Page 3 of 13 Sep 1917 Issue of Des Moines Iowa Homestead in Des-Moines, Iowa

Des Moines Iowa Homestead September 13, 1917 Page 3 old newspaper archives

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Des Moines Iowa Homestead (Newspaper) - September 13, 1917, Des Moines, IowaOwa Homestead Liberty Bonds about ready. I am asked by Many of my readers when the Liberty Bonds to which they subscribed liberally a few weeks ago will be delivered to them i believe i am Safe in saying that about the first of october they will receive their much coveted Bonds testifying to their ability and willingness to help their country in its hour of peril. The situation is a Little involved however As i shall attempt to show briefly. The Day on which this was written thursday sept. 6th the lower nouse of Congress passed a new War credits Bill authorizing the issuance of Over eleven billion dollars in Bonds and certificates. This is in addition to the seven billion dollars authorized some months ago. Included in this new authorization Are Over seven billion dollars Worth of new government Bonds to pay War expenses. These new Bonds Are to Bear 4 per cent interest instead of the 3y2 per cent interest which the first Issue of Liberty Bonds Bear. Of this seven billion dollars Worth of new Bonds two billion dollars Worth will be for the purpose of retiring the Bonds authorized by Congress in the Spring and which the Farmers of the Grain Belt bought so liberally. Let me try to make the matter a Little plainer. When the government announced its Issue of 3m per cent Liberty Bonds it promised that if Bonds bearing higher interest were issued during the War these Liberty Bonds should automatically have their interest rate increased until it became that borne by the later Bonds. Now the government proposes to Issue 4 per cent Bonds so All those who subscribed to Liberty Bonds will receive 4 per cent instead per cent which Means they will get a year More on each than was promised or expected. In order to simplify matters the government May Exchange the new 4 per cent Bonds for the 3 is Bonds which were bought by the people but which have not been delivered to them As yet. These Bonds Are now being engraved and delivery is promised on or about october first. By that time however it is highly probable the new Issue will be ready to announce and within a few months new Bonds will be Given by Uncle Sam for the first Liberty Bonds bringing of 1 per cent More to the investors. Already what Are known As interim certificates have been issued a sort of substitute for the real Bonds and these Are being distributed to those who have paid for their Bonds in full. I have received my certificates for the amount i have paid in full and have Only to Exchange these certificates at the Bank for the real Bonds when they Are finally engraved and or four weeks now. I realize the proposition is a Little involved but two things Are certain the Bonds in some form will be distributed shortly and Uncle Sam is going to pay Back More than when we bought the Liberty Bonds of him a few weeks ago. We not Only performed a patriotic duty wholeheartedly but we made an unusually Good financial investment at the same time. Patriotism in the pocket. I read a sentence the other evening which struck me As containing much sound sense. It was this Good financing can not win a War but modern wars can not be won without Good i do not think the author intended this to be an injunction to our Bankers and financiers Only it is applicable to us All. In the end the War will undoubtedly be won by the nation or group of nations which finds its Money and its credit in exhausted. Therefore it behoves us All to guard our finances Well these Days for thereby we Are performing a patriotic duty. The Farmer is receiving Good prices for his products he should exercise unusual care in the expenditure of his Money and see to it that not a cent is wasted on any Unwar ranted extravagance or frivolity. The times Are Good they Are far from being hard yet a nation of spendthrift would be a nation disloyal remember that please. Farm life not sordid. Knew when i printed the extract from the Magazine article asserting that farm life is Sor did and the letter from the Wisconsin farm woman admitting it that i surely would receive a great number of letters. I was not prepared How Ever for such an Avalanche. Great As the number has been i have read each one with interest and Only wish i could print them All. They have proved two things to me first that the women folks on our farms do me the Honor to read what i write second that they can write better letters than the men folks. Never in All my career As a newspaper publisher and i have been working at it for Well on toward fifty years have i received so Many Good letters As have come to me from farm men and women within the last few months letters on such subjects As the War the Hopes of Early peace the necessity of exempting Farmers from the draft the nobility and happiness of farm life and so on. I want to say that there is More genuine uplifting ennobling thought emanating from the farm today than from any other part of our entire country. I am proud indeed to be the recipient of these letters. But i did not intend to take up so much time and space m introducing two letters i want to print this week. They Are both on this question is farm life both written by women and both on the same Side namely that farm life is far from being sordid except As we make it so for ourselves let me quote first from a splendid defender of farm life in general and farm life in Kansas in particular mrs. W. C. Wilcoxen of Ford Kan a most charming correspondent from whom i Hope to hear often on various subjects. Mrs. Wilcoxen writes me As follows r August 31, 1917. Dear or with the article a and the letters it called words. Very much like to add my few Kansas on a Grain farm Nave lived in this Community since my Marr Asre and feel that i know conditions if to be enough for my opinion for charge that farm women Are ignorant women of this Community at least half were teachers before their Marri atre Many were High school graduates a few College up with the others interests whether it was in the House or out ears experience have i found farm life sordid i have always raised my Dejl and marketed my own egg s and pro Duce the Money was used to cover the needs of and at no time did my husband Ever a l my Money. He has Confidence m my judgment that i would spend it wisely and we have worked on until we now have in our pos session 280 acres of land. It consists of three farms and was vacated by people who found other Pur suits. Always Felt sorry to see the neighbourhood but we to keep up the farms and buildings and maybe sometime our own Chil Dren or someone else might occupy them ,1 do not say that i have done better than anyone else but i have done better than some. But had i love Over profit. By the Many mis takes. I can say As Zacharias did if i have taken. From any Man by false accusations i will return r pm a people think sordid because they Are not Able to keep up with the people who have worked a lifetime and Are Able to own their automobiles and have All of the modern conveniences in their Homes. While Are. Sood. I find the old proverb that Contentment with godliness is great gain and take pleasure in doing whatever my hands find to do. The have never owned an automobile not be cause we could not afford one but for several Rea sons one that they Are expensive and dangerous Ana m most cases they Are a hindrance to the Prog Ress of a farm rather than a help As in Many in stances the farm work is left undone in order to get the time for a ride in the automobile. We raise horses lots of them some for All kinds of work draft horses for the heavy work. If we want to go to town or visit our neighbors we have our driving h is True but no. Harder than our husbands. I doubt very much if you could find a dozen women in our county who Wash with a Wash Board. A washing machine is considered As much a part of the necessary Home equipment As a dish pan and Many of us have Power washers with a gasoline engine to run them. On this farm and those adjoining the women of the farm Are no More we most of us have Large families but when our babies arrive we have help As Long As we feel we need it though most of us Are Strong enough by reason of right living that we do not need help More than a few weeks and quite often there is a trained nurse whose sole duty is to take care of Mother and baby. The farm women Here Are dressed As Well As the town dwellers. I know one woman who has borne ten children. Her husband is a Large Farmer and employs much help. The wife does most of the work employing help Only during the busiest sea sons and when she has a Small baby yet that woman is one of the Best looking and Best dressed women of the neighbourhood in which she lives. Of course i do not say that All this is True of farm wives everywhere for i do not know but i do know that it is True of southwestern Kansas. However i think the Kansas Man must be More chivalrous than Many others for i notice that the wives of Many Farmers who move Here from other states have much More outside work to do than the rest of us at first but they soon fall into the customs of the rest of the country. Jtjr8 my belief that families like that pictured by a Wisconsin Farmer s wife would be the same wherever they were placed whether their lot fell on the farm or in the City. With such a husband How much better off would she be in the City it is human nature that makes life sordid or Happy not merely environment. I can Only say briefly in passing that i wrote mrs. Wilcoxen thanking her for her Good letter and informing her that i had four Sisters each one of whom was a country school teacher two of whom married Farmers so that i appreciated the Situa Tion in her Community where school teachers abound in such number. It is impossible to think of farm life being sordid when the percentage of literacy is higher Here in the agricultural heart of America than anywhere else in All the nation when Prosperity is at such High tide among our Grain Belt Farmers and when such splendid letters can be written by those who Lay no claims to being talented above their neighbors. But let me quote another letter from another farm woman mrs. W. H. Chumbley of Indianola Iowa an equally Good and convincing letter As Fol lows Indianola Iowa. R. F. D. 5, sept. 1, 1917. Dear or am a farm woman past three score years Ana behave that i have a right to speak i was born and raised on a farm. I was educated in the and in the Rural school i married a Young Farmer and from the Day of our mar age our was he that work eth not Nei ther shall he we always have worked to each Thi nor that Farmers. Are most in need of today is High thinking in their by High i mean the big things of life character Ken knife and virtue and respect Fovall that is pure a Short time ago some people made us a visit who were our neighbors thirty years ago. In the time that had passed since we were neighbors we houses and barns grown Groves and Orchards on the same ground where they had tilled the e thiem a bounteous dinner in the House for the old people and had a table set under the Trees for their children and our grandchildren and All signified they had a Good time and we enjoyed visit with old neighbors once again our children Are scattered from Canada to Colorado but we still Nave our reunions once a year the old Extension table is at its full capacity and not one has forgotten his old place at the table and when we we sti11 the Bakers thirteen. The Blessing returned the Joy begins and lasts from one reunion to the other As they return year after year and the children Rise up and Call us blessed i cannot see How farm life is sordid. There is Little that i can or need say in com ment or conclusion. We cannot read such letters and not be convinced. Poverty May exist in Iso lated sections of our Fertile productive Grain Belt but not in one Millionth degree As much As in our cities. There May be farm Homes which Lack the necessary conveniences and comforts but for every one such farm Home i can show you a Hundred thousand in our cities. If there Are any who doubt my statement i can take them in my automobile within fifteen minutes ride of where i am writing to such scenes of poverty and squalor As no Farmer or Fanner s wife Ever imagined possible men women and children huddled together like rats la miserable quarters with insufficient air and cloth ing not knowing where the next meal is to come from unless Charity supplies the deficiency remember too this is in a Grain Belt City no t in one of our Large Eastern cities where such scenes would be multiplied and magnified a Hundred times Over. Mrs Wilcoxen was right indeed when she said that it is human nature which makes life sordid or Happy not merely environment. The shiftless ones on the farm would be the shiftless ones in the City dependent upon Charity for food and Shel Ter. We succeed within ourselves As Well through persistent and Well applied Effort Hazi Ness and Success Are mental attributes As Well As material accomplishments. The Eye sees what it oink t t v a to think. Let us make our eyes see fhe Iron Beautiful let us make our brains think the ennobling and uplifting. Then indeed shall sordid Ness disappear from our hearts and our midst

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