316 RURAL SOCIOLOGY . 



In a large measure this work is done without the modern aids 

 to housework which city women possess. If a vote could be taken 

 of the farmers ' wives of the nation as to the improvement in the 

 house most generally needed, I think there can be no doubt that 

 the referendum would be overwhelmingly to the effect that the 

 first great need is running water in the house ! And this is the 

 first concession to progress that farm women are getting. Mil- 

 lions of them have no cisterns, and the simple first step toward a 

 parity of women's work with men's is to put a cistern of soft 

 water in commission, with a pump plying into a kitchen sink. 

 The next thing is a water-back to the kitchen range, and a faucet 

 of hot, water. These lead directly to a washing-machine for the 

 laundry work. 



Not in words, but in deeds, and still more in thoughts, the in- 

 sistent need of emancipation from drudgery is making itself felt 

 in rural homes. Not in words, but in spirit, these things are 

 appearing in the current thought of American rural life. It 

 pays to make the women happy. It pays to emancipate slaves, 

 and especially when those slaves are our wives, our mothers, our 

 daughters. It pays in money, indirectly, if not directly; but 

 whether or not it pays in money, it must be done. Any farm 

 that can afford a silo can afford a bathroom and a septic-tank 

 sewage-disposal system. Any farm that can afford a cream 

 separator can afford a washing machine. Any farm that can 

 support pumping and storage facilities for the live stock can 

 afford running water, hot and cold, in the house. Any farm that 

 can maintain a manure spreader can afford an acetylene, gaso- 

 line, blaugas, or electric lighting system. Any farm that can 

 afford self-feeders for the cattle can afford vacuum cleaners and 

 electric labor-saving devices for the women. Any farm that can 

 justify binders, silage-cutters, hay-forks, pumping engines, shred- 

 ders, side-delivery rakes, corn harvesters, potato planters, and 

 finely equipped barns can afford every modern convenience for 

 making the home a good place for women to live, work, rear chil- 

 dren, and develop in them the love for farm life. 



A corn-shredder or a silo costs more than an electric lighting 

 system for the farm home a system which will give the women 

 all the things that city women receive in the way of electric 



