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It is a privilege to testify that your glorious accomplishments in the war have given you a new place in the hearts of officers and men of the Army and have earned for you the admiration of a grateful Nation.

JOHN J. PERSHING, General, Commander in Chief.

Official:

By ROBERT C. DAVIS,

Adjutant General.

The CHAIRMAN. What salaries did you receive?
Mrs. NORMAN. $1,000 and a per diem of $2.

The CHAIRMAN. A per diem of $2 for what purpose?
Mrs. NORMAN. Food and light and heat.

The CHAIRMAN. Commutation of quarters?

Mrs. NORMAN. Yes, sir.

Mrs. ROGERS. Did they provide you with good quarters?

Mrs. NORMAN. They did; yes; as good as was possible under the circumstances. We were quartered at the Hotel des Negociantes, in rue National, Tours. When we first arrived we were placed in tents in the yard surrounding Camp Hospital No. 27. But that was soon rectified and we were placed in hotels leased by the Government from French owners.

The CHAIRMAN. Did you pay for your quarters out of that $2 a day?

Mrs. NORMAN. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. You paid for your food?

Mrs. NORMAN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. You received nothing but $1,000 a year and transportation?

Mrs. NORMAN. And transportation.

The CHAIRMAN. How many of you are there?

Mrs. NORMAN. Sixty-three Quartermaster women. The CHAIRMAN. Who paid for the heating? stoves?

Did you have

Mrs. NORMAN. Yes. We bought little coal-oil stoves.
The CHAIRMAN. You had to buy those yourselves?
Mrs. NORMAN. Yes, sir; for our rooms were damp and cold.
The CHAIRMAN. Did you have to pay for the fuel?

Mrs. NORMAN. No, sir. It was issued by the Government, after the situation was explained to the bureau. The antiquated French furnace would not heat adequately.

The CHAIRMAN. Did this $2 a day pay your actual living expenses?

Mrs. NORMAN. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you recall about what it cost you per day to live?

Mrs. NORMAN. No, sir; I can not do that. We had toast, comfiture and coffee for breakfast; anything else was extra. Our dinner at night consisted of soup, meat, two side dishes, and desert. We had lunch near the barracks, at French prices for Americans. Everything in the food line was very high.

The CHAIRMAN. Wherever you happened to be?
Mrs. NORMAN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. That covers the experiences of the Quartermaster Corps women. Do you know anything about the women who were with the Ordnance Department?

Mrs. NORMAN. Yes, sir. They lived in our hotel. They had a different status from the Quartermaster wonem. They were transferred from the Washington office.

The CHAIRMAN. What did they receive?

Mrs. NORMAN. They received on an average of $1,200. They were sent over with the same salaries as obtained in the Washington office. Some of them were getting $1,000, some of them more, but they had the 10 per cent increase for foreign service.

The CHAIRMAN. They were civil-service employees?
Mrs. NORMAN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Were you a civil-service employee?

Mrs. NORMAN. No, sir; none of us were. We were business women, recruited by the Y. M. C. A., at the instance of Lieut. Col. Ezra Davis, for service in the United States Army, overseas.

The CHAIRMAN. What other classes of women were there?

Mrs. NORMAN. Some Signal Corps women; telephone operators and supervisors. They numbered 246. A large contingent went over with the first unit of Quartermaster women on the Aquitania. The CHAIRMAN. Telephone operators?

Mrs. NORMAN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. What did they receive.

Mrs. NORMAN. The pay of the operators ranged from $60 to $75 a month, supervisors from $72 to $88 a month, and chief operators from $100 to $125 with a per diem of $3 to $4. These girls were sent to forward stations, such as Chaumont, Neufchateau, etc., as well as in Tours-anywhere General Headquarters needed them. They did not send American girls very near to the front, as you know. However, a number of these Signal Corps women were in air raids, though none were hurt.

The CHAIRMAN. What discipline were you under? Was it Regular Army discipline?

Mrs. NORMAN. Yes, sir; absolutely. We were subject to courtsmartial and to orders, leaves, duties, and everything else connected with enlisted men's status.

The CHAIRMAN. What did they court-martial you for, if you were not in the military service?

Mrs. NORMAN. That is one of our points.

The CHAIRMAN. Did they court-martial anyone that you know of? Mrs. NORMAN. I do not know whether they did or not. There were threats, but whether or not they were carried out I do not know. At any rate, we were given to understand it wasn't because they "couldn't," but because they wouldn't.

The CHAIRMAN. I doubt very much if they could.

Mrs. NORMAN. Maybe not. But they told us we were militarized and amenable. They never denied we were militarized until we came back.

The CHAIRMAN. What other groups are you familiar with?

Mrs. NORMAN. The Ordnance, Signal Corps women, and Medical Corps women. Many of them were stationed at 66 barracks. I could not tell of the tour of duty in France of the Medical Corps

women.

The CHAIRMAN. Mrs. Flanery can tell us that.

Mrs. NORMAN. I wish to thank the chairman and the members of the committee very much for listening to me. May I be allowed to read the form of oath which was administered to the Quartermaster women?

The CHAIRMAN. Read that into the record.

Mrs. NORMAN. This is the oath prescribed by section 1757 of the Revised Statutes of the United States. See act approved May 13, 1884.

OATH-WAR DEPARTMENT STANDARD FORM NO. 6

STATE OF NEW YORK,

County of New York, 88:

I, Mary L. Norman, 59 West One hundred and fifth Street, New York City, in the county of New York and State of New York, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

MARY L. NORMAN.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 22d day of July, 1918, Frank P. Briody, notary public No. 20, Kings County, register 114, New York County clerk No. 28, register No. 101.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you know any of these women who were disabled in the service?

Mrs. NORMAN. Yes; Miss Helen M. Towey, whose eyes were badly affected, and she was sent home. Prior to this she was treated at the base hospital at Bourges. Miss Katherine Gray developed tuberculosis.

The CHAIRMAN. Military hospital?

Mrs. NORMAN. Yes, sir. That is all we had, military hospital treatment.

The CHAIRMAN. What do you wish, hospitalization, or what status do you desire?

Mrs. NORMAN. Yes; we want hospitalization; also we would like to have the World War veterans' act, 1924, amended to read as follows:

That section 3, subsection 9, of the World War veterans' act, 1924, approved June 7, 1924, is hereby amended to read as follows: "The terms 'man' and 'enlisted man mean a person, whether male or female and whether enlisted, enrolled, appointed, inducted, or drafted into active service in the military or naval forces of the United States, and include noncommissioned and petty officers, members of the training camps authorized by law, and female clerical employees of the Medical Corps, Quartermaster Corps, and Ordnance Corps, and female switchboard employees of the Signal Corps, who served honorably in the American Expeditionary Forces during the World War."

Please note where it says in the bill now before you "enrolled, enlisted, drafted, or inducted or appointed." We were not drafted but we were enrolled, inducted, and appointed.

The CHAIRMAN. In other words, you want an amendment that will cover you into the military forces?

Mr. NORMAN. Yes, sir; if it is necessary. It already has been done; your existing veterans' act, 1924, covers us, but needs specification of the branch of service.

The CHAIRMAN. On that theory you would be entitled to compensation and hospitalization on the same terms as members of the Army?

Mrs. NORMAN. Yes. That is what we were. We were enrolled, we were appointed, we were inducted in the Army, and we served in it. The oath as given above covers this.

Mr. PERKINS. Give us an idea of the general character of the service rendered by these ladies.

Mrs. NORMAN. Immediately upon reporting for duty at Tours we were distributed to the different divisions of the A. E. F., to be placed into the clerical forces, which at that time were composed of enlisted men and French civilians (female). We were stenographers, typists, statisticians, file clerks, etc., and anything else that an American business woman could do. We went early to the barracks, not later than 8.30, and we stayed until we were released to go home.

Mr. PERKINS. Where were you?

Mrs. NORMAN. At Tours, sir. Headquarters S. O. S. The Chief Quartermaster had command of all the departments of Service of Supply and it was to this office that requisition was made for every single article that was needed for our vast overseas forces— clothing, food, shelter, ammunition, transportation, etc.-our trains taking five hours to pass a given point, when the exigency arose, such as the St. Mihiel drive, the Meuse-Argonne, Aisne-Marne, OiseAisne offensives, and the Somme. We were obliged to stay late to get out orders for men, graves registration units, clothing, food, and ammunition.

The CHAIRMAN. Your desk would be next to the desk of an enlisted man in the Army?

Mrs. NORMAN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And the next desk would be that of an enlisted woman?

Mrs. NORMAN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. The next desk another enlisted man?

Mrs. NORMAN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And perhaps at the next desk another woman? Mrs. NORMAN. Yes, sir; and we were doing the work of two of them, because we were trained for that work. Very often men were released to go to forward stations of the quartermaster, and they were never replaced. They would like to have had all American business women in the offices, so we were told. Our work was satisfactory as compared equally with that of enlisted men, and that this was recognized is fully attested by the following letter from Col. John T. Knight, Quartermaster Corps:

AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES HEADQUARTERS,

SERVICE OF SUPPLY, OFFICE OF THE CHIEF QUARTERMASTER, A. E. F.,

To: Mrs. Mary L. Norman.

From: Chief Quartermaster.

Subject: Services in the A. E. F.

June 26, 1919.

It is gratifying to this office to know that the commander in chief has noted and publicly commended the most excellent work of our American women in

France. With an untiring and loyal attention to duty and to the many and important details of our work that you have so unhesitatingly shouldered and carried through to a most successful conclusion, you have earned all and more than mere words can properly express. Work of the highest character and a cheerfulness of disposition on the part of the Quartermaster corps girls in France will be one of our treasured recollections of the work "over there." You will carry back with you a consciousness of your bit well done and the appreciation of and best wishes from the corps.

JOHN T. KNIGHT, Colonel, Q. M. C., Chief Quartermaster.

Mr. PERKINS. Can you give us the total number of women affected by this amendment?

Mrs. NORMAN. Yes, sir; about 429. That is not so many.
Mr. PERKINS. Of this class, to which do you refer?

Mrs. NORMAN. The four classes to which I refer are the Quartermaster women, Medical Corps women, Signal Corps women, and Ordnance women.

Mr. PERKINS. There are other classes referred to?

The CHAIRMAN. There are other classes. Mr. Miller has data, and we will ask for it later.

Mrs. NORMAN. Four hundred and twenty-nine is not a great number. Many of our girls have been recognized by the American Legion. I have been a member of the William J. Bland Post ever since it was organized in Kansas City. I have told these men that I could not get an expression from the American Legion whether or not I am militarized, but they will not let me go. Many other Quartermaster women are members of their home-town posts. Mrs. Jessie Erskine, of Buffalo, N. Y., is the secretary of her post, so they must look with commendation on it. Mrs. Bertha Kendig, secretary to Ambassador Crowder, in Cuba, is a member of the Habana post.

Mrs. ROGERS. They were taken in as regular members of the Legion?

Mrs. NORMAN. Yes, Mrs. Rogers. I have been a member of the Legion since 1920. I will read a letter which I happen to have with me from the adjutant of the William J. Bland Post of the American Legion, Kansas City, Mo.:

Mrs. MARY L. NORMAN,

2137 Munitions Building, Washington, D. C.

JANUARY 15, 1923.

DEAR MRS. NORMAN: I am pleased to acknowledge receipt of your check for 1923 Bland Post American Legion dues. It is a pleasure to have you continue your membership in the post, and we are proud of your connection with us. Please feel free to call on the post whenever we may be of service to you. Cordially yours,

WILLIAM J. BLAND POST, By LELAND HAZARD, Adjutant.

STATEMENT OF MRS. RAY W. FLANERY, WASHINGTON, D. C.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you please discuss the Medical Corps, of which you were a member-statement of duties, pay, etc.?

Mrs. FLANERY. Mr. Chairman, I believe I should begin this discussion of the layout of duties, pay, etc., of the so-called civilian employees of the base hospitals who were part of the American Expeditionary Forces by first giving the organization of the entire base hospital. The personnel of a base hospital, according to Army

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