Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1920 — Woman Worker Has Made Good [ARTICLE]

Woman Worker Has Made Good

Wonderful Record in War Service Is Shown in Statistics Just Compiled. MANY TAKE UP MEN’S WORK +~— — — Nearly 15,000,000 Women Drew Pay for Labor Never Before Performed by Them—7oo,ooo Acted as Volunteers in Liberty — Loan Campaign. > ' Washington.—Statistics have proved that during the world war nearly 15,000,000 women actually were drawing pay for their services. More than 1,000,000 of them never had done a day’s work in their lives. The number of volunteers would add another 1,000,000 to that totaL In the Liberty loan campaign alone 700,000 women acted as volunteers. There was a similar number in the united war drive. For the Red Cross the total must have been millions, for in this organization women who worked all day or who kept house all day, and had an hour to spare, would devote that hour to surgical dressings, classes, refugee work or ministering to the * wants of those whose homes had been hit by the influenza epidemic. Then, too, stenographers, clerks and girls in office buildings would, at the close of the business day, offer their services gratis, to the draft boards or any of the other countless bureaus organized for the speedy termination of the war. In actual figures the women whose services brought monetary remuneration were listed as follows: Mechanical and manufacturing, 2,000,000; agricultural, 2,000,000; transportation, 200,000; merchandise, 600,000; publie service, 50,000; professional, 70,000; clerical, 700,000; domestic and personal service, 2.500,000; unclassified, 6,750,000i —total, 14,870,000. Help Win War. Those employed in the actual winning of the war or in positions listed as necessary for the winning of the war included munitions, 100,000; canneries. 80,000; food, spice, drug, tobacco and similar factories, 125,000; textiles, 275,000; clothing factories. 212.000; hosiery and knit goods, 130,000; making shoes, 95.000; general equipment, 600,000; shipyard and foundry employees (the latter made bolts and rivets, ran drill presses and worked in machine shops), 100,000 —total, 1,717,000. This figure represents only the women who already were mill-trained and does not include those who left occupations to assist in war work, nor does it include those who had had no previous experience in work of atty kind. In $9lO, one-fourth of all the women in Industry were married, and more than 15 per cent were either widowed or divorced. In 1918 the number of married workers had practically doubled and. with comparatively few exceptions, all bed one or more dependent upon them for support. Of the number who actually have replaced men no figures are obtainable. The Bush Tennlnal company of New York was one of the first to re-

alize the possibilities of women in men’s jobs, and within a week after the selective service act had been passed called for woman volunteers to replace the men. Instead of confining the replacement to the families of its employees, it sent out an appeal to all stenographers, telephone, operators and clerks, with the result that the clerical force o£ their own establishment, which was essentially a warproducing machine, was not In any way depleted, and within a few months women were operating electric and steam locomotives, running motortrucks, operating steam winches and cranes, inspecting and maintaining lighting and telephone and other community service utilities, loading cars and Whips, packing in warehouse and cold storage rooms and handling details of* transportation. Took Jobs of Men. In the operating department of one of the Eastern railroads 2,360 women and girls took positions formerly held by men. In one of the large Western cities more than 20,000 women replaced men who had been called Into service. Another American establishment employed 5,000 girls in nearly all the mechanical departments in the operation of making fuses. In another' plant where uniforms were manufactured nearly 3,000 women were employed. , Still another plant, a Massachusetts concern manufacturing mu-

nitions, employed 10,000 workers, nearly all of whom were women. That the women have made good has been definitely established. In one of the munitions plants where 2,000 girls were at work the greatest output made by two sets of engineers were 15,000 complete sets of fuses dally In two shifts. The girls turned out 38,000 complete sets In the same period of time. In another Instance where the work dealt directly with a drill press the greatest production where men were working in teams was 3,200 pieces each in nine hours’ time, while that of girls doing the same work was 4.400 pieces each.