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Show r ' WOMEN AND THE WAR By MRS. HENRY P. DAVISON i v""" Treasurer War Work Council National Board Y. W. C. A. lu an Illinois prairie town Uvea u widow who launders seventeen baskets bas-kets of wash a I ' ' J t t :. I week and every night thanks God for having put pity into the hearts of women. To her came one (lay a letter from her only son. He was then at Camp Fu list on, Kansas, learning to he a soldier. The letter let-ter hogged her to come ami see him before he was sent to France. The iQDthpr opened the tin Mrn. Davison tit u- i hank in which pirn hurl been hoarding her dimes and quarters against this day. The money was scarcely enough. Nevertheless lie started. She walked the first eighteen miles. Then her strength Save out. and she took a train. She did not know t.hat visitors to Camp Fun at on stay in Junction City, eleven miles away. So she got off the train at Fort Riley. An officer et her rinht and she reached Junction Junc-tion City after daik. Somehow she found a rooming-house. Some onu there stole five dollars from her five of the proeious dollars she had earned over tho wash tub and saved by walking. Terror-stricken, she crept out of the house when no one was looking. Later in the night a soldier found her trembling in the street, and took her to the rooms of the Young Women's Wom-en's Christian Association, rooms which the War Work Council had opened as a el aring-houss for troubles. trou-bles. The poor frightened woman was put to bod, but she was too miserable to sleep. The matrou got un at daybreak, built a fire, and comforted com-forted her. The son's commanding officer was reached by telephone i early in the morning, and the boy . came to his mother on the first trol- 1 ky-car he could catch. The two spent long, low-voiced hours together, perhaps the last hours they will have this side of heaven. Every moment was as precious pre-cious as a month had been last year. Tho old lady had still one present worry. The boy's bad cold might turn Into pneumonia if she left him. But she had ' not money enough to stay another night and buy a ticket home. When the matron told her that her ted was free, she broke down and cried and cried. . "I did not know there was so much pity left in the world," she sobbed. She stayed till her boy's cold was better. Then she went back to her seventeen washings and her memories. memo-ries. Because of the certainty of just iuch cases as this was Governmental sanction given to the activities of the War Work Council of the Y. W. C. A. From the Pacific to the Alantic its field extends. Every state in the Union has its members. Urgent appeals ap-peals for help are its cause and its inspiration. Women of every race and creed are its wards. The task of the War Work Council is tremendous. tremend-ous. When the United States entered the great war tho Young Women's Christian Association was, as always, working among women. With the call to new duties its members did not abandon their old responsibilities. The War Work Council was formed as an emergency measure to take care of tho women who were caught in some of the mazes of war, just as the parent organization has taken care of them through many years of peace. The varied activities decided upon by the War Work Council follow fol-low closely the needs of the different differ-ent communities of the country. Secretaries Sec-retaries trained in the methods of the organization were sent out broadcast. They were instructed to report to the National Board of the Young Women's Christian Associations Associa-tions in New York the lines of work which could be best followed in the various localities. These secretaries work in close cooperation with ministers, min-isters, women's clubs, chambers of commerce, churches, military officials, and charitable societies. The record rec-ord of a day's doings of a secretary reads like a novel, an economic treatise, and a psychological essay all compressed into a line-a-day entry. A secretary sent out by the War Work Council must be equal to any emergency. Miss Lillian Hull at Chil-licothe, Chil-licothe, close by Camp Sherman, hurrying hur-rying along the street at nightfall came upon a forlorn couple. A Finnish Fin-nish soldier had found a job for his wife, so that she might come on from Cleveland. When she arrived she was refused the place because she spoke no English. Their money had been all spent on the railroad fare, and the soldier was due back at Camp. The situation was bad. Thanks to Miss Hull a Chlllicothlan housewife now has an industrious and grateful domestic, a soldier Is happy, and a soldier's wife Is safe. Army folks often benefit even more directly from the secretaries' work. ln Bremerton, Washington, a secretary secre-tary was accosted on the street by a sailor. She was a slender woman, iand he had mistaken her for a girl. "May I walk along with you?" he tasked. "Surely," she replied with mature mnderstanding and intuition. "What 'is the matter? Are you homesick?" The lad's story came out with a rush. Yes, he was homesick, so hopelessly, despairingly heartsick that She was on the verge of deserting. iBut this woman gave him genuine sympathy and encouragement. She isaved him to his country. From north, south, east and weBt tthese pioneer secretaries sent in itheir reports. The appalling size of ;the undertaking was revealed to the War Work Council. Systematization of the work was the first step. Out of the multitudinous phases certain lines of work were revealed. (Continued ) |