The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1918-04-11
Can Women Command?
By Frederick J. Haskin

WASHINGTON, D. c., April 4th, Are
women competent 70 be placed in COM
mand of military organization upon
which lives depend?
The War Department has decided
that they are. By a rule which
has just been issued as part of the
manual for the Medical Department,
the chief nurse in a military hospital
ward is made the responsible head and
commander CT that ward, the army
surg in charge of the hospital being
her immediate superior.
To understand the significance of the
order, you should know that in each
ward of a military hospital there are a
head nurse, with several assistant
nurses, and ward master with several
mate assistants of the enlisted person
nell. Heretofore the head nurse has
had charge of the patients, under the
supervision of the army surgeon, but
the ward master has been the respon-
sible head of the ward as whole.
Miss Dora E. Thompson, superintend-
ent of the Army Nurse Corps, succeed
ed in convincing the Surgeon General
that the women of her corps, by rea-
son of their special training and proven
fitness were the rightful and often the
effective chiefs of the hospital wards.
The issuance of the order followed.
Miss Thompson is the outstanding
feminine figure of the war machine;
she is the greatest woman executive
and commander which the war has
brought forth. She has held her po-
sition as superintendent of the Army
nurse corps for three years and half,
but when the war broke out she had
under her charge only 373 nurses. Now
she has oyer eight thousand nurses and
is rapidly building an organization
which will include 10000 women, and
will be one of the greatest feminine
forces in the world
The part which the trained nurses
play in modern warfare is well known;
hers Is the merciful and terrible task Of
saving what may be saved from the
human wreckage of battle. No woman
lacking in strength and ability would
ever undertake such work, much less
stick to it. Miss Thompson believes
that the qualities and sacrifices which
are demanded of the Army Nurse
should receive more substantial recog-
mitch than they have hitherto received.
Through her influence a bill has been
introduced in Congress, with the APP
prevail of the administration, granting
substantial increases OF pay to Army
Nurses. An amendment to this bill has
been offered, and is strongly supported
by leading suffragists, which would
give to the Army Nurses definite mill
tary rank, such as the officers of the
Medical Corps have. Whether this
rank should take the form of commits
sions, making our nurses probably the
first female commissioned officers in
the world, other than those OF an hon
orarv sort; or whether they should be
given titles corresponding to the var
ious ranks, is question which admits
of some difference of opinion. There Is
general agreement however, that wo-
men who command as officers, who
bear responsibilities of the greatest,
and are as much subject to military dis
ciplIne as any officer Of the line, should
have some definite status indicated by
rank and title. 1t is understood that
the chief argument advanced against
the proposed commissioning of nurses is
that in case all of the Medical Officers
in hospital were killed, a woman
would then be in command, as the head
nurse would take precedence by rank
over the head man of the enlisted per-
sonnet. To this the women unhesitat-
ingly reply that the woman would be
the one best fitted to command in such
a case, as she would be the better
trained.
The present Army Nurse Corps was
organized in 1901. following the Spanish
American war, which demonstrated the
need for such an organization. At first
there were 100 nurses. At the time
our troops were sent to the border this
number was increased to 373, which
was considered large corps until the
present war broke out, when it was
recognized as the merest cucleus of
what we should need.
Miss Dora E. Thompson, the present
superintendent, became nurse in the
Corps in 1902, served in Manila, and
worked her way up through all grades
to her present position. The real test
of her ability however has come since