way from Dallas, Texas, to Toronto, Canada, and from Los Angeles, California, to New York City. The list of persons and groups who arranged these lectures, included every sort of women's group from the Current Event Class, of the Evanston, Illinois Women's Club, and the Woman's Tax Payers' League of Cincinnati, to the General Federation of Women's Clubs, and the National Suffrage Association; Baptist, Christian, Congregational, Presbyterian, Unitarian, and Methodist Churches, Councils of Jewish Women, many men's clubs, civic associations, social workers' clubs, various schools and universities and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, at its meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

From 1910 to 1915 at least 16 cities had appointed women officers to their police departments.20

THE WOMEN POLICE ORGANIZE

At the Annual Conference of Charities and Corrections in Baltimore, in 1915, there were a sufficient number of women police in attendance to justify the creation of an association through which they might cooperate for the development of the work."1 At the 1916 Meeting of this Association, the reports of various women officers indicated that the early women police were drawn largely from the personnel

20 Proceedings of the International Association of Police Women, 1916. Information Report No. 88, New York State Bureau of Municipal Research; U. S. Census, 1915.

21 See International Association of Policewomen, Chapter X.

22

of private social agencies in the community. In many instances these agents, particularly those of the Travelers' Aid Society and the Associated Charities, were given police powers and their salaries were often paid, in part, by the police department while they still retained their position on the staff of the private agency.

At this time there was at least 1 woman supervisor of women police work in a department, Miss Annie McCully, Dayton, Ohio; 1 superintendent of a division of women police, Mrs. Blanche Mason, Seattle; 1 "senior policewoman," Miss Harvey of Baltimore; 1 inspector, Mrs. Conway, in Denver; 1 superintendent of a Woman's Protective Division, Portland, Oregon, and even 1 woman chief of police.

The Mayor of Milford, Ohio, a community of some 1500 inhabitants, in 1914, appointed a woman chief of police, Mrs. Dolly Spencer.23 At that time gambling conditions were beyond the control of the Mayor. Mrs. Spencer, who was the general adjuster of all kinds of social problems in this small town, went "after the boys and took them out of the gambling joints to her own home." Here they were joined by their parents. By a series of small raids, she temporarily stopped gambling in Milford. She held her position as chief of police for two years, or until a new mayor took office, when the appointment was not continued.

22 Proceedings of the International Association of Police Women, 1916.

23 Communicated by Miss Mary E. McChristie, Referee, Juvenile Court, Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Bureau of Social Welfare of the State University of Iowa in 1916, employed a field agent, who upon request, after studies in communities, advised as to plans for general social work. In one community, for instance, of 5,000 inhabitants, a woman with police powers handled all cases of women and children involving matters within the scope of the police. In addition she was overseer of the Poor, Truant Officer, Relief agent, Supervisor of the Garden Club and Juvenile Court Agent. She had a full-time assistant and the necessary office and clerical help.

Police Officer Nellie McElroy, of Rochester, New York, had decided in 1914, that the publicity of court proceedings for girls should be avoided if possible. The responsibility of preventing future delinquency was met by a system of voluntary probation which contained all the elements of official probation. In 1916 at least 14 cities had instituted a system of voluntary probation by women police."

22

Thus at the time of the entry of the United States into the World War, the movement for Women Police had taken root in the country, and an association had been formed "for the purpose of helping to establish and maintain a high standard both of work and of workers, and to advance as members of the police department its general service to the community," and at least 30 cities employed women in their police departments.2

22

22 Proceedings of the National Association of Police Women, 1916.

CHAPTER VII

THE UNITED STATES FROM 1917 to 1922 *

The Commissions on Training Camp Activities of the War and Navy Departments-Committee on Protective Work for Girls-Section on Women and Girls-The Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board.

Immediately upon the entrance of the United States into the World War, the energies of the women of the country, like those of the men, were diverted from their ordinary activities into the various channels which would assist in the winning of the war.

Events following mobilization gave an impetus to the movement of women police and furnished a basis upon which more general demands were later made for the appointment of women officers by police departments. Since the primary object of forming an army is that men may be trained and put into the field in the highest possible state of efficiency, it would seem reasonable that those in

* See a. in Social Hygiene; July, 1917. Wm. F. Snow, M.D.; October 1917, Bascom Johnson, Franklin Martin, M.D.; April, 1918, Walter Clarke; July, 1918, Timothy Newell Pfeiffer; October, 1918, Wm. H. Zinsser, Katharine Bement Davis; April, 1919, M. J. Exner, M.D. b. Reports of the Commissions on Training Camp Activities. c. Reports of the Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board.

command of mobilization should attempt to discover and correct all the conditions which are likely to impair fitness. Based on previous experience, it was to be expected that a certain proportion of the army would be incapacitated for service each year because of syphilis and gonorrhoea. If this enormous waste were to be prevented and we were to be able quickly to send an effective army over-seas, protective measures had to be applied, and applied immediately.

COMMISSIONS ON TRAINING CAMP ACTIVITIES OF THE WAR AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS

"Even before the United States entered the Great War, governmental and civilian experts began laying plans for the control of gonorrhoea, syphilis and chancroid. The most powerful of these pre-war stimuli came from the American Social Hygiene Association, a voluntary civilian organization that for a number of years had been gathering scientific information and laying carefully organized plans for the control of the venereal diseases."'1

"Within six weeks after America had entered the Great War, there was enacted into law by Congress a policy in regard to prostitution and the liquor traffic in connection with men in the service that was wholly unique. Under the provisions of Sections 12 and 13 of the Selective Service Law, zones were

1 Manual for the various Agents of the United States Interdepartmental Board. Washington, Government Printing Office. 1920.