FARM LABOUR.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2752, 22 April 1916, Page 2

FARM LABOUR.

Sir, —Iu your issue of i Saturday 1 read a letter written by a farmer, intimating to . you and the public that, it was disgraceful that men should be allowed to remain in offices and such liko city jobs at a timo when male help ivas so much needed in' the country. Now, I havo worked quite a lot in the country and have just returned from one of these jobs—returned in disgust. Before I went I was working in tlie city; had been working in the city for six months.. During that time I e fi.°yed the comfort of a clean bed and civilised meals. On the other hand, ivlieu I went to that farm and was shown my sleeping quarters, and especially my bed, I can assure you I was overcome with disgust. I had brought uiy own blankets (I knew this was the rule), but felt the utmost repugnance to allow them to touch that e3"esore called a bed. I was to be allowed lio bed linen. This also is the rule on farms. Now, Mr. Editor, imagine men coming from the city decency to tho barbaric roughness of stich a life; a life where your work starts almost before daylight and continues till you can scarcely see! Why are farmers allowed to treat men anyhow? They provide proper accommodation for their female workers, but the men ore treated as though thoy belonged to some inferior 'species, and not, as indeed they are, the sons of women. The farmers' wives are guilty of utter heartlessness. Thoy know,, or ought to know, that it is the men who really clo the work which-realises the wealth which enables them to live in luxurious comfort. They da nothing to provide tho men with the decencies of home, life. Some women never tiro shouting, out to 'its about the great things women are do,ing during the war time, but in reality ' what they are doing, at least what good they are. doing, is very little. One thing they combine to do (at anyrate tho married women) is to deprive men of their freedom.. They would bar them from this and bar them from that till it will come to the limit that men will store up something nasty for them. Their patriotism largely consists in being active to deprive men of their jobs, so that work will ba monopolised by those pale, frigid-faced members of their own sex. Preserve the word! Real women' are a treasure, but those cheap, cold-blooded creatures are a deadly menace to industrial life—l am, etc., . M. M'M. ■