Any study of the subject of domestic service must lead to the conclusion that household service and household employments do not occupy an isolated position; that while they may be indifferent to the political, industrial, and social changes constantly occurring, they cannot by virtue of this indifference remain unaffected by them; that the inventions of the past hundred years have revolutionized household employments, and that the present generation must adapt itself to these new conditions; that while a century ago domestic service had no competitors as an occupation for women, it now has hundreds; that the personnel in the domestic service of America has been transformed through industrial, political, and social revolutions; that it has been affected by the democratic tendencies of the age and by the commercial and educational development of the country; that because of these constantly recurring changes in the conditions surrounding domestic service the questions connected with it vary from year to year; that it is governed by the same general economic laws as are all other employments, and that it has developed within itself other economic laws peculiar to it; that the increasing wealth and luxury of the country are introducing new complications into a problem already far from simple; that both employer and employee are heirs of conditions which their ancestors could not control, and that they are surrounded by difficulties which no person single-handed and alone can hope successfully to overcome. It has been seen that many of these difficulties arise from the failure to recognize domestic service as a part of the great industrial questions of the day. It is not so recognized because economic writers have not as yet discussed the subject, and because those who come in daily contact with it overlook its economic side. The housekeeper who completes her round of morning shopping by a visit to an employment bureau where she engages a new cook regards that and her other business transactions all in the same light; she has both in shopping and in securing a cook been guided solely by her taste, her necessities, and her bank account. The economist must include domestic service in his discussions of the labor question, and the housekeeper must differentiate the various parts of her housekeeping duties before improvement is possible.