Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-11-25
NATIONS LABOR
PROBLEM
OVER A MILLION AND A HALF
WOMEN WORK AS FARM HANDS
IN TIE UNITED STATEo.
BY Peter Radford
Lecturer National Farmers Union.

~
dormant at the doors Of congress and
the legislatures, and which, when
aroused, will shake this nation from
center TO circumference, and make
civilization hide it's face in shame.
That problem is-women in the field.
The last federal census reports
show we now have 1,514,0O0 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 i'm 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 changing 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
block quite so revolving 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 engi.
neers threatened to strike if their
wages were not increased from ap-
proXiillately ten 10 eleven dollars per
ley ard service rcc'Slea5 from ten to
eight hours and a similar readiust-
1nent of the overtime schedule. Our
women are working in the field, many
of them barefooted, for less than 30
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 rccll
ing over their problems, and to whom
shall they threaten strike?
Congress has listened approvingly
to those who toll at TIE forge and he
hind the counter, and many of our
statesmen have smiled at the threats
among industrial laborers. But WON.
en- are as surely tho final victims OF
industrial warfare as they are ihe
burden-b bearers in the war between na-
tons, and those who arbitrate and
mediate the differences between capi-
tai and labor should not forget that
when the expenses of any industry arc
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 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 OF
put another patch upon her ragged
garments.
We beg that they listen to the
scream Of horror from the eagle or
every American dollar that is wruns
from the brow of toiling women an6
hear the Goddess of Justice hiss at 6
verdict that increases the want o1
woman to satisfy the greed Of man.
The women behind the counter anf
in the factory cry aloud for sympathy
and the press thunders out in theil
defense and the pulpit pleads fol
mercy, but how about the woman IL
the field? Will not these powerful
opponents of human rights turn theil
| talent. energies and influence to hel
relief? Will the Goddess of Libert!
enthroned at Washington hold the cal
| loused hand and soothe the feverisi
| brow of her sex who sows and reap'
the nations harvest or will she permi
the male of the species to shove
women-weak and weary-from th'
bread-line of industry to the back al
leys of poverty?
Women and Children First.
The census enumerators tell US tha
Of the 1874 900 women who work in tn
fields as farm hands 100000 are six
teen years of age and under. What i
the final destiny of nation whose fu
ture mothers spend their girlhood day
| behind the plow. pitching hay an,