THE RURAL HOME 317 



service. A modern hog-house, a thoroughly good set of poultry 

 buildings, a concrete feeding floor, an improved equipment of 

 stanchions for the dairy barn, or a good bull to head the herd, is 

 not much, if any, less expensive than a system of water-works for 

 the house, which places water under pressure in the bathroom, 

 kitchen, and bedrooms. 



Let no one understand from what I say here that the condi- 

 tions of work and living which weigh down upon millions of farm 

 women, and which account for much of the prevailing discontent 

 with farm life, have caused, or will result in, much of that sex 

 revolt which is so much talked of in feminist circles all over the 

 world. The farmer 's wife is not discontented with her husband, 

 nor with his treatment of her. She may even in many cases 

 throw the weight of her vote against the expenditures necessary 

 to emancipate her from unnecessa^ drudgery. To her the mort- 

 gage on the farm is a nightmare as baleful as it is to her husband. 

 She knows her husband 's business, and is as solicitous as he is for 

 management which will bring profits. 



But there is a woman here and a woman there who sees that 

 the whole scheme of family life falls to ruin if the home suffers 

 in comparison with homes of those friends and relatives who live 

 on wages in the towns. She and her husband begin to realize 

 that it does not pay to build the farm up into a profitable prop- 

 erty which is despised by the very children for whom they are 

 giving their lives. And they are studying statistics, too. They 

 find that such facts as have been compiled by Dr. Otis, of Wis- 

 consin, establish the fact that farms pay just in proportion to 

 the amount of the farm value which is invested in equipment, 

 rather than in mere land. And myriads of farmers are fore- 

 warned by their wives' discontent with farm life that a crisis 

 is approaching in which the decision will have to be made between 

 removing the family to town or bringing the things of the town 

 to the family. 



When, however, the tired and harassed farm wife comes to 

 the point of asking herself whether it is worth while to stay on 

 the farm, she thinks secondarily of the disadvantages of work 

 and living which have frazzled her nerves and depressed her 

 spirits. She thinks first of her children. That is the Eternal 



