Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/769

WAR SERVICE OF ORGANIZED SUFFRAGISTS Pinchot had followed Miss Ethel M. Smith as chairman and in a brief report told how nominal the function of her committee had recently become, owing to the fact that all agencies working in this field had been consolidated under the direction of the U. S. Department of Labor. Before this amalgamation three interest- ing lines of effort had been carried forward by this committee : An attempt was made to secure a representation of women on the War Labor Board, which did not succeed ; action was taken against the decision of this board in dismissing women street car conductors in Cleveland, O., and the committee's position was upheld; an unsuccessful effort was made through Mr. Gompers to have women appointed on the committee of labor delegates who went abroad to confer with the labor representatives of other countries during the Peace Conference. Land Army. Miss Hilda Loines, chairman, said in part: "The training of women for agricultural work as a war necessity was early foreseen by the National Suffrage Association and was made a part of its program of war service. Early in the spring of 1917 a number of organizations undertook to register and place women who could and would do agricultural labor. Bureaus were opened for their registry and field workers were sent out to secure promises of employment from the farmers. This was difficult at first but as the season wore on and there were no men to cultivate the crops and pick the fruit the farmers in despera- tion turned to the women. During the spring and summer of 1918 the Woman's Land Army was organized in thirty Stales, and about 15,000 women were placed on the land, 10,000 in units and 5,000 in emergency groups. The majority of these women had had no previous experience and most of them could receive little training but they did practically every kind of farm labor, ploughing, planting, cultivating and harvesting. They cut, stacked and loaded hay, corn and rye and filled the silos; worked on big western farms and orchards, dairy farms, truck farms, private estates and home gardens ; did poultry work, bee- keeping and teaming; learned to handle tractors, harvesters and other farm machinery. Their efficiency is best proved by the change of attitude from skepticism to enthusiastic appreciation on the part of the farmers for whom they worked."