610 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



there has been a misunderstanding of the work. The idea often exists 

 among women that we wish them to do their work in an elaborate or 

 fussy way. In fact, it is our object to simplify matters. 



In the second place they often have a suspicion of our ability. They 

 have done certain things all their lives, so, therefore, they must have 

 done them right, which is poor logic. 



The first thing to do is to win their confidence. If you can explain 

 any difiiculty they have experienced they will believe you do know what 

 you are talking about. 



We often hear it said that women look at everything from a per- 

 sonal side, that generally they do not think. While that is not an atti- 

 tude of mind to be encouraged, we can often take advantage of it and 

 win their confidence by appealing to their personal feelings. Often when 

 we have held a meeting I have stood at the door and watched the people 

 come in, and picked out those that I thought were antagonistic and gone 

 and spoken to them. While they may not believe in "domestic science," 

 or in dairy-school butter, yet, if you are interested in the baby, in the 

 new dress, or in the piece of fancy work, you will get a respectful hear- 

 ing, and that is something accomplished in the right direction. I am 

 often greatly surprised at the cordial welcome we receive. It is the ex- 

 ception not to get a hearty welcome from the women of the district. 



What benefits do we hope to reap from this movement? We hope 

 to arrive at better and easier methods of work. This is a very important 

 matter, because our domestic labor question is becoming one of the 

 greatest problems of the age. When it is impossible to get "help" in 

 our homes from the outside, the only solution is to make the work of the 

 home as light as possible. Ruskin has told us "there can be no happy 

 labor without thought." By learning as far as possible the reasons for 

 our actions we become intelligent laborers, and it is only as such we 

 become happy laborers. A thought behind the work removes the drudg- 

 ery from it. 



As mentioned in defining the "object" of the women's institute, its 

 desire is to raise the general standard of the morals of our people. Man 

 "does not live by bread alone," but he does live in his ideals, his aspira- 

 tions. Man, as an uplifting, compelling force in the world, now holds 

 his position by the ideas he has placed far above and beyond him, and 

 for which he has valiantly striven. 



While we wish to improve the material side of life, that is only, as it 

 were, a means to an end — to elevate the ethical side of life. The one 

 point on which all students of the past agree, all prophets of the future 

 meet, all sciences from biology to ethics are enthusiastically at one, is 

 in their faith in the imperishable power of the rightly-ordered home to 

 so elevate life. Therefore it does behoove us not only as individuals, but 

 as an organization, to study this subject and give others a chance to 

 study it, in the women's institute or by any other methods that suit our 

 conditions, so that our homes may take their place in the general march 

 forward to a higher and truer civilization than we as a people have yet 

 reached. 



