THE DEMONSTRATION WORK 



House that feature of the bill which provides authority for the itin- 

 erant teaching of home economics or home management. This is the 

 first time in the history of the country that the Federal Government 

 has shown any tangible purpose or desire to help the farm woman in 

 a direct way, to solve her manifold problems and lessen her heavy 

 burdens. The drudgery and toil of the farm wife have not been 

 appreciated by those upon whom the duty of legislation devolves, nor 

 has proper weight been given to her influence upon rural life. Our 

 efforts, heretofore, have been given in aid of the farm man, his 

 horses, cattle and hogs, but his wife and girls have been neglected 

 almost to a point of criminality. This bill provides the authority and 

 the funds for inaugurating a system of teaching the farm wife 

 and farm girl the elementary principles of home making and home 

 management, and your committee believes there is no more important 

 work in the country than this." 



Mr. Haugen, of lov^a, said: 



"All are agreed that with prosperity on the farm we have pros- 

 perity in the city, in the shops and the mills, and with close times 

 on the farms we have close times in the cities, crumbling banks and 

 factories. All our interests are in common. We go up and down 

 together. Why not take this important step? Why not provide, in 

 this bill, for education in home economics ? — not simply in cooking, 

 but in every science conducive to making home better and more 

 attractive?" 



In the course of the discussion in the upper House, 

 Senator Smith of Georgia remarked: 



"It extends to work in the home also, in the line of domestic 

 science; but it certainly is not expected that the instruction shall be 

 given exclusively to persons upon whose land or in whose house the 

 instruction is given." 



Congress not only broke avray from tradition in the 

 endorsement of a nev^ method of education and its appli- 

 cation along nev^ lines in the homes as well as on the farms, 

 but the judgment of the lawmakers went further in seeing 

 that the matter of distribution should be taken care of as 

 well as production. It was well nigh impossible for farm 



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