Fort Mill times. (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, December 10, 1914, Image 4
NATION'S LABOR
PROBLEM
OVER A MILLION AND A HALF
WOMEN WORK AS FARM HAND8
IN THE UNITED STATES.
By Peter Radford
Lecturer National Farmers' Union.
Our government never faced so tremendous
a problem as that now lying
dormant at the doors of congress and
the legislatures, and which, when
aroused, will shake this nation from
center to circumference, and make
civilization hide its face in shame.
That problem is?women In the field.
The last, federal census reports
show we now have 1,514,000 women
working in the field, most of them
south of the Mason and Dixon line.
There were approximately a million
negro slaves working In the fields
when liberated by the emancipation
proclamation. We have freed our
slaves and our women have taken
their places in bondage. We have
broken the shackles off the negroes
and welded them upon our daughters.
The Chain-Gang of Civilization.
A million women In bondage in the
southern fields form the chain-gang of
civilization ? the industrial tragedy
of the age. There is no overseer quite
so cruel as that of unrestrained greed,
no whip that stings like the lash of
suborned destiny, and no auctioneer's
block quite so revolting as that of organized
avarice.
The president of the United States
was recently lauded by the press, and
very properly so, for suggesting mediation
between the engineers and railr.oi/I
mnnnnrAM 4*. ~ ,1 ik,.ie
M'lUi lllilliagris 111 U.I1.IIIOI IlIFt IIU'II
schedule of time and pay. The engineers
threatened to strike if their
wages were not increased from approximately
ten to'eleven dollars per
day and service reduced from ten to
ei^ht hours and a similar readjustment
of the overtime schedule. Our
women are working in the field, many
of them barefooted, for less than fiO
cents per day, and their schedule is
the rising sun and the evening star,
and after the day's work is over they
milk the cows, slop the hogs and rock
the baby to sleep. Is anyone mediating
over their problems, and to whom
shall they threaten a strike?
Congress has listened approvingly
to those who toil at the forge and behind
the counter, and many of our
statesmen have smiled at the threats
and have fanned the flame of unrest
among Industrial laborers. But women
are as surely the final victims of
Industrial warfare as they are the
burden-bearers in the war between na
tlons. and those who arbitrate and
mediate the differences between capital
and labor should not forget that
whim the expenses of any Industry are
unnecessarily increased, society foot3
the bill by drafting a new consignment
of women from the home to the Held.
Pinch no Cramb From Women's Crust
of Bread.
No financial award can be made
without someone footing the bill, and
we commend to those who accept the
responsibility of the distribution of industrial
iustlce. the still small voice of
the woman in the field as she pleads |
fl?r niHI'fiV Dllfl U'n hoo Ihnt nltmh 1
no crumb from her crust of bread or
nut another patch upon her ranged
garments.
We beg that they listen to the
scream or horror from the eagle on
every American dollar thtt is wrung
from the brow of toiling women and
hear the Goddess of Justice hiss at a
verdict that increases the want of
woman to satisfy the greed of man.
Thp women behind the counter and
in the factory cry aloud for sympathy
and the press thunders out in their
defense and the pulpit pleads for
mercy, but how about the woman in
the field? Will not these powerful
exponents of human lights turn their
talent, energies and influence to her
relief? Will the Goddess of Liberty
enthroned at Washington hold the calloused
hand and soothe the feverish
brow of her sex who sows and reaps
the nation's harvest or will she permit
the male of I he species to shove
women?weak and weary?from the
bread line of industry to the back alleys
of poverty?
Women and Children First.
The census enumerators tell us that
of the 1,511,000 women who work in the
Holds as farm hands 400,000 aro sixtoon
yearn of ape and undor. What is
the final destiny of a nation whose future
mothers spend their girlhood days
behind the plow, pitching hay and
hauling manure, and what is to become
of womanly culture and refinement
that grace the home, chnrm society
and enthuse man to loao to alorv in
noble achievements If our daughters
are raised in tho society of the ox and
the companionship of the plow?
n that strata between the ages of
sixteen and forty-five are 9f>0,000 women
working as fartn hands and many
of them with Buckling babes tugging
at their breasts, as drenched
iu perspiration, they wield the scythe
end guide the plow. What ts to become
of that nation where poverty
breaks the crowns of the queens of
the home; despair hurls a mother's
uve irom us inrone ana hunger drives
Innocent children from the schoolroom
to the aoe?
The census bureau shows that 155,*
000 of these women are forty-flve
years or age and over. There Is no
moro pitiful- sight in civilization than
tnese saintly mothers of Israel stooped
with age. drudging in the hold from
sun until nun and at night drenching ,
their dingy pillows with tho town of i
haggalr as their arhhm haarta take.
it all to God In prayer. Civilisation
Ftrikca them a blow when It should
give them a crown, and their only
friend is he who broke bread with
beggars and Bald: "Come unto me all
ye that are weary and heavy laden and
1 will give you rest.'
Oh, Ameriear! The land of the free
and the home of the brave, the
world's custodian of chivalry, the
champion of human riehts and the de>
fender of the oppressed?shall we permit
our maidens fair to be torn from
the hearthstone by the ruthless hand
of destiny and chained to the plow?
Shall we permit our faithful wives,
whom we covenanted with God to cherish
and protect, to be hurled from the
home to the harvest field, and our
mothers dear to be driven from the old
arm chair to the cotton patch?
in rescuing our citizens from the
forces of civilization, can we not apply
to our rair Dixieland the rule of the
sea?"women and children first?"
There must be a readjustment of
the wage scale oftndustryso that the
women can be taken from the field or
given a reasonable wage for her services
Perhaps the issue has never been
fairly raised but the Farmers' Union,
with a membership of ten million, puts
iIh organized forces squarely behind
the issue and we now enter upon the
docket of civilization the case of "The
Woman in the Field" and demand an
immediate trial.
RAILROADS APPEAL
TO PRESIDENT
The Common Carrier? Ask for Relief
? President Wilson Directs
Attention of Public to
Their Needs.
The committee of railroad executives.
headed by Mr. Frank Trumbull.
representing tuirty-Ilve or the leading
railroad systems of the nation, recently
presented to President Wilson a
memorandum briefly reviewing the difhculties
now confronting the railroads
of the country and asking for the cooperation
ot the governmental authorities
anil the nubile in supporting railroad
credits and recognising an emergency
which requires that the railroads
he given additional revenues.
The memorandum recites that the
European war has resulted in general
depression of business 011 the American
continent and in the dislocation
of credits at home and abroad. With
revenues decreasing and interest rates
! increasing the transportation systems
' of the country face a most serious
crisis and the memorandum is a
strong presentation of the candle
burning at both ends and the perils
that must ultimately attend such a
conflagration when the flames meet
is apparent to ail In their general
discussion the railroad representatives
say in part: "Hy reason of legislation
and regulation by the federal
government and the torty-eight states
acting Independently of each other, as
well us through the action of a strong
public opinion, railroad expenses in
recent years tiave vastly increased.
No criticism 18 here made of the general
theory of governmental regulation
?u.. '
uui uii me uiiiit uiinn, no ingenuity
can relieve the carriers of expenses
created thereby."
President Wilson, in transmitting
the memorandum of the railroad
| presidents to the public, character'
i/.es it as "a lucid statement ot plain
I truth."' The president recognizing
I the emergency as cxtraoidinnrv, conI
tinning, said in part:
"You ask mo to call the attention
of tlie country to the imperative need
that railway credits be sustained and
the railroads helped in every possible
way, whether by private co-operative
effort or by the nction, wherever
feasible or governmental agencies, ami
1 am glad to do so becauso 1 think
the neea very real '
The conference was certainly a
fortunate one for the nation and the
president is to be congratulated for
opening the gate to a new world of
effort in which cveryono may co-operate.
There are many important problems
in our complex civilization that
will yield to co-operation which will
not lend themselves to arbitrary rul
ingH or commissions and financing
railroads is one of them The man
with the money is a factor that cani
not be eliminated from any bttsint as
i transaction and the public Is an mteror.ted
party that should a I way r be consuited
and happily the president has
invited all to participate in the solution
ot our railroad problem*.
ST. WILLIBROD.
1.11 MMiiliourir, whatever Iter claims
| to (lie protection of (treat Britain,
pie.se^es one strange a*s<n-iatioii with
Kn<r|an<1 that tin tea hack for 1? centuries.
It is connected with a en It
of St. Willihrod, the variously spelt
Saxon s;tint who helped to convert
the (ieniians to < 'hristianitv. Kverv
Win I Tuesday the memory of tin*
Knglish saint is honored at Luxembourg
hy A prix-eiwion ;iu<l religious
dance which rank among the most
curious survivals of medieval peasant
rv.
THE BATTLE ROYAL.
"I shall never marry/' remarked
the girl of a certain age, bnt not
specified.
"Never mind, dear/' replied her
.best friend?they always travel together
in jokes. "Everybody will
know that you made a heroic tight
a^gaanat tkt inevitable."
EUROPEAN WAR SKAT
TERS KING COTTON'S
THRONE
FLEECY STAPLE MUST PAY RANSOM
INTO THE COFFERS OF
WAR.
Nation Rings With Cries of Stricken
Industry.
By Petsr Radford
Torturer National Farmers" Union.
King Cotton has suffered more from
the European war than any other agricultural
product on the American
continent. The shells of the belligerents
have bursted over his throne,
frightening his subjects and shattering
his marketB, and. panic-stricken.
, the nation cries out 'Cod save the
king!'
j Peopie rrom every walk of life have
contributed their mite toward rescue
work Society ha# danced before the
: king: milady has decreed that the
family wardrobe shall contain only
cotton goods; the press has plead
>vilh tho nuhlie t/? "hnv a halo"
** M "w,v *
bankers have been formulating held
ing plans; congress and legislative
bodies have deliberated over relief
i measures: slaicsmen and writers
have grown eloquent expounding the
Inalienable rights of "Ills Majesty"
and presenting Hrhemes for preserving
the financial integrity of the
Htrlcken staple, but the sword of Europe
nas proved mightier than the pen
of America in fixing value upon this
product of the sunny south. Prices
have beep bayoneted, values riddled
and markets decimated by the battling
j hosts of the eastern hemisphere until
, the American farmer has suffered a
war loss of $400,000,000. and a bale
I of cotton brave enough to enter a
European port muat nay a ransom of
half Its value or go to prison until the
i war Is over.
Hope of the Future Llee In Co-operatlrn.
The Farmers' lTnlon, through the
columns of the press, wants to thank
the American people for the friendship,
sympathy and assistance given
the cotton farmers in the hour of distress
-and to direct attention to co,
operative methods necessary to per
manently assist the marketing: of all
farm products.
The present emergency presents as
grave a situation as ever confronted
the American farmer and from the
; viewpoint of the producer, would seem
to justify extraordinary relief meas
ures, even to the point of bending the
constitution and atrainlng business
rtileB In order to lift a portion ot the
hnrdetr off the hacks of the farmer,
for unless something Is done to check
the invasion of the war forces upon
the cotton fields, the pathway of the
; Kuropean pestilence on this continent
will be strewn with mortgaged homes
and famine and poverty will stalk over
the southland, filling the highways o(
Industry with refugees and the bankruptcy
court with prisoners.
All calamities teach us lessons and
the present crisis serves to illuminate
the frailties of our marketing methods
and the weakness of our credit
system, and out of the financial an
guish and travail of the cotton farmeT
will come a volume of discussion and
a mass of sucgestions and finally a
solution of this, the biggest problem
in the economic life of America, if,
Indeed, we have not already laid the
foundation for at least temporary relief.
Mare Pharaohs Needed In Agriculture.
Farm products have no credit and
perhaps can never have on a perma
nent and satisfactory Oasis unless we
huild warehouses, cold storage plants,
elevators, etc.. for without storage and
credit facilities, the south Is compelled
to dump Its crop on the market
at harvest tline. The Farmers' [inione
In the cotton producing states have
for the past ten years persistently advocated
the construction of storage
facilities. We have built during this
period 2,000 warehouses with a ca
parity of approximately 4,OUO.OOO bales
and looking backward the results
mriii encouraging, out looking
forward, wo are able to house '.esa
than one-third of the crop and ware
housea without a credit system lose
!>0 per cent of their usefulness. The
problem la a gigantic one?too great
for the farmer to solve unaided, lie
must have the assistance of the hanker,
the merchant and the government.
In production we have reached the
high wafer mark of perfection In the
world's history, but our marketing
methods are most primitive. In the
dawn of history we find agriculture
plowing with a forked stick but with
a system of warehouses under governmental
supervision that made Che
rtgvptlans .the marvel of civilization,
foi who has not admired the vision of
Joseph and applauded the wisdom of
Pharaoh for storing the surplus until
demanded by the consumer, but in
this age we have too many Josephs
who dream and not enough Pharaohs
who out Id.
CITTCn r/->? ?
. WW run | | .
"What ve rending nlmnt there. Hiram
?"
"A snail farm."
"(Josh, my hired man oughter do
well in that line of work."
IN BOTH 8EN0ES.
"When nioner talks what does it
mv?"
| "I iU ^rincipxl iviuark it
'Kwy-tuy.'m
S.
K .
MAHKE1G WORLD'S
GREATEST PROBLEM
j WE ARE LONG ON PRODUCTION,
SHORT ON DISTRIBUTION.
I ,
By Peter Radford
Lecturer National Farmers' Union.
The economic distribution of farm
products is today the world's greatest
j problem and the war, while it has
U. I ? k.. >1...!..
uiuugui no uaiuouipa, ugu? ticauj cmphasized
the importance of distribution
*.t> a factor in American agriculture
and promises to give the fanners
the cooperation of the government
and the business men the
solution of their marketing problem.
This result will, in a measure, comj
pensate us for our war losses, for the
business interests and government
have been in the main assisting almost
exclusively on the production
side of agriculture. While the department
of agriculture has been dumping
tons of literature on the farmer telling
him how to produce, the farmer has
been dumping tons of products in the
nation's garbage can for want of a
market.
The World Will Never Starve.
At no time since Adam and Eve
were driven Trom the Garden of Eden
have the Inhabitants of this world
suffered from lack of production, but
some people have gone hungry from
the day of creation to this good hour
j for the lack of proper distribution.
Slight variations in production have
forced a change in diet and one locality
has felt the pinch of want, while
another surfeited, but the world as a
whole has ever been a land of nlenty.
We now have less than one-tenth of
the tillable land of the earth's surface
tinder cultivation, and we not only
havp this surplus area to draw on but
It is safe to estimate that in case of
dire necessity one-lialf the earth's
population could at the present time
knock their living out of the trees
of the forest, gather it from wild
vines and draw It from streams. No
' one should become alarmed; the
world will never starve.
The consumer has always feared
that the producer would not supply
him and his fright has found expression
on the statute books of our states
and nations and the farmer has been
urged to produce recklessly and without
referenco to & market, and regardless
of the demands of the consumer.
Back to the Soil.
The city people have teen urging
each other to move back to the farm.
I ijul very lew or mem nave movea.
] We welcome our cltv cousins back to
the soil and this earth's surface contains
16,092.1 f.0.000 Idle acres of tillable
land where they can make a
living by tickling the earth with a
1 forked stick, but we do not need thein
so far as Increasing production is concerned;
we now have all the producers
we can use. The city man has very
erroneous ideas of agricultural conditions.
The commonly accepted theory
! that we are short on production is all
wrong. Our annual increase in production
far exceeds that of our Increase
in population.
I J "How are automobile caps to he
worn this season?"
"I believe on the side at all headon
meetings."
TAX RETURNS FOR 1915.
Office of the County Auditor of York
County, South Carolina.
Yorkville, S. C., Dec. 1, J914.
As required by statute, my books
I will be opened at my office in Yorkville
on Friday, January 1, 1915 and
kept open until February 20, 1915, for
i the purpose of listing for taxation all
! personal and real property held in
York county on January 1, 1915.
For the pur|H>se of facilitating the
1 taking of returns and for the greater
i convenience of Taxpayers, I will be
at the following places on the dates'
i named:
ai Kurnnh, (A. M. Mchilli's Store),
Friday, January 1.
At Bethany, (McGill Bros. Store),
1 Saturday, January 2.
At Clover, on Tuesday and Wednesi
day, January 5 and fi.
i | At Bethel, (Ford, Barnett & Go's
Store), Thursday, January 7.
At Point, (at Harper's) on Friday,
January 8.
At Bandana, (Perry Ferguson's
* Store), on Saturday, January 9.
At Smyrna, on Monday, January 11.
i At Hickory Grove, on Tuesday and
Wednesday, January 12 and 13.
, At Sharon, on Thursday and Friday.
January 14 and 15.
At Bullock's Creek, (Good's Store),
! on Saturday, Junuary 15.
At Tirzah, on Monday, January 18.
AtNew|x>rt, on Tuesday, January 19.
At Fort Mill, on Wednesday, Thursday
and Friday, January 20, 21 and 22.
At McConneiisville, on Monday, January
25.
At Ogden, on Tuesday, January 20.
At Coates Tavern, (Koddey's) on
Wednesday, January 27.
At Rock f 1 ill, from Thursday, January.
28, to Wednesday. February 3.
And at Yorkville, from Thursday
February 4, until Saturday, February
! 20.
All males between the ages, of
i twenty-one and sixty years, except
i Confederate soldiers over the age of
, fifty years are liable to a poll tax of
$1.00, and all persons so liable an*
especially requested to give the numbers
of their respective school dis
tricts in making their returns.
BROAD US M. LOVE.
County Auditor.
- 1
RllPtfl PM>? >8 THE ONLY
c^Ubnicasalwe
I (Hh ROSE'S' MEDICINE F.? Ik
fi pffe} MALT WHISKEY I\i?4 f1
'81 Vfnnw&f?,,,*/ Builds muscle and flesh. Sends theioyu: f* p? ZH?? lg ^
A ^?ostv<<9 youth boundinfrthroughycu?mcuicioal U! n i B
ra ^Qitu.ib^ but palatable Kko any good whis'icy. rj' s% I
| BIG FREE OFFER \ MECiQMAL ?
ISl Medicinal Malt and I v. ill no ml you fr. one ex Ira la :i ^ -; ;jj < F** B
gj bottle, making five bottleso! Malt iu all, t.rpressprr^
Z JTHIS COUPON COUPON-ThiH offce expire iJivanbc'";!:!)"" I
l^t] \? in Dt>n*i forgot tlioi>'; ? i . al.V.ui
Tr N#.33,6thDISTRICT 220SE JTlcoso ship (ho r .< :}.j: b
pi CHATTANOOGA, TENN. Express Office _
the Itocky Mooului<t Post Office - ^
r h\ li nr St.
I i!
FW?^ Ti 1* MLWASSSt: ,.' ----.ag yi
g g"^ WMH I .i.^-tlTMl g?
Not only destroys property, but the many
valuable papers that money cannot rc- |g
place. Wouldn't it be to your advantage
to rent one of our SAFE! Y DEPOSIT
BOXES at 50 cents a year ? It is the
cheapest possible insurance. Come in
and talk it ever with our officers.
h
Savings Bank of Fort Mill, Ij
W R Mt'AfR AM PrJc^nt Ui U i- r?i:
w ... ?. ........mill, a .'>1.1 i.i ?i I.'. 11:1 "V!M" .1! I dSIIR'T f |
Si a!
Santa Claus a j$2l I _
Has arrived and needs 0
more room to display his |
PI?!~i e
uv a ulu Ui \^I1I 15SL11 ltlS 11116, VJ
so we are almost giving ^ $ |
away the Dry Goods and Shoes that
were saved from the fire.
Come early and get your share.
L. J. Massey. I
Now in the Jones Building.
- ' "
Let Us Write Your
Fire Insurance.
We represent some <
of the strongest mm
panies in the world.
Rates too low for you
to take the risk. : : r
Bailes & Link,
District Agents.
?