Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1915-04-15

Department or agriculture In AT
tempting to Better Their Opportuni-
ties Will Issue Special instructions
Letters From 2,241 Women on the
Farm Say They Are Overworked.
Westinghouse picture Of farm life
in the United States which has never
been equaled and perhaps never will
be, because it is told in the testimony
of thousands of farmers wives, is con-
tanned in a document which has taken
the department Of agriculture a year
and a half to prepare and which is now
only just completed.
1t is an appealing, human and in
many respects a pitiful story. 1t re-
veals in a vivid way the truth Of a
complaint that has been frequently
made in past years-that of all the
factors in the rural problem the one
that has been most neglected is the
farmers wife.
This was called forcibly to the atten-
ton of the department in a letter in
Houston decided to find out for him.
self. He wrote to $4,000 farmers wives
throughout the United States asking
them to tell him their greatest needs
and what they thought the department
of agriculture could do to help them.
He received 2,241 replies, representing,
however, the opinion of many thousand
women, because many Of the writer's
had submitted his inquiry to their
neighbors or women's clubs, oranges or
church organizations.
One Michigan woman expressed her
hOpelesSness in the following:
1.-THE farm is run for the benefit of
the farm and not the family. Of what
use is it to buy more land to raise more
corn to feed more hogs to buy more
land?"
Interesting extracts from other let
tiers from north, south, east and west
are as follows:
mot one farmer in 100 watches his
wife to see if she is overworking. as he
does his horses"
Il would have law passed whereby
no man should be allowed to have a
farm unless he would provide for his
wife as well as he does for his stock"
''The busy housewife can get along
with any old thing as long as she lives,
and fine monument at the grave is
enough for her.
"Get out government bulletin on
The Care Of the Wives and Daugh-
ters,' to be sent out along with the
stock bulletins or poultry circulars"
'TaXes and interest are our undoing.
Put the taxes upon the rich man, the
millionaire, the woman who wears dia-
monds and velvets and give us poor
farmers wives a chance to buy best
dress few times in our lives"
1.-The farm woman is about the only
individual we know Of who earns an
income and doesn't get it,
at is not the lack of cosmetics that
ages us women of the farm before our
time. 1t is the hamilton of the tread
mill. the life of hard. incessant labor
without reward"
Some of the letters have an element
Of humOr. One says:
ut is the wOmen's own fault if they
are imposed on. l get nearly every
thing l need. If don't get it one
year l keep on until l do. and l don't
think am a very nagging woman"
Another writes:
Invent some kind of an adjustable
aluminium chain shirt so us women
won't have to be always patching
Still another:
I'VE need a law to prevent q doctor
from using an opiate for everything
from the toothache to cancer"
Again. there are pleas for instruc-
ton in cooking. One letter contains
the following:
I'm one home the mother put eggs
to fry for supper before she put her
biscuit into the oven to bake, and fried
them steadily during the entire time
the biscuits were baking. The next day
| saw her, while getting a quick luncn,
place frying pan over the fire with at
least a pint of lard in it, and as soon
as it was warm, but not all melted
break three eggs into it, from which
she finally took them tough. leathery
and altogether indigestible."
Perhaps the most general complaint
is that the wife benefits less than any
other person, or even animal. on the
farm, from the progress made in labor
saving devices and other improve
ments. AS one puts it: "a sheep dip,
but no bathtub: fine buggy and a
poor baby carriage"
The letters, as a whole, paint coun-
try life in America anything but the
roseate hues with which it is usually
pictured. The reasons ascribed are
many. but. as one farmers wife, prob
ably the most philosophic of all. ex-
presses it: "It seems to me, after all.
it is just according to the man we live
with
The document of the department Of
agriculture is prepared in four re-
ports, dealing with the social and labor,
economic, domestic and educational
needs of farm women.