Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-04-14


 knowing your machine. Teach your self to know by the look of road what sort of a place it is likely to
 lead to- and what kind of traffic pass
 es over it.
 There are great many varieties of
 motor transport service, but even if
 non of the more dramatic opportun- iites come to you, there is an important
 service ahead of women in driving tractors next spring. It is difficult for
 woman to drive blow, but there are many farming implements now
 driven by motors, and the coming season is going to see unprecedented opportunities for women in this field.
 Tn beginning of competency is in l the driving of your home car. If woman has any gift for it at all, mechanical craftsmanship is very much worth while Government con strluction plants employ many drafts ! men, and you would be surprised to find how much of this you can learn from your local architect from the hoe and tool works or any other man ufacturing plant near your town. It is even possible to learn it from cor respondence schools.
 Long before technical schools were established, men learned all they need ed to know by apprenticeship, and the , plan 1 propose to you is simply to re 1 vert to the earlier simplier method. Apprentice yourself to your chosen trade in the person of tn most skilled workman you know. If you do not know how to choose, make census of the skills of your town. Find out the most valuable skill and save that for your country.
 One of the terrible things about war is the loss of this accumulated skill. Men spend years in school and years more in practice, and then at their most useful time are cut off. Make it your business to capture and retain some of the things that men have learned. Nobody will refuse to teach you. A man owes his knowledge and skill to his country as much as he owes his life; all the more if he loses his life.
 Women are the natural conservers of civilization. It is our duty to gather up and hold fast every bit of gain. Women are only just learning what it costs men to be proficient, and even if there is no definite objective in view, we could not go far wrong in attempting to save something of the proficient mans purchase. l have spoken of these particular occupations as being directly connected with the government machine, realizing some thing of the hunger of women to be s1 nr 1 is a sense in which any work which releases man for the front is gov- ernment service; but l have particu- | larly wished to point cut how women may fit themselves for national ser vice in their own homes. There are other things than thse, new openings every week, things which can be mas tered on the farm or in the smallest
 village. You do net, for example, have i to go out of your own town to learn how to be postal clerk
 There is in every town a goo djob for somebody keeping in touch with the needs of the government machine. If you can do. nothing else, be the coherer; find out from your state of- ficials and from Washington all about the qualifications, the dates and places of civil service examinations. the jobs ! for which no examination but mere i ly certificate of fitness is required. 1 See to it that your circulating library has such books as are needed by stu dents. If your state has a travellng library, know what helps it can give. There is nc, real reason why any American should not be able to, learn anything he-or she-puts her mind to. There is another brancI of patriotic service which, though it has not been departmentally opened to women here as in England is opn through communl ties and committees to American wo- men, This is the branch of the com missary. It includes all sorts cf knowledge supposed to be native to, the genius of women, of fodd buying and storing and cooking on large scale. The basis of commissary wirk IS a natural aptitude for it and a know ledge of food values. This you can teach yourself at home, making lab atory of your kitchen. The rest you can learn through community actlv- ities in your town, community store houses, community kitchens, commun- ity canning clubs, ad buying clubs.
 The Department of Agriculture, can supply you with information on the conduct of all these enterprises. AL ready the demand for instructors in i, these branches exceeds the supply. And if the war should surpris us b: the wears it holds on, there is no doubt ; many of them will be made a part of the government machine, just as they have been abroad. In that case the women who will be chosen are the wo- men who had the initiative to pre- pare themselves long in advance of the necessity.
 Food production is as important as food conservation, but it can be learn ed nly bv those who have certain amount of capital at their disposal, lands, or tools. CT stock. All the things l have mentined call for very i little more than the personal equip ment-industry patience, and staying power.