The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 8, 1919, Page 9

‘. ney gave me a finendly greeti - ‘ask her nelghhors about’ the instrue- ““{jons in the government bulletins be- 7 ting room when a new batch of bulle- : v!")y }fhheir experience. . ~ Martha - weuld enthusiastically uy." combme, that the senate will go as far as the house in its opposltlon to any public operation of ships, the board is allocating its new vessels to the various private corporations, new and old; that show a fair prospect of ‘being able to meet the purchase price, = or that will pay the rental. requlred for chartering them for a period of years. ““Where do the ships go?: Daily list No. 252, taken as a sample, shows that , the steamer Courto:s, 4,200’ tons, loaded at Beau- ’ mont with lumber for Aberdeen and Hull, and that . it is managed and ‘operated by the: Warren Trans- portation company. Next comes the steamer West Islay, 8,200 tons, loading at New York with general cargo for British India: and’ Ceylon, managed and operated by W. R. Grace & Co. The Lake Gilta, 4,050 tons, loaded at Sabine, Texas, for Algiers-and Gette, with “sulphur, managed and operated by Lawrence & Co. The Western Hero, 8,570 tons, loaded at- New York with general cargo for Brazil " and the River Plato. The West Isleta, 8,475 tons,- loaded at Boston with general cargo for Antwerp And so on down a list-of 15 vessels. These ships belonged to the biggeést single mer- chant fleet ever gathered under one directing head— the shipping board. Bgcause this central authority was -created before the ships were built, and be- cause it still retains a large measure of control over the routes fo be developed and the number ‘of ‘vessels to be put in service on each route, the board is still in a position to vastly increase American export trade and to keep the shipping rates down. _ For, as long as.the board: has ._the wntmg of the A_ Meeting Place for Women of Farm' ' An Experience Exchange in the Leader Where Wives of Farmers May Come by Letter and Get and lee Household Hints Madlson, Wis. . Leader: rian, should be sitting at my desk, thinking of kitchen sinks Let me talk about' the sinksfirst and the the. same time, sinks I ‘ever saw were backed against ugly blank walls. kitchen did I feel a thrill of fulfilled desire. - For at last T stood at a kitchen sink, and-looked aqut: fhrough windows 'above and besxde it. The apple trees in the south orchard were in bloom and the winter wheat in the east fields showed a soft green . stretch of velvet. I could see both from the kitchen - windows and far beyond Johnson’s red bnck chim- . -T sat at my desk in the library; .the apple blossoms and hearing the cluck -of the hens, while T dutifully classified a new bulletin: of - the United States department of agriculture on “The ‘Domestic. Needs of Farm- Women.” Martha was a school-ma’am farmer who taught drawing in- the city high school all mornipg ' and. ran her 40-acre farm the rest . of .the time. And . ‘Martha knew how. She had learned from every one, and not the least of her teachers were the ; neighbors who had taken a doubting interest and had helped her turn her theories into practical suc- cess. She had been great on theories and bulletins. .. She told me once of how she used to fore she followed them, Many heated diacussmns they had in her little sit- - ' tins came in. '"PUBLISH BULLETINS ON INVESTIGATIONS = And one of her plans was to wotk out a scheme whereby farm commit-: tees -that had particularly succeeded 'in any line of work would publish their ~bulleting or send in their suggestions ito the state and national .departments - -o@ag’ncultnre that others mlght profit g ere are so many: thinga that vge i “as farm women ought to know about,’ She onld relate enthusnaheelly the' der the Amencan flag. Antlcxpatmg : 7JEAR Editor of the Nonpartisan._ Queer that I, a libra-- and the Nonpartisan Leader.at’ test will follow. ~All the kitchen 1 Not until I saw Martha’s -. mg to smell terma of charter and sale, and so long as 1!: has any . ahlps on hand, due to failure to sell, it can break up any combmatlon that attempts to increase rates and reduce traffic on any route, Big. shipping men want to have the shlpbulldmg - program stopped at once, and as many vessels as possible pulled out and sold to aliens who will not bring them into American ports. They know that by .close ‘combination they can shut out the cheap freight, charge high prices for a restricted cargo .space, and make a fat dividend on a smal] mvest- ment. & HOPE FOR LIVING COST. . : 0.0 CUT BY LOWER RATES 3 The conténtion by the progressive element’in the shlppmg board is that the cost of living in Amer- ica is going to be reduced just in the degree-that ocean tonnage is increased and ocean freight rates lowered. The easier the exchange of goods with other countnee, the readier the- market for Amer- ican grain and dairy products, the easier the terms on which foreign products can be sold to the American farmer. Hence the shipbuilding program should,go on, and the improvement of: our port fa- cilities for the quick loading and unioading of ships “should be hastened. “There will be ruinous rate-cuttmg,” says the New York shipping magnates, They point to the fact that.when the Germans first broke into: the international shlppmg situation, some 10 years ago, the British companies cut the trans-Atlantic pas- senger rate as low as $7.50 at one time. This was a ruinous. sort of competmon. The Bntlsh Thls is.a page t‘or all the women of the Lead- ““er. ‘The suggestion presented here by Mary O’Neill is worth while for every farm woman: What you do to save steps in the home, to. lighten your work, may help to save steps for seme other farmer’s’wife and. to lighten her daily tasks. What have you read that has helped you in your housework and might help . others? Here is -the place which the Leader has set aside where. the women of the big ‘Leader family may meet and discuss the problems of their homes and the new problems of their public duties. - Much has been wrltten and prmted on all these subjects. - Many bulletins by government depart- ments and agricultural colleges can be had for the asking. . The only difficulty. lies in knowing how to: get them. Within a week the following four pamphlets: on farm kltchens have passed through - my hands: : - “Choice and Care of Utensils,” by Ida S. Harnngton, the Cornell reading courses, farm _house series No. 5. New York State College .‘I)‘lf %gnculture at: Cornell umversfl;y, Ithaca, “Plannmg and Equlppmg the thchen, home economxcs bulletm No. 8, Iowa State A woman correspondent of the Leader recently objected to the tenn “farm ‘erette” for a farm woman. ‘But now the question arises in the minds of the . ships for the business that was to be don "Atlantic, at last, and the shipping board still re- ' PAMPHLETS AVAILABLE - government. claimed, at that time, that there were too many. Thelr claim has been made ridiculous during th past year by the demonstration that the nationsof iR the globe are all’ Elamormg for ships and forelg’n". i Like the railroad situation, the problem is & trade. one of giving efficient service from every port to ‘every other port, and it will be 'due to a selfish’ private combme, rather than to lack of demand . for freight service, if any reductlon in the business is- brought about. American ships are today being offered for sale by the board at $225 per ton—a price’ higher than that set by the British government for some of its tonnage. ican operators, and it has been proven that Amer- ican: operation is more efficient than that of any other country.. American ships dock quicker, load faster, unload faster .and. make repairs, more promptly than their competitors. American wage scale for seamen has been downed. A dollar paid in wages to an American crew earns European crew. This is one reason why American farm producta i are going to go' into.the European market in the next few years under better terms than ever in the past. We have our bridge of boats across!the tains enough power to break down any private tollgates on that bridge—that is, any private toll- gates higher than the ones to which we :are ac- customed on our railroads, ‘gas and water mams, and other utlllty lines. College of Agnculture and Mechanic Arts, ag- ricultural_extension department, Ames, Iowa.: “Kltchens,” by Elma Perry Foulk, the Agri-. cultural college home makers’ readmg course, Vol. 1, No. 8, Ohio State university, Columbus, : Ohio. “The Farm Kitchen as a Workshop,” by * Anna ‘Barrows; United States department of agriculture farmers bulletm No. 607, Wash- ' 1ngton, D C. FROM INSTITUTIONS -All of these pamphlets are well worth readmg, and can be had by writing the institutions named. I am writing to suggest that we work out some kind of exchange service for the farm women read- ers of the Leader. of the suggestions contained in the bulletins are well known to the majority of farm women. But such a common way of exchange would give the women of the country not only the means of get-_ ting at sources of information but also an avenue for learning from each other. Why not plan that the women of ,the Leader’s circle use the Leader as ‘an exchange service on questions which ‘affect their interests vitally? . We could keep a corner of the page for the listing of free bulletins and pamphlets on subjects which are issued from’time to time by the state departments and the national can ' add. who are . working. on the farms much information to that given. ' All of us would: get much help from .it “ Later on we could /take up such ques- co-operative marketing of eggs and cation- of children and the study of legislation which will aid"in the de- velopment of-better and stronger chil- dren; cost accounting systems on farms to help ua' in figuring out whether or not ~our chickens are ok “boarders”; there are many, many Rl -poseibilities, once the ball ‘is rollmg see all the good books and pamphlets at -work making -themselves useful through their practical. ‘suggestior and ‘a8 ‘a friend: of the school-ma’ farmer I 'want to glve publicity to t - practical ‘'wisdom “that has: -found 1ts way mto prmt and : - editors of the Leader whether the women tractor pilots. plctured above are “(armerettea" or jnst plam farm women. ‘Whatever they are, however, : ‘to; ‘be makin; ood ob»of 't they? The bogey of the ! Of course I realize that many Then, too, the practical women: tions as co-operative laundries; the i other farm produce; the physical edu- £ You see, as a librarian 1 want to ‘But American ships are going to- Amer-. “ more money than a dollar paid in wages to any- f i