LECTURES AND ESSAYS. 517 



find no place between them. There should be no mine and thine, but they 

 should both feel that each has an interest in all that interests the other. I 

 think there should be a common fund for the necessary expense of the fam- 

 ily, and one should have just as free access to it as the other. Then there 

 should be a clear understanding between them as to (not his but their) busi- 

 ness, so that they may know how much they can afford to spend and still 

 have enough left to meet the necessary obligations ; and you may depend 

 upon it, the wife will be just as carefiri as the husband about any extrava- 

 gance, but in order to do so, she must know just the state of their affairs, 

 and eveiy thing in a business line should be freely talked over between them. 

 Then, when she needs anything which she is satisfied comes within their 

 means, simply say that it is needed and get it. Not going to her husband 

 as though with her finger in the corner of her mouth and her eyes cast 

 down, saying: "Could you possibly spare me a half a dollar to get a calico 

 dress with? I don't see how I can get along any longer without one," and 

 feeling herself more of a veritable beggar than the tramp who asks for bread 

 at her door. Neither, I think, should she use such devices as a woman I 

 read of a few days ago. She was not a farmer's wife, however. Her hus- 

 band was very wealthy, but was very stingy to her in the matter of pin 

 money. One day a lady closely veiled and very anxious not to be recog- 

 nized, called upon him and borrowed a large sum of money, leaving her 

 diamonds as security; it was his wife. While there may be men so small 

 that only by some such device could they be induced to allow a wife her 

 rights, I think they are the exception, not the rule, and that generally they 

 are willing to give her her dues in just so far as she stands ready to take 

 them. I think a great part of the trouble lies with the women themselves, 

 in thinking they have no right to any money unless they manage in some 

 special way to earn it. But is not the average farmer's wife earning money 

 all the time? Does the farmer work any harder than his wife, and is not 

 her work just as necessary to the profitable carrying on of the business as 

 his? Then why should she not have an equal interest with him in the dis- 

 posal of the income? Some men will say, go and get what you want and I 

 will pay for it ; but we are so constituted that there is an undeniable 

 pleasure in the handling of money, and I see no reason why the wife should 

 not be allowed her share of this pleasure, to the extent of paying her own 

 bills; so, as a matter of convenience, it may be as well for her to have the 

 handling of the butter and egg money, if she needs that amount, but never 

 with the idea that "it's mine and I will do what I please with it." I think 

 a reform in this whole matter of handling the money would do more to 

 make happy homes among the farmers than all the tariff reform that con- 

 gress will effect in years, and would greatly help to remove the feeling of 

 discontent with which so many farmers' wives view life on the farm. 



In the discussion which ensued, Secretary Reynolds said the wife is nearly 

 always the more economical of the two, and if either is to be sole custodian 

 of the purse let it be the wife. President Willits thought the matter went 

 deeper than mere convenience. It is a question of education and of womanly 

 independence. Begin with the girls; let them have some business to man- 

 age, some money to expend, that they m?y acquire a training in the use of 

 money. W. Pierce also thought it a matter of business experience. Women 

 need practice. They should get such training that they may be able to do 

 business in case of need. T. B. Halladay indorsed the idea of a partnership 



