Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1917 — WOMEN VOLUNTEER TO HELP WIN WAR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WOMEN VOLUNTEER TO HELP WIN WAR

Betty Blythe Tells Why it Is Necessary for All To Register. EVERY WOMAN CAN HELP Council of Defense Seeks to Create Channel For Use of War Agencies. And now let’s see why the government is mobilizing the women of America —why it is asking every

woman in Indiana to Register with the Woman’s Section of the State Council of Defense. * Perhaps you have been asking yourself that very question —of what practical use the mere signing of your name to a registration card? Here’s your answer :

It is of such vast importance that the government desires to obtain, as speedily as possible, a correct estimate of the woman power, and to do so it is putting to work the machinery of the Council of National Defense, and of your own Indiana State Council of Defense appointed by Governor James P. Goodrich, with headquarters in the State House at Indianapolis. If you do not register, whether you can serve or not, you are not doing your bit to help win the war —you are a slacker. A channel was needed to carry to the women the requests of the government. * The plan aimed to do one particular thing—to take in every woman. Women’s organizations in each state were asked to get together and form a permanent executive committee. The central state group should be duplicated in every county and every town, to pass on the word to the unorganized groups, so that all the clubs, associations, churches, social agencies, teachers and individuals should be drawn in. In this State the Woman’s Committee was made a section of the State Council of Defense, by Chairman Will H. Hays, and was put under the chairmanship of Mrs. Anne Studebaker, of South Bend. Quarters are maintained in the State Defense Council rooms, and a secretarial force is constantly busy. By way of this executive committee the groups all over the state are to be kept in immediate touch with the national committee, and will receive from it direct such requests as the government may make. The channel has been created, but it must be dug deeper and broader — and the absence of your name will render it less effective. It is the clearing house through which all wo-' man s work will pass. And it is the agency by which the government is co-ordinating the nation’s woman power. The Woman’s Committee will not be satisfied until it has in this state an organization so perfect that any piece of information or request from Washington can be spread over Indiana in twenty-four hours’ time and reach practically every Indiana woman.

Already there Is a woman’s committee in every county of the state and these committees will appoint a local chairman for each community. The important point is that every woman shall register. Preparations now are going forward for a statewide registration drive to begin January 1, that will enlist the help of every social and woman’s club. If necessary a house to house canvass will be made. If you are a housekeeper the mother of little children—do not think that you are exempt from registration —for the government wants to know who you are, what you are and whether, in case of need, you can give any service to help win the war. The Woman’s Committee is the agency appointed to gather this information for the government. It is expected that 100,000 signed registration cards will be in the hands of the State Council of Defense by the middle of January. Up to dale 1 40,000 Indiana women have registered. Woman’s part is no longer purely of the hands and heart—she is being fitted into every part of the war program. Indeed, it is recognized that without her aid, it is impossible to win the war. She has been called into council by Washington, has been “reqognized,” and her brains requisitioned for war work. In fine, women have been given a definite part, although a wholly voluntary part, in all the great .economic and social readjustments—in all the big war- questions. If you have not signed your registion card, hurry and sign —so you will be readily accessible, when the informatiQn from Washington begins to flow through the channel, and you are asked to help in the way you want to help.