Mobilizing Woman-Power | Page 9

must have man-power in the trenches sufficient to
win it with. To win, every soldier, every sailor, must be well fed, well
clothed, well equipped. To win, behind the armed forces must stand
determined peoples. To win, the people of America and her Allies must
be heartened by care and food.

The sun shines on the fertile land, the earth teems with forests, with
coal, with every necessary mineral and food, but labor, labor alone can
transform all to meet our necessities. Man-power unaided cannot
supply the demand. Women in America must shoulder as nobly as have
the women of Europe, this duty. They must answer their country's call.
Let them see clearly that the desire of their men to shield them from
possible injury exposes the nation and the world to actual danger.
Our winning of the war depends upon the full use of the energy of our
entire people. Every muscle, every brain, must be mobilized if the
national aim is to be achieved.

III
MOBILIZING WOMEN IN GREAT BRITAIN [2]
In no country have women reached a mobilization so complete and
systematized as in Great Britain. This mobilization covers the whole
field of war service--in industry, business and professional life, and in
government administration. Women serve on the Ministry of Food and
are included in the membership of twenty-five of the important
government committees, not auxiliary or advisory, but administrative
committees, such as those on War Pensions, on Disabled Officers and
Men, on Education after the War, and the Labor Commission to Deal
with Industrial Unrest.
In short, the women of Great Britain are working side by side with men
in the initiation and execution of plans to solve the problems which
confront the nation.
Four committees, as for instance those making investigations and
recommendations on Women's Wages and Drink Among Women, are
entirely composed of women, and great departments, such as the
Women's Land Army, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, are
officered throughout by them. Hospitals under the War Office have
been placed in complete control of medical women; they take rank with

medical men in the army and receive the pay going with their
commissions.
When Great Britain recognized that the war could not be won by
merely sending splendid fighters to the front and meeting the wastage
by steady drafts upon the manhood of the country, she began to build
an efficient organization of industry at home.
To the call for labor-power British women gave instant response. In
munitions a million are mobilized, in the Land Army there have been
drafted and actually placed on the farms over three hundred thousand,
and in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps fourteen thousand women
are working in direct connection with the fighting force, and an
additional ten thousand are being called out for service each month. In
the clerical force of the government departments, some of which had
never seen women before in their sacred precincts, over one hundred
and ninety-eight thousand are now working. And the women civil
servants are not only engaged in indoor service, but outside too, most
of the carrying of mail being in their hands.
Women are dock-laborers, some seven thousand strong. Four thousand
act as patrols and police, forty thousand are in banks and various
financial houses. It is said that there are in Great Britain scarce a
million women--and they are mostly occupied as housewives--who
could render greater service to their country than that which they are
now giving.
The wide inclusion of women in government administration is very
striking to us in America. But we must not forget that the contrast
between the two countries in the participation of women in political life
and public service has always been great. The women of the United
Kingdom have enjoyed the municipal and county franchise for years.
For a long time large numbers of women have been called to
administrative positions. They have had thorough training in
government as Poor Law Guardians, District and County Councilors,
members of School Boards. No women, the whole world over, are
equipped as those of Great Britain for service to the state.

In the glamor of the extremely striking government service of British
women, we must not overlook their non-official organizations. Perhaps
these offer the most valuable suggestions for America. They are near
enough to our experience to be quite understandable.
The mother country is not under regimentation. Originality and
initiative have full play. Perhaps it was well that the government failed
to appreciate what women could do, and neglected them so long. Most
of the effective work was started in volunteer societies and had proved
a success before there was an official laying on of hands.
Anglo-Saxons--it is our strong point--always work from below, up.
A glance at any account of the mobilization of woman-power in