Doctor Anna Howard Shaw had been appointed chairman of the National Committee of the Women's Council of National Defence, and Bok arranged at once with her that she should edit a department page in his magazine, setting forth the plans of the committee and how the women of America could co-operate therewith.
The magazine had thus practically become the semiofficial mouthpiece of all the various government war bureaus and war-work bodies.James A.
Flaherty, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, explained the proposed work of that body; Commander Evangeline Booth presented the plans of the Salvation Army, and Mrs.Robert E.Speer, president of the National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association, reflected the activities of her organization; while the President's daughter, Miss Margaret Wilson, discussed her work for the opening of all schoolhouses as community war-centres.
The magazine reflected in full-color pictures the life and activities of the boys in the American camps, and William C.Gorgas, surgeon-general of the United States, was the spokesman in the magazine for the health of the boys.
Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo interpreted the first Liberty Loan "drive" to the women; the President of the United States, in a special message to women, wrote in behalf of the subsequent Loan; Bernard Baruch, as chairman of the War Industries Board, made clear the need for war-time thrift; the recalled ambassador to Germany, James W.Gerard, told of the ingenious plans resorted to by German women which American women could profitably copy; and Elizabeth, Queen of the Belgians, explained the plight of the babies and children of Belgium, and made a plea to the women of the magazine to help.So straight to the point did the Queen write, and so well did she present her case that within six months there had been sent to her, through The Ladies' Home Journal, two hundred and forty-eight thousand cans of condensed milk, seventy-two thousand cans of pork and beans, five thousand cans of infants' prepared food, eighty thousand cans of beef soup, and nearly four thousand bushels of wheat, purchased with the money donated by the magazine readers.
On the coming of the coal question, the magazine immediately reflected the findings and recommendations of the Fuel Administration, and Doctor H.A.Garfield, as fuel administrator, placed the material of his Bureau at the disposal of the magazine's Washington editor.
The Committee on Public Information now sought the magazine for the issuance of a series of official announcements explanatory of matters to women.
When the "meatless" and the "wheatless" days were inaugurated, the women of America found that the magazine had anticipated their coming; and the issue appearing on the first of these days, as publicly announced by the Food Administration, presented pages of substitutes in full colors.
Of course, miscellaneous articles on the war there were, without number.
Before the war was ended, the magazine did send a representative to the front in Catherine Van Dyke, who did most effective work for the magazine in articles of a general nature.The fullpage battle pictures, painted from data furnished by those who took actual part, were universally commended and exhausted even the largest editions that could be printed.A source of continual astonishment was the number of copies of the magazine found among the boys in France; it became the third in the official War Department list of the most desired American periodicals, evidently representing a tie between the boys and their home folks.But all these "war" features, while appreciated and desirable, were, after all, but a side-issue to the more practical economic work of the magazine.It was in this service that the magazine excelled, it was for this reason that the women at home so eagerly bought it, and that it was impossible to supply each month the editions called for by the extraordinary demand.
Considering the difficulties to be surmounted, due to the advance preparation of material, and considering that, at the best, most of its advance information, even by the highest authorities, could only be in the nature of surmise, the comprehensive manner in which The Ladies'
Home Journal covered every activity of women during the Great War, will always remain one of the magazine's most noteworthy achievements.This can be said without reserve here, since the credit is due to no single person; it was the combined, careful work of its entire staff, weighing every step before it was taken, looking as clearly into the future as circumstances made possible, and always seeking the most authoritative sources of information.
Bok merely directed.Each month, before his magazine went to press, he sought counsel and vision from at least one of three of the highest sources; and upon this guidance, as authoritative as anything could be in times of war when no human vision can actually foretell what the next day will bring forth, he acted.The result, as one now looks back upon it, was truly amazing; an uncanny timeliness would often color material on publication day.Of course, much of this was due to the close government co-operation, so generously and painstakingly given.
With the establishment of the various war boards in Washington, Bok received overtures to associate himself exclusively with them and move to the capital.He sought the best advice and with his own instincts pointing in the same way, he decided that he could give his fullest service by retaining his editorial position and adding to that such activities as his leisure allowed.He undertook several private commissions for the United States Government, and then he was elected vice-president of the Philadelphia Belgian Relief Commission.
