New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1918-04-17
THE CLEARING WOMAN
IN THE WINNING OF THE WAR


Noman's Service, For Division On
Nomen's War Work, Committee on
Public Information.
(Conclusion)
! Over 100000 of the main woman's
! army of Industrial defense have al
| ready passed in review in this brief
! summary of "war'' orders, yet only
| five industries have been cited and
| only food and the chief articles Of
clothing and accouterment have been
named. Some of these 100000 wo-
men, of course, are making the other
| necessary articles of personal wear
and company equtpment-hats, caps,
gloves, belts. tent parts, mosquito
bars, and other textile fabricatjons.
The war orders and the calls for
woman labor from firms holding
principal and subsidiary contracts
show what the other 100000 wage
earning women are called upon to do
! toward furnishing the fighting forces
with the scores of things under the
category of equipm ent-tent poles
and tent pins, screens and cots
hrooms and brushes bugles and bugle
sings, axes and picks, spades and
shovels, optical glasses and scientific
Instruments About 100, 000+ of them
are in establishments not popularity
recognized as munition plants and
vet as essential to the waging of war
as is the manufacture Of guns and
explosives. Some of the women are
making bolts and screws and nails
and rivets for the craft that carry
food and clothing, guns, and ban
dages to the soldiers, and the soldiers
IL. -
that do battle on the surface Of the
waters and destroy the scorpion craft
beneath. Some of these hundred
thousand women are running drill
presses in locomotive works; others
are filling cores in foundries and ma
chine shops; some are making wire
less and other electrical apparatus,
and still others are in automobile
plants, making spark plugs and other
essential parts for airplanes, subma-
rines, and army trucks.
About another 100000 are doing
the sort of work which has put Them
with the bandage roller and the
strcet-car and theater lnitter, in the
limelight as war workers.. They
are in the GOvernm arsenals MAX
ing Or testing parts for guns and
other offensive equipment. They are
in private munition plants in Con-
necticut, New York. Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, Delaware, Ohio, Illinois,
and other States, rolling powder pei
let's, gauging bullets, making fuses,
making shell parts and filling smells,
making gas masks and rubber band
ages airplane wings, and War-bai-
loon parts and the hundred and one
other things required for offensive
and defensive equipment. They form
the most spectacular division Of fac
tory and mill trained women essen
tial to the winning of the war; but
they are. after all, no more import
ant than the other divisions Of the
army of 100000 women engaged in
the war industries. Most of them
have had factory, mill, or business
drill. and as with the other L, 400,-
600 in the war -industry army, the
discipline acquired in factory, mill,
and mercantile establishment makes
them a powerful factor In the WIN
ming of the war. They were not draft
ed into nor did they enlist in, the
ranks of industry at the entrance or
this country into the world conf1lct.
When the war broke upon US they
We're already there-trained, sea-
soned troops that. without uniforms
or military organization, have fallen
into line each morning at a never
failing bugle call and remained in
the ranks at the bidding of an exact
ing commander. To the work or
other women the war has at least lent
the attraction of neWneSs and variety.
For the factory and mill trained wo-
men in the older industries the war
has only intensified the monotony OF
repetition work. 1t has meant less
cloth of variegated colors and tex
lures for a heterogeneous clV11an
market and enormously more Of uni
form texture and color for the Army
and Navy. 1t has meant fewer met
al novelties and more standardized
parts for instruments Of war. But
the drill in monotony which has been
the norton Of these women in peace
time has seasoned them for the more
intensified monotony of wartime
work. Tt is fortunate for the winning
of the war that, working in close for
nation with millions of men subject
to draft, there is this godly nucleus Of
q. trained woman's army to build up
on as the exigencies Of the war COM
mel transfers of parts Of the indus
trial line now held by men to the
care and capabilities Of women.
The war industries" which are
the American fighting
forces are likewise an indispensable
source of supplies for the fighting
forces of the allies. AS the draft be-
gins to deplete the ranks of mon in
these industries faster than they can |
be recruited from men in nonessental
industries and disqualified for mill
tary\ service, these factory and mill !
drilled women must be counted on TO !
maintain winning rate OF pro !
duction But the war Industries
which are furnishing the billions or |