150 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



of Des Moines. It was called "The Thrift Shop Musical Comedy." Its 

 setting was a little beauty parlor, and there they showed many extrava- 

 gances. It was very clever and up to the moment, had very pretty music 

 in it, and that was staged every day. The room never held the people 

 who wanted to see this program. Then, too, we have continued each 

 year the pageantry. Last year we presented a pageant called "Iowa's 

 Wild Flowers" and this year followed it with a pageant called "Indian 

 Corn." Its setting applies particularly to Iowa and it was a very lovely 

 thing and a very artistic thing. It was put on by children of Des Moines 

 and the children of the surrounding towns. Now, these were the distinct 

 things that we have put on, and, as I say, the room would never hold 

 the people. I think it seated about 500 people and I think we had in 

 about 700 people at all times. The women come there not just because 

 they have a good program, but because they are vitally interested in 

 these things. All these little pageants can be put on at the county fair. 

 The little drama oftentimes can be put on and the style show, as we 

 have demonstrated, can be put on in a small way. We have also put on 

 in Iowa during the past year what we called a two-day thrift meeting, 

 sometimes with the co-operation of local merchants and sometimes with 

 garments made in the schools in the home economics departments. It 

 seems to me that we do not use as fully as we should the state aids. Of 

 course, we use the home demonstration agents, and they are our very 

 best help in this sort of thing, but we don't use them as we should. In 

 Scott county there is such a fine spirit of co-operation that a woman is 

 hired by the farm bureau and the women's club in co-operation, each 

 paying one-half of her support. That woman has the club women back 

 of her and she is working with them and she is also working with the 

 rural communities, which is also a very fine thing. I believe we should 

 use these programs to draw the rural women and the city women to- 

 gether. I believe we should use some of the local women and some of 

 the country women on the program and then it is especially interesting 

 to get women from the outside to come and address the meetings, women 

 of whom these local members have read but have not seen, and they can 

 put over a message there that you couldn't get over by using all local 

 people. Of course, these things must be financed. I think a great deal 

 of our success in connection with our undertakings at the state fair has 

 been due to the vision of your committee, who have believed that those 

 were the worth-while things, and have been able to finance them prop- 

 erly. But the day has come when the work of the women must be financed 

 just as the work of the men. There was a time when the women who 

 put on the work without financial support, and you can get women who 

 will help you if you cover the expense in the right sort of way. It seems 

 to me there are new features that could be developed; it seems to me 

 there should be more of it done; it seems to me these could be done with 

 the co-operation of the local dealers; it seems to me more could be done 

 in the way of demonstrations on serving meals. The rural woman likes 

 to learn about that, and that could be done, it seems to me, with the 

 co-operation of local people who handle that sort of thing. Then I think 

 there is an opportunity of more study along the line of textiles, and that 

 could be done with samples and demonstrations, getting the things from 



