t which all of their agitation and militant
tactics failed to produce.

National extremity was woman's opportunity; frank invitation to new
lines of work was followed by hearty appreciation on the part of the
men; and a proposition to extend suffrage to 6,000,000 English women was
based avowedly upon the general gratitude felt for their loyal and
effective service in the war. And it is war service, for modern warfare
has greatly enlarged the content of that term. In the modern conception
those who make munitions or in other ways release others for the front
are doing war service as truly as those who bear arms.

Instead of yielding to fame a few isolated Mollie Pitchers, the war
brought a largely neglected half of the nation's military strength into
practical service. Indeed, though woman dreads war more than man does,
if it comes to actual defense of land and home and young, we find, with
Kipling, that "the female of the species is more deadly than the male."

THE WORK OF WOMEN.

The work of the women in the munitions factories in England has
deservedly attracted large attention, and, doubtless, British historians
will for centuries tell how, when England found herself utterly at a
loss before her enemies because of a lack of effective ammunition, the
women responded "as one man" to meet the need and save the Union Jack
from being forced to the shore. It was a repetition, multiplied 10,000
times, of the Presbyterian parson at Springfield, N.J., supplying
Washington's army with Watts hymn books when it was retreating to serve
as paper wadding for the rifles.

The innovation of the task, the large scale on which it was carried out
and the striking success of it make it a major event of the war, even to
be compared with the battle of the Marne. And shall not American
historians ascribe to the scores of young girls who lost their lives in
an explosion at Eddystone, Pa., making munitions, the honor of being the
first martyrs of the German-American War?

It was not alone the working girls of England who tired their arms and
calloused their hands on the heavy shells. When the work was at its full
capacity, a proposition was sent to the women of leisure to undergo
three weeks of training in a munitions factory and then take up the work
at the week-ends to relieve the regular workers, the women shell
machinists, whose strength and skill could best be maintained by saving
them from Saturday and Sunday overtime.

There