The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1918-10-16
THE BLUE TRIANGLE
ON BABEL'S TOWER


the station platform bench as the solid
blue figure suddenly bent down over
her. Excitedly she shook her head IN
answer to the question that she could
not understand. She searched through
her red plaid waist for the paper that
Il Tony had folded into little square
il and given to her. The writing on 1t,
in the English that Tony knew and she
Il did not, told the house where she lived.
! Tony had explained 1t all to her that
/ morning. He had told it to her again
at the station. Then, waving his hat,
he had disappeared into the train wiih
the rest of the men, and Lucia haG
been left standing oueside the gate.
There were crowds Of women pushing
all about her. They were weeping.
I So Lucia wept, too.
1 Lucia had been betrothed to Tony
in the old country. Five years before,
with long ticket for New York
| pinned into his inside pocket, her lover
4 had left her. He wrote in every let
ter that he had made her a home IN
! the new country. Her dOwry money
had finally provided her own transpor-
tation, and for two months Tony ana
she had been married. Then he had
drawn ticket with number on 1t,
and this morning he had gone. off to
| war. aE4i~f.t' -s ..gr. b. (.
| TO the policeman Lucia told all these
| things in rapid Italian. But the p0-
liceman only talked back to her as
rapidly in language that was not
Italian. She followed him dumbly to-
HEADQUARTERS. An hour later Wom-
an wearing American clothes gently
began talking to her in beautiful 1tal'
ian. ~ M ..s .,ry4ts& .,,gt.v
Itnlian Lucia was only one, of thou
sands of forefgn-born women, Syrians,
Italians, Armenians, Russians, Lithu-
anians, Polish, who, when the draft
called their men folk to the American
colors, asked in helpless confusion
what it was all about. When would
their men be back? What did people
mean when they told them they would
receive money through the mail?
Where could they find work that they
knew how to do? Was there no, one
who could explain 1t all to them IN
their own language?
The Y. w. C. A. was ready to offer
assistance, but 1t would be of no value
to offer 1t in English. Consequently
it had to supply a corps Of women who
could talk to the foreign-born woman
at her own door in the language that .
she was used to- hearing. in the home
land. To teach her English was as
essential factor in her Americaniza-
ton as to find her job. Therefore
the war council of the Y. w. G. A. set
out to find her English.
A year before the war began In Eu-
rope, the leaders Of the Young .Wom-
ans Christian association foresaw Just
such situation, and made ready to
meet 1t. They studied the needs of
the immigrant. They trained skilled
American social workers to become IA
miliar with the home habits and to
speak the language Of the Lett and the
Hungarian and the Greek and the 9th
er foreign mothers who brought ba-
bies and bundles over from Ellis island
to Battery park
The organization into which this ex-
pertinent has developed was named
by the Y. w. C. A. national board, "The j
international Institute for Young
Women" In terms which these wom-
en- can understand, 1t is teaching the
foreign-born how to sew and cook and
care for the baby. ..e.r
To girls like Italian Lucia, who con-
f1sedly fingered on the station plat
forms when the draft trains pulled out,
the W. Y. G. A. is giving direct as
sIstance. Educated European women,
appointed to the regular staff of work
ers at the camp Y. w. G. A. Hostess,
Houses are able to talk to the drafted
men in their own language, assist them
in writing letters home, and in ar
ranging furloughs and little visits to
the camp. t,
"rhe Home Information Service for
Foreign Families Of Enlisted Men IS
doing practical relief work for the
wives and mothers. The purpose of
the board is to help the women folk
left behind to understand where their
boys are and how they are being trent
ed how they need home support and
cheer, how to send them comforts, and
to keep pace themselves by learning
English and other things, SO that when
the boys come home they will not find
their women still very un-American
and out of sympathy with them.
Food conservation bulletins have
been translated into 10 or 10 languages.
At the factories and munition plants
interpreters are available for the non
English speaking women by whom the
real war industries of the country are
being largely carried on. In 20 I'M
portant cities international Institute
Bureaus are training American and
foreign women 70: full time social
service work with foreigners. Twenty
four trained women are employed on
the national and district field staff of
the Y. w. G. A.. On June 10 there were
1O5 trained women working at Ameri-
canization. l......e. ,..,......4 .,..
When more than $4,000 Chicago men
filled out their blue cards for the Sep