Though doomed to go in company with Pain,
And Fear and Bloodshed, miserable train!
Turn our necessity to glorious gain.
The Work of Women
3. The war has revealed to us the great extent to which women in emergencies can replace men. I need not repeat the story of how women in a few months mastered mechanical intricacies in munition works, for which previously a long training was thought necessary; nor how educated women after a few months’ intensive training were able, under war conditions, to undertake the work of fully trained nurses. We cannot ignore these facts; and in regard to nursing, they should lead us to consider whether, under modern conditions of life, it is necessary that the great body of nurses, like the great majority of medical practitioners, need to be experts in major operations, and whether they should not be trained chiefly from the standpoint of the ordinary illnesses of the household. Particularly, it is important to recognize that the training of the health visitor or public health nurse must diverge at an early period of training from that of the clinical nurse.
In another direction women are about to influence vitally the problems of public health in the near future. The municipal and parliamentary vote has been given to women in England, and is not likely long to be withheld here. How will they use it? When they use it will “politics” be a name for a contemptible thing as it has become in some towns and states, or will women insist on clean administration and efficient work to secure the health and welfare of the community?
Prohibition of Alcoholic Drinks
4. The prohibition law against alcoholic drinks in the U. S. A. is largely the work of American women. Whatever view be taken of this law—and I regard it as one of the most significant social events of the age—let there be no doubt as to the essential facts of the problem.
Alcoholism is a potent enemy of the race. It is a great creator of avoidable poverty. It makes the bed ready for tuberculosis. It is a frequent excitant of exposure to the infection of venereal diseases; it swells the ranks of fatherless children, and of neglected infants; it helps to fill our prisons and our hospitals. Let it be admitted, if you like, that light wines and beers are pleasant, and in strict moderation with meals are beverages to which little or no harm can be traced; but heavier drinks and all non-medicinal spirit drinking are to be condemned; and the country which distinguishes itself by abolishing these drinks will, other things being equal, in my opinion, inevitably attain quickly an industrial and economic superiority over all countries which continue to follow the older ways.
5. A great gain during the war is constituted by the fact that science has come into its own. The war has been described as a war of engineers. Its chief successes have been won largely by applied science; and it is gratifying to record that the Anglo-Saxon intellectuals, when their services have been engaged, have proved themselves more than equal to the German scientist, whether in physics or chemistry or medicine.