Home Makers' Conference. 305 



doing better and better the wurk that remained for them to do. Still 

 they have seemed to be always busy. They have been veiy slow to co- 

 operate, very slow to invent, to find easier ways of doing work. I do 

 not know that it is due to a difference in the minds of men and women 

 that men have been so inventive, and women have not. It may be, but I 

 think there are other factors to be considered. Women have had to 

 work in isolation in their own homes, and you know it is only when 

 minds come together that the sparks fly. I have heard that agricultural 

 science has been slower of development than other sciences because the 

 farmers are isolated, and that agricultural science has progressed rapidly 

 only when farmers' institutes became common and "Farmers' Weeks" 

 were frequent. The women have been slow to get together. Now we 

 are offering an opportunity in our Home jMakers' Conference for them 

 to gain inspiration for advancement. 



Another reason why women have been slow to progress is because 

 of the continuity of their work. "Man works from sun to sun, but 

 woman's work is never done." In the early days of himting and fight- 

 ing there were periods of idleness for the men. They worked very hard 

 at times but there were days and weeks when they could live on the 

 results of their last chase or the booty of the last war, and loaf around 

 the fire while they recalled their experiences and planned their coming 

 campaigns. The farmer today has less free evening time than the aver- 

 age business man, but he has days of comparative leisure during the 

 winter when he goes over his accounts, reads agricultural bulletins and 

 consults agricultural catalogues. 



Woman's work on the contrary has been constant. Daily, hourly, 

 her services have been needed by her family. She has found no time to 

 stop and think and read and plan easier, better ways of doing. In the 

 past she has been bound by these necessities. Today, with much of the 

 old work taken from the home, with labor-saving devices ready to go into 

 the home, there is no reason why work should not be planned to yield 

 the leisure needed for recreation and inspiration. If your wife hasn't 

 succeeded in doing this for herself, suppose you help her to do it. Buy 

 her labor-saving machines as freely as you buy them for yourself. Show 

 her how to use them if she is slow to learn herself, and help her to plan 

 time for stimulating reading and outings. 



I see many more men here than women. I must conclude that 

 many of you have come away and left your wives at home. I hope you 

 will realize that you have made a great mistake. I hope that each 

 one of you will step into some of our meetings during the week and 

 learn something about what we are doing, so that w^hen you go home you 



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