Iron County register., 1918-06-20
YOUNG WOMAN IND
AERRART n WAR
opsendDd Opportunities Await These
Nfho Are Anxleue - Asslst-
ohould 0e Able 70 Dc oomo.
thine Specific.
oy MARY AUSTIN,

~ WsV"s NSSsusve
Qfum NE Committee on Public rnforma
ton. Washington, D. C.)
What shall she do, the young woman
at home. who is neither the mistres.
Of the house nor wage earner2 How
shall she turn back to the general &C
count the care and schooling she has
had. and how satisfy the hungry desire
to serve her country, which is. thanh
God. as characteristic Of our young
women as our young men? Every hour
since the war my telephone has been
ringing with questions like these.
Young men are captained and gen.
eraled. Expert supervision Of their
patriotic service Is at their elbows.
They have the splendid inspiration Of
togetherness, music, banners. shoulder
touching shoulder. Even wage-work-
Ing women have sense Of direction
they see the work that passes through
their hands pushed steadily to an end.
But the young woman of brains and
education and leisure must captain
herself. She must find her own job
herself.
1t is all very well for mother to knit
and roll bandages in her spare time,
which BY that process becomes time
saved. And though 1t is no doubt high.
" patriotic to save food at the expense
Of time spending, after all. household
economics can only be practiced by
those having houses. Red Cross nurs.
Ing Is a privilege Of the fit; and re-
Quires long training which few can
either physically or financially afford.
All these special duties leave wide
margin Of capable women who ache to
serve.
In France and England the lone
woman had no problem, unless it were
the difficulty Of deciding which Of the
many things to be done were to be
done first. But in America labor lead
ers have warned against closging the
wheels of war industries with crowds
OF nnskilled women who know none Of
the necessities Of the wage earners.
uhls Is the wage earners' opportunity
also, and no excess of zeal on our part
should rob them Of the chance to carry,
rs they are, the national burden. But
that does not mean that strong we'll
educated young women shall have no
part In this war but the traditional
handwriting from the balcony.
Capacity Goinu to Waste.
The first condition, however, Of the
young woman's getting specific thing
to do IS for her to be able to do some
thing specific. There Is a great deal of
formless capacity going to waste In
every community--waste Of talent and
waste Of skill. And 1t is being wasted
largely because we have, as a people,
fallen a little into the weakness Of
democracies, and imagine we can do
nothing BY ourselves. We think of
something which seems desirable to
have done, and we rush out and or
ganIze vast machines for cleaning the
streets, when all that was really need
ed was to sweep out our own front
yard. Women who wish to fill place
In the plans Of the government must
arst trim themselves into some def
mite shape, us clerks, as secretaries, as
mechantcians, or what not.
The trouble with much Of our Amer
lean life is that 1t has made us like
those cooks who can cook delightfully."-
only 30 long as they have an unlimited
amount Of the most expensive mate.
riala. We have come to think that we
can do very little Of anything without
the most expensive teachers and peda-
goglc equipment.
But 1t Is not only In food that we
must economize now; we must econo-
mlze In skill. In every community Of
5000, or even less, there is enough neg.
1ected skill to turn all Of Its unattached
young women into frst-rate workers.
Take your town bank, for instance.
There Ia m expert accountant there,
probably eating his heart out because
ne IL too old or physically UNIT for
held service. He would be happy to
pass on his thirty.fve years of expert.
ness to you. to be used US the govern
lment IL going to have to use women
accountants.
In your fathers store, very likely,
there Is a man who could make book
keeper out Of you In three months, and
have the thrill Of patriotic service as
the same time. II there IL a Carnegie
library IN your town, there IL some.
body there who can teach you card
,caaloguing and filing. II you are for.
stunate enough to live at the county
seat your opportunities for learning
clerical work are greatly increased.
Typewritlng you can teach yourself
Learn the touch system and how Il
make clean carbons. A textbook comes
with every machine. and II you canno,
ahord machine, borrow one, or clui
together with two others and rent ont
Ifor - 675 l An
Many Other Opportunities.
Indexing and 6llng are both In Dc
Imand In oil departmental work; thougl
4 will not be 20 easy to md oppor
|tunity for learning them 10 towns IA
der 10000. But telsyraphy can b,
Learned even In the rural districts,
fsw hours from On oblising local o.
esatos. . good tsxt book. and = ssmal
xoess outnt which can hs sst Up bl