The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1918-12-21

truly democratic American fashion.
The little girl in a nearby govern
ment office or a distant knitting mil
holds the attention of the lords o
the War Department. Contracts ar,
cancelled or continued that the cir
war workers may be assured a chance
to live. From each State in tn,
Union, men and women who repre-
sent the government are telegraph
ing to Washington reports on the in.
duStrial organizations, which in the
early months of 1917 began to sees
the women for war service, are now
reaching back through their mem.
bership of more than ten million
women to assure due recognition for
this same war worker as she goes
home from a task well done. JUS
tice in the shape of recommendation
for adequate notice and extra salary
when she leaves Government serv-
ice hold the attention of Cabinet
meeting while questions of world pol
icy wait A bill has been introduced
into Congress to supply transporta-
ton, on the same basis as that fur
nished demobilized soldiers, for the
army of 100000 women who have
come from the four corners of
America to serve their country in
Washington.
The story happily lacks the melo-
dramatic quality of an eleventh-hour
rescue. There are two reasons -
Uncle Sam, officially and personally,
has recognized the debt he owes to
the two million or more women al
ready in war work and the millions
of others who were willing to put
aside personal interests to undertake
war production. Such men as Ber-
nard Baruch, who recently offered
transportation from his own pocket
to all women leaving the War In
dustries Board, of which he was
member, are guarantee that the
public would sooner or later have
recognized and demanded adequate
consideration for our women war
workers.
The second reason which explains
the happy absence of anxiety among
women at this time lies
in the immediate action of the De-
partment of Labor. The nationwide |
machinery, built up by this agency
of the Government for war recruit
ing within the last nine months. has
recognized women in proportion to
their numbers, on an equality with
men.
In the councils held daily by the
War Production Section of the War
and Navy Departments, the War In
iustries Board, and the Labor De-
partment women are, in the words of
the suffragists, just people" with
all the privileges of the people of
he United States. Threatened dis
location in the knitting industries
With their nearly 10000 women re-
elves the same attention as SINH
ar condition in an industry affecting
men. Hosiery mills which were run
ling on Government orders have
,een allowed two weeks additional
work after they finish their present
contracts. longtime delivery is
provided for so that the eighty
leedle machines required for the
leavy yarn in soldiers socks may be
hifted into sets of 12O needles as
lsed for the silk and cotton hose of
ommerce, and no change has resulted
o the workers other than in some
asses of temporary shortening of
Iours. All knitting, cotton, and :
voolen industries have been handled
n the same fashion, with the triple I
i'm of rapidly cutting off war costs I
Without mourning the greater costs of I
islocated industries and industrial ,
nrest. !
In many States, even where war {
riders predominated, the replace !
lent of women war workers in {