, 1921-08-27
NO WOMAN PROBLEM" i'm
ENGLAND AS A RESULT OFF
WAR, AUTHORITY DECLARES
Woman Executive Officer
In the Ministry of Labor
Explodes Fanciful Yarns
About Menace of Too
Many Women in Great
Britain as Result of War
THE husbandless surplus Of
English women resulting
from the war the morai

English women resulting
from the war, the moral
status of these women, and
other questions of similar
strain, out of which Sunday
editors Of tho saffon section OF n.
American press have been weaving
some startling tales are not cause
for concern on the part OF Lillian
Charlotte Barker. considered one OF :
the worlds foremost authorities on
questions pertaining TO women, Is
pecially those relating to the employ.
ment OF women. Miss Barker refuses
to be excited or even impressed by an
that has been written about Engiand's
s~o-caiied woman problem. for like the
rustic at the curcus. she calmly de-
| clares that there amt no such animal.
These facts were brought out in a
recen Interview by Margaret Walter.
Tho Interviewer found Miss Barker a
large woman. with broad shoulders.
iron gray hair and laughing eyes. Her
voice is low and clear and very gentle.
She is ~ a old. Women instinc-
lively trust her and men treat her as
ar equal.
During tho war Miss Barker. who
began life as an elementary teacher
and WIS principal of the largest wom-
ems institute in London was put IN
charge Of the $4,000 women employed
at Woolwich arsenal. as well as being
chief inspector of all women munitions
workers throughout the uni She
is low executive officer in the min
istry of labor for the training and
employment OF women who suffered
in thu p-a fhror~h che l,xp - ,k-l-
men supporters. Two-thirds of the
female population of these island<
have passed through Miss Barker,s
hands as school children, girls and in
dustrial workers.
Is Not n Menace.
The excessive humble OF women
shown by the n is not a menace
in England" she said. 'It is the
other way round. There Is a vast
amount OF work to be done, and the
women of England nave got to do IL.
There Is just one menace-and that
Is that people will not see that in or.
der TO do their job women nave got
to be trained for IL. We trained them
Tor war work. at high pressure. under
terrible handicap. and they made good,
down to the last little flapper. Now
we have got to train those 1000. 900
put them to work hard and help them
TO forget everything else in their job.
But what about their moral posi-.
ton " I inquired. There is much
talk Of enforced bigany and so on"
Look here. The English nation is
a moral nation. You say that the
women exceed the men by 1000. 900.
Well, that means that the women are
the determining factor. and let ms
tell o tina. the women of England
are sound, moral and clean to the very
core. / know this is true and / am
ready to stake everything on that
knowledge"
But the unmarried mothers, the
free love matches and all those stories
that we hear SO much about, where do
they fit in?"
Il never bother my head about
stories. Here are facts. In woolwich
during the war 1 had SC. 900 girls work
ing in three shifts of eight hours
every day of the year. We knew
those girls body and soul. past and
present-we had to. They stripped
when they came inside the gates and
they stripped again when they went
out. We fed them and clothed them
and they daren't eat a chocolate cream
leA ~ 6Cu. we Ntul
through accidents and air raids and
explosions together.
Morals are Sound.
Well. the percentage of immortality
what 1 mean is, the number Of girls
who had Legitimate babies in that
period of five years was just one-fiftA
of 1 per Mark that. There you
are. plain nj clear. Two in In thou
sand. And that. too during a time
when crazy fools We're filling the air
with rot about the duty of having
babies. of providing England with sons
1t no matter what cost, the glory OF
motherhood . at a time when
temptation to irregular life was at It's
maximum.
I'm not a particle worried about
he women's morals. Their morals
are sound. I have never heard a girl
complain that she wante a husband.
In the first place. every mortal girl
thinks she's going to get married
when the time comes. But some OF
US don't. We get other work to do
and we put our whole hearts and
souls into 1t, and there you are. Girls
sometimes tell me they wat babies;
and / find them baby van,k 10 DO Snd
they make good at 1t.
There isn't any mystery about the
question and there isn't any cause
for alarm. There is just one answer
10 the woman question. and that is
work-hard. full time work-that the
woman herself has chosen and for
which she is by character and inclina-
ton fitted Then she will be as good
a citizen as her grandmother WIS .
wife and MOTHER