Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1918-10-17
THE BLUE TRIANGLE
ON BABEL'S TOWER


Lucia pulled her shawl farther
across her face and shrank down on
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
Tony had folded into little square
and given to her The writing on H..
in the English that Tony knew and she
did not, told the house where she lived.
Tony had explained II all to her that
morning. He had told II TO her again
at the station. Then, waving his hat,
he had disappeared into the train with
the rest of the men. and Lucia had
been left standing oueSlde the gate.
There were crowds of women pushing
all about her. They were weeping.
So Lucia wept, too.
Lucia had been betrothed to Tony
in the old country. Five years before,
with a long ticket for New York
pinned into his inside pocket, her lover
had left her. He wrote in every let
ter that he had made her home in
the new country. Her dowry money
had finally provided her own transpor-
tation, and for two months Tony and
she had been married. Then he had
drawn a ticket with number on 1t,
and this morning he had gone off to
war
To the policeman Lucia told all these
things in rapid Italian. But the pO-
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 tn her In beautiful Ital-
ian.
Italian Lucia was only one of thou
sands of forcign-born women, Syrians
Italians Armenians, Russians. Lithu
anans. 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
iltdli NlItll tlItN tOlu tlitiu lutN Nouih
receive money through the mail?
Where could they find work that they
knew how to do? Was there no one
who could explain It all TO them in
their own language?
The Y. w. c. A. was ready to offer
assistance, but It would be of no value
to offer 1t In English. Consequently
1t had to supply n corps of women who
could talk to the foreiga-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 Il 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 70
meet II. They studied the needs Of
the immigrant. They trained skilled
American social workers to become IA
miliar with the home habits and 10
speak the language of the Lett and the
Hungarian and the Greek and the 9TH
or 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
International Institute for Young
Women" In terms which these wom-
on can understand, It is teaching the
foreign-born how to sew and cook and
care for the baby.
To girls like Italian Lucia. who con.
fusedly fingered on the station plat
forms when the draft trains pulled out,
the w. Y. c. A. is giving direct as.
sistance. Educated European women,
appointed to the regular staff Of work
crs ut the camp Y. w. G. A. Hostess
Houses are able to talk 10 the drafted
men in their own language. assist them
In writing letters home. and in ar
ranging furloughs and little visits to
the camp.
1.-THE 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 treat
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 stlll very un-American
and out OF sympathy with them.
Food conservation bulletins have
been translated into Is or 10 languages.
At the factories and munition plants
Interpreters are available for the nom
English speaking women by whom the
real war Industries of the country are
being largely carried on. In % i'm
portant cities International Institute
Bureaus are training American and
foreign women for full time social
service work with foreigners. Twenty
four trained women are employed on
the national and district field staff Of
the Y. w. c. A. on June IL there were
100 trained women working nj Amcri-
canizatiOn.
When more than $4,000 Chicago men
filed out their blue cards for the Sep
tember IL draft. Gang Luo Wong ap-
peared at one precinct bringing with
him Mrs. Gang Wong and the three
children. All five wished to register.
The enrolling clerk explained. but the
Gang Luo Wongs make many broken
Chinese Inconsistencies before the mas
ter of the family was induced To sign
a card without his wife. Mrs. Wong
could not speak English. What would
his family do In strange country II
Gang Luo went TO war? All over the
United States Chinese and Poles and
Serbs were asking the same question.