Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-05-27
mobilize the Kitchen" Slogan of
Crown Princess, Is Now
Their WatchWord.
WAR BRINGS ITS SACRIFICES
Women, Guided by an Efficient Gov
eminent, Are Doing Mems Work
and Doing 1t Most Satisfacto-
riIy-Trades Unions Have
No Quarrel.

Berlin.-"Mobilize the kitchen" the
slogan of the Crown Princess Cecilie
of Germany, has become the watch
word of the women of the fatherland,
laying upon patEiotism's altar the as
pirations which have moved thousands
among them, in days of peace, to seek
distinction in the professions, moved
thousands of others to seek relief
from household drudgery in the facto-
ries and stores.
Mobilize the kitchen" has become
a policy of state in the government
prompting it to establish free classes
during the past ten months for in
struction in cooking, nursing and sew
ing, prompting it also to restrict the
women to domesticity or its allied vo-
cations by other plans which close to
them the work usually done by men.
Mobilize the kitchen" has straight
ened out many of the kinks in the life
of the German people which during an
extended war might produce weakness
in their greatest fortress of strength
their national unity. 1t has produced
instead a smoothly running existence
along boldly marked, simple lines.
The kaiserin's famous message to
her countrywomen, "Kueche, Kinder,
Kirche" (kitchen, children, church,
had long become old-fashioned and
well-nigh unheeded when the galvaniz-
! ing shock of war struck the nation,
dealing its hardest blow devn the
women. The fashionable, the frivo-
lous and intellectually egoistic, the
rich and the poor, the good and the
| bad, became as in the twinkling Of an
eye-just women. The governments
| policy in those early days was evil
IDENTIFY to draft the feminine contin-
gent into the work Of men, soldiers
! being then the only consideration.
Women with university degrees who
| knew as much as the college profess
sors, others with long records in Of
| fee, thought that their day had
dawned.
| The crown princess, with that ex-
traordinary foresight which in crisis
involving the welfare of human beings
is prominently the woman's gift,
shot out the word of command: Mob
ilize the kitchen
Women Doing Women's Work.
The women who in the early days of
| last summer we're thronging the
streets of Berlin, getting ready to
run the street cars, manage the tele-
graph Offices, fill the chairs in the uni
| vorcjfinc o1if Aha
age the stores-they are today, many
| of them, attending lectures by pro-
| fessors of chemistry which teach them
| the food values of every article of
diet and how they can economic in
their household bills; they are learn
| ing the rudiments of nursing. The in
| other days questionable ''Haus-
frau" has become the pride of the
government and the envy of her sis
tiers, formerly superciliously condo
scending.
The authorities are in constant con-
sultation with the Hausfrau, asking
for her advice and assistance in run
ming free kitchens for the poor, open
ing refreshment booths at the stations
| along which trains pass to convey the
soldiers to and fro, inviting her to di-
rect, sewing classes which mend the
army uniforms, or to get together lit
tie clubs among her friends to care
for needy musicians and artists. The
meetings take place in the large hall
donated by the reichstag for these
clubs, but the musicales and exhibit
lions are given in the homes.
The sacrifices Of war eliminate the
"kafeeklatsch," that substitute for
afternoon tea, so dear to the heart of
German womankind when gathered
together. At the musicales and enter