Provision was made by the War Department for the training of twenty thousand colored young men in military science and tactics, in conjunction with their general education, through Students' Army Training Corps and Vocational Detachments, established in upwards of twenty leading colored schools of the nation.

A colored woman, Mrs. Alice Dunbar Nelson, was named as a field worker to mobilize the colored women of the country for war work.

Colored women rendered exceptionally valuable service in the industries and on the farms, maintaining production in the mills and promoting the food supply through agricultural pursuits, releasing men for duty at the front.

Colored people bought millions of dollars' worth of Liberty Bonds and War Savings Stamps and contributed most generously to the Red Cross, Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. and other war relief agencies.

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

The American Library Association placed hundreds of libraries in camps and stations and on ships, distributed the magazines contributed by the public, and bought educational and technical books to meet the demand of the men for books that helped.

CHAPTER XX

AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE WAR

F it had not been for the women of America the World
War could not have been won.

The truth of this statement will be revealed by an examination of the activities and achievements of American womanhood after this country entered the great conflict. Women were factors in the manufacture of shells, powder and munitions of all sorts. They tilled the soil and harvested immense quantities of food stuffs without which the Allies must have succumbed. It was the housewives of America who conserved food and cut off waste that the fighting and civilian populations with which we were leagued might be fed. Triumphs of food preparations were achieved in American kitchens for the utilization of foods to which American households were unaccustomed.

Women drove ambulances, motor trucks and passenger vehicles. They released hundreds of thousands of able men for the fighting forces of the nation. They entered by thousands into the administrative offices of federal, state and municipal government. As nurses and teachers, they healed the sick and wounded and taught the crippled new means of gaining their livelihood. In workrooms that were countless they prepared bandages and other supplies for battlefield and hospital and clothing for the destitute of lands overrun by our foes. President Wilson phrased their services when he said:

I think the whole country has appreciated the way in which the women have risen to this great occasion. They have not only done what they have been asked to do, and done it with ardor and efficiency, but they have shown the power to organize for doing things on their own initiative, which is quite a different thing and a very much more difficult thing. I think the whole country has admired the spirit and the capacity of devotion of the women of the United States. It goes without saying that the country (259)

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depends upon the women for a large part of the inspiration of its life. That is obvious. But it is now depending upon the women also for suggestions of service, which have been rendered in abundance and with the distinction of originality.

Long before the war began the women in individual organizations had been interested in the war, and had sent aid to the suffering in Belgium, in France and wherever the aid was needed. When America entered into the war, for the first time in history official recognition was given to women in the construction of the war machine, and the response of the women to that recognition was universal. On April 21, 1917, fifteen days after Congress had formally declared that a state of war existed between this country and Germany, the Council of National Defense, made the following announcement:

Realizing the inestimable value of woman's contribution to national effort under modern war conditions, the Council of National Defense has appointed a committee of women of national prominence to consider and advise how the assistance of the women of America may be made available in the prosecution of the war. These women are appointed as individuals, regardless of any organizations with which they may be associated. The body will be known as the Committee on Woman's Defense Work. Its membership is as follows: Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, chairman; Mrs. Philip N. Moore, of St. Louis, President of the National Council of Women; Mrs. Josiah E. Cowles, of California, President of the General Federation of Women's Clubs; Miss Maude Wetmore, of Rhode Island, Chairman of the National League for Woman's Service; Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, of New York, President of the National American Woman's Suffrage Association; Mrs. Antoinette F. Funk, of Illinois; Mrs. Stanley McCormich, of Boston; Mrs. Joseph R. Lamar, of Atlanta, Georgia, President of the National Society of Colonial Dames; Miss Ida M. Tarbell, of New York, publicist and writer.

Later, Miss Agnes Nestor, of Chicago, President of the International Glove Workers' Union, and Miss Hannah Jane Patterson, of Washington, were added to the committee, and Miss Patterson was made resident director.

The Woman's Committee, therefore, owed its creation to the Council of National Defense, a body authorized by act of Congress in August, 1916, consisting of the Secretary of War, Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary

of Labor. This council was directed to nominate to the President, and the President to appoint an Advisory Commission, of not more than seven persons, qualified to assist in the work. It was given the power to organize subordinate bodies and committees, and the Woman's Committee was created in accordance with that power. The purpose of the committee was to organize the activities of the women of the country, and supply a direct channel of communication between the women and the government.

Primarily, the Woman's Committee was advisory, and many of the national woman leaders regretted that the committee was not given more power; but in actual practice, the committee initiated and carried out its wonderful work with almost complete independence. On May 2, 1917, it met in Washington and formulated a plan of organization which was immediately sent out to leading women in each of the fortyeight states. The plan was to co-ordinate the women's organizations already in existence, so that no defense work of any kind already done should be lost.

A temporary chairman was appointed in each of the fortyeight states, and the District of Columbia. These temporary chairmen were expected to call in conference the representatives of all woman's organizations, having state-wide scope, state branches of woman's national organizations, and such individuals as they thought fit to represent the state at large. These groups, with committees, in counties, cities and towns constituted the state divisions that became the official representatives of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense for the States. These state divisions were charged with the duty of carrying forward all necessary forms of patriotic service or defense programs. Each state division elected a permanent chairman, one or more vice-chairmen and a secretary, a treasurer, and such other officers as were desired.

Each division adopted its own by-laws, and appointed its executive committee, authorized to do business. It was advised to divide its work into departments, each with a competent chairman, selected because of special fitness. City committees were urged to establish auxiliary units in

each ward, with a temporary chairman presiding over the conference composed of individual members.

This plan sought to link together existing organizations of women. Women, however, not members of any organization were entitled to representation. The Woman's Committee, acting under governmental authority, was able to have the advantage of expert governmental advice, and the committee acted as an agent to transmit any demand of the government to the woman's organizations.

On June 9, 1917, the Woman's Committee issued a call to the heads of about two hundred national organizations of women to meet in Washington with the Woman's Committee on June 19th. More than fifty national organizations met in response to this call.

The full power of the Woman's Committee was exerted in forwarding the national food administrator's first drive for food conservation. Then came a systematic plan for registering both the volunteer and the wage-earning women of the country for national service. Later the full machinery of its organization was placed at the disposal of the Liberty Loan Committee. It also became active in the effort to safeguard the morals of enlisted men in the camps. It interested itself in keeping the children in school, in enforcing the new Child Labor Law, in furthering the passage of the bill pending in Congress providing insurance and indemnity for our soldiers and sailors. It was also interested in questions of health and recreation for men of the camps.

By October 1, 1917, the work of the committee was divided into twelve divisions: Food Conservation, Food Production and Home Economics, Education, Women and Industry, Social and Welfare Work, Liberty Loan, Health and Recreation, Child Welfare Organization, Registration, Maintenance of Existing Social Agencies, Home and Foreign Relief.

The general plan for organization formulated by the Woman's Committee left each state free to perfect its organization, as its leaders might think best. Each state, therefore, solved its individual problem in its own way. Alabama centered its efforts on Social Service, Connecticut on Medical