the rush season in department stores, girls often depend upon
opiates for dulling the nervous strain. No trade is free from its special
physical strain. There are, moreover, many morally dangerous trades. Work
as chambermaids in hotels is conspicuously perilous for girls. The Chicago
Juvenile Protective Association says, "The majority of girls who work in
hotels go wrong sooner or later." The modern department stores, which
employ the majority of young working-girls, offer temptations. Mrs.
Florence Kelley refers to work in these stores as "the most dangerous to
morals and health, of all occupations into which children can go."[26] Of
course, it may be said that a "good girl" will not go wrong. It may also
be said that a good social order will not place even good girls daily
under conditions that are liable to bring about a physical or moral
breakdown. Closer analysis of human character reveals the fact that
physical and moral health are more closely associated than we have
hitherto believed them to be.

According to statistics about female offenders, domestic service is
morally the most dangerous employment.[27] The reasons for this are two:
the social ostracism and the loneliness, and the low grade of worker. Each
of these causes augments the influence of the other. The application of
industrial standards to this neglected form of work should lead to
improvements.

For those dependent upon employment offices, the seeking of a job may
involve moral danger. The practice of private employment bureaus in
sending unsuspecting girls to immoral places under the pretext of finding
legitimate employment is common. The director of the Municipal Employment
Bureau in Portland says that, the managers of houses are sometimes so bold
as to telephone to the bureau for girls, telling for what purpose the
girls are wanted.[28] One of the private bureaus was detected several
times cooperating in such practices. The menace of such places can
scarcely be overestimated.

We may now conclude our review of the economic phases of social hygiene.
Economic conditions to-day are under indictment as endangering the health
and morals of working-girls and women. Moral delinquency may arise through
temptations met and hardships endured at the place of work; through scanty
wages, inadequate for daily necessities; through lack of sympathetic
consideration on the part of employers; through the stupidity of the
community in adhering to worn-out educat