USA > Pennsylvania > Lackawanna County > History of the activities of the people of Lackawanna County in the world war : under the supervision of the Pennsylvania Council of National Defense and Committee of Public Safety > Part 9
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by special speakers, immense mass meetings for which speakers were brought from a distance were held in the City, the objects of the campaign were carefully explained through every medium of publicity. immense enthusiasm was aroused in the sympathetic hearts of our citizens, who needed, truly, a very small spark to fire enthusiasm already within them. The loyal and energetic women and men and children went into every household and asked for money and received it; every night at the theatres, every day on the streets and in all public places, at all times, at all the mills and mines and in stores and workshops, people were approached and approached again to contribute.
Again the personnel of the Committee of Public safety en- tered into War Work. It was one of the duties for which the Com- mittee of Public Safety had been organized. There was no committee in charge of a war work campaign upon which Colonel Watres and at least some, if not all, the members of the Executive Committee did not serve. At the evening meetings during the campaigns, where re- ports were made and instructions given, the presiding officer, Judge Edwards, gave dignity by his presence to the whole movement. There was scarcely a campaign for funds for war work in which Colonel Watres did not order or approve the use of the central war offices and the help of the working force there in some capacity.
Results.
The results of the various drives, as far as is known, were as follows. Regrettably, the figures are not complete and they cover the period only to the end of the war.
Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs, for the entertainment of visiting soldiers, $1,467.95.
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The Knights of Columbus wanted to raise $100.000; under the masterly leadership of Mr. Edward J. Lynett, they raised $151,000.
Under the Chairmanship of Mr. Ralph Z. Weeks, the Red Cross received during the war $50,000 from membership campaigns. In one other campaign, on a quota of $200,000, they raised $267,000. In the other campaign on a quota of $330,000, they raise: $557,000. The total quotas were $530,000 and the total subscriptions were $874,000.
In the United War Drive the quota was $700,000 and the subscriptions amounted to $867,322.15.
Besides these there were many rather private campaigns, con- ducted by churches and fraternal organizations among their own members, for work occasioned by the war. It is safe to say that during thewar, the gifts of the people of the County were somewhere between two mil- lion and a quarter and two million and a half dollars. Add to this the sale of War savings Stamps, amounting 10 $1.226,070, and the vast sum invested in bonds, 475,196,250, and the people of Lackawanna County have some thing to be proud of in all the days of the future.
Philanthropy.
These campaigns, besides subserving their immediate object, which was to raise money during the time of a big war for specific purposes, gave a fine opportunity to work up that very enthusiasm which was essential to their success and to the success of all other movements and enterprises. Besides, they have had a most pronounced effect upon all the people in their attitude toward philanthropic institutions and toward giving or loaning to these institutions. They taught the people to give; and the people have been
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giving ever since the war in amounts twenty times larger than they ever gave before. It is true partly because people .. ho never could give before have had more money with which the ' can be generous. But philanthropies that were financod only by the wealthy before the war are now being financed by a very large proportion of the people, who, having made a personal investment, take a personal interest in these philanthropies. The war belonged to the people; and now many institutions that the people never heard of have been appropriated by them. Since the war it has been remarkably more easy to go before the people with agood, sound, honest proposition to get funds. This is merely one of the elements of public education brought about by the war.
Chapter VI. The Women in the Tar
In conducting movements, in performing real service, in doing real war work, there was no great difference between the women and the men. The women did every thing in this war that a man could do, excepting to go into the first line trenches and ac- tually mine coal. In fact, in Lackawanna County it may almost be said that they performed many more real, practical services than did the men. Perhaps this can be explained by illustration. Many of the men whose names are prominently connected with war activities were the leaders of movements. Their sphere of acti- vity in some cases extended no farther than thinking and planning and bringing about certain results through the actual effort of the whole population. To begin with, every man whose part in the war was a thinking and a planning part -- a vitally essential part -- had a proportion of this thinking, large, small, or entire, done for him at home, whether he knew it or not. Then, the wives of the leaders and their daughters and their sisters were associated with other women in the fabrication of utilities during the whole
war. Men whose capacity is for thought rarely produce material commodities with their own hands; but their wives and their daugh- ters in time of war knit sweaters and stockings and make Red Cross bandages and prepare food for soldiers passing through the City; after having done a share of the thinking.
As helemates of the thousands of men who did produce with their hands, in industries and minen and on farms, the women of the hous hold always do heir full share. In this capacity their work during war times differs little from their work in
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time of peace. Only, during the war it behooved the vires of all to keep the fires of energy burning within the mon, by practical means, it is meant -- by feeding thom -- with a much smaller opportunity for doing it well. It was both a necessity
and a patriotic duty to conserve food; and the good manager of a household must conserve food without injuring the health and utility to the Cause of the husband; and must take greater pains than in ordinary times to keep her children from the disorders that might be caused by an unusual diet.
Besides the increased responsibility of properly con- ducting a home, all these women were called upon for extra service. Every small community, every neighborhood in the large towns and cities, had frequent meetings of all the women of the neighborhood for the hand-manufacture of materials for the soldiers; and after spending hours a week at these meetings, the women sook home articles to make in time saved by hastoning through their routine domestic duties.
It is all the women of whom we speak. Leadership among the women consisted of showing with the hands what was to be done with the hands. The women did not tell other women to do what they could not and did not do themselves. The democracy of war placed them all on the same level. True, the thorough organization of the County for war work emannted from the Lacka- wanna County Branch of the Women's Council of National Defense. It was an organization strictly for service.
Women's Interests.
The women were particularly interested in the .ar Gardens and the movement of emergency gardening, already described, was
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a little bit more of a woman's movement than a man's.
Registrations.
The several registrations for specific puro ses iere placed almost entirely in the hands of the wonen, and all the roel work of these registrations was done by them. The results of the registrations were also compiled entirely by them.
Liberty Loan Campaigns.
In the Liberty Lo n Campaigns the vomen had a division of their own in cach ne of the five sales of Bonds, presided over by Mrs. W. H. Storrs. In the sales of Bonds the womon did just about as well as the men. when it came to the sale of a Bont by an individual to an individual, without the question of sale by a bank, it was often the case that a lady could sell a Bond where a man could not, or could sell a Bond of a higher denomination than a man could. Into these campaigns and into the war work cam- paigns the women brought a freshness of enthusiasm and a new spirit and added a glamour to the whole movement what counved most orpheti- cally in the results.
War Work Campaigns.
Thilo in the Bond Campaigns ve may say that the omon performed a service equal to that of the men, in the War Work Campaigns they far outstripped the men in their ac ivities and in the actual collection of money. While talking about inves monts in Government Bonds is rather a man's business, persuading poo le
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to give to the Rod Cross and to the United ar / ik Drive and to the nights of Columbus, so what our boys ight, Lave more con- forts, is strictly in line with a woman's more son itontil train of thought.
Besides engaging post energeticail; in 'ho house-to- house canvasses in all the e mrwaigne for funds, it was the Toune women who collected money in all the hotels, theatres, and public plac s, in all the stores and offices. Che origi- nal ideas for raising money by new methods cime generally from them, and they were found to be as in the sales of Bonds, solici- bore much more certain of receiving money than were the men.
Women's Eotor Corps
They conducted a Women's Motor Corps, including in its membership probably every woman who drove an automobile in the City. Under the captaincy of I'ys. Charles H. Welles, Jr., this Motor Corps norformed all sorts of veluable services. Then any covement mos afost the Notor Corps transported soooplics, sneakers, and other people. It distributed and collected the materials made by the hand-manufacture of women. Food and supplies that wore gathered to be shipped broad, notably for Belgian relief and for soldiers' Christmas, were collected by this Corps. During the Loan Campaigns and other campaigns they were especially active; and during the influensa epidemic their assistance could not well have been dispensed with. Miss Margaret Richards was a particu- larly active, enthusiastic, and usof 1 member of the Corps.
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Red Cross.
The work of the Red Cross was almost entirely the work of women. Under the direction of Mrs. V. V. Seronton, Mrs. John f. "ichards, and Mrs. V. W. Paterson, womon ore at Red Cross Headquarters every day and night during the wer, engaged in wort there, and in sending out work and receiving it; and in shipping it away from Scranton for use in the hospitals a. d at the Front. Since the war work of the Red Cross was so notably a woman's work, it may bo well to include in this place the report of its opera- tions .
Scranton, Pa., December 2, 1918.
Mr. Eugone H. Follows, Co neil of National Defense, Scranton, Pa.
My dear Mr. Follows :-
In reply to your letter of November 29th, I think if I quote you from the report made at our annual meeting on Nov- omber FOth, you will get some idea of the greit work done by the Red Cross. These reporte cover a period from October, 1917, tc October, 1918, and when you consider that practically the sare work is being done all over the Country, you can readily see what the Red Cross has meant to the boys in the arny during the war.
The Hospital Sup ly Department completed over 46,000 garments, 2,016 comfort bits were sent :o camps, 31, 0.0 knit garments, sweaters, socks, helmets, et cetera, were ... de, and 5,270 wore given to drafted men before they left for the various comps.
The Surgical Dressings Department shipped 225 boxes to Philadelphia Headquarters, containing 445,81 dressings. 18,000 books ere shipped to ca ps and 1,000 scrap books were sent to base hospitals. In addition to his, the Literature Department sent the local newspapers to the camps.
The Home Service Section has looked after seven hundred families during the war and I might add that this branch of war work is increasing and will be an important Red Cross work for some time to come. In the Educational Department fifty-three have enrolled in the conversacionel French class, and one hundred and seventy-four in elementary h giene and home care of the wick.
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The Women's Motor Corps has covered over 6,0 0 miles and ut in over 1600 hours for Red Cross ourposes alone. They have also handled 10,000 pounds of freight. Yours ver - sincerely, ( Bigned) N. S. Si her,
secretary.
A mere glance at the figures in Inis report sho s in a ncasure Thes The hands of the women did.
Canteen Service.
Soranton is the host important and larges. intermedi- ate station between Buffalo and New York on the Lackawanna Rail- road, and one hundred and thirty-five miles Cron Ne: York -- just about the time between meals. \ groot many of the sol iers moving from the west and middle west came through Scranton on their way to New York to embark for Europe. After the war many
of them came back through Scranton.
At imes a dozen long
troop trains passed through the City in a day. Tomon of Seran. on organized and financed a Canteen Service and met every train carrying soldiers to war, supil ing every soldier with sand- Wiches, coffee, cigarettes, and other refreshments, The women
and girls who performed this service were divided into details, received information that a train had left Binghamton, sixty miles north, and never missed a train, day or night. After the war the Canteen Service for some months took care of soldiers moving west- ward when they passed through the City in troop traine or special
cars , Il is said that Mrs. Willard Matthews, Chairman of the Canteen Service Committee, nover missed being on duty, personally, a single day during the whole war.
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Entertainment of Soldiers,
Twenty-six miles from Scranton, at Tobyhanna, was Camp Summerall, at which a rather small detachment of soldiers was sta- tioned, the number there never being more than about five thous nd. The women of Scranton under the general direction of the Canteen Service, made efforts to give the boys on leave of absence in »cron- ton, entertainment. There were dances and social affairs of all sorts, the effort being made to suit the individual taste of each soldier. The fact that the detachment of soldiers was not large made this possible, and the plan was carried out all the vime the boys were at Tobyhanna with satisfaction to them and the citizens of Scranton.
Organization of the Women's Committee.
Very soon after the Lackawanna County Committee of Public Safety was organized with Colonel Watres as Chairman, under the plans laid down by the Pennsylvania Executive Committee, the women's Committee of the Council of National Defense was organized. The
following was the organization.
Mrs. J. Benjamin Dimmick, Chairman, Mrs. W. H. Storrs, Vice-chairman, Miss Janet Storrs, Secretary, Mrs. W. W. Scran- ton, Treasurer. Registration, Mrs. Maxwell Chapman; Food Production, Lackawanna County, Mrs. Charles S. Leston; Scran- ton, Mrs. George Mitchell; Food Conservation, Lackawanna Coun- ty, Mrs. Frank A, Kaiser; Scranton, Mrs. T. C. Von storch; Women in Industry, Miss Helon Nowcomb; Child Welfare, Miss Emma J. Lewis; Social Agonnies, Mrs. J. M. Wainwright; cation, Mrs. Edgar Sturge; Liberty Loan, Mrs. S. H. Storrs; Home and Foreign Relief and Safeguarding of Moral and Soiri- tual Forces, Mrs. Everett warren
It has been stated that in regard to the different donar !- ments and divisions of the Committee of Public Safety, some of the
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departments had litle or almost nothing to do, and that in the course of time the administration of all but a fel of he deport- ments fell into the central war offices.
Activity of the Women's Organization.
It was not so with the departments with women at their
hends. They had plenty to do. If they did not at any moment, they went out and found some thing for their departments to do. They found work and they worked. There was not a single dead de- partment in the Women's Committee of the Council of Motional Defense. Some of the work outlined for thom they did all alone; in other bronches of the work they must necessarily co-operate with the men . Perhaps it was from the personality of Colonel Hatres on the : 1 one hand and Mirs. Di mick on the other that there was never any fric- tion of prerogative between the com ittees of oublie safety of the women and of the men in Scranton or throughout the County. When it was a question of women's committees and men's com ittoos working together in any general movement, it was the custom for Mrs. Din ich and Mrs. Weston to bring the question at issue before the meeting of the Executive Committee or for one of them to confer personally vi h Chairman watres. The mode of proceeding was thus easily planned.
Amalgamation
of Committees.
When late in the summer of 1918 Mr. Goorge wharton Pepper planned to have the women's Committee of the Council of National De- fense brought into the Pennsylvania Council of National Defense ond Committee of Public Safety as a part of the general organization, it may have appeared in looking over Pennsylvania to have been a rather
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difficult task. Soon after the assumo ion of his dusies as Executive Secretary by the writer, Colonel atros directed hinto take the necessary steps to observe Ir. Pepper's instruc ions. It was the easiest thing to do that could have been attempted. Truly, because of the way in which the business of the tro com- mittees had been conducted for over a year by Mrs. Dimmick and
Colonel Watres, it has already done. In a brief conversation with Mrs. Dimmick on the subject, the writer found that since she and some other ladies always attended the meetings of the Executive Committee, she and all the women of the County con- sidered themselves part and parcel of the Committee of Public Safety already; and that if it were not so, they certainly ought to become members of it immediately.
Office
of Women.
An office was nicely furnished in the central war offices for the Women's Committee, where they held their committee mee ings of all sorts after this time, and during which meetings hey some- times conferred with the Executive Secretary. This arrangement of office room and office help should have been made earlier in the
ver. Miss Mullen took charge of the office work and secretarial matters for the Women's Committee as well as for the men's commit- tee; and the amalgamation was complete.
Active Women.
As in regard to other matters, Mr. Pepper asked for lists of women active in war work, and we find in these lists the names of Mrs. J. Benjamin Dimmick, Mrs. C. S. Weston, Mrs. W. H. Storis, Mrs. W. W. Scranton, Mrs. Max ell Chapman, Mrs. George Mitchell,
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Mrs. Frank A. Kaiser, Mrs. T. C. Von storch, Miss Helen Newcomb. Miss Emma J. Lewis, Mrs. J. M. Wainwright, Mrs. Edgar turgo, Mrs. Everett Warren, Miss Helen M. Mullen, Mrs. E. A. Cruttenden, Dr. Anna C. Clarke, Mrs. Walter H. Jones, Mrs. Georgo L. Peck, Mrs. A. C. Graves, Mrs. L. C. Edwards, Mrs. Vil iam widdowfield, Mrs. J. w. Sampson, Mrs. E. Palmer Smith, Mrs. 2. D. Davis, Miss Lenora Grier, Mrs. Frank Pierce, Mrs. F. E. Gritmon, Mrs. Abel Brundage, Miss Florence H. Gebhardt, Mrs. Ruth Antoine, Mrs. H. A. Kern, Irs. M. D. Cooper, Mrs. Charles DeWoody, Mrs. H. C. White, Mrs. H. II. Barrett Miss May Y. Hill, Mrs. P. F. Lonergan, Mrs. L. H. Conklin, Mrs. Worthington Scranton, Mrs. Hugh Jennings, Mrs. John . Richards. Mrs. W. W. Paterson.
But such a list of names is very unsatisfactory. It should include really th usands of other names of women the war 1
was fought here at home by all the women of the County.
Women in Active Service. Gold Stars.
Nearly fifty women from the County were in active service, almost all of them as nurses or war workers. Six of them from Scranton died in service -- Miss Mae E. Carter, Miss Theresa Collins, Miss Anna P. Gibney, Miss Eugenia Hosie, Miss Lillian M. Langdon, and Miss Romayne Lewis.
The Spirit of Womanhood.
That we mere men, whether we fought wi h guns abroad or with ink or words or money and substance at home, call this our var -- the People's War, the War of Democracy -- would indica e that it
was a man's war. But we are mere men; and we have learned to
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appropriate things beca se we have been suffered for all the ages to do so .
Just as much or more was it a woman's war. Every unusual thing, every thing of war emergency that man did, r did without. so did woman -- excepting to fight and engage in the more muscular employments. And fighting was casy compared to the heart aches suffered by the women -- the uncertainty, the daily, hourly, expoc- tation of tragic news -- for every woman had some one close to her who was at war, the years and years of mourning if the worst news came .
A leader in war thought ans war action here at home made
these remarks in an address at the beginning of the war:
"I am trying to get into this war, but they haven't taken me yet. . This is why I want to fight. I want this war to be so decisive in its results that it will be the last for America: for all time. I don't want my too little girls to have to grow up and worry about their husbands going to war the way my Wife is worrying about me now. She knows I ought to go and wants me to go -- but she can't sleep because of it. I don't want my boy to grow up and have to worry His good wife in the same way. Wives and husbands of to-day must make terrible sacrifices we do not know how terrible, but we'll all make them -- for the husbands and wives of to-morrow. Let us fight now -- and let us fight hard, for our children, that the women may never have to face ano her war."
That was in the spring of 1917. It was the women who "faced the war". And they could have withstood -- expected to -- greater sacrifices.
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Chaptor VII.
War Publicity
While there was never any hal ving or hesitancy in he en- thusiasm of the people of the County during the whole war, it was essential at all times to keep this enthusiasm ardent -- to bring it out, that it might be prac ically effec ive. And i. was essen- tial to keep the people truthfully informed. The people regarded the war as any thing but "sport". There was no element of fun or pleasure in it; it was not a picnic nor an entertainment. But
Colonel Watres and those surrounding him found many ways in which to make the work of war emergency less burdensome, by appealing to this very fervor. American sporting blood could arise to the tragedy of war; and it did arise to a higher elevation in 1917 and 1918 than it had ever risen before. But a greater amount of ser- vice was performed by making as much mise as possible, by having on foot some big, well advertised movement all the time, than if Publicity public interest had been left to take care of i self.
and propaganda layed an immenso part in winning the war. It is not always true that words are worthless, and tha, only acts count. The educational or instructive measures adopted to both foster and build up public opinion, to engender and to keep alive public spirit, were of four kinds; Public Meetings, the Four Minute Speakers, Newspaper Publicity, and the use of the Churches and the School System.
Committee on Publicity and Education.
Immediately upon the organization of the Executivo Com- mittee. the Honorable J. Benjamin Dimnick was laced in general
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charge of this whole question, with he si lo of Chairman of ho Committee on Publicity and Education. MY. Dimmick was a mainstay of the Committee of Public Safety and of the poo le of the County during our war with Germany. Ever beside Colonel auros during the early days of organiza ion, his sound judgment and ready hand are seen in the shaping of the movement that carried our people through the months of war and of reconstruction. He had been prominent in all civic circles for many years, had served as Mayor of Scranton, had been a candidate for United states venator, and he brought into war work a mature judg ent and keen intellect. He shaped the policy of the Committee on Publicity and Education, and when a few months later he went to Europe as representativo of the American Red Cross, he left the different departments of his work in such hands, that under the Commitice of Public Safety the work rogressed with as auch perfection as di. any of the other branches of war work. Thegreat names in Lackawanna County, who, together with Colonel Watres, were the Leaders, were Judge Edwards, Mr. Dimmick, Mr. Lynett, and Mr. Weston.
Mr. Dimmick was called to tak yoon himself a vert Liph trust, that of representative of the Red Cross in Switzerland. It
was in its nature a diplomatic mission, bringing with it grea res- ponsibility, months of intense worry, and a doop mental anguish. Never particularl : robust, past the age of full bodily vigor, the anxiety and the difficulties imposed upon him in Switzerland told upon his constitution. Leaving Switzerland at the end f his tour of duty there, with the gerns of influenza already in his system, upon reaching Bordeaux to embark for this country, he was subjected to considerable delay. He was finally able to cross the Atlantic and arrived home a very sick man indeed. Upon his partial recovery he attended to private and public business for a little over a :ear
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