The question must also arise as to what it is hoped will be accomplished through this investigation. It is not expected that all, or even any one of the perplexing questions connected with domestic service will be even partially answered by it; it is not expected that any individual housekeeper will have less trouble to-morrow than to-day in adjusting the difficulties arising in her household; it will not enable any employer whose incompetent cook leaves to-day without warning to secure an efficient one without delay. It is hoped, however, that the tabulation and presentation of the facts will afford a broader basis for general discussion that has been possible without them, that a knowledge of the conditions of domestic service beyond their own localities and households will enable some housekeepers in time to decide more easily the economic questions arising within every home, that it will do a little something to stimulate discussion of the subject on other bases than the purely personal one. The hope has also come that writers on economic theory and economic conditions will recognize the place of domestic service among other industries, and will give to the public the results of their scientific investigations of the subject, that the great bureaus of labor—always ready to anticipate any demand of the public—will recognize a demand for facts in this field of work. The writer has followed the presentation of facts by a theoretical discussion of doubtful and possible remedies. But if fuller and more searching official investigation, establishing a substantial basis for discussion, should point to conclusions entirely at variance with those here given, no one would more heartily rejoice than herself. It may reasonably be said that in view of the character of the investigation no conclusions at all should have been advanced by the investigator. Three things, however, seemed to justify the intrusion of personal views; a recognition of the prevalent anxiety to find a way out of existing difficulties, a belief that improvement can come only as each one is willing to make some contribution to the general discussion, and a conviction that no one should criticise existing conditions unless prepared to suggest others that may be substituted for them.