Fergus County argus., 1902-10-08
WOMAN'S VIEWPOINT
AMERICAN WIVES AND MOTHERS
DEEPLY CONCERNED.
Upon No other Glass DO the Hard
ships and sunerings Attendant on
Free Trade Depression Fall With
Such Crushing Force.


ships and sunerings Attendant on
Free Trade Depression Fall With
such Crushing Force.
The attitude of the women of the
United States upon the subject of the
protective tariff has not been fully de-
fined because they do not yet appre-
ciate the meaning of the term. But
upon the question of prosperity there
Is no woman who cannot express her
views in plain language. She realizes
that now the larder is full to over
flowing, her happiness Is complete, and
she, most of all, feels the influence of
having husband steadily employed
and the exhilaration of prosperous
year. Her children are well fed, prop
erly clothed and on the highroad to
be educated. She tucks them into bed
at night with satisfaction which has
come to her amid the prosperity Of the
times. She does, by a wise manipula-
tion of the household expenses, make
her home cozier by the addition of
pretty curtains and fancy little bric-a-
brac, so dear to the womanly heart.
Birthdays she celebrates by dressing a
doll for the baby girl or buying a toy
for the boy she loves, all of which
takes hard earned money. The fathers
throughout the land nightly smile up
on their happy families, thankful that
they can give the comforts Of life to
them. Retrospectlon. however, would
call to their minds that times are vast
ly different from those Of 1893 and
1897, under a free trade administra-
tion. Then the mother was compelled,
by the enforced idleness on the part Of
husband and father, to exc out mere
existence for the family by working at
day labor, such as washing and scrub
bing. Her little ones were denied
shoes and stockings and the necessa-
ries of life.
The sun of the old prosperous days
had set, and the brunt of poverty and
distress came to the wife and mother.
She would not show her husband her
passing agony, SO the best went to him
and to the children. Everything was
cheap enough, but there was no money
in the home to buy with. The boys.
from six years old up, were sent to
work selling papers, picking berries or
digging greens In the summer, and the
winter was spent In shoveling snow.
backing boots and the like. Girls still
in their babyhood learned the hard
grind Of household work. having been
left by their mothers to care for the
younger children while they earned the
coveted pittance at the washtub. Fa-
theirs marveled at the change with
breaking hearts, too late realizing that
their vote had caused the desolation
among their loved ones.
In 1893, at the time Of the financial
crash, the writer was In position to
appreciate the awfulness of the dis
tress caused by the passage Of the Will
sOn-G German bill. As superintendent Of
an institution which was founded to
satisfy demand for refuge for indi-
gent women and orphan children, the
| opportunity was afforded to note the
sorrow of mothers separated from hus-
bands and children. The one year Of
1895 in that small western town added
over hundred children to the list Of
little unfortunates. These wee NOR
tails were not orphans-only left with
out parental care because of a gross
mistake made by the men at the head
of the government. who had promised
the deluded people to make times bet
ter instead Of worse.
The mothers Of the nation did not un-
derstand the cause Of the change; they
only knew that one after another the
factories closed and the mammoth fail
ures of banks ard firms threw out of
positions men who had never before
known want. There arose as from one
throat a cry demanding a reason for
the clouds In the sky. The voice was
feminine. The idle men of those years
suffered. hoped and were silent. A wo-
man knows no hope and will not be
silent when her children are hungry.
The families of the factory hands
and miners felt the change more than
the other classes. They had not an
ticipated such crisis and consequent.
ly were not prepared for 1t. In her
widest dreams Of want the young
mother had pictured nothing Of so
grave n character. Never since the
manly boy had wooed and married her
had he lost a single days wopk. II
was an earthquake In the world Of la
Dor. and women as well as men real
lied that the wild promises made by