes into her em
ploy, in place of a competent and well
i trained cook or housemaid, an inex
perienced one. at the same rate of
wages, because the girl, through nat
ural stupidity or ignorance of the
ways of her adopted country, "is not
up to the tricks of girls in general."
or because the housekeeper wants to
CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 1910.
be able to "train her from the start,"
not only raises the relative rate of
wages, but puts a premium on Incom
petency. She repudiates her obliga
tions to her own family, for nowhere
else is the employment of unskilled
labor more extravagant than In do
mestic service, where processes are
so intricate and varied and where
routine counts for so little and unskil
ful experimenting can hardly produce
the best conditions for bodily health
and comfort. There are natural laws
that governin the economic world in
exorably, without respect to Bex or
person, and one of them is that the
nature of the supply is governed by
the demand
The common expedient for balan
cing the extravagance of Incompetent
service is using poorer quality of ma
terials and there again the same law
holds; less price means less of some
thing. For example, we hear house
keepers say, "Oh, yes, I know these
extracts are perfectly pure and much
superior in every way, but they are BO
expensive and the cook Is no more
careful about wasting them than the
cheap ones, so I buy the cheap ones."
The facts are that the cheap extracts,
if really taken from the fruits or
spices they represent, are so diluted
that a much larger quantity must be
used to get the same result. In the
case of foodtstuffs the lower grades
have a smaller percentage of nourish
ing power- an unpardonable sin. Ev
ery housekeeper is by her demand in
fluencing the quality of the supply for
every other housekeeper. It is the
demand of the economical (?) house
keepers that has made the problem -it
adulterated foods assume such propor
tions
Large numbers of industries are de
pendent upon the home for the con
sumption of their products—the mar
ket gardener, the dairyman, manufac
turers of grocers" supplies and all the
multitude of industries engaged in the
production of supplies for house dec
oration and furnishings, and every
change in the economic conditions
there Is registered in some disturb
ance throughout this whole system of
dependent industries.
The real worth of the decorative
and esthetically valuable things lies
in the artistic skill put Into them, in
combination of colors, design or work
manship, and the degree of Intelli
gence necessary in the proper care
of them is in almost direct proportion
to such value. When such intelligence
is lacking in the housemaid the care
of these things falls upon the mistresß
of the house and the wise woman of
to-day very often comes to the con
clusion that her life and time have
too many more important demands
upon them to be used .up In the way
that ownership of many of these valu
able things makes necessary Conse
quently the demand for the really
high-class commodities falls off and
those of cheaper quality, imitations,
etc., take their places and the skilful
and artistic employes are supplanted
by cheaper and untrained workers.
As a rule, low-class labor can be em
ployed profitably only upon the cheap
er grades of products. The compe
tency and intelligence of those em
ployed as cooks and housemaids has
an Important Influence upon the qual
ity of the supplies demanded by the
housekeeper ' and It depends upon
these demands whether the employers
in the production of these supplies,
who furnish honest, first-class quality
and pay good wages to a high class
of workers, shall be able to prosper
or whether the market shall be mo
nopolized by the law-grade products
These are some of the responsibili
ties that the housekeeper assumes
when she becomes an employer. To
study them and meet their demands
would not only lead to the solution of
that modern riddle of the Sphinx, the
domestic service problem, but would
help conditions throughout the in
dustrial world.
The thoughtful women of the coun
try should become actively interested
in these questions. The great need
is fi;r general organized effort among
intelligent women to put the one In
dustry exclusively controlled by them
into its proper place in the socia
older
IN HOSPITAL FOR NINE MONTHS.
Awful Tale of Suffering From Kidney
T rouble.
Alfred J. O'Brien, Second St., Ster
ling, Colo., says:"l was in the ltalti
tmore Marine Hos
pital for nine
months. I had a
dull pain in the
small of my back
that completely
wore me out. The
urine was in a ter
rible state, and
some days I would
pass half a gallon
of blood. I left
the hospital because they wanted to
operate on me. I went to St. .Joseph's
Hospital at Omaha and putin three
months there without any gain. I was
pretty well discouraged when I was
advised to use Doan's Kidney Pills. I
did so and by the time I had taken
one box, the pain in the back left me.
I kept right on and a perfect cure
was the result."
Remember the name—Doan's.
For sale by all dealers. 50 cents a
box. Foster-Milburn Co., liuffalo., N. Y.
In New Hampshire.
That irresponsible Manchester
TJnion man gave himself a surprise
party by going to church last Sunday
and this was the result: "On this first
Sunday of Lent, while George Bailey
of the Houston Post is sacrilegiously
fishing for eels in a Texas bayou, and
the (married) paragrapher of the
Kennebeck Journal is tapping his
boots, and the Ging-Ging Goophus of
the Springfield Union is playing seven
up, we, in common with other good
New Hampshire people, shall dutifully
attend church. —Springfield Union.
Resinol Is a Perfect Remedy for Pru
ritus and All Itching Skin Troubles.
Have used Resinol with the utmost
satisfaction. A case of Pruritus
Vulvae which seemed to defy ail
known remedies was at once relieved
and promptly cured. It also acted in
a like manner in a severe case of
eczema that had almost driven the pa
tient crazy. It is indispensible to this
day and generation.
F. C. Imes, Philadelphia, Pa.
National Tuberculosis Sunday.
Present Indications point to a gen
eral observance of National Tuber
culosis Sunday in more than 200,000
churches of the country on April 24.
Reports from heads of local anti-tuber
culosis associations, health officers,
pastors, mayors, governors, and nu
merous interdenominational bodies
show much enthusiasm over the
movement. The National Association
for the Study and Prevention of Tu
berculosis has prepared an outline for
a tuberculosis sermon for use on
April 24, which will be sent free of
charge to any clergyman applying at
105 East Twenty-second street. New
York. Thousands of these outlines
are being sent out weekly to all parts
of the country.
Prominent churchmen, including
bishops ai.d heads of all the leading
denominations, have expressed their
approval of the movement.
Vindictive Cuss.
"Ugh!" spluttered Mr. Jones. "That
nut had a worm in it."
"Here," urged a friend, offering him
a glass of water, "drink this and wash
it down."
"Wash it down!" growled Jones.
"Why should I? Let him walk!"—
Everybody's.
So Different.
"Mrs Uppersett takes such great in
terest in her baby."
"Yes; she says she was delightfully
surprised when it came, as she had ob
tained her ideas about babies from the
comic supplements, you know."—
Puck.
Studies in Still Life.
"I want a few colored illustrations
of beets and tomatoes."
"Life size?" inquired the artist.
"Catalogue size," replied the seeds
man, with a significant smile. —Louis-
ville Courier-Journal.
ROSY COLOR
Produced by Postum.
"When a person rises. from each
meal with a ringing in the ears and a
general sense of nervousness, it is
a common habit to charge it to a de
ranged stomach.
"I found it was caused from drink
ing coffee, which I never suspected for
a long time, but found by leaving off
coffee that the disagreeable feelings
went away.
"I was brought to think of the sub
ject by getting some Postum and this
brought me out of trouble.
"It is a most appetizing and invig
orating beverage and has been of
such great benefit to me that I natu
rally speak of it from time to time
as opportunity offers.
"A lady friend complained to me
that she had trieu Postum, but it did
not taste good. In reply to my ques
tion she said she guesed she boiled it
about ten minutes. I advised her to
follow directions and know that she
boiled it fifteen or twenty, minutes, and
she would have something worlh talk
ing about. A short time ago I heard
one of her children say that they were
drinking Postum now-a-days, so 1
judge she succeeded in making il
good, which is by no means a difficult
task.
"The son of one of my friends wa.
formerly a pale lad, but since he ha
been drinking Postum, has a fine colo)
There is plenty of evidence tlia
Postum actually does 'make red blood
as the famous trade-mark says."
Read "The Road to Wellville," fou.
in pkgs. "There's a Reason."
lOver rend Iho above let tor? A r.t
one np|>eatr* from time to time. T!-
(ire Rerutine, true, uu<l lull of hum
I lute-en*.
ilf you are a business man,
did you ever think of the field
of opportunity that advertis
ing opens to you? There is
almost no limit to the possi
bilities of your business if you
study how to turn trade into
your store. If you are not get
ting your share of the business
of your community there's a
reason. People go where they
are attracted where they
know what they can get and
how much it is sold for. If
you make direct statements in
your advertising see to it that
you are able to fulfill every
promise you make. You will
add to your business reputa
tion and hold your customers.
It will not cost as much to run
J • .L'
your ad in this paper as you
*u:„i tk » » .
think, it is the persi-tent ad
vernier who gets tnere. 1 lavc
something in the paper every
issue, no matter how small.
We will be pleased to quote
.
vou our nar
yuu uur auverusmg iaieb, p*r
timlnrlv on hnci
ucuiany on uie year s dusi
rv*cc
ixcas.
MAKE YOUR APPEAL
rn to the public through the,
columns of this paper.
With e\ery issue it carries
tm its message into the homes
■ and lives 01 the people.
Your competitor has hi*
• »!-• • Tin. j t.
store news in this issue. Why don t
you have yours? Don't blame the
1 t a 1 • *.
people for nocking to hu store.
They know what he has.
* * Gives you the readme matter la
m BIG nome » which you have the greatest in
i ■ " - terest —the home newt. Its every
issue will prove a welcome visitor to every member of the family- It
should head your list of newspaper and periodical subscriptions.
G.SCHMIDT'S,^"
HEADQUARTERS FOR
{fW3 fresh BREAD,
gopdlar
CONFECTIONERY
Daily Ddlivery. Allorderi! given prompt and
akillful attention.
Enlarging Your Business
If you are in annually, and then carefully
business and you note the effect it has in in«
■rajffr want to make creasing your volume of busi-
VA more money you ness; whether a 10, 20 or 30
will read every per cent incrense. If you
wor d we have to watch this gain from year to
CW lla say. Are you T ou will become intensely in*
M Kraft spending your terested in your advertising,
9 money for ad- and how you can make it en-
Kj vertising in hap- your business.
IH h hazard fashion If you try this method w«
as if intended believe you will not want to
for charity, or do you adver- let a single issue of this paper
tise for direct results? goto press without something
Did you ever stop to think from your store,
how your advertising can be We be pleased to hava
made a source of profit to you call on us, and we will
you, and how its value can be take pleasure in explaining
measured in dollars and our annual contract for so
cents. If you have not, you many inches, and how it can be
are throwing money away. ttsed in whatever amount that
Advertising is a modern seems necessary to you.
business necessity, but must If you can sell goods over
be conducted on business the counter we can also show
principles. If you are not you why this paper will best
satisfied with your advertising serve your interests when you
you should set aside a certain want to reach the people of
amount of money to be spent this community.
8 1 Y THP T TV T We can do the finest
p B f{ J[ 1 jL class of printing, and we
can do that class just a
little cheaper than the other fellow. Wedding invitations, letter heads, bill heads,
sale bills, statements, dodgers, cards. .*tc., all receive the same careful treatment
just a little better than seems necessary. Prompt delivery always.
'Jfl—mkii umm m P—l
3