Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1914-11-26
NATIONS LABOR
PROBLEM
OVER A MILLION AND A HALF
WOMEN WORK AS FARM HANDS
IN THE UNITED STATES.
BY Peter Radford

the legislatures, and which, wheI
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 $4,000 women
working in the field, most Of them
south OF the Mason and Dixon line
There were approximately 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 off the negroes
and welded them upon our daughters.
The chain-Gang 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 revolving as that of or.
ganized avarice.
The president of the United States
was recently lnuded by the press, aud
very properly SO, for suggesting medi
alton between the engineers and rail-
road managers in adjusting their
schedule of time and pay. The engi-
neers threatened to strike If their
wages were not increased from APP
proximately ten to eleven dollars per
day and service reduced from ten to
eight hours and a similar readjust-
ment of the overtime schedule. Our
women are working in the field, many
of them parefooted, for less than SO
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 strike?
Congress has listened approvingly
hind the counter, and many of our
statesmen have smiled at the threats
and have famed the fame 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 ma
tons, and those who arbitrate and
mediate the differences between capt.
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
of the distribution of in
dustrial justice, the still 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
rom the brow OF toiling women and
lear the Goddess of Justice hiss at
yerdict that increases the want Of
woman to satisfy the greed of man.
The women behind the counter and
n the factory cry aloud for sympathy
md the press thunders out in their
License and the pulpit pleads for
mercy. but how about the woman in
he field? VIII not these powerful
xponents Of human rights turn their I
alent, energies and influence to her 1
elief? VIII the Goddess of Liberty
nthroned at Washington hold the cal
oused hand and soothe the feverish +,
row of her sex who sows and reaps l
he nations harvest or will she permit |
he male of the species to shove I
and weary-from the !,
read-Iine of industry to the back al I
,ys of poverty?
Women and Children First. c
The census enumerators tell us that s
the 1,514,000 women who work in the /
elds as farm hands 409, 900 are six
zen years of age and under. What is
lie final destiny of nation whose fu-
ire mothers spend their girlhood days :.
shind the pillow, pitching hay and :,
auling manure, and what is TO become -
womanly culture and refinement "
lat grace the home, charm society III
i'd enthuse man to leap to glory in
oble achievements If our daughters
e raised In the society Of the OK and
10 companionsbip Of the plow? ne
In that strata between the ages OF
xteen and forty-five are $4,000 wom- D,
| working as farm hands and many
them with sucking babes tug :,
ng at their breasts, as drenched
perspiration, they WELD the scythe
ID guido the pillow. What 10 to be- ~
me of that nation where poverty
eaks the crowns Of the queens Of Sc
e home despair hurls mothers an
We from its throne and hunger drives
nocent children from the schoolroom
the hoe?
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