622 State Papers and Addresses

homes and daily lives of every last one of the people. In such a war the par-
ticipation of our women will be not only tragically greater, but immensely
more important. Obviously, under such conditions the women's task of pre-
serving morale in her home, and thus helping to insure its preservation through-
out the State and Nation, will be rendered vastly more difficult and by the same
token tremendously more important.

At the same time our women would then be called upon for many types of
duties never before performed by the women of America. Already many thou-
sands of them throughout the Nation as well as throughout our own State are
enlisted as air raid spotters, under the banner of civilian defense. Among some
of the other duties, that will be delegated to women, and for which volunteers
will be asked when the time is ripe, are auxiliary police, fire watchers, nurses
and nurses aids, messengers, members of driver corps, and of emergency food
and housing corps, to mention the more important of these Civilian Defense
Services.

Under the leadership of the State and District Councils of Defense, organi-
zations of women are being set up in each county of the State under whose
leadership are being prepared complete lists of all available women volunteers,
with information as to the particular types of emergency work for which they
may be fitted.

More and more, if the emergency should grow worse, members of your
business women and professional groups will find their services required also
for the replacing and assisting of men in all the various fields in which you now
are engaged. At the moment the most serious need is in the professional group,
where thousands of nurses are lacking at the moment. There will be need thus
for many nurses of other years "who, due to the demand of their families, have
withdrawn from the practice of their profession but who still retain much of
the skill and knowledge that once was theirs.

All in all, the women of our Nation face the busiest, the most important
era that women have ever been called upon to face in all the history of the
world. Fortunate indeed, are we then that through the efforts of far-seeing
women and those early protagonists of women's rights, the women of our
Country have progressed to that stage where they are entirely competent to
meet the demands upon them.