488 



The Review of Reviews. 



Niivenlber J, 2i/[b. 



system- those enormous reserve and other funds, 

 which the writer says are excessive. This, too, is a 

 point which the arbitrators would have to settle. 



Again, what of the 56,000 and over persons en- 

 gaged in insur.ince business in England and Wales? 

 One million per year for a series of years would 

 probably b«- an outside amount to allow for com- 

 pensation, and this might be largely reduced, be- 

 cause many of the officials would take service under 

 the State. Putting compensation at ^10,000,000, 

 we have ^£,"1 0,000,000, plus ^50,000,000 equals 

 ^60,000,000 cost of expropriation. 

 V.\HIOUS SUGGESTIONS. 



The Government, it is suggested, should do its 

 utmost to encourage co-operative insurance, but not 

 to compel insurance. Large lirms should be in- 

 duced to insure all their employes, deducting the 

 premiums from their wages, and paying them in a 

 lump sum. It might even olTer special induce- 

 ments, such as a reduction of the income tax to 

 those insured among the more ■' comfortable 

 classes " — the classes now mainly supporting the in- 

 surance companies. The writer anticipates innu- 

 merable objections, but reminds us that the age of 

 State Socialism has begun, and the Government 

 will now be thinking of doing many things of which 

 ten years ago it would not have ilreamt. 



SOLVING A KNOTTY PROBLEM 



Many have been the attempts to solve the problem 

 of ttie Domestic Servant, and many have been the 

 failures. Few more drastic suggestions have been 

 made than those advanced by Mr. P. V. Mighels 

 in the September number of Good Housekeeping. 

 Mr. Mighels has devoted much attention to the 

 question, and has studied it in many lands. His 

 scheme took shape after observation of the amaz- 

 ing rehabilitation of the Hoodlum recruits enticed 

 into the U.S.A. Army — a regeneration brought 

 about by the process of drill, military discipline, 

 and uniform. Why, he says, is there no military 

 organisation to do as much for the raw female 

 material so woefully adrift in our great cities? He 

 points out that domestic service has come to be 

 looked upon as degrading — " what generations of 

 lamentable blunders lie behind this pitiable miscon- 

 ception !" — but as a matter of fact he is convinced 

 that young women positively like domestic service 

 — that, indeed, it is a natural service to which they 

 turn by inherited instinct. 



Of his solution he says: — 



The solution is pr.ictical, comparativoiy easy, and abso- 

 lutely certain, it attempted upon the ordinary lines of 

 business enterprise, for the simple reason that a huge and 

 purniiinent need for domestic servants renders possible an 

 industrial scheme of manutacturing and supplying servants 

 at a profit, precisely as iron oie is converted into finished 

 Bteel and marketed to great financial advantage. 



ATTEMPTED REFORMS. 



Many reforms have been attempted on behalf of 

 the housewives, the chief are : — 



Employment bureaus, new importations Ifrom abroad), 

 .ud training sthouls (ordinarily auxiliary to settlemente 

 and B.milar institutions). The one scheme attempted in 

 lieh.alf of the young women who .<erve and who are hope- 

 lessly unprotected against abuses, is the trades union. 

 Every one of these tilings, each struggling along by itself, 

 has failed. No one h.a8 seen that the situation demands a 

 conMiiiitinn of all three of the most important of the institu- 

 tion.s heie enumerated— the training school, the employment 

 bureau and the onion. 



AN ARMY OF YOUNG WOMEN. 

 Mr. Mighels proposes that \oung women shall le 

 trained in barracks much as soldiers are, the term 

 of enlistment being two vears : — 



They will be inforniefi that the barrm Ks is a free training 

 school, where they will be thoroughly instructed in any 

 or all branches incident to household economy- They will 

 l)o told that they will be otBcered. nniformed. drilled and 

 trained to ways of skill and competence; that the barraoke 

 will be their club, affording them the use of baths, gym- 

 nasium, library, p.arlours, etc.; that it will be an employ- 

 ment bureau; tha* employment will be secured for all 

 nicnihcrs as soon as they a.re competent to accept positions, 

 and at better wages than an untrained domestic artisan 

 will command: that- they will continue to be members of 

 the organh^ation and under its protection while out of 

 work; tliat. their wages will be paid by officers of the 

 army ; that their work will be inspected by army officers 

 appointed for tliat purpose; that their hours shall never 

 exceed ten or twelve a day (tmless by their own consent 

 and for extra pa^); that their nights shall be their own: 

 and that the army will, in effect, be a union, designed for 

 their complete protection, and likewise a club and a borne 

 .-vnd training school combined, with many auxiliary attra*> 

 tions and privileges ; and that a portion of their wages will 

 be retained weekly by the corporation for the maintenance 

 of the business, 



THE POSITION OF THE MISTKESS. 

 .^'o much for the maid's side of the question. The 

 eiiipl()\crs would, we are asked to believe, also pro- 

 fit largely by such an organisation: — 



Women desiring servants from the army will be informed 

 that wants will be supplied on army conditions only. 

 Women known for the practice of abuses will be blaok- 

 liated. They will not be permitted to engage servants from 

 the army. A higher wage than ordinarily paid will be 

 exacted. The hours per day which the army members may 

 be asked to labour will in no case exceed ordinary factory 

 hours, and if service ie required from early morning till 

 midnight, servants will necessarily have to be engaged in 

 relays, extra payment being made for tlie overtime re- 

 quired. Employers would also be informed that servants 

 were guaranteed to be skilful, competent, neat and thor- 

 ough, and that tlieir work would be inspected regularly 

 and maintained at a high standard of excellence. Guar- 

 antee would also he given against destructiveness, desertion 

 and all other irresponsibility. Indeed, all lesponsibility for 

 good behaviour of army members would be asstuned by the 

 corporation. 



WHAT WOULD HAPPEN. 

 Mr. Mighels evidently hopes that the institution 

 would ere long control all the servants in the coun- 

 try:- 



With smaller wages, with no ten-hour day. with no 

 thorough training, no club, or social life, or army pro- 

 tection, or barracks privileges, or anything else such as 

 army members would enjoy, how long would it be till the 

 outsiders would beg to he admitted to the fold.' And what 

 factory life, even when backed by a trades union, could 

 offer attractions so irresistible? As to the hoasewivcs — 

 tJiey would presently be obliged to employ the army gradu- 

 ates for self-protection, while the untrained servants would 

 be driven, either to abandon the field altogether, or to 

 enlist in the ranks forthwith. 



This scheme is evidently intended only for cities. 

 It would be unworkable in scattered districts. 



