The Washington times., 1915-03-28

stand, largely the wives of men who
make crop-condition reports to the
department. Now, it will be recog.
nized at once that women Of this
class represent rather a high eco.
nomic and educational average. One
consequence is that they do not re,
fleet so much disaffection with farm
life as an average of all farm WON.
en- would present. 1t is useless to
pretend that farm women are salts
| fled with their lot, as a whole; or, il
satisfied, that they could not have
it greatly improved for them
Throughout the South, for example
the average farm woman is drudge
She probably didn't write an answer
to the departments inquiry, if she
received it, because she hadn't the
time to write it; and beyond that,
she probably didn't receive the in
quiry. The farm woman of other
sections of the country is merely in
better posture; that is all.
Yet the things that farm women
need to make their lot far more bear
able are not, in general, so very
many or difficult to provide. First
and foremost-perhaps it stands for
about half the possible advance
ment in creature comfort that could
be afforded-is running water in the
house. 1t is not expensive to pro-
vide this; not very; yet despite all
efforts it is still a fact that only q
very small minority of farm houses
have it.
There is not much use telling how
the farm woman needs social oppor-
tunity, when she has fourteen hours
work day to do-largely consist
ing of pumping and Juggling water
from we'll or spring for all the
domestic requirementS-before she
can think of social indulgences. 1t
is pretty much buncombe, too, to tel
how much the good roads and the
automobile and the telephone and the
rural free delivery have done for
her, when to vast extent she still
doesn't live on a good road, hasn't
a chance to own an automobile.
wouldn't know how to use a tele-
phone, and never gets any mail
through the rural delivery. The
women of this class are the ones for
whom something is needed to be
done. The country lady who is mis-
tress Of an establishment, with SER
wants and a car and the facilities of
city life, doesn't need consideration.
She is about the best-fxed woman
in the world.
But the less fortunate farm wom-
an does need an understanding of
her case. Two or three years ago the
Conference for Education in the
South, after a good deal of survey
ing and contemplation, struck an
idea. DR.. A. p. Bourland, its secre-
tary, appears to have been respon-
sible. He decided that the business
of uplifting the rura! masses of the
South would be served better by
taking running water into farm
houses, than in any other way! That
seems so simple, so low-browed, so
far from a conception of social and
sociological, and psychic and psy.
Geological, and othcv high-sounding
aspects, that it seems hard to real
ize that an organized movement
could have even seen it.
But DR.. Bourland did see it. He
got a set of plans for a country
waterworks system that could be in
stalled at cost so little as to be al
most unbelievable. He worked them
out in all detail, with minute direc-
tions whereby anybody able to read
could build his own waterworks with
the lowest possible expense; and he
started his conference on a crusade
whose object was to get waterworks
built on country places.
DR.. Bourland calculated that you
must begin with the woman; and you
can't uplift her much while she is
carrying water forty rods from a
spring, usually up a hill, every few
minutes all day. You can't even
achieve cleanliness at the cost of a
well-nigh broken back every day. The
first thing DR.. Bourland wanted was
to relieve the woman of some of the
frightful, shaving drudgery that she
had imposed on her; and out Of
real and ample knowledge of the
South, he grasped this simple and
efficacious notion of starting running
water through her kitchen and into
a bathroom of her home.
Running water in kitchen and
bathroom is so simple, SO casual, so
unquestioned a facility Of the town
home that town people can't imagine
life without it. When they try to
visualize the life of the country