The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-11-12


 Mott, director general of the United States War Work Campaign, has sent to the woman's. department of the Connecticut State Council of Defense letter of his to Dr Anna Howard Shaw, vice-chairnan of the field di- vision, Council of National Defense, pointing out the responsibilities of women in the campaigns to help American soldiers. Dr. Mott asked that the influence of the American mother might remain with the sol- diers until the last of the latter em- parked for home. His letter fol- lows:
 Asks Aid of American Women.
 To the women of American, with out whose cooperation none of the great achievements of the war would have been possible, there will be a special appeal in the United War Work Campaign which is to occupy the week of November HIS.
 This great world war is, in a spe- c1al sense, a Woman's war: All the ideals and influence that good women typify in the world have been at stake in it. All the energies of the wom- anhood of every one of the fighting 1 countries have been harnessed to the great task of victory. Other wars have been fought merely with armies. and have left the. fabric of national i life little disturbed. This war has touched every home in the world; it | has taken millions of women out of i their homes into industry. Because | these millions of women workers are | soldiers in as true a sense as the men who are pushing forward victoriously I in France, and because 1t is part of l the task of the seven war work agen- 1 cies to support and provide for these women-soldiers, the campaign which is to make it possible for the seven agencies to continue their work is, in | 8 particular sense, the responsibility l of American women.
 | 'But there is a second and even more compelling reason. This is the | first great war in which the influence | of the American home, and of Ameri- can motherhood, has followed the sol dier straight up to the front line trenches.
 7, I said to General Edwards in ] France, General, how do you ac- 1 count for the fact that these fighters who, only few weeks ago, were boys in quiet American villages, are con- ducting themselves like veterans un- der this terrible punishment?'' and this was his answer, 'Mr Mott, at tribute it to the tradition of the | American mother"
 Influence of Mothers at Front.
 'The influence of the American mother has not been content to re- main at the rear in this war Thous- ands of secretaries representing the best influences of American life have walked side by side with the boys | through every phase of their experi- ence.
 "Thousands of splendid men-yes, and more than a thousand women, too. For three of these great agen- | Cies have women secretaries in 1 France, wholesome, friendly Ameri- can women, reminder of the mothers and sisters back home. To them the boys come at night hungry for a womans sympathy in a language they can understand; to them they bring the photographs of the mother and sister and sweetheart back home. When the history of the war is writ ten one of the brilliant chapters in it | will be the story of the influence of l these magnificent women.
 ''No man can say when the actual fighting of this war will end. But i whether the final victory come soon or late the need for seven great war | agencies for whom the United War Work Campaign is conducted will not be 1essened. On the contrary their task will be doubly important in the period of Rehabilitation. In those months when the fighting is over, when discipline is somewhat relaxed then will be our time to stand by. The responsibility will be ours to see to it that the period of Rehabilitation does not become a period of demoral- ization.
 Asked to Stand by Soldiers.
 "We have stood nobly by the boys thus far. Let us not stop half way. Let us raise the hundred and seventy million for which the war work agen- cies are asking; yes. and the millions i more that they need. That the influ- ence of the American home, and the American mother, may be with our boys, not merely until the fighting ceases, but. until the last boy steps aboard the boat that is to bring him safe home again"