XI

A LAND ARMY

Great Britain, France and Germany have mobilized a land army of women; will the United States do less? Not if the farmer can be brought to have as much faith in American women as the women have in themselves. And why should they not have faith; the farm has already tested them out, and they have not been found wanting. In face of this fine accomplishment the minds of some men still entertain doubt, or worse, obliviousness, to the possible contribution of women to land service.

The farmer knows his need and has made clear statement of the national dilemma in the form of a memorial to the President of the United States. In part, it is as follows:

"If food is to win the war, as we are assured on every side, the farmers of America must produce more food in 1918 than they did in 1917. Under existing conditions we cannot equal the production of 1917, much less surpass it, and this for reasons over which the farmers have no control.

"The chief causes which will inevitably bring about a smaller crop next year, unless promptly removed by national action, are six in number, of which the first is the shortage of farm labor.

"Since the war began in 1914 and before the first draft was made there is reason to believe that more farm workers had left farms than there are men in our army and navy together. Those men were drawn away by the high wages paid in munition plants and other war industries, and their places remain unfilled. In spite of the new classification, future drafts will still further reduce the farm labor supply."

With a million and a half men drawn out of the country and ten billion dollars to be expended on war material, making every ammunition factory a labor magnet, it seems like the smooth deceptions of prestidigitation to answer the cry of the farmer with suggestion that men rejected by the draft or high school boys be paroled to meet the exigency. The farm can't be run with decrepit men or larking boys, nor the war won with less than its full quota of soldiers. Legislators, government officials and farm associations by sudden shifting of labor battalions cannot camouflage the fact that the front line trenches of the fighting army and labor force are undermanned.

Women can and will be the substitutes if the experiments already made are signs of the times.

Groups of women from colleges and seasonal trades have ploughed and harrowed, sowed and planted, weeded and cultivated, mowed and harvested, milked and churned, at Vassar, Bryn Mawr and Mount Holyoke, at Newburg and Milton, at Bedford Hills and Mahwah. It has been demonstrated that our girls from college and city trade can do farm work, and do it with a will. And still better, at the end of the season their health wins high approval from the doctors and their work golden opinions from the farmers.

Twelve crusaders were chosen from the thirty-three students who volunteered for dangerous service during a summer vacation on the Vassar College farm. The twelve ventured out on a new enterprise that meant aching muscles, sunburn and blisters, but not one of the twelve "ever lost a day" in their eight hours at hard labor, beginning at four-thirty each morning for eight weeks during one of our hottest summers. They ploughed with horses, they ploughed with tractors, they sowed the seed, they thinned and weeded the plants, they reaped, they raked, they pitched the hay, they did fencing and milking. The Vassar farm had bumper crops on its seven hundred and forty acres, and its superintendent, Mr. Louis P. Gillespie, said, "A very great amount of the work necessary for the large production was done by our students. They hoed and cultivated sixteen acres of field corn, ten acres of ensilage corn, five acres of beans, five acres of potatoes; carried sheaves of rye and wheat to the shocks and shocked them; and two of the students milked seven cows at each milking time. In the garden they laid out a strawberry bed of two thousand plants, helped to plant corn and beans, picked beans and other vegetables. They took great interest in the work and did the work just as well as the average man and made good far beyond the most sanguine expectations."

At first the students were paid twenty-five cents an hour, the same rate as the male farm hands. The men objected, saying that the young women were beginners, but by the end of the summer the critics realized that "brains tell" and said the girls were worth the higher wage, though they had only been getting, in order to appease the masculine prejudice, seventeen and a half cents an hour. There is no pleasing some people! If women are paid less, they are unfair competitors, if they are paid equally they are being petted—in short, fair competitors.

Mt. Holyoke and Bryn Mawr have made experiments, and, like Vassar, demonstrated not only that women can, and that satisfactorily, work on the land, but that they will, and that cheerfully. The groups were happy and they comprehended that they were doing transcendently important work, were rendering a patriotic service by filling up the places left vacant by the drafted men.

The Women's Agricultural Camp, known popularly as the "Bedford Unit," proved an experiment rich in practical suggestion. Barnard students, graduates of the Manhattan Trade School, and girls from seasonal trades formed the backbone of the group. They were housed in an old farmhouse, chaperoned by one of the Barnard professors, fed by student dietitians from the Household Arts Department of Teachers College, transported from farm to farm by seven chauffeurs, and coached in the arts of Ceres by an agricultural expert. The "day laborers" as well as the experts were all women.



In founding the camp Mrs. Charles W. Short, Jr., had three definite ideas in mind. First, she was convinced that young women could without ill-effect on their health, and should as a patriotic service, do all sorts of agricultural work. Second, that in the present crisis the opening up of new land with women as farm managers is not called for, but rather the supply of the labor-power on farms already under cultivation is the need. Third, that the women laborers must, in groups, have comfortable living conditions without being a burden on the farmer's wife, must have adequate pay, and must have regulated hours of work.

With these sound ideas as its foundation the camp opened at Mt. Kisco, backed by the Committee on Agriculture of the Mayor's Committee of Women on National Defense of New York City, under the chairmanship of Virginia Gildersleeve, Dean of Barnard College.

At its greatest enrolment the unit had seventy-three members. When the prejudice of the fanners was overcome, the demand for workers was greater than the camp could supply. Practically the same processes were carried through as at Vassar, and the verdict of the farmer on his new helpers was that "while less strong than men, they more than made up for this by superior conscientiousness and quickness." Proof of the genuineness of his estimate was shown in his willingness to pay the management of the camp the regulation two dollars for an eight hour working day. And it indicated entire satisfaction with the experiment, rather than abstract faith in woman, that each farmer anxiously urged the captain of the group at the end of his first trial to "please bring the same young ladies tomorrow." He was sure no others so good existed.

The unit plan seems a heaven-born solution of many of the knotty problems of the farm. In the first place, the farmer gets cheerful and handy helpers, and his over-worked wife does not find her domestic cares added to in the hot summer season. The new hands house and feed themselves. From the point of view of the worker, the advantage is that her food at the camp is prepared by trained hands and the proverbial farm isolation gives way to congenial companionship.

These separate experiments growing out of the need of food production and the shortage of labor have brought new blood to the farm, have turned the college girl on vacation and, what is more important, being a solution of an industrial problem, the unemployed in seasonal trades, into recruits for an agricultural army. And by concentrating workers in well-run camps there has been attracted to the land a higher order of helper.

One obstacle in the way of the immediate success of putting such women on the land is a wholly mistaken idea in the minds of many persons of influence in agricultural matters that the new labor can be diverted to domestic work in the farm house. This view is urged in the following letter to me from the head of one of our best agricultural colleges: "The farm labor shortage is much more acute than is generally understood and I have much confidence in the possibility of a great amount of useful work in food production being done by women who are physically strong enough and who can secure sufficient preliminary training to do this with some degree of efficiency. Probably the larger measure of service could be done by relieving women now on the farms of this State from the double burden of indoor work and the attempt to assist in farm operations and chores. If farm women would get satisfactory domestic assistance within the house they could add much to the success of field husbandry. Women who know farm conditions and who could largely take the place of men in the management of outdoor affairs can accomplish much more than will ever be possible by drafting city-bred women directly into garden or other forms of field work."

The opinions expressed in this letter are as generally held as they are mistaken. In the first place, the theory that the country-bred woman in America is stronger and healthier than the city-bred has long since been exploded. The assumption cannot stand up under the facts. Statistics show that the death rate in the United States is lower in city than in farm communities, and if any added proof were needed to indicate that the stamina of city populations overbalances the country it was furnished by the draft records. Any group of college and Manhattan Trade School girls could be pitted against a group of women from the farms and win the laurels in staying powers. Nor must it be overlooked that we are not dealing here with uncertainties; the mettle of the girls has been proved.

In any case the fact must be faced that these agricultural units will not do domestic work. Nine-tenths of the farm houses in America are without modern conveniences. The well-appointed barn may have running water, but the house has not. To undertake work as a domestic helper on the average farm is to step back into quite primitive conditions. The farmer's wife can attract no one from city life, where so much cooperation is enjoyed, to her extreme individualistic surroundings.

A second obstacle to the employment of this new labor-force is due to the government's failure to see the possibility of saving most valuable labor-power and achieving an economic gain by dovetailing the idle months of young women in industrial life into the rush time of agriculture.

One department suggests excusing farm labor from the draft, as if we had already fulfilled our obligation in man-power to the battlefront of our Allies. The United States Senate discusses bringing in coolie and contract labor, as if we had not demonstrated our unfitness to deal with less advanced peoples, and as if a republic could live comfortably with a class of disfranchised workers. The Labor Department declares it will mobilize for the farm an army of a million boys, as if the wise saw, "boys will be boys," did not apply with peculiar sharpness of flavor to the American vintage, God bless them, and as if it were not our plain duty at this world crisis to spur up rather than check civilizing agencies and keep our boys in school for the full term.

Refusing to be in the least crushed by government neglect, far-seeing women determined to organize widely and carefully their solution of the farm-labor problem. To this end the Women's National Farm and Garden Association, the Garden Clubs of America, the Young Women's Christian Association, the Woman's Suffrage Party, the New York Women's University Club, and the Committee of the Women's Agricultural Camp, met with representatives of the Grange, of the Cornell Agricultural College, and of the Farmingdale State School of Agriculture, and formed an advisory council, the object of which is to "stimulate the formation of a Land Army of Women to take the places on the farms of the men who are being drafted for active service." This is to be on a nationwide scale.

The Council has put lecturers in the Granges to bring to the farmer by the spoken word and lantern slides the value of the labor of women, and is appealing to colleges, seasonal trades and village communities to form units for the Land Army. It is asking the cooeperation of the labor bureaus to act as media through which units may be placed where labor is most needed.

This mobilization of woman-power is not yet large or striking. The effort is entirely civil. But all the more is it praiseworthy. It shows on the part of women, clear-eyed recognition of facts as they exist and vision as to the future.

The mobilization of this fresh labor-power should of course be taken in hand by the government. Not only that, it should be led by women as in Great Britain and Germany. But the spirit in America today is the same as in England the first year of the war,—a disposition to exclude women from full service.

But facts remain facts in spite of prejudice, and the Woman's Land Army, with faith and enthusiasm in lieu of a national treasury, are endeavoring to bring woman-power and the untilled fields together. The proved achievement of the individual worker will win the employer, the unit plan with its solution of housing conditions and dreary isolation will overcome not only the opposition of the farmer's wife, but that of the intelligent worker. When the seed time of the movement has been lived through by anxious and inspired women, the government may step in to reap the harvest of a nation's gratitude.

The mobilization of woman-power on the farm is the need of the hour, and the wise and devoted women who are trying to answer the need, deserve an all-hail from the people of the United States and her Allies.



XII

WOMAN'S PART IN SAVING CIVILIZATION

Men have played—all honor to them—the major part in the actual conflict of the war. Women will mobilize for the major part of binding up the wounds and conserving civilization.

The spirit of the world might almost be supposed to have been looking forward to this day and clearly seeing its needs, so well are women being prepared to receive and carry steadily the burden which will be laid on their shoulders. For three-quarters of a century schools and colleges have given to women what they had to confer in the way of discipline. Gainful pursuits were opened up to them, adding training in ordered occupation and self-support. Lastly has come the Great War, with its drill in sacrifice and economy, its larger opportunities to function and achieve, its ideals of democracy which have directly and quickly led to the political enfranchisement of women in countries widely separated.

Fate has prepared women to share fully in the saving of civilization.

Whether victory be ours in the immediate future, or whether the dangers rising so clearly on the horizon develop into fresh alignments leading to years of war, civilization stands in jeopardy. Political ideals and ultimate social aims may remain intact, but the immediate, practical maintenance of those standards of life which are necessary to ensure strong and fruitful reactions are in danger of being swept away.

We have been destroying the life, the wealth and beauty of the world. The nobility of our aim in the war must not blind us to the awfulness and the magnitude of the destruction. In the fighting forces there are at least thirty-eight million men involved in international or civil conflict. Over four million men have fallen, and three million have been maimed for life. Disease has taken its toll of fighting strength and economic power. In addition to all this human depletion, we have the loss of life and the destruction of health and initiative in harried peoples madly flying across their borders from invading armies.

Starvation has swept across wide areas, and steady underfeeding rules in every country in Europe and in the cities of America, letting loose malnutrition, that hidden enemy whose ambushes are more serious than the attacks of an open foe. The world is sick.

And the world is poor. The nations have spent over a hundred billions on the war, and that is but part of the wealth which has gone down in the catastrophe. Thousands of square miles are plowed so deep with shot and shell and trench that the fertile soil lies buried beneath unyielding clay. Orchards and forests are gone. Villages are wiped out, cities are but skeletons of themselves. In the face of all the need of reconstruction we must admit, however much we would wish to cover the fact,—the world is poor.



And still, as in no other war, the will to guard human welfare has remained dominant. The country rose to a woman in most spirited fashion to combat the plan to lower the standards of labor conditions in the supposed interest of war needs. With but few exceptions the States have strengthened their labor laws. In its summary the American Association for Labor Legislation says:

"Eleven States strengthened their child labor laws, by raising age limits, extending restrictions to new employments, or shortening hours. Texas passed a new general statute setting a fifteen-year minimum age for factories and Vermont provided for regulations in conformity with those of the Federal Child Labor Act. Kansas and New Hampshire legislated on factory safeguards, Texas on fire escapes, New Jersey on scaffolds, Montana on electrical apparatus, Delaware on sanitary equipment, and West Virginia on mines. New Jersey forbade the manufacture of articles of food or children's wear in tenements.

"Workmen's compensation laws were enacted in Delaware, Idaho, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Utah, making forty States and Territories which now have such laws, in addition to the Federal Government's compensation law, for its own half-million civilian employees. In more than twenty additional States existing acts were amended, the changes being marked by a tendency to extend the scope, shorten the working period, and increase provision for medical care."

The Great War, far from checking the movement for social welfare, has quickened the public sense of responsibility. That fact opens the widest field to women for work in which they are best prepared by nature and training.

Many keen thinkers are concerned over the question of population. One of our most distinguished professors has thrown out a hint of a possibility that considering the greater proportion of women to men some form of plurality of wives may become necessary. The disturbed balance of the sexes is a thing that will right itself in one generation. Need of population will be best answered by efforts to salvage the race. The United States loses each year five hundred thousand babies under twelve months of age from preventable causes. An effort to save them would seem more reasonable than a demand for more children to neglect. Life will be so full of drive and interest, that the woman who has given no hostages to fortune will find ample scope for her powers outside of motherhood. The "old maid" of tomorrow will have a mission more honored and important than was hers in the past.

But whatever the conclusions as to the wisest method of building up population, there is no doubt that government and individuals will make strict valuation of the essentials and non-essentials in national life. In our poverty we will test all things in the light of their benefit to the race and hold fast that which is good.

The opinions of women will weigh in this national accounting. There will be no money to squander, and women to a unit will stand behind those men who think a recreation field is of more value than a race track. It will be the woman's view, there being but one choice, that it is better to encourage fleetness and skill in boys and girls than in horses. If we have just so much money to spend and the question arises as to whether there shall be corner saloons or municipal kitchens, public sentiment, made in good measure by women, will eschew the saloon.

The things that lend themselves to the husbanding of the race will draw as a magnet those who have borne the race. The tired world will need for its rejuvenation a broadened and deepened medical science. Women are too wise to permit sanitation and research to fall to a low level. On the contrary, they will wish them to be more thorough. There will be economy along the less essential lines to meet the cost.

The flagging spirit needs the inspiration of art and music. To secure them in the future, state and municipal effort will be demanded. Women are born economizers. They have been trained to pinch each penny. With their advent into political life, roads and public buildings will cost less. Through careful saving, funds will be made available for the things of the spirit.

One of the men conductors on the New York street railways somewhat reproachfully remarked to me, "No one ever came to look at the recreation room and restaurant at the car barns until women were taken on. Men don't seem to count." Is the reproach deserved? Have women been narrow in sympathy? Perhaps we have assumed that men can look out for themselves. They could, but in private life they never do. Women have to do the mothering. A trade-unionist is ready enough to regulate wages and hours, but he gives not a thought to surroundings in factory and workshop.

An act of protection generally starts with solicitude about a woman or child. Factory legislation took root in their needs. There was no mercy for the man worker. His only chance of getting better conditions was when women entered his occupation, and the regulation meant for her benefit indirectly served his interest.

"Men suffer more than women in certain dangerous trades, but I did not suppose you were generous enough to care anything about them," came in answer to an inquiry at a labor conference at the end of a most admirable paper on women in dangerous trades, given by one of the doctors in the New York City Department of Health. He was speaking to an audience of working women. I doubt if his hearers had given a thought to men workers.

Perhaps this is natural, since there has been going on at the same time with the development of factory legislation in America a strong propaganda directed especially at political freedom for women. We have been laying stress on the wrongs of woman and demanding very persistently and convincingly her rights. The industrial needs and rights of the man have been overlooked.

With increasing numbers of women entering the industrial world, with ever widening extension of the vote to women, and the consequent quickening of public responsibility, together with the recent experience of Europe demonstrating the importance of care for all workers, both men and women, there is ground for hope that even the United States, where protective legislation is so retarded in development, will enter upon wide and fundamental plans for conservation of all our human resources.

Protection of the worker, housing conditions, the feeding of factory employees and school children, play grounds and recreation centers, will challenge the world for first consideration. These are the social processes which command most surely the hearts and minds of women. The churning which the war has given humanity has roused in women a realization that upon them rests at least half the burden of saving civilization from wreck. Here is the world, with such and such needs for food, clothing, shelter, with such and such needs for sanitation, hospitals, and above all, for education, for science, for the arts, if it is not to fall back into the conditions of the Middle Ages. How can women aid in making secure the national position? Certainly not by idleness, inefficiency, an easy policy of laissez faire. They must labor, economize, and pool their brains.

Women can save civilization only by the broadest cooeperative action, by daring to think, by daring to be themselves. The world is entering an heroic age calling for heroic women.



APPENDIX

DOCUMENTS USED IN WOMEN'S WAR-WORK IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE



WAAC

WOMEN'S ARMY AUXILIARY CORPS



CONFIDENTIAL. Reference No: J.W. 21 ọ

Joint Woman's V.A.D. Department.

DEVONSHIRE HOUSE. PICCADILLY, LONDON. W.I.

Return to Secretary, V.A.D Department. Devonshire House, Piccadilly, S.W.I.

Territorial Force Associations, British Red Cross Society. Order of St. John of Jerusalem.

Telegrams [unreadable] Telephone Mayfair 4707

B.R.C.S. or Order of St. John ...

Sir,

Will you kindly fill up the following form of Medical Certificate, returning it to the address given above.

Your communication will be received as strictly confidential.

It is urgently requested that Members' names and detachment numbers should be filled in legibly.

Yours faithfully,

MARGARET HEMPHILL

MEDICAL CERTIFICATE

1. Name

2. County No. of Detachment

3. How long have you been acquainted with her?

4. Have you attended her professionally?

5. For what complaint?

6. Is she intelligent and of active habits?

7. General health?

8. Has she flat feet, hammer-toe, or any other defect?

9. Is her vision good in each eye?

10. Is her hearing perfect?

11. Has she sound teeth, and if not, have they been properly attended to by a Dentist lately?

12. Has she shown any tendency to Rheumatism, Anaemia, Tuberculosis, or other illness?

13. When?

14. What?

15. Has she ever had influenza?

16. Does she suffer from headaches?

17. Any form of fits?

18. Heart disease or varicose veins?

19. Is she subject to any functional disturbance?

* * * * *

I have on the day of 191 seen and examined and hereby certify that she is apparently in good health, that she is not labouring under any deformity, and is, in my opinion, both physically and mentally competent to undertake duty in a Military Hospital, and is [*]A. Fit for General Service. B. Fit for Home Service only. C. Unfit.

Date (Signed) Address

[Footnote *: Kindly delete categories which do not apply.]



* * * * *

Reference No.: J.W. 19c.

JOINT WOMEN'S V.A.D. DEPARTMENT. Territorial Forces Association. British Red Cross Society. Order of St. John of Jerusalem. DEVONSHIRE HOUSE, PICCADILLY, LONDON. W1.



* * * * *

QUALIFICATIONS of Members of Women's Voluntary Aid Detachments for Nursing Service or General Service.

* * * * *

1. (a) Name in full (Mrs. or Miss). (b) If Married state Maiden Name.

2. Permanent Postal Address. Present Postal Address.

3. Telephone No.

4. Telegraphic Address.

5. Detachment County and No. B.R.C.S. St. John Brigade. St. John Association.

6. Name and Address of Commandant of Detachment.

7. Rank in Detachment.

8. Time of Service in Detachment.

9. Age and Date of Birth.

10. Place and Country of Birth.

11. Nationality at Birth.

12. Present Nationality.

13. Height.

14. Weight.

15. Where Educated.

16. At what age did you leave school?

17. Whether Single, Married, or Widow.

18. If not Single, state Nationality of Husband.

19. Name and Address of Next-of-Kin or Nearest Relation residing in the British Isles.

20. Father's Nationality at Birth.

21. Mother's Nationality at Birth.

22. Father's Profession.

23. Religion.

24. (a) If you volunteer for nursing duties state what experience you have had in wards.

(b) Name and address of hospital.

(c) Date.

25. Certificates held.

26. (a) Nursing. (f) Motor Driver. (b) Kitchen. (g) Laboratory Attendant. (c) Clerical. (h) X-Ray Attendant. (d) Storekeeping. (i) House Work. (e) Dispenser. (j) Pantry Work.

27. State what experience and qualifications you have had for Categories in No. 26.

28. Have you been inoculated against Enteric Fever? If so, what date? If not, are you willing to be?

Have you been vaccinated? It so, what date? If not, are you willing to be?

29. Your usual Occupation or Profession? Your present Occupation or Profession?

30. Give the Names and Addresses of two British Householders with permanent addresses in the British Isles who have known applicant for two or more years, but are not related to applicant, to act as References, having previously obtained their permission to use their names.

(a) (Mayor, Magistrate, Justice of the Peace, Minister of Religion, Barrister, Physician, Solicitor or Notary Public). Acquaintance dating from year (b) Lady. Acquaintance dating from year

31. Name and Address of Head of College or School, recent Business Employer, Head of Government Department, Secretary of Society or some other person who can be referred to for a report on your qualifications for the work selected. (The Quartermaster of your V.A.D. could be given if you have worked in her department.)

In what capacity employed?

How long employed? Year?

32. Are you willing to serve at home or abroad?

33. Are you willing to serve in Civil Hospitals from which personnel have been withdrawn for War Service?

34. Are you willing to serve:—

(a) With pay, (b) For expenses only, on the terms of service laid down in our terms of service?

N. B.—Members who can afford to work for their expenses only are urgently needed.

35. Date after which you will be available for duty.

36. (a) Are you pledged to serve in any other organisation? (b) If so, what?

37. (a) Have you served with the Women's Legion or any similar organisation? (b) If so, what?

I hereby declare that the above statements are complete and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Date .......... Usual Signature ..........

For Office Purposes, please add your full Christian Names and Surname legibly written.

I certify that the above declaration is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, true; and that M ............ is a fit and proper person to be employed by the Joint V.A.D. Committee.

REMARKS:—

Date .......... Signed .................... Commandant.

Date .......... Countersigned .................... County Director.

NOTE.—Commandants are held responsible for all statements on this form being accurate so far as it is possible for them to find out, also for the fact that the member who signs it is a British subject, and in every way suitable for appointment by the Joint V.A.D. Committee.

This form must be signed by the Commandant, who should then send it to the County Director for counter signature and forwarding to Headquarters.



Application No.

For Official use only.

CONFIDENTIAL.

WOMEN'S ARMY AUXILIARY CORPS FORM OF APPLICATION

N.B.—No woman need apply who is not prepared to offer her services for the duration of the war and to take up work wherever she is required.

1. Name in Full (Mrs. or Miss).

2. Permanent Postal Address.

2a. State nearest Railway Station.

3. Surname at birth, if different.

4. For what work do you offer your services? State your qualifications for this work. (The occupations for which women are required are set out in the accompanying leaflet.)

5. Are you willing to serve:— (a) At Home and Abroad as may be required. (b) At Home only.

6. If selected and enrolled how many days' notice will you require before your services are available?

7. Age and date of birth.

8. Place and Country of Birth.

9. Nationality at Birth.

10. Present Nationality (if naturalised give date).

11. Whether single, married or widow. If married state number of children, (a) under 12 years old. (b) " 5 " "

12. If not single state Nationality of Husband. (a) Is your husband serving with the Forces? (b) If so, where?

13. Father's Nationality at Birth.

14. Mother's Nationality at Birth.

15. Father's Occupation.

16. State school or college where educated. At what age did you leave School?

17. Particulars of any other Training, stating Certificates held.

18. (a) Name and Address of your present employer (see Note on other side).

N.B.—(The employer will not be referred to unless he is given as a reference under paragraph 20 below.)

(b) Nature of his business.

(c) Capacity in which you are employed.

(d) Length of your service with him.

(e) Salary which you are now receiving.

19. Previous business experience (if any) giving dates, salaries received, and names of Employers.

20. Give below for purposes of reference the names of two or more British householders with their permanent addresses, one of whom should be, if possible, your present or previous Employer, a Teacher, a Town Councillor, Mayor or Provost, Justice of Peace, Minister of Religion, Doctor or Solicitor, who has known you for two or more years, but is not related to you. One of the references must be a woman.

(a) Name. Profession or Occupation. Address.

(b) Name. Profession or Occupation. Address.

(c) Name. Profession or Occupation. Address.

An offer of Service can in no way be regarded as a final enrolment.

I hereby declare that the above statements are complete and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

_Date_ ___ _Usual Signature_ __

This Form should be filled in by the Applicant and returned to:—Employment Exchange _____

* * * * *

NOTE.

Women who are already engaged in any of the following occupations will not be accepted unless they bring with them a letter from their Employer or Head of Department stating that they have permission to volunteer:—

(i) Government Service.

(ii) Munition work.

(iii) Work in a Controlled Establishment.

(iv) Full-time work in an establishment engaged on contract work for a Government Department.

(v) V.A.D. Military Hospitals and Red Cross Hospitals.

(vi) School Teaching.

(vii) Local Government Service.

No woman who is a National Service Volunteer or is employed in Agriculture will be accepted.

N.B.—Applicants are urged not to give up any present employment until they are called upon to do so.



(Part of the application form used in England by the Women's Land Army.)

* * * * *

WOMEN'S LAND ARMY

* * * * *

CONDITIONS AND TERMS.

There are three Sections of the Women's Land Army.

(1). AGRICULTURE.

(2). TIMBER CUTTING.

(3). FORAGE.

If you sign on for A YEAR and are prepared to go wherever you are sent, you can join which Section you like.

YOU PROMISE:—

1. To sign on in the Land Army for ONE YEAR.

2. To come to a Selection Board when summoned.

3. To be medically examined, free of cost.

4. To be prepared if PASSED by the Selection Board to take up work after due notice.

5. TO BE WILLING TO GO TO WHATEVER PART OF THE COUNTRY YOU ARE SENT.



THE GOVERNMENT PROMISES:—

1. A MINIMUM WAGE to workers of 18/- a week. After they have passed an efficiency test the wages given are L1 a week and upwards.

2. A short course of FREE INSTRUCTION if necessary.

3. FREE UNIFORM.

4. FREE MAINTENANCE in a Depot for a term not exceeding 4 weeks if the worker is OUT OF EMPLOYMENT through no fault of her own.

5. FREE RAILWAY travelling, when taking up or changing Employment.

THE END