The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1917-06-23
WOMEN'S AID IN WAR
PLEDGED BY DIR. SHAW
Suffrage Leader Tells NorristOwn
Weaker Sex" Will Bear Large
Burden.-Still True to Cause.

From the Evening Ledger of Monday.
Presently the ubiquitous click of the
knitting needles will interrupt the
frozen silences of the North and
drown out the timorous tinkle of the
ukulele on the beach at Waikiki.
In a little while the fur-clad house.
wives of Alaska will begin thinking
up new ways of economizing on Arc
tic grass and the raffia-clad danes of
Hawaii will hold powwows in the in
terest of making one banana give the
nourishment of two. At the same
time the women of the Philippines, in
their beads and birthday suits, or
whatever the correct afternoon attire
may be, will gather together for the
purpose of discussing the best meth
DDS of doing their "war bit"
For all of the women who call the
stars and stripes their 1ag-be they
red, yellow, black or white and re-
CARELESS of whether they live in igloo,
tepee, bamboo hut,> or brownstone-
front-are to be organized in a grand
feminine army to help Uncle Sam
make our war with Germany a short,
sharp and effective one.
1t was something like this, and a
great deal more, that DR.. Anna How
ard Shaw told ar interested audience
in Norristown's Opera House yester-
day afternoon.
At the outset of the war, when the
Council of National Defense was
formed, President Wilson 'conscript-
ed"-to use the word of Doctor Shaw
ten of Americas biggest women
only she didn't say that-to comprise
a woman's board of the council. The
purpose of this board was to form a
clearing house, through which the
work of the women of the nation could
be co-ordinated and, in a day when
waste of energy more than anything
else is a high crime, prevented the
overlapping.
Doctor Shaw, as the chairman of
the board, is giving her precious time
to the work of mobilizing the women
for the big job ahead of them. To-
day she will tell the women of Or
ange, N. j., how they may serve eff
fectively. Yesterday, in a stirring
what the board has done and what it
expects every woman to do.
at is u purpose" Doctor Shaw
said, "to use the women's organiza-
tions that are already built up. In
this way it will not be necessary to
create any new machinery. Thirty
States have already been organized
and by the end of this week every
State in the Union will have made
plans to use the energies of its wom-
en- where they are most needed. Then
we shall begin on Alaska, Hawaii and
the Philippines.
Everywhere the interest of women
is aroused" Doctor Shaw continued.
"The board has even had a letter
from the club women of Uruguay,
South America, asking if they cannot
help us.
"The women are willing, but they
must be careful to cooperate and to
keep the work of the different organ
izations from overlapping. The men
expect so much of us-the honorary
president of the National Woman Suf-
frage Association drew her mouth
down into a humorous little smirk-
"they expect us to furnish the enthus-
iasm and the patriotism and the eX-
citement that will work them up to
the enlistment point. And then they
expect us to provide all the sanity and
calm that we can muster. We must
keep the home going and be domestic
and sane and orderly; and yet we
must keep business on a level plane
and fill the mems places when we are
needed.
I'VE must economize; and yet we
must not disrupt business by ceasing
to buy altogether.
"By the way" Doctor Shaw put
the question laughingly, "of all the
things that have been written about
a economy, has anybody seen any
article which told of mems como
mics? Has anything been written
about conserving some of the land
that is now planted in tobacco? 1t is