Women and War Work

by Helen Miller Moyes

The entire work of the committees and associations is done voluntarily—nothing is paid in the whole country for the work, and the only charge is Headquarters Staff and propaganda expenses. The County Secretaries are in most cases Board of Education Inspectors whom the Board has generously allowed to help.

The War Saving Association is the body that sells the War Savings Certificates, which are very much like the American ones. These are also sold at all Post Offices and Banks. They cost 15/6 each, and in five years from date of purchase are worth £1. The interest in the fifth year is at the rate of £5.4.7 per cent. The interest begins at the end of the first year and the certificates can be cashed at any time at the Post Office with interest to the date of cashing. The War Savings Certificate has the additional advantage that its interest is free of income tax, and in a country where income tax begins above £120 ($600), and is then at rate of 2/3 in £1 (over 10 per cent) on earned income and 3/. on unearned, its advantage is very clear. The interest does not need to be included in income returns—but no one may buy more than 500 certificates. It is a specially good paying security intended only for the small saver.

The War Savings Associations can be set up by any group of people, ten or upwards, who wish to save co-operatively. They must establish a committee, small or large. They must appoint a Secretary and Treasurer and then apply for recognition to their Local Committee, or if there is not one, to the National Committee. They are given an affiliation certificate by their committee and receive free all the books, papers, etc., necessary for carrying on an association. These are all supplied by the National Committee to Local Committees.

The 40,000 Associations are in the Army, Navy, Munition Works, Government establishments, Railways, Banks, Mines, Churches, Shops, social groups, clubs, men's and women's organizations and 10,000 are in the schools. The schools, where we receive subscriptions down to 2 cents have done wonderful work and the teachers have done a great deal to make our movement what it is. We find the children do the best propaganda in the homes. One teacher, after explaining to his children what it all meant in the morning, in the afternoon had dozens of subscriptions, and among them a sovereign which had been clasped tightly in a hot little hand for a mile and a half's walk. The little boy said, "I told Mother about it and she gave me that for fighting the Germans."

Our Associations have unearthed piles of gold, one village association alone getting in £750 in gold ($3,750). Old stockings have come out and one agricultural laborer brought nine sovereigns to one of our Secretaries one night, and asked her to invest it to help the soldiers. She said, "Why did you bring it to me?" and he said, "Because its secreter than the Post Office." And the Association has the advantage that all its affairs are confidential, and though figures and amounts are known, no single detail need be.

The schemes are two and apart from schools, the minimum weekly subscription is 12 cents. There is a Bank Book scheme and a Stamp scheme in which the member holds a card which takes thirty-one 12-cent stamps, and when filled up is handed in to the Secretary and a War Savings Certificate is received.

The financial advantage to the members of forming an Association is quite easy to understand. Every week the takings are invested by the Secretary (using a special slip given by the National Committee) in War Savings Certificates, so that when members finish subscribing for a certificate, instead of getting one dated the day they finished paying for it, as it would be if they saved by themselves, the Secretary has a store of earlier dated certificates on hand, and the member receives one of these.

This works out quite fairly if one rule is observed—never give any one a Certificate dated earlier than the first week they started paying for it.

The people of England needed a great deal of education in war saving. We had to fight the strongly held conviction that of all sins the most despicable is "meanness," and that too much saving may seem mean.

No Englishman will ever really admit he has any money, and he was inclined to question your right to talk about the possibility of his having some—and your right to tell him what to do with it, supposing he had any. Some of them were a little suspicious that it was the workers we were talking to most—it was not—and some of them were not quite sure they wanted their employers to know how much they saved. That is entirely obviated by the men running their own associations. Other people told you the people in their District never did, could, or would save and were spending their big wages in the most extravagant way—that pianos and fur coats appealed far more than war savings certificates. The official people in the towns when we approached them about conferences said much the same in some cases, but, yes, of course, you could come and have a conference and the Mayor would preside and you could try. And you did, and in six months they had dozens of associations and thousands of members and had sold some thousands of certificates. We sell about one and a half million certificates a week and have sold about 140 millions since March, 1916. The appeal that won them was not only the practical appeal of the value of the money after the war for themselves, to buy a house, to provide for old age, to educate the children. The strongest appeal was the patriotic one. Save your money to save your country. Throw your silver bullets at the enemy. We have not been content to say only "save," we have tried to educate our people on finance and economics. We have tried to show them that no country can go on in a struggle like this unless it conserves its resources—not even the richest countries. We have tried to appeal to the spirit behind all these things and our Chairman in one of his admirable speeches said: