EDITORIAL 
THE DISTAFF SIDE ' | 'HERE have recently been issued 
OF THE FARM A by the Department of Agri¬ 
culture three bulletins touching on the 
economic, educational and domestic needs of farm women. They 
are listed as reports Nos. 104, 105 and 106. Those who are 
interested in the nation’s welfare and the welfare of American 
womanhood cannot afford to miss reading them. The reports 
are not made by the Government, but by women themselves, and 
the three small volumes are tilled with letters from all sorts and 
conditions of farm women, constituting perhaps the most vital 
attack on certain national and domestic evils that has ever been 
compiled. They are cries more desperate, appeals more moving 
than have ever come out of war-stricken Belgium or Poland. 
The Government asked the women to tell their wants. They have 
told, and the replies are such that the problems they present 
cannot be shelved along with issues that another generation may 
or may not solve. 
Excerpts from some of the letters are perhaps more telling 
than would be editorial comment. 
“The condition of the farm woman of the South is most de¬ 
plorable. Pier liege lord is availing himself of labor-saving ap¬ 
pliances, such as reaper, binder, thresher, riding plow, gas engines, 
etc.; while the woman’s labor-saving help consists of her sewing 
and her washing machines. The routine work of the Southern 
farm woman is about as follows: At this time of the year she 
is up at 5 A. M. preparing the breakfast, often building her 
own fire; milks the cows, cares for the milk — churns the cream 
by hand. Puts the house in order, gets the dinner, eats with 
the family at noon; leaves the house in disorder, goes to the 
cotton field and picks cotton all the afternoon, often dragging 
a weight of sixty pounds along the ground. At about sundown 
she gets to the farmhouse, puts the house in order, washes the 
dishes left over from the noon meal, prepares the supper — most 
of the time too tired to eat; gets the children to bed, and falls 
asleep herself — and so it goes on from day to day. Somehow 
she finds the time to do the washing and ironing, mending, knit¬ 
ting and darning between times. If she is under forty-five years 
of age, while all this is going on she is either enceinte or she is 
nursing a baby. The result is she is weak and frail, as a rule. 
There are a few well-to-do farmers in whose homes we find 
better conditions, but the above description of conditions applies 
to negroes, to white tenants, and to the young farmers who are 
trying to build their homes. Get statistics of the sale of farm 
implements and the sales of nostrums for the cure of the ills 
of women and you will ascertain the relative condition of the 
farmers and their wives in the South. I call your attention to 
another deplorable fact; the young girls on the farm do outdoor 
work and are exposed to changes of the weather at times when 
they ought to be at rest, and carefully guarded as to their health. 
Often around the age of puberty their health is everlastingly 
ruined. I have in mind a case: a girl eighteen years old married 
a farm tenant. She did all the things I have described and was 
the mother of seven children during the eleven years of her 
married life. Four of these children are dead. The three living 
are frail of body and weak of mind. The mother is at this 
writing crazy as a loon. Do you wonder! In neither branch 
of her family is there any insanity. Simply killed by work and 
worry. That’s her story.” 
This is only one sample of like criticism received from every 
part of the country. The women are overworked. They are 
allowed little or no money, and are given no opportunities for 
making money. The evil is one that can be remedied in three 
ways: educating the farmers, which is a sentimental and inef¬ 
fectual method; and giving women the vote. The New York 
State grange has endorsed woman suffrage and so have the 
granges in many other States. The New York farmers will have 
an opportunity to vote on the Woman Suffrage amendment on 
November 2 of this year. Or, again, you can educate the women 
as would an excellent society, “The Woman’s National Agricul¬ 
tural and Horticultural Association,” which meets in New York 
on May 7, and at which this problem will be discussed. 
There are a multitude of subjects considered in these pamphlets, 
and next in importance to that of the personal needs of the 
women is the need for cheap money, which would help the 
farmer’s wife help the farmer. Interest on farm loans range 
from 8 to 12 per cent; the bulk of them being 10 per cent. When 
the farmer puts his hard-earned savings in the bank he draws 
4 per cent interest. When the bank loans him the same money, 
he must pay from 10 to 12 per cent. , 
“What 1 am mostly interested in," writes one farmer, “is 
for the Government to loan money to farmers on mortgages at 
2 per cent, so as to relieve them of the high rate of interest 
farmers have to pay. To make myself perfectly plain, will use 
myself as an example, which is similar to thousands of same sort. 
Was raised on farm and loved farm life above all others. When 
grown, had nothing to start with. Worked for wages till 31 ; 
saved $1,000. Married, and borrowed $1,500 from local bank 
at 12 per cent and bought 42 acres — 30 suitable to cultivate — 
for $1,500. Spent the $1,000 for building, fencing, stocking, etc. 
Hoped, of course, to pay off loan soon, but interest, 12 per cent; 
State and county tax, O/z per cent (on whole value) ; local school 
tax, A P er cent every year, must come out before any living for 
family or principal of debt—over 14 per cent, you see. Can a 
man support a family and pay for a home for a wife on capital 
costing 14 per cent? And the women on the farm suffer the 
hardships of it most. Can’t the Government arrange some way 
for these hard-working young farm home-seekers to get their 
money at cheaper interest, when they have such good collateral 
as good farms to make it secure ? That much would help the 
farmer’s wives some.” 
It is a striking comment on economic conditions in America, 
that Russia, supposedly the most backward country in the world, 
maintains a system of rural credits and general aid for farmers, 
etc., that would pale into insignificance the present endeavors 
of the United States Government. The parcel post has helped 
the women, better roads have helped them, but they want, and 
want rightly, Government telephones and Government monies at 
a low rate of interest. The suffrage vote is growing. The socialist 
vote is growing. And also is discontent growing. Each year 
sees a lessening of the farm population of the United States. And 
the question is whether the Government shall right the evils, or 
the farm women with the vote force the Government to right them. 
Such small space is inadequate to discuss the question of the 
educational and social needs of farm women — those little delica¬ 
cies of life that every woman desires both for herself and her 
children. We can only counsel the reader to get these Govern¬ 
ment reports, read them carefully and see what conditions really 
do exist. When one considers that the farm population is the 
backbone of our nation, it seems paradoxical that so little has 
been done for the distaff side of the farm, whereas so much has 
been done for the men and their work. The women have spoken! 
Will the men speak now ? 
362 
