Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-07-06
CHAPTER XIV


1t seemed to me-the wagons inched
across the field. Those women knew
how to strip ribbons, pick up down.
corn, and keep on the throwboard.
They were the farm women I had
known all my life-tanned, shape
less, amazingly capable, equal to
any emergency, overworked and I'M
derpaid. At first glance, however,
they didn't look like women, for
most were in overalls, with mems
hats pulled down over their hair.
They were there to work and that
was exactly what they were doing;
regularly, in sort of rhythm, the
ears of corn beat on the throw
boards. But the women were femi-
nine after all, no matter what their
cover-alls said. For a quarter of
them were wearing high-heeled
shoes. If my mother had come out
to the field in a pair of high-heeled
shoes, I'm sure Pad we sent her
back to the house. Times change
and conditions change. But peo-
pie don't; for these women were as
my mother was-except for the item
of the shoes. Sometimes it seems
to me, people are the one constant
factor in the whole scheme of things.
When the gun went off the second
time, the women climbed into the
wagons and the wagons started for
the scales where the corn would
have to be weighed; and the CLEAN
ings, too, and the overlooked corn.
One woman, before she would allow
herself to be driven through the
cheering lines, brought out her lip
stick. I am glad Pa never saw
Women's National Corn Husking
Contest. He had stood up under
many things, but lipstick in corn
field might have proved too much.
I asked one of the winners what
she was going to do with the money.
1t was going into college fund, she
said. Then glanced proudly at her
son she had by the hand.
The contest was held near farm
owned by former President Herbert
c. Hoover. had never been on his
farm, so now we drove to it and I
walked across it, thrilled to have
such a distinguished fellow farmer.
When saw the condition the farm
was in, knew it was just as well
he had stuck to politics.
Once, at the behest of his politi-
cal guides, he had come back to
make speech, just as Farmer Will
kie had gone to Elwood, Indiana,
to show what callus-handed son of
the soil he was.
Mr.. Hoover's fellow farmers came
to see one of their kind. The crowd
became so great that Mr.. Hoover ad-
journed to his front porch and start
ed to talk to his friends. His friends
were more friendly than he knew,
and crowded on the porch. Sudden
ly there was noise, and a shock,
too, and Hoover and his friends and
the porch went down. There was a
scramble but, after few moments,
Mr.. Hoover was able to right him
self and went on with the alarming
condition of the country.
The porch is still there, in about
the fix the speech left it in.
When got back to New York, I
went to the Dutch Treat Club, and
there was my neighbor. 1 went to
him, after he had finished lunch but
was still sitting at the table, and
said:
"Mr. Hoover, I'm going to say
something to you that no one else in
this club has ever said"
He glanced at me, evidently won
dering what to make of this ap-
proach.
I said, 81 walked across your farm
in Missouri few days ago."
Now he did look with interest.
-'Well, how is it,"
I told him just what l had seen.
That it was in poor condition; the
outbuildings were falling to pieces,
the house needed painting, the fences
were down, the gullies we're wash
ing and the soil itself was over
corned. Even, l said, one side of
his cave had fallen in.
He asked questions and told him
just how the farm impressed me.
Then he wanted to know if would
be interested in buying it. told
him that I did not think I would.
After I left, he went on smoking:
but more thoughtfully, it seemed to
me. Maybe it had dawned on him
that he hadn't been cut out to be
q farmer.
All visits are not so glamorous:
there are plenty of hard, practical
problems to solve. And SO Spide
and and Lloyd stand on the south
side of the barn and try to work
them out. How much land should
60 in wheat? How much in corn?
How much in rye? This is compli-
Gated by the fact that the govern
ment must always be reckoned with.
We will be paid SO much for rails