Chapter III: Business Conditions and Methods

Four sources of information: Personal experience in offices; conversations with waiting employees, and their replies to printed schedules of questions; conversations with waiting employers, and 350 replies from them to printed schedules of questions; statements of office agents; court records, complaints, and decisions.

The methods described comprise what has been learned of the way in which offices conduct their business,— the secret of their management and success. There are three grades of offices, not based upon their size or equipment, but upon their attitude toward their patrons. In the first class fall those which have an interest in the business other than financial, such as Exchanges, Young Women's Christian Associations, and those which are lenient or just toward patrons. Roughly estimated, these comprise about one sixth of the entire number. They have good equipment and system and do not resort to most of the methods which are outlined here. The second class includes those which live within the letter rather than the spirit of the law, and resort only to the forms of fraud which are less glaring. In many cases they are comparatively honest, fraud being an occasional, rather than a regular, thing. They have equipment and some degree of system. The third class, which includes fully more than two thirds of all offices, practise in part or in whole the methods outlined. Immigrant, negro, and fashionable offices are found in all of these grades, and a shabby office may be much more honest than a fashionable one.

Characteristic of all offices is the small amount of capital required. In the first-grade offices there are usually two or more rooms, so that employers and employees are separated; registers are kept; there are a desk, telephone, and reference blanks. In the second class there may be one or two waiting-rooms; there may be a register; but there are rarely reference blanks. In the third class, registers are conspicuously absent, crowded living-rooms are the rule, and system is practically out of the question. Admitting all the exceptions, it still remains true that offices are too often places where a fee is paid, not for some signal ability on the part of the agent, but rather for standing room for interviews. They are successful because employers and employees are remote from each other, and, having no means of contact except advertising, compete for this space. Those which have reputable agents in the field do something more than mere office work, but unfortunately the most active agents are often connected with questionable offices. The prevailing rule, certainly in the last named class, is to rely upon applicants dropping in, or to resort to trickery rather than to rely upon business skill and foresight. Our impression is that in intelligence offices there are less system and business method than in almost any other business.

Although so many offices are makeshifts, in the majority there is no other source of income. In a few instances the employment business is used to supplement a small income, as from a pension or small property. In some of the offices run by men and women together, where women have other occupations, they are such as washing, sewing, janitress work, or other unskilled labor. Side occupations for men usually fit in well with the office, such as keeping a saloon which the waiting employees can patronize, running a steamship or railway agency where they can buy tickets, or selling small articles which are wanted by employees.

It is difficult to estimate how well offices pay, for the competition is keen. On the whole, with a fair amount of energy and attention, they appear to yield good returns. In some there is such a poor quality of ability that they cannot possibly return much of a profit, and many immigrant offices claim they can scarcely pay expenses.

The chief sources of income are fees and board and lodging. Fees are common to all private intelligence offices, and may be a varying price for each order filled, a percentage of the wage, a gift, or a subscription for a month or year. In addition to board and lodging, storage of and express on baggage are sometimes a source of income. No office will give its earning power, but by running advertisements, and through some interviews where we offered to purchase offices, we found that the prices asked in a medium-sized office ranged from $500 to $3000. The replies to our advertisements for ownership and partnership were not numerous, and none of the larger ones offered to sell, though we represented that we had both money and experience to put into the business. In Boston another investigator estimated that with 119 offices there were 600,000 applications annually. In St. Louis and Kansas City, where the facts were obtained by an official investigation by the State Department, they reported that the former had six offices and 100,000 applications annually; and the latter twelve offices and 88,000 applications. Of 537 replies from employers, thirty-four per cent. said they used intelligence offices. There are no statistics for New York and Chicago, but since New York has four times as many as Boston, the number of applications must reach millions.

These were applications for work, and represent only a part of the fees, since both employers and employees are usually charged. Each position filled averages from two to four dollars. One agent states—and observation and reports seem to justify the statement—that the business is worth thirty thousand dollars. Frequently we found people who had retired and were living upon their profits; others were property holders, and some found it possible to close their offices for the summer and frequent popular resorts, or to go abroad to secure girls. The cry that there is no money in the business may be true in some instances, but as a rule it is a fair investment.

There are in New York and Chicago at least twenty-five per cent. more offices than are required for the amount of business. It follows, then, that many of them must resort to questionable methods. These are both ingenious and numerous, and while not true of all, are to be found in some degree in most of the second-and third-class offices. For instance, a girl is sent to a place upon the understanding that she will remain only until they send for her. One employer found that six came to her with this understanding. Proprietors have asked us to wait while they telephoned or went to homes and brought girls back for interviews. Then they have the audacity to send the employer notice that they understand she is without a girl and they have another girl for another fee. One girl said she had been placed ten times in one year, netting the office twenty dollars in fees, for it received a percentage of the wage each time, and a neat sum for lodging until placed again. If the employer who lost her returned to the same office for other girls, there were additional fees. Girls urged us to follow this plan, saying: "You can't save much, but it's gay changing." While we were waiting in one place a woman who had held a position for four years came in. She was held up to ridicule before a roomful of people by the agent, who said: "You are a pretty paying subject to come to us for a job once in four years—the idea!"

There is still a simpler method: A man comes to a city, establishes an office, advertises in some attractive way, secures a good number of fees from employees, then disappears, having made no attempt whatever to provide positions. He then tries the same scheme in some other city where he is not known, making seventy-five to five hundred dollars in each one. In other instances no office is opened, but some enterprising individual advertises in an attractive way, and receives mail orders at the newspaper office. These contain small sums from people who hope to get work in a more genteel way than through a public office. Some others are nothing more than fences. They harbor petty thieves, whom they send out in the guise of employees. They remain overnight and carry off all the small articles of value, which they bring to the office, which disposes of them without arousing suspicion, gives the girl a liberal percentage, and protects her. She is then recommended for another place. One office in Chicago has a more elaborate plan. A house is "spotted," the name secured, and an employee is sent up with a card which says that Mrs. B——at that address requested a maid from that office. She goes at a time when the lady is likely to be out or cannot see her, her object being to stay in the house and chat with the other employees. Naturally, a maid who believes some one has come for her place before she has been notified to leave wants to find out all she can and is more or less friendly. When the lady of the house appears later and says she has ordered no maid, the new maid assures her it is a "mistake in number, due to the telephone, no doubt." But when she leaves she takes with her a diagram of the house, and the required information about the location and fastenings of windows, the kind of lock to be picked, the location of silver, etc. Later the office sends men to finish up the task of looting the house, or furnishes crooks with a tip for which they pay well; and she is free for other scout work. Even when offices do not encourage robbery they do not always suppress it. One employer found one of her maids with her trunk half full of silver and linen. She notified the proprietor of a very fashionable office who had sent her the girl. A few days later, upon calling on a friend, this maid opened the door, having been sent there by the same office. Her trunk was again examined and silver found. Hotels are sometimes in collusion with offices. Girls are sent to hotels with the understanding that they are to be found unsatisfactory and room made for others at the end of a week or two. The hotel may pay them for the week or refuse; in the latter case it receives their labor in addition to the office commission. Girls never suspecting the duplicity continue to patronize the office. The practice in so many offices of taking the fees and never making an effort to secure places is too common to need more than a reference here.

Offices which have a steamship and railway business encourage girls to leave money with them to pay for transportation of friends and relatives in small towns or abroad. They act as bankers, and then send the tickets when the amount covers the fare. In this way they make a good commission, as well as secure the new girl for a patron. One allows girls whom it has placed to meet friends in the office evenings and Sundays. No fee is charged, but "gifts are very welcome."

Such schemes for increasing profit will flourish when competition is keen and where there are no regulations. In Boston, close police surveillance and refusal of the city to increase the number of licenses certainly prevent gross frauds; in Chicago, the high license has crowded out some. In New York, during the Low administration, the prosecution of some decreased the more open frauds. In Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia, negro offices resort universally to deceptions, and many immigrant offices are irresponsible.

If there are questionable sources of profit, there is also a small question of graft, especially when offices are connected with saloons and gambling dens; and undoubtedly the disorderly places are protected. It is inconceivable, in view of the open way in which some offices are run, that the average policeman should not learn something of the immorality and frauds. Before the Low administration in New York (and at present in Chicago and Philadelphia), it was the custom to have the neighborhood policeman, or a friend, renew the license for a fee. Thus no questions were asked, and officials never saw the applicant or the kind of place he kept.

The charging of fees has caused more legislation and has been subject to more abuse than any other feature. In New York and Philadelphia, employers' fees average $2 for housemaids and $3 for cooks. In Chicago the law restricts it to $2 and in Boston to 75 cents and $1, for all positions paying under $4 per week, though more is often charged. It is usually good for a period of from one to three months, or until an employer is suited.

Fees are good for varying periods. Those good for several months have some disadvantages. The employer is told that the fee is good for two months, and that she can have all the girls she wants until one suits her. In answer to the question how many girls were sent for one fee, the replies from employers indicated that one was the usual number, though some said two or three or even five. After one or two incompetents, employers are impatient and try elsewhere. Even granting that the office honestly tries to give satisfaction the first time, they may send a cook whom for some reason she cannot keep, or who will not stay, and a demand is made for a second cook for the same fee. Now the office may do one of three things,—it may select another girl who will suit, but the chances are frequently against this. It has the fee, and it is probably spent. It has forgotten the employer's particular request, and the supply of cooks is short. It reasons: Why should it send the only good cook it has, when in line stands another employer whose three dollars have not yet been paid? The chances are that the cook goes to the one from whom the fee has not yet been collected. Secondly, it may delay. This is a plan simply to tire out the employer and force her to go elsewhere, or pay extra. The office does not fear losing a good patron, for she receives much the same treatment in others, and the demand so far exceeds the supply that it is rarely a question of enough employers. The third plan is more difficult to detect, but is none the less common. These offices have a number of "hangers-on"—women who take places for a week or two to get a little money, and then spend it. These are useful. Even though they hold a place but a few days, each one placed means a fee. After the first attempt to send a desirable girl, and sometimes at the beginning, the office sends these "stool pigeons," one after another, and when an employer complains the answer is, "We have sent so many girls—there must be something wrong with the house," or, "The employer was too difficult to please," which gives the impression of honest service. In Chicago, one girl said she stayed one night in each place and got from fifty cents to one dollar a night. It was her customary business. Some have a good-looking girl—she is engaged and the fee paid, then she refuses to go, or goes and refuses to stay. The office appears to be guiltless, but she is really employed by them for this purpose. One had a girl registered and learned that she had secured a position. The agent went to the employer and tried to collect a fee, saying: "You are rich and can afford to pay a poor woman for such a good servant." It is true that offices cannot always secure competent help, and frequently send the best they have, but too often there is a method in sending incompetents. There seems to be no other explanation, when girls arrive directly from an office so intoxicated that it must have known it; when chambermaids and waitresses are sent when cooks are ordered; when negroes appear, though whites are distinctly specified; when Catholics arrive in place of Protestants; and incompetents for competents—no end. This is due to carelessness when employers have been careful in their instructions.

Fees good for a length of time encourage short service. The employer discharges an employee more readily, and girls think they can leave on slight provocation, for a new girl or position costs nothing. Such a system encourages a bonus. When a fee is good for two months and an employee is not secured, the employer is tempted to add a small amount, just for a "little special attention." Fees are really larger than they seem; three dollars for three months appears more of a bargain than two dollars for one employee; but it amounts to much the same thing in the end, and is an adroit way of securing more fees. A fee for each employee, to be refunded unless she remains a specified time, appears to work less of a hardship.

A few, chiefly those which supply hotels and other large establishments, charge by the season, the rate being $10 to $25. Others have subscriptions or annual accounts. Some do not charge large employers of help, such as hotels, for the reasons that girls prefer to go there and hotels advertise them. Some give a reduction when an employer takes more than one employee, as two maids for $5. In a number of them, fees depend upon the degree of prosperity which an applicant shows and upon the location of the home, for they frankly said that "higher rates are charged those living in fashionable neighborhoods"; and different assistants have been given different rates in the same places, presumably for this reason. Except where regulated by law, there is no uniform standard. The charge may be as low as 50 cents or as high as $5, but they rarely charge the employer a percentage of the wage—it is usually a specified amount. Germans sometimes have a little lower rate, and Swedes more season rates. Strangely enough, immigrant and negro offices which furnish so much unskilled help charge a high, oftentimes an exorbitant, rate. Employers' fees are usually payable at the time of leaving with the girl, or when she is sent to the home and engaged.

The testimony of employers and our experience are decidedly against the belief that offices refund fees. We never succeeded in getting one back, though we sometimes requested them when we were not offered positions. Less than five per cent. of the employers who answered our queries were successful. Many said they had made the attempt and failed, while others considered it useless. In all of the cities the law compels the return of the fees under certain circumstances. In Boston complaints can be made to any policeman and fees are refunded in many cases. They are payable only when positions are offered. This law is evaded quite successfully with employees as this testimony shows:

"After waiting for nearly a week and paying $1, I was sent to a place, after I had signed a paper I thought concluded our agreement. When my first week was up, the manager of the restaurant tore my pay envelope open before my eyes and took out half of my wages and said he would have to retain it for the intelligence-office keeper. I objected, but he said it was an agreement that was made between the office and myself. So, sooner than lose my job, with a foot of snow on the ground and five little ones at home, I thought I would stand it. Before the next week was up I was discharged because an old hand was coming back. I returned to the office, but could not get a cent returned."

In Philadelphia, no one knows where to complain. In New York, it must be made to the Bureau of Licenses, and in Chicago to the free employment agencies. The sums lost are usually small, and complaints involve much time. Employers think it is a small matter, so the office is comparatively safe. In cases where employers admitted demanding the fee, they usually added, "as a matter of principle," indicating that otherwise they considered it a "small" thing to do.

Employees' fees are somewhat different. The amount is lower, ranging from 50 cents to $2, and averaging about $1, good for one or more months. Except in Boston, they are payable preferably when girls enter the office, and almost invariably before they are sent out to a place. Some Swedish, German, and other offices are more lenient in the collection of fees and will wait until a girl has earned something, but usually have an agreement that the employer shall pay it out of the first week's wage. Employees, as a rule, get but little attention unless they pay, and in many offices are not even permitted to wait, the attendants saying: "This place is crowded"; "All who ain't paid can get out"; "This is no day hotel." When we refused to pay, we sometimes left our addresses. The next day we received a post-card saying that a position was open. We would go, only to find that it had "just been filled," and that it would have been ours if our fee had been paid. We often paid the fee, and then frequently received no cards. Sometimes employees pay a fee and wait half a day. If they go out a few minutes to lunch, when they return the agent says: "We could have placed you—you must stay here if you want a place." If any impatience is shown— he repeats this and makes it an excuse for keeping the fee. Other offices make an appointment for the next morning— taking the fee. If the applicant is five or ten minutes late, they say: "You have missed your appointment— the place is filled," and if she is early or on time, they send in some one else, whose fee they want, and then say, "The lady did n't come." We went into offices resolved that we would not pay; but there was something in the very atmosphere which impelled us to part with our money. Employees were joking, giving each other "the glad hand," telling stories, and bestowing advice; well-dressed and gracious employers were constantly departing with girls; we were made welcome and assured it was a good place; and the clerks argued and promised. It was a game of chance, and unconsciously we got into the spirit of it and thought we could win out; and before we realized it we were "Mary Watson," candidate for a chambermaid's place, wages nothing less than $18, experience unlimited, references to order, and — minus $1.

Some charge but one fee and others charge a registration fee of from 10 cents to $1 in addition. This they claim is to cover incidental expenses, leaving the employment fee for clear profit. It is commonly a percentage fee, and is usually ten per cent. of the first month's wage. On such a basis it may reach $5. In rare instances the entire first week's salary is asked. Negro and immigrant offices, and occasionally others, have a system of gifts. We were told repeatedly as employers that employees were charged nothing. Then we sent some girls for places and found that the office demanded a gift, and upon its value often depended the kind of position offered. This gift is money or any other valuable. Sometimes a girl leaves some ornament, intending to redeem it. Naturally, if it is of value, the office is not interested in her success, and if she is unable to "make good" it claims the article by default. She is told that it is through her own fault that she has lost her place, or received none, and she is accused of being ungrateful. This subterfuge of gifts has been so profitable that at least one State has prohibited them. Some offices also make small loans to employees and receive valuable pledges. They are in no hurry to get a "greenie" work under such circumstances.

The length of time which an applicant must wait for a position after paying her fee varies with her demands and competency, the season, and with the inclination of the office to place her. Sometimes she is sent out immediately, and again she waits for days. If an applicant is fairly satisfactory and a position is not offered within three days, it is usually safe to assume that the new arrivals are receiving attention. The office sometimes creates an impression of good intentions by sending employees to a place which it knows has already been filled. Even under such circumstances they put her at the end of the list, where she again waits her turn. One employee had half a dozen fees running in as many offices, and had been without a position for a week, owing to this apparently fair routine method—often the only evidence of system. Sometimes there is a pretense of refunding fees. When an applicant calls, the office takes the address and promises to send the fee by mail, hoping the applicant will not reappear. Case after case has been called to our attention of fees paid and no satisfaction given, and women go repeatedly for work or a return of their money. One poor woman paid three dollars for a position as janitress and never received even the offer of a place, nor could she recover the money, as no receipt had been given her. Receipts are required in all cities, but when given they sometimes boldly state that the office does not guarantee a position, or that the fee is paid for office privileges, not for positions. Occasionally when applicants return for fees, for which receipts have been given, the office asks to see them, grabs them, refuses to return them and then laughs at the applicant. Seventy names were taken from the registry of one office in St. Louis; there were forty-seven replies, and all declared that they had received no positions for the fees. In the same city, the prosecuting attorney is authority for the statement that out of sixteen agencies only one had not had a charge of fraud made against it within the year. In one trial it appeared that two offices alone had "done" the unemployed out of some six thousand dollars in one year. One of the most fashionable offices in New York takes fees, and at the end of the week tells the girls it is their own fault that they have no positions, for they are too homely, and it refuses to refund the money, saying: "We cannot help the fact of employers in wanting good-looking waitresses." Perhaps this practice of taking fees from all classes and then encouraging the old or otherwise undesirable to wait day after day accounts for the listless atmosphere in offices. Certainly we have been in but few places where we have seen so much indolence, discontent, and despair, but of course it must be remembered that many are homeless as well as jobless.

As a general rule we have seen no offices requiring an advance fee which we could recommend as free from all frauds, and employers' experiences substantiate our statement. Applicants testify that those charging advance fees are the least satisfactory.

There is one fact which is true of almost every office: they over-register and over-promise. Even the most reputable seldom turn away a patron. Most of them are willing to accept the fee, and where employees are unwilling to pay they make all kinds of extravagant promises. In a few instances they refused our orders, saying they could barely supply their own trade; but they rarely refused an employee, even when she seemed a doubtful investment. The formula is, "Come back in an hour," or, "To-morrow,— we will have something for you."

The payment of fees is an absolute prerequisite— but it by no means follows that the help supplied is always satisfactory. One employer says that the list of offices sending her unsatisfactory help is "as long as Don Giovanni's loves"; another declares she has had no trouble; and there are all degrees between these two extremes. Thirty per cent. of the employers answering the blanks declared that offices were not satisfactory and the remainder that they were. This would seem to favor the offices; but fully one half of the seventy per cent. qualified their replies by such statements as, "yes and no," "reasonably so," "after many trials," "fair," "better than none." Unquestionably, offices do make great efforts to send satisfactory girls; but lack of system, imperfect knowledge of employees, lack of frankness, general hurry-up method of doing things, and failure to study the situation and sources of supply, make these attempts only fairly successful. Only the best offices are included in this paragraph on satisfactory help, since no attempt was made to secure returns from the patrons of negro, immigrant, and second-rate offices.

In the main, the charges against the offices are that they send no help at all, and fill positions carelessly. One employer in the country asked for a laundress, and a waitress was sent. The girl had no experience in laundry work, but had to stay till she had earned enough to return. A further charge is that they vouch for dishonest and immoral girls, when they do not know them at all, or else know the truth.

If incompetency is the most serious grievance of the employer, a chief source of this trouble are the references. In less than one per cent. of the cases are they required from the employers. Now think what this means! In ninety-nine per cent. of the offices which furnish household and hotel help, no questions are asked except about wages, hours, and address; and many do not require the last if a girl is taken at once. In the hurry of business they take little thought of where the girl goes, and many are utterly indifferent, even when their suspicions are aroused, as when saloons, men's club-houses, etc., are specified. In only three instances, when asking for girls for a men's club-house, were we met by questions, and then the attendants said apologetically, "We have some nice girls whom we ought to protect"; and, "Far too many girls are taken out of the city and never heard from again." In one instance, we gave an order for six chambermaids for a men's club-house on Long Island. Aside from the wages and amount and kind of work, no other particulars were given. An assistant later was in the same place and was asked to take one of these places, and was assured that "we know the place well and it is all right."

There are all shades of opinion upon references for employees. These are of two kinds—written and personal. Personal references are given directly by one employer to another through correspondence, telephone, or visits. The written reference is ordinarily a letter, carried by the employee, but it may be a statement returnable to the office by mail in answer to questions. These are called investigated references and are kept on file, but unfortunately this method is used by but few offices. References may also be bonded, in which case the office receives a considerable fee for "making it good." This is, however, rare.

Employees do not favor them, and some take the request as an insult. One girl replied: "I don't need any. I don't have to get down on my knees and say 'Please take me,' for there are plenty who will anyhow, and I'm as good as any of them." But the majority of employers prefer references, although many admit that they are often a mere matter of form. Out of 350 replies, 34 per cent. did not find them satisfactory. Of the 66 per cent. who did, almost all qualified their statements by: "fairly so," at some offices, "moderately," "comparatively," "usually," "generally," "only for honesty," "better than none," "tolerably so," "indifferently so," "partly," and "sufficiently." Very few answered the question with "always." Many discriminated against written, but approved highly of personal, references, and were willing to give the time for them. Others accepted written references, but tried to supplement this knowledge in other ways.

The majority of offices detest to bother with them and use them only because so many employers insist. The best offices of all grades require them in some form, but are willing to take employees in the hope of persuading employers to accept them without this credential. Of course, immigrant and negro offices cannot be expected to furnish them. They include among their reasons: "not asked," "nobody expects much of negroes," "we import girls, and they bring none," "we don't care for patrons who want them," "too hard to get girls," and "can get places without them." Investigation of references seems to be a proper function of the office, but it cannot be held fully responsible. It alleges that employees write their own references, that some people make a living by writing them, and that employers are not to be relied upon.

Offices may well complain that they are imposed upon, but certainly they go and do likewise. We started out with references that were purposely bad, stating clearly our incompetency or immorality. In some places they changed the text, in others they gave us new ones, or we were sent to people who were "not too particular." Sometimes the attendant simply said: "She is all right, we have seen her reference." So they had, but the employer would often have been surprised at the contents. They insist that they investigate references, when they know nothing about them. They recommend a cook as a treasure, when they know she is not fit to prepare a meal for three to eat. They encourage employees to bring any kind of references, so that they can say they have them. If employers insist upon seeing them they reply: "It is lost," or "mislaid." They allow employees to use old references, changing the dates, and sometimes steal especially valuable ones from waiting employees. An employer, when giving a written reference, never knows who will use it as a passport. Thoroughly respectable girls when they take new positions will lend, give away, or sell their references, trusting to get others from their new places; and we have been offered them by people who could not possibly have known anything of our honesty. We have been told we were "too good-looking to let go," and have been offered, without extra charge, references which had been bought up or collected. One proprietor turned a girl out because she would not let her take her references in to show for another girl who had none.

The whole letter-reference system is a series of impositions, beginning with the employer. They give them to get rid of girls, and refuse them in order to keep them; they refuse them out of pique, or give them for purely sympathetic reasons. The actual testimony of some of the largest employers shows how they regard them. To the question, "Upon what ground would you refuse them?" they reply: Dishonesty, 89; intoxication, 54; immorality, 26; impudence, 22; and incompetency, 20. Others receiving from three to ten votes were: "Unreliability," "carelessness," "glaring faults," "untidiness," "deficient or bad character," "deceit and lying," "bad habits," "bad temper," "quarrelsome," "serious offences," "repeated neglect," "grumblesome," and "idleness." Where but one ground was given, dishonesty was most frequent; where two, dishonesty and intemperance; where three, dishonesty, intemperance, and immorality; where four, incompetency, dishonesty, intemperance, and insolence.

This lack of standard is not all of the problem. When given, they are often misleading. But two state that they refuse them on all grounds and that they insist upon private interviews; four never refuse for any cause; some tell all the good points and are silent on the bad; others mention only deception or intemperance, but not other faults; others refuse only when it is impossible to speak well of the employee, or give them, but encourage personal interviews, saying that they will state the truth in an interview, but not in writing. Some think it their duty to tell faults only when questioned, and are careful not to over-praise.

When this is the practice of the best and largest employers, what must be the truth for the whole mass? All the evidence tends to show that the tendency is to avoid specific statements, that half truths are stated, vital information is neglected, spite and prejudice are vented, and opinions and idiosyncrasies are expressed, rather than facts stated. They range from the employer who refuses a reference because a girl deceives her about something which she has no right to know, to the one who gives a petty thief or an habitual intoxicant a clean bill. Certainly not the office, but this lack of accepted standards and honesty is partly responsible for some of the incompetent and immoral women who stay in the ranks of household workers.

The only remedies seem to be: An educational movement to arouse employers to their sense of obligation and to secure uniformity of standards; that employees remain at least three months before they are given a reference; that written references, in the shape of letters, carried by employees be abolished and some prescribed form adopted containing a description of the employee to prevent exchanges, and the essential questions to be answered; that personal references be encouraged; and that employers insist upon offices using blanks returnable by mail. If office fees depended more upon the grade of employees, references might be more trustworthy. When no references are required, the office has no responsibility and can afford to furnish employees for less, but where they are carefully investigated it is entitled to a larger fee, though it is always its duty to keep out "rounders" and other objectionable characters. It is a grave question whether this whole matter of references should not be left to employers and employees, but it is suscep-tible to such a fine office system that it is well worth working out.

The subject of board and lodging is discussed at length in the preceding chapter, but is not emphasized there as a distinct source of gain. The rates depend somewhat upon circumstances, as when girls have money they are charged more. Ten cents a meal and 20 cents a night are about the lowest; 50 to 75 cents a day is the average; and weekly rates range from $2 to $4, occasionally reaching $5. Chicago shows a slightly lower rate, and the rates in the working-girls' homes, with which they co-operate, range from $1.50 to $4 with privileges of the kitchen or with board. The advantages to the office are: additional income, having employees on hand when orders come in, and control of the patronage of both the employee and her friends. To make these lodging-houses pay, offices place girls and then induce them to leave on the promise of a better place. Then they find that the place "has just been filled" (what a multitude of sins that phrase covers!) and they must wait for another place, which is not ready until they are out of money. In this way, during the year a skillful office manages to secure the lion's share of a girl's wages.

Many believe that the wage rate is almost entirely determined by the inequality of demand and supply. But what supply exists is controlled, or at least directed, by the offices. This is especially true where a percentage fee is charged. Some never have an employee for just the wage an employer wishes to pay, but have plenty for fifty cents or one dollar higher, just enough more so that the employer feels "small" unless she yields. Offices are so largely wage brokers that many girls name no regular wage, but leave it to the office to get as much as it can. One employer says that "unless you are quite decided as to what you wish to pay you will find yourself paying more without realizing why." A few refuse to have anything to do with the question of wages, leaving it entirely to the parties to the contract, but offices which do act as wage brokers so spoil the employees that when they go to the other places their demands are so unreasonable that they are often turned away.

The crowded waiting-rooms of many offices certainly have an influence upon the permanency of contracts, for in ninety per cent. they are publicly made. This means that it is in the presence of many curious, critical, and often railing listeners. Promises are made which are broken as soon as the girl is in her position. Many misunderstandings arise, due solely to the fact that each is trying to make a good impression before others. Mrs. A——does not wish Mrs. B——, sitting next to her, to know how little she pays a maid, so she offers a sum she cannot afford and later assures the girl it is a mistake; or she wishes her neighbor to believe she gives unusual privileges and makes an attractive proposal, which she later retrenches on all sides. A girl will often refuse to yield a minor point because she knows her listening "pals" will guy her, or accuse her of having a "weak back" or "broken spirit." The employer is thus tempted to make big promises, and the employee to make unreason-able demands, largely due to the desire to "show off" before these third parties. One room in Boston, about forty by forty, contained seventy-five or one hundred people, and at least a dozen people listened to the terms of a contract we made. Some encouraged the girls by looks and gestures, while others tried to attract our attention and secure the chance. Questions are frequently asked by employers which are humiliating in the presence of others, but which do not necessarily arouse resentment when asked privately. Under these circumstances an employee may be impertinent or may prevaricate simply to preserve her dignity or pride. It is useless to beg this question by attributing to employees different sensibilities from those of employers. There are, of course, employees of dull sensibilities to whom nothing much matters, but this cannot be called a characteristic of employees alone. We have heard employees say they would have taken the position had it not been for what others present thought and said. As one means of decreasing the number of misunderstood and broken contracts, employers should insist upon private interviews.

The success of any office depends upon its ability to secure employees. Advertising and recommendation by other patrons are found quite sufficient to secure employers, but for employees other means are necessary. Many offices rely on cards, which they depend upon their patrons to distribute; a few issue announcements and circulars; and in all cities but Boston they use public signs and placards. Many immigrants and others tell us that they walk miles, "just looking for these signs." These are sometimes misleading. One reads, "Industrial Home." When questioned, the proprietor said it was an inducement to attract customers, and that she would like to train girls, and when asked what she would teach them she said: "Well, if they were cooks I would expect to learn more than I taught." Some proprietors visit cheap lodging-houses and pay the keepers fifty cents or a dollar for every girl they furnish; or they exchange, sending girls there to board. For the immigrant and negro the boarding-house is the crux of the whole situation, especially in New York and Philadelphia, and so close is the relation that any reform must include them. Others do not scruple to hold up girls on the street and induce them to come to the agency. A few have the endorsement of mission houses and pastors. Icemen, grocers, and market men are pressed into service. They are usually friends of the office-keepers; so when they go into homes why should they not become acquainted with girls, make them dissatisfied by telling them what the office will do, or what they have seen in other homes, and then, for a small commission, report to the office that at such numbers there are good girls. Later the agent makes their acquaintance, and employers wonder why their girls have left. One Swedish office, notorious for taking away girls whom it has placed, urges them to attend church and advances the necessary money for clothes. In this way it secures an additional hold on the girl and the endorsement of the church for its work. Some place girls where there are other servants, with the understanding that they are to create dissatisfaction and secure them for the office. In Philadelphia there is an exchange system. Girls are sent to places like Atlantic City during the summer on condition that they will be returned during the winter. There are other interesting, but not general, methods. For instance, girls are sent to offices by family physicians, who pick them up in the course of practice; male relatives and friends who work in factories induce some to go to the office, and a few offices offer free lodging to girls who are out of work. This attracts many who do not see that the large fees cover their lodging. Others give girls a commission or reduction for bringing in friends, and a few, especially Germans, Irish, and Swedes, are in touch with schools and send pupils to resorts and hotels during the summer.

The methods, however, upon which offices chiefly rely are advertising and importation. The former is used more by the better-class offices and the latter by the immigrant offices. Answering advertisements in newspapers is much more common than advertising and is, of course, cheaper. Some clip offers of places and give these to applicants, who often go only to find the places filled. Sometimes employees pay car-fares for half a dozen such orders in a day, not knowing they are advertisements. Some offices run blind advertisements, and when applicants answer them they find an employment office. Others do a mail-order business and make their living off the small sums they require sent by mail. Others run general advertisements from day to day, such as "Wanted, chambermaids, cooks," etc., ending with some attractive inducement. They may or may not have these positions ready, but the object is to attract large numbers of girls when they have no definite orders and secure registration fees. A few, as in Boston, include an advertisement for the regular fee, while others often charge extra for this and insist upon its insertion. Thoughtful employers who think they are placing their employees by advertising, "Lady leaving city wishes to place maid," sometimes find they have been carried off by such an office.

We have been asked so often for the relative merits of offices and advertising that we have made a special inquiry into the subject and find that it varies in the different cities. In Boston the agencies almost invariably advertise, so that the chances for employment by either method are about even. In Chicago employers insist that they receive better employees from offices and that advertisements are unsatisfactory. In New York, from both employers' and employees' point of view, advertisements are rather more satisfactory, and the replies to the question, "Do you use advertisements, and are they satisfactory?" show that one fourth find them satisfactory and one third do not, and the remainder state that they answer only employers' advertisements for placing employees and that they are universally satisfactory, because they insure personal interviews with present employers. When a preference is expressed, it is decidedly in favor of advertising, though many said: "No girls are to be had anyway, so we do both." The employers' objections to answering advertisements include: "When we answer them we are too late and find the girls have just taken a place," "We cannot always find the address," "Requires more exertion than going to an office," "When they fail to keep engagements no one is responsible," "Are a waste of time," "Unwilling to visit the places from which they advertise," "Much more satisfactory to advertise than to answer them," "Too great a risk taking a girl on an advertisement," "References are often forged," "Advertisements are sometimes blind and we spend much time, only to find out they are not what we want." Their objections to advertising were such as: "It makes one's house a private intelligence office," and "Brings in all sorts and conditions of girls." On the other hand, they give as advantages that "Large fees are avoided," "Girls are obtained more quickly and are free from the pernicious influence and training of offices." Some employers believe that the intervention of such a middle man is disastrous.

Employees favor advertising for these reasons: Many believe that "no sober, competent, respectable girl goes to a public office if she has friends or a home from which to advertise"; "ladies who look up a girl are particular and we get into good houses, and our fellow-servants are our own class"; as employees "we are better protected if the employer knows we have respectable friends and a home to receive us"; it "is cheaper and quicker than to pay big fees and wait in offices"; and that "the familiarity and tone of the conversations in offices are objectionable." Others said: "Some good girls are compelled to frequent offices, because they have not presentable homes, are strangers in the city, or have had family troubles." In our own experience as advertisers we received many replies which seemed to indicate that a good class of girls used the papers.

This independent advertising is one of the greatest competitors of offices, and next to this stands the practice of securing help through friends or acquaintances of either employer or employee. This last is a most satisfactory way and is universally preferred.

The chief supply of many offices is secured in three ways: Immigrants, importation of negroes from the South, and out-of-town girls who are attracted to the city on promises of work. Many employees are attracted by legitimate methods, but many others must be sought. "Domestic servants" are not included in the contract-labor clause of the immigration law, but that law does prohibit publishing or printing advertisements in any foreign country for the purpose of inducing aliens to come here upon promises of employment. To evade this, offices insert large and attractive advertisements in Swedish, Hungarian, Jewish, Finnish, and other American-published papers, and these are sent abroad in large quantities, and later the girls arrive with these clippings or with addresses found in this way.

Since the careful regulations at Ellis Island, many office runners are "spotted" and can no longer get the girls out at will, for now they must satisfactorily prove that they are relatives or the persons to whom the immigrant is consigned, and their answers to questions and statements must agree with those of the immigrant. Immigrants are not discharged to male relatives when married unless they are accompanied by their wives. To evade such regulations, the agents send emissaries abroad who get acquainted with girls and send them over with the name of the office, or some friend with whom the office works, who is to pose as a relative. Previously they send to this relative the name and description of the girl, so the two statements tally. Others have men who go back and forth on the ships, get acquainted with girls, and direct them to these offices. Cattle men on their return trips use their influence to direct both men and women to these offices and receive rewards. Steamship companies are their ablest allies. Though they maintain a careful supervision, one having rejected 1039 immigrants in nine months at the place of examination, they also have paid agents who drum up steerage passengers, and these agents include even school-teachers, postmasters, and priests. They reduce rates, and all of these things together help the office. At the request of offices these companies advance transportation, the former assuming the responsibility for its payment. Girls repay the office at a fair rate of profit when they secure positions. Although steamship companies are prohibited from encouraging immigration by any means other than ordinary commercial letters, circular advertisements, or oral representations giving the sailings, terms, and facilities, they extend offices many courtesies. Representing a well-known Swedish office, we requested a pass to Ellis Island, and it was readily granted and the card left blank so we could write in the name of any one we decided we wanted to see. Some companies furnish offices with lists of steerage passengers, so they know who, how many, and what nationality are coming over. Then they try to find the people who know them or who intend to get them out and secure their promises to "bring them around for work." When this is not possible runners follow missionaries and others who take the girls to positions. In this way they get the address, visit them, and later the missionary finds her girls gone. The greatest care is used in admitting these missionaries to Ellis Island. The Austro-Hungarian Home, which was recently denied further admission, at the time of our investigation sent girls to an office which, on examination, we found was a saloon hotel for men. These offices aim to establish friendly relations with girls and in this way work them to get their friends to come over. In one case an immigrant paid an agent ten dollars to get a relative out of Ellis Island. She never saw the relative or heard from the agent. When she demanded the money he replied there was some trouble and he had spent it all. She also loaned this agent a phonograph, which he pawned. One Jewish girl was induced to come to this country by a befriending agency which told her she need not work, but could spend her time "picking up gold from the street." When rescued from being sent to a disorderly house she said she did not want a steady place, adding in a pathetic tone: "I am looking for gold, but I have found it not yet." She had exactly eight cents after paying a fee for the privilege of being sent to such a place! Another had no friends other than an office, to which she took her small savings to be sent to her family in Russia. Upon the best of authority it appears that in this and similar cases he never sent the money, trusting, if the girl made inquiries, to the long delay in receiving an answer by mail, or to the excuse that the letters were lost. Friendly interest, except in finding employment, seems often to be a menace rather than a benefit, especially where offices are not inspected and deal with immigrants.

Perhaps the commonest plan is for a woman in this country, at the suggestion of the office, to write a relative or friend in Europe telling her of the opportunities and advantages for getting work. After considerable correspondence between these two, transportation is advanced, often by the office, and the girl comes to the country and is taken by this relative or friend and turned over to the office. Nobody has any responsibility after she gets a position, and this may be in cheap amusement places, in saloons, or in undesirable boarding-houses, depending entirely upon what the order is when the girl arrives.

These offices are undoubtedly very essential clearing houses for immigrant women who could not otherwise find work, and restriction of the immigration of women who are household employees would have a disastrous effect upon homes. But these offices will be serving a greater social and economic purpose if they are in the hands of responsible agents, and are compelled to send women to the thousands of honest homes which demand them.

A number of negro offices import girls from the South. They have white agents in the large Southern cities whose business it is to corral girls from the country districts, bring them into the cities, and ship them to Northern offices. When the agent cannot get the transportation from the girl or her relatives, the offices furnish it, and the girl pays it back with considerable profit. One illustration will suffice: A negro girl was promised a position as nurse by an agent at Richmond, Virginia. She agreed to have $12.75 for her fare de­ ducted from her wages, and all her personal effects were subject to the order of the New York office. When she arrived she was told there were no vacan­cies for nurses, and she must do general housework. She refused and the office still held her trunk. When she complained it said she had worked it for a free passage North. The moral evils of such a system are shown in the following chapter.

The migration of girls from small towns and rural districts is not so haphazard as appears on first sight. Some offices have standing advertisements, which they run in the country newspapers, offering attrac­tive work at good wages, but not necessarily appear­ing as offices. Girls come to the city in answer to these and are met at the stations and taken to these lodging-house offices. Others advertise in city papers and secure addresses, which they follow up by mail or in person. We were surprised at the number of answers to our advertisements from girls in small towns, who said they had never worked away from home and that we offered them a good opportunity to come to the city. Other offices send agents directly to out-lying small towns during dull seasons to work up a trade, while others use travelling men and canvassers to direct girls to their city office. Others locate near railways and their agents stand ready, not only to pounce on every unprotected girl, but they make short runs out on the road in the hope of getting acquainted with girls before they reach their friends or any one who will send them to a safe place.

In a general way to sum up these offices, there are three classes. The first are the rarest and best. They seldom advertise or answer advertisements. Semi-annually they send circulars to old customers and desirable new ones. They ask for fees only when the engagement is made, never board or lodge, and are closed evenings. They do not favor employees waiting in the office, for they consider it demoralizing, and prefer to notify them by card or send the employer directly to them. They require references and know most of their patrons. Such an office is usually an old, well-established one, has few transients, fair equipment, some capital, and the annual income is from eight hundred dollars upward. These are usually fair in business dealings and are free from grave moral evils.

The second class is the most numerous. These board and lodge when convenient, use many of the methods outlined in this chapter, have waiting-. rooms, and insist upon payment of fees at the time of application. As a rule they prefer references, but do not always insist, and know but little of where they send employees. They supply many of the small households. The general character of many of these could undoubtedly be raised, for they are susceptible to much improvement, and we believe that many use questionable methods, chiefly as the result of keen competition and absence of any kind of regulation or inspection. The third class should, for the most part, "be wiped off the face of the earth," and they are far too numerous. Even the strictest inspection would not improve them, because most of the people who run them are incompetent or are thoroughly depraved and dishonest. These have little or no capital, equipment, or system, and are given over to the practices outlined in this and the following chapter. Such include many of the negro, immigrant, inferior American, and separate nationality offices previously described, and, we regret to say, some of the more fashionable ones are not exempt.

No city can congratulate itself that it is free from these conditions. Boston, by reason of its superior law and inspection, has fewer abuses, and these would be even less numerous if people who are defrauded would report their small losses. New York, because of the large number of its offices and immigrants, and Chicago and St. Louis, because of their location as labor centres, have unquestionably every phase of the conditions named. In Philadelphia this is especially true of the negro, of which there are a large number, and of many of the white offices. The only possible way by which patrons can be freed from these methods is to insist upon an adequate law based upon known facts, a system of impartial inspection—not a spasmodic makeshift, not an occasional raid—but systematic daily and weekly inspection by an administration that knows the specific evils and abuses for which it is to look. In addition every employer must feel it her duty to prosecute violations.