Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1919-09-19
A FARM woMAN's INCOME


and wives viii accept the marriage
covenant, that they are one, in almost
everything except the family income.
! That question is the rock upon which
domestic happiness is split more often
than upon any other
The husband can't get away from
the notion that it is he who earns the
money and the wife who spends it,
hence he is in custody of The family
funds. do not ], says the egotistic-
al individual in pantaloons, "do the
work that earns the money, and is it
not l who supplies the family bread
and the clothes for the wife and
children" To which query We re-
| ply with an emphatic mo you don't"
If while the husband is in the field
spending his hours in earning money,
his wife is in the home attending TO
the daily duties of preparing his food,
washing and mending his clothes and
keeping the home N the oest order
she is capable of every dollar of the
money that flows into his pockets,
equitably belongs-not to either of
them-but to each Of them He is an
equal sharer with her in tie products
of domestic comfort and she is equal
ly interested with him in the prod
ucts of his industry. Not tha- we
believe that the income should be
doled out dollar for dollar, but the
family pocketbook should be So thor
oughly one. that neither party should
make any expenditures without re-
Numbering that he or she was han d.
ling part of the others earnings.
If the couple have become well-to-
do, and servants perform the manual
duties of the household and the in
come is largely due to interest on
money invested is she entitled to an
equal possession? Certainly why
not? Does she not sacrifice that con-
tentment of mind which is incompat-
ible with idleness? Does she not en-
tertain his guests at table(and in the
parlor and is she not a helpmate in
all that preserves the family in that
correct social position they so desire
to maintain?
Really, there is no position in So
eial life, where the wife'e labors are
not, valued by dollars and cents,
worth just as much as the husband s,
and a wife is always justified in her
resentment of being treated as a ser
want. What man is there who is con-
tent TO work simply for his board
and clothing? The black man of the
South was unwilling to, and the alb
olishionists of the North, espousing
his cause, were unwilling he should.
Admitting he was as good, is he any
better than the farmers wife?
But, says some objector women
are such spendthrifts My personal
observation in the rural districts has
been that the spendthrift is not linn
tied to sex. A husband may oftimes
be defaulter to considerable sum
without the knowledge of his wife,
while if she is kept a confident in
regard to present and prospective fl
nances of the family, she generally
proves the most economical of the
two.
Man must get away lc0m the no.
ton that all modern efficiency is con-
fined to the field, the store and the
office. The generation that is com
ing out of our schools of home &C.
onomics today is being we'll drilled
in the business methods of managing
a home. The account book is one of
the modern accessories to an up-to-
date kitchen. Housekeeping has be-
come profession. No woman knows
more about her husbands business
than the farmers wife and no two
are more dependent upon each other
Oh have their interests more closely
linked together as they go hand in
hand about their daily labor, than
these two tillers of the soil. Their
duties are constantly overlapping and
interchanging. Only when either is
left to shift alone, is it realized how
much of their financial success was
due to cooperation.
Deprive a man of his wife, and he
founders through the intricacies of
farm management-indoors and out
like fish out of water.
He it is who drives the fat hogs to
market, the cattle to the stockyards
or the loaded wagons to the ware