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World War I

When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson invited Tarbell to take part in a new committee: the Women's Committee of the Council of National Defense. The Suffragettes on the committee were initially unhappy about Tarbell's appointment, but her "warmth and group spirit" won them over. The goal of the women's committee was to mobilize the war efforts of American women and the first issue addressed was a developing food crisis. The group encouraged women to plant vegetable gardens and promoted both drying and canning of foods. Other efforts included knitting, sewing, bandage making, and the opening of day-care centers to operate while women began working in factories. Tarbell often served as a go-between with the Men's Council and the Woman's Committee.

Tarbell had a number of setbacks in 1917. Her mother died in September, and upon Tarbell's return to Washington, D.C., the following year, Tarbell collapsed. She was sent to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and she spent three months in the hospital recovering. Tarbell also began showing beginning signs of Parkinson's disease. Her doctor did not share his diagnosis with her. It was not until years later, as her tremors worsened and affected her handwriting, that she finally learned of the diagnosis.

The Women's Committee was disbanded with the end of the war in 1918, and Tarbell traveled once again to Paris, France. Some of her former McClure's colleagues were also there for the Paris Peace Conference: John S. Phillips as editor of the Red Cross Magazine and Ray Stannard Baker as an assistant to President Woodrow Wilson. President Wilson had wanted Tarbell in the official U.S. legation, but, unbeknownst to Tarbell, Secretary of State Robert Lansing had refused to have a female on his team.

Tarbell wrote for the Red Cross magazine and interviewed Parisians about how the war had affected them. She also traveled to the countryside to interview farmers living in the wreckage of their former homes. Tarbell focused on the experience of the average Frenchwoman with such articles as "The French Woman and Her New World," "The Homing Instinct of Woman," and "That Brave Northwest."