Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1917-11-12
Y. w. G. A. Secretary Tells
of Work for Soldier BOYS

/ ol war. III you tel me III III SLOW
work, working that way? Getting
the individual girl to pledge herself
to high standards of service and of
character II is slow work. but will
anything else do the job? II must be
the girl and this girl, and this girl,
who the soldier meets. who holds the
right ideal that saves the situation.
"Over In Lawton the other day one
OF our workers was In the hotel, and
watching the waitress in the hotel,
thinking about them I'm connection
with the soldiers, and particularly the
splendid officers who came and went.
She noticed the thing that we have
noticed, and at last had an opportu-
nifty to speak to one of the girls, say
ing, II just wonder, girls. how you
stand the pressure" The girl pointed
to her Patriotic league button. and
said, I'VE are standing together, and
are wearing this button, which means
that gin has pledged herself to
high standards. When il gets too
much for us, we get together and go
over the thing to help each other"
Another incident | heard of-an-
other waitress to whom a soldier had
made "A remark he had no right to
make, said, II guess you made a mis-
takes You didn't notice my Patriotic
league button"
TIC Mnuc u Mistake.
I'VE want that attitude to become
universal, and when IL Is things will
be safe for the soldiers and for democ-
r9cy. We cannot do IL I'm minute
We are employing in some PAGES dou-
BILE the number OF workers as fine
highly trained attractive, interCsting
talented leaders of girls as we can
find. They are going to a town. get
ting acquainted with the girls, pre-
senting the pledge, getting the girls
into the groups where they set up
their standards and have good times,
helping each other, and increasing
their efficiency. The girls must real
ize that the home base must be kept
pure else the boys will have died In
vain. The boys that you love will have
died in vain II you let standards and
principles go to pieces at home. SO
this Is the great constructive thing
we are trying to do.
I'VE are doing many things which
we believe will help to meet the needs
which we must meet at this time.
| Perhaps | can make this more con-
crete by telling you Of the places you
know OF. Take Lawton, which you
know is town of ten thousand. 1t
has a camp of twenty thousand. and IA
good many in the aviation camp. We
| have the regular hostess house in the
camp and n social center In the city
| for the girls. These are the two in
fluences we are building in Iawton,
and the workers will have to conduct
| the hostess house In the camp, and do
the strongest social work in the city.
We know of one girl who, because
! she could not find a place to sleep,
asked for permission to sit up In 4
car in n garage because the place was
| lighted, and she was not afraid there.
! Our house is hostess house, dormitory
| and recreation center.
In Fort Worth the hostess house of
which | spoke and the workers in the
city cooperate with the Y. M. c. A.
in doing constructive work for the
girls. There is also in all Of these
cities the matter of providing safe
places for the girls who 80 to the city
| to live, and the matter of employment,
| for which we are securing especial
secretaries to care for the girls. who
| come because they think there ar"
, new openings ard a rush of work We
have in our part of the country for
eign-speaking girls and women, par
ticularly Mexicans. Thruout the coun-
| try the problem of the foreigr speak
| ing woman is of course much more Sc
iious.
| Now about the hostess houses. In
! San Antonio, In the first place, there
is the officers training camp. There
were 80 few men there that for time
we thot we ought not to spend the
money there. But we found that 1t
was needed; that out in the officers
| training camp there were twelve or
| fifteen girls being employed for clerical
work. Leon Springs is no town, list
a railroad station, so the girls were
provided for in the camp. eating at the
officers mess and living their whole
life in that camp. Don't misunder-
stand me; they were taken care of, and
were under military guidance, but un-
less you just know intuitively what II
meant for girls to work In that way
doing mems work without women's in
fluence, then ] cannot tell you why we
thot it necessary to open hostess house
at Leon Springs, to do the regu-
lar work of the hostess house, and also
to be the center for these employed
girls. Here the Y. NJ. c. A. showed
again how really brotherly and helpful
they can be. for they had a building
which they could turn over to us for
| temporary use. There are girls en-
ployed in other camps, and il is going
to make a problem which we have
not yet learned how to deal with. In
other parts of the country they have
perhaps done more with them; but in
= OlneT places, 50 lar as hHOW, lne
girls live in the city.
"The Illinois boys are at Fort Logan.
There we had a typical opening of the
hostess house. ! carmed chairs all day
until l thot | should drop, because
we did not have enough help. A com
mittee of the Houston women were
interested in helping us, both rich and
poor. 1t was the day the governor of
| Illinois reviewed the troops, so the
town had many visitors, and we found
any number of mothers of soldiers
who had come to the town especially
because their boys were there, and who
got their first initiation into the camp
at this opening There were mothers
who were so Irish and so Dutch that
you could not understand what they
said, rich, poor, all on a level In our
hostess house. The officers came;
they were so kind, so courteous, that
II was a pleasure to have them. They
came with their wives and daughters,
II they were in the city. But the best
part of the party was that a hundred
or two of the privates were there. They
told us when we started the hostess
house that we could not have officers
and privates. You know how that
goes. But at our opening the guests
ss