Cleveland County herald., 1919-03-20
Y. W. C. A. OPENS !. WORK IN ITALY
Tea and Club Rooms Opened for
 American Women.
Mlss Charlotte Nlven, Director of ital- Ian Work, Prepares for influx of
 American Woman Students.

Italy s now included in the war x ork of the American Y. W. c. A.
 Miss Mabel Warner of Salinn, Kan, tifd Chicago left Paris few days ago for Rome, where she will be in charge If a Hostess House for American girls employed there by the American Red Cross, the Embassy and the new Tu- berculosis Commission Miss Warner has been director of the r. w. c. A Hostess House at Brcst, France.
 Miss Warner will open tea room and club rooms where the American women can gather for social times. Rome is harboring n refuge population of about 10000 and accommodations are difficult to find.
 The work In Rome was started as a direct result of the appeal of Miss Charlotte N!ycn, one of the National Y. w. C. A. secretaries in Italy, who is spending few months in France as adv,so In the French work.
 Miss Niven's dreams of Y. W. c. A. work in Italy include the maintenance of residence for non-Italian women who, she feels, will come to Italy In great numbers after the war to study music and art.
 II believe at this time such project is particularly important because wo- men from other countries should be encouraged to come to Italy to replace the great numbers of German women who flooded Italy in the past, many of them paid agents of their govern ment,' Miss Nlven said In discussing her plans
 Miss Niven has asked the American Y. w. C. A. to aid the Italian Associa- ton In establishing a center, perhaps Ut Genoa. with two American secre- taries, with physical and recreational training, to net as q training school for Italian women. In connection with it her plan would include Hostess House for girls passing through the city or employed there. Si,ch n center would become eventually the center for all Y. w. c. A. work In Italy, both Italian and foreign.
 In her formal appeal for help fN the Gnlone Christlana Delle Giovani (the Italian. name for Young Women's Christian Association) Miss Niven has emphasized two facts, the poverty of the Italian Association on the one hand and the need and opportunity on the other for an American program in italy at the present time.
 Miss n,iven's favorite way of illus. trating the friendliness of the Italian woman to America Is by telling the story of the Italian mother who said she had taken down the picture of the Madonna which had hung for many years over her bed and was putting in it's place one of President Wilson.
 "In our work In the Unione we have lacked trained leadership as well as the material resources to give such training. We have had no means to buy modern equipment. Consequently we have not the visible results of American and British work
 "Fceble as our work may be, it is not useless Many girls in all parts of Italy have told us how much the Unione meant in their lives. Italian girls are touchingly grateful for the smallest efforts They respond eager ly to friendliness.
 There is no other agency doing In Italy what the Association is trying to do."
 Miss Eiven has spent the past seven years In work with the Italian wO- men, starting as director of q hostel, or boarding home, for Italian women stu cents at Florence. She is an Ameri- can from New York, where she was one time head of the Chr.stadora Set clement House.