The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 26, 1920, Page 7

Keeping Them at Home Nothing Helps Like Giving Farm Boy and Girl Interest in Business BY F. H. SWEET | OST farm boys and girls begin to have # | aspirations and ambitions when very young—younger than the fathers and mothers dream. Maybe it is the sole ownership of a chicken, a dog, a calf, a bit of ground to plant; or in the house, the choosing and buying of a ribbon or dress by the girl herself, a “very own” room to herself, some preserve jars to fill without help, perhaps even a bit of ground or her “own” flock of poultry —something in which the personality of the child is recognized and respected. As yet, the inspiration, the ambition, is bounded by the confines of the farm, for they know and care little for that which is beyond. The boy of 10 is going to do this, that or the other. He will pay off the mortgage, buy more acres, get finer stock and improved tools till by and by his father will be the foremost farmer in all the country round. The girl will raise big flocks of turkeys, can delicious preserves, make lots of money, so that after a while the mother can dress better and not have to work so hard. At that age it is the father and mother who usually are to be helped and ben- efited. So this early age is the time when the father and mother should be very careful in their handling of the youthful aspirations. If checked; stunted or ridiculed the ambition will soon slip beyond the confines of the farm to other fields of endeavor and conquest. And the ambition and determination will grow stronger and more fixed as the child grows older. The ambition and determinaiion is surely there in most children, and it is going to find an outlet—on the farm preferably, but if ig- nored and crushed, elsewhere. It is a condition fathers and mothers face. If they want the boys and girls to stay on the farm it is well to recognize and respect their personality and property rights. Encourage them to owner- ship of stock by selling them a pig or calf or colt’ or sheep for extra work, and then respect their ownership as you do the bank’s ownership of your note.~ When they have something to sell, advise and help them in the sale and to reinvest the pro- ceeds to advantage. Let them have—perhaps a small rent or share would make them feel more independent—all the ground they can plant in spare time. As the boys get older and can do ef- fective work in the field, encourage them with a percentage of the net profits. It will make them feel a part of the farm is really theirs, its work and prosperity their work and prosperity. When the time comes to decide their-future, if they own stock and have a share in the farm profits, it will be rare when a boy breaks away to risk something new and untried. As to improvements, the more and better farm machines and implements, the better the boys will be satisfied, of course, and the same with house comforts and conveniences for the girls. But after all, these are minor considerations. The real thing is for the father and mother to meet the young people as worthy business partners, with the prosperity of each and all depending on their hearty, united endeavor. Consolidated Schools Editor Nonpartisan Leader: Since my previous letter was printed in the Leader, telling about our consolidated school, I have received so many letters of inquiry that I would like to answer them through the Leader. Lindahl consolidated school is located in the open country and as near the center of the town- ship as could be, which is one of the good features about it, as I did not think it would have been a success if it were to one side. The Tioga consol- idated school is located in town, but the town is not so very far from the center of the township. There have been some complaints that it was too far for some, but the Tioga district has done everything for the accommodation of the pupils farthest out. They have heated busses and all children outside a mile are accommodated. Tioga is a well-advanced town. It has between 500 THE FARM WOMAN’S PAGE OF NEWS AND OPINION and 600 population, but the income has hardly kept pace with expenses. This is largely due to the transportation. But Tioga has a good school; it is a credit to the town and the country around it, but if the town had been more to one side it would not have been satisfactory. : One township southwest of us voted consolida- tion and to have the schoolhouse in the center of the township, but Temple, a little town off to one side, served an injunction on them which tied the thing up in a lawsuit which gave no one the de- sired schooling for their children. It should be as easy for people in town to get the children ready for a two or three-mile trip as for the farmers. It looks selfish to expect farm children to drive twe or three miles over the limit to save the children of a town from driving that distance. There is, however, a provision in article 9, sec- tion 1229, in the general school laws of 1915 of North Dakota for special districts, and in article 15, section 1342, it gives five miles as the com- pulsory attendance law. The best spirit would be if the town people would co-operate with the farmer and put the schoolhouse in the center of the township. Tioga, N. D. MRS. BEN IVERSON. Another House Plan North Dakota Woman Suggests Convenient Arrangement of Rooms Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I am sending plan for convenient farm home, if it can be, of benefit to any of the readers planning on a new house. Entering the house from the back porch you come into entry or washroom, with sink to left and room for everyday garments to right, and going forward is door to cellar and kitchen at left. Bathroom BED ROOM ge"'Xx g6 ge" x 12'10" SITTING ROOM Porg" X o |j2'oe" DINING RoOM nwe'x 118" i and bedroom are to the right, with Ground built-in cupboard floor between kitchen plan. and dining room:. The chimney from the basement goes up through the dining room and stairway goes up from the kitchen. One can also have a door from the sitting room to the same stairway if you want it. Going upstairs you come into hall right above entry and the rest of the upstairs can be made into four rooms, with closets.’ Between the dining and sitting rooms one can have double roller doors, sliding back each way in the wall, or any way one wants, and front porch can be changed to suit. This house is 26 by 28 feet, not including porch. Steele, N. D. MRS. E. 0. CHRISTENSON. WOMAN WRITER COMMENDS LEAGUE Lucia Ames Mead of Boston, Mass., is the au- thor of a good article on “The Nonpartisan League and Its Opponents” in the Christian Work, a week- ly religious paper. PAGE SEVEN : . KITCHEN T Women’s Clubs Grow A Talk to League Women Everywhere by the National, Secretary BY FLORA C. THOMASON (National Secretary, Women’s Nonpartisan Clubs) #]INCE our last report to the Leader new Women’s Nonpartisan clubs have been started in a number of states, Minnesota leading and Colorado and ’ Montana coming close seconds. Calls - for new clubs are also ¢oming in from South Dakota, Wisconsin, Idaho, Washington and Texas. North Dakota still is in the lead, with nearly 100 active clubs. North Dakota maintains its own state organization, with offices at Fargo. The state sec- retary is Miss Rose McDonnell, Box 919, Fargo, N. D. For the present, until other states are or- ganized as thoroughly as North Dakota, these other states will be handled through the national office. The address for other states is: National Secretary, Women’s Nonpartisan Clubs, Box 2072, Minneapolis, Minn. Among the new clubs organized in Minnesota are the following: Fergus Falls, Sergeant, Au- dubon, Clarkfield, Sebeka, Boyd, Grass Lake, Fel- ton, Morken township. Minnesota women who live in the vicinity of any of these clubs and wish to join them should ad- dress the national secretary and ask the name and address of the local secretary. Just a word to the women who do not belong to any of the clubs yet. You are anxious to better conditions for yourself and family. You believe the League can do this if it is strong enough. It is only through organization of great numbers of men and women that this can be accomplished. It must be done soon—it should be done NOW. Don’t wait until someone approaches you and asks you to join. Don’t leave it to the national secretary to get your name from someone else, so that you may be sent literature. Dig right in and work. Start a club in your own community. Write to the national secretary, Box 2072, Minneapolis, Minn.,, TODAY, for literature that will give you full directions. An Oklahoma Booster Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I find that Mrs. L. B. Stearns of Saco, Mont., has expressed my exact views of what the Woman’s page should contain. Let us get our “household hints” from other sources and reserve our page for the larger problems of woman’s farm life. Like Mrs. Stearns I have always been interested in politics in the broadest sense and from girlhood woukld rather listen to men’s conversations on topies of general interest, or to political speeches, than to the more trivial chatter of my own sex, though T am not of “mannish” type and can gossip with the best of them. I have never been as interested in and as hopeful of any movement as I am of the Nonpartisan league. I would actually like to organize. My hus- band “fell for” the League at once and feels the same as I do about it. Cache, Okla. MRS. J. T. JAMIESON. CRUELTY -OF HORSE DEALERS Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I am very much in- terested in treating dumb animals kindly. This month we have the sixth national “Be Kind to An- imals” week (April 12-17), and Humane Sunday (April 18). Please mention this in your next issue and print the inclosed clipping, which is the truth about most of our town horse dealers. Ray, N. D. MRS. M. E. R. As the Leader is made up two weeks in advance of the date it bears this letter was received too late for advance announcement of the dates. The clip- ping urges that all horse dealers’ stables should be open to inspection at all times by police and hu- marie society authorities, so that mutilation of horses, to hide lameness and make them appear high spirited, may be stopped.—THE EDITOR.