Part 23 (1/2)
Again we find the field of literature treating the subject directly an exceedingly scant one. In forming a business partners.h.i.+p with his son the farmer should be guided by well-tried precedent. A letter of specific inquiry to one of the leading agricultural papers will most usually bring a helpful reply.
A First Lesson in Thrift. Horace Ellis. _Psychological Clinic_, March 15, 1910.
Industrial Education for Rural Communities. Annual Volume N.E.A., 1907, p. 412.
The Child's Sense of the Value of Money. Dr. William E.
Ashcroft. _S.S. Times_, July 24, 1909.
Psychology and Higher Life. William A. McKeever. Chapter XIV, ”The Psychology of Work.” A. Flanagan Company, Chicago.
Industrial Education. Various Authors. (Pamphlet, 25 cents.) _The Survey_, N.Y.
Industrial Education. Kimball. No. 1, Educational Monograph Series, School of Education, Cornell University.
CHAPTER XV
_BUSINESS TRAINING FOR THE COUNTRY GIRL_
During a two-hour ride on a railway train the author had as a seat companion a sixty-year-old farmer and stock raiser, whose specialty was that of raising mules for the market. And what of definite information this good husbandman possessed about the long-eared beast of burden would fill a volume of considerable size. He knew just what time of year the mule should be foaled, when weaned, when broken to the halter and to work; how to feed and groom a mule in order to get the best physical growth; how to train the animal so as to develop all the latent good qualities and repress the bad ones.
After the natural life history of the faithful mule had been carefully reviewed by the rural companion the conversation was turned to the subject of girls. Had he a daughter? ”Yes, twenty-two years old.” What did she know about money and the common affairs of business? ”Business!
Mighty little any woman knows about business,” said he. ”We buy our girl what she needs and have put her through the town high school. I expect her to get married sometime. Her mother has taught her how to do housework.” Further than that the father seemed to know very little about his daughter, and he showed plainly that he did not consider this second topic of conversation half so interesting as the first one.
IS THE COUNTRY GIRL NEGLECTED?
Inquiry will prove that the foregoing case of parental ignorance and indifference about the daughter is all too common, especially the ignorance. It seems never to have occurred to many parents who have growing daughters that unless the young woman have a fair amount of knowledge of the value and use of money her future happiness and well-being and that of her family are in danger of becoming seriously jeopardized. It is a singular and yet lamentable fact that so many American parents,--parents too who are intensely desirous that their growing children have the best possible moral and religious teaching--that these same good parents fail to understand how one of the very foundation stones of efficient moral and religious life is const.i.tuted of a definite body of knowledge of common business affairs.
They do not seem to realize that the young man or the young woman who knows from experience just how money is earned, and how it may be judiciously expended and profitably invested, is far on the way to a high plane of moral and religious living.
However, there is probably no place of greater opportunities for developing sober judgment in the growing girl than that afforded by the ordinary farm home. For here the business management of the household and of the farm affairs are practically merged. There is the further advantage of a considerable variety of ways whereby the daughter may be remunerated for what she does. But, how may we best interpret this question? First of all, what in a practical sense is a satisfactory business training for a young woman, a farmer's daughter in particular?
Do we desire that she become a shrewd money-maker and successful a some sort of commercial life? Few would take such a position. But in order that the young woman may be fully prepared to fill her heaven-ordained place as the center and source of love and influence in a family, we must provide that she be given just such instruction in the use of money as will enable her to occupy her high position with the greatest possible success.
WHY THE GIRL LEAVES THE FARM
Under the t.i.tle above the Farmer's Voice prints portions of two letters which help to throw not a little light on this much-neglected subject.
Miss Alta Hooper writes:--
”The one great cry going out from the people, and one also much in need of an answer, is 'how to keep the boy on the farm.' It is very seldom that the girl of the farm is alluded to, although it may be that she is included, in a general way, in the great amount of literature concerning her brother. But, take it from the farmer girl that she is a live one, and unless money is coming into her pockets, unless she is comparatively independent and has some interest to keep her awake, she isn't going to 'stay put,' but will get out where she can earn some money of her very own, to buy the little things so dear to the hearts of girls; and she will not be questioned and lectured and scolded over every little expenditure.
”Oh, the girls on the farm have minds and pride and ambition just as big as their brothers' too; and in many cases they are not given half a chance to realize one iota of this ambition. It is then that a career off the farm and away from the farm home appeals to them. Then the thought comes that even though the salary to be earned may be small, still it is all one's own, and there is no fear in planning where and in what it shall be invested.”
Likewise, Mrs. F. L. Stevens, writing for _Progressive Farmer_, says:--
”How often have we seen young girls leaving comfortable farm homes to go into typewriting, clerking, or bookkeeping, in order to have their own money. An allowance for personal expenses in the beginning would have solved this problem. But the father has not seen it that way.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XXVI.