The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-08-24

representation wnen it comes to deal
 Ing with all great public questions. In other words. country folks should demand that they work on equal terms with city folks in all such matters. They should have their share in the memberships of commissions and coun-
 sils, in short, of all the organized
 bodies for laying plans for great enter
 prises affecting all the people.
 am glad to see on such bodies the names that represent financial inter- ests. but those interests should not
 have the right of way. and in all enter prises and movements in which the so- cial condition of the country is fn- yolved the agricultural countryside open country-should be as well repre- scented as the city.
 The man of the open country is apt Co have certain qualities which the city man has lost. These qualities off set those which the city man has and he himself has not. The two should
 be put on equal terms and the coun- try talent be given the same oppor- tunity as the city talent to express it. self and to contribute to the welfare of the world in which we live.
 The country church should be made a true social center. alive to every need
 of the community. standing for a
 broad individual outlook and develop
 ment. taking the lead in work and in
 recreation. caring more for conduct
 than for dogma. more for ethical. spir
 itual. practical betterment than for
 merely formal piety. The country fair
 offers far greater possibilities for con-
 tinuous and healthy usefulness than
 it at present affords.
 The country school should be made vital center for economic, social and
 educational cooperation. 1t is natural
 iy fitted to De such a center for those
 engaged in commercial farming and
 still more for those engaged in domes-
 tic farming. for those who live on and
 by the small farms they themselves
 own. The problem of the farm is real
 ly the problem of the family that lives
 on the farm. On all these questions
 there is need of intelligent study. such
 as marks the books of Professor Bai
 ley of Cornell and of Horace Plun-
 kett's book on the Rural Life Prob
 lens of the United States"
 Laborers o1 Farms.
 One feature of the problem should
 be recognized by theefarmer at once
 and an effort made to deal with it.
 It is our duty and our business to con-
 slider the farm Iaborer exactly as we
 consider he f;:rmer. No country life
 can be s;ti factory when the owners of farms tel.d. for whatever reason. to
 ge away to live in cities instead of
 working their farms. and. moreover. 1t cannot be really satisfactory when the labor system is so managed that there is for part of the year demand for labor which cannot be met and during another part of the year no demand for labor at all. so that the farmers tend to rely on migratory laborers who come out to work in the country with no permanent interest in it and with no prospect of steady employment It is exceedingly difficult to make a good citizen out of man who can't count upon some steadiness and con- tinnity in the work which means to him his livelihood. Economic cOndi- tions on the farm-in variety and kind of crop growing especially as distribut ed in time and in housing for the men must be so shaped as to render it possible for the man who labors for the farmer to be steadily employed un- der conditions which foster his self re- spect and tend for his development. Above all. the conditions of farm life must always be shaped with a view to the welfare of the farmers wife and the farm laborer's wife quite as much as to the welfare of the farmer and the farm lahorer. To have the woman mere drudge is at least as bad as to have the man a mere drudge. It is ev- cry whit as important to introduce new machines to economiZe her labor within the house as it is to introduce machinery to increase the effectiveness of his labor outside the house.
 1 haven't the slightest sympathy with any movement which looks to ex- | cusing men and women for the non- performance of duty and fixes atten- l tion only on rights and not on duties. The woman who shirks her duty as l housewife. as mother. is a contempti- ble creature. just as the corresponding | man is contemptible creature. But | the welfare of the woman is even more | important than the welfare of the man l for the nlother is the real atlas who | bears aloft in her strong and tender 1 arms the destinyyof the world.
 | She deserves honor and considera- | ton such as no man should receive 1 She forfeits all claim to this honor and consideration if she shirks her du. | ties.
 But the average American woman | does not shirk them. and it is a matter of the highest obligation for us to sec l that they are performed under cond: | lions which make for her welfare and