of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 521

Just a few short years ago, for instance, it would have been a rash advo-
cate of the participation of women in public life who would have predicted that
Maryland would today boast of a Congresswoman and six members in the House
of Delegates, not to mention the number of women heading or holding member-
ship on the Boards of important State agencies and institutions. During the
past twelve months the number of women in official positions of trust and
responsibility has been increased, in addition to which a woman magistrate,
women members of the county Boards of Education and Supervisors of Elec-
tions, ten Justices of the Peace and other, officials have been named.

Only during this past week there was commissioned as a member of the
House of Delegates from Cecil County, Mrs. Josephine A. Mackie, the mother of
ten children. likewise on each of the five District* Councils of Defense named
during the past few months, recognition was accorded to women from every
part of the State, to lend support to the efforts being conducted so vigorously
and effectively by Mrs. John L. Whitehurst of the Maryland Council of Defense.
Through Mrs. Whitehurst's organization, which includes women chairmen for
each county of the State, the. participation of women in the defense effort is
assured on a basis that has never before been attempted in any field of State
endeavor.

In view of the perplexing problems facing our State and the Nation as the
result of chaotic world affairs, it is a particularly fortunate thing that women
have progressed so far in the important affairs of the times. It is fortunate
because the problems raised by the wars now raging, and by the danger of our
embroilment, affect the women of our land and the families and homes of the
Nation in infinitely greater degree than any previous national emergency has
done.

Twenty-four years ago—and it seems hard to realize that it was that long
ago—when the United States formally joined in the Great War, women were
called upon for certain definite tasks in support of the fighting forces that were
then necessary to make effective our entrance into this conflict. They knitted;
they made warm clothing, they served as nurses, and in general* responded nobly
to the call to take care of the material needs of our fighting men.

Today, however, the call to service to the women of our Country in this
time of crisis is so far beyond any services requested or performed in that pre-
vious war that there is absolutely no comparison between them.

Today our women, the mothers, the wives, the sisters, and sweethearts of
our fighting men, will of course feel themselves called upon to do everything
possible in a material way to provide for the comfort of their loved ones in the
services of our Country.

Beyond that, however, the picture has changed completely. First of all,
women are engaged in industry, war industry, on a scale hardly dreamt of
twenty-four years ago, and, if and when there should be a further drain on the
man-power of our Country for the first line fighting forces, thousands more of
our women will be called upon, and will be ready, to take their places in the
shops of the Nation.

If war should come to us, moreover, it may well be the type of total war
known to the conquered millions of Europe, a war that is brought into the very