The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-01-04
Farm Help and Plural Marriage!
(Rutland Herald

The Vergennes Enterprise and Yer
mOnter claims authentic record for the
following suggestion, said to have been
received by the governor of Colorado
from one George Smith
Il offer you something TO help theI
farmers, and you can lead all the other
governors if you can get it made a law.
1t is, let the city men have one wife
and the farmers have two wives. You
see. one could help the other, and a
farmer could more surely raise boys tOl
work the farm. and not need to hire at
high wages. Then the farmers could
sell crops cheap and make money, and
living in cities would be cheaper. and
many young men would leave cities to-
be on a farm and have two wives. \
farmer can't get any help unless it is
born and raised on a farm. You would
be a better man than Lincoln if you can
get the United States to let all the farm
erS have two wives"
The contemporary says that this sug-
with scant respect wherever promul
gestion receives but little support from
the press and probably it is treated
gated, but the history of rural develop
ment in ancient times. down to the ire
mendous agricultural progress. of Utah
| in this country. might indicate that the
! idea, repugnant AZ it IS to our -Ameri-
| can ideals of the home and community.
| is not so much of joke as it seems at
| first blush
The patriarchs of Bible times prac-
| ticed plural marriage and supported es-
| Establishments of women, varying in num-
Der from two or three of the founders
of the various tribes of Israel to the
| seven hundred wives. princeSseS of the
royal blood, and three hundred COncu-
bines from the Mpabtes. AmmOniteS,
| Edomites. Zidonians and HittiteS.
| many strange women. together with
the daughter of Pharaoh which made
no a IN 9Gl R~ pf Il mo
Solomon. "wisest of men
Oriental exaggeratiOn or free tranSla-
| ton has probably enlarged and ampli-
fed this King Solomon story, but the
practice of pOlygamy, 50 abhOrrent to
| AngIo-Saxon ideas. comes straight from
| EAe Orient and scriptural writ to Joseph
smith. founder of the Mormons, whose
| Institution of polygamy undoubtedly
helped to solve many of the early prob
lens efSUtah.
Smith and Brigham Young never had
any "helES problem. Even today. in
of MormoTiSip. while they do not effect
uate in actual polygamy. may be marked
| by large. robust families. mostly bred
to the soil and taking aS naturally to ag-
riculture as a duck fakes To water.
In California. the much-hated japan
esq does not openly practice polygamy.
but his eaSy-going ways of picture mar
riage, divorce and frankly immoral con-
ditions of social contact have resulted
in population increases that are giving
quiet students of such things consider
able concern.
TO state things in practical terms the
| birth rate on the farm is of the utmost
Importance in the progress OF agriculture,
but plural marriage will probably not be
| the solution,
In this respect, the fine old native
Vermont families are at disadvantage.
The newcomers. French Canadians, Eu-
ropeans or other races, are practical dis
| believers in race suicide. We Vermont
ers. pridiug ourselves on the assumption
that the lions whelp is of more conse-
quence than the rabbits litter, run TO
| smaller families and even no families,
| so that here and there-more often than
we like to think of-the best of the old
| Vermont stock is dying out.
The answer, of course, is not poly
gamy, but clearly we can no longer ex
pect our farmers wives TO bear and rear
| large families, do the work for large
| household and at the same time take
| the part in home and community activi-
| ties that changing conditions offer her.
More help for the farm! At last we
| get down to fundamentals and realize
that not only must rural conditions be
made more pleasant and agreeable, but
that farmers wives must have in their
homes-or plants-sOmething approx
mating the conveniences and labor-sav-
! ing devices which are fixtures in the field
the barn and the dairy today.
The gentleman from Colorado states
things a little crudely. but what lies
back of his peculiar state of mind is
the fact that farmers wives neither can
nor will work from daylight to dark
hereafter. with Sunday a special prob
! lem of its own and holidays so few as
to be forgettable.
They aren't looking for deputy wives,
| but are demanding modern convenienceS
and help enough to do their work with
| out exhaustion and with time enough to
devote to a growing family.
! Mary A. Livermore, the centennial of
u 10 onlnl.rntn oil A.