Now this matter of community morals has begun to interest women profoundly.  In many of their organizations women are studying and endeavoring to understand the causes of evil.  They are securing the appointment of educated women as probation officers in the courts which deal with delinquent women and girls.  Sincerely they are working toward a better understanding of the problem of the prodigal daughter.

Since about one-third of all these prodigals are recruited from the ranks of domestic workers it is possible for the housekeepers of the country to play an important part in this work.  Every woman in the United States who employs one servant has a contribution to make to the movement.  The power to humanize domestic service in her own household is in every woman’s hand.

Loneliness, social isolation, the ban of social inferiority,—­these cruel and unreasonable restrictions placed upon an entire class of working women are out of tune with democracy.  The right of the domestic worker to regular hours of labor, to freedom after her work is done, to a place to receive her friends, must be recognized.  The self-respect of the servant must in all ways be encouraged.

Above all, the right of the domestic worker to social opportunity must be admitted.  It must be provided for.

Yonkers, New York, a large town on the Hudson River, points out one way toward this end.  In Yonkers there has been established a Women’s Institute for the exclusive use of domestics.  It has an employment agency and supports classes in domestic science for those girls who wish to become more expert workers.  There are club rooms and recreation parlors where the girls receive and meet their friends—­including their men friends.  A group of liberal-minded women established this unique institution, which is well patronized by the superior class of domestic workers in Yonkers.  The dues are small, and members are allowed to share club privileges with friends.  It is not unusual for employers to present their domestics with membership cards.  It cannot be said that the Women’s Institute has solved the servant problem for Yonkers, but many women testify to its happy effects on their own individual problems.

The Committee on Amusements and Vacation Resources of Working Girls in New York is collecting a long list of farmhouses and village homes in the mountains and near the sea where working girls, and this includes domestics, may spend their vacations for very little money.

Every summer, as families leave the city for country and seaside, domestics are thrown out of employment.  A department in the Women’s Club can examine vacation possibilities for domestics.  The clubs can also deal with the employment agency.  Some women’s organizations have already taken hold of this department.  The Women’s Educational and Industrial Union of Boston conducts a very large and flourishing employment agency.  Women’s clubs can study the laws of their own community in regard to public employment agencies.  They can investigate homes for immigrant girls and boarding-houses for working women.