The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 18, 1920, Page 12

> T - effort to gratify human needs is uni- Women Have Ballot; Now Make It Count The Wofkers’ Problem Farmers and Workers,. Men and Women, Have Common Cause, Says Mrs. Hannah Following are excerpts from an address delivered by Mrs. Margaret A. Hannah of Big Timber, Mont., at the Co- Operators’ congress at Great Falls, Mont., recently. Mus. Hannah is“the League candidate for state superintendent of schools in Montana. HE one supreme task for women and men alike is the problem of getting a living. Every woman, as well as every man, must possess food, clothing and a place of habitation—and she must possess those things today. Our sec- ordary need for education, literature, .art, etec., is now no less imperative than is -our primary need for food, raiment and habitation. All these are alike the common heritage of women and men. Therefore, there exists no such thing as a woman’s movement. The versal, and the so-called feminist movenment is not the cause, but the consequence of that herculean effort. According to the national depart- ment of agriculture, the average an- nual labor income on all the farms in the United States amounts to less than $400 per family. This includes the compensation of the farmer him- self as well as that of all the mem- bers of his family. It also includes _ everything which the farm contrib- utes directly to their living. Now imagine the problem of pro- THE FARM WOMAN'S PAGE wage-worker has too often stood shoulder to shoul- der with the industrial pirate. SN But in the glad day that is now dawning the useful people in all the useful occupations will hold up each other’s hands together. Why Clubs Are Need‘ed Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I have just finished reading with great interest the reasons given by you for the organizing of Nonpartisan ‘Women’s clubs. As I have been en- gaged, more or less, for the last six months in organizing these clubs, might I add my bit to the explanatlon given? Is it not time that the mother and housewife had some kind of a, union to belong to, the same as all organized labor? Does not the organized mother and house- wife stand a mugh better show of getting what she wants or- ganized than unorganized ? Had the women of the country all been organized this past year, when the profiteering on sugar and potatoes be- gan, would they not have been in a position to start a boycott on some of these profiteers, and brought them to time? If mothers are organized, now that we have the ballot, and they study the moral = ! viding food, clothing, shelter and education—the absolute necessities of life—for an average family of five persons on a family income amounting to about $1 per day. This is your problem and this is our prob- lem. There is no sex line in the eco- nomic problems of the farm. ONE FAMILY PRODUCES FOOD FOR THOUSAND Today, on a quarter section of our marvelous Montana bench land, one family, working almost alone, is capable of producing bread material * sufficient to feed nearly a thousand people. Yet the fact is that when the: Montana farmer has settled his ac- P " atKennan,Cal., Mrs. Joseph Pate, who lives sends these pic- tures to show that the Leader is read way out in sunny California. The upper picture shows Mrs., Pate in an all-crocheted dress which she made; the lower picture shows her boy, a good Leaguer, too, and his pet pig. Mrs. Pate writes: “We are away out here in California but we get the Leader just the same and. are greatly interested in it. -Glad to hear of so many victories for the N. P. L. We will be-glad when they organize California, for it sure needs it bad.” laws on our statute books, they will be in a much bet- ter position to demand their enforcement than if one mother here says . they should be enforced, and another in another part of the county says they ought enforced, singly. - - One mother, sending her daughter out to take her place in the world, can do very little towards. protect- ing her, but united with other organized clubs . in other towns, mothers can _become a strong help. " Colorado and Montana, howevey, it is true that the _the League, count with the Montana banker, the Montana tax collector and the Montana Develop- ment association, he is fortunate if there is anything left to feed his own family. You can not possibly divide an apple between two children in such a manner that each shall receive more than half. If one receives more the other must of necessity be compelled to accept less. Like- ‘wise, you can not go on shoveling the products of the farms into the treasury of the financiers with- out at the same time depriving the farmer of those - products It is a falsehood that the producer and the prof- iteer must stand or fall together. Put the producer out of business today and tomorrow you may at- tend- the funeral of the economic world. Put the exploiter out of business today and you have con- ferred the greatest blessing that has ever befallen - the human race. The farm woman knows that when the good peo- '’ ple of North Dakota began voting about farm mortgages, about Lail insurance, about grain mar- keting, about flour mills, about home building and about collective” banking, it was then that real democracy leaped forward a thousand years. They tell us that the farm movement has nothing at all in common with the labor movement—that the man who guides the locomotive is an economiec stranger to the man who guides the plow. They tell us that the woman who bakes the bread and bears the children for the farmer has nothing in common with that other woman who mends the clothing and mothers the offspring of the industrial worker. But I tell’ you that we have nothing at all in common with anybody else. Co-operation is not a new thing. Throughout the long years the farmer has co-operated with the = financler, the exploiter and the profiteer, w}nle the The main thing in organ- izing these clubs is to recog- nize the strength of any organized force. Another reason for the women - organizing by themselves, instead of - umtedly with the men,. is that woman’s part in the home is of necessity along economic and moral lines more than the_men’s, and for this reason they can see what is needed in the way of leglslatxon along these lines better than the men. I believe every woman in the United States of e Amerieca should belong-to some kind of a woman’s organization, then when the united effort of every woman is wanted for some one thing, such as-im- portant legislation or quick action to stop profiteer- ing, we will not be wasting precxous time getting them lined up, but we will be in a position to xreach every woman in the shortest possible time. Yours for stronger organizations, Killdeer, N. D. ESTHER LIEDERBACH. ' NEBRASKA WOMEN FOR WRAY "Nebraska women are actively organizing to sup- port Arthur G. Wray, Nonpartisan league candidate for governor. A “Women’s' Wray-for-Governor” " club has been organized. Doctor Inez C. Philbrick - of Lincoln, a professor in:the University of Ne- braska, ex-president of the W. C. T. U. ‘and a pioneer suffragist, and Mrs. Edna M. Barkley, presi- dent of the Woman Suffrage association and Amer- ican delegate to the recent international woman suf- frage convention ‘at Geneva, are active leaders. PASS YOUR LEADER ALONG Editor Nonpartisan Leader: Afrom my brother, .who was a big North Dakota farmer and is now in Minmesota, and I thmk like my relatives in North Dakota. Portland, Ore. MRS. E. SCHLAADT. i PAGE TWELVE - * I get the Leader More Women’s News on Pages 13 and 14 Women Vote nght League Wins So Far in Every Equal Suf- frage State F FIVE states in which the Nonparti- san league has participated in primary elections this year three states—Wis- consin, Montana and~ Colorado—had woman suifrage. In all of these states the League won sweeping victories. In two of these states—Montana ‘and Colorado—the women had the right to vote under state laws and had voted at previous elections. They were well in- formed as to their rights and duties and participated in the elections quite generally. In both of these states the League victories were among the greatest the organized farmers ever have won. In Montana the League and labor forces won every office on the ticket. In Colorado they won every office except two. In Wisconsin, on the other hand, the result was more nearly an even break. The League won for governor, the most important office on the ticket, for lieutenant govérnor and secretary of state, but lost for United States senator and other state offices. This seems to have been because women in Wis-< consin were not accustomed to voting, like the wom- en of Montana and Colorado, and consequently did not participate to such large numbers and were not so familiar with the names of all the candidates. LEARN NAMES OF ALL LEAGUE CANDIDATES; VOTE FOR THEM It;gs reported from Montana that the city workers heir wives voted in greater numbers than the farmers and their wives. cause the primary election came in the middle of the harvest season, when Montana farmers were harvesting their first crops in four years. In both This was principally be- votes of the city men and women were largely re- sponsxble for the success of the League tickets, be- cause in both states the city vote was favorable to In other states, however, the town and ecity vote this fall will be largely anti-League. This means that unless every League woman in the .country gets out to vote, regardless of the inconvenience and trouble, the League may lose. If the farm women vote in all states as loyally as. the men, the League will have a greater series of victories to its credit than the victories of the pri- mary campaign just finished. MORE TROUBLE! —Drawn expressly for the Leader by 'W. C. Morris.