The Fayette County Union West Union, Fayette Co., Iowa 06 Jun 1918 Page 7 column one and two

HEROIC WOMEN OF FRANCE They Have Even Stepped Into the Place of Work Animals By DR. ALONZO TAYLOR

My words are not powerful enough to do even scanty justice to the most heroic figure in the modern world, and of ages past -- the women of France. Of the healthy men who are engaged in the military service in France, practically all are engaged either in transportation or in the manufacture of munitions, leaving the agriculture absolutely to the women.  Not only this, but they have stepped into the place of work animals; you can go into any section of France today and see women of magnificent, noble womanhood hitched to the plow and cultivating the soil. All of the agriculture rests upon their shoulders. The home, always an extremely efficient home, maintains a few old men, the wounded and the tubercular. Uncomplaining, with high devotion, with an attitude that amounts almost to religious exaltation, the woman of France bears the burden. Now, conditions being as they are, does it lie within the heart of the American people to preserve and hold to every convenience of our life at the expense of adding an additional burden to the woman hood of France? That is the exact question that is involved in our substitution of other cereals in place of wheat. The women of France must be enabled to hold up the morale of the French soldier until next spring. The morale of the house decides the morale of the soldier in the fighting line. We can do this by giving to them the greatest possible freedom in their food supply, and of this, wheat is the chief factor.

~ transcribed and submitted by Judith Schmitz for Iowa in the Great War