The sun., 1918-10-06
By ELEANOR BOOTH SIMMONS.

~
w try and hasten the end Of the war
by working i'll munitions factory l
didn't have a moments doubt but that
I'd be received with open arms and told
to don the over;rls of sex equality and get
on the job.
To be sure l only meant to work one
day, but every little helps. Say woman
can make 1000 boosters i'll 4 year of
working days-a boosters thing in
shell, YOU know, or perhaps you don't
know-say she can turn out 1000 boosters
in 300 days, isn't it Il mathematical prOpo
sition that she can make three and u third
boosters i'll one day!
To be sure, also, wasn't trained, but
l had Il complacent feeling that | pos
sesscd intelligence. Surely intelligence
counts. Anyway, making boosters and
such things always looked excessively easy
TO me when on 4 tour through n NUM-
tions factory watched women at the oily
task
You don't even make the whole booster
yourself. You take fiat piece of metal
that huge biscuit cutter machine gives
you, round piece of metal just the size
of the biscuits mother used 10 make, only
thinner. and you slip it under kind Of
punch that turns it into a shallow cup in
a twinkling of an eye, and that's ALL
Some of the Many Processes.
The girl at your right, in cooperation
with a machine that's as safe and simple
as the old family horse, makes the cup
deeper and slenderer. Another girl gives
the booster. a bath in some kind of COM
pound-and, goodness knows, it needs it
and still another wipes it off and other
girls inspect it, and finally the booster is
finished, ready to be filed with the powder
which is one Of three charges in the kind
of shell I'm talking about-a shell weigh
ing something under twenty pounds and
warranted to kill 4 number of Huns if it
gets them right. ..
Well, l felt competent TO work on boost
ers, though didn't suppose that just the
first land only day I'd be put on I'M
portant machines that do difficult things
such as finish turn body and bourlette,
clean scald from powder pocket or ''knEl
band groove, erimp and radius (see pay
roll analysis).. i was willing TO. take u
humble position and l sought with con-
fidenee an employment Office which makes
a specially of getting women to back
Uncle Sam by making munitions. -.
Just to make them want nae all the
more, though the way American. women
haze been urged in the pubie prints and
Ivy. Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst to work at
munitions and shpbuilding left me no
doubt that they'd snatch at me, l NEIL
toned that it was my intention to write a
story for the papers that would bring
. women in droves to make ammunition for
our boys. The ladies in charge thought
that would be lovely and promised me
card that would put me on the pay roll
over at Edgewater, n. j at once. Hope
fully I hastened home and set the alarm
clock for A. NJ, so could be on hand
with the rest of the toilcrs when the gates
opened.
Most High Lady Refused.
In the cold gray dawn I attached my
self to a strap and subwayed down to the
employment Office aforesaid for my card.
Alas! it appeared that the ladies in charge
the day before weren't the Most High
Lady. The Most High Lady faced me
this morning and it appeared that she was
one Of those conscientious ones. Why are
so many of my sex burdened with con-
seientious seruples about things that don't
COUNT 80
Well, the Lady Manager didn't think it
would be honest to send some one who
only meant to work one day to factory;
1t would, she pointed out reprOaehfully,
be deceiving the employer. l had begged
to have the employer kept dark as to my
L Il u