“In 1919 representatives from twelve states gathered in New York to form the American Farm Bureau Federation. In 1919, this was considered a man’s organization. However, two women attended the first AFBF annual convention. Recognition of a woman’s place in the organization was set forth in 1920.”
The Philosophy of the Associated Women of The American Farm Bureau by Mrs. Abbie C. Sargent
(as presented at 1950 annual meeting of AW of NHFB)
May I begin by giving you a bit of the American Farm Bureau's earliest activities?
In the year 1919, New Hampshire, represented by our own Uncle George, and representatives from eleven other states met in the state of New York to consider the advisability of forming a national organization, the most important reason being to "provide the nation with some sane organization thoroughly representative of agriculture throughout the entire United States which might speak for the farmers of the entire country."
From this preliminary conference came the meeting in Chicago late in that same year, at which time the AFBF was launched, followed by a meeting in March of 1920 to ratify the Constitution and complete the organization. This was followed by the real convention in December 1920 with a program of work adopted by the delegation.
This was a man's organization, or supposed to be, but like a home, it needed a woman in it, and there happened to be two women who appeared at this convention.
Of course, I don't know what really caused the men to make, as their first resolution, an invitation to women to be full participants in the organization, but I suspect it was because they felt it wasn't "good for man to be alone,"--and after all, who would find that collar button that rolled away under the bureau. Anyway I have heard some of those early pioneers tell of the two women who addressed that convention. One was Mrs. Sewell who has come to be the best known woman in Farm Bureau circles. This is when the first great step was taken toward the organization that today has a membership of a million and one-half Farm women in the United States, with a membership in a great International organization.
The basic philosophy back of this early recognition of woman's place in the organization was set forth in the following resolution of 1920, and I quote:
"The permanency and dignity of agriculture as well as the stability and happiness of country life is in a large measure dependent upon the quality and inherent strength of the farm homes. The influence of this organization which is a potent factor in our national life will be materially extended and reflect itself over rural America in a more significant manner, by the admission of woment to membership; and they are invited into full participation in the task of advancing the cause of American agriculture. We welcome to our councils the farm women of our nation and pledge our full cooperation in such programs for the advancement of our common purposes as shall be within the scope of this organization's activities in its endeavors to promote the welfare of country life."
This was the beginning of women's participation in the Farm Bureau program. The following year a committee of four, each memebr representing a region, was appointed to sponsor and carry out a program devoted to the promotion of country life. The membership of this committee was changed from time to time during the six years following. Can you imagine four women, with an exceedingly small budget, doing much good in this whole United States? It IS hard to imagine, but nevertheless, I believe I am not too much conceited when I say we really DID things.
Women began to feel their responsibility as they became aware of the great importance of the economic problems of American agriculture in order that better standards of home and community life throughout the whole of America might be realized.
This small committee also became aware that our farm folks could be better served by the employment of a full-time director of Home and Community Work and so recommended. Thus, after six years of committee effort we had a Director, Mrs. Charles W. Sewell. The reason for the delay was lack of funds.
The field that needed supervision and cultivation was ever widening and more workers were needed to not only meet the demands but to carry the program into distant parts of the field. To meet this requirement an affiliate of the American Farm Bureau, known as the Associated Women of the American Farm Bureau Federation, was organized in 1934 at Nashville.
The necessary changes were made in the by-laws of the AFBF, and the new affiliate given four voting delegates in the convention. The President of the new organization was automatically a member of the powerful board of directors of the AFBF, and Mrs. Sewell was made Administrative Director of the new set-up--the position she has held ever since.
This organization, as such, was an infant--no membership--no nothing but a few officers and a loyal AFBF backing it up. The morning after, an application was made, and granted, to admit all Farm Bureau women of New Hampshire, and so we were the first state to have membership in the young organization. California was second, and from then the membership grew by leaps and bounds. When we were thirteen years old, we had gone beyond the million mark.
As an affiliate all funds for carrying on the work come from the parent organziation, the AFBF.
At the national level, our activities fall into three principal channels as follows, and I quote from what Mrs. King calls the "Farm Bureau Bible"--"The Farm Bureau Through Three Decades."
"First, much time is spent in speaking at state and regional meetings of constituent member organizations as a means of stimulation and expansion of the latter's work and influence. Second, the great area of public relations receives much attention. This includes not only the effort to bring to urban groups of women a better understanding of the problems and needs of farm women, but to promote by education and organization a wide variety of movements including rural hospitalization and better health, better schools, home beautification, farm youth activities, and even reaching into the realm of international peace and amity. The third general line of activity has to do with legislation."
In 1936 we took an active part in the Triennial Conference of the Associated Country Women of the World in Washington, and I shall always remember with gratitude, the grand delegation that attended from this State. It was not only a wonderful experience for all, but I felt it a great tribute to me, your leader at that time.
We have always had a small delegation from our national group in attendance at the Triennial Conferences held in other countries since , and our present national president is also president of the International organization, which is something of which we are justly proud.
It is the opinion of most of us that Associated Women have an unlimited field and that there is unlimited work to be done. In it, Education and organization must lead.
In the future the American farm family will find it well to remember one basic fact; that farming is not a job for a few years and a quick way of making money, but a way of life, a profession, if you please, with an infinitely varied technique that cannot be mastered in a lifetime.
If we are to live happily we must have an appreciation of the best of life. Learn to reason together, to appreciate and enjoy together. Worthwhile living is an accepted responsibility in one's home and community.
Characater is not built on the dollare mark, but upon strength of service. So the ideal education for living is that which guides the heart, the mind, and the activities of man. Associated Women can do a great deal in education. No industry is so identified with man as the farming industry, and the whole program of the Associated Women is so closely dovetailed into the program of the Farm Bureau that they cannot be separated, and that program is the preservation of the American farm home, seeking to maintain the high standard of living to which we are justly interested.
It seems to me that a most important item in the program of education is the need to develop a better understanding between farm people and urban people--the producer and the consumer. Our urban friends ought to be made to understand that unless a parity price is obtained for our produce, our purchasing price is limited, and urban people suffer, because we have no money with which to buy the products of the city.
The consciousness of organized power has been slow in coming to farm people. Here is a golden opportunity for Associated Women. Farm folks have been willing, through indifference or lack of understanding, to let others determine their program. They ought to realize that if the business of farming is not worth the effort of some clear thinking and action, it is not worth anything.
Women have been credited with being natural-born organizers and there is no end to the work they can do in an organization of this kind. A well-worn slogan syas "sell the woman, sell the car." It is just as true here--"sell the woman, sell the Farm Bureau program."
Associated Women, in addition to their wholehearted support of the Farm Bureau program, have done, and are continuing to do, some pioneering. Through their efforts, greater interest is being expressed in our rural school system, in child welfare, rural health, medical care and hospitalization, recreational and social opportunities for rural youth, student loans, and cooperation with other agencies in the locality which have as an objective improvement of living conditions and many other things that might be mentioned.
Members of our organization have been invited to have a part in national affairs on many occasions and have been appointed to many important committees, and called in to testify before Senate and Congressional Committees in Washington, all of which testifies to our standing.
We have done many things during the past years but the surface isn't scratched. We are DAZED at the tremendous amount of work that needs our attention and we accept the challenge for greater effort in the years ahead.
