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Show Will This Solve Servant Question? CHE women's clubs and tho Housewives Leaguo of Mont-clalr, Mont-clalr, N. J., have Inaugurated a movement which It Is to bo hoped will spread all over tho country. coun-try. It is ono to examine all applicants appli-cants -for servant's positions, grade them according to their capability, and to place upon the certlllcates Issued Is-sued them tho amount of wages they are Justified In asking-. Here, if other towns follow tho example ex-ample of Montclalr, is a possible solution so-lution of tho most troublous "of all problems. Tho girl who decides to go Into domestic sorvlco in this country coun-try does so usually as a last resort, because she has not tho ambition or the intelligence to fit herself for anything any-thing oIbc. This is a sad statement but a true one. It does not occur to the rank and file of these young women that it requires re-quires training even to sweep a room properly; that thero Is a right and a wrong way to dust chairs and tables: that making bods Is an Important matter and not to be undertaken lightly, and that cooking is rcany a fine art. Timo was when tho averago servant was hopolcssly underpaid, but that timo is not now. Wages have gone up by leaps and bounds, tintil considering consider-ing the fact that they have no living expenses to defray, maids are fre- Whcn they pay an up-stairs maid S3. 00 she shall be worth that. quontly bettor paid than girls who aro stenographers or saleswomen, or who occupy other positions to fit them for which they have taken long and sometimes expensive training. Now no one begrudges a servant the sum paid her. t Tho laborer Is worthy of his hire, the hours of a domestic aro long and she should bo properly compensated compen-sated for her work, but on the other hand she should know how to do the tasks which sho undertakes to do. Tho women of Montclalr aro determined de-termined that this shall bo tho case In that city In the future; that when they pay an upstairs maid $5 sho shall bo worth that; that when they pay a cook six or seven dollars sho shall be worth that. Tho teachers of Domestic Domes-tic Sclonco of the place are to give tho examinations and to Issue tho certificates, and tho latter aro to bo shown by their holders when they apply ap-ply for places. Indeed It will save both mistresses and maids time and trouble whon tho Montclalr system becomes general all over this higgledy-piggledy country of ours, and ono part of the servant question ques-tion at least will probably havo been solved. |