East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1916-12-02
MANY THOUSANDS OF FEMALE
EMPLOYEES IN ARsENAIS.
Good Pay Often Proves Blessing to
WOmen Who Would Otherwise
Work in Less Attractive FHceones;
Good Food and Clothing Now.

With bits Of glittering metal
That will kill men when their done
Who knows, oh Tommy Atkins,
AS you throw that hand grenade
Perchance it's one Of many
That your wife or sweetheart made
LONDON, Dec. 2.-The early VIC
torian females, must raise their lily
hands from their tatting and crewel
work in horror as they look back
across the River styx and see how
the hands Of their twentieth century
female descendants are occupied.
am sure they don't consider 1t maid
emily or ladylike and yet these stanch
and willing women munition workers
Of today are doing cruel work, too.
Down at the big arsenal at Wool
wich, just thirty minutes from Lon
don by train, seventeen thousand
women from sixteen to fifty years
old at big machines are turning out
with fleet and capable feminine fin.
gers bits Of glittering copper and
aluminium and brass which, assem-
bled into shells, bombs, hand gre
nades. cartridges and all those deadly
and frightful weapons Of modern
warfare are dubbed munitions.
Not only are the wives, mothers,
sweethearts and sisters of Tommy
Atkins, the typical working women,
employed at this new sort Of fancy
work but delicately reared and cul.
tured gentlewomen as well are eager,
ly and efficiently doing their bit.
There is work for every grade and
degree Of age and mental and ply
sical development. The pay for all is
better too than the workers can get
in any other sort Of a position. It
averages from 3 to 5 pounds or SIS
to SIS per week. One time comfort
able English households are plunged
into chaos and gloom through the
loss Of their chambermaids, nurse
maids and cooks who hear the siren
call of the shrapnel and the shell.
Mansions in Mayfair and Park Lane,
novels in Whitechapel and the East
End disgorge alike their bits of
feminity into the Unsuitable nav of
the government arsenals.
Never have so many furcoats, new
er has SO much jeWelry been sold in
London as at the present moment
and the women munition workers are
the busy little buyers. The first thing
poor little erstwhile factory slav-
ey does when she draws her first
princely Gin proportion) pay check
at thearsenal is to treat herself to
all the cheap jewelry her little starv-
ed feminine heart has craved her
whole life long She may top off
with a warm coat of fur and after
this reckless spending orgy she is
content to settle down and save her
salary with the exception of what she
spends daily on real food. And my
how she does eat!
There are canteens established at
the different arsenals where the
girls may get the most nourishing
food for the cheapest rates. -Four
meals are served a day, breakfast,
lunch, very high tea at a low price,
and dinner. There also are lodgings
established near the arsenal for all
those women who wish to live close
to their work. These are called no.
> tells and furnish comfortable and san
itary rooms for modest sum.
At Woolwich, under the wise and
human jurisdiction of Miss Lillian
Barker, the government lady super
i visor the wormen workers are like
, one huge family or a school for
!. . girls. All sorts Of things are provid-
: ed for their amusement and instruc.
tion in their recreation hours. There
are dancing classes, amateur theatri-
Gals and educational courses.
So, although the work is strenu'
Gus and the hours long, the effect or
!. the women Of this steady work, good
: pay. nourishing food, clean lodging
:, fresh air and above all, blessed spirit
of independence they have attained
Is working miracles with English
, womankind.
Thanks to their munition worl
: they will be fit physically, mentally
: and financially to take up the bur
dens of their poor MANNED and brok'
en- menfolks after the close of th'
= war.
Strange and yet fittingly simple
j, isn't it, that these same deadly Bit
: of metal shining beautifully colder
!. in the sun should be bringing deatl
. and destruction and Disagreement t
!, the one, health. prosperity and lif'
|. to the other.
Twenty four hours, day after day
! night after night, the huge arsenal
, are busy turning out the munitions
!, that spell trouble for the enemy
= Since the days Of Eve and Adam
! woman has been dubbed = a trouble
: maker. Now she Is glorying and be
. ing glorified in the role. As makinl
: munitions which Is synonymous will
: making trouble, and is certainly max
4 Ing good.