Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1918 — THE SECOND LINE OF DEFENSE [ARTICLE]

THE SECOND LINE OF DEFENSE

Prom the Mississippi valley to the faming front In Flanders Is not as far today as the distance from Paris to Berlin. The Atlantic ocean is not as wide as the River Somme. The girl in the munition factory In the middle West Is very close to her brother In the front-line trenches. If her work filters, if one untrue torpedo passes the careful scrutiny of the inspector, the lives of American soldiers pay the price. It Is as necessary to keep the girl who makes the shells physically fit and high of courage as the man who fires the gun. ~ The glory and excitement of war are for the man in khaki. Grinding, monotonous labor far away from the flying flags and martial music Is the portion of the girl who makes munitions. * One and a half million women and girls have marched Into the service of the United Sjates government, to take the places of the men who have been called to the colors. With every draft and with the opening of every munition cantonment the number Is multiplied. These girls, work long hours and the work is hard and monotonous. Furthermore, they work at high nervous tension. On the skill of their fingers and the accuracy of their eyes depends the lives of many soldiers, the winning or losing of many battles. “I can’t sleep at night because Pm so afraid I may have passed on something that was not quite true,” said one young girl not yet in her twenties, who Inspected hundreds of torpedoes every day. Unless something can make this girl forget at night, and find some rest, her hand will lose its cunning. “Nights and Sundays,” said another, “I walk and walk, and I never go the same route twice until I have worn (Kit all the others, and yet I can’t forget that perhaps some time, somehow, during the day something may have gone through that was not quite right.” “I was just on the edge of going back home.” said another. “I couldn’t stand it. Then the recreation leader asked me if I played basket ball, and I to’d her I was too old. I’m twentyeight. She insisted that I just try throwing the ball, and now Tm captain of the basket ball team. I play tennis, and ean ‘set up’ and ‘wig-wag,’ and they’re going to make me forewomanof the room. That would have frightened me to death once. P>ut everything is different now, that we have our War Service club.”

' The war department had seen the need of occupations for out-of-work hours if the employees were to work at their greatest efficiency, and through the ordnance department asked the Young Women’s Christian Association for recreation leaders, to line up the girls and direct their free-time pleasures. The government reminded the Y. W. C. A. that as an organization it always had had an interest in the right,'housing of girls, in the right feeding of girts, and in the right education of girts, and that the intelligent care of these girls’ in the munitions factories was one of the essentials in the winning of the war. The government could house and feed them. It could put up recreation buildings, but when this was done it was as helpless as the father of a motherless girl. The government is a composite man. He didn’t know what a girl should do when the six o’clock factory whistle blew. He only knew she needed looking after and he called to the one woman’s organization that for half a century had made a study of the needs of girls. Vaguely, he had an idea that she should be encouraged to play, that she needed wholesome recreation, and some one. wise and sympathetic as a ‘careful mother, to guide her social a<> tfvfties. The Blue Triangle sent Its play to salute and go to work. Workers are asked for in recreation buildings of all the 22 federal industrial reservations or munition cantonments which have been opened this summer in several of the states. These reservations sprung up out of the very fields in a few weeks. They are employing thousands of workers. Many of these women have come from far distant homes. The government provided dormitories and njess barracks. In some places it is putting up recreation buildings. Where such a building is not provided by the government, the Y. W. C. A will furnish it, using one already standing when available, and bunding when that is necessary. All these buildings, whether government or association-owned, will operate un-

der the sign of the Blue Triangle. They will have big living rooms, assembly rooms for entertainments, club rooms, and gymnasiums. The Blue Triangle will furnish a program of service work, educational classes, games and entertainments. Military and signal corps drills wiD be in charge of soldiers. In Washington, the members of the Business Women’s council, a Blue Triangle league of the Y. W. C. A„ made up of girt government employees, drill twice a week under an army officer, and between five and six o’clock on these days tong lines of motorcars are parked to watch the drill. Wherever possible the recreation equipment Includes a field somewhere for outdoor sports. War dubs are a* part of the plan and membership in these involves a pledge to wue to the best of the 'girl’s ity tn the ranks of the Woman’s Industrial Army—the “second line of defense.” and a promise of loyalty by prwmnting in every possible way the spirit of service. .„ ...