The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-07-11

iasttc over the prospect of relief work
it might be thought, almost too en-
thusiastlc, remembering that the flame
which is kindled quickly usually lives
but a short time. Committees nave
sprung up everywhere like tents rear
ed suddenly over night. one day a
house will be vacant, and the next II
will bear a sign announcing that 1t
is the headquarters of the women's
national league for relief work, or
comfort committee No. of the Amer
lean Red Cross. or the national united
service of women, or some kindred
organization
Early last spring the Red Cross held
a mass meeting of Washington wom-
en-, which was presided over by MISS
Mabel Boardman. Committees We're
formed to organize the nurses OF the
district, to mobilize pleasure cars, TO
provide surgical dressings, and COM
forts for soldiers at the front.
This Red Cross work is thoroly sys-
tematiZed and going rapidly forward
to the European front. Hundreds OF
nurses are prepared to take up their
duties in the military hospitals as soon
as our wounded. begin to be returned
from the front. Mrs. Hartman and
Miss Alice Shepherd are the drivers of
two we'll equipped Red Cross ambu-
lances and have already put them into
use by bringing sick soldiers from the
training camps to the city hospitals.
piling up in government warehouses.
Not Society Women Alone.
This work is not entirely in the
hands of society women. There are
dressmakers who give two or three
hours out of the day cutting out gar
mentS in the committee rooms; there
are government clerks who type Red
Cross mail after hours, and on one
committee one of the most valued
M EN- bers is an old colored woman
who reports every day with a supply
of clean linen rags which she dill
gently collects as her contribution to
the cause.
Aside from the Red Cross, there are
numerous other womens societies and
committees doing war work. The
woman's committee of the council of
national defense has a department
here under which many philanthropic
activities are united. The cabinet la
dies have organized their own special
war relief committees among the
women of their husbands depart
ments. Ms. McAdoo is the head of a
committee of women from the treas
ury department who are sewing and
knitting for American soldiers, and
Mrs. Lane, the wife of the secretary
of the interior, has a similar COM
mittee. The interior department is
unique among branches of the gov
eminent in that it has a large club,
for its employees, housed in a historic
old residence on Lafayette square. 1t
is now proposed to use the third floor
for war work.
For a long time the women of the
navy, the army and the marine corps
had separate committees, but, finding
that the work was overlapping in
many places. they have com bined and
! formed the United Women's Service
! 1np ha -r1TNO i-iA Of I've
Daniels and Mrs. Baker. Inasmuch
as the feeling between the army and
navy has always been on the tense
emotional plane evidenced at the an
nual football games, this combination
| committee is one of the strongest tes-
| timonials to the uniting power of war
The women'S leagues are legion in
Washington. Some society women are
already so deeply immersed in the
| duties of special philanthropies that
! they have been unable to contribute
anything for soldiers. There are the
| diet kitchens, for example, which are
attempting to look after the city's ba-
bies and teach prospective mothers
the hygiene and care of the child. In
time of war there is all the more de-
mand for diet Kitchens many of which
will add day nurseries where mothers
who go to work, may leave their ba-
| bies.
Many of the society women who are
remaining in Washington this summe
are not doing so wholly on account OF
the missions They are staying tc
| look after their war work. OF course
there are many butterfiies''-mostly
in the younger set-who cannot crow6
any war activities into the already
| crowded round of social gayeties, an6
| there are also many who would only
| interfere with the work of the more
serious minded if they tried to help
Il There is usually no more willing and
Il enthusiastic creature than the wal
volunteer-at the beginning. 1t is 81
II interesting and distinctive to weal
khaki and all the various new patri
! otto costumes planned for the wa
worker. There is hardly a societ!
woman here who has not had her pic
ture taken in one of them.
But the actual hard work connecte,
with war activities is rarely so pop
ular. In England, when the war frs
broke out, the frivolous society WON
an became real problem. She ha,
amounted to an actual scandal in tn
, Boer war when the generals forme,
, combination and literally ordere,
her out of the army headquarters. Il
1914, it looked as if the plague O
women" had again returned. First
they all wanted to be nurses in tn
! military hospitals. and many sue
, ceeded in getting there, where the
interfered with the hospital disciplin
and the work being performed by tn
real medical women. They came an
went as they wanted to, and thei
idea of nursing was to smoke cigaret
: with the wounded soldiers and fiji
with the more attractive cases.
i, Frivolous Element Eliminated.
l In England, however, this frivolou
e element was only phase which 500
= passed. The women who had we
= coined the war as a new form {
sensation, rather than a serious under
v taking, were soon sobered by the
, own losses. The ''V. A. D." in Gree
a Britain today is a valued worker.
So if something of the sort de
velops in our own country, we nee
q not be discouraged. 1t will pas
. War work, in spite of its glorioU
. paFaphernalia of khaki servic
aprons, jeweled flags and medals,