WOMAN'S EDITION THE DAI.I-ES TIMES-MOU'JTAIXEEIi
V
Flax Culture In Oregon.
The subject assigned to me is an in
teresting and important factor in the
industrial activities and c unmerce of
the world. I do not feel that I am capa
able of doing it justice, but I say with
confidence, that the cultivation of flax,
and its manufacture, should command
the considerate attention of our business
people. We know that fiax can be grown
in our state with more than ordinary
success, and be made a profitable in
vestment. Our climate and soil present
advantages and conditions for its culture
that no other country can excel, and we
should avail ourselves of them to make
it a leading industry. I do not believe
any other business interest, taken as a
whole, affords so many opportunities
for the employment of labor at remuner
ative wages, and especially the labor of
women. We all agree that the best
form of philanthropy is to aid people to
help themselves.
We have the best country on earth
for people to live in comfortably on a
moderate income, but we must have
some business to engage their energies,
and to reward their endeavors. The
past summer it was my privilege to
meet a body of women from the eastern
states, the wives of conductors many
of them women of keen observation and
great intelligence. It is needless to
say that I fell in with the Boston con
tingent. We spent a very pleasant hour
discussing the conditions of the country,
and comparirg them with Boston and
its surroundings. The conclusion ar
rived at was, that the prices of living in
this state, from rent to food, are one
third less than Boston's. Our acquaint
ances from that city were enthusiastic.
What a delight to live in a country,
where one can get strawberries for 5
cents a quart for one month ! "Two
weeks is all of our season, and 15 cents
the lowest I ever bought berries," ex
claim the Bostonians. "We will all pull
right up and come out here. What
manufacturing establishments have you
that women can work in?"
And right here I hesitate yes ; what
how many have we? Can anyone
tell? One bicycle house in Hartford
has 5000 hands ; men, women, boys and
girls; Ave buy the bicycles we don't
make them. We are nearer silver and
gold mines by thousands of miles, but
the products of the mines goes east, and
is fashioned into silver ware for our
tables we buy it back again.
We have beds of kaolin, but all our
crockery ware comes from east of the
Rockies. We have sand for glass, but
even our jelly tumblers take the same,
long trip. Some of our wool is made up
in Uregon, but not a pound shoula go
out of the state, except by the bolt.
Consider, that 22 years ago the nine
best judges of fiax fibre that could be
found in Europe, pronounced Oregon
flax unexcelled, and yet we are still
buying our binding twine, and our seine
twine, from Europe and Patterson, N. J.
Many would say : A little twine ; that is
a trifling matter ; but $250,000 a year
would barely foot the bill. Multiply
that by 22, and see what is the matter
with Oregon. Why have not men in
.
vestigated to see what is
the matter
with our state economics?
It is certainly time for the women to
take the matter in hand, and when they
do, they mean business. In the matter
of industries of the state, they have just
as much interest and as much at stake,
as the men. Sons and daughters are
growing up around them, and by what
means shall they earn their daily bread?
We must have work for the willing
young hands. We must develop our
own resources, and give employment to
our own people. The south has reached
this conclusion, and is now, in the man
ufacture of her own cotton making won-
derful progress ; and if we look at all the
varied ues of flax fibre we will find
Aaneauses oi nax nore, Me m nna
thaUt is more important than. . the cot-,
ton industry. Five thousand acres in
fiax would not even supply a year's de-
mand for the coarse, loose, hand-woven
linen, that is now being put on the walls
of houses. An agent, is sent into the
heart of Siberia to pick it up amongst
the peasants, and it comes thousands of
miles, with a snug little, duty to pay
when it reaches New York harbor; but
we must have it Dame Fashion savs so.
One leading buyer of linen writes:
"Why don't you have a factory for linen
towels? I will give you a first order for
10,000 dozen, and will duplicate it as
soon as finished."
Hardly a day passes that I am not in
receipt of letters from men and women
in the eastern states, expressing interest
in our work ; from society leaders to
everyday workers these missives come.
Many people are interested from the
novelty of women undertaking to estab
lish a state industry. This is the age in
which women are coming to the front as
workers. Why not undertake something
tangible something that promises re
sults that will benefit the community,
instead of selfishly devoting all the time
to clubs, to self-culture?
To introduce a new industry, "specially
one that requires the co-operation of the
farming element, is not an easy task ; it
requires some tact, and a great dea of
time. I can recall a quaint old New
England farmer, who spoke in a disdain
ful way of a woman's time not being worth
much more than a hen's. The hen,
though, puts in her time scratching for
her chicks, and that, is what we will
have to do. I notice that the rooster is
in demand for a pot-pie if he is not too
old.
Women not being engaged in business
have the leisure and the patience to
work out new theories; their time does
not. represent so many dollars and cents,
and the daily bread and meat of the
family. The women should have a voice
in affairs benefiting the community at
large, the same as the men. The petty
details, the planning of work for such
a new enterprise, can be carried on
perhaps better by women than men.
JOB PRINTING
Hbe Cbrontcle
Per Yean
Six Months
P. O Box G.
Organize in clubs all over the state ; put
all the energy in one direction, till that
particular industry is developed, or well
under way, and then select another, and
see what can be done with that. By
such co-operative work the result in our
state industries would astonish you.
Mrs. Caudice Wheeler, the head of
decorative art in America, was the push
behind the silk industry, which has
assumed such mammouth proportions.
She has reached her four score vears
ano - Teri but hopes to live long enough
to see the linen industry placed side by
side with the silk.
This industrv has onlv 50 vears of
factory life, and. it really amounted to
very little, until after the war. Mrs.
Wheeler conferred with manufacturers,
experimented with weavers, and estab
lished a school of applied design for each
work. There are now 584 factories, em
ploying 55,000 hands. In the neighbor-,
hood of Patterson, N. J., alone, there,
are 82 factories manufacturing silks,
1 dye houses, 5' making silk braids, 1
silk spinning mill, 12 silk throwing
firms, and 24 firms engaged in building
silk machinery.
Mrs. Wheeler, in a recent artile in
Harper's Bazaar, speaks encouragingly
i the I,oss1ibilitie!!. of flax, growing in
Oregon, and compliments the women of
the state ontheir. enterprise, .and - the - -
new departure they are making in re-
SffM0 developing the state resources,
wnicn, as sne declares, places tnem in
the front, rank for enterprise and will be
an incentive to women in other states,
to work in similar lines. -'
Let us hope that the possibilities she
foreshadows may be full)' realized, and
our beloved Oregon become a center of
.industriaractivities, for the cultivation
and manufacture of flax, thus adding to
?T material wealth, and the happiness
of our people.
Mrs. Wm. P. Lord.
W031AX IX POLITICS.
Every woman has a place in politics
each a?cording to her taste and sur
roundings. Not one should shirk her
pi'ional responsibility. If every intelli
gent woman in the United States, real
ized, and lived up to the fact that she
was in a measure responsible for the
political conditions of the country, there
would be a vast difference in the
methods of managing the machines"
of oihVe seekers and wire pullers. Each
and every one can, and ought, in some
way, wield an influence for good. Not
necessarily by going out on election day
to work for a favorite candidate. No!
Xo! Far back of that. No real politi
cien waits for election days. "The hand
that rocks the cradle rules the world."
The mother must begin at the cradle.
Read, think and speak in her own home.
Let her sons and (laughters grow up
with a correct understanding of the
needs of the day. What pure legislation
is, and how to be had. That only by
electing pure and capable men, can we
expect to gain the desired results.
If we read and think, wedonot neces
sarily have to talk politics on the street
corners, but when opportunity and oc
casion demand, we are prepared with an
opinion and can express it. Many a
maii is assisted in forming an opinion on
a political issue, by a word spoken in
season by' a woman, (however, he is
usually unconscious of the fact.)
So much for the home and fireside.
Years ago, before woman was thought
of in politics, the writer knew a lady
whose husband was running on the re
publican ticket, for county elerk in an
$1.50
7Se
CHONlCLiE PUB. CO.
THE DALibES. OREGON-
eastern city. Her home was directly on
the street in a very central location. On
the morning of election day she dressed
herself becomingly, and with a hand
full of tickets, stood on her lower front
door step all day and every man' who
passed, she spoke to, in a quiet, pleasant
way, asking them to vote for her hus
band if he could. The supposition was
that she was responsible, to quite an ex
tent, for the large majority polled for
Charley Norton at that election. While
her action was much talked of, no harsh
criticisms were made. Why should any
wife, mother or sister do this?.
Women of America, the constitution
of the United States is meant to protect
us, just the same as a man, "in the pur
suit of life and happiness, and we are
weak and useless, if we do not in some
way, work with the end in view of puri
fying the politics of the day.
There are but few called upon to take
to the platform, to that end but those
who do, should be sustained in their ef
forts. Who shall say that they are not
prompted by the grandest motives?
Thev, like all of advanced ideas, have to
suffer criticism for a time, but the next
generation will understand them better
ihan t,,:.
"
Let us then, each in her way, if it is
only by a good thought, help a,. we may
to stimulate, purify and elevate the poli
tics of the future. '
Woman is coming to the front so rap
idly in all lines' of work in which her
nimble fingers, active mind and staunch
integrity, makes her not only man's
equal, but often his superior that we
will be forced to greater interest in poli
tics to secure just legislation, and put
down discrimination in prices for labor.
If men could onlv realize that if women
had justice, (equal pay for the same
work) they would not have to pine in
idleness, while women were doing the
work for half wages, and supjiorting
husbands and brothers. Legislation
may not be the way to reach this prob
lem. Public opinion will at any rate be
the first step, and this will be woman's
work.
L. L.
A Rakb II kmc Mr. John Ward Dins
more, an artist of Cincinnati, who has
made many trips to the Nazareth Con
vent, Bardstown. Ky., for the purpose of
teaching drawing to the pupils of that
institution, has discovered among the
things cleared out from a room in which
one of the Sisters had died, an old pic
ture which art authorities ascribe to
Peter Paul Rubens. The painting, an
"Adoration of the MagiF'was on a panel
of inlaid plaster, and barely discernable.
It is believed to have been brought from
Holland, Belgium, with a hundred or
more master pieces by a Roman Catho
lic Bishop of Kentucky between 1790
and 1810, for distribution among
churches and religious institutions.
The picture, which is about 40 inches
high by 25 inches wide, is now on ex
hibition at an art store in Cincinatti.
The Grand Old Man. Gladstone,
who has been seriously ill for several
months, is gradually sinking under the
weight of years, and from vital exhaus
tion. He suffers from neuralgic pains
which he bears heroically. An exami
nation, by the Roentgen rays, disclosed
moRNiNG chroniclie.
Pet JVIonth 50c
Pep Yean $6.00
tftce.
Best Work.
Iiorjuest Prices.
the fact that he is not a victim to cancer
as has been believed. His medical
advisers can only hope to relieve his
sufferings as the end of a noble , life
approaches.
Up to the year 1896 the graduates of
the woman's medical college, of New
York, passed highest in their examina
tions before the state board of medical
examiners appointed to grant license to
practice, medicine in that state. Let us
all be proud of our sex.
Zola's contemplated visit to the
Cnited States gives Amercans in general
much pleasure. The part which he has
lately played in the Dreyfus affair has
made him an object of interest apart
from his well known fame as a novelist
J. M. HUNTINGTON S CO
Insurance
Agents,
Real Estate and Loan
Brokers
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Higli Orsnle Bicycles,
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F. L. HOUGHTON,
Agem Columbia Bicycles.
175 Second Street, The Dulles, Ore.
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MANUFACTURERS OF
jfea?-ness and
Saccfery . .
And dealers in a general line of
Horse Goods.
REPAIRING PROMPTLY DONE
(. J. Farley, Sole Proprietor.
THE DALLES. ORE.
The Great Northern
FURNITURE STORE
Leaders of Low Prices.
Furniture, Carpets,
Bedding, Stoves and Ranges,
Crockery, Glassware, Tinware,
Hani ware, Etc.
East End, The Dalles, Ore.
Kosofoam
Teeth.
Use Floral Lotion
For any Irritation of
the Skin.
Use Compound Quinine Hair
Tonic for Dandruff
Manufactured by
CLARKE & FALK
The Postoffict Pharmacy
THE DALLES. - - OREGON.
The J. K. Gill
Company . . .
BOOKSELLERS,
STATIONERS,
POltTLAND, OUK.
LANE BROTHERS
BLACKSMITHS
And Wagonmakers.
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First -class Material Used.
THE DALLES, - - OREGON
Are you oing to build?
If so, call on
....... . A k.
C. J. CRANDALL
For Plans and
Specifications.
Office in Miehclbach Brick, The Dalles.
MA.