New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1918-04-16
THE WAGE-EARN WOMAN
NT1IE WINNING OF THE WAR
Ely Marie l.. Obenauer, Industrial
Chairman National League For
Noman'S Service. For Division On
Womeu's War Work, Committee on
Public Information.

1T takes four men to maintain one
fighting man at the front" Just
about one man in four is a woman.
a million and a half men at the front
means six million mem at the back,
of whom one million and a half are
Wonderland that is Just about tho
size of the Womans Army of Indus
trial Defense.
The star Of the Feature story"
within this army is the woman NUM-
ton maker. Like the bandaGe roller,
she has occupied the limelight so long
that she is rated at her full value as 81
factor in the winning of the Waf. but
the soldier at the front must be fed
clothed, equipped, and shipped before
he can shoot, be shot, be bandaged,
or be otherwise first or second aided;
and it takes only a moments thought
to realize that spinning yarn, Weav-
ing cloth, and turning it into cover
ing and clothing for the fighters.
weaving linen for airplane wings
tanning leather and making Ii into SOL
diers' shoes, canning fruits, vege-
ia bles. and meats for the camps,
making bolts, nuts. screws, and rlvets
for ships, and a hundred other kin
dred and common factory occupa-
tons are as much "war work" as
making guns and gas masks, rolling
powder pellets or Red Cross band
ages. But what everyone knows n
lot Of people forgot at the entrance OF
this Nation into war. Whether or not
there was good reason for forget
ting does not matter SO much as that
there was a resultant a bad one.
Within a few months after Con-
gress declared the existence of a state
of war calls for nearly 10000 factory
and mill trained women were made
upon the Bureau of Registration and
Information of the National League
for Women's Service-a bureau that
operates under the official sanction OF
and in cooperation with, the United
States Department of Labor. The
most inSistent calls and those hard
est to fill, were for women, not to
make bandages Or bullets, but to do
woman's world-old job, to spin, to
weave, to knit, to sew, and to con-
serve food-not in the old home
kitchen fashion, which produces in
dozens, but in the new factory and
mill way. under which the productive
power Of woman labor is raised
hundred and q thousand fold.
"Mv daughter is saleswoman.
She'd like to do war WOrk-W1releSS
telegraphy in the Army or Navy, mu~
milton making, Red Cross, or some
thing like that But she would not
go into an ordinary factory This
speech, or the substance of it, was
heard again and again IN house-to-
house canvass to secure a few score
women in a Middle Western town TO
operate power sewing machines. The
a.
chimes was appearing a few hours Ia
ter as obvious war equipment. BUT
the occupation itself was only the
we'll known power sewing machine
process and uncistinsuishable from
that performed on hundreds OIL xmas
Of commercial work.
UnquestionabIy. the readiness with
which women go into munltion fac
tories is influenced materially by the
higher wages generally paid in these
newly erected establishm ents, where
labor costs are not dragging anchor
in the price level Of general COM
mercial commodities and in the nee
essty of anticipating labor ADJUST
ments after the war. But hlgher
vases does not explain in full the
marked preference for munltlon
making Frequently when highly
skilled operatives, at work In nones-
sential Industries, were sought Tor
important war work in essential IN
dustries other than munltlon making,
there was no difference in the wages
offered, vet fiat refusals TO go IN
to another trade to do just common
factory work again often preceded
anv discussion Of wages
The failure of these wage earning
women to respond to the call Tor
their skNl was but the TettectlOn OF
their failure to appreciate and respect
their own singular Importance ana
consequent responsibility in the Win
ming of the war. Their attitude, now
ever, is just a part Of the war psE-
chology of the public-and especially
of the woman public. In tones OK
talk about mobl1izing the woman
power of Am erica, the importance
ne the WAGE earning women with FAC
tory and mill training in the winning
of the war was lost in the dramatic
and appealing picture drawn OF hio-
tor corps. canteen divisions, girl yeo-
men,, Red Cross chapters ana I'll tilo
novel activities that sprans into oelhs
on the advent of the war
TO fairly measure the special war
sorv,co which the wage-earning Wo-
man must render is not to galnSay or
belittle the war work which the mil
lions of wagcleSs women must DO, nor
does It deny to the millions or preao~
winning women outside the factory
and mill a part in the national pat-
tie for world liberty. There are INES
of national defense which they must
help to hold; but the part or the
waeeIess woman in the winning OK
the war is another story, and that OK
the bread-winning woman unouahheo
for factory or mill service is still an
other This tale is the story OF the
million and half women engaged
in 1nar and other essential industries.