The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1918-07-02

So, Idaho Falls; Violet NO. 80, Ma
lad; Liberty No. 4, Albion; Progress!
No. As, Blackfoot; Glover Leaf No
culture and the Immigrant colleges
last year in the production and con
servation of fruits and vegeta bles
There are in the pantries of the
United States to-day more of such
products than there ever were be-
fore, and evry cOntainer represents
an equal amount of commercial pack
released for transportation across
the ssea. This service is in its in
fancy, so to speak. Within another
four or five years | do not doubt
that it will be extended to every
agricultural county in the United
States, and to many of the cities.
Its accomplishments will be multi
land thru group action and local
organization would accept and put
into practice the teachings of these
leaders.
1t is hard for many people to I'M
derstand that a national accom-
| plishment is the sum OF individual
accomplishments, that the aggregate
of the millions of bushels or pounds
| of increased production or of de-
creased consumption is composed of
| the few bushels or few pounds pro-
duced or conserved by the individ-
| ual. Too many people are trying to
serve the country by doing some
thing spectacular, especially by COM
ing to Washington or by going to
Europe. The service that we most
need now it the service of individ-'
ual performance in our own homes,
in our own business, and in our own
neighborhoods.
The Woman Army in Farm Homes
But there is another vastly greater
army OF women already on the land,
and they are doing a mans share of
agricultural production and conser-
walton. l speak of the six or seven
millions of farmers wives. Most of
our publicists and leaders have for
gotten them. Most of them are in
the kitchen before daylight and long
after dark; they cook and sew, and
generally they wash, often even for
the hired men; they cultivate the
gardens, they care for the poultry,
they make the butter, and often they
work in the fields. | have seen them
hoeing in the hot sun while their
babies lay in the shade of nearby
trees. They are truly and to the
limit Of their strength and their
marvellous patience the helpmates of
their husbands. eThey are the worlds
strictest economists, and it's most
heavily-laden burden bearers, for
while they take on. the burdens of
vocation they do not lay down the
burdens of sex; they bear children
and they grow old prematurely.
can imagine no finer thing for
a city woman to do in this war
emergency than to go to the farm
period of labor strain to help her
country sister bear these 1Grdens of
kitchen and farm. Any gdgI woman
would keep house for a sick friend;
the nurses in France are scrubbing
floors in hospitals. 1t seems to me
that some of the splendid zeal of our
American city women to render war
service might find satisfaction in the
farm homes.
Women Can Solve Problem
| do not undertake to prescribe
any precise method of organization
or mobilization, or to set any limit
upon the activities of women in the
field of agriculture. l have tried
merely to tell you something of the
problems as l see them | have full
faith that when the women of
America address themselves SER
iously and sympathetically to this
problem, as they have addressed
themselves to other problems within
the sphere of their particular re-
sponsibility, or within the range of |
their particular fitness, they will |
work out methods far more efficient |
than the mind of mere man can con-
ceive
1t will be a blessed thing if out
of this trial and the occupational
and economic, establishments to
which we must resort we can estab-
lish new relation or revive an old
relation between the town woman
and the country woman; if we can
make farm home life more comfort
able; If we can make city home life
more wholesome; if we can get into
the country something more of the
city's spirit of aspiration, and If we
can get into the city something more
of the country's spirit of humility;
if we can take to the country the
order and the progress of the city;
and if we can take to the city the
freshness and fragrance of the coun-
try. venture the suggestion that
such an undertaking of blessing and
beauty will yield richer accomplish
ment under the acknowledged in
stinct of woman than under the
boosted philosophy of man. VI