The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-07-19
Y. WIS BIC TASK.
Mrs. Paul Walker Explains Re-
cent Activities in War.
Topeka Leader Returns From
Conference of Workers.
EIGHTY HOSTESS HOUSES NOW
Two of These at Porto Rico
and One in Honolulu.
Association Has IS Women
Physicians Active in Field.

Mrs. Paul Walker, leader in the
Y. w. C. A. war work council for
Kansas, and state chairman of the
department of health and recreation
of the woman's committee, national
council of defense, has returned from
HOLSTER, Mo-, where she attended
conference of Y. w. c. A. workers.
Before the conference at HOLSTER, a
national conference of the association
was held in Chicago, at which Mrs.
Walker was present.
Among the new projects of the war
work council of the Y. w. c. A, is
the entertainment of actresses who go
to the camps in theatrical troups pre-
senting plays for the soldiers. All wo-
men in entertainment companies can
be housed and fed at these huts. The
buildings are small and inexpensive,
and furnish an excellent means of
experimenting the hostess houses and
the quarters for women workers al
the camps.
Eighty Hostess Houses.
THE Y. w. c. A." Mrs. Walker
says, now has eighty hostess houses,
thirty-four new ones having been built
recently Two of these are in Porto
Rico and one in the Hawaiian Islands.
The association is conducting training
schools at conferences in the country
for women speakers to be used by the
associations speakers bureau. The
object of this movement is to present
TO the public the work of the associa-
ton, and is educational in its charac-
ter A Topeka woman, Miss Nanon
Herren, publisher and reader, is TAX
ing the training at HOLSTER and will
probably be sent on speaking trips in
Kansas after the close of the class ses-
slonS. Miss Herren was sent from the
Rota club of Topeka as its representa-
tive in the conference at HOLSTER"
For Negro Women
Nine hostess houses, according to
Mrs. Walker, have been constructed
Tor negro women who visit the camps
where their men are trainings In
nineteen cities of the United States in
ternational institute bureaus for for
eign women are maintained by the
Y. w. c. A. Their object is to bring
before the non-English speaking
wor-en the food conservation program
and to keep them in touch with ma
tiona1 and international affairs. The
| association has 800 workers in 200
different communities, working with
women of twenty-one different ma
| tionalities.
rs Women Physicians.
The association also has now
rolled for work on it's social morality
program. This is the official bureau
of the woman's division of social
hygiene under the direction of the
committee on training camp activities
| in war work.
| women in war industry has captured
| the Imagination of thousands of
American women of the well-to- do
| class. One of the first matters to
whiel the Y. w. C. A turned its at
| tention was that of housing the
women who, with the sounding of
| the war declaration, began to move
| from their homes to the communities
that suddenly became war industry
centers. Obviously the association
cannot go about, the. country erect
| ing model homes for these newly
! arisen colonies of women workers.
Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, jr., is the
first woman in this country to attempt
to solve the problem of housing girls
and women working for the govern
ment. Mrs. Walker explains: "Under
the leadership of Mrs. Rockefeller the
war work council of the Y. w. c. A
has issued a pamphlet prepared by
experts on the subject. The Y. w. c. A
is building a house for uniform fac
tory women in Charleston, S. c., and
one for women Office workers il
Washington, D. C. These buildings
provide proper. housing and board, az
well as recreation facilities, infirmary
and rest rooms. In places where i
is not practical to erect houses, the
association undertakes to provide fol
proper rooming and boarding facili
ties in private residences. the owner.
of which are induced to open theil
homes for the workers.
Before the war;" Mrs. Walker
continued, these girls were setting
the stones that glimmered in the dan
giles worn by society women. Toda,
they blacken their fingers with pow
der that goes into the deadly fuses t,
be used by General Pershings men il
France; and women of leisure, VIII,
want to serve their country, are doin,
it by serving its women workers"