Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1915-08-20
BETTER DAYS AHEAD
FOR FARM WOMEN
Continued from Page One.

1t is said, has to do with the kind of
an organization that should be devel-
oped for the carrying on of the home
economics work. Shall there be de-
velOped woman county agent to
work with the farm women in some
such way as the county agent works
with men? Just what, in detail,
ought such a woman to do? How is
she to organize her work and how go
about it? Ought the county to pay
a part of her salary and expenses, as
in the case of the county agent? What
training and general qualifications
ought such woman to have? Men
take up the work of county agents as
a permanent life work, but women
agents will be likely to leave their
work to manage homes of their own.
In view of this fact, how ought the
service to be organized?
Officials of the department of agri-
culture are free to say that they will
welcome correspondence with any
body who feels he is in position to
throw light on this situation. They
desire to organize the work in the
most effective way, and evidently at
this time it is not certainly known
Just what that way is.
The chief objections of women to
country life are usually (1) the gen.
orally small returns in farming, ca
the drudgery of farm work, and (3)
the social isolation.
In the development of home eco
Monies demonstration work, it is
pointed out that everybody concerned
should keep in mind the idea that the
problems of country women must
chiefly be solved by country women.
The county agent movement in some
sections Of the North and West, it is
pointed out, has succeeded in exact
proportion as the farmers Of the
county have taken hold of the work
and made 1t their own.
Where City Women Can Help.
City women, it is said in this con-
nection, can be helpful in the forth
coming demonstration in home eco
nomics, but they can never do the
work which the farm women them
selves must take up II the movement
is to be success. One of the ways
whereby. city women can be helpful,
1t is said, is through greater social in
tercourse with farm women, through
direct purchase of poultry, eggs, but
ter, vegetables, etc., and by co-opera-
ton in the maintenance of rest rooms,
etc., for farm women when
they come to town. But what farm
women need, and how to meet these
needs, it is pointed out. are matters
which must be worked out chiefly by
farm women themselves.
The criticism sometimes heard with
reference to home economics teaching
Is that it is done primarily from the
of the town woman. This
is a mistake. say officials of the de-
partment OF agriculture. who add that
the country woman's problems are
peculiar to the country, and must be
from that standpoint.
It is believed that within a decade
there will be organized in the United
States a thoroughgoing and up-to-
date movement looking in the direc-
ton pointed out in this article. The
rapid extension of equal suffrage. it
is believed, makes this all the more
The problem Of the coun-
try woman will be taken up intelli- (
and pressed to a satisfactory
solution, and there will be set apart. /
In due time, by the federal and the
state governments, ample funds to
that end. The work thus far done,
and the legislation thus far enacted,
It is realized, mark but the beginning
and are but a promise of something
larger and better just as soon as the
federal and state authorities can !
agree upon the way the problem
should be worked out. 1t seems
probable that the investigations of
he present year are to throw impor-
ant new light upon the situation.