Missouri Home Makers' Conference. 589 



portant part was played in domestic economy by the soapstone 

 pot and native basketry. 



When we contemplate the splendid porcelain wares of 

 today, the numberless varieties of cutlery, the beautiful textile 

 fabrics, the delicate silks, the countless forms of footwear, the 

 astonishing output of food products, we little think that the 

 wheels of these vast and varied industries were set in motion 

 by the needs and inventive ideas of a woman in a primitive 

 home. The rude knife of flint has become the keen tool of 

 tempered steel; the distaff has issued into the intricate Jacquard 

 loom; the metate and pestle manipulated by a woman's hands 

 have by a long process of evolution developed into our mammoth 

 roller mills, impelled by water power, steam or electricity. These 

 wonderful changes are due to inventions and specialization of 

 work which became possible only when men liberated from 

 the avocations of hunting and warfare were able to take up 

 other occupations and develop them in the manner with which 

 we are now familiar. Primitive woman having a home, was 

 cook, butcher, baker, potter, weaver, miller, tanner and furrier. 



Man, in assuming the occupations which were originally 

 feminine and performed by one person, has subdivided and 

 specialized by practical inventions and improved forms of 

 machinery. So the work that is now done in a modern home is 

 accomplished more rapidly and to better purpose and with 

 correspondingly greater results in the development of industry 

 and in the progress of civilization. This is an age of efTiciency 

 and specialization. We would not expect a farmer to be a 

 success if he dabbled in law, in plumbing or salesmanship. Big 

 men of today are all specialists, be they farmer, lawyer, doctor, 

 minister or merchant. 



But what are the mother's professions? She is the home- 

 maker, care-taker, teacher, nurse, peace officer, minister and 

 lawyer. The mistress of the rural home, in addition to filling 

 these various occupations, not only supplies her own table with 

 all its fresh vegetables, milk, butter, eggs and poultry, but pro- 

 duces a surplus equal to the needs of a great city. Besides the 

 care of her home and family she carries on a branch industry 

 greater than the cattle business of the nation — for the poultry 

 business is owned, managed and controlled almost exclusively 

 by her. We never sit down to a meal but that the work of a 

 farm woman is somewhere in evidence. But the physical and 

 commercial products are her least contribution to mankind. 



