El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-11-18
WOMEN Helpers
IN THE ARMY Y
They Seem To Have Good
Moral Effect On Men,
Saws Durkee.


rotary Of the FL Paso Y. NJ. c. A, now
in France. writes interestingly OF the
work being done under his supervis-
ion. IN a recent letter. he says;
You would certainly laugh to look
over my crew these days. There are
about 20 in the staff. and just one
half are women. one is married. the
others are single. and Of ages vary
ing from % to somewhere in the SOS.
Just now we are operating u points.
and eight OF these are handled by
the women. Two Of my drivers are
women. and can you imagine the
lettering I do in trying to keep my
balance in all this crowd. especially
when we have some sort Of a gather
ing, and get started on what they
want to do and what they want to do
these things with Their wants range
all the way from nail files and vanilla
extract to two ton trucks. And the
stunts they pull off. you would not
anticipate in a thousand guesses. /
However. on the whole they are put
ting on a great Job. better. all things
considered. than the men For one
thing they do a lot Of cooking these
QaNE-LuQEts LaLAE. Qu4E ll44QA1s CUR
les. cakes, candy, biscuits, nut things,
cOncOctions out Of fruit juices in
tended for cold summer drinks-only
where I am now no hot summer ever
arrived TO make such drinks partccu-
larly desirable-and some other
things I could not name, but they
did taste good. And then men in the
army get so tired OF men. they all
but worship real American women,
and will do most anything for them
The Woman Question
This whole matter Of women in our
business has had a lot OF discussion,
but I think I have never heard the
case for the women stated more COM
pletely than couple Of mornings ago.
I was out bright and early to see a
commanding officer at a certain vii |
lage point, and while I waited for him
to finish breakfast big easy moving
southern mountaineer strolled up and
began 10 talk about matters and
things. He was not educated At all. |
but as is so frequently the case with !
such, he thought clearly enouCS. and
in singularly straight lines Some |
thing like this came into his monolOg
presently; When the Y. NJ c. A. put /
women in its canteens it did the best |
thing yet When the men go in a hut ]
and a man is there, they cuss and |
talk dirty and all that just like they /
do everywhere else But when they |
find girls there, they-well. they
better that? I cannot.
Soldiers Respect Women
I'VE have no difficulty whatever |
about bad language or conduct in the /
huts handled by our women. We al |
ways put two in a place. The French |
people are much mystified by the /
whole matter of our women In their /
social order il would be utterly i'm |
possible for a woman to keep her
standing and do such things
The physical work over here IS 1
quite a problem Up at the front |
there is practically nothing TO IL as
Ear as my observation went They I
are too absorbed in the big game. and /
too weary for the most part to go 4
in for much Of anything they do not |
have to do. In the back areas they
go in strong for baseball. boxing, and I
some for basket volley and football. /
We have heard great things about |
how the English go in for sports right |
in the midst OF battle almost, but l
confess I fail 10 see our men doing
that sort Of thing much anywhere. |
such thing. They are Just simply alb
sorbed in the army business-that is
all
Some seeretarIaI Timber.
we have some mighty fine men in
our organization here One hut sec
rotary is a captain in the Illinois ma
tiOnal guard, too old TO get over as
such, so he is with us. An old Virgil
MA railroader is our warehouse man,
a Kansas banker our business man
ager, and a Wichita miller is our ac-
countant Two other hut secretaries
are high school principal from South
Dakota and a college professor from
Colorado. Another especially good
one is a Pittsburg lawyer. and an
other an Iowa college student, a Grip
pied chap.
The spirit of this army is the very
best OF course now we are winning
in every direction But last spring
and early summer when IL looked like
we were losing everywhere, the spirit
was the same. It is true the French
in those days looked at our army with
anxiety, wondering how they would
act in actual heavy fighting, while
today they are wild with enthusiasm,
for they wonder no longer. But al
ways the spirit Of our men has been