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Show Kathleen Norris Says: What a Job in Washington Holds for You Bell Syndicate WNU Ftaturai. To abandon a prosperous dairy farm and land herself and her three children in Washington whose every inch of living space is fiercely disputed, would be insanity. By KATHLEEN NORRIS FOR the consolation of thousands of women who want desperately to get into some sort of dramatic war work, let me state definitely defi-nitely that most war work in these tremendous days falls very rapidly into the routine, not to say drudgery class, and that Washington itself is far from the exciting center that everyone who isn't there fondly fond-ly imagines it to be. Washington was essentially a small town, with all the delightful features of a small town, until war preparations began. In the last year it has grown spread out wildly In every direction, blossomed with great office buildings and hurriedly constructed apartment houses. Transportation is difficult for the thousands of new workers who crowd into the city; street cars and busses are jammed, restaurants are suffocating, the romance and beauty of the Capitol are dimmed for the time. Girls who get jobs in Washington have their fun and glory before they leave home. The family treats them with new respect; the other girls and boys frankly envy them. Merely One of Many Cogs. But on reaching Washington the lucky job-winner immediately discovers dis-covers that she is merely one of a great number of eager, willing, unimportant un-important cogs in a great machine. No, not unimportant, no cog is unimportant. un-important. But a cog may be useful, use-ful, and still not have a very exciting ex-citing time. She gets to Washington and reports re-ports somewhere. She is given a desk in an office, and to that office she repairs every day. She walks miles, climbs stairs, lunches in a packed cafeteria, shyly makes friends of her associate workers. To be sure her letters home are dated "Washington," but as far as any sense of being on the battle front, being a witness to great events, having hav-ing a share in the destiny of the nation goes, she might as well be anywhere else. The conduct of a war, like genius, depends on an infinite capacity for taking pains. No longer do handsome hand-some captains of cavalry dash up at the critical moments, with flags flying, to report that the reinforcements reinforce-ments are here, General. No longer do hoop-skirted women slip through the lines to kneel beside soldiers on the field. War, as the young clerks in Washington know it, means bookkeeping, filing, typewriting, answering an-swering telephones, climbing stairs; it means complete subjugation to orders from superiors; it means seeing see-ing others preferred to oneself; it means sacrifice of good times. For there are few dances in Washington Wash-ington this winter, and there are few theaters two or three at most and only a few first-class picture-houses. picture-houses. Lonely Girl's Problem. Friendships are difficult for the lonely girl who goes on there to live in a boarding house in a small, square, impersonal room, because what our uniformed men want now is home life and simple hospitality. It is no treat to them to take a girl to a second-class restaurant, and afterward to stand in line for an hour to get into a movie. The first-class first-class hotels are expensive, and often both girl and boy are tired and don't feel up to the exertion of dressing formally for the evening. Motoring is out, of course. Now this is not to say that pleasant things, like evenings in IMPORTANT COGS There's nothing particularly exciting about being a cog, even if you are a cog in an extremely ex-tremely important machine. That, $ay$ Kathleen Norris, is what you would be if you went to Washington to work at one oj the hundreds of necessary, nec-essary, but not glamorous, jobs girls and women like yourself think they want. In answering a 34-year-old mother this week she points out the fact that there is still much work to be done in the home and on the farm. Not all this war's battles ivill be fought overseas, you know. There is still the home front remem her ? some friend's home, contact with other working girls, the novelty of a new Job and a new place, don't exist. They do. But they strangely enough have nothing to do with the war; they are Just the diversions that exist everywhere, curtailed, more expensive and much more limited in war times, but inevitable wherever youth meets youth. The point I am trying to make is that Washington will offer you nothing noth-ing just now that any other Job in any other city doesn't offer. You may be boarding in the house next to the secretary of labor or the English ambassador, but you'll know no more of world affairs than your father is reading in the evening eve-ning paper, or your mother is hearing hear-ing on the radio, at home. And added to all its other disadvantages dis-advantages is the constant sense of hurry and pressure, the keen competition com-petition for places, the nagging sense that one has volunteered for the wrong work after all, that perfectly per-fectly new, untried recruits are pushing in to far more advantageous positions. Eager to Help. "I am desperately anxious to get into all this," writes Lily Davis from an Ohio town. "I am 34. and have three small children. When we married, Oliver was a lawyer with political ambitions that I shared. But ill-health and a series of business busi-ness misfortunes sent us out to this rambling dairy farm, 20 miles from the nearest town. I have help in the house, and on the farm he has three men continually, and more in summer. We prosper, but I am feverish to do something to help, and plan this autumn to go on to Washington to see whether the services serv-ices of a former school teacher can be put to use. Should I obtain a job I must then make some arrangement ar-rangement there for my boys, now aged eight, seven and three. I would not want to live in the city, but near by, where there are good schools and nursery schools. My husband has consented to this plan. Will you advise me as to the first steps toward accomplishing it?" This is typical of the attitude of many women. But surely it is obvious ob-vious to us all and in saner and less restless moments it must be obvious to Lily herself that to abandon a prosperous dairy farm, land herself and her children in a city whose every inch of living space is being fiercely disputed, burden her shoulders with the responsibility re-sponsibility of managing a delicate man and three small children, a house, a servant and a new job, would be Insanity. How many thousandsmillions thou-sandsmillions of women in the world would thank God on their knees for the security and peace of a farm for the children they love, far away from bombs and battlefields! |