330 
American Agriculturist, April 14, 1923 
Is the American Home Slipping? 
Something Is Needed to Dignify the World’s Most Important Profession 
S OME foolhardy man writer with more 
courage than sense recently said that 
(there is nothing that woman does that 
_ man cannot do better. I understand 
that when the indignant and expressive sex 
got through with that writer after his rash 
statement, he crawled into a hole and pulled 
the hole in after him. 
I realize the chances I take in discussing 
women or any of their interests, but 1 have 
some rather emphatic views on the home, 
woman’s place in it, and on the work which 
the Home Bureaus are doing, and in spite ot 
the danger, I am going to discuss them. 1 
shall at least avoid the likelihood of personal 
annihilation for my remarks by omitting to 
sign them. So here goes. 
The home-is the most important factor in 
the development of all that is good in human 
life. It is the fundamental unit of society 
and the foundation rock of every successful 
nation. The history shows that the down¬ 
fall of each nation began with the lowering 
of the standards- of its homes. Practically 
every effort in the world’s history of com¬ 
munism has failed, no matter how high the 
ideals upon which it was started, because 
such efforts put the community life before 
the home life, or did not recognize the sanc¬ 
tity of the home at all. 
A Distinct Tendency Downward 
I am not a pessimist, but it seems to me 
that there is a distinct tendency downward 
in American homes to-day. Our modern life 
and civilization makes care most necessary 
to maintain the same high standards in our 
home life that our fathers had. This was 
once an agricultural nation, and the business 
of farming is tied up with the farm home. 
In the early days, and to some extent still, 
the farm people, who were a large part of 
the population, spent the long evenings read¬ 
ing gathered about the family hearth, or 
more correctly speaking, around the “settin’ ” 
room table. Most of the amusements were 
in the form of games played in the home 
among members of the same family or 
By A MERE MAN 
in the social affairs of the neighborhood, 
usually in some neighbor’s home. During 
the day, when not in school, the children 
were either in the presence of the mcvther 
in the house, or the older ones were asso¬ 
ciated most of the day with father in the 
farm work. 
Especially important was the practical 
training that girls of former generations re¬ 
ceived in home making. Every kitchen was 
a laboratory where the girl, with the efficient 
mother as the teacher, learned to bake and 
sew and to care for a home and for the 
younger children. 
An Idea that Should he Carried On 
Best of all, the girl was constantly taught 
the idea that the greatest profession or career 
that she could possibly have was to help 
create another home in which she would be 
the moving spirit. But times change, and 
it is right that they should, if we prepare 
ourselves not only to enjoy the good things 
that come with progress, but to meet ade¬ 
quately its evils also. 
In the majority of American families 
to-day the father is separated from his chil¬ 
dren all day, often leaving so early in the 
morning and returning so late at night that 
there is little opportunity for the mutual 
good that such association between father 
and children brings. More and more, even 
in the country, are the evenings spent out¬ 
side of the home, not in the home of some 
neighbor, but with the automobile, at the 
motion pictures, or in some other form of 
amusement. 
Particularly unfortunate, as I view it, is 
the fact that our girls are being educated 
away from the home. Too often now the 
modern mother washes the dishes herself 
while the daughter entertains company in 
the parlor. Thousands of young women come 
to the marriage altar with little or no practi¬ 
cal knowledge of the essential things they 
sh’ould know. 
The world demands of the young husband 
that he have money or trade or profession 
with which to support a family, but the world 
asks nothing of the bride in the way of train¬ 
ing for the more important task of caring 
for that family. Is it any wonder that the 
courts are filled with divorces, when the 
young bride, educated all of her life with 
the thought that home making was not a 
profession or even a trade, but a-menial task, 
and that a “career” was much more im¬ 
portant, comes to her great responsibility 
trained neither materially nor spiritually to 
meet it? . 
How many, many times the young woman 
who was so set upon a career in her youth 
realizes with great bitterness, when too late, 
that she accepted the career in place of the 
greatest profession of all the world, and had 
indeed sold her birthright for a mess of pot¬ 
tage. 
Some one has made the statement, some¬ 
what exaggerated, that the dream of many 
modern young wives is to live in a 2 x 4 apart¬ 
ment over a delicatessen store with very 
handy transportation to the department 
stores and theaters. Contrast this, if you 
will, with the real home makers of past gen¬ 
erations and you will agree, I think, that 
while there are millions of well managed, 
happy homes with high ideals, yet there are 
enough of the other kind, and their number 
is increasing, to give all thinking people 
grave concern. 
The Factor of the Woman in Business 
Another factor which modern life has 
brought about, is the millions of unmarried 
young women who are helping to do the 
world’s work outside of the home, whose 
competition prevents millions of men from 
marrying, or at least makes an excuse for 
them not to marry. Most of these girls 
would marry if they got the right chance, 
but until the chance comes, if it ever 
does, most of them must earn their own 
living, although in doing so they are les- 
iContinued on page 345) 
KNOW YOUR LEADERS 
Sometime ago we published a picture of farm leaders and offered prizes for the largest list of correct names of the men in the picture. A very few were abl 
name cnly a part of the group. The woman claim they can do better. Here is a picture of the leaders of Home Bureau work in New York State, ^o th p ^ 
son (net related to any in the group) who names the largest number of these women correctly, the New York State Federation of Home Bureaus w P 7 
prize of $5. The second largest list will receive a prize of $3, the third largest $2. Where there is a tie, those involved will each receive the amount tiea 
The contest closes May 15 
I 
If 34 ' 
