World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Young Men's Christian Associations
We motored down one afternoon to see the work that is going on in the
great arsenal at Woolwich. Outside, where a year ago were orchards and
pastures, are long rows of permanent buildings which have sprung up on
every side. To meet this situation the Y M C A has within recent
months erected more than a hundred huts in the different munition
centers, which can provide meals for thousands of tired workers. These
huts have already placed the Association in touch with half a million
workers. In the first hut we visited, three thousand of them were
seated at meals in two relays, while two thousand soldiers were
accommodated in the hut during the afternoon and evening. A platform
at one end had been put up for musical concerts and entertainments.
The price of meals varies from twelve to twenty-five cents. Lady Henry
Grosvenor and other leaders have marshalled a force of fifteen hundred
voluntary workers in this group of huts.
So appreciative has the government been of this new development, that
in addition to providing their own government welfare workers to look
after the women and girls, they are permitting the munitions
manufacturers to build new Y M C A huts at government expense for the
accommodation of the men. We passed down long rows of dormitories,
erected almost in a night, where thousands of weary workers were
sleeping during the day, preparing for their night shift. It was
almost a sad sight to see whole huts filled with hundreds of boys from
fourteen to sixteen years of age, all sound asleep at midday. The
secretaries look after these boys in their rest and play and provide
healthful surroundings, a clean moral atmosphere, and attractive
religious influences.
The Young Women's Christian Association has entered the open door for
work among the women. In one place where a young girl from the country
had been led astray by the temptations of this new and monotonous life
and had committed suicide, the Young Women's Christian Association has
erected a large hut to provide for the moral welfare of thousands of
other girls faced by the same temptations. Oh, the dreary drudgery
that faces these tired women!
"Rattle and clatter and clank and whirr,
And thousands of wheels a-spinning--
Oh, it's dreary work and it's weary work,
But none of us all will fail or shirk;
Not women's work--that should make, not mar,
But the Devil drives when the world's at war;
And it's long and long the day is."
The Y W C A has adopted the sign of the blue triangle, to distinguish
it from the red triangle of the Y M C A. The huts bore the touch of
deft women's hands in the decorations, flowers, and signs of cheer and
comfort which the ladies have provided for these hard worked girls.
Before the huts were erected some girls had to sleep in the streets all
night in the unsanitary communities about the works.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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