The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-01-14

full inquiry men were abundantiy able
4 to give their sons and daughters what
| IS called higher education. Again,
| 1t Is simply a case of whether we
choose to have more things and more
care over them, rather than to live
with surplus reserve and spend what
ever one made in what are the most
important ways. am of course not
| cr1ttcizing or passing judgment upon
others am simply telling what I
/ would do if I were a farmer myself.
And to emphasize again, I certainly. if
mad any means at all, would make it
a matter of first Importance to see
that my children had a good educa-
tion. And I do not hesitate to say by
that I mean not simply the graded
school or the high school. but a col
lege education, If they were in anv
way htted for it or expressed a de-
/ sire for it.
For the Wife's Comfort.
Fifth-If were a farmer. I
would make it a special point to see
tnat my house was furnished for nv
wife's comfort so far as she shared
in my work, as well as any other mart
or the farm. I recall a farmer who
lyed close by our quarter section in
Dakota He was not an American and
seldom hired any work done for his
wife in the house. He made enourh
TO buy somewhat expensive farm ma
chinery and never hesitated to get
what seemed to him necessary in that
Iine TO carry on his work but his
Kitchen was the poorest furnished
room in the house. This man would
not have hesitated to pay twenty-five
dollars for a. new pillow or a set of
harness, but I think he would have
nad Mt II any one had proposed that
he pay twenty-five dollars for new
washing machine or new set of
Kitchen utensils or any labor saving
device for his wife in the home
think it was Graham Taylor who said
recently in an address before q trades
union assembly, "A good many eight
hour men have sixteea-hour wives. -
and from my observation I am o1ffe
certain there are some farm houses at
least IN the United States where the
woman works fully as hard as the
man and has far less in the way of
improved machinery to heID than the
has. It is also true in some states-I
do not know how it is in Kansas-that
a large majority of women patients in
the insane asylums come from the
farms and the reason given is general
lys isolation and constant toll, without
the necessary recreation which breaks
the back of this monster called hard
work. Again it is case of living to
live, instead of living to get more
And should think the problem would
be practically the same on the farm
as it is In commerce or politics or the
church If we once drive out of the
daily programme the opportunity for
ease of the labor-saving tool in the
home as well as in the field, we short
en- our pleasure in life by so much
and add to the painful drudgerv
which drudgery must of necessity be
done. In practically every farm house
where there is any intelligent and af-
fecttonate union of home life. the
woman shares with her husband in
the physical work. There are of
course multftudes of young married
women on the farms of Kansas and
all other states, who sharing with
their husbands in the building uD of
a new home literally join them in the
work of the field. in the care of the
stock, and in addition prepare the /
meals and take care of the house. It
is no more than fair. and should /
wish to count myself as one who |
would have thought in this matter, no /
more than fair that the helDmeet in |
the home should have to do her work I
with as good machinery, as up-tO-date I
utensils as I had myself in cultivating
the ground or caring for cattle. If j
felt able to buy a new machine for the
field, I would also feel able to buy |
whatever would help my wife in the
the sitting room or the par
lor to make her toll easier pleasanter
and less burdensome and more inter-
esting.
Relation to Neighbors.
Sixth-If I were a farmer I would
consider my relation to the neighbor-
0OOQ
factor in my life. In other words,
would not consider my duty as a farm
er was done when had made a good /
farm, had paid for it, educated my chill
dren, filed my own family life as full
Of happiness as possible, but should L
consider what lay around me in the
lives of others as making a complete
of life. Some farming COM +
in some parts of Vermont Is
with which I was familiar 16 years ago Il
had run down in moral ways to such
an alarming extent that several rural
districts were practically pagan so far
as any religious or moral influence was 1.
concerned. I remember that while
was pastor Of little country church in
northern Vermont, in my drives among /,
the hills found whole families where
not a single member Of entire house
holds either attended worship or heard
any religious instruction except posi-
oly during funeral service. But there
were other sections where one family,
ike the one I mentioned which took the
Chautauoua course. had permeated
With their moral influence the entire
They were too far from
own or church to attend with any reg
llarity. but they maintained their own
habit of family worship, by regular and
systematic study of the Bible, and by
INVITING in their neighbors to religious
gatherings Of various kinds in their
7oYne. I have always been proud, as I
ike to think rightly. Of an incident in