Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-07
WE GAN DEPEND ON WOMEN
When They Know whs, They Can Do They
Will Do II With as Much Enthusiasm
tbc Mcu

as tnc McU
THERE are 100000 unemployed women
in the State, of whom $4,000 are IN
this city, who should be engaged in war
work. according TO Mrs. Thomas Robins,
of the women's division of the United
States Employment Service.
The Schuylkill Arsenal, says Mrs.
Robins, has material for shirts for
100000 soldiers, but has no one to make
them. This is but one instance Of the
shortage Of female labor.
Very poor women and very rich women
are doing splendid work, but we are told
that the women of the great middle class
have not responded as they should to
the demands of the times.
But il would he a mistake to attempt
to make a sweeping indictment Of any
large group of American women. Tens
Of thousands Of them in this city and
its suburbs are doing splendid work, de-
voting all the time they have at their
disposal to some kind Of war activity.
Other tens Of thousands of them. how
ever are so occupied with their ordinary
tasks that they have little time or
strength for outside work They can get
no servants, for the women who worked
as servants have gone into the munition
factories where they get better pay than
any householder can afford to give. The
housewives, consequently. have to look
after their own households. They have
to care for their children, too, duty
more pressing, now and always, than sew
ing shirts for soldiers. The young must
be safeguarded in their growing years for
the sake Of the future. They are those
for the protection Of whom our soldiers
are fighting in France. 1t would be
crime for those at home to neglect them.
Yet, t,many mothers, with keen apprecia-
tion of their duties to the present, are
worrying about how they can look after
their children and at the same time do
something directly connected with win
ming the war.
Mrs. Robins's appeal is not directed to
such. It is directed to those idle women
with no children and to those unmarried
women with no responsibilities who spend
their time reading novels and going to
the theatre and developing nervous pros
tration through lack of use for their
faculties.
Women in England and France are
doing all sorts of work. And no sooner
is an appeal for help made than they re-
spond in great numbers, not the women
of the very poor, but the women of the
middle classes, who have hitherto thought
that if they ordered the meals for
servant to prepare they had done full
days work. The war has given them
something to think about outside of them
selves and their little households. Women
in America have not begun to do tithe
of what their sisters in Europe are doing.
The reason is doubtless due to the fact
that the necessity of doing something has
not been impressed upon them. We have
only just begun to withdraw men from
industry in large numbers. The Ameri-
can women are at the bottom just as
patriotic and just as loyal as the women
of Europe. They are waiting for some
one to tell them what they can do and how
10 90 ABOUT uOlnS IL,
1t is morally certain that the $4,000
women in this city who are on the list
of those said to be so little occupied that
they can devote themselves to war work
will respond with alacrity as soon as the
way is pointed out to them. We assume
that the industries here in need of help
will be classified and that announcement
of the specific kind of help needed will
be made, and we assume also that under
the lead of alert women there will be
procession of workers toward the indus
tries where help is in demand.
Working in factory making shirts
and making gas masks or making uni
forms is likely to become as fashionable
as going to thes ddnsunts in the popular
restaurants when these women have dis
covered that they can really do something
worth while. Some of the very rich
women are even now working in NUM-
ton factories filling shells and soiling
their hands. They have set the example
and they are happier than they ever
| were before because they have discovered
| that they can be of some use in the
world.
Mrs. Robins, who says that the women
doing nothing are likely to be called
! slackers, is little too severe on them.
They are not slackers yet, for a Stacker
is one who deliberately evades what he
knows to be his duty. These women have
not yet realized that there is anything
they can do or that they are needed.