Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 268, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1917 — Y WOMEN TO MAKE DRIVE [ARTICLE]

Y WOMEN TO MAKE DRIVE

SIOO,OOO TO BE RAISED IN INDIANA FOR YOUNG WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION ' c X Now that the Y. M. XL A. campaign has made its usccessful drive for the great fund for war work purposes, and is out of the way, the Young Women’s Christian Association, with equally worthy ambition, if not a greater call for humanity dollars, is getting ready to. launch a country-wide appeal fob $.4,000,000, to be used in the extension of its work in war ridden countries and for the aid of women affected by the war here at home. “For the girl behind the man behind the gun” is one of the many appropriate slogans chosen for the gigantic undertaking. The campaign is to be conducted by the War Work Council of the National Y. W. C. A., carrying on its work through the various State organizations. Indiana’s quota has been fixed at SIOO,OOO, and leading women of the state who are giving their time and means to the movement, have determined that Hoosierdom shall reach the goal. Miss Elizabeth A.. Sweets, general secretary of the Indianapolis association, has been chosen executive director to lead the big drive which will begin on December 3, and will close December 10. *

Announced plans contemplate carrying the campaign into every county and township of Indiana. All women who are concerned in this great war, who have the interest of girlhood at heart and who believe in making the world safe fpr women, will have a chance to assist in gathering this great Yund. Numerous women’s organizations, such as the Federation of Clubs, the Woman’s Christian Temperance union, Daughter of the American Revolution, have already signified their intention to help. The drive is to be conducted on the same district plan as employed by the Y. M. C. A., in its successful campaign. In making its call for $4,000,000, the War Work Council has asked for SIOO,OOO for the aid of the overworked and under-fed women of France and Russia, and to establish social center and comforts for the American nurses in the base-hospi-tals of France. Social experts have found that the girl problem in war touched communities requires the direction of the most experienced leaders of girls who can be obtained and for this important work $50,000 is the estimate. Other interesting items of the budget follow: For hostess houses already built j>r contracted for in military cantonments, $900,000; emergency housing of girls employed in military and industrial centers and demonstration dormitories in ten selected centers, $500,000; for centers where girls are enlisted in special war industries, many of these having no local association, $125,000; for Americanizing and assisting non-English speaking women visiting camps, and for the thousands employed in industrial centers, through foreign language service and refuge bureaus, etc., $100,000; to adopt the activities of the Woman’s War Work Council to younger girls and for a girl’s magazine publication, $50,000; to inform and educate the public regarding the Y. W. C. A. war program, SIOO,OOO.

Another SIOO,OOO item of the budget is to maintain a bureau of social morality speakers. A feature of the Y. W. C. A. war work is to maintain a staff of the ablest women physicians, co-operatingf with the Committee on Social Morality, .to give instructions to mother and girls in sex education, to aid them in holding to safe moral standards in war time. Among other items is $201),000 to carry on the Y. W. C. A. work in colored communities affected by the war. The “Y” proposes to apply its activities to - colored girls, whose problems are the same as other girls, though intensified. The sum of $255,000 is for an emergency fund to enable the War Council to meet all expected demands and opportunities for new work that may arise. Miss Elizabeth Sweets, campaign director, makes the plans of her: organization clear by the statement: “Our war job is not for men in uniform, but for girls everywhere, powerfully and subtly affected by war.”