The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-07-07
WOMEN and The WAR
THE ToPEKA STATE JoURSAL
IMPORTATION BUREAU
~ Frederic J. Haskin, DireeteP
Eaahinxton. d. o.
U-Women Of Europe.

thru the streets OF LONDON Oh ieS "0s
to France. London is used to sucn
sights, yet crowds lined the sidewalks,
cheering and waving farewell. Proud
Iy and right CALAMITY the regiment
marched, with the erect carriage ana
firm, assured tread of the trained SOL
der; with hats jauntily cooked, ana
short skirts -fluttering in the breeze.
The soldiers were women!
Months ago. the British military au-
thorities started recruiting large
number of women clerks and me-
chanics and putting them thru
strenuous course of physical training.
The idea was to send them to france
to relieve men who we're occupying
positions other than the trenches.
There are now some twelve hundred
women, with firm, hard muscles and
strong constitutions, in the French
war zone doing military work under
the strictest kind of military disci-
pline. They are not actually fighting,
altho even that may come They are
filling jobs of military cooks, clerks,
carpenters and ambulance drivers,
who have been moved up to the front.
Beside the Russian women's "Regi-
ment of DEATH" which proposes to
fight in the trenches under the same
conditions as men, this woman's army
of Great Britain would be OF minor
significance if it were not for the fact
that it is British. After three years of
war in which she has proved an in
valuable citizen, the British woman is
just beginning to break thru the con-
ventionai cocoon the British man built
for her. A woman is still forbidden
to practice law in England. She can
not hold any important political posi-
ton.
Prejudice to Overcome.
Not long ago, a young woman was
elected petty sessions clerk of a civil
and criminal court in the place of her
father, who had held the position for
forty-five years. The young woman
had helped her father with his work.
and the judges were confident in her
ability to hold the position. But the
local authorities were scanda1ized and
informed the judges that it was
against the law for a woman to be
court recorder The young lady, who
is woman of determination, has
been taking the case from court to
court, with the help of the Woman
Suffrage Association of Ireland, but
the result is still in doubt.
At the beginning of the war, when
the women began to organize for war
work, the government gave them to
understand that their assistance
would necessarily have to be limited.
There were certain things women
were fitted for, and they were to stick
to these. Germany had five hundred
thousand women in munition factories
before England had fifty thousand
Finally, it was the private corpora
tions in England who insisted upon
their employment both in the fac
tories and in railways and police de-
partments. In other fields, too, the
government proved stubborn. When
the women attempted to handle the
problem of Belgian refugees, the gov
eminent would lend no assistance.
even presented opposition and at last
took over the work and performed 1t
very inefficiently. But such opposi-
ton met its defeat in its encounter
with medical women.
Entire Hospital by Women.
Trained medical women all over the
United Kingdom offered their Tree
services to the government in Its time
of need only to be refused. Undis-
couraged, the women then went to
France, and France received them
gladly. In December, 1914, the first
hospital at the front under British
women was thrown open.~ This hos
pital is now considered one Of the
most efficient in France, and 1t is en-
tirely run by women even to doctors,
nurses. cooks and ambulance drivers:
In France, from the beginning, 1t
has been different. The feminine in
fuence in France, since the days of
the French revolution, has always
been great. AS a rule, the French
woman is gifted with a practical COM
nonsense and business judgment
equal to that of her husband, and
when she speaks the men listen to
her. There women have made and
broken cabinets without the weapon
of the ballot.
1t is the women of France now who
are wrestling with the problem of re-
facilitating the towns and villages
ransacked and left practically desert
ed by the invading Teutons. Scores
of villages lie ruined and devastated,
tho haTUaStG aWant the cattle
confiscated and the population be-
tween the ages of fifteen and sixty
deported by the German army. Not
a COW or a chicken is left nor a dog.
Onlya the old and the children have
been spared, and they are in need of
everything in the way of food and
clothes. 1t remains for the women to
organize these deserted provinces, put
the land once more under cultivation,
restock the farms with cattle and put
the population to work.
Nations Depend on Women.
With such tremendous tasks follow
ing one another in rapid succession,
the women of France have been called
time and again to put forth almost
superhuman effort. They have had to
build up whole provinces while the
enemy was destroying new ones. But
at no time have they failed to see
themselves clearly on the road to the
political goal toward which their sex
is travelling. In France the women
realize to the fullest extent the part
that women all over the world will
| play in winning the war. They know
| that all nations at war are dependent
upon the labor of their women. They
realize further that the future of the
nations is very greatly dependent
upon the attitude with which women
| perform their new tasks. Fortunate
ly, the French government realizes it,
| too, and never misses an opportunity
| to encourage them.
! The three years of war have
changed not only the conditions affect
| ing European women, but also women
! themselves. There is hardly a woman
| in the belligerent countries who has
not suffered. Practically every woman
| in France wear her black badge OF
loss around her arm, and the women