Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1919 — FRENCH WOMEN SAVED CROPS [ARTICLE]

FRENCH WOMEN SAVED CROPS

Their Flrat Great Work Waa Taking Care of the Crops and Vintage of 1914.

Unlike the women of Great Britain, French women had to endure no impatient waiting for their government’s summons to service. It was natural that France, where conscription Instantly, dramatically, called active irfbn away from civil life, should be the first to summon Its women; for war came just at t< foment when the crops and the approncnlng vintage demanded attention. Vlvlanl turned at once to his countrywomen. His proclamation to the women of France was posted in every village; it read: “Your country calls to you to complete the work of gathering the crops. . . . The wheat stands unreaped and the time of vintage approaches. . . . I ask you to maintain the life of our fields, to finish this year's harvest and prepare for that of next year. You cannot render a greater service to your country.” The response is a matter of history. Women, and not only wpmen of the farming class, poured Into the fields. Young lAd old, rich and poor, labored together early and late. WKat they did then for France was but an earnest of the service they since rendered, maintaining the life of the country no less than the life of the fields.—Yale Review.