The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1918-08-02
MAMIE AND JOHN
AND THE Big WAR

(By Chester M. Wright of the
American Federation of Labor Mis-
sion to Great Britain and France
Once war was Johns affair and
he did it all-bossed, fought it
and took the credit and glory and
spoils.
Mamie stayed at home, either as
wife or sweetheart, mother or daugh-
ter. All she did was wait and
worry-and mourn.
This war isn't Johns war any
more than it is Mamie's war.
John couldn't fight this war if
Mamie didn't help him.
What the results of this new par
ticipation in war on Mamie's part
are going to be time alone can tell
but there are going to be results,
and big ones. Let no one imagine
anything else.
Every time something is started
there has got to be finish-and
something was started when Mamie
went to war. The finish may be a
long time coming, but come it will.
And we shall probably be happy and
better off with it when it comes,
for civilization is going to build for
the better. when we have cleared
away the much and ruck of this
war.
John is still doing the fighting
at the front. He's doing the shoot
ing and the bold going "over the
top" and he's manning the airplanes
and the ships that go out to sea to
fight. But he's not alone at the
front. Mamie in this war is never
out of gun shot range around the
front line territory.
Women by the thousands are con-
stantly within gun-range of the
trenches. | talked with American
women in France who are running
canteens in territory bombed every
once in a while by Hun air craft.
Nothing less than an invasion in
force will ever drive those women
out of the field of their work. 1t is
THEIRS now-they believe it is
theirs and they are there to stick.
There is no such thing as safety in
France anywhere between Paris and
the front line. And in that vast
danger zone women play their part
with as much devotion and bravery
as do men.
British women, French women
American women, Belgian women -
women of many nationalities-Ma-
mic of every civilized land is fight
ing the good fight today. You don't
brighten women away from this war
will talk of danger.
At great French munition plant
where $4,000 shells per day are
turned out by 10000 workers, there
are 1000 women at work - 1000
French women. Where is the SCOT
fer who used to say French women
were dolls of more or less sentiment
tai makeup and more ornamental
than useful?
These French women stand in the
raging heat of FORCES, swinging ham,
mers; they run all manner of ma
chimes that help produce this enor-
nous output; they ride high aloft in
huge travelling cranes-they do al
most everything that John used to do
when he ran wars all by himself.
Not only that. Out through France
the women toil-young women, mid
die aged women and old women
planting the crops of France, tend
ing the vines of France, gathering
the food of France. We rode for
mile after mile through the country
overrun by the Hun in 1914 before
Joffre stopped the invasion at the
Marne. 1t has been painful pro-
cess, bringing this vast area back
to life and productivity. 1t is
country being created anew. 1t
will take years to bring it to what
1T was before the destroyer marched
over it. Mostly this is Mamie's
job. And as Mamie tolls with bent
back over this task of reconstruc-
ton she doesn't know whether her
labor of today is to last. She is
haunted by the fear that the Hun
may drive through again and undo
what she has labored so hard to
accomplish. She may have to re-
construct again. She doesn't know.
but she labors on. She's taking
the chance that John takes at the
front.