The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1914-10-01
THE WOMAN N THE FIELD
The Farm Woman Needs Relief
More Than Her City Sister.
BY Peter Radford.

Much has been said and more writ
ten about the woman in the factory
and behind the counter, but how about
the woman who works in the held,
| want to say few words In ner De-
half. !. regret a necessity that COM
pels woman to work for a livelihood,
and | favor not only shortening her
hours, but freeing her from manual
labor entirely. crave for society
that high standard of excellence where
the home is woman's throne and her
life is devoted to molding the char
acter and elevating the thought OF
the rising generation. But so long as
want greed and misfortune prevail in
this world, women, through choice or
necessity, will work, and perhaps
they will work at one task or another
as many hours per day as they please.
We may pity the weak and admire
the strong in their struggle, but the
farm woman is entitled to her share
of sympathy and reward.
All Must Toll.
The labor problem, as relates to
men, is most vexatious one, and
when we apply 1t to women 1t becomes
more seriously complicated. We will
always have to work unless some po-
litical genius can put law on the
statute book that will enable us to
live without labor. So long as every
person must meet toll face to face, the
best we can do is to equitably dis
tribute the burdens and reward labor,
and IL there. Is to be revision OF
wages and a shortening of hours, |
want the farm woman to get her
share. She has more reason to com.
plain than any other class OF toilers.
She has, as rule, fewer comforts.
fewer pleasures, less recreation and
less opportunity for enjoyment than
her sister in the city. She has not
so many conveniences and fewer lux
uries and less to be thankful for than
women who live in the town, but she
tolls on a model of consistency, pa
tience and womanly devotion. Ger
tainly she should be the first to be
rewarded.
The Real Labor Problem Is on the
Farm.
The great dailies with flaming head
lines deplore the lot of women who
toll in the cities, the city pulpit
thunders with sympathy for her, and
the Legislators crate in her behalf,
but not line is written, word said
or a speech delivered in the interest
OF the million women who labor on
the farm. Where one woman works
in the cities in this state. there are a
hundred mothers toiling in the field,
and no mention is made of it. Is the
woman in the city entitled to any
more consideration than the woman
on the farm? l contend that she is
not. The city woman may be more
easily restrained by legislation, and
she may have more attentive au.
dience when she cries aloud, but the
real labor problem, in so far as it re-
lates to women and children, is on
the farm-where mother and child
welding the hoe and gathering the
harvest, toll day in and day out with
out hope Of reward
The City Life Puny.
The farm women work from sun
until sun. They do their housework
and lull half-million babes to sleep
after the chickens go to roost, and
they get breakfast and milk the cows
before the lark sings. The city wo
man frequently chafes under hard
ships that the farm woman would
consider a blessing. The city people
are great takers and ofttimes great
ly magnify their troubles and enlarge
their accomplishments. This charac
teristic permeates organized society
as well as enters into the individual
| life of cities. There are orphan asy.
lums which are doing commendable
work and should be encouraged, that
boast of their accomplishments, but
| have seen widows in the country
make a crop, drink branch water and
eat corn-bread and molasses and
raise more children and better chill
dren than many of these city orphan
asylums. The cities need to get back
to the soil with their ideals. They
are hysterical puny and feeble III
their conception of life, its require
ments and its opportunities.