The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-09-14

A.
Women's Army Auxiliary corps, the
'fWaeks" as they are called. These
women are regularly enlisted mem"
bers of the army. They sign up for
the duration Of the war, they are
under the war ministry, they are
tsubject to discipline, they have theiE
own officers, a uniform, they live in
barracks and they are paid by the
government.
The 'Wacks" are organized to take
Fthe places OF men who are needed to
fight. They do all kinds of clerical
work, they cook. wait on table at Of
ficers mess, they have charge of
supplies, they have almost entirely
taken over the signal branch, tele-
lphoning and telegraphing, and the
like. There really seems to be little
that the "Wacks'' haven't taken over
in the way Of civilian tasks. They
even assist the veterinarians In TAX
| Ing care of sick and wounded horses
and mules.
Women in Naval Work.
There are about 10000 women In
this branch Of the British service.
Some of them work in Great Britain
and others in France. Often they
have served under fire, and always
" all o. cat VA CLF "a J. AA1 $S+SE+t~~%~
land telegraph operators have been
cited for GOODNESS and devotion to
duty under shell fire and air raids.
Great Britain is proud OF her Wom-
ems Auxiliary army. S.. T.
She is proud of the Women's
Royal Navy corps, known as the
"Wrens," of the great land. army Of
women who work on farms and help
feed the country and the army in
France. Altogether there are over
a million women in Great Britain
who have signed up for government
controlled war work. l..
l talked with Gen. Pershing about
the possibility Of organizing women
in America to release men for the
trenches. I told him that it distress
ed me to see men in uniform work
ing at card indexes, sorting mail,
pounding typewriters and attending
to telephones. He said that it was
only question of time before some
Of this work, at least, would be
taken over by women.
T know that we shall have to have
women telephone operators" said the
commander. And within a few
months the first women telephonists
were actually in France.
SLaTC tH
Gen. Pershing told me at the close
of our conversation that. he would,
If consulted, recommend that the
work of our women be begun at
home, in ~ the cantonments. That
strikes me as an excellent idea.
Women ought to be signed up for
clerical work, garden work and es-
pecially for housekeeping work IN all
the cantonments. A uniform is abb
solutely necessary, and the women
should be Differed and disciplined
by women. They should take over
most tasks not actually military,
thus releasing officers and men to
drill. In this way the work Of speed
ing up a huge army would be great
ly accelerated.
Our army in the environments and
in the field abroad is very well fed.
but there is no standard which has
to be maintained in all the regi-
ments. If a company has a good
mess sergeant the food is good, well
selected, well cooked and served. If
it has a poor mess sergeant the food
is abundant but not well cooked or
served. q
If the officers of a regiment are as
Jealous, thoughtful and resourceful
as they ought to be, the men are as
we'll taken care of as they would be
at home. I have in mind as a model
officer. a young first lieutenant, a
Yale man, in command Of com
pany of negro stevedores, at. one of
the great ports which we are using in
France.
Negroes Well Cared For.
. rTbasa y7ia,, ware all from fbe c0f .
ton fields of Georgia and Alabama
and the levees of the lower Missis-
sippi. They were magnificent physi-
zeal specimens, but fully Is per cent
were illiterate Some officers would
have looked upon them as animals
only fit to work But this officer was
a. real person, and to him each
stevedore was an Individual H..
He made out of scanty materials a
comfortable, sanitary, up-to-da
camp for his regiment. He had a
bath house and a swimming pool, a
laundry, big, cool screened kitchen,
club for officers and a sitting room
for the men. He had a cooking squad
that was the envy of the neighbor-
hood and meals that were famous
for miles around.
Rounding Up Speeialties,
He told me how he did it. He said
that he felt sure that among all those
negroes there must be lot of in
dividual talent, and he went to work
to find it, He found one man who
was a soup and meat cook when he
was not cotton picker, and this
man was made soup and meat cook.
He found another cook to whom he
in fTII cfnd- tho vnpaTa hInE Another