A second explanation may be needed concerning the choice of the subject. A residence in several communities differing somewhat widely in geographical location and in industrial conditions had disclosed the fact that in every place the demand for capable household employees was greatly in excess of the supply, largely, it was commonly believed, because in each place the conditions were “peculiar.” These unusual and peculiar conditions were the competition of factories, the competition of shops, the loneliness of farm life, the loneliness of a great city, the inaccessibility of suburbs, the heat of the Western prairies, the dampness of the sea-shore, the life of a college town, and numerous variants of these general principles. All of the conditions that most attract to a place other residents and all the conditions most favorable to other occupations seemed to be always attended with fatality in the case of domestic employees. But as the union of the seven colors of the rainbow forms white light, was it possible that all these peculiar conditions could be reduced to a single fundamental cause that should explain the discrepancy between demand and supply? Another consideration in favor of selecting domestic service as a reasonable subject for investigation lay in the accessibility of the material. Every household, whether with or without domestic employees, could add its contribution to the inquiry. Moreover, in an age that collects everything from baggage tags and cigar ribbons to old china and old masters, could not a zeal for collecting be turned in the direction of collecting the hitherto untabulated experiences of different households? But it is true that while the material was accessible, it was not on that account necessarily procurable, and the investigation was undertaken with some realization of the difficulties to be encountered. Yet if, deferring to the example of the British “Who’s Who,” carpentry, cabinet-making, mountaineering, gardening, spectroscopy, and animal chemistry are by some considered as recreations while to others they would imply tasks difficult of achievement, could not, for college women, this collection of material be classed as recreation, although to others it might seem a burdensome task? It is possible that another element may more or less consciously have been a factor in determining the choice. College education is not even yet universally accepted as necessary and desirable for women. If Society should in a sense expect an apology from college women for having removed themselves from general society and passed four years in college halls, could not that apology take the form of making some small contribution to a domestic question even though those who rendered the quasi-apology did not altogether recognize its necessity?