The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1917-08-04
Universal Service for Women
BY FANNIE HURST.

(NGiss Hurst ts known 70 all readers
of contemporary Action for her stories
OF shopg4rls, mattresses and workin
girls Of all sorts. She has worked
as waitress and saleswoman hers
ELF, and has even made @ trip across
thu Atlantic in the stesrage to oh
tain material for a novel)
If only 7 naG a career!"
Anybody can do housework!''
Il used to paint before I was mar
ried"
Il showed talent for burnt-leather,
but my husband discouraged It."
There is no future to domestic
drudgery."
What professional or business woman
has not heard these plants from her
domestic sisters frequently poured into
her ears; these walls from the women
who are too little or too deeply in
matrimony to cultivate a vocation or
an avocation.
It is a conservative estimate that
eight times out of ten the woman with
the IF only I had kept up my music"
cry (by very virtue of not having kept
it up despite all obstacles) would there
by have more vitality robbed the cradle
than the public. But it is now these
tiny and the boredom of routine, are
in position to render important serv-
ice to the nation in its emergency.
At this moment. these home-women
Of the country, aching to express them
selves. have it in their power to make
the housewives apron a uniform of ma
tional significance.
If the "homebody" with IonRings to
create" is not free to bob her hair and
take up q palate, she is free to help
create world freedom by making econ
omy fashionable, lest 1t become oblixa-
tory" She is free to see to II that out
there" some soldier shall be better fed
better warmed, healthier and stronger
because she is part of the Great Sacri-
fee behind his sacrihcei
For every ounce Of discretion used by
her in food and clothing conservation
she is releasing an ounce of energy to
the nation. Her ability to maneuver
and prepare every article of food that
comes into her house so that waste
is eliminated and it's nutritive power
raised to the highest degree is helping
to enhance the resistive power Of her
country and her country's Allies.
Let her not belittle the magnitude
Of this contribution. In all probability
the woman who wanted to do burnt
leather is in a position to render greater
service to mankind by practising eff
flcient thrift in her household. than by
creating burnt-leather atrocities when
there is shortage of animals for
leather as we'll as for meat.
The Department of Agriculture has it
figured out that If only a single ounce
Of edible food on the average is al
lowed to spoil or be thrown away in
each of our twenty million homes. over
one million three hundred thousand
pounds of material are wasted each
day. It takes the fruit of many acres
and the work of many people to raise.
prepare and distribute four hundred and
sixty-four million pounds of food a
year. Every ounce of food thrown
away, therefore. tends also to waste
the labor of an army of busy citizens.
All honor is due 20 the women who
leave their homes to nurse and care
for the wounded, but the women. who
from their own kitchens are helping
by economical and carefully balanced
meals to release a greater degree of
energy toward the cause of freedom.
are dedicated no less than they to