It has been seen that any measure looking towards a lessening of the difficulties that stand in the way of securing at all times and in all places competent domestic employees, must fail of its object if it does not take into consideration economic history, economic conditions, and economic tendencies. Economic history has shown the remarkable effect of inventive genius and business activity on all household employments, and through them on domestic service; a study of economic conditions has shown the nature of the perplexities surrounding both employer and employee. What are the social and economic tendencies in accordance with which relief from present difficulties must be sought? The first industrial tendency to be noted is that toward the concentration of capital and labor in large industrial enterprises. Not only have the factory and the mill superseded the individual system of manufactures, but the growth of “bonanza farms” and the increasing number of tenant farms show the same tendency in agriculture; the trust is the resort of wholesale business houses; the department stores of the day are driving out of the retail business circles the smaller houses of a generation ago; the pool may be considered an illustration of the same tendency at work in transportation industries. A second tendency, forming the converse of the preceding one, is towards specialization in every department of labor. Adam Smith’s famous illustration of this principle—that he found ten persons able to make nearly five thousand pins in a day, while each person working alone could make but one pin—can be seen in every department of work except in the household. Everywhere the field of labor has been narrowed in order to secure the largest and best results. A third tendency, growing out of these two, is towards the association and combination for mutual benefit of persons interested in special lines of work. Nearly every class of employers has its own special organization; the associated press, associated charities, local, state, and national educational associations, and associations of learned societies, show the influence of organization in other departments; nearly every class of employees also has its trade union or mutual benefit association; everywhere, except in the household, mutual interests are drawing together for protection, for consultation, for economy of forces and resources, for a score of reasons, those engaged in the same activities. A fourth tendency is the result of the specialization of labor in its higher forms. As all industries become more highly organized, greater preparation for work is required wherever labor ceases to be purely mechanical. Trade schools, technical schools, and schools for training in special work are everywhere demanded, and the demand must in time be fully met. While specialization is the end, special training must be the means to accomplish it.