The Benson signal., 1919-04-12


their hands.
1t has not been easy to do any of
these things; to make radical changes
In well-established habits requires
nothing less than genuine incentive
and driving motive. These were
supplied during the war by the pa
triOtic sense Of responding to national
needs; they must be continued by the
cOnscientiousness Of participating in
worldwide endeavor
The position of women in American
industry has been much freer and
more democratic than in any other
country ever since the earliest en-
trance Of women and girls into the
New England textile mills. Although
our states differ enormously in their
industrial legislation, certain of them
have enacted laws securing one
days rest in seven, abolition of night
work, Saturday half-holiday, an eight
hour day and minimum wage for
women in the lowest paid industries.
These standards safeguarding the
health of working women are con-
stantly being advanced by the women
in industry service in the department
of labor, created during the war, as
were the federal employment bureaus,
which have women's departments.
Of the eight million women engaged
in gainful occupations at the opening
of the war, less than two million were
in agricultural pursuits, until many
more took the places of the men who
left the farms for the trenches.
Cultivated Back Yards and Lots.
In addition to these women who
went into actual farming and dairy
ing were the many women who in the
spring Of 1917 cultivated two million
back yards and vacant lots, so that
the first war crop of potatoes showed
an increase Of a hundred million bush
els over that of the previous year. In
response to the urgent plea that the
United States must produce enough
food to make up the bitter denclen-
cies of the devastated countries OF
Europe, the latent capacities in our
immigrant colonies were utilized
through community gardens, and wom-
en- everywhere were stimulated by the
example of the women's land army.
Did the great success Of these activ-
tiles make clear once again that food
above every other product responds to
individual attention and is greatly
benefited by being treated In small
quantities? Do we need "integration
Of function" as economists say, in our
food production, and are the children's
war clubs for raising pigs and bees
and poultry not only valuable because
they increase the amount of food but
also because they introduce the best
methods? The change which took
place in American agriculture through
the wider participation of women dur
ing the war may result to our lasting
benefit. We may have the more in
tensive methods in American farming
which have long been needed.
American women at this crucial mo-
ment must therefore show no signs OF
spiritual exhaustion. 1t has been their
part in the war to nurse, to feed and
to keep alive the forces Of social re-
generation at home. In carrying on
these perfectly normal activities day
by day these women have gradually
discovered that no child in Serbia
could be kept from starvation, that
no Red Cross supplies could reach
Mesopotamia save through interna-
tional administration of food or
through the interallied control OF
shipping resources. 1t has been the
most natural possible approach to the
problem Of world organization. Quite
ar women entered into city affairs
when clean milk and sanitary housing
became matters for municipal legisla-
tion, and into state activities When
the premature labor Of children ana
the spread Of tuberculosis became is
sues in a political campaign, as wom-
en- were interested in federal legisla-
ton when pure food regulations and
other such matters were being consld-
cred, so they now may normally con-
Germ themselves with international af-
fairs because these are now dealing
with such human and poignant mat
ters as the rescue Of women and chill
dren from starvation and the safe
guarding of living standards for large
devastated regions. To help make Sc
cure Americas place in the new
world is probably the most compelling
challenge which has been made upon
woman's constructive powers for CEN
turies. To meet it adequately, wom-
en- must utilize their household expert
ences, must employ all their human
affection and must exert their whole
capacity Of understanding.
Tendency to Experiment.
Fortunately the reaction from such
vital and generous experiences-as
American women have lately encoun-
tered-is a tendency to experiment, to
modify and to change old conditions.
The world at this moment is under