ficiency. She
does not want to become efficient; she wants merely to receive a pay
envelope at the end of the week. In order to develop responsibility and
initiative in their employees the Filenes have put them on a
self-governing basis. The workers do not literally make their own rules,
but the vote of the majority can change any rule made by the firm. The
firm furnishes its employees with a printed book of rules, in which the
policy of the store is set forth. If the employees object to any of the
rules, or any part of the policy, they can vote a change.

The medium through which the clerks express their opinions and desires
is the Filene Co-operative Association, of which every clerk and every
employee in the place is a member. No dues are exacted, as is the custom
in the usual employees' association. The executive body, called the
Store Council, and all other officers are elected by the members. All
matters of grievance, all subjects of controversy, are referred to the
Store Council, which, as often as occasion demands, calls a meeting of
the entire association after business hours.

For example: Christmas happens on a Friday. The firm decides to keep the
store open on the following day--Saturday. There is an expression of
dissatisfaction from a number of clerks. A meeting of the association is
called, and a vote taken as to whether the majority want the extra
holiday or not; whether the majority are willing to lose the
commissions on a day's sales, for, of course, salaries continue. The
vote reveals that the majority want the holiday. The Store Council so
reports to the firm, and the firm must grant the holiday.

All matters of difficulty arising between employers and employed, in the
Filene store, are settled not by the firm, but by the Arbitration Board
of Employees, also elected by popular vote. All disagreements as to
wages, position, promotion, all questions of personal issue between
saleswomen and aislemen, or others in authority, are referred to the
Board of Arbitration, and the board's decision is final. There is no
tyranny of the buyer, no arbitrary authority of the head of a
department. Every clerk knows that her tenure is secure as long as she
is an efficient saleswoman.

Surely it is not too much to hope that, in a future not too far
distant, all women who earn their bread will serve a system of industry
adjusted by law to human standards. In enlightened America the courts,
presided over by men to wh