SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 253 



you offer employment only for a few months, fo* no man worth 

 anything will permanently accept a system which leaves him 

 in idleness for half the year. 



A WORD REGARDING THE FARMER'S FAMILY 



And most important of all, I want to say a special word on 

 behalf of the one who is too often the very hardest worked laborer 

 on the farm — the farmer's wife. Reform, like charity, while it 

 should not end at home, should certainly begin there ; and the 

 man, whether he lives on a farm or in a town, who is anxious to see 

 better social and economic conditions prevail through the coun- 

 try at large, should be exceedingly careful that they prevail first 

 as regards his own womankind. I emphatically believe that 

 for the great majority of women the really indispensable industry 

 in which they should engage is the industry of the home. There 

 are exceptions of course ; but exactly as the first duty of the nor- 

 mal man is the duty of being the home maker, so the first duty 

 of the normal woman is to be the home keeper; and exactly as no 

 other learning is as important for the average man as the learning 

 which will teach him how to make his livelihood, so no other 

 learning is as important for the average woman as the learning 

 which will make her a good housewife and mother. But this 

 does not mean that she should be an overworked drudge. I 

 have hearty sympathy with the movement to better the condition 

 of the average tiller of the soil, of the average wageworker, and I 

 have an even heartier sympathy and applause for the movement 

 which is to better the condition of their respective wives. There 

 is plenty that is hard and rough and disagreeable in the necessary 

 work of actual life; and under the best circumstances, and no 

 matter how tender and considerate the husband, the wife will 

 have at least her full share of work and worry and anxiety; 

 but if the man is worth his salt he will try to take as much as 

 possible of the burden off the shoulders of his helpmate. There 

 is nothing Utopian in the movement ; all that is necessary is to 



