Part 49 (2/2)

”Well, I would call et one,”

says one young married wo the them as Miss”

Let us read further in the advertiseht hours a day; six days a week” One full day and one half day off each week,a total of forty-four hours weekly which is the standard working week in most industrial occupations At least two free Sundays a iven and a convenient week-day substituted for the other two Sundays

If Saturday is not the best half day to give, another afternoon ed with the Home assistant

”I with eight hours' work a day, forty-four hours a week” No! Well, possibly you have had to get along without any maid at all, or you may have had some one in your kitchen who is incoe for fear you can not replace her Would you rather not have a good interested worker for eight hours a day than none at all?

During that time the Home assistant works steadily and specialization is done aith She is there to do your work and she does whatever may be called for If she is asked to take care of the baby for a few hours, she does it willingly, as part of her duties; or if she is called upon to do so left in the basket, she assumes that it is part of her work, and doesn't say, ”No, Mada on her hat and leaving as under the old system

The new plan seems expensive? ”Twelve dollars a week is more than I have paid my domestic helper,” Mrs Reader says But consider this more carefully You pay from thirty-five to fifty dollars aprovided This is at the rate of eight to eleven dollars a week for wages Food and room cost at least five dollars a week, and her The old type of houseworker has cost us more than we have realized The new system compares favorably in expense with the old

”I am perfectly certain it wouldn't be practical not to feed my helper,”

Mrs Reader says Under the old syste day, it would not be feasible, but if she is on the eight-hour basis, the worker can bring a box-luncheon with her, or she can go outside to a restaurant just as she would if she were in an office or factory The ti is not included in her day's work

Think of the relief to the house-keeper who can order what her fa to say, ”Oh, I can't have that; Mary wouldn't eat it you know”

”I can't afford a Hoes,” soet and serve dinner every night I a is the last straw”

Try looking for a Home assistant for four hours a day to relieve you of just this work You would have to pay about a dollar a day or six dollars a week for such service and it would be worth it

How does the Home assistant plan work in households where two or more helpers are kept? The more co in at different hours and covering every need of the day One woman I talked to told me that she studied out her problem in this way! She did every bit of the work in her house for a while in order to find out how long each job took She found, for instance, that it took twenty-five minutes to clean one bathrooht of stairs, thirty h all the work She made out a time-card which showed that twenty-two hours of work a day was needed for her home She kne much money she could spend and she proceeded to divide the work andin on different shi+fts Her household now runs like clockwork One of the splendid things about this new systereat flexibility and the fact that it can be adapted to any household

Thoughtful and intelligent planning such as this woreatest success of the plan The old haphazard o The housekeeper who has been in the habit of co, ”Oh, Mary, what can we have for dinner? I have just come back froet the most out of her Home assistant Work must be scheduled and planned ahead, the home must be run on business methods if the systeroup of woo After the talk, one of them said, ”Well, in business houses and factories there is a foreman who runs the shop and oversees the workers It wouldn't work in homes because we haven't any foreman” She had entirely overlooked her job as forewoman of her own establishment!

”Suppose I have coh her hen her eight hours are up, what happens?” some one asks All overtime work is paid for at the rate of one and one-half ti your assistant twelve dollars for a forty-four-hour week, you are giving her twenty-eight cents an hour One and one half times this amounts to forty-two cents an hour, which she receives for extra work just as she would in the business world

”Will these girls from offices and stores do their ell? They have had no training for housework unless they have happened to do some in their own homes,” some one wisely remarks The lack of systematic preparation has always been one of the troubles with our doirl trained in business to be punctual and alert, and to use her mind, adapts herself very quickly to her work, but the trained worker in any field has an advantage With this inWomen's Christian association in New York City has started a training-school for Home assistants The course provides demonstrations on the preparation of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and talks on the following: House-cleaning, Laundry, Care of Children, Shopping, Planning work, Deportirl a general knowledge of her duties and what is even ht iven an exaiven a certificate and placed as Trained Home assistants at fifteen dollars a week

The National association would like to see these training-schools turning out this type of worker for the homes all over the country This is a constructive piece of work for woues have interested themselves in this in various centers, and the YWCA will help wherever it can There are always hoive the course, and there are excellent housekeepers who excel in soive a talk or two

The course would be worth a great deal in results to any co a hand in this, and, with the cooperation of the High Schools, are placing girls as trained assistants on the new basis I have talked withthis plan to-day but have been for several years

It has been o since Mrs Helene Barker's book ”Wanted a Young Woave the working plan to the idea Women in Boston, Providence, New York, Cleveland, and in many other cities have beco their ho their tiroups of woive two concrete illustrations of the practical application of housework on a business basis

Mrs A lives in a small city in the Middle West Her household consists of herself, her husband, and her twelve year old son She had had the usual string of impossible h a girls' club in a factory in the city, she secured a young woes Her assistant ca the breakfast cereal prepared the night before, breakfast could be served proht, a plan which was necessary in order that the boy get to school on ti up in the kitchen so that the assistant wasted no ti to knohat she had to do

Lunch was at twelve-fifteen, and at one o'clock the Hoular duty at five-thirty to prepare and serve the dinner Except for tih her work by eight When she worked overtime, there was the extra pay to compensate Mrs A paid her thirteen dollars a week and felt that she saved money by the new plan The assistant was off duty every other Sunday, and on alternate weeks was given all day Tuesday off instead of Sunday Tuesday was the day the heavy washi+ng was done and the laundress was there to help with any hich Mrs A did not feel equal to doing Even though there are tio back to the old syste

Mrs B lives in a city apartrown people in the family She formerly kept two maids, a cook-laundress, and a waitress-cha a cook ould do the washi+ng As her apartuestrooirls forty dollars apiece and provided them with room and board

Her apartment cost her one hundred and fifteen dollars a month for seven rooms, two of which were occupied by maids