The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-13
WOMEN OF HOLLAND
 ARE VERY BUSY LOT
Keep Up Their Own Social
 Service Work
CARE FOR BELGIANS
Drain Has Been Very Heavy on Ma ton Totally Unprepared for Any Such Emergency = Much
 Other Charitable Work

The Hague, Netherlands, May Z. (correspondence of the Associated Press. )-The immense drains made by the refugees from Belgium on the good heartedness of Dutch women have by no means exhausted their efforts for the betterment of social conditions in their own country The strain or Bel gian relief work has undoubtedly been very great, and still is especially heavy upon the wives and daughters Of the Netherlands. Holland was totally un- prepared for any such emergency as the arrival over night within her borders of more than a million destitute neigh bors. It was the women of the Nether- lands who had to find immediate ac- commodations until the relief work could be systematically organized. They did it magnificently and without a whimper. Thousands of homes in Hol- land still shelter refugees, notwith- standing the general provisions which have been made for the unfortunate Belgians. One house in The Hague, alone, has afforded asylum to Fl desti ' tute Belgians for nine months.
 Women Keep Up Work
 But in addition to this work of press ing necessity, the women of Holland are carrying on their suffrage campaign, are knitting and sewing for their own soldiers and their families. and are keeping up such work of social improve ment as the schools of household arts and the schools for working women, which exist in many of the larger cities. In the former, young ladies of the bet ter families of the Netherlands are taught housekeeping, the care of chil- dren, teaching, cooking and whatever else may be necessary or useful In the formation of a model wife and an ef- fieient mother. These schools are, of course, paying organizations.
 The schools for working women in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, however. are in the nature of charities Here the daughters of the people are taught to be independent, or of aid to their families. They are trained as housemaids, cooks, seamstresses, laun- dresses and nursemaids. If they are able | they pay small tuition fec if not, they are received just the same, and no one but the treasurer knows who has paid and who has not. The schools are pro vided with babies for the nurses to i practice on, and even with older chill , dren, who serve as the raw material for kindergarten instruction.
 In the school for working women in Rotterdam last year, 10e girls were turned away on account of lack of ac- commodations for them This year the | number has been less, since the general condition of hard times has forced
 many families to send their girls to work earlier than usual. also the ab- sence of many men mobilized to guard
 the neutrality of Holland has greatly increased the demand for women work CTS.
 School for Working Women l The annual report of the Rotterdam school for working women which has l just been issued to cover the year 1914 shows that the tuition fees received in this school amounted in that year to s375.70. The expenses, however, were | SIS, ,099.20. The deficit was met by pri- vate gifts. Many of the girls are forced to leave these schools before finishing
 the full three years course, to earn i their own living or to assist in the sup port of their families. But even these are snapped up at once by watchfu1 Dutch housewives, anxious to secure good servants The girls themselves are only too glad to be employed in do-
 mestic servce in Holland, for the wages
 of women workers in the factories are notably low.
 Nor are these the only practical meas
 ures taken by the women of Holland for their less fortunate sisters. The
 war has brought even to this neutral
 land, some of its ghastly train of me-
 diaeval horrors. There are Red Cross
 buildings in many streets of the larger cities, and one of the royal palaces in l The Hague has been turned over to this | work. In this country there are not
 of course. any wounded to care for. But
 there are the sick and the needy, and l they are cared for
 l The Home for Destitute Babies, too
 since the mobilization has shown q
 marked increase in the. field of Its chari-
 table endeavor. It Is really an organi-
 zatfon devoted to the care of the un
 fortunate children of unmarried moth
 CTS. The babies of such of the poore,
 women as die In childbirth, whose fath-
 CTS are prevented by the character ot
 their work from giving or providinr
 proper care for the very young children
 are also taken in. The infants received
 In this home are kept from two to thre, years, upon slight payment by the
 mothers, whose plight the sudden call. ing of the men to the colors has re. lvea1ed