The Yale expositor., 1918-06-13
Female Helpers Find Many Ways
to Aid Government.
MUST ECONOMIC IN SKILL
Splendid Opportunities Await Those
Who Are Anxious to Assist
Should Be Able to Do Some-
thing Specific.
BY MARY AUSTIN.


What shall she do, the young woman
at home, who is neither the mistress
of the house nor q wage Garner? How
shall she turn back to the general ac-
count the care and schooling she has
had, and how satisfy the hungry desire
to serve her country, which is, thank
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 a 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 it is no doubt high
ly 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 a long training which few can
either physically or financially afford.
All these special duties leave q wide
roi, 80 ha 10
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 clogging the
wheels of war industries with crowds
Of unskilled women who know none Of
the necessities of the wage earners.
This is the wage earners' opportunity
also, and no excess of zeal on our part
should rob them of the chance to carry,
as 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 Going to Waste.
The first condition, however, of the
young woman's getting a specific thing
to do is for her to be able to do some
thing specific. There is great deal Of
formless capacity going to waste in
every community-waste of talent and
waste of skill. And it 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
first trim themselves into some def
mite shape, as clerks, as secretaries, as
mechanicians, 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 so long as they have an unlimited
amount Of the most expensive mate
can do very little of anything without
the most expensive teachers and peda-
gogic equipment.
But 1t Is not only in food that we
must economize now; we must econo-
mize In skill. In every community of
1900, or even less, there is enough neg
lected skill to turn all of Its unattached
young women into first-rate workers.
Take your town bank, for instance.
There is an expert accountant there,
probably eating his heart out because
he is too old or physically unfit for
field service. He would be happy to
pass on his thirty-fve years of expert
ness to you, to be used as the govern
ment is going to have to use women
accountants.
In your fathers store, very likely,
there is man who could make book
keeper out of you I'm three months, and
have the thrill of patriotic service at
the same time. If there is a Carnegie
library in your town, there Is some
body there who can teach you card
cataloguing and filing. If you are for
tunate enough to live at the county
seat your opportunities for learning
clerical work are greatly increased.
Typewriting you can teach yourself.
Learn the touch system and how to
make clean carbons. A textbook comes
with every machine, and If you cannot
afford machine, borrow one, or club
together with two others and rent one
for SO.
Many Other Opportunities.
1ndexing and filing are both in de-
mand In all departmental work though
it will not be so easy to find oppor-
tunity for learning them in towns I'M
der 10000 But telegraphy can be
learned even In the rural districts. A
few hours from an obllging local OPP
orator. a good text book. and a small
Morse outfit which can b, set up be-