Arizona republican., 1918-04-15
MAR DEPARTMENTS WOMAN CERBERUS
 HAS 4 BUSY JOB
(By Frederick J. Haskin)

Manufacturers seeking government contracts, young men who want com missions, young girls looking for jobs, inventors, spies, cranks, senators, mothers of soldiers on the fighting line, imposters, foreign diplomats-these are only a few of the types of visitors that pass through the never-resting door of the war department Two thousand persons have been granted passes in a single day, which means that more than two thousand were turned away.
 The person who first sorts this diff ficult throng is Mrs. Mallie Roberts Nichols, the woman door-keeper for the war department. Her task is to question every applicant for admission, unless his business is known to her. give him a pass to fill out, and then endorse the pass, if she sees fit. No further description of it is necessary to show that Mrs. Nichols task is one requiring a great deal of tact and pa tience and a remarkable memory. These qualities she has, and the memo ry she has supplemented by a file which contains over six thousand en- tries, and is growing and changing daily. For keeping track of the bureaus and divisions of the war department is an endless job. This department long ago outgrew its share of the war, state and navy building, and parts Of it are now scattered all over Washing ton. Some of them have moved seven times since the war began, and few there are that have not moved once or twice. Mrs. Nichols is perhaps the only person alive who can tell at once inst where any office of the war de- partment is located. Furthermore, she is willing to tell. To the stranger in Washington she is invaluable. If she can not make him understand by mere words the location of the place he seeks. she will draw him map. She regards it as her patriotic duty to see that each deserving applicant at her desk gets all the information she can give.
 Needless to say entrance to the war department is a thing which can not De granted indiscriminately. In the Ilrst place. there are some persons who might do incalculable harm II they op- tained it; and in the second place there are many who would only waste the time of the war workers. Mrs. Nichols believes that in her task of asserting the applicants she is aided largely py intuition. She takes pride in the fact that no one bent on mischief has yet passed her desk, although she has stopped one impoSter who was WedflhS the uniform of the United States army without right, and one man who 1lnaliy admitted that his intention was to commit suicide in the secretarys oilice as a protest against some imaginary wrong.
 Inventors of war devices with models
 
 among the visitors almost every day, and they are almost always admitted. One of these inventors was not more than six years old. He grayely an nounced that he wanted to see the secretary of war, and for long tune refused to divulge what business ne had with that officer When Mrs. Nichols explained that she must know his business before admitting him, ne finally told her in an impressive Whls- ner that he had invented device to kill the Germans" and that ne dlo nos intend to show the plans to any less. d person than the secretary or war. MI s' Nichols felt that the spirit manifesto" was worthy of being encouraged what ever the invention might be, and she sent him up to the secretary's office. Mr Baker was unfortunately out, but inc plans for the German killer were examined and admired by everyone Tn his office and the young inventor was sent home with the assurance that ms ideas would be laid before the proper authorities.
 Visitors to the secretary make up an enormous proportion of those who pour through the war department door. Ii half of them reached him, MT. Baker s life would be one long reception. For this reason he is surrounded Dy d carefully chosen corps of assistant sec retaries, assistants, secretaries 10 as sistants. and assistants to secretaries Each of these has to do with certain class of visitors and is especially quail fled for the task Thus Emmett Scott a colored man, who was the private secretary of Booker T. Washington, IS especially delegates to attend to the af- fairs of persons of his own race be- cause he is able to do so understand ingly. Other races and classes are similarly represented on the corps or the secretary by men who are especial ly qualified to serve them. The spirit of the war department, from the desk | at the door to the secretary,s office, strikes the visitor as one of fair deal ing toward all If difficulty IS some | times encountered by the visitor, II |
 should be taken into account that these things are inevitable in an organiza- | tion which is growing and changing as rapidly as is the war department.
 One of the most attractive parts Of | the crowd that daily enters the war | department is the host of young wom- 1 en that have come here from all parts of the country to take position as typ | ists. stenographers and clerks. A very 1 large prdportion of the clerical and secretarial work of the department is | done by very young women, many ot | them no more than eighteen years of age They are making what is to them "big money"-from eleven hundred to | fourteen hundred dollars a year. The | American stenographer is an adept at 1 dressing well on less than that. Hence the war department crowd is very chic and well groomed aggregation, and it goes about the grim business of war with many giggles and smiles. Nevertheless is does the work. This | infusion of young blood was necessary. and fortunately the war department had in its employ number of older women who could be used as fore women and superintendents. It is an injustice, admitted on all hands, that these forewomen, although they are do- ing some of the most important work in the department, are not paid any more than their young assistants, be- cause the law does not provide higher salary for women clerks, and congress has not had time to amend the law.
 One of the worst of trials that be- sets Mrs. Nicols is that of caring for the persons who do not know what they want. Many of them have no idea of how the government is organized, and seem to think that the war de- 1 no rtr,nnnt handlnc almost ararxt h I, Q