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
desperation turned to the women. During the spring and summer of
1918 the Woman's Land Army was organized in thirty States, 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, beekeeping
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."
Americanization. The chairman, Mrs. Bagley, continued her report of
the preceding year of the work in connection with the Councils of
Defense of the several States "by means of the local machinery of the
various suffrage organizations." She urged the teaching of English to
aliens as the first step in Americanization, with emphasis on the
point that the immigra
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