152 BuKEAu OF Farmers' Institutes. 



be employed by the hour, day or week, there are doubtless many 

 who would take up housework could it be invested with some- 

 what of the professional dignity which surrounds the trained 

 nurse. 



We have long recognized that mistresses need special training 

 almost as frequently as maids. A woman may be a genius in 

 music, painting, literature or other arts and be quite unable 

 to organize her own household on regular systematic lines. The 

 executive faculty is perhaps as rare as other special gifts. If 

 we had in our cities employment bureaus which represented every 

 grade of skilled service from the washerwoman to the college 

 graduate, who could go into a home and as an expert organize the 

 daily work according to the individual needs of each family, the 

 value of her special training, instead of being limited to one home, 

 would be many times multiplied. In the library profession there 

 is constant demand for just such expert advice, and graduates 

 of our state library school are constantly called to local libraries 

 to study the conditions and to advise as to the best forms of cata- 

 log, charging system, building, number of assistants, etc., re- 

 quired for that community. 



The schools of domestic science have made a beginning towards 

 providing skilled labor, but as yet the cost of the necessary plant, 

 as for example in the School of Housekeeping in Boston, is so 

 great compared to the small number who can receive training, 

 that the plan would be prohibitive in most cities. It might be 

 possible to organize such a school with a bureau which could 

 supply skilled labor of all grades, by the hour, day or week, as 

 well as for permanent service. Where young women come from 

 the country or have no permanent homes, the plan often adopted 

 by trained nurses of taking a flat or floor together, or the " bache- 

 lor maid's " quarters, would be entirely practicable. If half a 

 dozen ladies wished a good mender one day each week, or a 

 cleaner, parlor maid, etc., the time of one girl would be regularly 

 filled. It would be possible to benefit every class of homes, from 

 the womain who does her own work to the one who entertains 

 constantly. As the number of skilled workers increased, some- 



