Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1914-11-05
DO THE WOMEN GET JUsrrcEs

Does Not Ordinary Man Neglect WO..
man in Giving Needed COnVeniences9
In these days OF improved machine
cry, and increased prices for most Of
the things which the farm produces,
does the farmers wife receive. her fair
share Of the additional comfort and
profit which are supposed to accrue
to the farm and its occupants? This
is the question to which the United
States Department OF Agriculture re-
Gently directed it's attention, and to
which it endeavored to secure. an
600 farmers wives, asking them to
voice their views. on the matter, and
It has recorded, the Substance OF the
answers received.
The response was large, and the re-
plies revealed state of affairs which
is truly pathetic. The complaint of
overwork and the fear of it's effect
LEon their children were only too !
common, while the complaint that wo-
mans work was generally regarded as
o. small financial value seemed very
widespread. The answers seemed to
sho what far mwomen are not sharing
DIS IuSy OuSuI " UG III IQ0 COl1IOTE duU
luxury possible in these days, and the
Department asserts that "On many
farms where there is always enough
money to buy the latest agricultural
appliances there is seldom a surplus to
provide the woman in her productive
work with power machinery that will
tighten her physical labor, or running
water that will relieve her of the bur-
den of carrying from the pump all wa
ter that is used in the household"
The farmers in many are So
~licitous enough about their horses, |
their cattle and their crops, and they
have a keen eye for any labor-saving
invention which will help the man, but
in only too many cases the women
upon the farm have scant attention
paid to their needs, and their labor
is unregarded and u~nreQuited.
Perhaps it would be well to note
that any such general inquiry itsis ma
tural to expect that the women who
are smarting under a.sense of Injustice
will respond most largely; and we
may expect probably to find just as
many disconnected farmers, but even
when we make this allowance the sit
is serious enough. But the
evils complained of are inherent, not
in farm life, but in human nature and
in the present relation between man
and woman. The man in many cases
has yet to learn that his success is
due as much to his wife as to himself,
and he has yet to learn to give her
credit for her work. The man must
wake up. But who will wake him up?
Women's Institutes may do something,
and the church also should do some
thing. Here is a fruitful field Of labor
for every tactful preacher. But the
preacher himself must be awake to the
real need of the case, and he must
know just what it is that ought to be
done, and just how to get it done.
We must confess that so far as our
own personal observation goes. the re-
port of the United States Department
of Agriculture does not apply to the
rural parts of the Dominion, except in
isolated cases. But certain of our
city newspapers in Ontario and the
west have proceeded on the assump-
ton that the same condition Of things
prevails in Canada as in the United
States. We can hope that things are
rot quite so bad as they are painted.
But even where conditions are not as
extreme as those referred to, there
can be no question that often the far
mer's wife does not get anything like
full credit for her work, and her lot
might be made a good deal lighter and
a good deal pleasanter if her husband
and children would simply wake up
to the facts. But that is the man side
of it, and it applies to city life as well
as to country life. It seems hard for
the average man to realize that his |!
wife works harder than himself, and it