Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-06
WV. HELPS WOMEN IN WAR:
RAISE NEEDED FUND FOR WORK
Hostess Houses" Established at Training Camps Aid
For Girls Engaged in New Industries

they are visiting. The hostess will
ind him without delay. The houses
also provide further entertainment
The Camp Upton building has a re-
ception room downstairs, with large
fireplace and writing rooms adjoin-
| ing. In a separate part of the build
ing is nursery for visiting babies
and a rest room for older guests.
Theresis also q cafeteria.
The construction of the hostess
houses, the practical plans and con-
tracts were all, in the beginning, in
the hands of Miss Blanche Geary,
who did all the original work that
later plans follow. Miss Geary is the
economic expert" of the Young
Women's Christian Associations in
this country, and has now taken her
special knowledge and experience to
France, where she is in charge of the
councils work with women in war
industry there.
Great Task
For the task of housing and -eed-
ing hundreds of women suddenly
summoned to work in great indus
trial cities that have sprung up over
night, the association has appropriat-
ed half million dollars. When the
government suddenly calls for a score
or more of women to go to work at
once in laundry, on uniforms, in a
munition factory, it is not always
possible to supply them at once with
place to eat and sleep. But, since
eat and sleep they must, Immediate
ly the War Work Council is plung-
ing into the business of supplying
them with suitable living quarters
and with food. This has been a tre-
mendous problem in England. 1t
promises soon to be equally gigantic
here.
Then there is the assistance which
the council stands ready to give to
foreign women whose husbands and
sons have gone to war. Many of these
women have lived in America in
practical isolation from the American
world, depending upon their men
folk as intermediary between them
and the strange new country that has
remained new, of whose customs
they are ignorant and whose Ian
guage they have never learned. In
this field the Y. w. c. A. has decided
to use 100000. There is a special
bureau for the work. Eight branch
bureaus are already in operation,
under Mrs. Henry NJ. Bremen.
One of the interesting phases of
the foreign work is being begun in
Russia. The problem is almost en-
tirely one of food. There are thou
sands of Russian women who need
to be fed, cheaply, properly, effic-
iently.
In France a large group of Y. w.
G. A. workers are already busy, more
are on their way, others are Just
about to sail, and constant requests
for more assistants are being receiv-
ed and met. Miss Geary has four as
sstants in her work for French
women in war industry, and the
council is cooperating with the Foy-
er Committee in Paris, in establish
ing rest rooms, recreation centers,
and eating places for the workers. A
central club for American nurses is
being organized in Paris, with
branches at each of the base hos
pitals. The appropriation for the for
eign work is S1,000,000, and the COM
mittee is under the chairmanship of
Mrs. John r. Mott.
The officers of the War Work
Council of the National Board of the
Young Women's Christian Associa-
tion-to give it its full title-are:
Chairman, Mrs. James S. Cushman,
of New York: vice-chairman, Mrs.
John r. Mott, of Montclair, and
Mrs. John Meigs, of Pottstown, Pa.
treasurer, Mrs. Henry p. Dawson, of
New York; secretary pro tenn, Mrs.
Howard Morse, of Port Washington.
The council plans to spend its S4,-
100000 appropriation before next
June.