MORE THAN ELEVEN THOUSAND REGULARLY ENLISTED—THEY CONSTITUTE THE ONLY WOMEN ENTITLED TO MEMBERSHIP IN THE AMERICAN LEGION—NO LACK OF WOMAN'S NURSING—GIRLS WORKED IN TORPEDO FACTORY AND MUNITION PLANTS—THE INSPIRING LEADERSHIP OF MRS. ANNA HOWARD SHAW, HEAD OF WOMAN'S COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE.

The Navy was long regarded as an institution for men only. It was the only place where there was no opening for women. To be sure no sailor would have felt comfortable going to sea in a ship which had not been sponsored by a woman's breaking the bottle as it slid into the waters at the launching. A ship, feminine in all our language, demanded a woman's benediction as the assurance of favoring winds and prosperous voyages. But men alone wore the naval uniform prior to 1917.

It is true that before that time it had been found that the naval establishment could not get along without women, and they had been admitted to hospitals and dispensaries ashore, where they were found indispensable.

In March, 1917, after the break with Germany, the Navy stood in great need of clerical assistants in Washington and at all the shore stations. There was no appropriation to pay civilians for the work that was immediately necessary. Every bureau and naval establishment appealed for clerks and stenographers. How could they be secured at once? The Civil Service Commission could not furnish a tithe of the number required, even if there had been the money to pay them.

"Is there any law that says a yeoman must be a man?" I asked my legal advisers. The answer was that there was not, but that only men had heretofore been enlisted. The law did not say "male."

"Then enroll women in the Naval Reserve as yeomen," I said, "and we will have the best clerical assistance the country can provide."

It was done, and they were given the designation Yeomen (F)—not "Yeomanettes," but regular yeomen, the F indicating female. They were truly yeomen and did yeoman service. In the Marine Corps they were equally efficient, and were known as "Marinettes" or Lady Marines.

"I do not wish to enroll as a Naval Reservist," said an independent young woman to the enrolling officer at the Washington Navy Yard, "until I know what ship I am to serve on."

It was explained to her that women yeomen were not to go to sea.

"But I want to go on the Nevada," she said, in tones of disappointment.

These women yeomen, enlisting as reservists, served as translators, stenographers, clerks, typists, on recruiting duty, and with hospital units in France. Too much could not be said of their efficiency, loyalty and patriotism.

Eleven thousand Yeomen (F), 1,713 nurses, and 269 Marinettes were enrolled. They were, I am informed, the only women serving during the war who were on the same footing as men with all allowances and pay and clothing outfits, and the only women eligible to membership in the American Legion. Those who made up the four companies in Washington became proficient in military drill. They made a handsome appearance when, upon the return of the Rainbow Division, they were the guard of honor to the President, having previously taken part, with other military units, in the welcome to President Wilson when he returned from Paris. They made a notable showing as they formed in double lines of spotless white uniforms as the presidential party passed through the Union Station at Washington to receive the enthusiastic welcome given by the multitudes.

The uniforms of the Yeomen (F) and the Marines (F) were natty and beautiful, were worn with pride, and are preserved by them as the honorable token of service during the great war. They were both becoming and suited to the duty assigned. As a designer of woman's uniforms the Navy Department scored a distinct success, for these uniforms were copied by women all over the country.

The last drill of these Yeomen (F) was held on July 31, 1919, upon their demobilization. They had saved the day in war, and the Navy regretted the legislation which compelled the disbanding. I do not know how the great increase of work could have been carried on without them. I voiced the thanks of the Navy in expressing "gratitude and appreciation of their splendid service and patriotic coÖperation," as they were mustered out. They are organized in posts in the American Legion, and have carried into civil life the spirit of devotion to country which they displayed in the days of the war.

I issued an order early in the war that women be given preference in appointments to clerical positions in the Navy. This released men for military duty. The war taught that the Navy was dependent upon woman's deftness not only to prevent "lack of woman's nursing," but also in multifarious duties, including assembling parts for torpedoes and other war munitions. Upon a visit to the Newport Torpedo Station, I found women in overalls at work, putting together parts of torpedoes made there. They were so capable and showed such skill that scores were enabled to do, and to do excellently, a character of work formerly done exclusively by men. Not a few of them were school teachers, who, feeling the compulsion for war-work, shared the feeling of the wealthy woman in Washington, who, applying for a position in the gun factory at Washington, said:

"I can knit at night. If I cannot fight, I wish something to do where I can feel I am really in the war, helping to make guns or torpedoes or other real instruments of war—a job that is hard, and where labor in the heat and burden of the day taxes all my strength."

She was a sister in spirit of the many women who worked in munition plants, fashioning rifles, dressed in overalls, faces begrimed, proud that they were thus helping on with the war. If there had been need, many more would have gone into the shops, glad to tax their strength for the cause in which their very souls were enlisted.

Not only does the world owe a lasting debt of gratitude to women who served, in shops, in the Navy Department, in factories making naval aircraft, at navy bases, in work for the Army, but likewise the larger number, who in their homes and communities and in welfare work at home and abroad, dedicated their hands and spirit to the varied war activities. Their most notable organized duties were in the Red Cross and the Young Women's Christian Association. A story of the benefactions of the Red Cross is chiefly the story of woman's work and woman's ministrations. With the mothers of our fighting forces, they constituted in truth the irresistible first line of defense and offense which would have held to the last against all odds. They furnished the basis of what, for lack of a better name, we called morale—the will to win—without which ships and guns and fighting machinery never yet won a battle. A Woman's Advisory Committee on Naval Auxiliaries to the Red Cross War Council rendered patriotic and useful service.

The Government early found the necessity for the organization and direction of women in war work, and the Council of National Defense set up a Woman's Council, headed by that great woman of statesmanship and vision, the late Dr. Anna Howard Shaw. The women who composed this Council, in addition to Dr. Shaw, were Mrs. Philip N. Moore, Mrs. Josiah E. Cowles, Miss Maude Wetmore, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs. Antoinette Funk, Mrs. Stanley McCormick, Mrs. Joseph R. Lamar, Miss Ida M. Tarbell, Miss Agnes Nestor, Mrs. Ira Couch Wood, secretary. Under the direction of this Woman's Council the women of America were mobilized for war work in all parts of America. Women were found, wholly enlisted, with their counsel and labors and sacrifice, wherever men planned or fought or died. Some gave their lives, many gave their health, all gave complete consecration.