The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-11-24
NATIONS LABOR
/ PROBLEM
Over a million and a Half Wo-
men Work as Farm Hands
in the United States.
BY Peter Radford
cturer National Farmers Union.

now lying dormant at the doors
of Congress and the legislatures,
and which, when aroused, will
shake this nation from center to
circumference, and make civiliza-
tion hide its face in shame. That
problem is-women in the field.
The last Federal census reports
show we now have l,514,OOO
women working in the field,
most of them south of the Ma
son 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 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 civilizatlon-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 organized
avarice.
The president of the United
States was recently lauded by the
press, and very properly SO, for
suggesting mediation between the
engineers and railroad managers
in adjusting their schedule Of
time and pay. The engineers
threatened to strike if their wages
were not increased from approx
imately ten to eleven dollars per
day and service reduced from ten
to eight hours and similar read
justment of the overtime sched-
ule. Our women are working in
the field, many of them barefoot
ed, for less than 50 cents per
day, and their schedule is the ris-
ing 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
mediating over their problems,
and to whom shall they threaten
a strike?
Congress has listened approx
i1gly to those who toll at the
forge and behind the counter. and
many of our statesmen have smiled
at the threats and have famed
the flame of unrest among indus
trial laborers. But women are as
surely the final victims of indus
dustrial warfare as they are the
burden-bearers in the war be-
tween nations, and those who ar
bitrate and mediate the differ
ences between capital and labor
should. not forget that when the
expenses OF any industry are un-
necessarily increased, society
foots the bill by drafting 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 some one footing the bill,
and we commend to those who
accept the responsibility of the
distribution of industrial 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 up
on her ragged garments.
We beg that they listen to the
.nr.a,l OF horror from the eagle
on every American dollar that is
wrung from the brow of toiling
women and hear the Goddess OF
Justice hiss at verdict that in
creases 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 pull
pit pleads for mercy, but how
about the woman in the field?
Will not these powerful expon-
ents of human rights turn their
talent, energy and influence to
her relief? Will the Goddess Of
Liberty enthroned at Washing
ton held the calloused hand and
soothe the feverish brow OF her
sex who sows and roaps the ma
tons harvest or will she permit
the male of the species to shove
women-weak and weary-fron
the bread-line of industry to the
back alleys of poverty!
Women and Children First.
The census enuuarators tell u.