Page 58 - 1926 February - To Dragma

TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 221

that I was of the weaker sex and not above accepting help from some
husky male in carrying a heavy transit, but Margaret always went it
'on her own' and set a lively pace too."

In February, 1921, Margaret took her degree and sailed f o r Europe,
bound home to her beloved Russia. A l l the reports of Bolshevism and
the prospect of personal suffering did not deter her from the course which
she had laid. Eager to serve her country, she took a position with the
national railways which were, of course, under government control Her
first six months in Petrograd brought her only disillusionment. In the
disordered condition of the country, with red tape hedging all progress
so closely as to bring it to a standstill, she realized soon that it would be
impossible to accomplish anything constructive. She then entered the
service of the American Relief Administration in Russia and her intimate
knowledge of both English and Russian made her invaluable in this work.
W i t h her natural fearlessness she plunged into the worst of the famine
and typhus fever districts, bringing relief measures and giving instruction
in homes and hospitals to improve the sanitary conditions in the fever
districts. When the work became well organized and her services were
no longer so urgently needed, she returned to America and to her engi-
neering work.

For a time she was with the American Bridge Company in Elmira,
and from there went to her present position with the Research Laboratory
of the Lewis Institute of Technology in Chicago where her expert knowl-
edge of technical terms in many languages has contributed to the excel-
lent work she has done there.

An interesting but unpleasant coincidence in her experiences was
that when she first came to America in 1917, during the W o r l d War, she
was suspected by United States agents of being a Russian spy, and when
she completed her work with the American Relief Administration in
Moscow she was detained there several months by the Cheka under sus--
picion as an American spy because of her American associations and the
large amount of mail she was receiving from the United States.

Margaret Arronet has gone far in the ten years since she formed the
determination to become an engineer. And she will go farther. Alpha
Omicron Pi may well be proud of her, not alone because of her profes-
sional attainments, but because she is a brave woman, a true friend, and
a sister whom to know is to love and admire.