The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1911-02-02
WIFE OF FARMER DESERVING
OF COMFORT AND
CONVENlENCES
THE AUTOMOBILE AND TELEPHONE COMING TO HER
RESCUE. THESE MAKE FARM LIFE
MORE PLEASANT

II is pleasant to find an agrcultur-
al newspaper turning at last from
the purely utilitarian phase OF the
moter-car -the-farm question aud
considering It,. il even merely in a
passing manner, from the standpoint
of the comfort Of the farmers wife.
Defending those farmers who have
boz olrowed money at the bank in or
der to provide themselves with auto
J mobiles, the Boston Monitor be-
lieves that il the invention does not
bring greater benefits to the farmer
than to anyone else it will be a case
of all invention gone wrong. OF all
men, the farmer needs the automo-
bile most. He needs TO be able to
slip into town and back while the
men rest at noon. He needs Il means
of having a chat with the man in the
next county, after the chores are
done at night. He needs Il method
Of getting into touch with every 9th
er farmer within Il radius OF hun
| lrel nailaa. Above all. Ia. naa4ls it
for his lonely wife.
The journal continues, "'rhe farm
er's wife has not in the past received
the attention to which she is entitled,
either for purely economic or purely
sentimental reasons. Home life OH
the American farm, regarded as Il
social proposition. has not, been i'll
the past attractive to women. and as
much for this rs for any other rea-
son, it has not been AZ attractive as
it should have been to men. As a
matter of fact, the entire question Of
keeping the people close to the soil
hinges OH the ability Of present-day
society to make home life OH the
farm ~ desirable AS home life in
town or city.
cit has been the isolation of farm
life for the wives and daughters of
the farm household that has given
year hy year increasing impulse to
the city trend. What the farmers
son has seen Of the nome life Of
mother and sisters he has wished
not, as rule, to have repeated in
the ease Of wife and daughters.
Therefore. at his first opportunity he
has left the farm for the city. and ii
has often been the case that his sister
has followed his example.
"All this, however, was truer %
lyears ago than it is today. The So
'cial face Of the country has been
changed in recent years by the in
introduction Of the telephone. the
rural free mail delivery system, the
interurban trolley car and the anto-
mobile. Constant intercourse may
now be kept up between farmers
families scattered over wide areas
by the employment of the indepen
dent telephone system. The circuit
may include II dozen or IL hundred
families. 1t may be local, or it may
have long distance connections. AS
all events it is ut the disposal of the
! farmers wife and farmers daught-
er while the farmer and the farmers
son are in the fields. The arrival of
the daily newspaper, also helps to
break up the monotony. over the
main travelled road there is the regu-
lar passing OF the interurban trolley,
upon which the farmers wife or
daughter may take n trip to the near
est town without waiting until after
the ploWing or harvesting season for
| the use Of II horse. And now the
farm moter wagon. or automobile, is
coming into use more and more, and
the farmers Wife can make her
round of calls us comfortably and
eNpeditiouSiy y AS her sister in town
or city.
"fhese convehlenceS are not beyond
the reach of the modern well-tu-tlo
American agriculturiSt of today, and
their possession is doing much to-
ward stelnlnin9 the cityWard tide.
Not only do they serve to make
neiyhhorhood lifein the country more
attractive socially. but they make
accessible to the farmers family
practically everything that the town
and city have to offer IN the way of