pays to have an education that includes something besides home economics, and the theory and practice of teaching. It also pays to be a little better than the other girl, as anyone will see who has read "The Americanization of Mr. Bok.”

These four women had style, but were not in style. To have style is to be pleasingly different from the common run of people. To be in style is to be just like everyone else, paint, powder, puffs, high heels, cheap ideals, and silly, senseless

waists. The hardest, most pitiless criticism of the United States comes from the statistics furnished by educators that seventy-six millions of our people have the mentality of a child of twelve, that only four millions are of superior mentality, while the rest are of average mentality. If we are to judge by the universal nightly trek of the masses to the movies these statisticians may be right. But there is always a hope that something more than ears may be hidden behind bobbed hair.

The composite picture of the work ing girl as a mere cog in the machinery of business has been obliterated from the canvas of modern industry, and 20th century economics has, with bold sweeps of a broadening perspective and with a realization of latent possibilities of productivity in development of the individual and a consciousness of the social whole, painted into the framework of the progressive business world the modern, superlatively human, known-quantity to-be-reckoned-with, the business woman of today.

The modern business institution has given much thought to its women employees, has considered their ways, and is wiser. And this consummation devoutly as it is to be wished, cannot be credited entirely to the philanthropic anxieties of institution

managers or owners, nor even to their visionizing of ultimate greater productivity, but in large measure, to the urge of the awakening and developing business woman herself. She

has demanded her humanity, her status, her living wage and her right to liveable environs, and the progressive business interests have given them to her they are hers. Hers, from the youngest "Shop girl" in point of years or of ignorance, to the oldest and most capable departmental head into which she may have developed or to which she may have attained.

For this is the quartette keynote of a modern business institution's attitude toward its girl employees— working conditions as pleasant as possible, personal education and development, remuneration commensurate with individual productivity, advancement according to merit.

Perhaps first under favorable working conditions should be considered the shorter hours which have been practically universally accepted in all lines of work. Where in former years a girl in a department store worked from 8:30 in the morning. until 6 o'clock at night, five days in the week, and until 9 o'clock on Sat

urdays, now she works a bare eight hours, with seldom if ever a mo. ment's overtime. This movement is of comparatively recent accomplish

ment.

Many stores in larger cities have taken a still more advanced attitude and through the summer months when heat is intense and the out-ofdoors trills its strongest call, close at 5 o'clock five days a week and at 1 o'clock on Saturdays, or do not open at all on Saturdays.

Practically limitless are the lengths to which various institutions throughout the country have gone in the way of preparing and establishing pleasant surroundings, rest rooms, recreation halls, libraries and even summer recreation camps for the benefit of their employees, with always spec. ial arrangements made for the women. A cash register company in Ohio has great separate buildings on the grounds of its plant-gymnasi ums, recreation halls, library rooms, lounging and rest rooms especially set apart for the pleasure and comfort of its working women. All recently constructed department stores, factories, and kindred industries have provided adequate space and equipment for rest and recreation rooms for the female employees with comfortable chairs, tables, lounges, and even pianos. In connection with these rest rooms, almost without exception, are to be found rooms fitted up as hospitals, provided with all simple remedies and restoratives and many more elaborately equipped with modern appliances. Some institutions even go so far as to provide the uninterrupted attendance of a trained nurse, where the number of women employed is sufficient to warrant it.

Institutional cafeterias are an important feature in the catalog of what modern business institutions are doing for the working girl. Operated

by the business itself, but run without profit, these cafeterias afford a place and an opportunity where girls who receive the smaller salaries can get good, wholesome, substantial food at a minimum cost. In many cases the food provided is so good and so appetizing that those women who make the higher salaries are glad to avail themselves of the opportunity to get their Inncheons at so moderate a cost. Most of them are open to the men employees also.

Taking a step still further, some vicariously inclined institutions have gone beyond thought of the mere physical needs in their provisions for employees and are giving consideration to their mental atmosphere and vision. One firm, to point an example to adorn this tale, McDonald's candy factory has built a roof garden over its plant, fitted up with most happy details a rare collection of birds, a great dance floor and an open air section provided with comfortable benches, chairs, and made attractive by growing plants and flowers, where the girls are at perfect liberty to rest and enjoy themselves when not busy.

The writer happens to know of several stores in St. Louis and in New York which have established summer camps along river banks or in some delightful, secluded spot, where employees can go for their vacations of a week or two weeks, at a considerably lower cost than they could possibly take a vacation trip under ordinary circumstances, and where every provision is made for sports, leisured rest, and comfort. Special arrangements are made for the business women who take advantage of the resources of these camps to see that they are at all times properly chaperoned and are in just as safe and secure situations as if they were with their own families.

Passing to the opportunities for personal development and education which the modern business institution affords the business woman, things undreamed of by the firm of long ago have come to pass. Time was when all that was thought necessary in a department store, for instance, was to have a girl behind a counter who could hand something out to a customer who asked for it, if that particular article happened to be in stock at the moment. Now the busiress woman is taught salesmanship if so be she has not been previously trained in some school-and her education is continued even if she has been fortunate enough to have had previous instruction. The most scientific procedure of this nature and the most specialized is given through trained teaching executives who have themselves in turn, been coached for just this specialized work. The foremost school for preparing such teachers is, perhaps, the Prince School of Education for Store Service. This school takes women of culture and education through an intensive training in subjects covering different phases of department store work and through laboratory work in the largest stores in the country. These teachers are then engaged by various stores for the instruction and train

ing of their help. This instruction covers a wide range of subjects and is far reaching in its scope and influence both as regards the individual herself and the institution by which she is employed. Regular classes are held at stated periods in a class room fitted up and reserved for the purpose. To these classes are sent new employees when they are first engaged by the store management, to be given specific instruction as to details of the store organizations, methods, rules, correct form

of making out checks and all similar details.

Advanced classes in a wide range of subjects are conducted for older employees. One or two are sent from a department at a time so as not to cripple the service, when lectures are being given which particularly pertain to subjects in which they are interested or in which they need training. These subjects include salesmanship-not omitting laboratory work in salesmanship training-a study of textiles, study of processes of making in merchandise such as shoes, with often times moving pictures to illustrate and visualize manufacture and construction and to teach familiarity with various parts. The different subjects are gone into very thoroughly and in the course of time the salespersons become thoroughly conversant with the construction, manufacture, and other essential facts about the merchandise which they are handling for sale and are in a position to give intelligent service to patrons who are interested in the purchase of it.

Instruction which is given in salesmanship offers almost limitless opportunity for self expression and advancement if the woman in business is sufficiently interested to put her mind and heart into absorption of the training which is placed at her command. Correct language, method of approach, selling arguments, a long list of "don'ts" comprehensively deal with the execution of a sale from the first greeting of the customer to the final suggestion for the filling of some additional or kindred need after the intended purchase has been made. Actual practice is given over and over in demonstration sales which are held among the employees themselves, giving them confidence and the definite knowledge which comes from actual experience.

Some institutions even go so far as to familiarize employees with operating cost in order that they may speak intelligently in case a customer asks something in regard to the why and wherefore of a price. Similar systems of training are in operation in other kinds of institutions, each adapted to the particular conditions of the business or industry. The consideration for the business woman further enters into morals and the social side to a certain extent by way of a personal interest in each girl and her home surroundings, her pleasures, her reading, her dress, with a deep seated understanding of the important bearing which each of these things has on her personality and on the service which she is capable of, and interested in giving the institution by which she is employed, and on her own personal development and advancement.

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As an incentive to such development in many businesses a regular system of advancement is quite rigidly adhered to, and women passed on and up from one position to another as openings occur and as they prove themselves fitted to fill them. A number of the largest and most successful institutions in the country pride themselves on the length of time numbers of their people have been in the employ of the place, and on the positions to which they have arisen. The women given equal opportunities with the men, which is a state of affairs of comparatively recent consummation and one of the biggest steps forward in the things which the business institution has done for the business

woman.

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One big New York store has a very expansive department for the employment of help which is systematized to a fine point and which is a wonderful thing for the individual

and no less for the institution itself. Employees, and this includes men and women indiscriminately, are put through a series of try-outs to find out just what they are best fitted for and in what departments they will serve both themselves and their store to the very best advantage. They are then placed in the department for which they seem to show the greatest adaptability instead of mechanically being placed where there happens to be a need at the moment without regard to their qualifications for the service asked of them. Unless one is thoroughly familiar with the intri cate workings of a big business of the nature under discussion, it is diffi cult to realize the tremendous asset this course can be to both the business woman and to the business. It has much to do, also with the continuation of the individual in work once so placed and in her happiness in that work for which she is best adapted and which is easiest and most congenial for her.

Along this same line and advancing to the next logical step, is the promotion according to merit and remuneration commensurate with productivity of service. Time was so we are told thank goodness, it is scarcely within the memory of the present generation, when an employce was hired and retained for just as little as that employee would stand and the employee had little choice needing to earn bread and butter, and had practically to take what was offered. Present day methods of salary determination are based largely on what returns the business girl's services pay to her employers, either in dollars and cents, if it can be so figured, or in measurements according to other standards. In the case of saleswomen, it is quite customary to pay a certain percentage on sales in addition to a stated salary amount

or to base advancement either in position or salary on the amount of sales of which the person is capable. This has come about through what might be termed competition for good service which is a development that has grown along with the progressive trend of working conditions, in ad dition to the expanding social interests which large business owners and industry managers are coming to realize and recognize, whether by force of public opinion or pressure or by virtue of their own humane impulses and social consciousness. So many fields of industry are now open to the business woman that she has a choice and a greatly enlarged field of possibilities for earning a living where formerly she was limited to two or three, and it is capital's compulsion to bid for her services, to a certain extent, creating an impelling factor for ever better working conditions and remuneration.

Emerging from this recognition of the working woman has come her participation in organization and opportunities which have grown up along with the expansion of great business institutions and the organization of the employed class. Employees liability insurances and societies have been formed through which the business woman is provided for in case of accident or illness and in some societies provision is made for help for family or dependents in case of death, even if it is only sufficient to help with funeral expenses. There are institutions which sell to employ. ees, and encourage them to buy, in

fact help them to buy, stock in the firm. And these opportunities are open to the business woman as well as the male employees. One large dry goods store of which the writer happens to know, established a bank for its employees, paying a good rate of interest, which grew to such proportions that it was taken out of the store and established as a separate institution in which the employees held heavy interests. The business women were not far behind the men in representation.

All of which sums up to the happy conclusion that there is no longer a great "corporation without a heart," at least for all practical purposes for the business women. Men of vision have come to know that you cannot pay for good service with dollars and cents alone, and that you cannot hope to get the highest form of intelligent and faithful service for dollars and cents only, much less for sums of dollars and cents which are not adequate -either to the services rendered or to the reeds of life and its fullest living. And virtually without exception these great businesses of today are looking about for more progressive steps to take for the advantage of their women employees, cashing in on the intangible but vital factor of good will and of greatest productivity of the individual from fullest individual development, rendering service for services rendered, to the great company of business women of today. The possibilities for good and for progress are limitless.

Myron Crandall.