Bisbee daily review., 1914-11-28
NATIONS LABOR
 PROBLEM
OVER A MILLION AND 4 HALF WOMEN WORK AS FARM HANDS
 IN THE UNITED STATES.
ny Peter RadfOrd
Lecturer National Farmers Union

aroused, will shake this nation from center to circumference. and make civilization hide its face in shame That problem is-women in the field.
 The last federal census reports show we now have 1,514,OOO women working In the field, most of them south of the Mason and Dixon line. There were approximately a million negro slaves working in the fields when liberated by the emancipation proclamation We have freed our slaves and our women have taken their places in bondage. We have broken the shackles or the negroes and welded them upon our daughters.
 The chsIn-esna Of Civilization.
 A million women in bondage in the southern fields form the chain-gang of civilization - the industrial tragedy Of the age. There is no overseer quite SO cruel as that of unrestrained greed, no whip that stings like the lash of suborned destiny, and no auctioneer's block quite SO revolting as that of or ganized avarice.
 The president of the United States was recently lauded by the press, and very properly SO. for suggesting medi- alton between the engineers and rail road managers in adjusting their schedule of time and pay. The enEi- neers threatened to strike if their wages were not increased from ap- proximately ten to eleven dollars per day and service reduced from ten to eight hours and a similar readmst- ment of the overtime schedule Our women are working in the field. many of them barefooted, for less than 90 cents per day, and their schedule is the rising sun and the evening star, and after the days work is over they milk the COWS, slop the hogs and rock the baby to sleep. Is anyone mediat- ing over their problems, and to whom shall they threaten a strike?
 Congress has listened approvingly to those who toll at the forge and be- hind the counter. and many of our statesmen have smiled at the threats and have famed the flame of unrest among industrial laborers. But wom- en are as surely the final victims of industrial warfare as they are the burden-bearers in the war between na- tions, and those who arbitrate and mediate the differences between capi- tai and labor should not forget that when the expenses of any industry are unnecessarily increased, society foots the bill by drafting a new consignment of women from the home to the field. Pinch no Crumb From Women's Crust
 of Bread.
 No financial award can be made without someone footing the bill, and we commend to those who accept the responsibility of the distribution of in- dustrial justice, the stfl small voice of the woman in the field as she pleads for mercy, and We beg that they pinch no crumb from her crust of bread or put another patch upon her ragged garments.
 We beg that they listen to the scream of horror from the eagle on every American dollar that is wrung from the brow of toiliug women and hear the Goddess of Justice hiss at a verdict that increases the want of woman to satisfy the greed of man.
 The women behind the counter and in the factory cry aloud for sympathy and the press thunders out in their defense and the pulpit pleads for mercy, but how about the woman in the field? Will not these powerful opponents of human rights turn their talent. energies and influence to her relief? Will the Goddess of Liberty enthroned at Washington hold the cal loused hand and soothe the feverish brow of her sex who sows and reaps the nations harvest or will she permit the male of the species 10 shove women-weak and woary-from the bread-line of industry to the back al- leys of poverty2
 Women and Children First.
 The census enumerators tell us that of the 1,514,0O0 women who work in the fields as farm hands 409 900 are six teen years of age and under What is the final destiny of a nation whose fu- ture mothers spend their girlhood days
 N---++N NAiN RAbNf lANAlAlAb Hay uuQ hauling manure, and what is to become of womanly culture and refinement that grace the home, charm society and enthuse man to leap to glory fin noble achievements if our daughters are raised in the society of the OK and the companionship of the blow?
 In that strata between the ages of sixteen and forty-hve are $50 ,O0O wom- en working as farm hands and many of them with suckling babes tug ging at their breasts, as drenched In precipitation. they weld the scythe and guide the blow. What is to be- come of that nation where poverty breaks the crowns of the queens of the home; despair hurls a mothers love from its throne and hunger drives innocent children from the schoolroom to the hoe?
 The census bureau shows that 155.. GOO of these women are forty-fve years of age and over There is no more pitiful sight in civilization than these saintly mothers of Israel stopped with age, drudging in the field from sun until sun and at night drenching their dingy pillows with the tears of