Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1920-11-04
AMERICAN WOMEN
DOING FULL SHARE
FOR THE COUNTRY
Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, Wife Of
Republican Nominee, Praises
Her Sex.
DISCUSSES HIGH LIVING COSTS
Declares in an Interview That
Present High Prices Can Be
Reduced by Votes.
BY EstelIIne Bennett.

BY Estelllne Bennett.
Mrs. Coolidge sat in day coach on
a slow local train between Boston and
Northampton and talked about her
husband, her children, the high cost of
living and the domestic problem. The
conductor and the brakeman stopped
as they went through the car to talk
TO her. She had made friends with
them in her frequent Journeys back
and forth to keep in touch with her
children in school in Northampton and
her husband at his duties in the state
capitol. She knitted diligently as she
talked. During those trips she knits
all the winter stockings and sweaters
for her two boys-John, aged four
teen. and Calvin, twelve,
'"Too many people are afraid Of
work." she thinks is the fundamental
reason for the high cost of living and
the much discussed domestic problem.
II think the only thing the women
of the country can do now" she said,
with the quiet conviction Of one who
has thought it all out, us to vote for
the men whom they think will make the
right laws and see that they are en-
forced. They have done all they can
III the home. | think the reason there
is so much sugar on hand now is be-
cause people are doing without 1t in
their homes.
h~t
American women have done. and
still are doing, their full share. They
have sacrificed and saved and substi-
tuted and made over. But that isn't
enough. They'll have to vote the high
cost of living down.
Here in New England, where 1t is
a little hard for us to give up pie" she
laughed at the tradition that has be-
come joke, I'VE have learned to use
all kinds Of cheaper substitutes for
butter and lard, and in my own house,
hold we have experimental with diff
| ferent fruit combinations to find some
4 thing we like and that will take the
! least sugar. Apples must be tart to
make good pies, but we have found
!
the combination of apples and blue
berries, half and half, Is delicious, re-
/ qures less sweetening than apples and
has more character than the blueber-
/ ries alone"
Knows No Domestic Problems.
| The domestic problem, which Is clos
ing homes all over the country and in
cleasing the hotel population. is some-
| thing Of which Mrs. Coolidge thinks
She has no personal, practical knowl-
edge She never keeps but one maid
and she never has been without one
In the fifteen years Of her married life
she has had only two The first one
she inherited with the furnished house
into which she and Mr.. Coolidge
moved when they were married and
took with her when she moved. The
second came when the first left to go
and live with her sister.
There must be q reason for their
staying, 1t was suggested to Mrs. Cool
idge, and she thought possibly there
were several. Size thought the type of
maid had something to do with 1t.
Hers both have been American wO-
men old enough to have a sense of re-
sponsibility to their work and intelli-
gent enough to respond to reasonable
courteous treatment.
"A good many women who keep only
one maid have trouble in their house
! holds because both mistress and maid,
but chiefly the mistress, are afraid of
work A woman expects one maid to
| dc the cooking and scrubbing and ev-
erything else and still be dressed up In
black dress with white cap and apron.
ready TO answer the doorbell any min
ute 1t isn't humanity possible. / al.
ways answer my doorbell myself. /
d. 1t for two reasons. In the first
/ pace. there Is no one else, and, in the
second, like to greet my friends at
the door myself"
Have Home Orchestra.
Mrs. Coolidge is of medium height,
with brown hair, hazel eyes that hold
a good deal of merriment and very
quick sense of humor. At home she
and her children have a little orches-
ira. Mrs. Coolidge plays the piano,
John the violin, and Calvin, after con-
siderable discussion, in which he ia
vored lass drum, compromised on a
banjo-msndoiin. They play hymns and
war Sings usually-the hymns they
learn IN the Congregational church and
Sunday School of Northampton. They
avoid difficult and unfamiliar music
beca use the object Of the orchestra is
entirely recreational and not educa-
tional. That is a part Of Mrs. Cool
idge's educational policy-that chill
dren should work when they work and
play when they play and keep the two
/ separate That was why she sent her
boys to the public schools Of North
ampton when they were five years old
| Every morning when she Is In North
ampton, Mrs. Coolidge takes her Bos-
ton bag and goes to market. II the
at hhrr. pnvt door 10 wnF,sov Afro CsrrI.