The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 15, 1918, Page 17

v/ / /// % » / 4 // /,,,// h r//A '////, AWoman’s Food Message WithaPunch - At Big League Convention Wife of Captain Bain Urges Farmers’ F amilies to Produce and Save and Keep Up Fight Against the Profiteers THE advice that has heen given to women to save food, has at times been handed down as from a throne to inferior beings, causing lack of confidence in the advisors and making“compliance dis- agreeable, everything of that nature was banished when Mrs. Hulda Harold Bain of California sent western women a food-saving message through the Nonpartisan league state convention and massmeeting in St. Paul during the week of March 18. Mrs. Bain did not come as a dictator or as one giving advice. The first thing she gaid was that ghe felt like addressing her audience ag_“fellow victims.” Then she told why. She was born and reared on a farm in California. She is still a farmer herself. She knows their problems, and-how they are victims. She learned to ride a horse before she could walk, and it wouldn’t have surprised any of her hearers to have seen 'her walk out of the auditorium, put on a pair of spurs and ride a wild horse to submission. She had the genuine appeal of the West—not braggadocio, nothing that was rough, . but a. straight-hitting way of telling facts that goes home to an audiénce, and the fact she was a woman did not lessen its effect. MRS. BAIN MAKES PATRIOTIC APPEAL She told them she was interested in food partly because her husband is in the government’s war service. Her husband is Captain Bain, chief ‘of the United States navigation bureau at Honolulu, a veteran navigator of the service, and said to be one of the most efficient men in his line. She came with an appeal to the patriotism of the American people to feed the ar- mies of liberty in Europe, not a flag- waving appeal, not with the indorse- ment of “patriotic” societies whose members are busy profiteering behind the backs of the people, but as a patriotic: American woman who wants to do the utmost for her country and knows why -the people’s efforts are bringing no bigger results. Mrs. ‘Bain then told her audience plainly how “the granaries of the world” are in the hands of }the enemy; how Russia has been driven back hun- -dreds of miles, turning over to the Germans millions . of the most pro- ductive acres in Europe; how - Ru- mania has been overrun and ‘all its food-resources seized by the Germans; how some of the best parts of France ', are devastated; and how to make up . for these losses American farmers and, farmers’ wives have got to pro- ‘duce more, and save more than ever before in their history. N But she did not lay out this pro- gram of work, wluch will fall mainly on the women in the ‘long run, and then step. off the -platform. -She en-- couraged them to redouble their fight agamst the profiteers:who are under- nunmg 80 . much of this effort by tak- - ing profits’ for themselves instead of helping ‘to support the" fighters and the farmers. " “When I told some of my :triends'_, in Washington that I was going to come to St. Paul to speak before the farmers of the Northwest,” she said, “they demanded of me what it is the farmers want anyway. They said, ‘Why, you farmers have got all -the money in the country now. You are making more money .than anybody else—what more do you want? You farmers wou!d take the rainbow if you could get it.’ SAYS FARMERS GET ONLY A RAINBOW - “And I told them that that is all we have got so far—just the rain- bow,” said Mrs. Bain. “I am deeply interested in the savmg and produc- tion of food. While in Washington I wanted some food facts to set before the people and I went to the depart- ment of agriculture. Instead of find- ing there this vital information I got some printed bulletins and I learned, for instance, that the time to curry a horse is at night and not in the morn- ing. I turned away discouraged. “When I looked- around for some -~ hope recently, I realized that I could find it only by following the lead of the Nonpartisan league. We want President Wilson to take all the men he needs to win this war, and we want to support them with all the food we can produce and save. “I have looked over some of the pamphlets that have been issued by the Nonpartisan league. I was told that they have been made the basis for indictment against some of the leaders. It’s an outrageous attack NO, THEY’RE NOT AFRAID Boys, or “tomboys,” the ride. it’s all the same at this age, and of course they enjoy Would Be Hard on Men Stroud, 8. D. Editor Nonpartxsan Leader: I have just waked up, and I see m a vague way what lt would mean to have national woman’s suffrage. It wouldn’t be justice to our men folks 40 have a woman president of the United States! It seems to me it ‘would = dishonor the. manhood ‘and - womanhood of the nation. It isn’t that I don’t think women are just as capable as men, but can’t you see what it would be doing to the manhood = and: ‘womanhood . of this country? I, being a woman, would not stand havmg ‘a woman president of the United States of Amenca “In-¢ ~ tuitively I see this point so strong (but can’t put it in words very well) that I think it is time for us women folks to wake up and work against national woman suffrage. I think too much of a pure, noble manhood to .ever think of indorsing woman suffrage/ altogether. I think *it’all right for a woman to hold some ‘of the smaller offices and to help in every way they can in improving conditions of our country, but should all women get suffrage, they might try toelect a woman pres:dent orf the' United States WSt : MRS P. M. FREER against the most loyal people in the worid. “Did you ever turn over a post that had been lying on the ground for a long time?” she continued. “Well, you know what you find beneath it— all kinds of bugs, and when you lift it up they run in all directions. I want to say that some very distinguished bugs are ‘beating it’ right now.” SUGGESTS “PRO-AMERICANS” GET SOME ATTENTION 3 Mrs. Bain referred to the fight that is being made by the politicians and big business interests of Minnesota against the League and showed that she had been reading of the mobs that have been encouraged by state and county officials to break up League meetings, on charges that League members ~are “pro-German.” “I would like to suggest to some of the lawmakers—and law breakers— of Minnesota,” she said, “that it is as well to listen to the voice of the pro- Americans. And I would like to say to your distinguished governor that as for me there are only two parties now in the United States, the loyalists and the disloyalists.” She said that before she left Wash- ington, President Wilson knew she was going to St. Paul to address a Nonpartisan league meetmg and that he knew what she was going to say, and understood that the charges of disloyalty against the League are un- true. Mrs. Bain has also traveled in Mex- ico and is well acquainted in that country. She said the stories of Mex- ico facing starvation and of its'fields being desolate are falsehoods con- cocted by the big newspapers in an effort to work up sentiment here against Mexico. She told of traveling through large areas of Mexican fields in full crop and seeing immense herds of cattle and other livestock. In Mexico, Mrs. Bain said, since the overthrow of the Diaz autocracy and the substitution of a democratic form of -government, the people have en- acted just tax laws and are endeavor- ing to prevent the. exploiting of the country by big business corporations. She referred to the offer of some Mex- icans to furnish the United ' States with 1,000,000 mules for army service, and sald condmons there indicate that such an offer could be made good— 80 prosperous have the people -become in all but a small portion of Mexico, since they drove out of political power _the big corporations that were dic- tating Mexican affairs. Mrs. Bain referred to the fact that the ircreased burden’upon the people of the farms will ke great with the calling away of many young.men who have been managing or working upon the farms. She said that four of her own nephews and seven cousins, all of whom. were either operating or. en- gaged upon farms, have left ‘their farms and gone to the front, and that in spite of these conditions, the Amer- ican people are now called upon to furnish food for several nations as well as for the United States. . = Her address, the only one delivered by a woman during: the convenfion,' : ‘was " applauded almost continually, and at its close many men and ‘women ‘went up on the platform and met her. A 2 ra £ DA G M i