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DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



and have two or three vital messages, then we could, with all courtesy, 

 invite you to our meeting. I am leaving this question to you. 



There are two women who will take just a few minutes each and tell 

 you of our willingness to affiliate with the Dry-Farming Congress and to 

 thank you for all the courtesies and privileges you have been giving us for 

 the last four years. Now if Mrs. Ada Carroll Wortman, of Nebraska, will 

 come forward, she will explain her decision and Nebraska's decision in re- 

 gard to this Congress. 



MRS. WORTMAN: 



It is with such feelings of kindness and goodwill to you that we have 

 come to explain our position, because if we put this before a few members, 

 it would not be possible for them to give you the entire meaning of our 

 message. We would like to be considered individually as members of the 

 International Dry-Farming Congress. We want to be considered as in- 

 terested in it. We feel as though we do not need to be an auxiliary to 

 anybody only to cooperate with you, as Mrs. Harbert has said. We desire 

 to take part in your meetings, and it seems as though in the years to come 

 we might be delegates on your floor to take part in your programs and hear 

 and know of what you are doing and you the same with our programs. 



So we ask if you will permit us to separate ourselves from you in 

 this way and yet retain our name. If you decline to let us still hold that 

 name provided we decide to separate from you, we are entirely in your 

 hands; but coming to you — presenting this to you — we, as reasonable women 

 ask, "Has not the time come when we are big enough and sirrong enough 

 to walk alone?" You ought to be glad to see that we have grown to this 

 point when we are big enough to take this step. It will be an experiment 

 with us to a certain extent, but we are willing to try this experiment and 

 we ask you, will you consider this kindly and calmly? I thank you. 



MRS. HARBERT: 



We have a representative of our Press Association in the Intel national 

 Congress of Farmwomen. We have built up a Press Association represent- 

 ing the women, and we have with us Miss Mary L. Bigelow of Minneapolis, 

 who will say a few words on the same subject. 



MISS BIGELOW: 



I feel that I can add very little to what Mrs. Harbert and Mrs. Wort- 

 man have already said. Last year it was suggested that our meeting had 

 grown to such an extent that it should stand on its own feet. No action 

 was taken, and it was referred to this year and we have approached it in 

 executive session and have talked it over very carefully and I think the atti- 

 tude of my own state explains the attitude of a good many other states. 



When we go to our college and ask them to send some of their best 

 women, they say, "That is out of our section — this is not a dry-farming 

 section." It has seemed wise for the women of this organization to become 

 an affiliated organization instead of an auxiliary organization if that can 



