The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-03-21
DEPARTMENT IN CHARGE OF MISS EVA MCDONALD.

UEFAN WEN IN NTHNNI
promised this week to finish that
talk on the eight hour question, but
at the present moment am rather in
clined to let that subject wait anoth-
er week and instead tell you some
impressions gained by attending the
alliance convention, held recently in
St. Paul. AS perhaps you know, the
convention was held at the State
Capitol in the chamber occupied by
the representatives during the legis-
lature. It's a large, high ceilinged,
handsomely furnished hall. A sub
dued light filters through the stained
glass windows. A soft velvet carpet
covers the floor, and the heavy pol
ished oak finish gives the place fit
ting air of dignity and solemnity.
Directly opposite the entrance is the
speakers place, canopied with Grim
son plush, and lifted several feet
above the level occupied by ordinary
mortals. The president of the AL
lance held the speakers place and
was not always able to keep order
when the delegates got excited over
matters of interest, A little lower
than the president, and directly be-
fore him sat the secretary. The dele
gates were seated in chairs ranged in
a se,ni-circle facing the president.
1t was just the sort of place to en-
courage reverie. The first day l
went up to the capitol and looked in
the doorway, pleasant appearing
young man vacated his seat at the
doorway and let me have it. 1 ap-
preciated his courtesy the more
when I learned that he was the SER
geant-at-arms and had instructions
to admit only delegates. Probably
he thought looked harmless. felt
rather subdued on seeing over five
hundred delegates assembled to rep
resent the farmers interests and not
a woman among them. l wonder
why? Is it because Minnesota farm
ers' wives and daughters don't have
to work and consequently know
nothing of the evils to be remedied :?
Or are they convinced that woman's
true sphere is in the home? So at
home they stay and let the superior
masculine intellect grapple with the
political situation, the Irvine trust,
the railway exactions and the spoils
OF the wheat ring. If 1 were con-
WINGED that the women of the rural
districts OF this state are carefully
educated, well clothed, well fed and
not overworked-I wouldn't say a
word about their absence from the
convention. But from personal OBJ
servation, and remarks dropped by
s. delegates, I'm pretty sure that if the
average farmer is a slave then his
wife is the slave of slave. Her po-
sition is fixed by his and is always
a little the worse of the two.
Now an ounce of practical exper-
fence is worth ton or two of theor-
ling. II the farm is mortgaged,
crops poor and prices for produce
low, the farmers home feels all of
these hardships most keenly. 1t
means strict economy in household
expenses. Nothing to spend for
books, or pictures or music, nothing
to pay for hired help to make house
work lighter. 1t may even mean
that the wife and the daughter go
out into the fields and do the work
of men. It often does mean that the
children will be forced into the city
at an early age, there to swell the
mass who are already struggling for
: livelihood on starvation wages.
n \
Some OF the delegates believed in
the right OF suffrage for women.
Others not going so far, still realized
that woman's influence is not a fac
tor to be despised in any cause
They advocated the forming of lad
les auxiliary societies or even admit
ting them directly to the Alliance
and why not? The plan has long
been tried among the women wage
workers OF the cities, and with good
results. In Industrial organizations
women have proven themselves the
equal of men in every respect. Won.
EN- in the cities have thus been able
: to materially better their condition,