The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1940-01-17
Man in the Kitchen
BY BEN BUCKLEY

Il BY BEN BUCKLEY
One of the big squawks | hea
against Russia is the invasion by thu
women into the industrial field, but
also understand that they got paid al
equal wage with the men if they arr
doing the same work as the men are
| believe it is true of all the old coun
tries that the women have worked side
by side with the men for generations
past, especially on the farms. In fact
| have read that the women not only
put in as many hours in the field
as the men did but had the meals
to cook and serve besides, without
any or very little pay.
But then, of course, Europe is not
the good old USA where we have in
the past prided ourselves on the pro-
lection of the general welfare of our
women. Perhaps | have been asleep
for good many years in the land
of dreams, dreaming sweet and far
fetched dreams of the dollars that |
would eventually put aside for the
day when my wife and | were slipping
down the off side of life. When we
had reached the age of forty-five and
were too badly worn to be an eff
cient machine any longer. We had
dreams of at least place we could
call home and enough laid away to
let us at least escape the worry of
starvation or the poor house. OF
course we failed like millions Of others
have and like millions of others will.
A time came when | couldn't get work
Of any duration and my wife was
forced to seek work in order to make
ends meet in limited fashion. Right
then was when / fell hundred per-
cent in my own estimation. l felt
like a heel and went around with my
head down. | was a failure! 1t was
my fault But I settled down
amongst the pots and pans and turned
out the stews to the best of my abil-
ity, because had to eat them stews
also. When | got a chance to go out.
on job / went and then we all did
pots and pans together after work
OF course l wasn't the first to go
through this unpleasant experience
There had been countless others be-
fore me. Since | have become intelli
gently informed enough to know that
it is only part of the system that
we live under. l have watched 1t
closely and have noted that there are
more and more failures that are
forced into this system of wage cut
ting. Every year more and more
mothers are forced out of the home
to seek a job at low rate of pay.
her husband through necessity be-
cause the husband is unable to obtain J
through no fault of his
own, but a well laid plan to cut wages
and put the working people on lower
standard of living.
When l got my work done at home |
will slip out to see if | can pick |
up little work to help along. | will |
meet the boys l used to work with |
strolling the streets the same as me
with their eyes peeled looking for a
chance to make a few extra dimes.
We always stop and chat for few
minutes and the conversation is rou-
inc.
Hello, Bill are you working?"
HELL no. Pm just doing a little
cooking for the old woman. She
lon't make very much, but it kind of
ieeps us eating"
"How about WPA? Can't you make
hat?"
mot much chance They have
Jared WPA to the bone and you damn
lear need a political pull to get on
here Besides they are trying to use
WPA as leverage to lower our wages
nd standard of living, that we have
ought so hard all these years for"
How about Unemployment Com
That's. out. / never made enough
o be eligible for it. And for Gods
axe don't ask me about the Old Age
'ension as I'm not old enough for it
ct, and anyway it doesn't pay only t
nough to keep you in a process of
low starvation"
My wife and daughter had gone to
Tork. (Yep! 1t takes both of them b
} bring in enough beans to keep us &