1688 
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The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 15, 1919 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
In all the long years that I have been 
connected with this business there has 
never been a time when country people 
were asking more personal questions. Day 
by day they come from troubled people 
who hardly know how to describe what 
they want Our mails during the month 
bring us all the elements of both comedy 
and tragedy worked out in the simple 
story of human life. There are family 
troubles, both real and imaginary, and 
very crude efforts of both men and women 
to express what they desire and how they 
would like to get away from present :f©nH 
ditions. Then there come« ' ? ah' ; 'effpVf : to. 
compare their life with that ’of others-' 
similarly situated. Somehow there seems 
to have come, all at once, a great up¬ 
heaval of protest and inquiry regarding 
life on the avei-age farm. It comes to us 
because people, seem to feel that we have 
had the experience which enables us to 
sympathize with them. 
I , **'**. * 
I do not know what is responsible for 
all this inquiry. It is evidently one result 
of .the war and the changes which are 
coming to America. There is a great 
spirit of unrest abroad all over the coun¬ 
try, No boy can see a flying machine 
humming far above his head, or see a car 
rushing along a distant road, without feel¬ 
ing’that he. too, would like to follow’ the 
ships, and the car so as to see what’there 
is beyond the hills. Many a woman has 
worked hard for mere board and cloth¬ 
ing without serious complaint so long as 
that-was general custom. Now she learns 
of girls and women who earn $3 to $5 a 
week in cash at unskilled labor. It may 
he true that such workers do not save any¬ 
thing after dressing and entertaining as 
they do, but they have the satisfaction of 
handling and spending the money. Coun¬ 
try women are beginning to ask why they 
cannot have more of the things of life 
which can only be obtained for cash! 
Very likely some moralist will come along 
and say that money should not he con 
sidered." and that farm women have no 
need of cash or the things which it repre 
sents. 
***** 
Such a man would get a very poor and 
brief hearing in our country. There can 
be no question that the right to vote and 
take an active part in public matters has 
greatly changed the point of view of most 
farm women. We find evidence of this 
everywhere. Whoever does business direct 
with farm families knows that the wom¬ 
en are now 7 taking a more responsible 
part. Formerly most farm women, when 
the man was away, would refuse to take 
responsibility in buying or representing 
the family. Now they will take such re¬ 
sponsibility and order goods or decide 
business matters for themselves. The pol¬ 
iticians have helped in this, for they 
ouickly saw that the woman who came 
with a vote in her hand represented a 
new type of voter—curious, critical and 
conscientious. Most men voters are no 
longer curious or critical. I may say 
without great offense that they wear 
their party badge like a pimple on the end 
of their nose and think it looks, like a 
diamond pin ! As for the conscientious 
part of it—well, the politicians were quick 
to see that the women had introduced a 
new element. And so the women have 
been made to see their importance. They 
can no longer point to some ignorant la¬ 
borer and say. “That man can vote, while 
I cannot protect my children with the bal¬ 
lot.” They will accept the ballot as a 
responsibility, and no one can pick up a 
responsibility without asking “Why! 
Whyr 
^ ^ ^ 
And so women ai’e asking “Why” as 
never before, and they are compelling the 
men to think why. This “why” is respon¬ 
sible for many of these personal letters 
which come to us. They represent a great 
mental unrest among country people, 
w'hieh is different from anything wo have 
ever had in the country before. If you 
ask my opinion, I will say that this un¬ 
seen, intangible growth of “divine discon¬ 
tent” is the most hopeful crop that ever 
came from the farms of America. Fifty 
years ago it would have been impossible. 
I saw some of the most cruel farm home 
tragedies in the Far West during the low 
crop prices of 40 years ago. In New 7 
England at the same time there were 
tragic failures of farm homes through de¬ 
sertion of the rural districts, but at no 
time did the feeling among country peo¬ 
ple reach the point that we find today. 
One reason was that country people could 
not be brought together. Now we have 
such complete means of communication 
that w 7 e are all thrown together in 
thought. Another reason is the fact that 
the war has burned up a lot of old po¬ 
litical rubbish and left us freer to think 
for ourselves. Another reason seems to 
be that we are about done with hero- 
worship in this country. There is no pub¬ 
lic man left with wdiat you could call a 
great personal following. In former years 
men like Lincoln, Grant, Blaine, Bryan 
or Roosevelt had an army of personal 
followers behind them—men and women 
who never stopped to reason or ask 
“Why.” When their leader spoke they 
simply fell in behind him and marched. 
There is no such man left today outside 
of the labor unions. We have now come 
to the political age of “Why?” 
I have a good many friends who be¬ 
moan this fact, and say it means the ruin 
of our institutions. These men are wrong. 
They do not understand the thought and 
•the constructive pow r er of our country 
people. It is true that among the labor 
unions there is a strong radical element 
which would destroy industry if in that, 
way they could obtain control of it. That 
is what we call revolution. It is not the 
spirit which is hack of the present mental 
unrest in the country or farm home. That 
is a form of evolution, and has not yet 
come to the point where workers are 
ready to destroy in order to gain their 
will. The great danger in the country 
today is that, the blind and deaf men who 
.• ■ now seem to' control public matters may 
■ let things go too far without heeding the 
questions and demands of country people, 
lender a military form of government 
there must be a trained army to keep the 
people from asking “Why” in tones above 
a whisper. In a republic’there must, be 
another sort of army. That is a strong, 
conservative class of land-owners who are 
fairly satisfied, so that they can ask 
“Why” without screaming or curbing, and 
get. the answer. We have always had 
that class, and we have it. now—in our 
farm homes. The “Why” of the women 
will bring the right answer if the people, 
in authority can have the first glimmering 
of plain sense. 
***** 
For we might as well make up our 
minds right now that our women folks are 
not going to work for hoard and clothes in 
the future while other women get. cash 
wages. When we buy a pair of shoes, a 
necktie or a coat, the price includes the 
wages and support of a long line of work¬ 
ers. The girl who keeps the books or 
who sells goods, or sews or sweeps the floor 
—all their cash wages are included in the 
price. The married clerk must draw 
enough cash in wages to support his wife 
so that she. need not earn. It all goes 
into the price. And there is where this 
“Why” of the country woman comes in ! 
Why should she and her daughter do the 
work of men for board and clothes, while 
women in other industries are paid cash? 
For years she asked that question vainly, 
but now she knows the answer. It is 
because she has learned how to include all 
these labor items in the final price for 
the goods. For years the cost of woman 
and child labor has not been included in 
the price paid to the farmer for his pro¬ 
ducts. That is all there is to it—simple 
enough when you come to understand it, 
yet in the great majority of cases this is 
the fundamental trouble with farming to¬ 
day. The war has simply printed the 
thing in italics by taking many country 
women away from the farms into war 
work—where, with shorter hours and less 
labor they earned cash. 
***** 
That is chiefly why we get so many per¬ 
sonal letters filled with a sort of undeter¬ 
mined and general complaint. The farm 
women are not going to work forever for 
their board and clothes. They may not 
handle the money, or all of it, but in the 
future the price paid for farm goods has 
got to contain reasonable wages for the 
women and girls. Not only “got to.” but 
will. I do not believe it will be possible 
to prevent this outcome just as soon as 
the women come clearly to see the point. 
Lhave recently been in several localities 
whore farmers and their wives have been 
able to deal directly with the consum¬ 
ers. The money is well divided. Part of 
it goes into the house and home. Mother 
and children realize that a fair share of 
it belongs to them and they spend it to 
advantage. I believe this extra money 
from increased prices of farm goods, is 
the cleanest capital and the best invest¬ 
ment in the country. It buys content¬ 
ment and self-respect and pride of occu¬ 
pation. We can have no strong, conserv¬ 
ative element in our population unless 
these things are to be found in farm 
homes. There are many wise people who 
seem afraid of the future, for they think 
our farmers are to follow the lead of the 
hotheads and demand terms that, would 
destroy industry and wreck the country. 
I do not. think so. I think I know conn-* 
try people too well. They are puzzled 
and uneasy, and do not see the way out 
clearly, hut they will find the way just as 
soon as they realize what the real trouble 
is. That trouble is the fact that for years 
the labor of their women and children 
has not been included in the price paid for 
their yoods. I believe as truly as T believe 
the sun will continue to show itself that 
our farmers will realize that and find the 
way to remedy the trouble. We hare yot 
to do it ourselves. n. w. c. 
You have asked for results upon growing 
,T. IT. Hale peaches. I planted 50 .Tune- 
bwlded Hale. They bore for the first time 
this year, a small scattering crop. Beside 
them grew a block of Elberta, under the 
same care and conditions. After the crop 
was picked no one could tell one from 
the other. We sold them as Elberta. and 
that is evidently what they are, no better, 
no worse. A good bit has been written 
about fruit varieties. For my market 
apples worth while are: Yellow Trans¬ 
parent. Astrachan, Gravenstein, McIn¬ 
tosh. Baldwin, planted respectively, 5, 5. 
15, 25 and 50 per cent. For pears: 
Clapp’s, Bartlett, Sheldon, Bose, planted 
25. 50, 10 and 15 per cent. The last 
variety will have to be top-worked on 
some other to get good results. 
Massachusetts. c. b. harms. 
.... 
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