Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 153, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1918 — PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. [ARTICLE]

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.

To the Editor of The Star: It seems that farmers are not sup-! posed to make objections, nor voice protests, .hot even mild ones. Even s if we offer an opinion in yourj columns, we are accused of “break-; ing into print” If farmers meddled in other folks’ business as much as some other folks meddle in farmers’ business, the meddling fanners would< be —oh, “Shot at sun-rise” I suspect. | My husband is a farmer and a thrasherman and I have been’ greatly interested in the much discussed question of what the thrashermenl may charge for thrashing wheat and, in Mr. Foley’s and Dr. Barnard’s de-. cisions as to those prices—l have not seen any fixing of prices on the j machinery repairs, labor, hire, etc. — just on what the farmer has. I can not understand the two gentlemen’s ideas, of economy and saving. They agree that a thrasherman should furnish meals, and, that such a thrasherman may charge fifteen cents per bushel. Now, I really understand that a thrasherman should receive much more if he feeds the men, because it would be a great expense to equip and maintain a cook wagon, etc. But, that is a mighty extravagant way for any farmer to get his wheat thrashed ; for instance; if I had one thousand bushels of wheat, I would pay the thrasherman with the cooking outfit, $l5O to the other thrasherman at seven cents which is the price fixed by Messrs. Foley and Barnari. I would pay S7O. Would it be economy to pay SBO for feeding the men! I have cooked for thrashers a whole week at a time and never spent the third of SBO. I wonder how much experience the Council of Defense gentlemen have had in thrashing or cooking for thrashers. F _ On Wednesday afternoon of June 20, while in Indianapolis, I heard a gentleman make a W. S. S. talk at the big cash register on Meridian street. He, too, took a whack at the farmers* wife for her wastefulness, said he knew the farmer’s wife cooked four times as much as she knew there would be men there to eat it, but she had to outdo her neighbor who had had them the day before, and consequently more than half of the food was thrown in the hog lot. I do wish the gentleman speaker would tell where he saw that done, and who too, took a whack at the farmers’ wife is. I have cooked and helped cook many a thrashing dinner, but I never saw any such performance as that of which he told. More often I have seen dishes removed from the table because there was nothing with which to refill them, than I have seen filled dishes emptied into the slop—l never did see the latter unless rain stopped the thrashing—even then, in this neighborhood we divide with one another. Cooking for thrashers is not such a terrible ordeal, and, if the farmer works all day in the sun and dust, thrashing the wheat, any true farmer’s wife is glad and willing to prepare the meals —especially if she is saving 8 cents per bushel. The sudden solicitude for the “overworked farmer’s wife is amusing and disgusting. If the solicitious officials will just see that the farmer gets a square deal for what he produces, the farmer will take the best of care of his wife, and she won’t need sympathy any more than your wife, Mr. City Man, be you banker, doctor, lawyer, merchant or chief. In our neighborhood we do not try to outdo one another, but try to help one another and we serve good, wholesome meals, too. This year, we are planning more carefully than ever before, because we appreciate just as much as any one, the urgent need, and I really believe we farmers’ wives have a better idea of economy as to feeding thrashers than have the city gentleman. Certainly we know, we can cook for the thrashers when it means a saving of 8 cents per bushel on the wheat. MRS. A. G. NEWSOM, Highacre Fann, Columbus.