It is not difficult, however, to find reasons, in addition to the specific ones suggested, for this somewhat cavalier treatment of domestic service. The nature of the service rendered, as well as the relation between employer and employee, is largely personal; it is believed therefore that all questions involved in the subject can be considered and settled from the personal point of view. It follows from this fact that it is extremely difficult to ascertain the actual condition of the service outside of a single family, or, at best, a locality very narrow in extent, and therefore that it is almost impossible to treat the subject in a comprehensive manner. It follows as a result of the two previous reasons that domestic service has never been considered a part of the great labor question, and that it has not been supposed to be affected by the political, social, and industrial development of the past century as other occupations have been. These various explanations of the failure to consider domestic service in connection with other forms of labor are in reality but different phases of a fundamental reason—the isolation that has always attended household service and household employments. From the fact that other occupations are largely the result of association and combination they court investigation and the fullest and freest discussion of their underlying principles and their influence on each other. Household service, since it is based on the principle of isolation, is regarded as an affair of the individual with which the public at large has no concern. Other forms of industry are anxious to call to their assistance all the legislative, administrative, and judicial powers of the nation, all the forces that religion, philanthropy, society itself can exert in their behalf. The great majority of housekeepers, if the correspondent of a leading journal is to be trusted, “do not require outside assistance in the management of their affairs, and consequently resent any interference in the administration of their duties.” The question must arise, however, in view of the interdependence of all other forms of industry, whether it is possible to maintain this perfect separation with regard to any one employment, whether household employments are justified in resenting any intrusion into their domain, whether the individual employer is right in considering household service exclusively a personal affair. An answer to the question may be of help in deciding whether the difficulties that are found in the present system of domestic service arise in every case necessarily from the personal relations which exist between employer and employee, or are largely due to economic conditions over which the individual employer has no control. Still further, the conclusions reached must determine somewhat the nature of the forces to be set in motion to lessen these difficulties. CHAPTER II HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF DOMESTIC EMPLOYMENTS