The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-04-23

L
women realize the extent to which
the women of England and France
are making this war possible; how
much they are doing for the war, or
it for them.
There will be general election in
Britain, probably in August. Do you
know that the party managers calcu-
late that fully half the votes will be
cast by women?
That's the fact, and even the most
embittered anti-suffragists are not
growing. They say the women have
earned it.
For instance: | went to Gretna
Green, on the Scotch-English border,
to see the great nitro cellulose plant
Thousands of buildings, power hous-
es, warehouses, glycerine- hills, dorm
Iitories, hundred miles Of railroad
tracks, and complete terminal sys-
TEN. fill an area five by nine miles
all one factory for making high ex-
plosives. About 100000 people en-
ployed-and one in eight is a man.
At first it was too technical and
dangerous for women. But men
were gradually combed out for the
army and women replaced them. Fin
ally it required decision whether
women could take the mems places
at laying the pam. This is pro-
cess in which cotton is soaked in a
succession of acid baths, requiring to
be pitch forked from one big earthen-
ware vat to another, back and forth,
saturated and heavy with dangerous
acids. The men had always done it,
and to try women was daring ex-
pertinent.
But necessity has been the mother
of woman's opportunity. Men were
taken out and women put in. The
men had been laying the pan" four
teen times daily per capita. That
was a standardized days work. The
women were soon doing twelve pans
a day, and it was an acknowledge
success.
But the ladies were not satisfied
They speeded up, and presently got
up to the mems fourteen. Then they
decided to show what they really
could do. They pushed that average
up to sixteen to twenty, to twenty
eight, and finally to thirty-two pans
day, That was their average when
visited the plant and saw them do
ing it.
These women at Gretna Green come
from homes all over the country
They gave up everything to work for
1.-The war One sees thousands of them
streaming out at lunch hour and
hardly a woman in skirts. They
wear bifurcated overalls, tie their
. hair snugly in oilskin caps, and veal
heavy boots Some live in Carlisle
and other towns near by, whence they
come and 60 by Communication trains
morning and night. But far more
r live in dormtories within the factory
district. They eat in communal
/. dining roms, to which the food comes
, piping hot from huge kitchens Each
, kitchen supplies a number of dining
establishments in it's neighbor
!. lhood, and the results are such that
they have been made models or
r which many towns are now establish
: ling public kitchens. The same plar
!, lis followed at hundreds of other gov.
) eminent factories, effecting an econ
omy in food materials and cost Of
: preparation that is only equalled b!
/. the improvement in quality of pro
} duct.
|. These women at Gretna are large
!. Nv wives of soldiers. They have lef
{ their children with relatives or il
1 the babies homes that have beer
t lopened everywhere. Though libra
\ ries and amusement halls are pro
e vided. there is almost no social life
in the ordinary sense. But there il
fine spirit, and everybody is health!
. and happy. They are doing thei
bit.
At Sheffield in the Vickers-M Maxim
| Iplant, saw the molten metal poured
! out of a blast furnace, for gun 81
big that we were glad we must no
HIreport its size Anyhow it was SOM
4 gun Further on, we saw casting
of the same size in a lathe near 10
l feet long, being turned into its fina
shape and having its core bored ou
and women were doing the work.
I Then and there decided tina
there wasn't anything men could d
that women could not also do. Blu
when | visited the gun work an
proiectile factories and shipbuildinI