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diff --git a/20645.txt b/20645.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..06275bb --- /dev/null +++ b/20645.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13046 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Family and it's Members, by Anna Garlin Spencer + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Family and it's Members + +Author: Anna Garlin Spencer + +Release Date: February 21, 2007 [EBook #20645] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAMILY AND IT'S MEMBERS *** + + + + +Produced by Jeannie Howse and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation and unusual spelling in the | + | original document have been preserved. | + | | + | Bold text is marked with ='s, italicized text with _'s | + | | + | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this | + | text. For a complete list, please see the end of this | + | document. | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + LIPPINCOTT'S + + FAMILY LIFE SERIES + + EDITED BY + BENJAMIN R. ANDREWS, PH.D. + + TEACHERS COLLEGE. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY + + + THE FAMILY AND ITS MEMBERS + By ANNA GARLIN SPENCER + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S HOME MANUALS + +Edited by BENJAMIN R. ANDREWS, PH.D. +Teachers College, Columbia University + + +CLOTHING FOR WOMEN + + By LAURA I. BALDT, A.M., Teachers College, Columbia University. + 454 Pages, 7 Colored Plates, 202 Illustrations in Text. + +SUCCESSFUL CANNING AND PRESERVING + + By OLA POWELL, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 425 + Pages, 5 Colored Plates, 174 Illustrations in Text. Third + Edition. + +HOME AND COMMUNITY HYGIENE + + By JEAN BROADHURST, Ph.D. 428 Pages, 1 Colored Plate, 118 + Illustrations in Text. + +THE BUSINESS OF THE HOUSEHOLD + + By C.W. TABER, Author of _Taker's Dietetic Charts_, _Nurses' + Medical Dictionary_, etc. 438 Pages. Illustrated. Second Edition, + Revised. + +HOUSEWIFERY + + By L. RAY BALDERSTON, A.M., Teachers College, Columbia + University. 351 Pages. Colored Frontispiece and 175 Illustrations + in Text. + +LAUNDERING + + By LYDIA RAY BALDERSTON, A.M., Instructor in Housewifery and + Laundering, Teachers College, Columbia University. 152 + Illustrations. + +HOUSE AND HOME + + By GRETA GREY, B.S., Director of Home Economics Department, + University of Wyoming. Illustrated. + +MILLINERY (_In Preparation_) + + By EVELYN SMITH TOBEY, B.S., Teachers College, Columbia + University + + +LIPPINCOTT'S FAMILY LIFE SERIES + +Edited by BENJAMIN R. ANDREWS, PH.D. +Teachers College, Columbia University + +CLOTHING--CHOICE, CARE, COST + + By MARY SCHENCK WOOLMAN, B.S. 290 Pages. Illustrated. Second + Edition. + +SUCCESSFUL FAMILY LIFE, ON THE MODERATE INCOME + + By MARY HINMAN ABEL. 263 Pages. + +THE FAMILY AND ITS MEMBERS + + By ANNA GARLIN SPENCER, Special Lecturer in Social Science, + Teachers College, Columbia University. + + + + + LIPPINCOTT'S FAMILY LIFE SERIES + EDITED BY BENJAMIN R. ANDREWS, PH.D., TEACHERS + COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY + + THE FAMILY + AND ITS + MEMBERS + + BY + + ANNA GARLIN SPENCER + + + SPECIAL LECTURER IN SOCIAL SCIENCE, TEACHERS COLLEGE OF + COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, FORMERLY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE + NEW YORK SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL WORK, SPECIAL LECTURER AT THE + UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AND HACKLEY PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY + AND ETHICS AT MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL; AUTHOR OF + WOMAN'S SHARE IN SOCIAL CULTURE + + + + PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON + J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + + + PRINTED AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS + BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A. + + + + + TO THE MOTHERS AND FATHERS, IN + NUMBER BEYOND COUNT, WHOSE + COURAGE, LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS + CARRY ONWARD THE GENERATIONS + AND KEEP THE MAIN CURRENTS + OF LIFE STRONG AND WHOLESOME. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +=A Threefold Aim.=--This book is based upon three theses--namely, +first, that the monogamic, private, family is a priceless inheritance +from the past and should be preserved; second, that in order to +preserve it many of its inherited customs and mechanisms must be +modified to suit new social demands; and third, that present day +experimentation and idealistic effort already indicate certain +tendencies of change in the family order which promise needed +adjustment to ends of highest social value. + +Many learned books have been written concerning the evolution of sex, +the history of matrimonial institutions and the development of the +family. This volume is not an attempted rival of any of these. The +work of Havelock Ellis, of Le Tourneau, of Otis T. Mason, of Geddes +and Thompson, and others building upon the foundations laid by the +great pioneers in the study of the family, constitute a sufficient +mine of historical information and scientific analysis and evaluation. +The studies and suggestions of Olive Schreiner, Mrs. Clews Parsons, +Mrs. Helen Bosanquet, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ellen Key and others +indicate the tendency of modern inquiry into the just basis of the +family order. The work of Professors Howard, Giddings, Thomas, Boss, +Goodsell, Calhoun, Patten, Dealey, Cooley, Ellwood, Todd and others in +college fields, shows the importance of the family and the necessity +of giving all that concerns it the most serious attention. + +This book aims to begin where many of these students leave off and to +turn specific attention to the problems of personal and ethical +decision which now face men and women who would make their own married +life and parenthood successful. The past experience of the race is +drawn upon only in so far as it seems to explain present conditions +and point the way to future social and personal achievements. + +=Basic Principles Underlying All Socially Useful Changes.=--A +fundamental principle in democracy is the right and duty of every +human being to develop a strong, noble and distinctive individuality. +For such development it is necessary that a person be self-supporting, +free of despotic control by others, and able and willing to bear equal +part with every other human being in the social order to which he or +she belongs. + +This implies that no human being should be wholly sacrificed in +personal development to the service or welfare of any other human +being, or group of human beings, either inside or outside the family +circle. On the other hand, after temporary excursions into an extreme +individualism that ordained a free-for-all competition in every walk +of life, society is now keenly alive to the need for control of +personal desire and individual activity within channels of social +usefulness. It is beginning to be clearly seen that society has a +right to demand from any person or class of persons that form of +community service which definitely inheres in the social function +which is assumed by, or which devolves upon, such person or class of +persons. In the old days of "status," when each and every person found +himself in a place set for him and from which he could not depart, +there was only the duty of being content and useful in the "sphere of +life to which he was called." In the new condition of "contract," in +which each and every person in a democratic community finds himself at +liberty to use all common opportunities in the interest of his own +achievement, there is the duty of choice along every avenue of purpose +and of activity. This gives the new double call to the intelligence +and conscience; the call to become the best personality one can make +of oneself and the call to serve the common life to ends of social +well-being. + +=The Sense of Kind and the Sense of Difference.=--Doctor Giddings +declares in fine summary "we may conceive of society as any plural +number of sentient creatures more or less continuously subjected to +common stimuli, to differing stimuli and to inter-stimulation, and +responding thereto in like behaviour, concerted activity or +cooeperation, as well as in unlike or competitive activity; and +becoming, therefore, with developing intelligence, coherent through a +dominating consciousness of kind while always sufficiently conscious +of difference to insure a measure of individual liberty." Democracy +tends to enlarge the area of those who, while conscious of kind that +unites, are also keen in desire to develop in liberty any natural +difference which can make their personality felt as distinctive or +powerful. The individual differences among women were wholly ignored +in the past. They were never in reality all alike, as they were +commonly thought to be. The usual designation of a subject class lumps +all together as if all were the same. It is the mark of emergence from +the mass to the class, and from the class to the individual, that more +and more defines differences between persons. Women have now, for the +first time in the civilization called Christian, arrived at a point in +which differences between members of their sex can claim social +recognition. They are, therefore, now called upon as never before to +balance by conscious effort the personal desire and the social claim. +The family, more than any other inherited institution, feels the +oscillations between the individual demand for personal achievement +and the response to the social need for large service within group +relationships which now, for the first time, stir in the consciousness +of average women. + +=The Family as We Know It Is the Central Nursery of Character.=--The +inevitable outcome of the new freedom, education and economic +opportunity of women gives us the problem of the modern family. The +ideal of the democracy we are trying to achieve is higher personality +in all the mass of the people. The method of democracy so far as we +can see is education, perfected and universalized, by which all the +children of each generation may be developed physically, mentally, +morally, and vocationally to their utmost excellence and power. The +family, as we have inherited it, is so far the central nursery and +school in this development. So far in the history of the race or in +its present social manifestation no rival institution, even the formal +school, offers an adequate substitute for the family in this beginning +of the educative process. The intimate and vital care and nurture of +the individual life still depends for the mass of the people upon the +private, monogamic, family. This intimate and vital care of the +children of each generation has so far in human experience cost women +large expenditure of time and strength; so large expenditure that +personal achievement has been wholly and is even now largely +subordinated to the social service implied in home-making. The deepest +problems of the modern family inhere in the effort to adjust the new +freedom of women, and its new demands for individual development in +customary lines of vocational work, to the ancient family claim. New +adjustments are called for not only in the family itself but in all +the educational, political, economic, and social arrangements of life +to accommodate this new demand of women to be achieving persons +whether married or single. Women have entered, as newly emerging from +status to contract, into a man-made social organization, a man-made +school, a man-made industrial order, and a man-made state. +Achievement, individual and successful, means to most of them, as to +any newly enfranchised class, the type of distinctive activity and +accomplishment which their elder brothers have outlined. The +antithesis, therefore, which now works toward acute problems in the +minds of both men and women is between the sort of achievement which +men have sought after and attained, and the sort of social service +which the past conditions required of women. Slowly it is being +perceived that in the actual family service, as it is now aided by +social mechanisms surrounding the household, is place and economic +opportunity for high personal achievement by competent women. Still +more slowly is it being apprehended that in the new adjustments of +economic and professional life there is or may be opportunity for +married women and mothers to serve the family in high measure and also +attain outside some distinctive vocational pride and satisfaction of +craftsmanship. Most slowly of all is it being understood that the +future calls for such modification of specialization in outside work +that men and women alike may serve the generations in family devotion +to the sort of work fathers and mothers have to do and yet cherish +some personal and ideal vocational effort which may sweeten and enrich +their lives. + +=Vital Changes in All the Basic Institutions of Society.=--There are +five basic institutions in modern social organization. They may be +named the family, the school, the church, the industrial order, and +the state. They have all come to us as parts of our social inheritance +from time too remote to reckon. They have mingled and intermingled +their tendencies of control and influence in varieties of social +functioning too numerous to mention. They are now emerging to +distinctness only to be engaged in new forms of interaction that make +the highest ideals of each and all seem fundamentally akin. + +The main tendency of development in all these institutions is, +however, identical and one clearly perceived. It is the tendency from +status to contract, from fixed order to flexible adjustment, from +static to dynamic condition, already noted in regard to the family. + +In the school we have moved and are now moving from an aristocracy of +command, by which ancient life was reproduced, to a democracy of +comradeship in which it is aimed to make each generation improve upon +its predecessor. In the church, as it has moved from the family ritual +at the domestic fireside to the self-chosen altar of each worshipper +in the world's cathedrals, the reactionaries have held on to "the +faith once delivered to the saints" and the progressive minds have +moved to some new prophecy of the truth and right; until to-day, as +Professor Coe well says, "the aim of the modern church is to give +education in the art of brotherhood," and to evoke "faith in a +fatherly God and in a human destiny that outreaches all the accidents +of our frailty." In the industrial order, still in the trial stage of +conflict between the fixed status of the "hand" and the "master" and +the contract of equal partners in a cooeperative enterprise, the +movement is steadily toward the social requirement of equality, +justice, and good-will. In the state we have achieved mechanical +expression of complete democracy. We still lack, and in our own +country woefully lack, the "spirit within the wheels" that can move +with power toward an actual government by the people, for the people, +and truly of the people. Yet by fire and sword and through blood and +suffering the handwriting of equality, justice, and fraternity has +been set in our Constitutions and Bills of Right. What remains to be +done is the socializing of the political mechanisms. That means simply +that we shall learn to live our democracy and be no longer content to +merely write it in law. The difficulty now is not so much to get a +good statement of democratic right as to make it work effectively in +common action. This fact makes it of doubtful wisdom that men and +women so often concentrate effort on the eighteenth-century +doctrinaire position of appeal for Constitutional Amendments and +blanket state legislation as if of themselves these could secure +actual personal liberty and social welfare. The objection that some +forward-looking persons have to the demand of the "National Woman's +Party," so called, for a Federal Amendment that shall "abolish all sex +discriminations in law" is not that its principle is too radical, but +that its method is too antiquated. + +The business of the present and the immediate future is to so adjust +the family life to "two heads" as to keep love and to balance duties. +The next job is to adjust the family order itself to a contract system +of industry that gives each member of the family a free and often a +separating access to daily work and to its return in wages or salary, +in such manner as to retain family unity and mutual aid while giving +freedom and opportunity for each of its members. The pressing +political duty is to use the new voters, the women recently +enfranchised, for needed emancipation from partisan and selfish +political despotism in the interest of effective choices for the +public good. The ever-growing demand of the school is for some +translation of freedom of self-development in terms of respect for +social order and in the spirit of social service. The family life, in +the United States, at least, stands not so much in need of manifestoes +of equality of rights between men and women as of delicate and +discriminating adjustments of that equality to the social demands upon +husbands and wives and upon fathers and mothers. This book aims to +suggest some of the changes in external customs and inherited ways of +living which may lead toward a firmer hold upon social idealism within +the family, as well as within all other inherited institutions, while +new bases of democratic freedom are being firmly installed. + +=Coveted Uses of the Book.=--This volume is intended to meet the needs +of college and teacher-training school students; of university +extension classes; of study groups in Women's Clubs, Consumers' +Leagues, Leagues of Women Voters and Church Classes. It is also hoped +that it may form the basis for private study by groups within the +home. + +The book is written with a poignant sense of the breaking up of old +social foundations in the agony and terror of the Great War. It is +sent forth with a keen understanding of the spirit of youth that +to-day challenges every inherited institution and ideal, even to the +bone and marrow of the church, the state, the industrial order, the +educative process, and even the family itself. It issues from an +abiding faith that "above all things Truth beareth away the victory" +and hence that no fearless inquiry can harm the essential values of +life. It confesses a clear trust in "the Spirit that led us hither and +is leading us onward." It would sound a call to hold all that has +dowered the race at the sources of life sacred and of worth. It would +echo all that bids us move onward to higher and better things. + +The greatest ambition herein recorded is to serve as one who opens +doors of insight into the House of the Interpreter. + + --THE AUTHOR. + +JANUARY, 1923. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +INTRODUCTION 5 + + A Threefold Aim. Basic Principles Underlying All Socially + Useful Changes. The Sense of Kind and the Sense of Difference. + Vital Changes in All the Basic Institutions of Society. + Coveted Uses of This Book. + +I. THE FAMILY 19 + + The Experience of the Past. New Ideals Affecting the Family. + The Headship of the Father. Is It Possible to Democratize the + Family? What Is the Modern Ideal in Child-care? Modern Ideals + of Sex-relationship. Ellen Key and Her Gospel. What is Meant + by the Demand that Illegitimacy be Abolished? The Legitimation + of Children Born Out of Wedlock. Philanthropic Tendencies + Respect Legal Marriage. Illicit Unions of Men and Women in + Divergent Social Position. Shall We Return to Polygamy? All + Children Entitled to Best Development Possible. The Work of + the Children's Bureau. The Suggested Uniform Laws. Have + Unmarried Women a Social Right to Motherhood? Ellen Key's + Estimate of Motherhood. Monogamic Marriage Does Not Work + Inerrantly. New Demand that Motherhood Have Social Support. + The Increasing Tendency of Women Toward Celibate Life. Women + Cannot be Forced Back to Compulsory Marriage. A Few Believe in + a Third Sex. Most Social Students Believe in Marriage. Dangers + of Extreme Specialization. Industrial Exploitation of Children + and Youth. Social Measures Needed to Prevent These Evils. The + Attack upon the Family by Reactionaries. The Prevalence of + Divorce. Old Institutions Need New Sanctions. The Monogamic + Family Justifies Itself by Social Usefulness. The Inherited + Family Order Demands New Social Adjustments. The Family as an + Aid to Spiritual Democracy. The Family the Nursery of + Personality. Life, Not Theory About Life, Teaches Us. The + Moral Elite in the Modern Family. Questions. + +II. THE MOTHER 46 + + Antiquity of the Mother-instinct. Recognized Essentials in + Child-care. The Protective Function. Social Elements in Modern + Protection of Children. Women's Leadership in Social + Protection. The Provision of Food, Clothing and Shelter. The + Woman in Rural Life. Modern Demand for Standardization. The + Apartment House and the Family. New Uses of Electric Power. + Certain Duties the Mother Cannot Delegate. The Mother's + Compensation for Personal Service. Early Drill in Personal + Habits. Early Practice in Talking, Walking, Obedience, and + Imitation. Special Responsibility of the Average Mother. + Women's Relation to More Formal Education. Women's Relation to + Educational Agencies. The Social Value of Parental Affection. + What Women Need Most. Questions. + +III. THE FATHER 69 + + Historic Background of Fatherhood. Purchase and Capture of + Wives. The Patriarchal Family. The Three Chief Sources of + Influence. Ancient Military Training of Youth. + Ancestor-worship. The Double Standard of Morals. Basic Needs + for Equality of Human Rights. Special Protection of Women + Needed in Ancient Times. The Social Value of the Patriarchal + Family. The Responsibilities of the Ancient Father + Commensurate with His Power. Moral Qualities in Women + Developed by Masculine Selection. The Highest Ideal of + Fatherhood. Incomplete Adjustment to Equality of Rights in the + Family. The Marriage Question To-day the "Husband-problem." + Women Cannot Have All the New Freedom and Also All the Old + Privileges. New Social Advantages for Fathers. Questions. + +IV. THE GRANDPARENTS 90 + + Relative Increase of the Aged in Modern Life. Savage Treatment + of the Aged. The Relation of Ancestor-worship to Respect for + Aged Men. The Position of Chief-mother in the Ancient Family. + Memory of the Aged Valued in Primitive Life. Old Women and the + Witchcraft Delusion. Older Women in Religious Vocations + Honored in Middle Ages. To-day Comparatively Few Really Old at + Seventy. Is Any House Large Enough for Two Families? Reasons + Why Husbands Desert Their Families. The Financial Provision + for Old Age. Needed Ways of Preparing for Old Age. Pension + Laws. Old age Home Insurance. To Prevent Premature Old Age. + Check Extreme Requirements for Youth in Labor. Need of + Experience in Many Fields of Work. Prepare Vocationally for + Old-age Needs. The Attitude of Mind Toward Old Age. The + Special Gifts of the Old to the Home and the World. Questions. + +V. BROTHERS, SISTERS AND NEXT OF KIN 116 + + The Ancient Kinship Bond. Present Demands of Kinship. Special + Burden of Women in Family Obligation. Disadvantages of the + Only Child. Permanent Value of the Family Bond. Questions. + +VI. FRIENDS AND THE CHOSEN ONE 124 + + The Power of Friendship. The Newly-wed and Old Friends. Some + Advantages in Choices of Marriage by the Elders. New Demands + for Social Control of Marriage Choices. The Young Should be + Helped to Make Wise Choices. The Revolt of Youth. The Wisdom + of the Ages Must be the Guide of Youth. Personal Choice in + Marriage Has Now Widest Range. The Value of the Church in + Social Life. Easy Divorce Does Not Lessen Marriage + Responsibility. New and Finer Marriage Unions. Questions. + +VII. HUSBANDS AND WIVES 141 + + Not Fancied but Genuine Happiness in Marriage Now Demanded. + Social Restraints on Marriage Choices. Shall the Wife Take the + Husband's Name? Shall the Wife Take the Husband's Nationality? + Who Shall Choose the Domicile? Shall the Married Woman Earn + Outside the Home? Economic Considerations Involved. Is It Bad + Form to Earn After Marriage? Shall Parenthood be Chosen? Some + People Have a Right to Marry and Remain Childless. What is the + Just Financial Basis of the Household? What Shall be the + Accepted Standard of Living? The Need for Full and Mutual + Understanding Before Marriage. The Supreme Satisfactions of + Successful Marriage. Questions. + +VIII. THE CHILDREN OF THE FAMILY 164 + + Conditions to be Secured for Every Child. The Need for Two + Parents. Equal Guardianship of Both Parents. Every Child + Should Have a Competent Mother. Every Child Should Have a + Competent Father. Economic Aspects of the Father's Competency. + The French Plan of Extra-wage. The Endowment of Mothers. Does + this Plan Make Too Little of Fathers? Just Limits to Number of + Children in Subsidized Families. The Right of a Child to be + Officially Counted. Every Child Should Have Social Protection. + Child-labor. Children Must be Protected in Recreation. + Standards of and Aids to Health. Health Boards Should Help All + Alike. Items of Work in Child Hygiene. The Educational Rights + of Children. The Use of Married Women as Teachers. Individual + Sharing in the Social Inheritance. Questions. + +IX. THE FLOWER OF THE FAMILY 189 + + The Proportions of Genius to the Mediocre. Eugenics. Euthenics + and Eudemics. Only Men in Lists of Geniuses. Social Need to + Learn What Children Are. "Charting Parents." New "Observation + Records" for Children. What to Do with the Specially Gifted + Child. Genius Universal in Nature. Genius Its Own + School-master. Varieties of the Gifted. Questions. + +X. THE CHILDREN THAT NEVER GROW UP 205 + + The Defective Children. Custodial Care of the Defective. + Heredity. Difficulties in Care of Morons. The Colony Plan. + Mental Hygiene. Special Rooms in Public Schools. Training the + Nervous System. Responsibility of Women in Marriage. The Call + for Preventive Work. Questions. + +XI. PRODIGAL SONS AND DAUGHTERS 219 + + Who Should Hear Sermons on the Prodigal Son? Distinction + Between the Mentally Competent and the Defective in Criminal + Classes. Moral Invalids. Rehabilitation of the Competent. The + Right Use of Leisure Time. The Moving Picture. The Automobile + and Its Influence. Parents Need Social Help in Moral Training + of Children. Parental Love for the Black Sheep. Children's + Courts. Domestic Relations Courts. Dangerous Rebound from + Ancient Family Discipline. Do Modern Youth Need New Community + Disciplines? Questions. + +XII. THE BROKEN FAMILY 233 + + The Problems of Divorce. Frequency of Divorce in the United + States. Cannot Now Make Family an Autocracy. New Standards of + Marriage Success. Dangers of Extreme Individualism in + Marriage. Free Love Not Admissible. Must Work Toward Desired + Permanency in Marriage. Needed Changes in Legal and Social + Approach to Divorce. Prohibition of Paid Attorneys in Divorce. + Divorce Proceedings Should be Heard in Secret. Earlier and + Better Use of the Domestic Relations Court. The Children to be + Affected Society's Chief Care. A Uniform or Federal Divorce + Law. Education Our Chief Reliance. Helps Toward Family + Stability. Shall Society Favor the Remarriage of Divorced + Persons? Turning from Compulsory to Attractive Methods of + Reform. Questions. + +XIII. THE FAMILY AND THE WORKERS 246 + + Changes from Ancient to Modern Forms of Labor. The Old + Household a Work-place. Welfare Managers in Modern Times. + Child-labor. Increase in Women Wage-earners. Social Pressure + on the Individual Worker. Demands of Family Life Should be + Considered in Industry and in Labor Legislation. The Code for + Women in Industry. Should Adult Women and Children be Listed + Together in Labor Laws? Women in War Work. Minimum Wage for + Fathers of Families the Vital Need. The Attitude of Women + Toward Labor Problems. Necessary Protection of Children and + Youth in Labor. Women and the Cost of Living. The Family + Demand upon Unmarried Women. Farming and the Farmer's Wife. + Domestic Help and Family Life. The Application of Democratic + Principles to Life. Women Must be More Democratic. The Social + Effect of Trade Unions. Women in Trade Unions. The New + Solidarity of Women. Questions. + +XIV. THE FAMILY AND THE SCHOOL 269 + + New Forms of Education Demanded by Modern Industry. Education + a Social Process. The Three Learned Professions. New Calls for + Trained Leadership. The Special Education of Girls. Formal + School Training of Women New. Modern Training for Social + Service. Departments of Household Economics in Colleges. + Society Now Based upon Man's Economic Leadership. Women + Socially Drafted for Motherhood. Father-office and + Mother-office Still Differ. Should the Education of Girls + Include Special Attention to Family Claims? Adjustment of + Family Service and Vocational Work. Dangers of Specialization + in Professional Work. The New Training in Sex-education. + Heroes Held Up for Admiration. Moral Training at the Heart of + Education. Drill to Avert Economic Tragedies. A Graduated + Scale of Virtues. Dr. Lester Ward's Types of Education. + Questions. + +XV. THE FATHER AND THE MOTHER STATE 290 + + The Socialization of the Modern State. The Interest and Work + of Women in This Process of Political Change. Health a Social + Enterprise. General and Vocational Training for All. Women's + Work in Philanthropy. Culture Aids to the Common Life. Many + Languages in One Country. The Children's Bureau. A Women's + Lobby at the National Capitol. Women's Interest in Public Life + a Social Asset. Social Service in Peace. Problems Voters Must + Solve. Confusion Between National and Local Effort. + Preferential Voting. Proportional Representation. What Shall + Public and What Shall Private Social Service Attempt? + Difficulty in Being a Good American Citizen. Our Country a + Member of the Family of Nations. Vows of Civic Consecration. + Questions. + +BIBLIOGRAPHY 314 + + + + +THE FAMILY AND ITS MEMBERS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE FAMILY + + "The family is the heart's fatherland; the fatherland is the + cradle of humanity."--MAZZINI. + + "The family has two functions; as a smaller group it affords + opportunity for eliciting qualities of affection and character + which cannot be displayed in a larger group; and in the second + place it is a training for future members of the larger group in + the qualities of disposition and character which are essential to + citizenship. Marriage converts an attachment between man and woman + into a deliberate, permanent, responsible, intimate union for a + common end of mutual good. Modern society requires that the + husband and wife contemplate lifelong companionship, and the + affection between husband and wife is enriched by the relation of + parents to the children which are their care. The end of the + family is not economic profit but mutual aid and the continuance + and progress of the race."--PROFESSOR TUFTS, in _Ethics_, by Dewey + and Tufts. + + =Social Work and Family Conservation.=--"By whatever name they may + be called, the most essential elements of social work are those + which seek to conserve the family life; to strengthen or + supplement the home; to give children in foster homes or elsewhere + the care of which tragic misfortune has deprived them in their + natural homes; to provide income necessary in the proper care of + their children; to restore broken homes; to discover and, if + possible, remove destructive influences which interfere with + normal home life and the reasonable discharge of conjugal and + parental obligations. The institutions which exist for the benefit + of those individuals who have no home or who need care of a kind + that cannot well be supplied in the home, only emphasize the + importance of conserving family life when its essential elements + are present."--EDWARD T. DEVINE. + + "Human nature has achieved the consciousness that existence has an + aim. Human life, therefore, is a mission; the mission of reaching + that aim, by incessant activity upon the path toward it and + perpetual warfare against the obstacles opposed to it."--MAZZINI. + + The Home: + + "For something that abode endued + With temple-like repose; an air + Of life's kind purposes pursued + With ordered freedom, sweet and fair; + A tent, pitched in a world not right, + It seemed, whose inmates, every one, + On tranquil faces bore the light + Of duties beautifully done." + --COVENTRY PATMORE. + + +=The Experience of the Past.=--By many experiments, over many +differing "folk-ways," the modern family has arrived. We name it now +"monogamic," and mean by the name the union of one man and one woman, +in aim at least for life, and their children. Whereas once it was the +rule of a tribe or clan which determined every detail of +sex-relationship, a rule represented either by the mother or the +father, it is now an individualistic choice of two adult persons only, +socially legalized by a required certificate and ceremony. Whereas +once it was the basis of all social order and mutual aid, it is now +one of several institutions inherited from the past, and is itself +subject to the state, which is the chief heir to our social +inheritance. The family, however, is now, as it has always been, the +interior, vital, and so far indispensable social relationship, +beginning, as it does, at first hand the training of each individual +toward membership in society-at-large. In the past, under the +mother-rule, the social elements of the family were emphasized, since +her power was one delegated by the group of which she and her children +were a part and closely related to peaceful ways and to primitive +industrial arts. Under the father-rule, the political and legal +elements of the family were emphasized, since his was an autocratic +and personal control of wife and children, even of adult sons, and in +many cases of his own mother, and marked the beginning and worked +toward the power of the modern state. In all cases, however, it was as +a representative of the group-ideal and the group-control that the +parents held sway over the family; and if the family is to persist in +the future as an institution it will hold its authority over +individual lives as trustee of society-at-large. Name, line of +inheritance, rights and duties of one member toward other members and +to the family group as a whole, must all be determined in the last +analysis by the "mores" of the people and the time concerned. + +=New Ideals Affecting the Family.=--To-day the ideal of equality of +rights for men and women, and the ideal of ministration to childhood's +needs, are stronger than the ideal of family control. The social +demand is, therefore, for standardization of family life and of +child-care on a high plane of physical, mental, and moral development +of each individual life rather than for an autocratic representation +of the power of what Professor James called "the collectivity that +owns us." Hence certain problems which have never before been clear in +social consciousness are now arising to enter all debates on family +stability and family success. + +=The Headship of the Father.=--During the middle ages of our +civilization and for centuries of our later past the headship of the +family rested securely in the father. Now the ideal of "Two heads in +council; Two beside the hearth; Two in the tangled business of the +world" is working toward democratization of the family. This leads +toward a legal status and an economic adjustment in which the relation +of husband and wife may be equalized toward each other and toward +their children. In this new process, which is a part of the general +movement we call democracy, there are special difficulties of +modification peculiar to the family relation. The monogamic ideal and +practice demands permanency, solidarity of interest and unity of +control both within and without the family circle, at least until all +the children of a marriage have reached maturity. The ideal of the +rightful individuation of women, and even of minor children, works +against that legal solidarity and obvious unity. The old way of +obtaining these elements of family stability, a method still in vogue +in many places and still defended by some persons, was to place all +power of control in the hands of the husband and father, and thus make +the wife a perpetual minor and leave the children wholly under +patriarchal bondage. The modern ideal of women as entitled to +self-ownership and self-control even when married, and the social +need, just beginning to be understood, for women as for men to fully +develop their powers and capacities militates against the legal +headship of the father. To-day there is a demand, growing in +insistency, that we accept the right of each member of the family +circle to individual development and work toward its realization. +There is also the demand that we retain inviolate the social means for +successful family life. Some do not hesitate to say that to fulfil +both these demands is not within human power. + +=Is It Possible to Democratize the Family?=--The witty writer who +declares that "the democratization of the family is impossible, since +the family is by nature an autocracy and ruled by the worst +disposition in it," is not without endorsers. There are also those, +more serious in intent, who claim that the family as an inherited +institution is by virtue of its inmost quality inimical to the +personal freedom of its members, and hence that the state, which is +now standardizing child-care, must undertake the practical duties +involved and leave both parents free to change marital relationship at +will before or after the birth of children and maintain their separate +bachelor or spinster freedom. + +=Mating and Parenthood.=--This latter view is stated definitely by one +writer who believes that a new morality will "separate entirely, +mating from parenthood" in the interest of a more effective social +arrangement--"mating," or the free union of a man and a woman in +sex-relationship, to be in that case "solely a private matter with +which no one but the parties involved have any concern." "Parenthood," +on the other hand, having relation, as it must, to society, requires, +so this writer declares, from either the father or the mother, as +inclination and capacity indicate, or from both parents if such should +be the wish of both, a "contract with the state" binding to an +upbringing of the child in accordance with accepted standards of +physical, mental, moral, and vocational demands. Such a contract with +the state in respect to child-care and the training of youth might +give far better results, be it confessed, than follow the utterly +ignorant and careless breeding of the young of the human race by those +on lowest levels of thought and action. Few, however, think such a +contract would meet all essentials of child-development. + +=What Is the Modern Ideal in Child-care?=--What is the ideal of those +most advanced in knowledge of childhood's needs and most sincere in +devotion to the welfare and happiness of the young? It is certainly +not one which ignores or minimizes the influence of the private home +or one which includes the belief that one parent, however wise or +good, can do as much for a child as two parents working in harmony +over a long period of years can accomplish. + +Nor can the influence of such a proposed separation of mating and +parenthood upon the sex-relationship itself be ignored in any proposed +new ways of living together. Some of the critics of the family, as we +know it, may put "duty" in quotation marks when dealing with +sex-relationship in the effort to put "love" on the throne, but +experience shows that in all the intimate relationships of life some +stay from without the individual desire is needed to restrain from +impulsive change and lessen frictional expression of temperamental +weakness. On reason and a sense of obligation are based all successful +human arrangements, and these need social support. + +=Modern Ideals in Sex-relationship.=--To so separate mating and +parenthood as to make it the business of no one but the two chiefly +concerned when or how often such mating became a personal experience, +and to make it a matter of social indifference whether one or two +parents contracted with society for the right upbringing of the child +or children involved (with no troublesome questions asked about either +parent not in evidence in the contract), would certainly blur the +social outline of the family, as we know it, to the point of legal +nullification. There might, indeed, grow up in such an imagined +condition a form of contract between two persons mating, as well as +one between parents and state, in respect to parenthood's social +responsibilities, and where such personal contract was broken redress +from the courts might be sought and obtained. The effect, however, of +such a plan as that proposed would inevitably be to leave the nobler, +the more loving and less selfish of the men and women involved, more +surely even than is now the case, the victims of the weaker, the more +grasping, and the more selfish of the twain. + +=Ellen Key and Her Gospel.=--Indeed, the high priestess of the gospel +of freedom from legal bondage in sex-relation, Ellen Key, declares +that "a higher culture in love can be attained only by correlating +self-control with love and parental responsibility," a correlation she +believes would "follow as a consequence when love and parental +responsibility were made the sole conditions of sex-relations." She +also says that "in all cases where there is an affinity of souls and +the sympathy of friendship, love is what it always was and always will +be, the cooeperation of the father with the mother in the education of +the children as well as the cooeperation of the mother with the father +in all great social works." She thus links her ideal of true freedom +for the choices of love with social obligations and hence again with +what is best in inherited family life. + +In addition, however, to the claim that love should be freed from +legal restraints in the interest of self-expression and +self-development (whether or not from Ellen Key's high standpoint of +parental responsibility) we have another attack upon the legal +autonomy of the family, as we know it, in the demand of some radical +feminists that "illegitimacy should be abolished." + +=What is Meant by This Demand?=--A crusade against all sex-association +that may result in children born out of wedlock is understandable but +is surely not the counsel of perfection in sex-control intended by +those making this demand. What is meant seems rather that we should +take ground against any legal distinction between the status of +children born within and those born outside of legal marriage. What +would that be likely to mean in respect to the monogamic family? The +hard conditions attaching to both unmarried motherhood and unfathered +childhood, often in the past wholly cruel and unsocial, have been much +ameliorated during the last fifty years and largely through the +efforts of those who held firmly to the value of legal marriage and +the accepted family system in general. Laws have been passed and +firmly executed to find the shirking father and bring him to marriage +with the woman involved; or if such marriage is not possible or +feasible to compel him to make financial contribution toward the +support and education of the child. + +=The Legitimation of Children Born Out of Wedlock.=--If marriage +occurs, then the child otherwise illegitimate may come within the +legal family through appropriate laws which the most conservative now +advocate. In such cases the belated acceptance within the family bond +does not count seriously against the child. If marriage does not +occur, and there are many cases of irregular sex-relationship where +that is not the right solution of the problems involved in +illegitimacy, then the unmarried mother is helped to establish herself +with her child where cruel stigma and useless curiosity may be best +avoided. To aid in her protection she is encouraged by many agencies +and persons to take the title of "Mrs.," since that is a conventional +term at best and may be given according to age (as in the older +custom) or come to attach itself to motherhood as justly as to +wifehood. More and more society is reaching out through law and wise +philanthropy to fasten mutual responsibility for child-care and +nurture upon both parents even where they are not legally married. +This movement must go on until the handicap of the child born out of +wedlock is reduced to its lowest possible terms.[1] + +=Philanthropic Tendencies Respect Legal Marriage.=--These tendencies, +however, are not in the direction, intentionally at least, of making +legal condition and status in respect to name, inheritance of family +property from a father whose parental relationship is not legally +established, and public recognition of parenthood, identical in the +case of children born within and without the legal family circle. Is +such an identical status and condition desirable? If so, in what way +could this goal be accomplished? + +If men and women become fathers and mothers without benefit of clergy +or state license and later marry, then the children born before and +those born after the wedding ceremony may, usually do, and always +should, become one flock. In many countries where legal marriage is +difficult because of expense involved or distance from officials, such +cases often occur and with no apparent social harm where there is real +affection and true loyalty between the men and women involved. Many +illegitimate conceptions are similarly taken care of by the enforced +or assisted marriage of the parties concerned just before the birth of +the child. In many cases, however, in our own country doubtless the +great majority, the father concerned has an illicit connection with +some girl quite outside his own social circle and later, as in the +famous "Kallikak" case, marries a woman of his own class and has a +family of recognized children. What would be advised in such a case by +those advocating the legal abolition of illegitimacy? Should a +searching investigation of the whole previous life of every +prospective bridegroom be made, and wherever a previous relationship +can be found which involves parenthood a legal prohibition work +automatically to prevent a second relationship? This seems to be the +plan proposed by Mrs. Edith Houghton Hooker in her recent book, _The +Laws of Sex_, as in her program of "measures designed to minimize +extra-marital sex relationships and to check the commercialization of +vice," she lays down the principle "the common parentage of an +illegitimate child to constitute marriage or if either of the parents +was previously married, bigamy." This would, of course, carry out her +next item of the social program, namely, "place the illegitimate child +on the same plane as the legitimate," but that plane would be a very +low one in the cases that would legally become those of bigamy. In the +case of very unequal partners in an illicit sex-relationship, a legal +union that was based on the fact of equal responsibility for a child +born out of wedlock, and made a legal necessity only because of that +mutual relationship, could surely be good neither for the men and +women involved nor for any child or children thus legitimatized by +force of arms, as it were. + +=Illicit Unions of Men and Women in Divergent Social Position.=--On +the other hand, in cases where the illegitimate parenthood is the +fruit of a union between a man of a high and a woman or girl of a very +low grade of intelligence and of social position a legal prohibition +which would work automatically to prevent any later and legal marriage +with a woman of higher grade (because of the existence of a child by +the extra-marital relation) would not be wholly satisfactory. +Although such a regulation would prevent any legitimate children being +born of that father, it would not necessarily legitimatize the child +or children of the first relation. The social value of either of these +plans is extremely doubtful. + +=Shall We Return to Polygamy?=--Again, in such cases as have been +indicated, should the first mother be ignored and the child or +children of the irregular union be adopted into the legal home of the +father and added to the registered children of the second mother? Some +such plan has been adopted in some countries and at certain periods of +family development. Such a course undertaken now, however, in modern +conditions would, in addition to the possible suffering of the adopted +children, be most unjust to the unmarried mother. Or, again, would it +be advised that the first mother with her child or children be +accepted as a legal part of the home in which the second mother is +legally installed? That would be a frank return to polygamy in cases +where there have been irregular pre-marital relations outside of the +monogamic bond. Or do all those who advocate the abolition of +illegitimacy take the ground, which some of them definitely do, that +the monogamic family is obsolete and that the state in its corporate +capacity should take full charge of all children? Or, when the demand +is sifted to its ultimate elements, is it merely that the unjust +conditions attending the lives of children born out of wedlock must be +ameliorated by a larger charity of feeling, a better understanding of +human weakness and the effect of bad social conditions, and the +constant effort to give all children as nearly equal chance at the +best things of life as can be made possible by social feeling and wise +social care? + +=All Children Entitled to Best Development Possible.=--If the latter +is all that is meant, the phrase the "abolition of illegitimacy" is +unfortunate and the real agreement among philanthropists, educators +and all right-thinking people on the just claim of all children +(however they may chance to arrive on this troubled planet) to the +best development possible, should be emphasized in the slogan. It is +well to remember that only a minority of children in any country, and +in many countries a very small minority, are involved directly in this +problem of the right treatment of children born outside the legal +family. It would seem the part of social wisdom, therefore, in this, +as in all other matters of social control, to ask ourselves the +question, What rule on the whole gives the best condition for the +largest number of persons?--and on the answer to that question base +our law and custom, then add considerate treatment for the minority +who must in the nature of things have some handicap if the rule is +obeyed by the majority. + +=The Work of the Children's Bureau.=--To lessen this handicap, the +Federal Children's Bureau in Washington, D.C., began in 1915 an +inquiry into illegitimacy as a child welfare problem, causing studies +to be made of laws in different States of the Union. The results of +this study were published in 1919 in Bureau Publication No. 42. In +1920 conferences were held under the auspices of the Bureau to +consider standards of protection which might be embodied in laws. A +Committee appointed to draft suggestions arrived at and to recommend +the same made a Report, which is published in Bureau Publication No. +77. + +The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws on +request formed a Committee on Status and Protection of Illegitimate +Children which reported at length to the Thirty-first Annual Meeting +of that body in August, 1921. This report formed the basis of +discussion by legal experts, and in the meeting at San Francisco of +recent date a revised program for "Uniform State Legislation for +Children Born Out of Wedlock" was accepted and recommended. The title +used is itself an advance upon old ideas. + +=The Suggested Uniform Law.=--It is less harsh to speak of "those born +out of wedlock" than of the "illegitimate." Moreover, the +recommendations include a suggestion that in future in all reference +in legal papers or official notices to a child born out of wedlock it +"shall be sufficient for all purposes to refer to the mother as the +parent having the sole custody of the child or to the child as being +in the sole custody of the mother, no explicit reference being made to +illegitimacy except in birth certificates or records of judicial +proceedings in which the question of birth out of wedlock is at +issue." The general law in the States of our Union legitimatizes a +child born out of wedlock by the subsequent inter-marriage of the +parents. This makes it easy for men and women to repair an injury if +they can marry after the birth of their child. In any case the +recommendations for uniform State laws make it clear that the tendency +is strong to bring legal pressure to bear upon the father of a child +by an unwedded mother to pay the expenses of her confinement, to +support the child under the laws requiring "support of poor relatives" +or under statutes specifically obligating recognition of parental +responsibility outside the marriage bond; and this obligation, it is +held, should continue in recognition and enforcement until the child +is sixteen years of age. + +Although there is strong demand on the part of many to give the child +born out of wedlock the "right to inherit from the father's estate +even though not legitimated," the Committee of the Commissioners on +Uniform State Laws do not so recommend. Their statement concerning +Liability of the Father's Estate is as follows: "The obligation of the +father where his paternity has been judicially established in his +lifetime or has been acknowledged by him in writing or by the part +performance of his obligations is enforceable against his estate in +such an amount as the court may determine, having regard to the age of +the child, the ability of the mother to support it, the amount of +property left by the father, the number, age, and financial condition +of the lawful issue, if any, and the rights of the widow, if any." + +To this writer this covers the just obligation if rightly administered +and by leaving still a distinction in law between the rights of +children born within and those born outside the marriage bond helps to +preserve the interests of the majority of children. + +In any case the preservation of such distinctions as are left in the +milder and more humane laws advocated should help in making men and +women anxious to give all the children for which they may be +responsible a legal right to both parents by due process of marriage. + +=Have Unmarried Women a Social Right to Motherhood?=--It is not alone +philanthropic interest in the welfare of a class of children now +handicapped by birth outside of legal family bonds, that has issued +the call to "abolish illegitimacy." The slogan is also an expression +of a new demand that women fit to bear and rear children and deeply +desiring that personal experience and the social obligation which it +implies, should be given a social right to become mothers whether or +not the fitting permanent mate be found for a life-union under the +law. This demand is reaching a critical poignancy in those countries +in which the Great War has added to a long-increasing "surplus of +women" an astounding total of millions of women fit to marry whose +rightful mates are buried on the fields of conflict. Shall these +women, it is asked, be denied motherhood as well as wifehood? Shall +the state lose the children these women, child-loving and noble and +wise, might bear to help make good the horrible losses that war has +entailed? + +Moreover, women everywhere are discerning the shallow inconsistency +between the ideal so long preached of motherhood as woman's chief if +not her only contribution to normal life and genuine social usefulness +and the abnormal economic conditions and double ethical standards +which doom so many women to single life. Still deeper in the hearts of +women, now for the first time free to give voice to inner questionings +of the inherited organization of society which has bound them to +conventions written solely by men in statute and custom, rises the +query, Is the present fashion of courtship and wedding favorable for +installing fit women as mothers or keeping to single life those least +capable of that social function? + +=Ellen Key's Estimate of Motherhood.=--Ellen Key expresses this +feeling that fitness for a task so tremendous as parenthood is more +important than any mechanism by which parenthood is secured when she +says, "It is solely from one moral point of view that motherhood +without marriage, as well as the right of free divorce, must be +judged. Irresponsible motherhood is always sin with or without +marriage; responsible motherhood is always sacred with or without +marriage." And again she says, "The one necessary thing is to make +ever greater demands upon the men and women who take to themselves the +right to give humanity new beings." Ellen Key has also much to say +about the superior value of what women can do in and through their +race-service as mothers to anything they can do outside of that +office, except perhaps as teachers helping mothers. Her feeling on +this matter is echoed by not a few women who ask for the social right +to motherhood even when denied or not desiring ordinary family life. +She declares that "It is an indisputable fact that if the majority of +women no longer had the calm and repose to abide at the source of life +but wanted to navigate all the seas with men, the sex contrasts would +resolve themselves not into harmony but into monotony. Until women +come to realize this it must still be insisted that the gain to +society is nothing if millions of women do the work that men could do +better and evade or fulfil poorly the greater tasks of life and +happiness, the creation of men and the creation of souls." To fulfil +these tasks properly she insists that women require the same human +rights as men but they should use their new power of choice "in the +field of life, in those provinces in which imponderable values are +created, values that cannot be reduced to figures and yet are the sole +values capable of transforming humanity; for it is not utilities but +complete human beings that elevate life." The same feeling that she +expresses animates many women who desire fit women to be mothers, even +if unmarried, at whatever cost to old forms of family autonomy. + +=Monogamic Marriage Does Not Work Inerrantly.=--Certainly no one can +contend that monogamic marriage has worked inerrantly to give women +who are "born mothers" a chance for their natural career, or to keep +from physical motherhood within legal marriage all the women unfit for +the spiritual tasks of parenthood. It is certain that in present +conditions many women most needed for the transmission of both +physical and social inheritance in finest form are side-tracked from +the central roadway of life, and the race suffers thereby. + +Any custom, however, which should make it a negligible matter whether +or not a permanent "houseband" were enlisted with a "housewife" in +building a home in which to place a child desired must tend toward a +reversion, not an advance, in social organization. Or so it seems to +many students of the evolution of the family. + +The mother and child made the first social grouping in which love and +trust could work. The father, as we know him, is a later asset of +social progress. He has taken into the home many things we want now to +get rid of, as, for example, a social tendency toward masculine +monopolies. His genius for organization in political and economic +fields has in many ways worked against the right alignment of men and +women in family relations. But can we do without the father +altogether, save for a brief hour of service as a "biologic +necessity"? Still more, can we have for mothers that "calm and repose" +which Ellen Key bespeaks for them unless they have fathers of +efficiency and character to help them in their peculiar task of +life-creation? Is not the alternative to the father's partnership in +family life the creation of a class of "state mothers" or the social +endowment of all mothers by public grant? + +=New Demand that Motherhood Have Social Support.=--In point of fact, +all the demands for new freedom in respect to motherhood rest +primarily upon the recognition by society-at-large of a claim upon it, +financial as well as spiritual, for the benefit of all who are allowed +to be mothers, in right of their own fitness for the function. And +this recognition of the social value of mothers is emphasized by many +who hold firmly to the monogamic family. It is not clear that any +sweeping changes away from the private family should be made to meet a +condition that may be changed by less drastic means. + +=Local Discrepancies in Numbers of Men and of Women.=--Fit men and +women are not always together in the same place. To have more men in a +given locality than can possibly have wives or more women than can +possibly marry under the monogamic system is to derange its workings. +Is it conceivable that we shall always be so stupid and clumsy in +economic adjustment that such conditions shall continue, now that we +are able to be more easily mobile and flexible every decade? The mere +mechanical maladjustment caused by serious discrepancies in numbers of +the two sexes; in cities and in older countries more women, in +manufacture and pioneer agriculture more men; certainly creates +serious conditions. Social engineering is needed for remedy. We may +not, as so long ago was done in Virginia, transport hundreds of +"attractive damsels" from crowded towns, where women most do +congregate, to a new country, to be eagerly accepted wives on landing +from the ships. We are told, however, that many girls are being +assisted to emigrate from England to places where their service is +needed and where there are so many surplus men that they do marry in +short order. We shall find that nature and economic adjustments will +unite to more and more even up the two sides of life. It is a +sinister condition of modern life that forbids early marriage to so +many men and all chance of suitable marriage to so many women who +really desire that relationship with all their hearts. We must go +about its remedy with open eyes, and from frankly accepted reasons, +for the sake of better family conditions. + +=The Increasing Tendency of Women Toward Celibate Life.=--There is, +however, another condition, many-sided and complex, often operating +upon the persons most involved unconsciously and seldom treated with +clarity or frankness, which works against the family as an +institution. This condition is the increasing tendency of many of the +ablest women to marry very late or to refuse to marry at all. These +are not the women who feel defrauded that they are not mothers in +their own person, still less that life has cheated them in not +furnishing a husband. They are usually those who in youth began some +specialized form of vocational service which holds their interest and +leads toward pecuniary profit and social recognition. + +They are the modern spinsters, happy and busy, who often feed their +motherly instincts by caring for other people's children and feel a +sense of relief that it is a voluntary service, which they may rightly +indulge in vacations, and not a bond that never releases from duty. +They are the maiden aunts who spend affection and money upon the +families of their relatives; who help their younger brothers and +sisters through college; who take care of the aged and invalid in the +family connection, and act often as stay and prop to all the weaker +and more burdened of their kin. What many families would do without +this type of unmarried woman is hard to tell. They are often grateful +for their release from wearing domestic cares and enjoy their sense of +power in general serviceableness to those they love while at the same +time appreciating with keen satisfaction their own joy of +craftsmanship in some chosen profession. Except for a brief hour now +and then, when sister has a new baby or brother takes a new wife, they +feel anything but troubled over their condition of single blessedness +until, perhaps, a premonition of lonely old age stirs regret. + +=The Demand of Eugenists.=--From the point of view of the eugenists, +who demand more fecundity on the higher and less on the lower levels +of life, one of the most sinister of all influences inimical to family +life is this large and increasing band of superior and happy single +women who are not even discontented and make no demand for any closer +touch with life than is now given them. If it is bad for the family +for a large number of women unable to find suitable permanent mates to +be so eager for motherhood that they claim social permission for that +public service whatever their marital position, it may be still worse +for the family for a large number of highly superior women to cease to +care greatly for intimate comradeship with men or for the actual +experience of motherhood. Many women working and living in solitary +fashion until too old to risk the chances of marriage, and able to +find highest comradeship and largest comfort in other women's +companionship, have been so held by family burdens in youth that this +result has been inevitable. Society has, therefore, a task to prevent +the weight of past generations, falling now so heavily upon some young +men and upon far more young women, from operating against the +well-being of the generations to come. We should make it our social +business to share more justly the burdens due to old age and chronic +invalidism. + +=Women Can Not be Forced Back to Compulsory Marriage.=--It is too late +in the day to pass laws forbidding women from gaining economic freedom +and social power in professional careers so that all the best of them +shall again be obliged to marry as a "means of support." Few persons +would do this if they could. But we can and should make haste to bring +together, as the State Universities of our country do so helpfully, +those who should be the fathers and mothers of the future, in that +period of life when love will take chances for the future. +"Propinquity," the old adage declares, is the "best incentive to +courtship," and it should be made to work more effectively. + +In our own country, eugenists may be comforted to learn, it is still +fashionable to marry, even in the best families. We are told by our +census that more people marry in the thousand and marry young in the +United States than in other countries.[2] And although it may be +claimed that the older Americans and the finest types do not reproduce +so freely as social well-being requires, there is much hope that +movements of population, so much freer here than elsewhere among the +educated and competent, will lead to better sex-adjustments and to the +absorbing of more first-class women in family life. + +=A Few Believe in a "Third Sex."=--There are those, however, although +but a few, who do not view with alarm the modern increase of unmarried +women of types most needed for motherhood. These believe that in the +present time, and perhaps in a long future, our complex social needs +cannot be met by holding the best blood and breeding within the family +bond, but that there must be a reserve of celibates, a few men and +many women, to carry on the school and to work for social amelioration +and social progress. This point of view, which has been sometimes +characterized as "defense of a third sex," is based on two premises: +namely, first, that all of a married woman's time and strength +throughout her whole adult life must go into strictly family service +in order for the family to be maintained; and, second, that those men +and women who specialize in some vocation in such extreme degree that +they cannot marry and have children are thereby, by reason of that +celibate concentration, better able to function socially in their +chosen work. It is the object of this book to disprove both these +assumptions. + +=Most Social Students Advocate Marriage.=--Celibate concentration upon +a specific task, however valuable that task may be, is open, we +contend, to serious social dangers, as history amply proves. And +family life has now such varied and efficient aids from commerce, +manufacture, educational provisions in school and recreation centres, +in summer camps and special organizations of youthful energy toward +social serviceableness, that men and women can marry and rear +families, if they really desire so to do, more easily than ever +before, provided they are willing to pay the price of simplicity in +the home and in individual mastery of the technic of new ways of +living. What is needed for the best development of the family under +modern conditions is not more celibates, men and women of high ability +and noble consecration to undertake wholesale service in its behalf, +but rather that more of the best and the best-balanced men and women +be absorbed, to necessary degree, and at the right period of life, in +the task of actual transmission of their quality and tendency through +the living tissues of the social organism in the vital process of +parenthood. What is needed to secure that result is not only a new +ideal of social obligation but also, and definitely, such skill in +economic and domestic adjustments as will more and more leave a margin +of strength and energy for a chosen vocation not wholly mortgaged to +family uses, in the case of women as of men. It is quite time that +some of the rightly honored "maiden aunts of society," as our leading +spinsters have been called, used some of their wisest thought and +their most self-sacrificing service toward securing such economic and +domestic adjustments as will work toward the diminution of their own +kind! + +Again it must be insisted that what society-at-large now needs most is +not celibates, however wise and good, working along one line, without +close touch with the main experiences of birth and death and common +social relationship, but rather the deepening and broadening of common +human relations through the reaction of the wise and good upon all the +fundamental ties that bind the race and the generations together. The +loss to society of those who might have been fathers and mothers and +chose to be so devoted to religious orders as to stand apart from +their race-life is an admitted calamity in the view of most people who +study mediaeval history. + +=Dangers of Extreme Specialization.=--Moreover, the tendency now in +all departments of industry and professional service is toward a +specialization which often defeats its own end and lessens rather than +increases the usefulness of its own department. "We want not workers," +says Emerson, "but men working." We want not specialists in the +extreme sense but all-round students devoting themselves to one sphere +of research or activity with a constant sense of its relation to all +other spheres of thought and action. Particularly in social service we +want not so much those who in early life specialize in one or another +form of social pathology or social therapeutics but rather those +mature and rounded in personal experience who elect some particular +service with full realization of its place in the network of common +human relationship. Especially is this true of all social work which +deals directly with individuals. + +The higher development of the family and the wider range of social +service, therefore, alike, demand that a much greater proportion of +the moral and intellectual elite of the race pay their debt to the +generations through the family. + +=Industrial Exploitation of Childhood and Youth.=--There is another +condition of modern life which must be noted as inimical to the +stability and the efficiency of the family, a condition which works +from the bottom upward through the lower levels of society as others +which have been noted work from the top down through the higher +levels. It is the condition which leads toward the misuse of young +girls in wage-earning tasks. There is a difference of opinion among +the wisest in regard to the social usefulness of forms of protective +labor legislation for adult women which are not shared by men. There +can be none in respect to the social harm of using the vitality, the +charm, the strength, the happiness of minors, especially of potential +mothers, to carry on the processes of machine-dominated systems of +manufacture and business. It takes so little physical strength or +mental power to become a cog in these rapidly revolving wheels. It +means such a waste to thus use the years of youth, meant for education +and development and meant to attract toward successful family life +rather than away from it. + +The wrong and injustice of child-labor is equal for both sexes and no +law can be too stringent or too severely enforced against it. The +social waste of using youth exclusively in wage-earning pursuits can +easily be proved, in the case of girls, to extend to years older than +in the case of boys. The family cannot be maintained in stable +condition, and certainly can not progress in social value, unless the +majority of young girls are given the right attitude toward it and +time to prepare for its opportunities and responsibilities. If, as is +generally now believed, the legal majority and voting age for boys and +girls should be the same, namely, twenty-one years, then the girls, as +potential mothers, must have a distinct and specialized protection up +to that legal majority from all that harms health, prevents +safeguarded recreation, or turns life-currents away from the home to +the factory. The death-rate of babies when mothers work in factories +or shops with no provision for special rest is one testimony to the +social improvidence of our present industrial use of older women. The +life-long invalidism of many women, the childlessness of multitudes, +the statistics of home conditions revealed by Children's Courts +furnish testimony of like character. The unknown toll of loss of +personal aptitude for family life leading to broken homes, or to +hopeless struggles against invasions by poverty of the right of common +men and women to a home, are proof positive that a change in economic +conditions is demanded in the interest of family life. + +=Social Measures Needed to Prevent These Evils.=--These social evils +connected with child-labor and the neglect in the industrial world of +youth and its needs are not to be mended by helps to individuals +alone. More radical measures are required for the protection of +society's most precious asset, the health, happiness and leisure of +all its children. + +"Education," says the ancient sage, "is the ladder that every child +must climb in order to become all that he is meant to become; and +therefore children are made unfit for other employments in order that +they may have leisure to learn." To this may be added, the type of +education that fits the average girl for high usefulness as a +housemother is an absolute need if the average home life is to be made +a centre of freedom and of happiness. Those, therefore, who are +working against child-labor and against the unrestricted use of +mothers of young children and of potential mothers, in wage-earning +industry, are working directly, and with great power, for the +preservation and stability of the family. Those also who are working +through the formal education of the schools for the insertion of study +and practice along lines of home-making are making a complementary and +valuable contribution toward the inner unity and the outer success of +the family. + +=The Attack upon the Family by Reactionaries.=--One more and most +important attack upon the family as it exists to-day must be noted in +this list of elements in modern society which work against this +inherited institution. It is an attack which, however mistaken, is +ostensibly, and often honestly in intent, a movement for the +protection and improvement of the family order. It is the effort to +turn the history of that institution back upon itself and make the +family again, as in the past, a legal unity with one representative, +the husband and father, through whom alone the wife and children have +distinct relationship to society-at-large. It is an effort to return +to mediaeval thought and practice and to reaffirm in legal outline the +headship of the husband and father, the permanent minority of the wife +and mother, and the complete subordination of the children. It is even +an effort to rescind such laws as have given married women independent +contract-power and property rights, the equal guardianship of their +children, the full use of educational provisions, and individual +relationship to the state through the franchise. Voices are not +wanting to insist that only through a return to this old domestic +order of kingship of the man can the family be preserved. + +A recent book claiming intellectual authority and endorsed by many men +in high positions states this opinion clearly, and seeks to strengthen +it by the use of scientific half-truths used not scientifically but as +a support for a metaphysical theory of masculine and feminine quality. +Every step that has been taken from the male despotism within marriage +and parenthood has met such appeals to stay the progress of democracy +toward the hearth-stone lest the family order be wholly destroyed. +Most people, however, believe that the steps which have been taken +away from that family despotism are too many to be retraced. Women +will not be put back into perpetual legal minority when once they have +become adults under the law. They will not consent to lose property +rights and the power of guardianship over their own children. They +will not consent to their own disfranchisement or to the loss of +opportunities of education and of economic independence. It is as +futile as it is stupid to expect that in this matter history will go +backward. To oppose measures already accomplished which are in the +direction of democratic adjustment of social relations, even by those +who think certain measures "a reform against nature," is not only idle +in effect but shows that the opposer is out of touch with "whatsoever +forces draw the ages on." + +There are many elements in the restlessness of a period too rapidly +changing to be always sure of its ground that needlessly confuse the +issues of family obligation and personal loyalty to accepted tasks. +There are many tendencies toward extreme individualism which need +balancing by clearer ideals of social serviceableness. Especially is +this true in the case of women somewhat intoxicated by the belated +freedom and power which came to them after too prolonged a struggle +against inherited bonds. There are many economic and educational +requirements yet to be met in order to protect and maintain the +accepted ideal of monogamic marriage. But of all the ideas inimical to +the family in our modern life, the demand for its return to +aristocratic and outgrown forms is the most absurd and the most +harmful. All history shows that those who try to put a law, a +political system, an economic method, a rule of morality, or a +religious ideal back into a form discarded by the majority of those +who constitute the ethical and intellectual elite directly work toward +the chaos of revolution. To try to force the family ideal or its legal +bond or social outline back into the patriarchal form is to do the +utmost possible to bring on a catastrophic struggle between the new +and the old. The evil wrought by such reactionary teaching is in the +exact ratio of its power of influence. Whatever we may try to do, as +balance, through evolutionary methods at points where changes in form +have not been as yet made safe and sane by required adjustments of the +individual life to the new order, we should make haste to attempt. No +person, however, who is in actual touch with the movement of social +progress can hope to turn any great democratic tendency back upon +itself and "make that which hath been as if it were not." No truly +just person will wish to do so. + +=The Prevalence of Divorce.=--Many urge reactionary attitudes toward +present family ideals and practice because of the divorce problem. The +omission of this from the list of causes for the modern instability of +the family and for its too frequent lack of success may have been +already noted and condemned by the reader of these pages. The fact of +divorces, however, whether they be many or few, is to the writer a +symptom, not a cause, the legal expression of a social disease, not +the disease itself. Bad diagnosis, or inadequate treatment on the +basis of a symptom, may increase the disease; and the facts concerning +divorce are of so serious a nature that a separate chapter has been +assigned to them under the heading: The Broken Family. The prevalence +of divorce, however, it must here be said, demonstrably proves two +things--one that men and women now feel themselves at moral and social +liberty to seek divorce when longer living together seems to them +intolerable, and that women are using their new freedom and economic +independence to make marriage conditions more to their liking. They +are setting a standard respecting desirable husbands, not always +wisely, often selfishly, but in the long run and large way to ends of +greater equality of demand in the marriage relation. The tendency on +the whole is toward a higher conception of what marriage should be and +what it should do for both parties in the bond. The statistics of +illegitimacy, of commercialized prostitution, of venereal disease, of +infant mortality, of early death or life-long invalidism of wives and +mothers, of marital unhappiness and parental neglect which are found +by honest investigation in states and nations in which no divorce is +allowed do not lead to the belief that legal permanence of the +marriage bond secures socially helpful family life. On the contrary, +such facts already show that divorce in the civilization we have +inherited comes as a result of bad conditions which worked infinite +harm before divorces could be obtained. + +=Old Institutions Need New Sanctions.=--We must now ask of any laws +concerning any institution not what did ancient "folk-ways" ordain but +what do modern conditions require? No form of human association, +however old and whatever its contribution to the social inheritance, +but is on trial to-day before all free minds. That trial must be +openly conducted. No "secret diplomacy" to reinstate old ideals or +laws against the common belief; no "boring from within" to propagate +new schemes the object of which is to gratify personal wish without +regard to public good; but "open covenants" with the future "openly +arrived at" in an ethically consecrated present. What shall be our +guide in such a free and frank consideration of the present and the +future of the family? + +=The Monogamic Family Justifies Itself by Social Usefulness.=--In the +first place, one must accept the fact that it is presumptive evidence +of the continued worth and value of any inherited institution if it +can be proved that it has served vital social needs which still +operate and that no other existing institution is able or ready to +take its place for the special social service which it was designed to +render. To the present writer it seems clear that the monogamic family +holds its title clear to social preservation on both these points. The +family preceded individualistic marriage as we know it and was +developed for the purpose of giving to oncoming generations a share in +the race-life, whatever the ideals concerning that race-life may have +been at any period of social order. Even in its present undeveloped +form, with its cramping limitations of past autocracy and with its +crude attempts at an as yet half-understood democracy, we may well +count the private monogamic family as a priceless inheritance and work +toward its better organization and larger service to social life. No +other institution yet developed has shown in history or now shows in +present life a worthy substitute for its functioning in child-care and +child-development. Many also believe that no form of sex-association +secures such possibilities of moral discipline and personal +satisfaction as does the guarded relationship of monogamic marriage. + +=The Inherited Family Order Demands New Social Adjustments.=--There +are, therefore, no reasons for welcoming the decline of the private +family. There are many that demand imperatively some adjustments in +inner comradeship and in mechanical arrangements surrounding the +household, in order to hold firm its spiritual values during changes +in social conditions. How far these changes of detail may go or what +will be the end of some present clearly outlined tendencies no one can +prophesy. The duty of the hour is, however, to set this treasure of +social inheritance in a clear light; to show its actual and potential +social value as at present perceived; and to try by all simple +measures open to our intelligence to aid in its evolution toward a +more perfect expression of the love of man and woman each for the +other and of the protection and care of both for the children of that +love. The basic test of all proposed changes in any inherited +institution is from henceforward, we must believe, that which inheres +in the spiritual essence of democracy. What is that essence of +democracy which must be applied as test within the family, as within +the state and within the industrial order? It is the fundamental +belief in the worth and dignity of every human being and the equal +right of each and all to personality. No man, as in the older days, +must be obliged to be husband and father, but may choose, if he deems +it essential to his own being, to remain in a solitary path outside +the current of the generations. No woman must be obliged to live +solely to serve a family. She, too, has right to self-development in +some chosen way. No married couple must be forced to add to the +children already here; they may justly be protected in living and +working together in some comradeship that has no family limitations +save those of mutual loyalty and mutual service. No child is to be +justly held so much under family control as to have his nature stifled +or warped, and no child shall be made a pecuniary asset to the family +regardless of his own needs. No family autonomy is henceforth to be +secured by fiat of law enthroning one "head" as the legal despot or +economic ruler. The family must be democratized in that sense in which +each individual within its bond shall be sustained in seeking and in +maintaining the conditions of personality. No one human being to live +solely for others' service or to have his or her value estimated in +terms of contribution to other lives, but all to seek the utmost +perfection of individual life as a contribution to the common life; +this is the democratic ideal. + +=The Family as an Aid to Spiritual Democracy.=--There seems to be no +other inherited institution in which this spiritual essence of +democracy can be so clearly and so well realized as it may be and +to-day often is in the private monogamic family. The permanent and +successful family offers a unique centre of personal development at +the heart of all other social groups. Founded as it is in selective +affection, and in aim at least permanently secure, it offers a refuge +in every distress and a help in every trouble of each of its members. +There was never a time when such a mutual resistance of a small and +intimate group to the complex pressure of the world upon each +individual life was more sorely needed. The confusing social currents +of this changing era set free from ancient moorings many who can find +no clear chart for newer voyaging in thought and action. These need +what the family more than any other inherited institution can still +give--something of the simplicity of the blood bond and something of +the strength of clan membership, and more of the partial affection +which sets each personality in its best light and gives each a chance +to better its own world achievement in the appreciation of its +dearest. + +=The Family the Nursery of Personality.=--The family in this sense of +comforting and developing the individual nature has as yet no rival. +Says Browning, "Every man has two soul sides--one to face the world +with and one to show a woman when he loves her." There are those who +blame the family relationship for its exclusiveness and partiality, +and there are countless instances where the ego is so extended into +the blood group that selfish disregard of all others becomes a mark of +family affection. Yet is it profoundly true that just as the baby +needs some one to whom its little life is all-important in order to +gain strength of will to achieve its difficult beginnings of +consciousness, so all of us need a small group in which our well-being +and our happiness are of greater concern than those of any one person +can be to all the world of persons. No truly enlightened person +believes that he or she is as wise or as good as the best friend +thinks; and no truly enlightened person believes that the affection of +one's family is a just gauge of the value of one's life to the world. +We all need, however, and children particularly need, some inner +circle of love which comes to us by virtue simply of our being, to +help us when we make excursions of moral and affectional adventure in +the world outside, in a world in which we are valued only for what we +can achieve. + +=Life, Not Theory About Life, Teaches Us.=--Let no one believe, +however, that any theory about or claim for the family really +indicates its value. We live before we can interpret our life, and +what is already achieved by those in the forward ranks shows what all +may yet become. We are not left to chance or imagination or to +argument or affirmation of principles to visualize the family as it is +or as it may be. We may look about us and see what it is and can do +for men and women. Few, perhaps, are standing on the heights of their +own being when they build the family altar. Yet in the love and +sacrifice of plain and unknown fathers who cheerfully toil for their +loved ones, in the patient endurance of simple-hearted mothers who +give so much of their lives in ready service to husband and family, in +the frolic-joy and eager activity of ordinary children whose only +dower is the free and happy service of their parents, is the fruit and +the promise of the human family. + +=The Moral Elite in the Modern Family.=--Above all, we have to-day a +growing number who live in the spirit of a true marriage and a noble +cradle of infancy and show by actual example what the family is meant +to be. These prophesy a marriage that demands each of the other that +a perfect life shall perfect their love. These give a new pattern and +type of parenthood, woven of the tears and joy, the aspiration and the +service of those who call children from the storehouse of universal +life, not in response to careless passion but in the solemn joy of +creative purpose. These are the men and women who shall yet build from +the home as the heart's centre, a wiser school, a more righteous +state, a juster industry, and a purer worship of the ideal. + +It is in the new comradeship of men and women on all the levels of +life that such auspicious promise of better social life is found. It +is on the new basis of reverence of each personality for every other, +not only for the person that other is but for the person he or she may +become if given fair chance for best achievement, that the new social +ethics rests. It is on that basis that we may build a faith assured +and strong that the family will not be lost in the time that needs it +most but will shape itself to finer issues and more useful service. + + +QUESTIONS ON THE FAMILY + + 1. What has been the general trend of development in Matrimonial + Institutions? + + 2. Has the monogamic family, as now outlined and legalized, any + elements inherently inimical to a democratic order of society? + If so, what are those elements? If not, what stand should be + taken in regard to proposals for fundamental changes in the + inherited family system? + + 3. If the inherited family system should be preserved and + maintained, what, if any, changes in form, or practical + adjustments to the new freedom of woman and new ideals of + education of youth, are demanded for its present stability and + future success? + + 4. In _Taboo and Genetics: A Study of the Biological, + Sociological, and Psychological Foundation of the Family_, by + M.M. Knight, Iva Lowther Peters, and Phyllis Blanchard, it is + claimed that "The chief interest of society should be in the + eugenic value of the children born into it." Is that true, and + if so, how can this social interest be best excited and + maintained? + + 5. Dr. Edward T. Devine advocates social insurance for sickness + and widowhood, but not out-door relief or widow's pensions; + also advocates physical investigation and home visiting for + school children, but not school lunches, eye-glasses or + clothing as a free gift. His conclusion is that "the state + should enforce a minimum standard of child-care, but the + expense of providing it should fall on parents or on some + insurance fund to which parents have contributed." Is this + sound American doctrine? If so, should proposed legislation be + gauged by it? + + 6. Read chapter, "The Family," in _A Social Theory of Religious + Education_, by G.A. Coe. Is the emphasis laid upon equality in + this statement justified? + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See _Children Born Out of Wedlock_, by George B. Mangold, Ph.D., +University of Missouri, 1921. + +[2] See Chapter V, "The Home," in _The Normal Life_, by Edward T. +Devine. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE MOTHER + + "Strength and dignity are her clothing; + She openeth her mouth with wisdom; + And the law of kindness is on her tongue. + She looketh well to the ways of her household, + And eateth not the bread of idleness. + The heart of her husband trusteth in her; + Her children rise up and call her blessed; + Give her of the fruit of her hands; + And let her works praise her in the gates." + --PROVERBS. + + "A being breathing thoughtful breath, + A traveller betwixt life and death; + The reason firm, the temperate will, + Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill; + A perfect woman, nobly plann'd, + To warn, to comfort, and command; + And yet a spirit still and bright, + With something of an angel light." + --WORDSWORTH. + + "Yet in herself she dwelleth not, + Although no home were half so fair; + No simplest duty is forgot; + Life hath no dim and lowly spot + That doth not in her sunshine share." + --LOWELL. + + "I loved the woman; there was one through whom I loved her, one + Not learned, save in gracious household ways, + Not perfect, nay, but full of tender wants, + No angel, but a dearer being, interpreter between the gods and men. + + "Happy he with such a mother! Faith in womankind + Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high + Comes easy to him, and though he trip and fall, + He shall not blind his soul with clay." + --TENNYSON. + + +=Antiquity of the Mother-instinct.=--The mother-instinct of protection +of offspring, of care of weakness and of sacrifice for the young, came +to high power before the human was reached in the scale of beings. It +must never be forgotten that humbler sisters set the fashion of +motherhood's devotion too long ago to reckon the time and in types of +organism too remote to be always recognized as kin to the human beings +we know to-day. This is the greatest and most racially useful of all +the biological assets stored up for us in the prehuman struggle toward +what we now call civilization. Nor should we fail to give full value +to the testimony of primitive human life that the mother and child +formed the first social group within the loose association of the +herd. It was the first group to develop, by virtue of its conscious +relationship, the sense of trust and the habit of service of the +stronger to the weaker, thus leading toward mutual aid within an area +of affection and good-will. These facts give basic assurance that +mother-love will last, no matter what changes in form of its +expression may be called for by changes in social order. + +The reason why the relationship of mother and child was able thus to +lead the way toward social organization for the common good is +obvious. The intimate physical tie, the easily understood claim of the +child upon its mother, the prolongation of human infancy instituting a +habit of continuous service of the young and hence a tendency toward a +settled home and peaceful industries, all made it easy for woman to +become care-taker of children. These also made it easy for the early +social order to hold mothers to the task and, in growing measure, +protect them in it. What have been the recognized essentials in that +care-taking of motherhood? What are the permanent elements in the +mother's devotion to offspring which persist under all changes in +social conditions? + +=The Recognized Essentials in Child-care.=--The more important items +in a program of child-care may be summed up as follows: + + First--Protection of infancy and childhood from threatening + dangers. + + Second--Providing food, clothing, and shelter for the young. + + Third--Drilling children in physical habits and manner of + personal behavior demanded by the family rule of time and + place of birth. + + Fourth--Teaching the child to talk, to walk, to obey, to + imitate. + + Fifth--Interpreting to each newcomer the group morals which + govern the family and the educational process in the + period and locality into which he is born. + + Sixth--For ages untold, the more formal education of all girls + and of all little boys in the folk-lore, the vocational + skill, the ways of living together and the methods of + social arrangement both within and without the tribe or + state or nation into which they were born. + +Are any of these essential elements of motherhood's ancient devotion +to child-life lifted wholly from her obligation? Careful study of the +family needs and conditions, and the effect upon them of modern social +control and social organization, indicates that not one of these +ancient obligations is taken bodily from the modern mother's service. + +=The Protective Function.=--The protective function has indeed been +considered for many centuries peculiarly the father's duty. Ever since +man was bound to family obligations he has been charged with repelling +enemy attacks upon the group of which his own family was a part and +with the task of standing guard over wife and child as against all +physical dangers. Man has developed under this social pressure a sense +of chivalry and a tendency to "save women and children first" which +give noble examples of courage and self-sacrifice to fire the +imagination of each new generation. Has the father-office developed +such many-sided and adequate protective service to childhood that +mothers have been able to "lay down their arms" and rest content in +the knowledge that their children are shielded from every danger? It +seems not. In the days when women were ignorant of all outside their +homes they may have felt so secure because not understanding the cause +of many family tragedies. In the days when they had no power to change +conditions affecting the home from without they may have felt excused +from the protective function of early motherhood, since men had taken +over physical defense and economic support and the relationship of the +family group to the social whole. No open-eyed woman in a country +giving women social, economic, and political power can so think +to-day. + +It is a far cry from the savage mother, beating back some beast of the +jungle or the plain, to the modern mother whose physical protection +and that of her children is amply provided not alone by the husband +and father concerned but by organized society with its police power, +its courts and laws. The dangers that threaten child-life to-day in +the more civilized communities are not the same that threatened the +young of the herd-pack or the early lives of primitive men and women. +Then the mother had sometimes to defend her child against its own +father, especially her girl-babies against the social fiat of death +executed by the father's will. Ancient folk-lore and myth show us many +a struggle, intense and cruel, between mother-love and this +group-sentence of death upon some of its young. In case of war also +the ancient mother had to protect her virgin daughters against outrage +and capture, albeit so feebly and to so disastrous an end. And war, +since it is always and by its nature must be a return to savage +conditions, now leads to the sacrifice of women and children in much +the ancient manner; and faced by its horrors at close touch, the +mother-instinct essays the old task to the same bitter defeat. + +In peaceful periods, however, in the long ages when the father-rule +was a despotism tempered only by natural affection and the skill of +women in securing advantages while simulating submission, mothers had +large use of their protective function in easing family discipline and +in gaining relief from harsh conditions affecting childhood. Theirs +was then no open fight for the well-being of their offspring, and +often not a wise effort to that end, but ancient song and story all +show that childhood and youth depended upon the mother-love in crises +of family experience and that without such refuge many young lives +would have been utterly sacrificed. + +=Social Elements in Modern Protection of Children.=--To-day the +dangers to which babies and children are exposed are more subtle in +form and more complex in action. They are less within than without the +average home. They are those that give the high death-rate of infants, +the crippled limbs of children, the weakness of body and defectiveness +of mind and feebleness or perversion of moral nature that make so many +human beings unequal to life's demands. They are the dangers, personal +and social, summed up in the antitheses of "health" and "disease," of +"normal" and "abnormal." Not that the dangers so indicated are new but +rather that we are newly aware of them. Not that savage or early +civilized life had conditions more favorable to health and normality +but that the easier modern conditions save alive many who in harsher +times would have died in babyhood. Moreover, we are beginning at last +to set a standard, in ever-clearer outline, of what is health and of +what is normality in physical, mental, and moral human life. Moreover, +we are seeing as never before that the dangers that beset the child +to-day are not those from which the mother alone, or the individual +father and mother working together, can adequately protect. They are +dangers that only society can prevent and that society alone can +abolish. + +=Women's Leadership in Social Protection.=--Why, then, do we say that +the protective function of individual motherhood is still demanded and +still a large part of the modern mother's obligation? Because she is +to-day the one most clearly required, in our own country at least, to +summon the social forces to lessen or abolish those dangers to which +children are exposed. The action of the solitary, primitive mother +fighting off the despoiler of her child does not much resemble the +banding together of modern women by the hundreds and by the thousands +to abolish typhoid fever in some city in which it has become endemic +through the greed of manufacturers who pollute the water supply. It +is, however, the same spirit in both; and in the modern instance it +wakes, first, the fathers to their protective duty, and then the +guardians of the public health, and then educates the public mind, and +at last accomplishes the desired result through appropriate laws, +well enforced. It is a long step from the indirect "influence," the +often deceitful cunning, the appeal to sex-attraction and the pleading +of weakness by which for ages women sought to protect their children +against harsh punishments, their daughters against marriage to those +whom they loathed, and their sons to apprenticeship to work they could +not choose, to the openly exercised power of the modern mother. In the +days when wives and mothers had no legal rights which society was +bound to respect, appeal was woman's only weapon; now the modern +mother has command of her protective function and exercises it +fearlessly. The same spirit is in all the long process of change, +however, and women to-day banding openly together and joining also +with men on equal terms, to secure laws protecting children from +cruelty even against their own parents; to raise the "age of consent" +in order to prevent the unwitting moral suicide of little girls; to +sweep the streets free from vicious allurements that young boys may be +preserved from debauchery and disease; to place trustees of society's +power of public protection as chaperones in every place of moral +danger; these modern women are near of kin to all motherhood of any +past. So also are those of the same spirit as the ancient mother who +band themselves together, again with men on equal terms, but oftenest, +perhaps, with men whom their own social interest has summoned to the +task, for the establishment of "Health Centres", of adequate and +efficient clinics and dispensaries; for securing necessary education +and care of mothers before the birth of their children, and for +mothers and babies alike needing good, fresh air, rest and comfort +after birth; for the raising of standards of physical well-being all +along the line of life from youth to age. The ancient mother was too +ignorant and had too little power to save her children and family from +physical ills, but she did her best. The modern mother is able to +learn about requirements and to act with power for the better health +and better training of every child. Is she always ready for and equal +to the task? + +At least we can claim this for the mother devotion in modern times, +that it shows, and in exact proportion of its increasing social power, +an alertness and a moral earnestness in all that concerns the welfare +of children that have perpetuated and extended the protective +functions of society as no other agency has done. Much of the modern +legislation and social work directed toward the physical and moral +safeguarding of the young has been instituted and is carried out in +detail largely by women. The passage of the so-called Maternity Bill +by our National Congress, at the recognized instigation of women of +the United States, and the call it makes for a large staff of women +workers to carry out its provisions, is a case in point. This +protective work for mothers and babies is not always done by women who +are themselves mothers. Perhaps too often its details are in charge of +those lacking deep experience of life, and hence not able to interpret +new laws of social control to parents of ancient ideals and backward +social culture. But women in any case are called for in large numbers +to translate the ancient personal duty of protective care of the young +in terms of social obligations. + +=The Provision of Food, Clothing, and Shelter.=--The second recognized +ancient duty of mothers is in respect to the provision of food, +clothing, and shelter for the young. This duty has undergone great +changes of method during the last century, and in the large centres of +population has altered almost past recognition. These changes seem to +many to minimize the individual mother's responsibility in these +matters to the vanishing point. + +It is indeed an almost immeasurable distance from the primitive mother +scratching the soil with her sharpened stick, her baby bound to her +bended back, in order to plant a few seeds for a tiny harvest to save +the life of her child when the hunt should be poor, to the modern +mother whose food supply for her family comes to the table from all +parts of the earth at the call of her telephone. Is the modern mother, +then, released from all obligations as to that food supply? It is a +long step also from the primitive mother making slowly with her thorn +needle the only garment her child may wear, and even a long step from +the home spinning, weaving and dyeing of later handicraft, to the +modern use of the "ready-made" shop and the division of all +garment-making into innumerable specialties of labor. Is the modern +mother thereby released from care concerning the family clothing? + +For the modern housing of families do we not all have to depend upon +the architect, the builder, the real estate broker, the speculator in +land, the laws concerning boundaries, taxes and title deeds, rent and +landlords' powers, and press all one upon another for a chance for a +home when we elect to live where many other people want also to live? +Is, then, the shelter of the family no longer the mother's care? + +=The Woman in Rural Life.=--The country-woman, dealing at first hand +with rural conditions, has many of the same problems of personal +devotion in the provision of food, clothing, and shelter with which +her ancient ancestor struggled. She has, it is true, "scientific +farming" of men to raise the harvests that ancestor's heroic but +feeble efforts could not secure. She has mechanical and commercial +aids as housemother such as the primitive woman never imagined. She +has been released from much of the drudgery which burdened her +grandmother in the domestic stage of industry. She is under social +protection such as no previous woman enjoyed in the solitary household +of the past. And in the United States the Federal Government is +offering her aids.[3] It is, however, true that the housemother in +rural communities still feels many of the obligations of the ancient +woman. The three-meal-a-day routine, the actual preparation of raw +material of food for the table, the personal offices of housework, +washing, ironing, mending, making, sweeping, dusting, cleaning, in all +their varied details, keep her in active sympathy with the past. This +fact furnishes the main reason why "Women's Columns" and "Magazines +for Women" reach such large circulation in rural districts, where they +help toward lessening the domestic burden by showing how to carry it +more easily. + +The farm woman, however, is moving, many thousand strong, with men as +many, to mitigate the isolation of the solitary household, to bring +the home nearer to the neighbors, the school, the church and the +store, by massing rural homes in villages and forming the habits of +the men-folk to go further afield for their own work. This movement, +which is of all social reforms most needed because affecting larger +classes than any other and also because affecting the basic industry +of all countries, that of agriculture, is working toward making +farm-life once more attractive to young men and capable of winning +young women to the life of the farmer's wife. + +Meanwhile, the higher forms of social organization possible in cities +and in closely settled towns and villages are working to lessen +house-keeping burdens to an unprecedented degree. It is noticeable +that all schemes for so specializing woman's work and so easing the +domestic burden as to make, as one writer puts it, "the home a rest +place for women as for men," have their imaginary seat in great cities +or closely built suburbs. The farm-women we know can combine and +cooeperate to a greater extent than they now do and the town and city +women may take far better advantage of the agencies of household +assistance now at their doors. How far this movement to relieve the +home of household work may go we do not know. + +=Modern Demand for Standardization.=--Is there any plan yet proposed, +however, which can relieve the mother of her primary and ancient +obligation to see that her family is well nourished, suitably clothed +and healthfully sheltered? Some one must attend to the needs of each +family in these vital particulars which underlie all problems of +public and private health. Shall the state do it? So far the +experience of state institutions and even of private "homes" do not +encourage hope along that line. So far the physical and affectional +needs of children and youth, and of husbands and wives, and of fathers +and mothers have not been met by any substitute for the private home. +And in the private home, under any plan, there must go on certain +processes which have to cost some one member of the family a great +deal of thought, much personal effort and constant attention. For most +families in average condition that person is naturally the +housemother. If the husband and father is the chief or only +wage-earner in "gainful occupations," then his health and strength are +of primary concern to all the family and must be secured by adequate +and healthful provision of food and clothing, and the home must give +him what he vitally needs for maintaining power of economic service to +his family. If the mother, also, is a wage-or salary-earner we have +the dictum of economists that her inherited and usual place in the +family machinery must be filled, if at all successfully, by trained +and congenial helpers at a cost in present conditions prohibitive for +the average family income. The estimate of Mr. Taber, in his excellent +book, _The Business of the Household_, is that unless for causes of +illness or special emergency "no family having an income of less than +three thousand dollars has any right to maintain a maid." This +estimate seems not only economically correct but shows why so few +families have incomes that can release the housemother from housework. +It also shows why only the exceptionally trained and competent +vocational worker, if a married woman and mother of young children, +can earn enough to release herself from the miscellaneous tasks of the +private household without loss to the family treasury. The easing of +the burden of housework, almost unbearable as it has been and +responsible, as we have good reason to believe, for much ill-health of +women and much unhappiness in marriage, is coming fast and from quite +other directions than is often perceived. The commercial aids of +wholesale preparation of food and clothing, and the new fashions in +house-building and household management are alike working toward such +a reduction of private household service as may enable the average +woman to meet the family needs, even where there are several young +children, if she is strong in body and trained in efficient ways of +working, and yet have considerable time left for other activities. + +The apartment house has set the fashion of simplification and +reduction of necessary personal service in the home. The apartment +house, with its continuous hot water, its ready heat and its relief +from care of sidewalks, halls and stairs, and with its hour-service at +command is obviously becoming a favorite place to live in. Especially +do women like it. The multiple house, however, does not seem the best +place for children after the earliest months of infancy, and in many +such houses they are openly "not wanted." The multiple house has also +many disadvantages from the social side in the lack of home +associations which support family affection. They are also for the +most part in localities where people are brought together without plan +or friendship and hence can not cultivate that neighborliness which, +so far in the history of the race, has been a nursery of the community +spirit. + +=The Apartment House and the Family.=--The apartment house seems to be +the best place for those families in which all the adult members are +busy at some vocation, and in which the children are of age to profit +by educational opportunities usually found only in cities. In such +families the burdens of the person who is in command of the family +comfort as to food and raiment and house-keeping are reduced to the +lowest terms. If to the usual apartment house provisions for aids to +the housemother are added, what is now offered in some places, namely, +the "Auto-Service for Meals," whereby the principal meal, at least, +the dinner, is brought to the door ready to place on the table and all +cooking dishes hard to wash are returned to the centre of supply to be +prepared for another service, then, indeed, can all the members take +turns in rendering the small offices for family comfort still required +and each go about his or her special vocation at will. This seems to +be the goal of many progressive minds, although personal taste is +seldom satisfied by "cooeperative" cooking. + +It must be remembered by all, that the sort of family pictured above +has in it no children of ages requiring freedom of motion and constant +attention (unless, indeed, "the boarding-school in the country" for +all over four or five years is contemplated). It has in it no aged +whose needs in diet and in physical comfort vary from the usual. It +has in it no chronic invalids and no convalescents, no blind or lame +or specially weak requiring special help. It is for the particular +benefit, at least, of families of a particular type, of which the +cities, with their more varied facilities, contain an unusual +proportion. For the family of the ordinary type, with its many +differing needs and its variety of claim upon some one person for its +central direction and service, the various aids from without which +have been indicated serve rather to relieve from excessive burdens +than to remove altogether the special obligations of the woman-head of +the family. + +Moreover, the time left to the average housemother from the old +housework by the new helps in that work is, in part at least, +mortgaged in advance to social effort to make the new commercial aids +to family service actual helps and not hindrances to family health and +comfort. The food supply drawn upon must be sharply investigated lest +it contain deleterious substances or be denuded of nourishing quality. +The ready-made clothing must be bought with knowledge and constant +vigilance against cheating in material or in construction or in sins +of fashion against health and beauty. The labor-saving devices of +every sort must be put to intelligent test and require specific +training for most efficient use. The family budget must be more +carefully planned and more heroically maintained at prudent levels. +The public service of markets, transportation facilities and functions +of "middlemen" must be understood and controlled as never before. +Above all, the pressure of uniformity must be resisted if the offered +supply of the essentials of life prove inadequate to the deepest +needs, or the scale of living be too ambitiously set by the housing +facilities adjusted to the ideas and claims of landlords rather than +to the needs of family life. + +Hence we may say that the old forms of effort by which mothers fed and +clothed and sheltered their children led directly to absorption of +interest, energy and conscientious labor within the house. The new +forms of effort by which these essentials of healthful and comfortable +living are secured lead directly to all manner of cooeperative social +adjustments of supply to demand. The standard of demand, however, let +it never be forgotten, is made and maintained within the intimate +family circle itself, and the personal intelligence and ethical +maturity of the housemothers, who form the major purchasing class of +every civilized community, determine that standard. For that great +enterprise of high standardization the same personal devotion to the +central demands of life is required in the average modern woman which +made the ancient mother so great a leader in primitive culture. The +new aids to the housemother's task may give her a better chance than +any women ever had before to see the real social significance of the +personal offices of home life. The poets have seen it all through the +centuries and have pictured the myth goddesses bringing the cup and +the bread and the fruit and weaving the web of ceremonial or of simple +garment in household poetry. All human need for sustenance and the +nurture of our physical being has made the wife the loaf-giver and the +mother a nourisher of the young, and as such artists have portrayed +her. + +We may say "our father-land," but we always say "our mother-earth." To +those who see clearly the value of the ancient family rite of the +meal alone together, to which it may well be every member of the +family has made a distinct contribution; to those to whom the private +table still appeals and who still appreciate the taste and quality of +every purchase made for each individual member of the intimate group +(things taking time and thought most often of the mother), the +individual home has meanings that are not lost but rather are growing +in spiritual importance as the drudgery of the household is lessened. + +=New Uses of Electric Power.=--To-day another great contribution to +the spiritual value of the private household ministrations is offered +in the new uses of electric power. Already the "servantless house" is +widely advertised. Already the grave difficulties in household +adjustment made by the growing unwillingness of competent girls and +women to do anything in the households of strangers, and thereby +giving rise to the serious "servant-girl problem" for people of +limited means, are being mitigated by the new devices of this modern +wizard of electricity. It seems to many of us that had this magician +been discovered before the invention of steam-power-driven machinery +the whole tendency of modern industry would have been turned not so +absolutely, if at all, toward the factory. Such modifications of +domestic manufacture and handicraft as right use of electricity could +have initiated, might have prevented some of the social and economic +evils of our present labor world. However that may be, it is clear +that now the modern housewife has at her hand the means of easy +control of her special family duties such as no ancient woman could +have conceived. The movement henceforward, therefore, we must believe, +is toward such lessening of household burdens by mechanical means, and +such simplification of household requirements by new family ideals as +will make every woman of ordinary strength and of even moderate +capacity and training so sure a master of essentials in that field +that she can dispense with the "help" that so often now hinders the +real family life and make the home more truly the private shrine of +affection and of mutual aid than it has ever been before. + +=Certain Duties the Mother Cannot Delegate= if she would hand on the +torch of life the brighter for her handling. Doctor Devine has well +said that "the only satisfactory method of getting babies safely +through the first years of life is the strictly individualistic plan +of attention to each one by its own mother." The proof of this is in +the death-rate of infants in foundling asylums and in other forms of +communal care even where scientific knowledge has been invoked and +humane feeling exercised. To keep babies alive and well is a +prerequisite to all later development, and happiness seems to be a +necessary foundation for such preservation of their life and health. +So far in human experience babies have declined with one accord to be +happy unless some one person was constantly devoted to their welfare. +That person may be a "hired expert," it is true, but the successful +nurse must have the mother-feeling. Moreover, it is now agreed that +the best physical stamina is secured by mothers breast-feeding their +own babies, and all manner of incentives, even to state subsidies, are +being used to lead women to this personal office. + +If mothers thus nurse their babies they must come close to them in +affectional contact, and it is through affectional contact more than +in any other way that babies seem to thrive. No one can claim that +ability to care for and bring up children "comes by nature." The +affectional tie does, however, give an added earnestness to the desire +to learn how to minister wisely and well to the needs of the child. +That same affectional tie on the part of the mother is shown in a +return of affection from the child. Such personal ministrations of the +mother to the child have also a great effect in forming the whole +character in later life. One may worship from a distance, and the +capacity to justly estimate excellence grows with maturity. But the +child knows best those who serve his needs most intimately and gives +his love to that person. + +=The Mother's Compensation for Personal Service.=--There is much +compensation, therefore, for the woman who gives herself to her child +in old-fashioned ways of personal service. She gets the charm and the +allurement of the growing bud on life's tree. If she misses that she +loses something of her birthright and some "substitute-mother" gets +something of satisfaction from the child that she does not. + +=Early Drill in Personal Habits.=--The third essential of the +inherited obligation of mothers to their children is the early drill +in personal habits that are required for health and decency and +propriety in any given time and place. For this it is an absolute +necessity that either the mother so serve herself or that she secure +some substitute-mother of refinement, knowledge, affection and +devotion which make her an equal in the family circle. How many nurses +fulfil that demand? Many, even of those least recognized by their +employers as entitled to special gratitude and appreciation. The point +to be noted is, however, that even if experts for "hour-service" as +nursery governess could be had in sufficient numbers and even if the +majority of families could financially meet the expense of those fully +competent, such service would not, as a rule, meet the needs of +children under three or four years. It is a constant task, not, +indeed, requiring every minute of time, but requiring constant +readiness to serve at need both day and night to start an infant along +the required rules of daily habit. And that task does not lend itself +to the conditions of group-teaching or to the schedule of shared +service of visiting experts. Some one must be on the job all the time +or it is not accomplished with success, although skilled personal +care-takers can get fine results in gradually lessened attention by +the time the baby becomes the child. + +If there are several children in a family, however, the most competent +mother, or substitute-mother, has the process to repeat with each +newcomer, so that for every child we may reckon at least two years of +very constant attention if the bodily habits of health and propriety +and the first steps in social training for agreeable membership in the +family are to be well taken. The public school is full of children for +whom the teachers heroically try to make up for lacks in this intimate +home-training. It may be that some people view with pleasure a "movie +picture" in which large numbers of children go through a "toothbrush +drill," but to some of us it is a sorry exhibit. When Booker +Washington opened Tuskegee he required only a toothbrush as entrance +fee and equipment, and the use of that implement had to be explained +and almost all other agencies for personal neatness and physical care +of the body to be offered and their use enforced. This was the step of +a whole race toward civilization, a step which the slave condition had +not made possible before for the field-hands of the South. The people +coming to us from all the peasant classes of Europe and the East have +many of them lacked also the chance to be drilled in the things that +belong to private and personal habit demanded by our civilization. It +may be that for such the public school is the only medium for the +belated acquirement of such habits; but if publicity in drill and lack +of reserve and modesty be the price paid for wholesale instruction it +may injure those with good breeding at command in their own homes by +lowering their standards, even while it helps upward those who need +the school baths and the school treatment of heads and throats and +teeth and all manner of personal care. It is not easy to get what +children require in these particulars in the crowded tenement. It may +be impossible in the congested quarters of a great city. But the need +thus pathetically shown in the children of many social strata in the +United States indicates that not only should there be own mothers or +substitute-mothers for every little child to start each aright along +the way of life but every own mother or substitute-mother should have +a decent place to live in so that all needed drill may be conducted in +dignified privacy and in an atmosphere required for right results. The +housing problem reaches back to the primal need to have a suitable +living-place into which to put every home. + +=Early Practice in Walking, Talking, Obedience, and Imitation.=--The +fourth obligation which the past has laid upon the modern mother is to +teach the little child to walk, to talk, to obey, and to imitate. All +these are a part of the habit-drill of the very earliest years. They +are bound up with the acquirement of those personal habits of health +and propriety before indicated. It is not for nothing that women from +the oldest time have been noted for their power of speech and habit of +talking. They have had to give every little child the start toward +that most indispensable key to all knowledge, the use and +understanding of language. And the mother, or the woman who acts for +the mother, knows what the child says before any one else can +understand his fumbling at speech. Later the mother and the father and +other devoted members of the family have to interpret the child's +language to all others until he gets accustomed to this difficult art. + +In learning to walk it is the desire to get closer to those most +beloved that helps the child to balance on his feet and try the +fearful voyage across the room to where father or mother waits to +welcome his approach. And here in most families the mother has the +practice in hand far more hours in the day than any one else in the +family. Yet for talking and walking in families where there are +several children the most efficient instruction of the youngest is +often given by the older brothers and sisters. The first child has all +to do or to try to do alone; the only child has to pioneer all through +childhood and youth so far as his own family life is concerned, but +the child in a family of several children learns almost by unconscious +absorption from those just a step in advance of his own attempts. +Where there are children too near in age the inevitable jealousy or +unhappiness of the baby too soon pushed from his throne defeats this +end of easy accomplishment through imitation. Where there are too many +children in the family for the father to properly support, or the +mother to healthfully or happily care for, the nearness of age often +means friction and not comradeship. Where in such families the older +children act as "little fathers" or "little mothers" they may be +defrauded of a child's right to care-free leisure or develop a +tyrannous control of the younger ones far from helpful to the +development of either. The coming of new members to the family, +however, in right spacing and right conditions, means that each child +gets the benefit of all the teaching each other child receives and +makes it far easier for all to learn the ways of life. The art of +obedience which is learned in such conditions is a share in a family +public opinion, outlined, indeed, by the parents, but maintained by +all the younger members of the group. Not that the same elements enter +into the early character-drill of each child. There are as many +temperaments and as many capacities and as many differing reactions to +like conditions in any family, as a general thing, as there are +children to be considered. This difference, however, while it makes +family discipline more difficult, makes it also usually more +effective, for it insures that parents shall study reasons for rules +and try at least to reach an obvious basis for them in personal and +social well-being rather than in the parents' will. This leads the way +to later democracy by stimulating the sense of justice and the sense +of individualistic right, together with the sense of mutual tolerance +and mutual aid in the very beginnings of family living together. + +=Special Responsibility of the Average Mother.=--The burden of this +preliminary training toward social order and social welfare rests +to-day more heavily upon the mother than upon any one else, even the +father. He often has pressing business down-town whenever hard +questions of family discipline must be faced. He is often so +overburdened with the financial support of the family that he cannot +give time or attention necessary to the constant helping of children +to escape from the savage to the civilized, from the selfish to the +helpful, from the ignorant to the ever-learning. At any rate, just as +many men "keep their religion in their wife's name," so, many fathers, +although successfully appealed to as final authority in larger +concerns of family order, leave the details of character-drill of all +their younger children in the hands of the mother. + +What teachers can do in school comes later in life than the period of +which we now speak. Even the kindergarten, with its short hours and +its more artificial life, only shows each day a picture of what the +child may do later on in his own self-culture. The home nursery is the +real place of actual experience for the average child, with the family +table and the intimate association with father and mother and brother +and sister. These make a school of preeminent importance to the later +training. + +=Women's Relation to More Formal Education.=--The fifth obligation +which the modern mother inherits from the ages is that relating to the +more formal education of all girls and of all little boys in the +folk-lore, the vocational skill, and the methods of social arrangement +which set moral fashions and demand personal obedience to the social +order into which one is born. This obligation is so largely shared +to-day that many see in it no special burden for the modern mother. +The school training once so largely within the home, or for the older +boys so definitely obtained in fraternities or war-groups of men, is +now a separate institution. The customs, tribal or national, that once +ruled the family-training are now solidified and definitely outlined +in laws written on statute books. The illiterate parent cannot, if he +would, disobey the compulsory school law. The poverty-stricken parent +must either starve himself to feed his children according to the +demands of the health board or he must accept public or private +charity for their sustenance according to modern demands. The ignorant +parent must submit to treatment of his children by public nurse or +doctor of whom he may be afraid. The parent not ignorant, but +differing from the majority as to what will prevent disease or cure +it, must accept the public rule. + +The decay of domestic industry and the growth of the factory system +have given rise to so many and serious social dangers that laws are +now passed forbidding home manufacture on grounds of need to abolish +sweatshop conditions, although to many such prohibition seems, and to +some may be, the denial of parental moral protection to children and +youth in families of the very poor. The training for self-supporting +work, which came about so naturally from within the household in the +handicraft stage of industry, now requires many public agencies of +education. The new social "mores" accepted by the majority and +supported by law and court may be directly opposed to the inherited +ideal of right living of large numbers of people in any given +locality, especially in the United States with our large immigrant +population. + +To have education so much a public concern seems to many to so +minimize the mother's share in it that she is placed in the same +general relation as the father to what was once her special duty. +Ideally, both parents are equally bound to decide all questions +concerning the formal education of their children within the limits of +personal choice made possible by the public provisions of which all +parents may now take advantage. In some favored families this really +occurs. Actually, however, in most families the mother has more +leisure to learn of possible opportunities, to influence possible +improvement, and, above all, to help to wise individual choice in the +use by the family of these socially provided educational facilities +than has the father. She is also now more likely to belong to +associations or clubs or classes for adult study in which educational +problems are discussed than is he, and often more intimately +acquainted with children's desires or needs in education. + +=Women's Relation to Educational Agencies.=--A glance at the list of +national and local associations for the study and application of +educational science and art will show the vast majority of women over +men (in the United States at least) who are trying to find out what +real education in modern life should be and how to secure that best +training for their own children and for the children of all. The +educational obligation is, therefore, not taken from the average +mother's duty; it has changed its form only and often is the more +difficult to meet successfully because of the high specialization of +the teachers and the confusion of the school direction. No one would +claim that fathers, if loyal and worthy, are less anxious than mothers +for the trailing of their children toward successful living. The fact, +however, that most mothers stand nearest to the lives of the children +make them most often the necessary purveyors of educational +opportunities from the public provision to private use. + +=The Social Value of Parental Affection.=--Below and within all other +gifts to humanity which have come by the way of motherhood's devotion +to child-life is that selective and partial affection which secures to +each child one adult person at least to whom he or she is supreme in +interest. Most normal women feel when they hear the cry of their own +new-born that all of life is justly tributary to that one priceless +creature who has come at their call out of the mystery of being to +travel the difficult road of the generations of mankind. Nor is this +inherited tendency toward partial affection a sign of undeveloped or +selfish quality in the woman of to-day. It is a provision of nature +still supremely useful in helping each tiny atom of the social whole +to find and keep its own place in a world of struggle and hardship. +The fear of defeat handicaps many a purpose before it is put to the +test. The sense of loneliness drives many to lower companionship when +higher is hard to attain. The lack of courage and the paralysis of +faith in one's self or in others makes invalid many a nature which +might otherwise achieve. To prevent such waste from inner weakness and +to "encourage excellence in each individual," to use Doctor Small's +fine phrase, we need a childhood saturated with the sense of personal +values on the plane of affection. Selfishness may indeed pollute this +mainspring of personal power, and selfishness sometimes reaches its +acme in motherhood's partiality for its own. The ideal of social +solidarity and the claim of all upon each one must never be absent +from the family influence if that influence is to be wholesome. The +family, however, exists to make a small spot in which there may be a +unity found nowhere else, and at the centre of the family life is +still the mother. + +Says Schiller, "Knowledge and culture demand a blissful sky, much +careful nursing and a long number of springs." Who shall be able to +secure this for every son of man if no one stands at the door of young +life to make these the first demand upon time and strength and +devotion for every child in the interest of every child? "The +community" has been called "an endowment for human progress." Parental +love, so often supremely expressed by the mother, works still and in +any future in sight must work ever more devotedly and wisely to secure +for each child his rightful share in that endowment. The main business +of life is the carrying on of life, and in that business women were +drafted long ago for the heaviest end of service and with little +social permission to do their work by proxy. Many social helps in her +task now make possible leisure and opportunity for individual vocation +as never before. Her primal duty to the race remains, however, a debt +to be paid as a first obligation wherever and whenever a woman accepts +the august function of motherhood. And to-day the majority of most +successful families absorb in large measure the time and strength of +the housemother. + +=What Women Need Most= is moral sanity and mental poise; the ability +to adjust themselves to radical and rapid changes in their +relationship to society without losing the finest and most useful +results of their past social discipline. Woman is acquiring a new +relationship to the home--that of mutual headship with man in the +social institution in which for ages she has been a legal subordinate. +Social welfare demands that she take into the new copartnership of +domestic life the old devotion to family interests. Woman is acquiring +a new relationship to the school--that of learner in the highest +educational opportunity and of teacher in an ever-widening area. +Social welfare demands that she take into the modern school her +ancient devotion to child-life. + +The mass of women are acquiring a new relationship to the industrial +order--that of spenders instead of producers. Social welfare demands +that the modern woman put into her function of purchasing consumer of +staple products the same conscientious standardizing of those products +and the same sense of responsibility for the conditions surrounding +laborers which she displayed in the old handicraft days of domestic +industry. A minority of women are acquiring also a new relationship to +the industrial order in becoming the recipient of wages or salary, +instead of being paid for work as of old in "truck" or in "kind." The +feel of the pay envelope on her palm is an unaccustomed but a +delicious pleasure to the modern woman. Social welfare demands that +she be not beguiled thereby into complicity with industrial +exploitation of the weak and the poor, such as she would not have +tolerated in the old days of personal relationship in labor in +domestic handicraft. + +Woman is acquiring a new relationship to recreation and the social +control of the customs ruling leisure hours. Social welfare demands +that gambling be not made fashionable in the drawing room as it is +being driven out of the business world; that dancing be not vulgarized +and the mother-tongue not corrupted, but that self-control, purity, +dignity, mark the "new woman" as it did her best ancestors. Woman is +acquiring a new relationship to the state--that of citizen with full +responsibility instead of her old perpetual minority under man's +control. Social welfare demands that she take into the body politic +the same devotion to the weak and undeveloped, the same patient, wise +dependence upon the spiritual elements of justice and wisdom which +have made her private motherhood so successful. She must not now, on +peril of a social setback, take up man's weapons of selfishness, of +violence, of impatient revolution--weapons the best of men have +already discarded. + +Women should now be clear-sighted enough to see that the world needs +from them not the same but different contributions to the upreach and +onward march of the race from those elements in which man has +excelled. If society-at-large is to become truly a family of those who +love and serve each other, then human beings of the mother-sex must +take into public life and public service the best they have learned +and taught in the individual home. What women most need now is to +"retain all the good the past hath had" as they step forward to their +full liberty and responsibility in new relationships to life. + + +QUESTIONS ON THE MOTHER + + 1. What, in general, have been the social demands upon wives and + mothers, and how have these been met in the past? + + 2. What, if any, of these inherited social demands are now met by + social agencies outside of the private family? + + 3. What, in general, may be defined as the line of demarkation + between the private obligations resting still upon mothers for + personal service to family life and agencies of public + child-care and social standardization? + + 4. How far is a trend toward minimizing the demand for personal + service of the housemother in the private family to be + encouraged? + + 5. If a mother, in average financial condition, has the "three and + one-half children" eugenists demand of each family, and does + her duty by them in private family life, how much of her time + and strength must go into the housemother's service and for + what period of years? + + 6. What amount of time and strength might be left, in the case of + strong and competent women, for other vocational work? + + 7. Is the modern "nursery school" an adequate substitute for the + early home-training? (See report, "A Nursery School + Experiment," published by "Bureau of Educational Experiments," + 144 West Thirteenth Street, New York City.) + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] (_a_) See, for example, "Conveniences for the Farm Home," Farmers' +Bulletin No. 270, and (_b_) "The Farm Kitchen as a Workshop," Farmers' +Bulletin No. 607. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FATHER + + "Who plants his soul in stalwart sons and daughters keeps on giving + His life and vision to his fellow men; + His power grows like leaven. + + "His children strive to take his spirit up and keep it living; + They share with all the love he gave his own, as he had shared, + And lives, his love has served, all call him father." + + From the Tribute, _To My Father_, + by HORNELL HART. + + "To dwell in the wide house of the world; to stand in true + attitude therein; in success to share one's principles with the + people; in failure to live them out alone; to be incorruptible by + riches or honor; unchangeable by poverty; unmoved by perils or + power--these I call the qualities of a great man."--MENCIUS. + + "For the man who is such as no longer to delay being among the + number of the best is like a priest and minister of the gods, + using the deity that is planted within him, that which makes a man + uncontaminated by any pleasure, unharmed by any pain, untouched by + any insult, feeling no wrong, a fighter in the noblest fight, who + cannot be overpowered by passion, one dyed deep with justice, + understanding that only what belongs to himself is matter for his + activity, yet remembering also that every human being is his + kinsman, and that to care for all men is according to mans + nature."--MARCUS AURELIUS. + + "'Tis not in battles that from youth we train + The governor who must be wise and good. + Wisdom doth live with children round her knees; + Books, leisure, perfect freedom, and the talk + Man holds with week-day man in the hourly walk + Of the mind's business; this is the stalk + True power doth grow on."--WORDSWORTH. + + +=Historic Background of Fatherhood.=--The father seems to have had a +precarious attachment to the family in earlier forms of life. As Le +Tourneau well says, "The animal family is especially maternal; +although father birds often share parental duties, many mammals are +less developed in duration and strength of affection." Fathers, +mothers, and their offspring are not closely grouped in lower life. +The relation of the sexes, even when the human was reached, seems not +to have carried with it a sense of the double obligation of +parenthood. "Marriage was brittle in the early times," says Sir John +Lubbock. The obvious relationship of mother and child, the lack of +such irrefutable testimony to parenthood in the case of man, and other +elements of primitive experience lending confusion to the situation, +made it a process of time and a test of growing intelligence for men +to learn that babies take two parents to give them birth. + +When the human male did learn that he was a father, as his mate was a +mother, it seems to have mentally intoxicated him, and led the way to +many social vagaries. The grotesque comedy of the couvade, which +proved a tragedy so often for the poor mother compelled by the custom +to rise in her weakness and even neglect her new-born baby, in order +to do double work and to tempt the appetite of her lord after his +make-believe pangs of childbirth, was one sign that primitive +consciousness found the new knowledge of double parentage very +exciting. + +The varieties of phallic worship found in so many ages and among so +many peoples show how man plumed himself upon the generative function +and how he linked it with the god-idea. The "religious dedication of +women," which gratified at once the lust of priests and the demands of +ancient theology that the gods should have the best of everything +earthly, is another testimony to the preoccupation of early man with +sex in its relation to religion. This idea of the sacrifice of +sex-relationship to the gods passed down through the ages until actual +celibacy became the ideal of the holy life and the Divine was supposed +to be better served by monks and nuns than by fathers and mothers. + +In the family relation the experience of fathers, after they knew +themselves to be such, has been widely varied and not along any single +line of development. To quote Le Tourneau again, "There has been no +strict relation between intellectual development and the form of +sexual union. Even among monkeys, as in men, we find both polygamy and +monogamy; and bees and other forms of lower life show a high degree of +social organization and division of labor without the institution of +the family at all." The relation of the sexes has always been a deep +concern of human society even in most primitive forms of social order, +but after men knew the connection between the gratification of +sex-instinct and the procreative function, they began to reason about +and to make more definite the customs that outlined permitted +marriage. The varieties of social expression in these ancient customs +is witness alike to economic pressure, the effect of climate and +immigration, political struggle and the institutions of war and of +private property. + +=Purchase and Capture of Wives.=--Purchase and capture began early to +run a race in the supply of wives. Purchase, which kept the twain +together in nearness to one or the other side of the family line, was +usually best for women; especially when, as often happened, it gave +her the protection of her own blood relations. Capture, on the other +hand, made woman not only the possession of her husband in a peculiar +sense as separating her from all who might, through the working of +natural affection, act as her helpers in time of need, but made it +possible for the slavery of the wife to the husband to take on more +cruel forms. Although, it must be said, even capture gave a few women +of superlative charm a chance to take precedence of common wives +gained in the usual manner. + +Two influences, one from the custom to allow marriages only within a +certain blood bond, and one to allow marriages only outside that +family relationship, have worked in the first instance to preserve +certain racial traits from extinction, and in the second place to mix +the common elements of human nature to the enrichment of the common +stock. This balancing regard for the known and allurement of the novel +has also worked to give manifold forms of family association, since +those customs were superseded. + +It would seem that not only were "trial marriages" for individuals an +ancient, not at all a modern device, to see how the twain could get +along together, but varying trial forms of marriage for racial, +tribal, and national groups have made all manner of experiments to see +what on the whole would serve best the social need in the family +relationship. + +That process of wide experimentation at last settled into the ideal +and practice of one father-head, at least, even if still allowing more +than one wife and mother within its bond. That father-head seems to +have found his place only on condition of grant from society of +complete authority over wife and children. + +=The Patriarchal Family.=--The patriarchal family, which Sir Henry +Maine described so well, but which he mistakenly supposed to be the +first great type of familial association, placed firmly at the centres +of social order the power and responsibility of the man. Doubtless +that power and responsibility drew their chief sanction from the idea +of man as the real source of being. After man learned that he was as +much a parent in being father as woman was a parent in being mother, +nothing seemed to have contented him but spiritual supremacy in +parenthood. The classic picture and interpretation of this phase of +family development is contained in the great drama of the Greeks, the +trilogy of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Electra, Orestes, and the +Erinnyes. Here we see how the mother-side of life, once so powerful as +representative of tribal unity, was set aside and overborne by the +father-side, as Apollo proudly claims all generative power for man and +relegates the mother to the position of an underling nurse. It will be +remembered, however, that Athena, although, as Apollo said, "having a +father only," makes the mothers still invaluable as guardians of the +family altar and as those who can bless or blight both the fruitage of +the earth and of the marriage bed. + +The Greeks, by virtue of their superior self-consciousness when +passing through radical social changes, and by virtue also of their +power of literary portrayal of experience, have set down for us, for +all time, the way by which man attained his unlimited power over woman +and over the family order. + +We need not accept in full measure Dr. Lester Ward's picturesque story +of the manner in which women were made subject to men, _i.e._, that +female sex-selection so overdid the business of rewarding with favor +the strength, the fighting quality, and the cunning which grew to +mental power in the male, that when human men and women were reached, +woman found a master ready-made by her subhuman sisters. We may, +however, find a most suggestive indication of the real reasons for +that masculine supremacy in Doctor Ward's testimony to the way in +which the female sex, when it had the power of special selection of +the kind of mates it wanted, set a fashion in masculine attainment +which did work later against her own command of the sex-relation. +Women did not become subject to men because of physical weakness. The +savage woman does continuous work heavier and more strength-demanding +than that assigned to the savage man. It was not even that the +primitive woman had always to carry the child as she worked, and had +therefore a double burden, although that greatly helped men in gaining +supremacy. It was rather that the larger leisure of primitive man and +his consequent development of thought and imagination enabled him to +secure religion and statecraft as allies to his physical claims. The +intellectual side of the male development was doubtless greatly aided +by female selection, and when man was reached he already knew how to +outwit other men and most women in the race for power. + +=The Three Chief Sources of Influence.=--It has been well said that +the "three great sources of influence in barbarous as in civilized +countries are religion, military power, and money." All these +influences became masculine monopolies ages ago. + +The ancient woman was sometimes a priestess and often a healer in her +simple fashion and in all ages has acted as nurse in illness and +care-taker of the aged and the feeble when these have received care. +She has been mistress of the ceremonials of birth and death and +marriage when these have been parts of the family ritual, and +courtship has been largely in her charge. All the customs that relate +to intimate household experiences have been shared by women as ritual +and rule of life. + +Men, however, took over the simple elements of religious feeling and +social requirement in which women bore so great a part and made of +them religious cults and theologies, and they then became a masculine +monopoly. Men also took over the simple healing of gifted women and +made it first the prerogative of the "medicine man" and at last of the +medical profession, from which women were barred until very lately. +The social customs which women once had power to enforce in so many +ways became the "law," made and executed solely by men. Art, science, +literature, grew to great proportions as man acquired the opportunity +and the skill to concentrate his intelligence upon specialties of +effort; and from all the walks of educational preparation and of +professional achievement women were debarred. Hence, in the family +order, in which the first and obvious place of women had been +relatively high, man took the position of mastery by right of +religious priesthood, by right of legal supremacy, and by right of +monopoly of the money power. + +Back of all this lay the assumption of the superior relation of the +father to the spiritual life of the child. + +Man gained his larger leisure first by the use of women as slaves when +individual women became the property of individual men, and later by +conquest over other men through which process he secured more slaves, +and finally by the military systems that in various forms gave some +men a chance to work at what they liked and from which they could gain +advantage in the growing complexity of increasing social organization. + +Man's larger leisure, which gave him money power or its equivalent in +earlier forms of exchange, could not have been secured by him had not +woman been socially and by religious sanction set to the constant task +of the family service and the more peaceful occupations of primitive +agriculture. + +=Ancient Military Training of Youth.=--Doubtless man's military +prestige and power gave him the greatest advantage over woman and was +the source, more than anything else, of her subjection in the family +order. This came about not only because military success gave the +women of conquered tribes into the absolute power of the conquerors, +and broke for such the social bond of remaining mother-right, but +because of the special training of boys and young men which the +military systems of all ages have initiated. "The ancient +fraternities," and the manner of education which separated those who +would be "braves" from the family life in early youth, the strong bond +of a common purpose made appealing to youthful imagination by mystic +ceremonials and burnt into the consciousness by painful "initiations," +all combined to teach men how to work together for common ends and in +a way unknown to the training and opportunity of women.[4] This it was +which gave a consistency and a power to man's collective life which +woman could not gain in the past, and exclusion from which enabled man +to become her legal and economic master even within the home. + +The economic power which man acquired through specialization of labor, +made possible for him by social excuse from exhausting personal +service within the family; the political power, made possible for him +by military achievement, from which women for the most part were +strictly barred by the "Trade Unionism" of war preparation; the +intellectual power, made a sex-monopoly in education and professional +use and opportunity; and the religious sanction of priesthood and +theology, which fastened all these to law and government, secured the +complete subjection of mothers to fathers and gave woman in the family +the status of her infant children. + +=Ancestor-worship.=--This triple influence of money, military power, +and religion, gave the definite basis for ancestor-worship, which has +been so widespread and so influential in the setting of social +customs. Ancestor-worship, with its separate family ceremonials, for +which the wife must learn her husband's family ritual, led to +child-marriage, and that in turn to the slavery of the wife not only +to the husband but to the older women of his family. Child-marriage +led also to many tragedies of racial decay before it was seen to be +inimical to strength and power of achievement. When child-marriage was +not a part of marriage customs, however, and a suitable age was +demanded, for sex-unions, ancestor-worship made the position of the +father secure. He alone could pass on the name and inheritance, the +family worship and the dutiful service of his forefathers, to the +children yet to be. The Greek poem before referred to shows in the +pathetic attempt of Electra, the loyal daughter of the slain +Agamemnon, to offer the required sacrifices at her father's grave, and +her joy that the return of the son could make such sacrifices valid +for peace of the dead and the service of the living yet to be born, +shows vividly how religion made firm and binding the father's place in +the family. + +So deeply did this religious sanction of ancestor-worship affect the +social "mores" that, as is shown so clearly in Spartan history, no man +could shirk his duty of marriage and of parenthood without social +opprobrium. The well-known anecdote related by Plutarch of the youth +who, educated rigorously to show respect to the aged fathers, is +praised for flouting a grey-haired bachelor and refusing to rise and +give him a seat in the open square because, as the youth scornfully +says, "No children of yours will ever make sacrifice for his +ancestors," pictures vividly the sense of responsibility to the family +life once almost universal. + +This feeling, bred by ancestor-worship, has persisted long after the +church in its various forms has superseded the ancient family worship. +We find it as late as in Colonial times in Protestant New England, +where the bachelor was fined and subjected to humiliating community +supervision and the spinster, almost unknown above twenty years of +age, if persisting in her single life was treated as an exception to +be held in social tutelage. + +=The Double Standard of Morals.=--The triple bond of money, military +power, and economic supremacy, which made men masters in the family +life, made them also able to free themselves from exclusive devotion +to one wife, whether under the law of polygamy or professed monogamy; +as it has been possible for men to divorce their wives for slight +causes, while wives often received the death penalty for even supposed +infidelity. It has also instituted and maintained for ages a double +standard of morals by which the same act mutually shared by men and +women has been for men a slight peccadillo and for women a deadly sin. +Chastity has been made almost the sole virtue of women, invasion of +which even by resisted force has destroyed her "honor," and voluntary +rejection of which has made her a creature of social ostracism. Man, +on the other hand, has been forgiven all manner of slips from the +straight and narrow way of marital fidelity, provided he could achieve +something of importance in the world of thought or action. + +This double standard of morals has reacted upon the family not only in +preventing women from establishing social conditions suitable for +their own best development and that of their children but has thrown +over the home the dark shadow of commercialized prostitution with its +cloud of evil thought, physical degeneracy and defrauded childhood. + +=Basic Needs for Equality of Human Rights.=--When women as mothers +have no power of guardianship of their own children; when they as +persons have no power of self-defense against cruelty and outrage of +their own fathers or husbands; when as members of society they have no +contract-power but must suffer all manner of injustice unless highly +fortunate in their male representative; when as citizens of a +so-called democratic state they have no voice in either law or its +enforcement, then they are indeed a subject class. Any subject class +dependent upon privilege or special favor for all the order and +circumstance of life is clearly not a fit part of modern democratic +society. It is, therefore, of tremendous social importance to the +family, as truly as to all other inherited institutions, that women +are now rapidly emerging from that subject condition of perpetual +minority under the law to the individual responsibility and +self-protective power of the legal adult. This passage "from status to +contract" was too long delayed (the position of women after the +affirmation of liberty and equality for men in modern forms of +government being so illogical as to cause much disturbance in the body +politic), but it has, after all, been rapid in its final steps. To-day +the ideal of equal rights between the sexes and in relationship of men +and women to society-at-large is fully accepted by a majority of the +enlightened. What is before us is the slow and in some respects +difficult task of working out that ideal in social adjustments. While +at work on this task it behooves us to go over the past experience +more carefully than many have yet done, to note what the patriarchal +family gave to society and through society to wife and children as +well as what of their just due it took from or refused to give to wife +and children. + +=Special Protection of Women Needed in Ancient Times.=--It seems not +too much to say that in the time and place where men in general first +attained power of property rights, of military supremacy, and of +religious priesthood, most women needed some special protection from +particular men. In such period and condition the sex-relationship +itself had not attained its present spiritual quality. There was +apparently required the sense of ownership on the part of one man to +safeguard those women most generally desired from exploitation by all +men. Some legal order in the oppression of women by society had to +precede, apparently, the abolition of oppression of women itself; just +as to-day the effort is to "humanize war" before we can become wise +and strong enough to abolish it. No social device that the imagination +can conceive could be so well fitted to protect motherhood, in an age +before justice could give power of self-protection, as was that of the +patriarchal family. The religious aspect of ancestor-worship, the +political aspect of the building up of great families from which the +state could derive its power and the economic necessity of having the +industrial system develop more highly all vocations, combined in the +patriarchal system to make the family the main expression of social +order and the chief heir of social privilege. It seems apparent, +therefore, that a socially delegated power of absolute control by the +father was highly useful in the period when the state was growing, and +the school was separating itself from the hearth-stone, and the +economic system was changing from barter to the complicated exchange +of the present time, and religion itself was merging its ideals from +the innumerable private ceremonials of noble families into the worship +of one chief, emperor, or despot who must receive the homage of all, +and so on to the incarnation of divine power in one King and Lord of +Heaven. + +"Order" is not only, as we were once told, "Heaven's first law," but +social order, human experience declares, comes before the recognition +of equality of personal rights within that order. The great lady of +the Middle Ages who begged of her King a "new Lord" within a month +after the death of her husband because her "lands were being taken and +her estate defrauded by hostile lords who surrounded her castle," and +only a husband for herself, a new father for her children and a new +owner for the inherited property could protect from this robbery, +realized the social advantages of the patriarchal system in +appropriate social conditions. + +To-day, when so much of the community protection surrounds the family +and so much in education, law, and social custom aids the wife and +mother toward independent action, we are naturally horrified at the +thought of life and death power of the husband and father and shocked +at recital of the humiliations and privations of women's subject +condition in the past. We have to remember, however, that social +history seems to indicate that no system of human association has +grown up and persisted without great need for some, at least, of its +dominant features. The protection of wife and child, which rested for +so long upon man's conception of "property" to be defended from +outside attack, was a chief necessity in the rougher and coarser ages +of the world. + +The main hindrance to social progress, however, is the tendency of +forms of institutional life and methods of social relationship to +persist after the need for them has ceased. This hindrance has been +shown perhaps most harmfully in the retention of the patriarchal power +of the father after his abdication from the throne was called for by +ethical and humane considerations. A form of family relationship +entrenched in institutions of age-long prestige and supported by the +triple influence of money, military power, and religion, lived on +after its work in securing social order had been accomplished and long +after its usefulness was entirely ended. After the father-headship +ceased to express the highest ideals of either sex-relationship or +parental devotion, its retention produced social evils and personal +wrongs which made a conscious and determined movement for "Woman's +Rights" necessary, and still makes necessary close and definite +attention to the equalizing of opportunities. + +=The Social Value of the Patriarchal Family.=--It is well, however, to +consider not only the negative but the affirmative side of the social +inheritance of the patriarchal family, in which has grown up and +developed the ideal of monogamic marriage. What did the father gain, +intellectually and ethically, from that patriarchal order, and what +did he give, not only in protection of wife and children but toward +their moral development in social life? + +The effect of unlimited power over another is generally worse for the +one who wields than for the one who is subjected to that power, and +the faults of men have their deepest origin in the family order that +gave all its members into his complete control. Man's faults of +dogmatism, of selfish domination, of sacrifice of personal life to +further desired political or economic ends, have roots in the +patriarchal family. Man's careless misuse of his own moral ideals for +purposes of ambition was certainly fostered by this sense of ownership +of women and children with legal power to use them for pleasure or +profit. + +Something else, however, came to man in and through the patriarchal +system. Society, that gave him liberty to rule the family, rigidly +required of him that such rule should be in the social interest, as +that interest was then understood. + +It was obviously for the interest of society that women should be +chaste, in order not only that a man might know his own children but +that the family line and inheritance should be preserved from +insecurity. A man's infidelity to the marriage vow might seem to do no +perceptible harm if practised outside the family circle, but woe to +him if he trespassed upon the family ownership of another man. + +There might be more than one wife acknowledged as secondary in status +or a mere concubine slave to help in domestic duties while giving +pleasure to the head of the family, but there was early a social +demand for one chief wife whose offspring should inherit the family +power. Although even in this fixed demand there were loopholes of +"legal fiction of adoption" by which some favorite child not of the +actual line of inheritance might be given the place of honor and +control. Again, if the father under the patriarchal system was the +recognized economic master he was also legally held to the financial +support of wife and child. In the collective family life his +obligation extended far through the line of kinship and of alliance by +marriage, and to-day in many Oriental countries the father may be +bound to poverty as the responsible support of a large company of +dependent pensioners. It must also be remembered that if the ancient +father, as head of the family, held the permission of society to +discipline wife and child even to severity of corporal punishment he +was also charged with the task of insuring their obedience to whatever +social laws were in force and was himself legally liable to punishment +if he did not keep his family law-abiding. That moral responsibility +for the behavior of his family, early outlined in detail, was +increasingly eased by the growth of personal relationship of women and +youth to society. That was shown in the laws that defined the extent +of punishment allowed the father-head. Although he might be secure in +his legal right and duty to bestow on wife or apprentice "moderate +castigation," an old Welsh law limited him to "three blows only with +a broomstick on any part of the person except the head;" and another +ancient law allowed the use only of "a stick no longer than the +husband's arm and no thicker than his middle finger" in the case of +the wife; while Blackstone's well-remembered restriction was to "a +stick no bigger than his thumb." + +The moral responsibility of the father for his children, carrying with +it as it did the liability of prison or even death for the misbehavior +of sons, was governed by various statutes which show in the Middle +Ages a growth toward freeing children from parental control and +placing upon them when "of age" a definite and personal legal bond and +penalty. + +For example, we read that the Anglo-Saxon law held many children at +the age of ten responsible for some acts which were forbidden, but +that most youth were legally minors until the age of fifteen. Until +the early period of the eighteenth century it was still possible for a +parent to legally sell his children, "a girl up to fourteen, a boy +under seven." And after that period a wayward or troublesome son or +daughter, or any of the offspring, when the parents could be proved +financially incapable of their care, could be sent to convent or +monastery. + +The ability to bear arms seems to have been the criterion for legal +coming of age. The Romans, with their heavy weapons, held the son in +tutelage until the age of fifteen. The Germans, with their use of +light darts, gave their sons power of self-control at the age of +twelve. In the heyday of feudalism "a knight's son became of age when +he could swing his father's sword" and "a yeoman's son when he could +swing his father's battle-axe," and by that process the fathers were +released from liability to punishment for their sons' misdemeanors. + +On the other hand, after the tenth century, no child under ten could +be punished for his father's crimes unless it could be shown that he +was a party to them, and the custom of carrying family autonomy so far +as to wipe out innocent and guilty alike, when a treason or crime of +any sort angered the powers in command, was practically ended. + +When the beginnings of the modern industrial order appeared and +burghers shared with knights and yeomen the social responsibility, "a +burgher's son acquired freedom and legal responsibility when he could +count and measure broadcloth." The wife gained a growing and perilous +freedom from laws which increased her direct relationship to the +state. She attained the power of being punished even by the death +penalty for broken laws far earlier than she attained the slightest +influence in the passage or enforcement of those laws. It was +generally thought, however, until very recently, that if a wife "did +not behave" it was the husband's fault and right that he should suffer +the consequences. + +=The Responsibility of the Ancient Father Commensurate With His +Power.=--Again, it must be remembered that if the ancient father was +by virtue of his military training and activities separated from the +domestic interests which he so often and with full social permission +sacrificed to war and preparation for war, he was at the same time +under perpetual conscription by the community of which he was a part +to serve as protector of his own family and the families of those of +the same social group. The social pressure upon the father-head of the +family was therefore severe and unremitting, since he was in so many +ways responsible for, as truly as master of, his household. It was no +light task to be a worthy head of a patriarchal family in all the ages +when growing law was superseding custom and advancing civilization was +increasing the complexity of social life. This task when well achieved +gave to man a serious sense of his duty as well as a firm conviction +of his power. + +We see the fruits of that ethical training in family responsibility in +many of man's noblest traits; preeminently in his recognition of the +duty of protection of the weak and young, and in his devotion to his +own, against the world if need be. + +The vast outreach of man's intelligence toward the organization of the +state, of the industrial order, of the church, of the formal educative +process, of the means of transportation, of the systems of finance, of +the development and application of scientific knowledge, and even of +the arts and of literature, all reveal the effect of his early +schooling in the representative responsibility of fatherhood to +society. + +We speak to-day of the "father of modern invention" in this or that +particular. We have not ceased to praise the "good provider" or to +esteem him highly who has a well-ordered home. + +=Moral Qualities in Women Developed by Masculine +Selection.=--Moreover, we are all now recognizing the fact that we owe +to the ownership of woman by man a secondary sex-selection of +inestimable value. It may be an extreme statement to say, with at +least one sociologist, that the ages of woman's subjection to man was +not too great a price to pay for the gift to the race of feminine +beauty and charm. We can assert, however, that some moral values which +men insisted upon in the women they chose for wives gave the race what +at one time it needed most and still needs: namely, the habit of +service to others, and the power of adaptability to changing and often +difficult conditions. + +Man's genius for organization institutionalizes every aspect of +thought and activity he takes under his control. The institution, +organized at first for the benefit of personal life and the +life-process, tends invariably toward a fixity of method and hardness +of substance that finally sacrifices life-growth to its iron pressure +until a new form of institution makes its way through struggle and +suffering. + +The relation of women to men and of women to family life demanded of +most women easy and rapid adjustment to the requirements of others and +led to their mediation between every institution and the personal +life. The household mastership of men, and the fact that they could +choose for favor the sort of women most agreeable to them as masters, +placed at the centre of the family, and therefore at the centre of the +life-process itself, the type of womanhood that lent itself most +easily to social adjustment. And it placed that type at the centre of +the social order when the "cake of custom" most needed to be broken to +allow of a more democratic association. The type of womanhood which +masculine selection, working through long ages, has made the +essentially "womanly" type, is one in which physical beauty, charm of +manner, general rather than special ability, affectionate and +competent response to family, easy adaptability to whatever social +system her marriage might give entrance, and unswerving loyalty to the +ethical traditions and religious sanctions of her day and generation, +combine to attract the love of man and the devotion of children. + +Some of these elements of character are especially needed to-day in +order to make democracy work, and to secure against dangers incident +to decay of autocratic control, and hence may later prove of great +social use in the modern state. + +The idealization of womanhood by man, which seems never to have made +him uneasy in claiming control of her person or estate, has embodied +itself in the artist's pictures of Truth and Justice, and Knowledge +and Charity, in feminine forms. These bear witness to the fact that +even when men were most insistent upon father-rights they were moulded +by intimate companionship with women in the home to some appreciation +of the value of feminine personality. + +While, therefore, the moral discipline which came to the mother in the +old order of the family, led her to understand the value of +personality, and the need of ever-increasing effort to make the +individual lives within the family circle comfortable, happy and good, +the moral discipline of the patriarchal father led toward an +increasing conquest of nature, of other men, and of all the social +forces, in the interest of his own family group. This led at last to +his impersonation of many ideals in the "eternal womanly that leads us +on." + +=The Higher Ideal of Fatherhood.=--Throughout this many-sided +discipline of marriage and parenthood there has been growing an ideal +of fatherhood so noble and so tender that it has easily become the +central thought in many religions. + +The "Heaven-father" is an old picture. The Father in Heaven persists +in the effort to bring the Supreme near to the human heart. A law of +obedience unquestioned, a rule of conduct making an actual Way of +Life, a power unlimited and yet a loving-kindness that marks the +sparrow's fall and has regard for the prodigal as for the upright +son--surely there must have been uncounted fathers of goodness and +wisdom passing praise to have made the name the easiest one by which +to call the Divine! + +Meanwhile, the average life has been working, often unconsciously, +toward a condition in which the patriarchal father is out of drawing +with his own industry, his own political system, and his own theology. +To-day we give the wives and potential wives contract-power, private +ownership of property, opportunity for economic independence, +vocational training, entrance to all higher educational institutions, +adult responsibility under the law, and the franchise on equal terms +with men. + +In the light of these accomplished facts vain is the effort of such +writers as Devoe, in his _Studies in Family Life_, to show that "the +Christian family" still makes women "subject" and holds "all goods in +common" in the husband's name. + +=Incomplete Adjustment and Equality of Rights in the Family.=--There +is, however, great confusion of mind as to the extent of change in the +father-office which the new independence of wives and mothers should +effect. Take, for example, the matter of the financial responsibility +of the husband and father. If a married woman has independent +property, shall she not be liable as well as her husband for the +support of the children? If so, what becomes of the suits at law +against "Family Deserters" heretofore applied alone to husbands and +fathers? A study of this class of offenders under the law, published +in 1904, shows that in New York alone something over $100,000 was +collected in one year in "alimony from men, two-thirds of whom were +deserting husbands." In these cases the duty of providing financially +for wife and child pursued the husbands and fathers after they had run +away from home. In the 591 cases of "Family Deserters" especially +studied two-thirds were men and one-third women, showing not only that +the law deals more severely with men than with women, even when women +are held to be responsible for any sort of family support, but that +desertion is for the most part a masculine offense. If it can be shown +that fathers are or should be relieved from the age-long financial +responsibilities of family support, will the showing in "Family +Desertion" be different? + +There seems to be a consensus of opinion that in present conditions +that family is likely to be in the best economic condition, in which +the chief, if not the entire, income is supplied by the husband and +father, leaving the wife and mother to be specially responsible for +the translation of that income in terms of family comfort. That is +admirably indicated in Mrs. Hinman Abel's book, _Successful Family +Life on the Moderate Income_. Does that condition still carry with it +the sole economic responsibility of the husband and father for the +wife as well as for the children? Or shall the phrase now beginning to +be used in laws passed against family desertion apply to the wife only +when it is proved she is "in necessitous circumstances" without her +husband's provision? For the children the newer laws say "him" or +"her" when providing penalties for "any person," either father or +mother, "who wilfully neglects or refuses to provide for the support +and maintenance of minor children." + +The claim, then, of the wife seems to be increasingly one of either +invalid "conditions," or "necessitous circumstances," or "lack of +other means of support," when defaulting husbands are brought to +court; and the claim of children upon parents is increasingly extended +from father to mother whenever there are means at hand from either to +supply the children's needs. + +In respect to the "choice of domicile," always the right of the +husband and father, there is little change in law; but the strong +movement to secure to women independent nationality, in place of +automatic following of the nationality of their husbands, will, if +carried out, make the supreme choice (that of the country to which one +shall pledge allegiance) a legal right of women as of men. That in +itself would make some confusion in cases where international +marriages give separate national interest. + +In respect to man's responsibility for national defense in the +interest of home and native land, he is alone conscripted to-day, as +of old, for fighting service on the battle-field, but all manner of +social demands, almost as imperative as a governmental draft, now call +women to special service in war time. In peace, the taxes know no sex, +and the rules of the business game are not amenable to chivalry. + +In the matter of professional and vocational training and opportunity, +men and women are largely on an equal footing, in the United States, +at least. And apparently for the first time in human history a man and +a woman, both eminent in their line of work, may seriously ask which +of the two earns the larger salary, and hence it may be which of the +two can do more toward family support. + +The full consequences of women's moral acts now fall wholly upon her +in the case of disobedience to law. There is still, it is true, in +some parts of the civilized world respect for "an unwritten law" that +excuses a man for killing a rival in his wife's affections, but for +the most part she stands on her own feet and he on his when there is +question of crime or misdemeanor. + +=The Marriage Question To-day the "Husband-problem."=--The whole +situation is changing in so many ways as relates to the mutual +obligation of men and women in family life that Havelock Ellis is +right when he says "the marriage question to-day is much less the +wife-problem than the husband-problem." That is to say, the single +headship of the family is invaded and yet the methods of adjustment of +two heads are not yet clear in either law or custom. As the Bishop of +Hereford said at the meeting of his brother Bishops, in which the +resolution to omit the word "obey" from the marriage service of the +Church of England was withdrawn (on the ground that if presented it +would be successfully opposed), "It is obvious to every one that it +would not be convenient to have two heads to a family."[5] There are +already two heads in every up-to-date family in the United States! The +real difficulty now is to see how best to adjust mutual +responsibilities toward each other and toward the children involved, +and to write a consistent and uniform set of statutes into the law. +That law respecting marriage and the family, partly inherited without +change from the patriarchal order, partly altered in particulars in +obedience to some popular demand based on cramping conditions made by +the law whenever it was enforced, after it was already outgrown, needs +careful revision. Ignored so often by the moral and intellectual +elite, inconsistently set aside by new measures passed without regard +to what is already established as precedent, all laws respecting +marriage, the family, and the parental relation which have come down +from the past, need thorough overhauling and the best wisdom should be +exercised in full revision and codification. + +The husband and father, meanwhile, many times holds firmly to his +old-time fine chivalry and adds justice without spoiling his +relationship to the family. The wife keeps her inherited aptitude for +loving care of husband and children, and adds a new independence of +thought and action without danger of confusion of ideal or function. + +=Can Women Have All the New Freedom and Also All the Old +Privileges?=--Some women, however, are trying the absurd and dangerous +experiment of seeing how much they can take from men in the old lines +of "support" and how little they can give in the old lines of service; +how much they can gain in the new freedom and how little they can pay +for it in individual work. These are the women who are willing that +the family property shall be in their name for the purpose of cheating +creditors, and at the same time acknowledge no obligation to support +the children from a common family fund. These are the women who demand +their liberty to achieve and deny their duty to help. These are the +women who take "alimony" from a man with whom they will not live and +have married for their own convenience. They are the women who have +independent incomes from inheritance or from vocational success and +yet excuse themselves from any responsibility toward even invalid +husbands, and never see the parental bond as now binding both fathers +and mothers alike. + +Many men are struggling in some confusion of mind as to the outcome of +this new tendency to equalize rights and opportunities, and to the +credit of most of them, be it spoken, they want to do the right thing. + +It is now for women to preserve the father, the best of him, and for +men to still call for the mother, the noblest of her, in the new +adjustments that wait for full realization of the new democracy in the +family. + +Here, again, we need not wait for perfect consistency in law, or full +understanding of social tendencies and their outcome, to find our way +in life. Love shows the way--love between intellectual and moral +equals, who, in trying to adjust their own lives to a higher law in +which "self-reverencing each and reverencing each," settle all +problems on the higher levels of thought and feeling. + +=New Social Advantages for Fathers.=--Meanwhile, again, the +father-office stands out in actual living function as never before. +The fathers that now show what fatherhood was meant to be--they are +legion. Holding the wife and mother in her place of sacred honor, they +are to their children the Supreme Court of appeal in grave questions +of discipline, the highest functionary of the family in the +distribution of honors and rewards, the best comrade in fun, the most +delightful companion in games, the strongest challenger in effort, and +the symbol of knowledge and power of the community life. + +With the new partnership of men and women in the family the father has +a chance to be a companion and friend as never before. He has an +opportunity to show his children that side which the ancient father +often failed to develop, the side of friendship and understanding. To +the boy a clear picture of what he would be, to the girl a declaration +of the kind of man she would marry, the modern father of the highest +type makes possible a modern mother who shall show her son what +womanhood may become in freedom, and who can lead her daughter to be, +like herself, the flower of all the best of the past. + + +QUESTIONS ON THE FATHER + + 1. What, in general, have been the social demands upon husbands + and fathers, and how have these been met in the past? + + 2. What effect has the new freedom of women had upon the autonomy + of the family and the legal obligations of the husband and + father? + + 3. Should the relation of men and women to family life be + identical? If not, why not? If so, what new agencies can or + should be developed to secure what husbands and fathers are now + legally obligated to provide? + + 4. What ideal of fatherhood should we now secure and maintain? + + 5. In Minnesota, recent bills presented to the Legislature + "relating to and regulating marriage" include among the items + "prohibition of marriage within six months after a divorce has + been granted from a former spouse; and forbidding of marriage + between persons either one of whom is epileptic, imbecile, + feeble-minded, insane, an habitual drunkard, affected with a + venereal disease, or addicted to the use of opium, morphine, or + cocaine." This indicates the trend of newer laws regulating + marriage. Is this trend justified? If so, how do the laws of + your own State compare with others in this particular? + + 6. Doctor Devine says, "Home is not a boarding-house, but a + complex of relations, physical and spiritual, which were never + more beautiful, more enduring or more ennobling than in the + modern family." Is that true? If so, what contribution must the + father continue to make to family success? + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] See "Education of the Australian Boy," by A.W. Howitt, in his book, +_Native Tribes of Southeast Australia_, showing the Initiation +Ceremonies that separated the youth from family influence. + +[5] Since that decision a General Convocation of the American +Protestant Episcopal Church has voted to eliminate the word "obey" from +its marriage service. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE GRANDPARENTS + + "From my grandfather I learned good morals and the government of + temper. From my great-grandfather to know that on education one + should spend liberally. From the reputation and remembrance of my + father, modesty and a manly character. From my mother, piety and + beneficence, and abstinence not only from evil deeds but from evil + thoughts; and, further, simplicity in way of living. To the gods I + am indebted for having good grandparents, good parents, a good + sister, good teachers, good associates, good kinsmen and + friends."--MARCUS AURELIUS. + + "Honorable age is not that which standeth in length of years, nor + that is measured by number of years; but wisdom is the grey hair + unto men and an unspotted life is old age. The multitude of the + wise is the welfare of the world; and the righteous live + forevermore."--THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON. + + "Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind. It is not a + matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a temper + of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the + emotions; it is the freshness of the springs of life. + + "Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over + timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. We + grow old only by deserting our ideals. In every heart there is a + wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, + cheer, courage and power from other men and women, and from the + Infinite, so long is every one young."--SAMUEL ULMAN. + + "Grow old along with me! + The best is yet to be, + The last of life, for which the first was made." + --BROWNING. + + +=Relative Increase of the Aged in Modern Life.=--The outstanding fact +concerning the aged is that they increase proportionately to +population as civilization increases. Easier conditions of living make +for longer life. Public sanitation, private hygiene, good heating +arrangements in each house, good water and plenty of it, sidewalks +and porches for easy airing, medical science and the art of nursing +made more widely available even for the poor, more physical comforts +of every sort, more widely distributed, all tend toward the +preservation of life after middle age is reached. They also tend to +keep alive many babies who would have died in harder conditions and +prolong the life of many invalids who would have succumbed to +hardships in early youth. Indeed, Doctor Holmes declared that "the +best insurance of a long life was to acquire an incurable disease when +young;" while the average of robust health in all modern communities +is certainly lowered by the modern methods of preservation of the +delicate and the aged. + +=Savage Treatment of the Old.=--In the annals of savage life we find +many gruesome tales of intentional disposal of the aged. The use of +the old grandmother as a target for the training of young boys in the +art of slaying one's enemy is an extreme example. The pathetic couple +left behind when the tribe migrated, often with a small supply of food +saved for them by some pitiful member of the family from the scanty +hoard that must suffice until the next harvest or the next hunting, +the neglect and the actual abuse that often made the last days quickly +ended, all show that when life is too hard there is no room for the +old. + +=The Relation of Ancestor-worship to Respect for Aged Men.=--Two +things, at least, helped to give the aged a better place in the social +esteem and in the provision for necessities as primitive life +developed toward civilization. One was ancestor-worship, which made +the father and the grandfather a link, indispensable and therefore +honored, in the chain of blood relationship which carried on the +generations. This type of religious belief and practice did not, +however, work to ease the lot of old women. If the young wife did not +have a child, especially a son, she could be repudiated often, and +lose her standing in the family relation and hence be subjected to +hardships that made her early old and often ended her life while still +in middle age. If she had a son and rose to be a grandmother she might +attain a most honorable position, having her son's wife to be her +servant and her son's son's wife to be her slave. Even with the best +intentions, the patriarchal father could not attend to all the details +of government within his usually extensive household, and no man has +yet lived who could manage unassisted a group of women, such as legal +polygamy and concubinage brings under one roof, each one determined to +get from him the best possible conditions for her own life and that of +her children. + +=The Position of Chief-mother in Ancient Family.=--These facts often +made the position of the chief-mother in a family one of such +importance that they became her insurance against want and +ill-treatment. The position of the chief-mother in the collective +family is now one of the vital problems of Eastern nations trying to +adjust the family system to modern ideas. The father's power is so +much a delegated responsibility and the relationship between the +lesser wives and the younger wives so much closer to the chief-mother +than to the chief-father that the grandmother's position may be that +of a tyrant. A series of questions which a group of Chinese students +in an American university has drawn up include such as the following: +"Where a young girl is brought into the home to be reared as the +future bride of the boy in the family, is there any limit to the +authority of the mother-in-law?" The mother-in-law in such cases being +usually the older or chief-mother, she is really the +grandmother-in-law. + +=Memory of the Aged Valued in Primitive Life.=--The position of aged +men in primitive life secured some advantages because of the +dependence upon memory for the carrying on of continued and conscious +social existence before literature was born. The aged man who had been +an important member of some military order or "fraternity" and +remembered the exact words and motions of a valued ritual could be +sure of having his continued life provided for by all those who +desired to learn and to retain the means of perpetuating the religious +cult thus expressed. Also those who remembered vital tribal +occurrences and dealings with other tribes and could rehearse the same +with exactness must have been considered of social use, and the older +they were the more their memory gathered and the more their recital +seemed sacred and hence the more the reciter was cherished. + +Nothing corresponding to this social value of the aged man, who could +make permanent in ritual or in song or in story the experiences of the +group, can be traced in the valuation of the experience of the aged +woman in the periods before written literature. There were, however, +as we can clearly see, traditions and customs, taboos and permitted +familiarities so many and varied that old women with good memories and +a personality that commanded attention must have had some accepted +value within the inner circles of family experience. We get from +folk-lore some clear intimations of this prestige and power of the +ancient old woman in intimate social relationship. + +The power of old men received a great accession when political and +religious orders and legal rules began to make social organization +more definite and precise. "Old men for council; young men for war" +had an early meaning. "The venerable Senate" is not a modern phrase. +The "reverend father of the church" is an ancient allusion to the +respect for and leadership of the aged in religious circles. The Popes +of to-day begin their high service at an age that is in many positions +a "dead line." The hardening of the social arteries in religion, +government, politics, and law, however, while making old men more sure +of their place in life, made old women less valued and worse treated. +The ages of mediaeval experience and of the feudal order, until +chivalry began to affect the sex-relation, show almost unbelievable +cruelty toward many aged women. The idea of the church fathers that +women were, at best, a necessary evil and at worst the form most often +assumed by the Devil of temptation, made it seem that all divergence +from the purely domestic type was proof of collusion with evil powers. +And all nervous ailments were once deemed a sign of the witches +compact with Satan. Hence, since the unmitigated drudgery and the hard +conditions of the lives of most women made them not only prematurely +old but also given to nervous prostration (before that title appeared +in the medical lists), the numbers of old women tortured, burned, +drowned, beaten, and stoned to death, and otherwise destroyed, seems +almost incredible to modern ideas, although so well authenticated in +history. + +=Old Women and the Witchcraft Delusion.=--The young woman, being +necessary for the bearing and rearing of children and the carrying on +of important, although despised, labors, might escape active ill +treatment. The old woman, old at thirty-five or forty, often, was not +only considered a useless burden but a positive nuisance if she were +at all "highstrung" or "meddling." Hence the natural conception, in a +time of superstitious fear of evil spirits, of her complicity with +those spirits made her seem a danger to society. The history of the +witchcraft delusion and the cruelties that were a part of that +delusion show that aged women almost alone suffered from that +nightmare of human ignorance. + +Doubtless, however, there were even in those days grandmothers beloved +and protected, busy even to the last with caretaking of childhood and +the rites of hospitality; grandmothers whom their sons and even their +sons-in-law revered for some quality of gentleness and sympathy found +useful in family emergencies; grandmothers whose shrewd wisdom of +experience and fine gift of understanding made them invaluable members +of the family circle. Folk-lore and ancient song give hint of these. + +The waste of old age in women, however, is, as has been indicated +elsewhere by the writer, the greatest of all social wastes since time +began. The idea that women were serviceable only for the procreative +function and the hardest drudgery of family service, and that they +lost all social value when they ceased to be attractive to the senses +of men or ended their personal ministrations to their own little +children, long obtained. This idea is responsible for the further +conception of old women as not only useless but a disagreeable burden. + +Hence, while old men rose during many ages in social regard and +protection and care, old women became more and more miserable and +ill-treated where the collective family was superseded by the newer +type of individualistic bond between one man, one woman, and their +children. In the ancient patriarchal and collective family the oldest +mother might reign as queen. In the more modern type of family, made +the social fashion by what is called Christian civilization, the aged +woman, the grandmother, unless exceptionally attractive and +sweet-tempered and exceptionally able to help in the household tasks, +was the victim of the change from one system to the other. The fact +that women, if well-developed and well-treated, are younger at seventy +than are men and that more women than men live to be aged than when +the conditions of living were less favorable to the weak and delicate, +gave early in our civilization what must have seemed far too many old +women. + +While women had the constant burden of a "steady job" within the home, +harder and more continuous than men had in their handicraft labor, yet +men were killed in battle in large numbers, and were physically able +to dangerously overdo in some labor "spurt" and hence more women than +men lived to be old. Hence, again, there were far more grandmothers +than grandfathers in the family in all mediaeval life. This led to many +cruelties to old women who were deemed "superfluous." While, however, +the actual experience of common people made conditions so hard for +grandmothers, the idealism within the religious field was favorable to +the mother of any age. The same church fathers who shunned marriage as +a cowardly concession to the body, and who wrote flaming +animadversions upon women in general, gave the Virgin and Child their +adoration and made a place of honor and of comfort to those women who +chose the religious vocation outside the home. + +=Older Women in Religious Vocations Honored in Middle Ages.=--These +women, the Ladies of the Abbeys and the special servitors of the +Church, reached the first independent places of distinction which +women in Christian civilization attained and to them, at least, age +added power and veneration. Hence, even while they ignored their +relationship to common womanhood, they often allayed superstitious +cruelty toward other old women. + +Whenever any subject class develops within it a genius or a quality of +talent or a specialty of activity that gives personal prestige, that +class as a whole gains recognition. The Carlisle Indian who beats at +the game of football; the Afric-American artist whose works claim +admiration; the representative of the backward nation who shows power +of achievement formerly supposed to be the sole accomplishment of the +conquering peoples, not only makes a place for himself, he opens the +door to wider opportunity for his class. So the woman of the religious +orders, when of scholarly achievement and of commanding intellect, +showed these qualities in increasing example as she grew older and +more experienced, and so worked to make a place for the older woman in +every sphere of life. + +Slowly it began to dawn upon the common consciousness that the +individualistic family of one young couple and their children needed +props from within if it had lost those from without--those ancient +props which sustained as well as controlled young fathers and mothers +in the collective family. Hence grandmothers, and grandfathers, as +well, became of recognized use in the care and upbringing of children. +The picture of the grandmother by the fireside holding the youngest +baby and the grandfather coming in with a gift for the young mother, +who is manifestly pleased, with the young father in the background +delighted at the family welcome for his offspring, is not only old but +the theme of many of the world's best-loved paintings and stories. + +=To-day Comparatively Few Really Old at Seventy.=--To-day there has +come about a wholly new condition in the most advanced centres of +social life in respect to the aged. In the first place, there are few +"old" grandmothers left. There are grandmothers, but they are +sprightly and give little token of being passee or laid on the shelf. +There are few old men left. There are those who have passed the +allotted term of threescore years and ten, but they well know and make +all others understand that this was a mistaken limit to human powers. +They look forward to usefulness until eighty, at least, and now are +encouraged to feel that one hundred years is the natural span of life. +There are, it is true, few really important studies of how to keep +people from growing senile and really old before the time now set for +failure of powers. Such studies, however, are prophesied in a small +"endowment for the study of diseases of the aged" already given, and +more in the statement of appeals for increase of such endowment. The +tendency now is setting strongly not only toward the lengthening of +life but toward the lengthening of the mental and physical power that +alone makes long life desirable. + +We shall see more and more of this interest as medical science reaches +out further and further toward lessening all the ills that flesh is +heir to. + +Meanwhile, what is the actual condition in the various strata of life, +in our own country, for example, in respect to the protection, the +care, the comfort, the happiness, and the general welfare of the aged? +In the first place, the speeding up of machinery has made many manual +workers prematurely old. The worst thing, perhaps, about child-labor +has been that, owing to premature "laying off" of the fathers, the +children have been set to earn money for family needs, and have +acquired, with their pay envelope, a contempt or disrespect for the +father in ways that have reversed the natural relationship and given +society much use for the Children's Court. This disrespect shown the +father, even when he is only of middle age, passes on in increased +measure to the grandfather who has been pushed aside from self-support +and family support while still comparatively young and has never been +able to again catch on to the wheels of industry. The fact that he +eats and does not work; that he takes space in the crowded tenement +and does not aid in paying its rent; that he has no light employment +that can give his fading mental powers an impulse toward ambition and +energy, all make the position of the grandfather in many homes of +struggling poverty a most unhappy one. In such homes the grandmother +is often still seen to be really useful. She may make it possible for +the young mother to earn outside the home. She may, if skilled in +sewing, ease the expense of ready-made clothes. She may, at least, and +usually does, relieve the mother of much care of the babies. There are +several reasons why more aged men are sent to public institutions for +final care than aged women of the same general type of family, but the +most important reason is that most women have skill in domestic +matters; and domestic service is needed everywhere, no matter how many +unemployed walk the streets. Needed most in the poorest home, the help +of the grandmother is often appreciated in inverse ratio to the +income. + +In the circles above the poverty line there is much variety in the +estimation and in the treatment of grandfathers and grandmothers. The +ideal picture of a family always has in its background, if not in the +very front, an old man and an old woman, benevolent and sweet-natured, +who can be depended upon to be more indulgent to the children than +even the father or mother and who appear always in family emergencies +to renew their youth of service in behalf of the younger generation. + +What is thus ideally pictured is a fact in thousands of families. No +one can say that it is always best to have three generations under one +roof, but all who have had a happy family experience believe that the +grandparents should be "handy by," to use the Scotch phrase. The +grandparents' house in the country is best of all, where all family +and national holidays can be celebrated with due form and in +accordance with ancient tradition. The grandparents' house for the +city children is next best, if in a suburb near by where more space +and independence of movement are possible than in the city residence. +The grandparents' house or apartment in the same or a near-by city is, +however, not at all to be despised as a refuge when "Mother does not +understand," or "Father is so particular." + +=Is Any House Large Enough for Two Families?=--Although the proverb +says, "No house was yet made large enough for two families," the +residence of one grandparent (oftener the mother than the father) +within the family circle has often proved highly successful if only a +few rules have been observed. One of these rules is that each adult +person shall have one place strictly his of her own. Another is a +rule, so difficult for some aged persons of both sexes to obey, +namely, that each person married is doubly entitled to individual +choices in action without interference even from parents, since each +such married person has to adjust his or her ideas to another person. +To work out full agreement between themselves is all that any married +couple should be expected to accomplish. Hence, in the nature of +things, the grandparents who are so near the new family that they know +and see everything have a far more difficult role to play than do the +grandparents who have their own home and simply visit and are visited. +It is, however, often a necessity of financial provision and often a +choice of ease in ministration to the needs of the aged, that brings +one grandparent or even two within the daughter's or son's household. +The time-worn jokes about the "mother-in-law" are based upon the fact +that it is more often the daughter than the son who is expected to or +needs to personally care within her own home for the mother. The son +is not so bound by social custom to take his mother in. Hence, more +husbands than wives have trials with their parents-in-law. + +=Reasons Why Husbands Desert Their Families.=--The statistics of +deserting husbands, as compiled in a careful study made by Lillian +Brandt and Roger Baldwin, show that among the chief causes of "leaving +home" is "trouble with the wife's relations." In these cases it is not +only the grandmother, although she is often a member of the disturbed +family; it is also often other relatives--a sister, a brother, or a +first husband's people--who cause trouble. The wife's mother is, +however, often enough a member of the household the husband leaves +behind to give some point to the coarse and often unjust jokes +concerning the mother-in-law. + +Where the feeling is right, and both generations reasonable and just, +there are still many problems of adjustment arising from an attempt to +bring either or both parents of the married couple into the same +household. The first problem is that of the financial support. It +ought not to be the case that any aged couple or any widowed father or +mother should be left wholly dependent upon their children. The demand +for better economic provision for the aged is one of the most vital +and pressing of social needs. The difficulty of taking care of the +father and mother when the children are coming on with pressing needs +of their own is felt acutely in cases of narrow income. The call is +almost universal to provide more adequately for grandparents. How can +we meet this call? + +=The Financial Provision for Old Age.=--In the case of those whose +earning capacity is not equal to saving a sufficient old-age provision +while at work the claim for an Old-age Pension is growing. This may be +either a subsidy from the state, a joint pension from the state and +the employing business in which the man or woman has worked, or it may +be a threefold provision contributed to from the savings of the +laborer, the quota from the employer, and the state subsidy. Since no +insurance system that discourages thrift, or fails to encourage it, is +socially sound, the latter seems the best ideal. There may be, in +addition, or as a substitute, a family provision on the plan so well +suggested by Mr. Taber in his book, _The Business of the Household_, a +plan that calls for the definite setting apart of an "Old-age Fund," +to which each child shall contribute in the years when he is earning +most, not as a gift but as a "deferred payment," as it were, for all +that the parents give in childhood. To this Old-age Fund any savings +of the father and mother may be added until a sufficient sum is +secured for comfortable care in old age. Mr. Taber indicates that at +least five dollars out of every twenty-five saved should be thus +assigned and invested only in the safest manner and held inviolate, no +matter what the temporary needs of the family may be, until the +work-time has passed. Whatever plan may be adopted, it is certain that +family well-being and the happiness of the aged alike call for a +better and more adequate old-age provision. + +The laborers who earn less than the required sum for a decent standard +of life for father, mother, and children cannot, of course, make any +provision for their own old age or care for dependent parents. In such +families the public institutions or privately endowed and managed +"Homes for the Aged" offer the only and often a comfortable and +sometimes a happy place for the grandparents. The movement for this +social care of the aged has many phases. In some countries, as in _The +Danish Care of the Aged_, so well described by Edith Sellers in her +book of that name, there is a far more complete and generous use of +public funds than we have in the United States, a possibility of +careful grading of persons in appropriate groups, and a removal of the +crushing sense of public charity which those of English ancestry so +often feel when obliged "to go upon the town;" yet this leaves much to +be desired.[6] + +In the grade of economic condition above that in which it is a dire +struggle to make both ends meet for the husband, wife, and their +little children, there are to be considered five ways in which the +care of the aged can be made adequate and not too great a burden upon +those of young and those of middle life. + +=Needed Ways of Preparing for Old Age.=--First: There must be devised, +as indicated above, better and surer ways of insurance, savings, and +pensions, by which the grandparents can be made more or less +independent even in families of limited means. + +Second: There must he measures established for the prevention of +premature old age, measures operating in health and in labor-power to +prolong self-dependence by means of individual earnings, to the +fullest extent possible. + +Third: There must be for men, as for women, provision in vocational +training by which each person may have in reserve some light and +interesting form of activity, possibly of earning value, which may +serve as occupation when strenuous work is outgrown. + +Fourth: There must be a clearer understanding of the mutual +obligations of parents and children so that the care of the aged may +seem more often, what it really is in most cases, not a charity from +within the family circle, to be passed around with jealous eye for +just distribution of family burdens within the group of children, but +a family debt, for the payment of which early and constant provision +must be made by all members of the family during the years of largest +earning power. If the grandparents have had a chance to save enough to +pay all their own share of the family expense to the end of life, well +and good. If, on the contrary, as is so often the case (now that the +social standard for child-care and child-education has risen to such +heights of parental requirement), the parents, now old, have spent so +lavishly on the schooling and marriage setting up of their sons and +daughters that they have not been able to save for themselves, then +the obligation of the children is clear and the grandparents should +never feel themselves pensioners. + +Fifth: Actual old age, senility, failure of physical and mental power, +should be postponed in each case as long as possible by active +measures of mental and moral discipline consciously undertaken by +personal effort. "The making of mind" is not an art of youth alone. It +is an art of middle age and of the older years. Says William James: +"The man who daily inures himself to habits of concentrated attention, +energetic volition and self-denial in unnecessary things, will stand +like a tower when everything rocks around him and when his softer +fellow-mortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast." Such a one also +will resist the decay of powers and be able to keep young when the +years tell of many birthdays. + +To go over these points with greater detail: The first requirement, +namely, to make sure that all possible financial provision is made for +grandparents while they are yet young and capable enough in their work +to save, is one that is more and more recognized. Moreover, the +tendency in every country is increasingly toward state recognition of +the duty of society toward its aged members. The proposition of Victor +Berger, then the solitary socialistic member of the Congress of the +United States, to pension every person over the age of sixty is one +that will hardly be carried into effect. The objection, however, to +much existing pensioning by the state which this blanket proposition +was intended to offset is that its benefits are mostly for those near +the poverty line or below it and hence may be and often is a +discouragement to thrift and self-dependence rather than an aid to +individual effort. + +=Pension Laws.=--For example, in Great Britain, the pension law made +all eligible to state aid who were over seventy years of age and whose +personal income did not exceed one hundred and five dollars per year. +Such were entitled to aid to the extent of $1.25 a week, and those +having incomes above that sum were entitled to receive a graduated +series of state benefits. This aid from the state has doubtless made +the condition of many aged persons far more tolerable and even happy +in families where, previous to the passage of that Act, the extra +expense involved in caring for the grandparents was the last straw +that broke the back of independency. In all cases where the addition +of a few dollars weekly to the family income is an actual and obvious +help to family comfort, state pensions for the aged have worked good +results in family feeling and good-will and affection. Where, however, +the state aid comes without any contributory savings from the +individual or his employer and where to qualify for its benefit all +must have an income of very small proportion, it is in effect a class +measure and obviously for the relief of the very poor. + +The higher family interest demands that every system of insurance or +of subsidy, or of occasional aid to any member of the family, should +tend directly and powerfully toward and not away from thrift, work +capacity, and sound business principles. Society-at-large must now +make good in some makeshift fashion for many social failures of the +past, but its main currents of pressure upon the individual life +should be in the production of a line of normal and successful men and +women, rather than attempts to make all share alike, whatever their +personal quality, when old age comes on. This principle makes it +imperative that some larger and wiser plan than has as yet been +attempted shall make all systems of financial care of the aged a +positive aid toward self-dependence and social serviceability. + +=Old-age Home Insurance.=--In this connection a radical suggestion is +offered, namely, a scheme for Old-age Home Insurance. It is a +well-known fact that the waiting list of most private Homes for the +Aged is long, and that men and women wait piteously for the death of +an "inmate" to give them entrance to the only place of comfort and +security life can offer them. It is also well known that there are +more aged persons who need the companionship of those of their own +generation, who need quiet and relief from the noise and excitement of +young children, than can now secure those requirements in the homes of +their daughters or their sons. It is again true, although not so well +recognized or understood, that most aged persons unable financially to +retain a personal home would prefer a choice between residence in a +child's family, however dutiful and generous that child might be, and +residence elsewhere. It is also true that the care of aged parents in +her own home is often too great a tax upon the time and strength of +the housemother when there are many young children. Again, it is true +that many aged people prefer a place they can call "home," even if it +is only one room, to which they can invite their friends and from +which they may pay visits to their relatives, even their nearest and +dearest, and return to their own small quarters at will. It is also +true that although most elderly persons live for years in quite good +health and need little actual nursing, they do profit by occasional +attentions which a nurse can give, and few such elderly people can +afford or obtain this occasional service in either a home of their own +or in one shared with a child. + +These facts indicate a need for a larger and a more democratic +provision of homes for the aged, a provision that can be more easily +made by personal effort through the younger years of life, and one +that can receive social aid at less cost to personal dignity and with +less rigid rules of managing "Boards" than the present prevailing type +of Homes for the Aged supply. The boarding house sought by many aged +persons who prefer independence of life to living in the family of +their children, and sought also by many well-to-do elderly widows and +widowers who find that the personal home is too lonely or too +expensive to keep up for one alone--the average boarding house is a +sorry substitute for a home. For the young, who hope to escape it +soon, it is tolerable. For the aged, who need to feel settled, it is +often a most unhappy dwelling-place. Beside, any one who tries to find +a place for the elderly boarder will find that prices are often +prohibitive for all but the rich, and few boarding mistresses want old +people. + +A state pension has often, as has been said, been proposed for all +aged people. Let us suppose that instead of this some scheme of State +Insurance for Old-age Homes be devised; a scheme in which after the +payment of a certain specified sum a share in a Boarding Home might be +secured. If the state or if any private Agency or Foundation could +provide the "plant," a suitable building and its repairs and +fundamental expenses of upkeep, with one salaried superintendent whose +character and ability could be guaranteed, the running expenses of a +Boarding Home could be met easily by the limited means of many who now +lack the security of an institutional provision and in consequence +lack also many essentials of old-age comfort. + +A skilled budget-maker could determine the numbers required in each +household to make the board low and a sympathetic social worker could +suggest the cooeperative features of management most likely to give +successful results in the composite home. The entrance age in such a +Boarding Home could be lower than that required in the usual type of +privately endowed Home for the Aged and thus a felt need be met for a +suitable home for those between the ages of fifty-five and sixty-five. +In these privately endowed Homes for the Aged the entrance fees range +from $100 to $1,000, and beneficiaries are required to give up all the +property of any kind of which they may be possessed when they enter +this permanent residence. This is not unjust, but it is often an added +trial to the independent nature. There is need of far larger provision +for the old in Homes for Aged Men, Aged Women, and Aged Couples. No +one can give anything but gratitude for the opportunities they now +offer or fail to hope for their increase. There is, however, a special +need for some social engineering which can initiate Boarding Homes for +the Elderly. Many of these are still strong and well, but need special +consideration in particular ways. Many others are not ill, but +delicate, and in need not of full-time nursing care but of occasional +good offices of trained helpers. One nurse, a "practical nurse" or a +trained nurse past in age and strength full service of her profession, +could easily give occasional service needed for twenty or more elderly +persons in usual health or for ten or more aged, in greater need of +care but not helpless, if all were under the same roof. The +cooeperative plans that often fail in serving the family of father, +mother, and children, may be found exactly suited to special classes, +and among them the aged. The Social Settlements were started to serve +and have served the neighborhood needs of the poor and the immigrant. +They have also, incidentally, demonstrated the financial advantages of +cooeperative housekeeping. A company of congenial people living +together in groups of twenty to forty can secure the essentials of +food, shelter, and necessary service at a cost per person far below +the average expense for boarding or private housekeeping. This does +not mean that families can combine easily in multiple households. The +personal equation counts for its greatest influence in the real family +group, of father, mother, and their children under eighteen years of +age. Few, if any, schemes of cooeperative housekeeping have as yet +worked well for the combination of such groups. + +The aged, especially the aged widow or widower, are not in the direct +family group. They belong to but they are not inside the inmost +circle. If one alone is left the life of the personal home is broken +for the elderly, however dear and kind the children may be. For such +there surely needs something easier than the attempt to maintain a +separate home with half its life gone. And also something more +independent and more secure than either enforced residence with +children or compulsory use of the ordinary commercialized boarding +house. + +=To Prevent Premature Old Age.=--The second social demand, that +premature old age shall be more effectively prevented, is one that is +pressed upon this generation with new and imperative considerations. A +knowledge of health conditions shows that although infant mortality is +greatly lessened and infectious and epidemic diseases greatly brought +under control, the diseases of middle age, such as hardening of +arteries and kidney and digestive disorders, have increased +relatively, while insanity is much more frequent than of old. These +facts give us all deep concern. From the failure of health in middle +life comes the premature senility and the invalid weakness of old age. +The cause of the increase of middle-life diseases, relatively to those +of other periods of life, seems to be principally the pressure of +business and industrial life upon the worker. The high speed of +machinery, the extreme competition in business, the monotony of the +specialized manufacturing groups, the weight of great financial +enterprises and the struggle to make the family setting equal to the +family desires or even the family needs, all tend to make men in +middle life fail so often in health and so often leave behind their +better sheltered and more tenderly cared-for wives. There is a new +movement of great social importance, and one tending directly toward +the saving of one-half of the family circle, which is now taking a +front place in social interest; namely, the movement for annual +medical examinations. The work of the Life Extension Institute leads +toward this end and seeks the better adjustment of life and work in +the interest of simplicity and mutual service in the family and the +better health of all its members. + +It is not, however, in the power of the wisest and most unselfish of +individuals to so manage the work-power as to insure against premature +old age from too great speeding and overstrain. There must be social +movement of the most thorough-going sort to prevent the waste of the +laborers in all fields. Social workers should remember that it is not +alone important to try to safeguard the health and strength of mothers +and of potential mothers by laws protecting women and girls in +industry. It is as vital a need to safeguard the health and strength +and perpetuate the work-power of fathers and potential fathers in +order that old age may be not a terror but a blessing to the family. +This is emphasized by recent indications that the increase of the +diseases of middle age is already checked and that we are gaining +ground in this particular. + +A recent report of the Federal Department of Commerce through the +Bureau of Census shows that there has been a decline in the death-rate +for all age periods during the last decade. In the rate for infants +under one year of age a decline of twenty-six per cent., or from +13,804 per 100,000 in 1910 to 9,660 per 100,000 in 1920. The +death-rate for middle-aged and old people shows an encouraging +decrease, that of twelve per cent., in the period above seventy-five +years of age. This shows that we are gaining on disease and premature +death with every new advance in preventive medicine and the crusade +against bad living conditions. This, again, means that in the future +we shall have more aged persons in ratio of population than we have +had in the past, and indicates the great need of taking measures +betimes to make old age not only more mentally strong but more happy +and comfortable in condition. + +=Check Extreme Requirements for Youth in Labor.=--There are many +requirements for youth in offered opportunities of training and of +work which are distinctly detrimental to respect for, and possibility +of continued service of, the old. Take, for example, the age limit in +many departments of business and manual labor. During the war we had +in the countries most denuded of young men a new sort of trial of the +middle-aged in positions where it had been thought youth was required. +What was the result? The trial made in Chicago by fifteen large +employers of labor under the leadership of Mr. Benjamin Rosenthal, was +distinctly, to use his words, "to upset the fallacious theory that men +between the ages of 45 and 65 are fit only for the scrap-heap." The +result of this experiment showed that in some phases of work the older +men did as much work in a given number of hours as the younger men; in +other departments they did as much in the week or month, from their +steadiness and devotion to their work, but not as much in any one day. +That is, the older men were less quick, but more steady and, +therefore, in the end accomplished as much. In some kinds of labor the +older men did better than the younger because usually more patient of +detail and less restive in monotonous toil. In the larger enterprises +older men are proverbially less speculative, more conservative, less +venturesome than the young. American business would, perhaps, not +suffer if a larger admixture of these qualities were found in all the +walks of commerce and business. + +The fact that when a man is at the head of a concern, large or small, +he is valued usually more at sixty-five than at thirty-five, and the +further fact that thirty-five is often the dead-line for admission to +the lower ranks of the same industry or commercial position, is a +proof that this age-limit of the worker in lower position is not one +of definite knowledge of actual incapacity after forty years of age +but rather due to other conditions. Those conditions are, first and +foremost, the easier management of younger than of older subordinates. +It is hard for many men to "order about," in peremptory fashion, a man +older than themselves, and few men can command without abruptness or +sharp orders. It is still harder for most men to order about as office +assistant or clerk or secretary a woman older than themselves. And +fewer men can assume a respectful yet commanding attitude toward women +than can do so toward men in their employ. Some embarrassment has yet +to be worn off in business relations of the sexes. Moreover, the +tendency toward upspeeding of all mechanical manufacture is a part of +the rushing spirit of an age which has invented more fast-going things +than it has as yet mental power to use wisely or with social safety, +and it is true that fewer men over forty can rush in their work than +can do so below that age. + +Youth is nimble; youth can be snubbed for errors of accomplishment +without hurt to a "gentleman's instincts;" youth, although so careless +as to often get injured by the swift-going machines, can yet exult in +their rapid swing; and, above all, youth is flexible and can be shaped +to any form of business requirement decided upon by those higher up. +Hence a fictitious value is assigned to youth in all departments of +work to-day. Hence, again, a special movement for actual trial of the +relative values of workers of different ages in special kinds of work +is necessary if we would know whether or not it is possible to prevent +that premature old age and tragical financial helplessness at +fifty-five or sixty, which makes the workless man or woman a burden +where many believe he or she might be still a help to the family +income. + +We have been a nation of the young. We shall more and more balance the +different age-periods, as is already done in the older countries. We +should prepare, betimes, for this new aspect of the future's census, +by providing against preventable old age by the wiser use of all +laborers as long as work-power can be made available for +self-dependence. + +=Need of Experience in Many Fields of Work.=--There are certain fields +of work on the higher side of social ministration in which the more +experienced are more needed than the young. Some one has said that "no +man is fit to be a pastor of a church until he has been something else +for several years and knows something of life." There is a very real +demand for any one, man or woman, who ventures to deal with the +spiritual life that he or she shall have more than youth can give of +sympathy and understanding. There is need also for larger experience +and greater breadth of view in professional social work of all sorts, +more than the young man or woman can give who has had college, plus +"School for Social Work," and nothing else; but who, because +"trained," feels expert. There could not be a greater social mistake +than is made by schools which attempt to train for child-care, family +visiting, rehabilitation of the dependent, aid to the "down-and-out," +succor to the tempted and help to the weak, and yet deny the +opportunities of their classes to men and women over thirty-five. The +giving of "auditors' privileges," or "special courses for volunteers," +or like makeshifts for regular student privileges is not what is +required; for such provisions carry with them the idea of less than +professional standing and usefulness. The initiation and maintenance +and increase of schools of training for social work is one of the +great educational and social achievements of the past quarter-century, +but the age-limit for entrance in many such schools is a huge mistake. +The very essence of true social service to individuals is experience +in life. The girl or boy who has had none or little may make a good +technician in many departments and may make a fine showing in work +that is not personal, and may collect material or knowledge about +groups of persons who need help. But the man or woman who is able to +be of great value as a "social doctor" is not only born to such +service but also is one who has not begun a specialty of social +technic too young to have learned something of the difficulty of +living. Young students? Yes. But many more who have come later in life +to a sense of their social responsibility and to a desire to learn how +best to serve society with all that they have gained in rich +experience. The psychology of social training must envisage a wider +range of years to be most effective. + +=Prepare Vocationally for Old-age Needs.=--The third demand, that +every man and woman in early youth or in later youth shall be trained +in some light and agreeable occupation that can be pursued, perhaps to +economic return, in the days when strenuous labor can no longer be +carried on, is one that has as yet received little attention but which +should be a matter of deep concern. The fact that so many old women of +little physical strength and who require much personal care can yet +be useful and therefore actually wanted as helpers in many families is +indicative of the fundamental fact in industrial life that a general +training for general usefulness, such as the housewife has had through +the ages, has some advantages still. + +Before Mrs. Perkins Gilman gets all women into some specialty, +alongside of the already highly specialized men workers, let us see to +it that men get a chance for a more general training! The restless +idleness of the man whose specialty of manual labor or definite type +of business interest is now beyond his strength or opportunity is a +sad thing to see. We have had to develop a special charity to furnish +a work-interest to aged men in public institutions. They were so +miserable and pathetic without that occupation. Women fare better in +this, as in many other elements of labor, for they can do so many +things, usually have to do so many things, most of them, in the +family, that some one sort of work, at least, is left to them for +special old age. "Mother's pies" or grandmother's cakes or needlework +or knack at dusting or baby-tending or what not keeps her young and +makes her actually a helper even when old. Grandfather's loss of his +job, of his specialty of effort, of his hold on the great industrial +machine, leaves him too often hopelessly at sea for the passing of +time still left to him. + +Well-to-do women in the United States, moreover, have acquired through +the large leisure inherited wealth or their husband's means have +supplied, a social business that has not only delayed old age but +nearly obliterated its ancient signs and tokens. The Clubs, the +Leagues, the Alliances, the charitable agencies, the institutions of +care for the defective, the friendless, the infirm, the dependent +children, the countless societies and cooeperative social organizations +for social serviceableness, in which women are leaders and chief +workers, bear witness that "grandmother" has found a place for her +energies after the children have grown and set up households of their +own. + +If such a grandmother is a member of the daughter's family she is not +half so objectionable to daughter's husband as when mother-in-law had +a permanent place at the fireside, perhaps in the exact spot where he +wanted to put his easy chair, and had to be "taken out" if she ever +ventured into the great world. She now has her own interests, often so +many and vital that her day is more completely filled than when she +was younger. She has her own set of friends and her own use for the +energy and power of direction that often in the old days made her a +troublesome member of the family. If only she has a chance at her own +little cooking, and her own individual sitting room, and has her own +income, if ever so small, she may fit well into even a city apartment +and no other member of the family be the worse. The thing required for +old men and women alike is some work suited to slower motion and +lessened strength and greater need for quiet and independent thought. +This is a need which more women than men have met to-day, we repeat, +but it is one that must be understood and effectively satisfied for +men and women alike. + +Edward Everett Hale said every man needed "both a vocation and an +avocation"--something by which he earned his living and something by +which he maintained his interest in activity. It is the avocation that +must be planned for. The vocation is often thrust upon one by +necessity or chance association. If every aged person had something to +do that made each day short and each night a welcome rest much of the +friction between the older and the younger members of families would +be avoided and life would piece the generations together more +perfectly. + +=The Attitude of Mind Toward Old Age.=--Life calls upon us all to +prepare while yet young for the lessened power of old age. The removal +from the commanding place to the honorable but more difficult position +of the ex-leader and the chief-emeritus is a step that requires care. + +The attitude of mind that can keep in harmonious touch with the +oncoming generation and yet not lose the value of its own day of +contribution to the social inheritance is an art to be acquired only +by effort and the exercise of moral and mental power. There was, +perhaps, never in the history of our civilization so great a gap +between the ideals and social practices of the grandparents and those +of the third generation. The parents even are feeling themselves too +far from the children; the grandparents often realize a vast distance +between themselves and the rising generation. The distance is not +always the measure of progress. It is not seldom the effect of rapid +changes in mechanical appliances, in material agencies and economic +conditions, in literary taste and in ideals of culture; an effect +which has unsettled youth in the inherited ways and not yet settled +them in well-considered new rules of living. The experience that might +aid in easing the process of readjustment is not always at hand and +not always used when it is attainable. The experience of age is too +often shown in dogmatic rules. The inexperience of youth is too often +the accompaniment of a childish conviction that everything that has +been is wrong and everything that promises to be is best. + +There is, therefore, greater need, perhaps, than ever before for +wisdom and patience and sympathetic understanding of those from whom +one differs within the family life. It is for the grandparents to set +the fashion for these new adjustments. They have loved most because +they have given most. They have learned most, or could have learned +most, because longer in the school of life. And they have but a little +way to travel on the long road their children and their children's +children must go to meet their fate. + +To the lasting credit of human nature be it said that the grandparents +of to-day measure as well for the most part as do the parents in these +difficult tasks of family adjustment to a rapidly changing social +order. It is often the grandparent who sees what the different life of +his or her children have meant to the still greater difference in the +condition of the grandchild, and can interpret to the latter the +reason for the restraint of the parent. It is often through the +tenderness and devotion to the aged called out by the grandparents +that the son and daughter learn the real depths of parental love. It +is often the partial affection of the grandparent for the grandchild +that makes a new tie in family love and enables that family love to +grow wiser as well as stronger. It may be, as quoted before, that no +house is large enough for two families. It surely is true that no +family living room is spacious enough for the continuous use of three +generations; but it is still more true that with new interests all +around the circle of family membership a more varied family life can +be managed without friction or loss of privacy for any member if only +there is the right attitude of mind. To-day the ideal of the +Heaven-father fastens itself as easily to the child's affection for +grandpa as on his dependence upon his father. To-day the ideal of +mother-love, never lessened even by wrong-doing of the child, is as +securely fibred upon the picture of grandma, ever ready to heal and +comfort, as upon that of the mother, whose daily ministrations make +the child comfortable. + +=The Special Gifts of the Old to the Home and the World.=--In some +ways it is surely more easy to believe in goodness at the heart of +things because some aged man or woman, closely related by blood and +breeding, has been a living example of what must be revered. Moreover, +to the family, as to the world-at-large, old age brings a special +gift--if that old age is what it may be. Each period of life has its +own gift to make. Age should make a precious contribution, even the +central faith of life. + +Youth, eager, responsive to all noble ambitions and touched by all +noble dissatisfactions with what is, makes its plan for what should be +on a strictly logical basis. His rejected Evil is wholly evil; his +chosen Good without a flaw. Children are all Calvinists; and youth, +for the most part, separates its ideas of good and bad as the sheep +and goats within its mind. Well that it is so. The law of growth in +life is so far from logical, so operative by inconsistent +fluctuations, that it is of the greatest social use for each fresh +generation of reformers to hew to the line and express that +intolerance of compromise which helps the struggling moral sense to +clarify the issues of each new day. + +In middle life, if the individual worker for better things is not +merely a prophesier but has become an actual agent for the realization +of his ideal in practical achievement, he suffers many a disillusion, +not in respect to his ideal, but in respect to the ease of working it +into the body politic or into the compelling purpose of the social +mind. That is the time of danger; and how many lose heart and hope and +fall weakly by the way when they first learn that to state a truth +with power is not enough to insure its acceptance! That one should set +himself with courage and faith to the long, slow processes of actual +change of the social order after he has learned how difficult that is, +is to be indeed a hero--a hero of the actualization of the ideal, even +though he dies with the promised land hardly in sight. + +In later life comes to many, and should to all, another gift. Not +alone the vision of youth, never lost and always dear; not only the +strength of open-eyed effort to achieve so much of the ideal, even its +very least atom, as the times and the conditions allow and not lose +heart that it is so little, but also the interpretative and +harmonizing spirit of those who see, beyond the personal ideal and +vision and far beyond the personal achievement, the upward march of +all mankind--not alone the leaders of that march; not alone those who +will and know the upward way, but all who feel the under-current +pressure "toward the better, ever onward toward the best," This +pressure even those feel who fondly imagine they are holding all life +to outgrown patterns, and they prove its power by their unconscious +response. + +Another gift of insight they may have who grow old in the spirit of +youth. It is the gift of seeing in one picture those who have come a +long way up the path of progress and those who have but just entered +upon it. The harsh judgments of youth, so tonic and useful, that +measure moral actions by their exact position in ethical perception +(judgment so tonic and useful that youth without that element misses +its own gift to human progress) cease to serve in old age for purposes +of just discrimination. In later life may come the wisdom of +understanding those from whom one differs, the gift of seeing the +helpful interrelations of newer and older "mores" in normal human +development and the glad recognition that even defective moral vision, +though retarding needed changes, may be used by the powers that +balance our complex life to hold, its course steady in chaos of +change. These gifts may add patience and love, sweetness and light, to +the zeal of the reformer and yet not dull his ardor for the next +morning-hour of progress. + +Not the old, then, because it is old, nor the new because it is new; +not the few who will hold no parley with that which to them is evil, +nor the many who cling to what they have inherited lest they lose +life's best treasures; not to those who call aloud in the market +place, "Behold the coming of the Lord!" nor to those who sit at the +fireside and cherish their own only; not on or to any one +manifestation of the life in which we have our being can the old, with +the spirit of youth, fibre their faith and trust. + +In all the struggling, mistaken, weary, selfish, cowardly, alike as in +all the brave, heroic, unselfish and lovely, is manifestation that +makes "no good thing a failure, no evil thing success." This is the +testimony of a ripe and wise old age. In that they must trust who have +tested the real things of life in the real world of effort, nor lost +hope in the Onward Way for all. + + +QUESTIONS ON THE GRANDPARENTS + + 1. What have been the general tendencies in social treatment of + the aged? + + 2. What are some of the social needs in respect to public and + private health, vocational training, wages and standards of + living, family and personal insurance and educational + opportunities which must be met if old age is to be prolonged + as far as possible and made happy and comfortable to the end of + life? + + 3. What should be the aim of youth and middle life in respect to + preparation for old age? + + 4. Read _Old Age Support of Women Teachers_, by Dr. Lucille Eaves, + _A Study in Economic Relations of Women_, by the Department of + Research of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union of + Boston, Mass., and read "The Trade Union and the Old Man," by + John O'Grady, Catholic University of America, published in + _American Journal of Sociology_ of November, 1917. Are the + suggestions in these articles along needed lines? + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] See _The State and Pensions in Old Age_, by J.A. Spender. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +BROTHERS, SISTERS, AND NEXT OF KIN + + "The members of the ancient family were united by something more + powerful than birth, affection, or physical strength; this was the + religion of the sacred fire and of dead ancestors. This caused the + ancient family to form a single body, both in this life and in the + next,"--DE COULANGES, in _The Ancient City_. + + "Land belonged to the clan and the clan was settled upon the land. + A man was thus not a member of the clan because he lived upon or + even owned the land, but he lived upon the land and had interest + in it because he was a member of the clan."--HEARN, in _The Aryan + Household_. + + "Three things if possessed by a man make him fit to be a chief of + kindred: that he should speak in behalf of his kin and be listened + to; that he should fight in behalf of his kin and be feared; that + he should be security on behalf of his kin and be + accepted."--WELSH TRIADS (cited by Seebohm). + + "I cannot choose but think upon the time + When our two loves grew like two buds; + School parted us; we never found again + That childish world where our two spirits mingled + Like scents from varying roses that remain one sweetness. + Yet the twin habit of that earlier time + Lingered for long about the heart and tongue. + We had been natives of one happy clime + And its dear accent to our utterance clung. + And were another childhood world my share, + I would be born a little sister there." + --GEORGE ELIOT, in _Brother and Sister_. + + "When love is strong it never tarries to take heed + Or know if its return exceed + Its gift; in its sweet haste no greed, + No strife belong. + It hardly asks if it be loved at all, to take + So barren seems, when it can make + Such bliss, for the beloved's sake, + Of bitter tasks."--H.H. + + +=Ancient Kinship Bond.=--The relation of brothers and sisters in the +family group has passed through many changes and must at times have +caused much confusion and difficulty in the home. For example, in that +state of familial association in which all the brothers of a certain +relationship were considered as husbands of all sisters within a +certain bond there must have been some heart-burnings and several +kinds of family unpleasantness. We have some hints of these from many +historical sources. In the era of complete subjection of the +individual to the community such unpleasantness may have counted only +for negligible unhappiness on the part of a few social rebels, but the +custom alluded to did not prove to work well enough to become +permanent. + +Again, the form of family bond which demanded that a man take to wife +the widow of his dead brother and "raise up children to the name" of +the deceased had a long but not a permanent life. In the well-known +passage from Deuteronomy, the 25th chapter, the faithful are commanded +that "if brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no +son, the wife of the dead shall not be married without unto a +stranger: her husband's brother shall ... take her to him to wife, and +perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her. And the first-born +... shall succeed in the name of his brother that is dead, that his +name be not blotted out of Israel." The same passage shows that while +it was doubtless at first an imperative social law, there came a time +when the living brother had a choice as to whether or not he should +take to wife the widow of one who had died. Perhaps there might have +been an economic pressure that made it difficult to perform this +ancient duty. Perhaps there might have been objection from the wife or +wives already in command of the household matters. Perhaps the widow +was sometimes of a type to make the brotherly and family duty seem +very hard. At any rate, there came a time when, as the writer in +Deuteronomy says, "If the man like not to take his brother's wife" he +could refuse the family service. It cost him, however, in such cases a +severe ordeal. He could be haled before the elders on the complaint +that he "refused to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel." The +widow "could loose his shoe from his feet and spit in his face" and +say "so shall it be done unto the man that doth not build up his +brother's house." + +The large requirement for the brother, thus indicated, passed outward +to the next of kin in certain circumstances. There are many deeply +interesting accounts of readjustment of family life through the taking +over by the living of duties once undertaken by the dead. The lovely +idyl of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz, shows this widely spreading +brother-duty. Here the mother-in-law, so sweet and so wise that her +sons' wives loved her deeply, shrewdly manages a contact between Ruth +and Boaz to the lasting service of her son's inheritance of name and +land. The whole story is redolent of the finer side of ancient forms +of familial duty, the man being rich and generous enough to take on +his more remote relative's responsibilities, the young widow being +sweet and charming enough to capture the interest of the rich man even +before he knows who she is, and the mother-in-law showing +statesmanship of the highest order in managing the affair, together +with such fine character of her own that all respect and love her. + +To-day we have left in law and custom but the shadow of these ancient +demands upon brothers in the family. That shadow is limited to the +purely economic aspect of brotherly responsibilities. The old law of +inheritance made the sons the preferred heirs. Only when there was no +son could the daughter inherit if at all. The responsibility of that +heir, however, was often made commensurate with his inheritance. He +must financially care for the near relatives--the father and mother +first, the sister and brother next, the uncles and aunts and cousins +not to be forgotten. + +=Present Demands of Kinship.=--The existing statutes make it incumbent +upon any man in receipt of income beyond his own immediate needs to do +what is possible to prevent his near relatives from requiring aid +from the general public. The custom of all charitable organizations +when appealed to for aid for individuals, or for a family, is to ask, +"What can your relatives do for you?" The pressure upon those +connected even by marriage to help relatives privately, and so reduce +public relief, is often very severe. In those of English ancestry the +disgrace of having a near relative, even so distant as a great-uncle +or great-aunt or sister-in-law, "come upon the town" is felt keenly. +The sacrifices of many people of limited means to prevent such a +catastrophe would make a long and heavy list of discomforts and +privations. The duty of brothers, sisters, and next of kin to help +provide for the poorer members of the family connection is thus still +held firmly by social ideals. That all people, however, pay this debt +of family responsibility or that as many struggle to do it as used to +do so cannot be affirmed. On the contrary, many charitable societies +make it a serious business to discover and hold to responsibility +shirking members of families in which there is great discrepancy in +financial condition. + +There is now, however, no recognized social responsibility for giving +support to poorer members of the family within one household. There is +no pressure to bring those needing material relief tinder the roof of +the well-to-do of the family circle. Even parents cannot claim +residence with adult children, although they can claim by law some +support commensurate with their children's income. It is seen now that +the duty of aid does not carry with it the obligation for personal +association. That is, on the whole, a gain, especially in cases where +there is temperamental incompatibility. + +The whole relationship of brothers, sisters, and next of kin is +simplified and placed more securely on bases of affection and ethical +ideal in modern life, and people are good brothers and sisters or good +family relatives in proportion as they are unselfish and useful in all +their other social relationships. There is a real family tie, however, +which still holds. We see it in the Family Reunions, in the listing of +relationships in those devoted to genealogy, and in the patriotic +societies that indicate by membership what ancestors fought in the +Revolution or held office in Colonial days. There is the permanent tie +of blood that makes a peculiar bond unlike that of friendship and +unlike that of marriage--a tie sometimes carried to extremes, as in +the case of the woman who, angry with her husband for a breach of +etiquette, declared she "was glad that he was no relation of hers!" On +the whole, in reasonable moderation, one of the best ways we have +to-day of helping a group is by means of the generosity of the more +successful members of that group. + +=Special Burdens of Women in Family Obligations.=--Brothers, usually, +marry and have their own households to take care of. The unmarried +sisters, coming from a long line of women who were supposed to work +entirely for the family, with no commercial value placed upon their +household service, feel a call to duty from ancient times to carry +family burdens. The sons, however, do not escape the parental call for +help and have often in the immediate past (when women ceased to have a +large economic value in the home and had not yet acquired the capacity +or desire for self-support) borne a heavy burden of financial aid for +unmarried sisters. The tables are well-nigh turned now, however, and +the number of self-supporting women who have relatives of varied +nearness and ages dependent or partially dependent upon them, is much +larger than that of spinsters care-free and independent. In all cases, +however, whether of men or women, those who respond loyally to the +needs of those kin to them are the unselfish and capable. The slogan +of socialism, "To all in the measure of their need; from all in the +measure of their capacity," may never be accepted by society in +general, but it is now the rule in the family relation. + +=Disadvantages of the Only Child.=--In the individualistic family of +the modern monogamic type the chief need is for every child to have +brothers and sisters or at least a brother or sister. The "one-child" +plan, which places a solitary little creature as sole recipient of +money, affection, and care of the household, is one that shows poverty +of condition for the child concerned, no matter how rich the parents. +Such a child lacks a chief aid in its development. Nature sometimes +sends, even in a large family, all boys or all girls and makes +coeducation at the start difficult. Usually, however, when there are +two, three, four, or more children they are mixed in due and helpful +proportion. When the family is too large, as it so often was in the +older days, it must subdivide according to ages and tastes, and in +many old-fashioned families some brothers and sisters were near in +sympathy and love and others wide apart. In the moderate-size modern +family, however, where there is enough companionship within the home +for family good times and not enough to cause breakage into groups +within the group, we have the ideal conditions for child development. +For the only child there are happily some substitutes for this home +companionship in the "residential school," or the school with long +days of group relationship of like age and condition, but it is not +the same and seldom as good as the home circle of the right size and +variety. + +The modern conditions make the old ties seem less important to many. +In the United States, where people move about so freely across the +vast spaces of our continent, and where in the large cities so many +move each year to try vainly to better themselves in hired houses, the +ties of family outside of the immediate circle seem remote and to be +easily set aside. It is not, however, a sign of advanced social spirit +which makes a young girl declare "she has no use for her relations; +she cares only for her chosen friends," and it is often of the essence +of social danger that a young man wants to give up all connection with +his family. The fact is that one can understand better how one came to +be what one is by knowing something of one's forbears and one's living +relatives. + +=Permanent Value of the Family Bond.=--The feeling that one belongs to +a blood group, the feeling so old and so wonder-working in the past, +gives at least one ideal of permanence in a world of affairs whirling +in such rapid change that the common mind becomes dizzy and the common +idealism confused. On the other hand, it is cause for gratitude +unspeakable that the old bondage of the family life is relaxed, never +to be tightened again to such oppression as once prevailed. The fact +that inheritance is now seen to be so varied and so unpredictable that +one child in a family may "take back" to one ancestor and another to a +different one to ends of complete divergence of character and +capacity, shows that the old attempt to keep them together, whether +they could love each other or not, was a social mistake. To-day we are +more reasonable. We even say that fathers and mothers may not be +taken into the home of their children if it best serves the mutual +happiness for them to have separate homes. We seldom now in +enlightened families make the mistake of holding to "living together" +when living apart is clearly the wiser thing. + +The old sense of family responsibility is, however, happily not lost +and in its new ways of working often gives a finer representation of +mutual aid than was common of old. The will of one rich man which +included many gifts to sisters, cousins, and nieces, and left +directions to the principal heirs to find out if there were any +relatives of the same nearness left out and if so to make them equal +sharers, is but a type of many who, with or without large means, share +generously with all their name and kin. + +On the other hand, we have examples of those who, in the effort to +leave a large fortune for some specific object of education or of +public charity, wholly neglect, often with cruel indifference, the +needs of some member or members of their own family. One man of +conspicuous gift to education left a sister and her two daughters +without means for comfortable living while piling up money for his pet +scheme. Many men skimp themselves and also their wives, children, and +still more their parents and more remote kin, to hoard a monster sum +for some charity to be forever called by their name. These, however, +are unusual examples of losing sight of the near in the remote. The +average man and woman has in mind a series of concentric circles, +those nearest to be helped first, those next beyond to share next, and +the world outside to have what is left when these inner claims upon +love and generosity are fully met. + +If it were not for this general tendency society-at-large would have +far more responsibility for all sorts of care of the aged, of the +incapable, of the unsuccessful, of the invalid, of the defective, of +the insane, of the "cranky" and of the lonely. Finally, without this +innate tendency to feel a sense of responsibility for those nearest +related by family ties much of the discipline toward social usefulness +would be lacking in the lives of average people. We learn the larger +duty through faithful response to the nearer and closer obligation. +For this reason the family holidays and reunions, the family birthday +celebrations which include all the relatives within reach, the +pressure of the law and of custom upon those able to care for those +less strong and competent within the kinship bond, are all socializing +influences which it is well to keep warm and consciously active. + +The lovely spirit of Mrs. Hodgson Burnett's "Tembarom" when he finds a +"real relative" is duplicated by many immigrants who after years of +loneliness greet one of the family on the shores of the new country; +and the member of the eastern family "gone west" is the most +hospitable of all relatives to the visitor from the old home who has +the same family tree. + +The gratitude of the ancient poet that "God has set the solitary in +families" is not a sentiment to be outgrown. Those who feel that it +is, lose something precious from the basis of human affection. The +adjustment of this old bond to the new individualistic life is not yet +made even in the Western world, while in the Eastern the vital +problems of family adjustment press in supreme unrest. The one +principle that should guide us in this as in all inheritance from the +past is surely this, that while the sacredness of personality of any +one member of any group, even of the family, shall not be wholly +sacrificed to the needs and demands of any other member, yet "they +that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak" in the old +spirit of unselfish service. + + +QUESTIONS ON BROTHERS, SISTERS, AND NEXT OF KIN + + 1. In the monogamic system of the family what, in general, has + been the legal responsibility toward blood kin? + + 2. Is the inherited legal and social responsibility for the care + and well-being of relatives lessened at the present time? If + so, is that for good or for ill in the wider social fabric? + + 3. How far should accepted obligations toward near relatives be + met in ways to bring under one roof more than the fathers and + mothers and children of a given generation? + + 4. Should natural kinship weigh heavily in considering + arrangements for material relief in poverty? In the care of + orphans and half-orphans? And in provisions for aid to the + aged, the sick, and those out of work? + + 5. What special conditions make appeal to family feeling difficult + in a population like that of the United States with many + immigrants and great mobility in industrial relations? + + 6. Is there any way of strengthening family feeling without + attempting return to older forms of family autonomy? + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +FRIENDS AND THE CHOSEN ONE + + "The path by which we twain did go, + Which led by tracts that pleased us well, + Thro' four sweet years arose and fell, + From flower to flower, from snow to snow: + + And we with singing cheer'd the way, + And, crown'd with all the season lent, + From April on to April went, + And glad at heart from May to May. + + And all we met was fair and good, + And all was good that Time could bring, + And all the secret of the Spring + Moved in the chambers of the blood." + --TENNYSON. + + "There is no man that imparteth his joy to his friend but he + joyeth the more; and no man who imparteth his grief to his friend + but he grieveth the less."--BACON. + + "True, active, productive friendship consists in equal pace in + life, in moving forward together, steadily, however much our way + of thought and life may vary."--GOETHE. + + "Accept no person against thy soul."--ECCLESIASTICUS. + + "Your love, vouchsafe it royal-hearted Few + And I will set no common price thereon; + But aught of inward faith must I forego, + Or miss one drop from truth's baptismal hand, + Think poorer thoughts, pray cheaper prayers, and grow + Less worthy trust, to meet your heart's demand. + Farewell! Your wish I for your sake deny; + Rebel to love, in truth to love, am I." + --D.A. WASSON. + + +=The Power of Friendship.=--The man who said, "Our relations are +thrust upon us; thank heaven we may choose our friends" expressed a +feeling shared by many, that fate may handicap us by giving us birth +in an uncongenial circle, but we may recoup ourselves by chosen +friends and enjoy companionship with them which our kin cannot +furnish. + +Friendship has inspired many of the greatest deeds and many of the +noblest poems, and has given us examples of heroic devotion almost +passing the love of man for woman. It is not within our purpose to +recall these great friendships, but they are familiar and furnish the +unfailing stimulus of finer sentiment in youth as the classic examples +are recited to each generation. Real friendship is a sacred thing. +There are pinchbeck imitations which are neither sacred nor helpful. +The "mashes" and the "crushes" of school-life are not even good +imitations. The bargain-counter exchange of services--"you give me +society uplift, and I will give you under-current influence," as one +woman frankly stated it to another, although it may be called +friendship, has no element of real affection in it, as the first one +to fail in "value received" so clearly understands. The unwholesome +absorption of one woman with another, so that no minute apart can be +endured, may be long-lived or an ephemeral expression of a weakness on +one or the other side, but it is not the best type of friendship. +Among men the submergence of one personality in another, so that +although there are two people there is but one mind and one purpose, +may be friendship, but it is not that equal comradeship which the +healthy-minded seek. The friendship between a man and a woman which +does not lead to marriage or desire for marriage may be a life-long +experience of the greatest value to themselves and to all their circle +of acquaintance and of activity; but for this type of friendship both +a rare man and a rare woman are needed. Perhaps it should be added +that either the man or the woman thus deeply bound in life-long +friendship who seeks marriage must find a still rarer man or woman to +wed, to make such a three-cornered comradeship a permanent success. +Friendship at its best is a task as well as a gratification. Nothing +in this world can be had for nothing. "Earth gets its price for what +earth gives us." A really great friendship is a test and a challenge +and a "time-consumer," as Emerson says. It is, next to marriage and +parenthood, the most exacting of human relationships. For this reason +few men and women can have a great friendship that does not lead to +marriage, and at the same time have a complete marriage with another. +For this reason again, the great friendships are generally between two +unmarried men or two unmarried women. + +=The Newly Wed and Old Friends.=--Much is written of the sad +disillusion experienced by the newly wedded man when he finds his +friends are not as welcome at his new fireside as he had expected. +These friends of his are not of the sort prophesied by the love of +David and Jonathan, but they are valued comrades and he has +anticipated sharing the delights of his new home with them. Many a +woman in her desire to be all in all to her husband and in the selfish +absorption of an undisciplined affection, starts married life the +wrong way by making no place in the home life for these old friends of +her husband's bachelor life. That reacts often in the worst possible +manner upon his affection for her. She forgets too often that she is +not called upon to give up her friends. They can come, and do come, +when her husband is away at his work, while his friends, if they come +at all, must come in his leisure hours which she often wishes to +preempt for herself alone. It is the most short-sighted of follies for +a woman to try to sweep clean of all former interests and friendships +the life of the man with whom she is to try the great adventure of +marriage. + +The most a wife can accomplish by selfish denial to her husband of his +right to keep his friends and enjoy the old as well as the new +companionship is to make it impossible for him to enjoy his friends in +her company. She can thus send him off on hunting trips or other +outside enjoyments which leave her lonely at home. The fact that few +worth-while men or women have lived to the marriage day without deep +affection for some friend, or perhaps for many friends, is not a +testimony to need of change when a new relation is formed but to the +enlargement of both circles of comradeship and their amalgamation into +friends of the family. This may be a difficult achievement. Many men +and women have found, to their surprise, that although they are in +love with wife or husband they are not at all in love with the +respective families and still less inclined to accept each other's +chosen friends as their own. One angle alone of the many-sided +character may have "made the match;" quite other angles have already +attracted and still hold the friends. These often mutually incongruous +friends of both sides must somehow be made to attach themselves to the +marriage plan or they may work much harm to the new home. + +The art of holding on to old associations and yet substituting, where +substitution is wise or necessary, a new for an established +relationship is a great art. In the case of the newly married whose +friends have been in widely different circles, it is often an +impossible one. + +Here is where the social wisdom that in some manner essays to make the +twain to be later one a part of the same or a very similar social +group, shows its finest results. When marriage was arranged by the +elders of the respective families there was likely to be a similarity +in the social standards of the two circles from which the bride and +groom were drawn. Their friends were usually so inevitably of the same +financial standing and of similar cultural ideals and manners that +they would be likely to be congenial to each other and all to both +husband and wife. When the one chosen was selected by the fathers and +mothers there were some essentials for successful married life secured +in advance. We have now come to feel that each couple must choose for +themselves and that conscious, selective love is the very essence of +that choice. It is well, however, to name over the essentials secured +by the arranged marriages, to which such an enlightened country as +France still gives much heed and still holds to some extent in family +control. + +=Some Advantages in Choices of Marriage by the Elders.=--The old +arranged choice for marriage, in the first place, secured, and still +secures in countries not yet changed in this particular, a similar +financial position. Often greed of family prestige made the money end +the chief one and sacrificed everything else to the bringing together +of two great fortunes. Yet the fact that family choices usually united +those of similar financial standing and power of gratification of +taste did lead toward an easy adjustment of the young couple to life +together. One of the chief causes of unhappiness in marriages wholly +from personal choice and in response to an impulse of passionate +attachment is that the taste and "style" of living of the two has been +so different that it is hard, after the first glamour wears away, to +settle down to agreeable compromises. As a rule, "the beggar maid and +King Cophetua" can get on better than the young woman heiress and the +ex-chauffeur in such compromises; for it is always easier to extend +one's income than to contract it, and women can still owe all to the +loved one with better grace than men can bear the position of one +"marrying above his lot." The tendency of the older custom, however, +to limit all marriage choices on the basis of money to be contributed +to the common fund was, and is when now in force, as destructive to +real happiness in marriage as any ill-considered leaping across social +barriers could well be. It is well, therefore, that it is outgrown. + +The second condition believed essential to success in marriage from +the point of view of family stability, when the marriage choice of the +loved one was made by the elders, is far more important than that of +financial equality. It is the congeniality of the two families to be +united by the marriage. The custom of betrothing their children as a +means of carrying on the close friendship of a lifetime beyond its +natural limit into the generations yet to be, is an old and not a +wholly bad one. It insures for the young couple a genuine love from +both sides the family line. To be sure, that love may be an oppressive +and undesired gift which one or the other of the young people ardently +wishes to ignore or to be freed from, but it contains also some +elements of a good start for those same young people in a mutually +devoted double parentage. When, however, as in Eastern countries, it +leads to betrothal in infancy or very early childhood and sets the +girl who is to be the wife in the family of her betrothed when she is +too young to know her own real nature or to have a mind to make up +about what she would wish for herself, it may be and generally is an +evil thing. In the questions concerning the family set forth by the +Chinese inquiry, to which allusion has already been made, the first +set of problems relates to "Early Engagements," and it is asked, "Is +the practice of parents in arranging for the engagement of a girl +while still a mere child productive of happiness in the future home?" +And, again, "Can a woman refuse to marry a man whom her family decides +she should marry, after the formal engagement has taken place?" To our +Western ideas the answer is so plain to both these questions that one +may be impatient at their repetition here. Yet it is certainly true +that many people freely engage themselves to their later unhappiness +and there have been many family virtues bred on even the outgrown +fashion of family choice. Where unhappiness has been prevented in the +results of family choice doubtless the friendship of the two family +heads has had much to do with such mitigation of bad effects of +extreme parental control in marriage. + +Social protection of the young has in a measure superseded the ancient +family arrangement, but where it has not, a young person may be found +to-day in as bad a position through personal choice as that of the +girl set in a home without her own consent to be the future wife of a +man she has not seen. The difference is, however, a vital one. + +In the case of the Chinese girl the status is fixed. In the case of a +girl of the Western world, even of most unfortunate circumstance or +weakness of character, there is a possibility of escape from even the +worst conditions into a new relationship to life and to marriage. We +have suicides in the Western world, and some of them of young girls +who, free to choose their mates, loved not wisely but too well; but +the toll of suicides of wives in China is one that testifies that +polygamy and the power of fathers over their daughters in marriage and +even in their sale for immoral uses, and the legal right to hold girls +in domestic slavery, are evils not made tolerable even by the +high-minded who try to perpetuate the friendship as well as the power +of leading families by intermarriage. + +An early Massachusetts law declared that "No female orphan could be +given in marriage during her minority except with the approbation of a +majority of the selectmen of the town." This was proof that in this +country from the first, the social power was used not to make girls +accept husbands that might be chosen for them but to protect girls +from exploitation of designing persons, and if they had not a family +protection they were held secure in that of the officers of the +community. The law of 1719, in New York, that no person under +twenty-one should be married without the written consent of parent or +guardian was a step in the direction of social control. This law aimed +not to make marriage choices for any young person but to safeguard +such choice from possible harm. + +The ancient family choice in marriage tried in the third place to give +every one an equal chance to be married. The families concerned, when +the age thought to be marriageable had been reached, sought to give +the young persons a place in the family order. The idea of bachelors +and maids of mature years was not only repugnant, it was an indictment +of the vigilance and good offices of the elders. When a certain Doctor +Brickell practised medicine in North Carolina in about 1731, he +declared that "She that continues unmarried until twenty is reckoned a +stale maid, which is a very indifferent character in this country;" +and in New England the unmarried man, as elsewhere, was subjected to +special tax and social odium. + +The family arrangement for marriage of the young did one thing, at +least, in a time when women and girls enjoyed little protection or +financial security outside of marriage--it set at work forces to +provide husbands for many girls who would not be the first choice in a +free competition for masculine favor. + +=Some Ancient Spinsters, But Few.=--There were, however, some +distinguished women of the older time who never married. Margaret +Brent, of Maryland, for example, whose appeal for "voyce and vote with +men," in the making of laws to which she must owe allegiance, is +historic. And that Mary Carpenter, sister of Alice, wife of Governor +Bradford, who, at the beginning of her ninety-first year, was declared +a "godly old maid;" and, again, that "ancient maid of forty years," +who is said to have founded the town of Taunton, Massachusetts. Others +of distinction might be mentioned. These show clearly that the right +not to marry at all, and the right not to marry a person whom she had +not seen or, having seen, did not want as husband, was well sustained +in the case of young girls in our own country from the first. + +The lot of most women here in the United States, as elsewhere in the +world, includes marriage; and although no one wants to go back to +family arrangement of nuptials, the desirability of marriage within a +congenial and familiar circle--that which the family arrangement +distinctly set out to secure--is still obvious. + +The fourth element of family stability and well-being which the +ancient parental arrangement of marriage was intended to secure is +deliberation and chance for learning all the facts on both sides, so +that there may be no marrying in haste to repent at leisure. The +reaction from this deliberation in tying the nuptial knot is seen in +"running away to be married" without the slightest knowledge on either +side of the qualities or capacities of the chosen partner and without +giving the parents any opportunity of safeguarding from disastrous +choice. This is the swing of the pendulum in a new freedom, often to +personal disaster. Social ideals and legal provisions are alike +engaged more and more to prevent too ignorant and too hasty marriages. +Such may turn out to have been made in heaven as nearly as the average +union, but the chances are against that happy consummation. + +=New Demands for Social Control of Marriage Choices.=--Social wisdom +obliges more deliberation in the case of young people seeking a +marriage license on their own initiative and perhaps after a very +brief acquaintance. There is a strong demand that a certain period +shall elapse between the request for the license and its granting and +that sufficient publicity be secured to make it easy for interested +parties to ascertain any facts concerning both the man and the woman +involved, which might make the marriage either illegal, as bigamy, or +a catastrophe, as uniting one unfit for marriage with an unsuspecting +person blinded by sudden attraction. More than this, many States of +our Union are beginning processes of law to require certificates of +physical fitness, of freedom from infectious or dangerous disease, and +some statement of facts as to previous obedience to law and ability +for self-support such as alone would make marriage successful. +Ministers of religion of various sects are taking more and more a +stand against marriage of persons whom they know are of bad habits or +otherwise likely to give a married partner an unhappy life. Insanity +in the family is now considered in some States a disqualification for +marriage, and statutes requiring some family testimony to facts +concerning that inheritance are coming into enactment and enforcement. +The tragedy of marrying ignorantly into a certain and hopeless fate of +union with one who can never be of sound mind is so terrible that the +state itself is trying to safeguard carelessness on that point. The +medical profession is more and more acting a parental part in +requiring the registry of diseases that are most unsocial in their +effect--diseases incident to vice, and which make any man while +suffering from them unfit for marriage. It is proposed by many, and by +law required in some States, that no marriage license shall be given +without a certificate of both mental and physical fitness, to be +handed to the officer before registry of the application, in order +that there may be no public refusal on such grounds of unfitness after +it is known that a license to marry has been sought. This would be far +better than, as has been proposed by some persons, for clergymen to +take the initiative in requiring such physical and mental tests after +a request to marry two people and after a license has been secured. +After a matter has gone so far as to result in a request to a +clergyman to officiate at the marriage ceremony, the exaction of an +examination which the state has not previously required would +inevitably, as has been already shown in some instances, lead to +suspicion and bad feeling. The duty of the state, which alone in our +country gives power to marry (the clergyman performing the ceremony +pronouncing the couple married "by virtue of the power invested in him +by the state"), is clear. That duty is to take all initiative in all +previous inquiries aimed at preventing the marriage of unfit persons. +If the state does take such initiative and for all alike, no matter +what their social standing or reputation may be, then there is no +stigma for any individual and no suspicion aroused to injure any class +of persons. There seems as good reason why a compulsory physical and +mental examination, together with an inquiry into the main facts of a +person's life in order to prevent fraud and exploitation, should +always precede the giving of a marriage license as for the required +physical and mental examination of children when they enter the +tax-supported public school. It is, in both cases, a way by which +society secures itself, in the interest of the family and of social +life, against the fostering or continuance of evils that may be +prevented from poisoning the sources of moral and intellectual growth. + +The fiat has gone forth in the Western world that no one shall be +compelled to marry against his or her will. The first revolt from +family control of marriage, that which made so many persons believe +that any one should be allowed to marry any one whom he or she might +choose, is now, however, waning. Elements of social control are +superseding the "marriage broker" and the parental office in deciding +what unions shall be allowed. + +=The Young Should be Helped to Make Wise Choices.=--Wisdom and +consistency are not yet developed in this new way of helping the +young, even against their will, to avoid mistakes of ignorance and +folly, but they are developing. Meanwhile, many children still revere +their parents' wishes and ideals, even if the wild few do as they +please without regard to their elders. Most marriages in our country +are not only safely entered upon but happy in results because of +tendencies and tastes engendered in homes of love, truth, and +goodness. The increase of social control in the direction of knowledge +and caution even among the best people, and the safeguarding of the +less advantaged in family training, must go on until all the good +things parental choice gave to marriage arrangements are retained more +perfectly and all the bad things outgrown. + +The fifth element in the ancient parental control of marriage choices +was the definite placing of youth under the leadership of age and thus +holding firm the inherited "mores" to make the family stable in ideal +as in practice. We have now a revolt of youth against the leadership +of age. We have now, even among those whose affection for their +parents is strong in feeling and generous in action, an idea that the +convictions and reverences of the older generation are outgrown and +for the better. There is a general impression, perhaps speeded unduly +by the war, that what is new must be good, and what is old must be, if +not bad, at least not the best. The decay of family religion lessens +respect for old sanctions. The fact that business and pleasure alike +take the different members of each family on different ways all the +week and Sunday, too, make each age represented in the household +influenced chiefly by its own set of friends. The way in which +mechanical invention gives unexampled speed in opposite directions to +the young and the old alike intensifies the segregation of each group +and minimizes the influence of the family bond. The fact, perhaps of +all most significant, that every form of art, from the lowest to the +highest, is changing before our eyes into something new and strange +tends toward the unconscious absorption by youth of new ideals of what +is desirable in life. These things all conspire to make youth +impatient of age. + +=The Revolt of Youth.=--Many of the boys who went to torture and +cripplement in the war have returned to declare that the old life is +gone, and if there can be no better one devised and realized then the +old world should go too. Many of the girls who went overseas to a +vivid excitement and a stimulus of unwonted comradeship with men feel +that they have so much more insight into real things than do their +mothers that they know not only what is best for themselves but what +is best for all youth. Many women, for the first time earning +independent livelihood during the war-struggle, feel that now, at +last, they have arrived; and what have they to do with old-fashioned +behavior? More than all else, the modern economic independence of +women of good breeding and assured position, in social classes which +used to consider that only women in direst need could properly earn +money, gives a wholly different aspect to many social questions. The +tendency to individualism, so often seen in the modern woman, +unbalanced by study of the past or its lessons or by any real +grappling with present problems as they relate to possible future +adjustments, now begins its strongest revolt at the fireside and makes +the daughter often a stranger to her mother. + +Only the older woman who has kept in touch not only with young life +outside her own family but with the problems that modern changes in +education, in industry, in art and literature, press upon the mind, +can understand why so many young people to-day distrust everything +that is old and welcome everything that seems new, however ancient it +may actually be. Many of the newest things proclaimed are old mistakes +of human nature revamped for a masquerade. A little study, for +example, would show many young people who think they are responding to +fresh revelation of the right relation of the sexes that they are +really coming under the spell of some ancient and discarded plan of +getting all satisfaction out of a relationship without assuming any +obligation in return. + +=The Wisdom of the Ages Must be the Guide of Youth.=--There is no +chance of putting youth back into tutelage to age in any personal +relation and in the old sense. Wise older people do not wish that. +What is happening, and will be accelerated in action when the first +flush of youthful consciousness of power is a bit balanced by +knowledge of life's difficulties, is this; the wisdom of the ages, not +the wisdom of their own parents and family alone, will be available to +youth and used by youth in ever-increasing reverence. Not that some +one who has lived longer shall of right determine a young life, but +that young life shall learn more than in any past time it could do +what the experience of the race has to teach. Happy the child whose +parent can interpret this wisdom of life and happy the parent whose +child can even now see that there is wisdom from the past to +interpret. + +Meanwhile, the fact that so many people marry and so many marriages +turn out happily speaks well for the wisdom of youth or else gives +testimony of the kindness of the fate that watches over lovers. We are +told that at the ages of twenty to twenty-five half of the women and +one-fourth of the men in the United States are married, and at the +period of life between thirty-five and forty-five years only seventeen +per cent. of the men are single and only eleven per cent. of the +women; while at sixty-five years and over only six per cent. of either +sex are listed as having never married. If out of this large +proportion who dare matrimony on their own motion, and often without +even the parental approbation, only one marriage out of ten to twelve +turns out so badly that the parties ask to be released from their +marriage vows, surely it argues well for independence in choosing +one's partner for one's self even if there are mishaps and disasters +for the few. + +=Personal Choice in Marriage Has Now the Widest Range.=--One fact +which many overlook when making estimates of the mistakes in marriage +(and drawing therefrom dire prognostication for the future of the +family in our country) is that personal choice among a circle of +friends was not only never so free for young people but also never +able to cover so wide a range of divergent national and racial +backgrounds as in the United States. Marriages in this country often +bridge or try to bridge a chasm between centuries of social +development and continents of educational influence. It is estimated +that of the 3,424 languages and dialects spoken in the world, about +one-third, or 1,624, are spoken in some part of the American +continent. The English language is spoken by more people than use +either the German, Russian, French, Spanish, Italian, or Portuguese, +but the 150,000,000 who thus preserve the "mother-tongue" of the early +American settlers have to come into intimate contact with those of far +different lingual background. This difference in language, which is +found so often a barrier to unity between the respective parents of +the young people who choose each other in marriage, is but a sign and +symbol of deep-seated and ineradicable divergence in family tradition, +in fashion of customary ways of living, in scale of moral values and +in personal habits. It is rather a matter for astonishment that so +many "mixed marriages" turn out well than that a minority prove +disastrous. Mixed marriages will continue and with wider range of +alignment in the future than in the past. That is inevitable with our +increased complexity of life, which brings together in school and in +labor, in social gatherings and in political association, all sorts +and conditions of men, and women. Love not only laughs at prison bars, +love scoffs at parental differences as well as at parental control. +Yet is it true that wide divergence in family background is +accountable for many of the tragedies of broken families after love +has cooled and the facts of sober obligations incurred have become +obvious. + +The great social need in the United States is for means of +acquaintance and friendship for the young in lines of association in +which a safe and helpful marriage choice may be made. William Penn +said, "Never marry but for love, but see that thou lovest what is +lovely." The effort of all social arrangements for the young in +families where the elders do not try to reinstate parental control but +rather to give a chance for safeguarded independence of choice is to +bring together young people who should find, each one of them in that +group, a chosen one of the right sort. Financial capacity, mutually +congenial relatives, suitable age and similar tastes, after +acquaintance giving reasonable basis for hope for permanent agreement +in essentials, might insure suitable marriages. The many advantages of +close friendships within a group bound together by similar culture and +outlook is the real reason for "society." Often foolish in its ways +and defeating its own higher ends, it is yet a real effort to give a +new and more democratic guidance through favorable circumstances, +rather than through personal will or family rule, to the marriage +choice of youth. + +The reason why one is chosen and another not is never clear to any but +the ones who make the choice. To them, indeed, it may be a mystery, +but one they are sure must have its source in the necessity of things. +To others it is often a puzzle past understanding because so many of +the friends of each of the twain "would have chosen so differently, +you know." + +Something of racial need both for mixture and for persistency of type, +something of hidden demand of temperament for a complementary +personality, something of easy awakening of passion and easy holding +of attention, something of requirement for a larger sympathy than most +friends can give and the favored one seems able to supply--all these +enter into the selection of the chosen one from all the rest of one's +friends. The need is for as wide a range of personalities and for as +large a chance to make friends with the suitable and truly congenial +as can be given to youth in order that the choice may be really free +and the result happy. + +=The Value of the Church in Social Life.=--In our day the best +opportunities for such a choice within social ranges most likely to +offer the right choice is found in the churches. Whatever they may +lack in power of leadership, the churches have a social activity +to-day which gives the very best opportunity to youth in its quest for +the perfect other half. It is not necessary or best to do as the +Friends have done, turn out of the communion those who "marry out of +meeting." It is not a wholesome sign when religion puts bars before +the marriage altar, for one's true mate may be found in another temple +than that in which one was consecrated in infancy. It is often the +very difference in family faith that unites two people whose religious +inheritance has slipped away from bondage and gives only a reminiscent +glow. It is, however, true that like beliefs, like forms of worship, +like use of the same tabernacle, Sunday after Sunday, which bring +parents and elders of families together, give chances for the young to +form wide and strong attachments of friendship within a circle of like +quality and tastes. In spite of the fact that many people bridge vast +social chasms with high success in a marriage venture, the majority +of happy marriages are of those who do not have to engage an outside +interpreter in order to understand each other in reaction to social +habit, ethics, and culture. + +It is often made a reproach to the modern church that it is so much a +supplement of the home, so largely a social opportunity rather than a +controlling moral force. In some sense the reproach may be a just one, +but in a very real meaning of human service, the church that aids +young people to find themselves and each other in a friendly circle of +the like-minded, like-mannered, and like-spirited, within the circle +of whom a really good marriage choice may be made, can claim +recognition as of those functionaries that meet a need not met so well +by any other social agency. The straining of this point by advertised +"courting parlors" for the friendless and homeless may not be the +right thing, but what is needed is an opportunity providing the right +atmosphere and chaperonage for easier acquaintance among young people +away from home. + +The sad fact that so many young men and young women never meet the +right mates in youth and marry perforce, if at all, any one that +"comes along," makes any organization that naturally and simply +enables those who need it to make acquaintance with those among whom a +congenial mate may easily be found socially useful. + +Either as substitute for home surroundings or as supplement to unhappy +or inadequate family life, the church home may be a benefactor in this +direction of enabling young people to find what all need, friends and +possible chosen ones among those friends. + +The prophetic mission of the church, laments an earnest reformer, is +now too much in eclipse. Perhaps so, but it may be truer to say that +the prophetic mission has now escaped all walls, even of grandest +cathedrals, and is now busy at organizing that mission into +specialties of social reform and social progress. However that may be, +the church as a home-extension meeting-place of the higher, broader, +and finer friendly association, in which all ages can come together, +in a friendly spirit and for worship of all that is lovely and of good +report;--the church as such a home-extension service has a noble place +to fill in modern life. + +=Easy Divorce Does Not Lessen Marriage Responsibility.=--At any rate, +by whatever means of help, or however left to struggle alone with its +problems, the youth of to-day has taken all life's choices in its own +hands, especially the choice that puts one friend above all others and +takes the first step in the founding of a home. If any one thinks that +it is so slight a thing to do this now, since if one is not satisfied +one can get a divorce, he or she is not giving the choice a fair +chance. It must be held within the heart and purpose as a permanent +bond or the marriage will not be likely to realize its own +possibilities. + +The real lover is sure that he will love forever the same. It is that +feeling that consecrates the marriage and gives most assurance of its +success. If we could get rid of romantic love we should have no good +start toward married happiness. If we got rid of the ideal of +life-long devotion we should not build the home on sure foundations. +The psychology of permanence is an essential of true marriage. + +On the other hand, if we tried to put the family back into the bondage +of the old time, when youth was subject and could never exercise its +own power of choice, we should lose the one precious gift of freedom +to love, the power to find and keep one's own. If we fear the future +of the family because now the spiritual essence of marriage is +demanded, even if the form of its first enclosure prove too strait for +its growth, we cannot turn back to the harsh practice and coarse +ideals that once made all unions seem right that preserved a legal +bond and all men and women wrong-doers who sought freedom from +intolerable ills. + +=New and Finer Marriage Unions.=--There is a way of life, full of +difficulties and not yet clear, a way of life that leads to such a +noble comradeship and such a type of loving union as the world could +rarely see in the older days. + +Our children and our children's children will know how to use freedom +for service, and service for mutual growth, and mutual growth for +community betterment, in those "world's great bridals, chaste and +calm," which the future shall make the common glory of the home. + + +QUESTIONS ON FRIENDS AND THE CHOSEN ONE + + 1. Does youth now take its own way in choice of companionship as + never before? If so, does it mean better or worse choices in + marriage? + + 2. Should early marriages be encouraged? If so, how should the + social opportunity for wise choices be secured to youth? If + not, how can the social dangers of postponement of marriage be + minimized? + + 3. Should young people in shops and manufactories, in college, in + school, in recreation centres, and elsewhere, be guided into + social circles in which marriage choices are likely to be + wisely made? If so, how can this be done? + + 4. How can the disproportion in numbers of men and women in given + localities, which is an acknowledged cause of late marriages + and failure to marry at all, and which is largely due to + economic conditions, be mitigated? + + 5. Is the "revolt of youth," so called, a passing phase of rapid + social changes, or is it evidence that old institutions in + which the elders had superior power are becoming permanently + outgrown? + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +HUSBANDS AND WIVES + + "First, the love of wedded souls; next, neighbor loves and civic, + All reddened, sweetened from the central heart." + --E.B. BROWNING. + + "Two shall be born the whole wide world apart + And speak in different tongues, and have no thought + Each of the other's being and no heed; + And those o'er unknown seas to unknown lands + Shall come, escaping wreck, defying death, + And all unconsciously shape every act + And bend each wandering step to this one end--That + one day, out of darkness, they shall stand + And read life's meaning in each other's eyes." + --SUSAN MARR SPAULDING. + + "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. + I love thee to the depth and breadth and height + My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight + For the ends of being and ideal grace. + I love thee to the level of every day's + Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light." + I love thee freely, as men strive for right. + I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. + --ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. + + "A home is not an accidental or natural coming together of human + souls under the same roof in certain definite relationships; it is + a work of art, to be builded upon fixed principles of life and + action."--HENRY WARE, in _Home Life_. + + "True love is but a humble, low-born thing, + And hath its food served up in earthenware; + It is a thing to walk with, hand in hand, + Through the every-dayness of this work-day world, + Baring its tender feet to every roughness, + Yet letting not one heart-beat go astray + From Beauty's law of plainness and content; + A simple, fireside thing, whose quiet smile + Can warm earth's poorest hovel to a home." + --LOWELL. + + +=Not Fancied but Genuine Happiness in Marriage Now Demanded.=--The +fairy tales ended with the wedding and "they lived happily forever +after." The dramas and novels of to-day are often devoted to telling +how they did not live happily ever after and what or who caused the +unhappiness. Although no one need be alarmed that some people get +divorced when marital unhappiness becomes acute, every right-minded +person wishes that every marriage should turn out happily. We now, +however, demand that it shall be genuine, not make-believe happiness, +and that places a heavier strain upon all concerned. We have grown +wise enough to see that holding people together who should never have +been brought into close relationship does not really conduce to high +family morality or social well-being. That, however, only makes it +seem the more important that we should somehow learn how to prevent +the marriage of those who cannot make their union a success. The part +that social control can play in preventing the attempt to marry by the +wholly unfit in body, mind, or work-capacity has been already +suggested, and that pressure of the community upon the individual +choice will, without doubt, largely increase as the bad results of too +great individualism in the family relation are more clearly perceived. + +=Social Restrictions on Marriage Choices.=--There will, in time, be a +narrowing of the circle within which personal choices can be made, so +that the markedly defective in mind, the victims of disease inimical +to family well-being, and the pauper strains of inheritance will be +ruled out before young people have a chance to marry according to +their own inclination. + +With such helpful narrowing of choices there would still remain many +dangers to be avoided if the divorce statistics are to be held within +bounds of social safety. + +The part that the family elders once played in settling vital +questions of adjustment within the marriage bond has now, for the most +part, to be undertaken for consideration and decision by the young +people themselves. To name these most important questions of +adjustment and discuss them in the light of modern ideals and desires +is to get a better impression of the difficulties they indicate. + +=Shall the Wife Take the Husband's Name?=--In the first place, the +matter of the name for the married couple must be now considered. +Shall it be one or two? Shall the new sense of personal dignity, so +common to the modern woman, increase the already spreading fashion of +retention of the maiden name, her inherited family name, as +permanently her own, untouched by the fact of marriage union? No one +can be cognizant of the conviction and practice of many feminists +without understanding that this is a real problem to be settled surely +before the marriage ceremony. There is already in the field a "Lucy +Stone League" to give the support of the practice of a great and +beloved woman to the fashion of keeping one's own name. The question +of the desirability of having children bear the same name as both +parents is left for the most part in abeyance by those who thus +advocate two names for the married couple. It may be that each child +is expected to bear as a second name his mother's and as a last name +his father's family name, as, for example, John Jones Jackson, Jones +being the mother's and Jackson the father's personal signature; but +when the child marries, by what name shall the family line be carried +on? + +To most of us who see in the family name adopted by both husband and +wife at marriage a sign of family unity not to be lost without serious +embarrassment to offspring, and some danger of easy drifting apart +without the knowledge of others, the name seems not to be of vital +importance. Why, then, it is asked, should the woman always give up +her family connection as indicated by inherited name, and the man +retain his? The fact that the custom has grown up by reason of the +legal absorption of the wife's life in that of the husband is obvious, +and gives much color to the claim that now, when a woman is a +recognized personality in the law whether married or single, she +should keep the name by which her personality has become known. That +is easily seen to be advantageous in the case of professional women of +wide influence. The great singer, the great writer, any creative +genius or artist, continues, as a rule, to be known by the name under +which greatness has been achieved. In such cases, however, women often +bear two names, the professional name either of family inheritance or +a chosen _nom de plume_, and the social name, which is their husband's +and engraved on calling cards. The tendency now is increasing to keep +the one designation to which one is born and make no concessions to +conventional nomenclature. It must be remembered that in such cases it +is the father's name by which the married daughter is called and the +mother's maiden name is lost with all the rest of the silent majority +of her sex. The fact that men have given the wedded name for ages, and +that men are most often senior partners in the marriage firm, and the +fact that any other suggested plan gives two names for one family +instead of one seems to make that a part of the old inheritance that +may not cause great uneasiness if one accepts it without revolt. There +is a compromise method which long has been a custom among Friends and +is growing even more rapidly than that of holding permanently to the +full maiden name. That is the plan of keeping the father's name, or +the "maiden name," as a middle one, and adding the husband's name; so +that Miss Mary Jane Wood shall, on marrying John Hartley Stone, +become, not Mrs. John Hartley Stone, but Mrs. Mary Wood Stone. That +keeps in memory her family designation and yet gives her children a +chance to call themselves by the one name which is a sign of the +family unity. However the settlement may be made, the point is that +such a vital question, entering into the legal signature for business +purposes as well as into all social relationship, shall reach +conclusion before the two enter upon the marriage bond. + +=Shall the Wife Take the Husband's Nationality?=--In the second place, +there is now a question of nationality to be settled, a most important +one in all its political and legal bearings. The old law made a wife +the subject of her husband's national law and took her automatically +away from her own country if her husband was born and was citizen of +another country. The national allegiance of her birth and her family +was thus automatically transferred to that of the man she had married. +The suffering of many a woman in the late war when her husband's +national allegiance made her legally an "enemy alien" to her own +beloved land has sharpened the claim that now, when women have the +franchise, they should have complete choice of the body politic to +which they owe allegiance. If they wish to marry men of another +country they shall have the determination of whether or not they shall +become naturalized by his government or whether they shall keep +political relation with their own native country. The League of Women +Voters is now hard at work to make the national allegiance of women, +as of men, a personal matter whether women are married or single. The +Federal Bill that is called for by this body would make it incumbent +upon all women of foreign birth desiring to use the franchise in the +United States to become naturalized, and would protect any woman on +marrying from the loss of her own national allegiance, whatever her +husband's might be.[7] Surely such a protection of individual +citizenship is best for both men and women, whatever their marital +state. It is, however, a matter that often comes up for adjustment in +international marriages. It is matter of importance that women of +foreign birth as well as men coming to this country from other lands +should personally seek for full citizenship and not have it handed to +them with a marriage certificate. It is equally of importance that no +person should lose allegiance to the country of his or her birth and +affection simply by reason of marriage. This question of what country +shall one continue to belong to after marriage is one for settlement +on high grounds of patriotism and civic duty before the marriage is +consummated. + +=Who Shall Choose the Domicile?=--In the third place, the matter of +chosen domicile is now up for discussion or may be in the near future. +The law from time immemorial has given the choice of residence of the +family, wife as well as children, into the complete control of the +husband and father. A woman may be "posted" in the public press as +"leaving her husband's bed and board," and thereby the husband may be +released from any responsibility for her debts or support. The +inference is that married women have no rights in marriage that can +survive independent choice on her part of a residence apart from the +husband. Now we have a movement that if successful would place the law +behind an equal choice by married men and married women, of domicile, +and of all that goes with that possible separation of residence. There +are those who declare that separate residence for husbands and wives +might keep the flame of romantic love burning longer and more +ardently, since "familiarity often breeds contempt" and the absence of +the loved one often kindles desire. This is not, however, the general +feeling, and the demand for independent choice of domicile has many +side-issues not at present fully met, if at all understood, by those +who make the demand noted above. The legal right of choice of domicile +goes consistently with the legal obligation to "support," The law +still makes it incumbent upon a husband to give financial support to +his wife commensurate with his earnings or income and still more +demands of the father the full support of minor children. Naturally, +if he has these obligations to meet, a man must go where he can earn +sufficient to meet them. He may be unwise or mistaken in his choice, +but, having the responsibility, he must try to meet it as best he can, +and among the necessary elements in that trial are free movement to +the place or places in which he can find work. + +If, therefore, the family are all to be kept in one residence, father, +mother and children, this economic aspect of the father's +responsibility must be considered. If the father and mother each "gang +their ain gait," and decide for business reasons or from personal +preference to live in separate places, perhaps far apart from each +other, then which one is to have the child or children? The old idea +that men should have the power to hold women in wholly unsuitable +surroundings, and that no matter what home was offered her a wife must +submit and accept, is long outgrown in all the States of this Union. +The wife has now the right to help choose domicile, and in point of +fact, at least among the older Americans, has often more than an equal +share in such determination; but to pass a "blanket law" that at once +gave the suggestion of two choices for the family domicile without any +qualifying statement of release of men from "support" clauses in the +family legislation as those clauses relate to wives might be neither +just nor wise. The one in the family upon whom is placed the heavier +economic burden for support of children must have much freedom of +choice of residence. To restrict that freedom might be to add to +present family difficulties without really giving women better chances +in marriage. Now, any woman who feels herself oppressed in the matter +of domicile has the remedy in her own hands. She can make complaint to +a court or she can leave her husband and no one can prevent her, and +she can establish a separate establishment if she has the means and +make herself eligible thereby to a practical if not a legal divorce. +But if the twain stay together, and mean to do so, there are mutual +considerations that require an adjustment, and there is now little +danger of women having to submit to injustice in the matter of choice +of domicile, except in cases where no home together would seem +desirable to either or to both. + +The matter of choice of domicile is now in the United States so much a +mutual question and to be decided upon economic grounds, that it is +one of the things that it is well to discuss from the bottom up if two +people wish to marry, provided there are any reasons why the relative +merits of two or more places of residence are involved in the issue. +The reasonableness and generosity of the average American man quite +equals the like qualities in the average American woman; hence the +domicile question may well be left in abeyance in any struggle for +"equality of rights between the sexes" and confined to personal debate +and decision; but in that personal debate and decision it should have +recognized place. + +=Shall the Married Woman Earn Outside the Home?=--The fourth question, +now sometimes a burning one, and one most intimately related to that +of choice of domicile, is that concerning the continuance of +professional or business connection by the woman after marriage. Shall +I keep on with my work or not? This is the problem that besets many a +woman when the question of marriage with the chosen one is imminent. +For the woman who is a teacher, and already established in the +educational field in the city or town where both the man and the woman +concerned find it easy to choose to live after marriage, there is a +probability that she can continue her work after marriage with +comparative ease. The laws that used to penalize the woman teacher who +married are rapidly ceasing to operate, and although the common legal +requirement for a two years' vacation from public school employment +when a child is to be born may exert a strong influence upon the +birth-rate (either for or against) the fact that marriage does not +disqualify for teaching and that teaching is so near the home interest +may lead to much continuance of that type of professional work after +marriage. The question, however, is not one for the woman alone to +solve. Many women find that the ideal of "taking care of his wife," +which long ages of law and custom have ingrained in man's nature, may +stand in the way of her earning outside the home after marriage. To be +settled right this question must be settled by full consent of both +parties and that consent may be hard to get from the man who fears +that he will be considered incapable if he "lets his wife earn." What +is to be done in such a case? That must be determined by the +possibility of compromise on both sides. + +If the woman has attained a high position in some profession, law, or +medicine, as preacher, teacher, or nurse, as business manager or +welfare worker, the chances are that she feels she can best help in +the family life by hiring things done in the household, which she has +little skill, perhaps, to do herself, and keeping on with the vocation +for which she has been trained and in which she has already gained a +place. But she may have attained her vocational opportunity and to +keep it must continue to live in a locality remote from the man's home +and work. What then? To be near each other and to live together is the +chief desire of genuine lovers. That would be no home which had two +centres of vocational activity miles apart. Circumstances may compel +such separation for economic reasons long after marriage has bound two +lives together so closely that distance even cannot really separate +them. But at the outset, if two people are to belong to each other, +they must be able to combine their home life if that is to be a help +and not a hindrance to the joint affection that alone makes the two +one. The question of domicile, bound up with that of whether or not +the woman shall continue her vocational connection after marriage, +sometimes becomes acute in this manner:--the woman earns more than the +man and her place of earning is in a far-away location from his and +the transplanting of his life has no promise of economic readjustment. +Shall she give up her larger salary and go with him to a place in +which she is less likely than if single to gain a professional +foothold and they both make the smaller income do? Or shall she +insist, if he is willing, that the economic advantage of the married +firm requires his removal to the seat of her labors at any risk of his +getting another hold upon vocational opportunity? + +Those who ask such a question should remember that the facts of life, +social and economic, all make the upsetting of the man in his work +seldom a safe or a happy solution. In the first place, the position of +a man who even temporarily depends upon his wife's vocational success +and relinquishes his own economic position, is far more difficult than +that of a woman who sacrifices her own professional standing to go +with her husband to a new centre. Any woman asks more of a man in the +way of sacrifice, both of his standing as a man and his chances as a +worker, if she demands that he take her income as the basic economic +element in the joint family treasury (when such demand entails a +change of residence and a giving up of assured income on his part) +than any man asks of a woman when the conditions proposed are the +reverse. No woman loses "caste" who depends upon her husband in an +economic sense. Perhaps the time will come when it will cost a woman +the loss of social prestige and of the best chance for work outside +the home (as it now does a man) when the choice is made to follow the +larger income from one locality to another. Now, however, it means +that a woman can adjust herself to such change far better than a man, +and hence that equal right to demand sacrifice and equal duty to +mutually help each other demand that where such acute problems arise +the woman shall give the man's relation to his work right of way. +Moreover, even those who, like Doctor Patten, believe that women +should continue vocational work after marriage place the chief +economic burden of the family permanently upon the husband and father. +The wife may earn outside the home if both agree and the opportunity +offers in the place where the man's work already is; but the +maintenance of the economic standing and the improvement of social +condition remain, as of old, with the man. And for the obvious reason +that if the woman has children they may take a large portion of her +interest and of her strength and energy and, in any case, the married +woman, if she really makes a home, must mix her vocational work with a +more or less extended devotion to that home-making. Also, although a +woman at marriage may be in receipt of a larger income from vocational +service than is the man she wishes to marry, he will be more likely, +if worth-while, to gain steadily toward a much larger compensation. +The positions which women fill are for the most part self-limited. +They are fast developing high qualities for routine work in the +professions, like school doctor and hospital clinician and workers for +legal aid and other like salaried employments. These are not highly +paid, but have manifest advantages for women in that they give a fixed +income, if small, and in that they allow for regulation of hours of +service that may easily be made half-time work in case of divided +effort. Hence, although at a given point in earlier life (when the +usual greater precocity of women give some women the advantage in +salary and position), a woman may have a higher salary at marriage, a +far greater rise in both income and leadership may be on the husband's +side as the years go on. + +=Economic Considerations Involved.=--At any rate, the question of +whether or not the woman shall earn outside the home after her +marriage must wait upon the deeper question, shall she do anything +which will disturb or render more difficult the man's economic +adjustment? There are exceptions, a growing number of exceptions, but +as a general thing the question of domicile and the question of which +one shall give way when there is difficulty of both being well +situated in individual work in one place, must be settled on the basis +of the man's longer, larger, and more continuous responsibility for +the economic standing of the family. + +The exceptions make their own excuse and shape their own defense. The +average married woman carries on two vocations if she keeps on with +her own work, one inside and one outside the home. The one in which +she earns outside the home must in the long run and the large way be +subordinated to the joint partnership of the household in which she +bears a larger share of the internal management and he the heavier +burden of the outside support. + +Any thorough-going discussion of the questions involved in the +wage-earning of married women and mothers outside the home must +include study of actual expense of alternate plans. The fundamental +question may be one concerning the social value of the woman's +vocational work. The next must certainly be what would the family +treasury gain or lose by the housemother's continued vocational +service outside the home. In the suggestive and encouraging book by +Mrs. Mary Hinman Abel, entitled _Successful Family Life on the +Moderate Income_, this economic aspect of the problem is treated with +definiteness. In addition to the general conclusion reached by many +that a family income of from $2,500 to $3,000 must be reached before +continual hired help can be economically justified, Mrs. Abel shows by +tables at pre-war prices that unless a married woman has a high-grade +profession with a good independent income the duties performed by the +average housemother within the home cannot be hired without a distinct +economic loss to the family treasury. For example, reckoning +conservatively the cost of the full-time hired girl or working +housekeeper at $600 to $1,000 per year, and estimating the economic +value of the woman who does all her own housework except washing and +heavy cleaning at only fifteen cents an hour, the saving by the +average married woman who is competent and well and does all her own +work is a large one. There are the best of reasons, therefore, why, +for the woman who is in ordinary circumstances and not so averse to +household care and work as to insure her failure in it, the answer to +the question, Shall I keep on with my outside earning after +marriage?--should be in the negative. The old notion that all women +were domestic and would enjoy housework if only they could do it in +their own homes is indeed exploded. The natural differences among +women are now allowed. The advantages, social, economic, and in +matters of health and control of work-time and of leisure, which the +average housemother enjoys over the average woman who works at manual +labor under the factory system of industry, were, however, never +better known or more justly evaluated. The proof of this is in the +inclusion of training in household arts by the Smith-Hughes Bill, +under which the Federal Government makes large appropriations for +vocational training directly aimed at improving the efficiency of +women whose labor is confined to the private home. + +It is a sign, among other things, of desired and needed flexibility in +domestic arrangements that there were listed in 1910 as married +twenty-five per cent. of the women at work in "gainful occupations." +Not all the conditions indicated by this count were socially helpful; +since in the textile industries, in which many married women are +employed, there are fewer children born and more die before the end of +the second year than in the average population. It does, however, +indicate that among those of higher opportunity in life there is a +growing disposition to treat the question of women's continuance in +vocational service outside the home after marriage as a real problem +and one to be settled in freedom, and with social approval of that +freedom, by the two persons most deeply concerned. Only, it must be +insisted, that all a married woman gains in salary or wages cannot be +reckoned as increase of the family income. The economic value of the +average housemother's contribution is now definitely computed and must +be reckoned hereafter as so much actually contributed to the family +income. And so far, if a woman is physically able, temperamentally +adjustable, and adequately trained for household tasks, she can in the +vast majority of cases serve her day and generation in no better +fashion than by assuming and carrying the multiple duties of the +private home. + +Hence, although freedom means new choice, prudence and affection alike +oftenest point to the old paths of family service for the average +woman. As Mrs. Abel well says of the competent housemother who chooses +full and personal service to the home and the family, "At her best she +represents individual effort fully utilized. She fits her tasks +together; she utilizes bits of time; she invents short cuts in her +work," Of such it may be truly declared, in the new time as in the +old, that she translates every dollar of the family income into many +dollars' worth of comfort, of health, and of happiness. + +=Is It Bad Form to Earn After Marriage?=--One more consideration, +quite new in its full significance, should be given place in any +discussion of the wife's relation to work outside the home. That +consideration is concerned with the use of her time not needed in +household tasks. The modern aids to those tasks, of which mention has +been made, give many women who assume full responsibility for the +housemother's work a considerable amount of strength and time which +may be used in some chosen way outside the strictly family service. +The general idea is that such time should be given in gratuitous +"social welfare work" or in some form of activity divorced from +regular vocations. An able President of the Federation of Women's +Clubs, the body most distinctly representing the interest and service +of women in volunteer social service in this country, has said, in +addressing her large constituency, "Sport is work we do without +pay--we are all sports." The sentiment was applauded and with evident +sense of superiority to the "paid worker." The feeling, so general in +many circles of society, that women lose "caste" if they work for +wages or salary, reaches its maximum of prejudice in the case of +married women. It is thought highly honorable to sell things in a +"Fair" for a good cause and come in contact with a crowd of strangers +in the process among people who would consider "keeping a shop," +unless from dire necessity, a very questionable proceeding. It is +thought most virtuous and wifely for a woman married to a minister of +the church to give her time and strength gratuitously in multitudinous +religious helps to the organization which usually counts on getting +the service of two first-class people for a second-or third-class +salary for one. But for the wife of such a minister, realizing that +the income is generally insufficient for proper living, to work +outside her home, even for a few hours each day, for pay, is to lay +herself and her husband also open to harsh criticism; even if her +house is kept well and her children properly cared for. It is also +thought by many people that the only really justifiable use of time +that can be spared from household duties is in furthering the +husband's work, if he is struggling up; or, if he has "arrived," in +these miscellaneous gratuitous social services in which the club-women +so abound. + +There is great need that this judgment be revised. Not only is this +true in the interest of women whose devotion to a chosen vocation has +right of way in justice when the debate is on as to the use of any +left-over time she may save from domestic duties. It is also true that +we can not have the democratic feeling and influence from women of +social position which our political life so sadly needs unless it is +understood that it is as honorable for a woman, married or unmarried, +to earn money for her work as it is for a man with or without an +inherited fortune. The class feeling that makes all married women +range themselves with those of their sex who have inherited fortunes, +and leads them to place those who serve the community in salaried +positions as less unselfish and less honorable social workers than +themselves, is one to outgrow. An interest divorced from professional +standards or professional compensation is not necessarily nobler or +more useful. This fact makes the choice of women before marriage as to +the use of time that may justly be spared, even when the home makes +its heaviest demands upon them, a choice of social as well as of +personal significance. + +Every year social effort once strictly of private provision and +support becomes a public service, with organized supervision and +standardized compensation. When such volunteer social effort becomes a +public service it is highly desirable that the trained women it +demands for its staff should (some of them, at least) be married +women. Otherwise, the same loss of efficiency that the rapid turn-over +of the women teaching staff of our schools occasions will be +discovered in our social work as it changes its centre of gravity from +the private to the public organization. + +There is a far greater need from this point of view for reorganization +of hours and details of work so as to give more half-time or +quarter-time employment to women of proved ability, than for any +wholesale condemnation of the woman who works outside her home for +pay, even when her husband is able and willing to "take care of her." +It is for society to say, indeed, that women marrying and having +children owe first duty to the home. It is for women themselves to say +whether they shall use any time at their disposal after that duty is +met in continuing such relation to their vocation as is now possible, +or in being "sports." + +The fact that men are trying to see both sides of this vexed question +and that women, as a rule, are trying to make adjustment that will +hold an equitable and happy balance between the personal and the +family well-being means that this problem will work itself to a +democratic result without social loss. + +=Shall Parenthood be Chosen?=--The fifth question that should come up +for serious discussion and some measure of agreement in advance of the +wedding ceremony is that of children. Shall there be any? If so, how +many, if we can afford them? If so, how soon shall we try to call +about us the new life? If not, why not, and how shall we live together +without hope of offspring? These are vital questions. For want of +agreement, or at least of understanding of disagreement before +marriage, many unions are shipwrecked. + +In the old days there were no questions of this nature. Every woman +must have as many children as nature allowed, and when she could bear +no more must give way to a new wife and a step-mother to carry on the +family life; and if there were more children in a family than the +father and family friends could support, they had to be cared for by +the community. The modern condition is the same in the case of those +below a certain grade of intelligence and self-control. But as human +beings become more rational in other respects, they apply reason, +common sense, and prudence to the great function of parenthood. +Indeed, so much is this the case that the social danger of breeding +only from below the higher levels is felt to be an increasing one. +There are not wanting those who believe that rationalism in parenthood +is wrong and should be prevented, if possible, but those are the +people who decry the use of reason in all other matters, except it may +be in the strictly economic field. The fact is that whatever may be +said on the side of ancient religious sanction and inherited +sentiment, the tendency on all sides is irresistibly toward the +personal choice in parenthood as in marriage. + +=Some People Have a Right to Marry and Remain Childless.=--There are +many, however, who believe that no one should marry unless wishing and +expecting to have children. That is a belief which will doubtless be +more and more outgrown. There are young people, children of dependent +parents and near relatives, who see no way of starting a family of +their own, who yet should not be denied the comfort and help of +married life. The tragedies of sons and daughters made to drag out a +lonely existence and either condemning the one they love to like +denial or else giving up the hope of union and seeing their chosen one +wedded to another--the sort of tragedy that forms the subject of many +novels--is a tragedy to be outgrown. It may be that social burdens in +behalf of parents or other dependents can not be lifted to the extent +of making a completed family life possible to some young people. All +the more, two people who truly love each other and are bound to one +great sacrifice, namely, that of children of their own, should be able +to escape another, that of denial of marriage. + +There are other cases in which marriage is right and childbearing may +be wrong. There are tendencies to disease, in which, although there +may be a long and useful life for the one bearing a family taint, it +may be socially wrong to risk carrying on that taint. If all who need +to know are agreed, and there is a chance of living many years of real +union together, no law should step in to prevent, and no inherited +view of the limitation of marriage to those seeking parental relation +should refuse assent to the union. There are many conceivable +limitations to parental functioning, even for those who are keenly +aware of the social significance of parenthood, which do not apply to +marriage of those truly mated in thought and purpose. It is, however, +the height of irrationality, and will more and more be seen to be +such, for men and women to enter a relation the natural result of +which, in the vast majority of cases, is the bearing of children, with +no idea on either side as to what is the ideal and the wish and the +purpose of the other party in the marriage union. + +The question, again, for those who are agreed that they want to start +a family as well as begin a mating is definitely to be considered, +namely, that of the right time to begin the family they wish to have. +It may be, as many believe, that too hasty adding of the strenuous +discipline of parenthood to the often difficult task of adjustment of +two mature and forceful natures, such as marriage so often brings +together, is likely to give an unnecessarily hard start in the new +life. Two people who have just got used to themselves, perhaps, have +at marriage to get used to each other. It may be that they could +succeed better in this great task if they had not so often to adjust +themselves during the first year to the needs and masterful claims of +a baby. There is no form of tyranny equal to that of the infant, who, +assured of his right to unlimited service from all in sight, makes his +demands at all times and in all ways. He pays for his subjection of +parents and grandparents and they are all usually willing slaves. But +it is often a great advantage if the parents, at least, have had a +chance to make full acquaintance with each other's pet weaknesses and +each other's best qualities before "the baldheaded tyrant from No +Man's Land" makes his appearance. It is, therefore, clearly a matter +of frank and full discussion and settlement before marriage not only +as to the fundamental question of whether or not there shall be +children, but also if, as is the case in the overwhelming majority of +cases, the young people hope for offspring, when they shall begin to +call them to the home. + +The thing of all others to be avoided is the outgrown idea that +heavenly magic attends completely to these matters. It is earthly +wisdom and unselfishness and good intent that are needed in this as in +all the great decisions of life. Hence, there can be nothing more +absurdly out of drawing with a rationalized civilization than any law +which forbids the serious discussion of this most vital of social +questions or one that forbids the full dissemination of scientific +knowledge needed by those who would do the right thing in the parental +as in all other relations of life. + +=What Is the Just Financial Basis of the Household?=--The sixth +question that has right of debate before the marriage ceremony is that +of the financial support of the household and of the distribution of +the joint income. The use of the words joint income prejudges the case +on this point. The old idea was of one purse, of right that of the +"head of the family," and whatever it held was his to disburse. He it +was who determined how the wife should be fed and clothed and +sheltered. If he were generous and kind she fared well; if the +opposite she fared ill. Her legal right was only the same as that of +her minor child. Now the case is wholly different. In spite of some +inconsistent left-over laws that can make a showing of belated tyranny +when culled from old statute books, the financial right of the wife in +the household is generally recognized. It is, however, still true that +no logical system of financial sharing has been worked out so clearly +as to be accepted by the common mind. We still have talk of a wife +being "supported" when, as housemother, she works harder and more +hours than her husband. We still have listing of those housemothers, +who are the majority of the women of every country, as "without +occupation." It is possible for men to speak of "giving" their wives +what they think is needed for the household and without reference to +any personal preference of the wives in expenditure, as if it were an +act of charity and not a debt owed the family life. + +On the other hand, some women, having achieved partial or entire +financial independence of the husband and earning handsome sums in +work outside the home, look upon all that the man earns as "belonging +to the family," and all that they earn as wholly belonging to +themselves. "What's John's belongs to us all; what is mine belongs to +me," said one wife, without any idea of the absurd injustice of taking +all the advantage that new conditions had made possible for women and +at the same time hanging on to all that old-time privilege gave to +wives. There is need of the strictest and most balanced thinking along +the line of the economics of the household. + +If, as seems in the vast majority of cases the best plan, the husband +and father can be and is depended upon for the entire financial +support of the family in the matter of earning and the housemother +gives an actual service of great economic value in saving and service +(as the competent housewife assuredly does give), then what is earned +and what is produced by housework and management makes in justice one +family treasury. If to that is added some special earning outside the +home which the housemother is able to mix in with her family service, +then that also is a part of the family treasury. After the marriage +there should be a real partnership. There may be a separate account on +either side of the gifts of inheritance or savings preceding the +marriage, but after the twain are one in home-building they may justly +be one in a common treasury. Two bank-books they may have, it is true, +and perhaps better so, although many find one in the name of both +husband and wife sufficiently convenient. The main thing is to get +firmly in mind on both sides before any actual adjustments are +necessary what, on the financial side, is the right attitude and plan +of married life. The best way seems to be, for some people, at least, +the division of the family treasury into three distinct parts. The +first, and alas, in most families the much larger share, to be +dedicated to common household expenses. The excellent work of +specialists in family budgets shows us how this fund should be +distributed in details of rent or dwelling, cost of food, clothing, +reading, church, recreation, etc. Any one can now make up with +prudence and wisdom such an estimate in proportion to the known income +and the ascertained cost of living in any given locality. After this +common expense is provided for, with due regard for the duty of saving +for future needs, the remaining portion, be it much or little, should +be equally divided as the personal fund of the husband and the wife. +Some of those who have written on the family budget think that the +contribution of the housewife in work, for which wages would have to +be paid if she did not give this personal labor in the home, should be +estimated in wages value, and should go into her part of a separate +fund, after the common household expenses are deducted. That, it +seems, would not be fair, for if the man puts in his labor value the +woman should put in hers for the first and indispensable expense of +the common life together. What is to be made right is the old custom +of reckoning the savings and common property acquired after marriage +as "his" estate. It is the estate of both, and should be so +considered, even if he has earned outside and she saved and earned and +helped him earn from within the household only. + +=What Shall be the Accepted Standard of Living?=--The final question +that must be considered by the two who are to marry and set up +housekeeping is the scale of living they shall aim to attain. It has +been well said that "the standard of living is what we desire; the +scale of living what we can achieve." What is desired often, and what +seems to the young only reasonable for all to have, is the scale of +living the parents' households have attained after a life of hard +work. It is a matter for profound ethical thinking to decide what +measure of increase in expense of home upkeep should follow upon +increase of income where there are children to be affected by changes. +It may sometime be seen to be a social duty to keep much farther +within bounds the natural desire to expand expense as income +increases; both for the reason that income may decrease with advancing +years for the parents and retrenchment be necessary when it is +hardest, and also for the more important reason that children +naturally make standards at the height of parental expenditure and may +find it thereby the more difficult to "begin at the bottom" when they +marry. At any rate, the young couple starting out must keep within +their means or suffer from the worst of fortunes, the dread of +arriving bills and the shame of inability to pay them. That means some +agreement before housekeeping begins as to what is involved in that +adventure. + +A witty woman said, "I love to travel with my friend Mary, for her +economies and mine are the same." Some uniformity of temperamental +reaction both to regular economies and to occasional extravagances is, +if not an essential, a valuable basis for happy marriage. That means +that the engaged couple might well start a game of "Must Haves" and +"Would Like to Haves" in the moments that can be spared from other +pursuits, a game in which without the other's knowledge each should +write the secret wishes and requirements to be later compared for +mutual enlightenment. The woman who would gladly go with two meals a +day for a fortnight in order to get a ticket for the opera or +symphony, and the man who would sacrifice a needed new suit of clothes +with pleasure for a fishing trip, may be able to compromise on +essentials, but will find it difficult in the matter of extras unless +warned beforehand. Affection bridges many chasms, and sensible people +learn that even in the best regulated families father, mother, and the +children may all get some of their best times apart. A basis of mutual +understanding is, however, essential. The necessity to get at a common +plan for the economic standards of the household is a vital one. How +many men have run in debt for what they believed essential to the +wife's happiness because she had such things in her father's house, +without letting the wife know that economy was necessary, only to find +out that if full confidence had been given a mutual effort would have +secured better results. How many women have gone without things they +might have had for want of knowledge of their husband's income and +suffered fears that need not have been in the mind. How many also, +alas, both of men and women, have lived beyond their means from +selfish demand one upon the other, a demand which might have been +chastened, at least, if full knowledge of economic resources had been +attained before the scale of living was fixed. + +All these items of suggested conference and decision given above are +counsels of prudence and wisdom. Many, perhaps most, however, of the +young couples starting out in life "go it blind" in all or some of +these particulars. The wonder is that these who start on the most +serious of compacts and the one leading to the greatest extremes of +both happiness and unhappiness with so little knowledge of each +other's condition, capacity, or deepest wishes, get along, on the +whole, so well. We see them on every side starting on the sea of +married life with gaiety of heart because the chosen one is obtained +for company and with no conception of the difficulties that may make +the voyage tempestuous. But they often make safe harbor of comfortable +comradeship for middle life and old age, and if they have had a harder +time than they need have had at least prove that "love is the greatest +thing in the world." + +=The Need for Full and Mutual Understanding Before Marriage.=--The +rising tide of divorce, however, gives point to the plea of this +chapter for a more careful charting of the sailing course in advance. +The fact that so many get their discipline of knowledge and direction +as they go along and do not make shipwreck even if matrimonial storms +grow frequent or heavy, is a very good testimony to the native +goodness of men and women and to their ability to make good their +mistakes and work out success even from failure provided the +indispensable north star of unselfish affection leads them on. It +would be well, however, to lessen the failures if that can be done. +When men and women show what marriage can become for the wise, the +idealistic, and the loving, it gives a picture of satisfaction and +mutual service that makes most other human associations seem trivial +and short-lived. Only parenthood is equal or superior to marriage in +its possibilities of moral discipline and personal development. To +make it successful is worth striving for. + +Literature, science, and art have many great marriages to their +credit--men and women brought together by identical tastes and similar +capacities, working together in high pursuits through a long life of +achievement. They illumine the way of life with a peculiar glow. +Elizabeth Barrett Browning sang: + + "Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart! + Our ministering two angels look surprise + On one another as they strike athwart + Their wings in passing." + +but her union with Robert Browning showed that they were nearer alike +than in her sad humility she had fancied. Jonas Lie, the Norwegian +novelist, and his gifted wife, it is said, "knew the felicity of a +perfect union," and he himself has testified, "If I have ever written +anything of merit, my wife has as great a share in it as myself, and +her name should appear on the title-page as collaborator." The joint +discoveries of the Curies are well known, linking husband and wife +together in a great gift to humanity. In humbler circles of the gifted +and the talented the married couples are becoming more numerous each +decade whose work as well as whose affection binds them together. + +=The Supreme Satisfactions of Successful Marriage.=--Take it all in +all, although no particular marriage may be "made in heaven," the sort +of union that monogamic marriage has worked out at its highest reaches +is without a rival in depth of feeling, in satisfaction of +association, in wealth of comradeship, and in social value as a +foundation for family life and for initial training toward social +serviceableness. No wise person can do aught to lessen its opportunity +for ethical drill, or for that due mingling of attraction and duty +which make all the vital associations of human beings helps toward the +higher life. No wise person will continue in the ancient error of +mistaking show for substance in these weighty matters. + +All who believe that the family is an institution whose gift to the +social order is not yet outgrown and whose possibilities of social +value are not yet fully developed, must work to make the right +marriages easier to secure, and the wrong ones less easy to be +consummated, and to purge the ideals of home of selfishness and of +superficiality by constant portrayal of the best in the married life. + +The stage and the moving picture should more often portray the world's +marriage successes rather than perpetual reproductions of the marriage +failures. The novel should more often show how many people save, so as +by fire, the dreams of youth in rescue of their married life from +threatening ills. Such portrayal would not be against a realistic +ideal of art, but a more perfect and balanced use of realism. The rise +of people on "stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things" +is quite as dramatic as the succession of falls that land them in the +pit of despair. The struggles that succeed are quite as capable of +exciting emotional response as are those that fail. + +Real life shows a larger measure of successful achievement than of +bitter failure, else would life not go on. Marriage at its highest is +yet to be used in any adequate measure as the theme of the artist and +the stimulant of response to art. + +The day will come when "Main Street" will reveal its best and not its +worst; its richest, and not its poorest products, for the satisfaction +of universal sentiment. + + +QUESTIONS ON HUSBANDS AND WIVES + + 1. Are there any subjects upon which husbands and wives must be + in substantial agreement in order to secure a successful + marriage? If so, what are some of them? + + 2. Are there any radical differences in belief, respecting + religion, politics, education of children, ways of living, + business relationship, etc., which marriage may successfully + bridge, provided there is genuine and faithful affection? If + so, name some of them. + + 3. How can "engaged" couples make sure that essentials of + agreement, and non-essentials of agreement to differ, are well + understood in advance? + + 4. Are there any new spiritual relationships of men and women in + marriage made possible by the modern tendency toward the + democratization of the family? If so, what are some of them? + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] This bill, the so-called "Cable Act," was passed September 22, +1922. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CHILDREN OF THE FAMILY + + + The human being arrives: + + "Immense have been the preparations for me, + Faithful and friendly the arms that have helped me; + Cycles ferried my cradle, rowing and rowing like cheerful boatmen; + For room to me the stars kept aside in their own rings, + They sent influences to look after what was to hold me; + Before I was born out of my mother generations guided me, + And forces have been steadily employed to complete and delight me; + Now, on this spot I stand with my robust soul." + --WALT WHITMAN. + + "The child grows up in a setting of social functions of a type + higher always than that of his private accomplishment. He must grow + by gradual absorption of copies, patterns and examples."--BALDWIN. + + "He is happy who comes with healthy body into the world; much more + he who goes with healthy spirit out of it. Nature has implanted + within us the seeds of learning, of virtue, and of piety; to bring + these to maturity is the object of education. All men require + education, and God has made children unfit for other employments + in order that they may have leisure to learn."--COMENIUS. + + "The most critical interval of human nature is that between the + hour of birth and twelve years of age; this is the time when vice + and error may take root without our being possessed of any + instrument to destroy them; the first art of education, then, + consists neither in teaching virtue nor truth but in guarding the + heart from evil and the mind from error."--ROUSSEAU. + + "A ladder leading to heaven is let down to every child, but he + must be taught to climb it. Education should decide for every + child not only what is to be made of its life, but should seek an + answer to the question, what was it intended that child should + become?"--PESTALOZZI. + + "An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy."--OLD PROVERB. + + "Come, let us live with our children!"--FROEBEL. + + +=Conditions to be Secured for Every Child.=--There are several +conditions which must be secured for every child to insure that it may +be born and reared according to high standards. + +These may be listed as follows: + + I. Two parents, to secure in advance a favorable social position. + + II. A competent mother, to insure his first two or three years of + life in health, happiness, and growing power. + + III. A competent father, to stand back of the mother and help make + a home adequate at least to the minimum of normal life's + demands. + + IV. Community surroundings that will make possible the successful + achievement of parental duty. + + V. Census provisions for vital and social statistics that will + make it sure that every child is counted in the population + of his nation, state, and community, and that he is + accounted for in all social relationships. + + VI. State protection against industrial exploitation, vicious + influences, harmful use of leisure time, and generally + unwholesome conditions. + + VII. Health standards in the community, fixed by experts and + maintained in essentials by public provisions. + + VIII. Education standards, fixed by experts and maintained, at + least in normal minimum, by community provision. + + IX. Such vital relation between the family, the school, the + political system, and all cultural opportunities as shall + insure to each child his just share of the social + inheritance to which all are heir. + +=The Need for Two Parents.=--The first point noted is the need of two +parents for every child. The illegitimate child is handicapped. It is +a sound social movement that aims to make every "slacker" father +accept his share of responsibility in the case of the unmarried mother +and either marry the woman or give financial aid for the child. It +does not thereby secure two actual parents for the child. The orphan +child, the half-orphan child is handicapped; more so if bereft of +mother than of father, but if the father dies or deserts after +marriage, all experience shows that even if the mother lives and is +capable and faithful, the child who lacks a father has many +difficulties to overcome. The child of parents who have come to +dislike each other is seriously handicapped. A forced tie between +those who no longer love each other creates an atmosphere often fatal +to comfort and happiness and one to which children, sensitive as they +are to the feeling of their elders, react most unfavorably. The child +of divorced parents is handicapped; perhaps not so often or so +seriously as when held for years in an atmosphere of mutual hatred, +suspicion, fault-finding, and distrust--handicapped, however, by many +social embarrassments, by shock to affection given, perhaps, to both +parents equally, and by the often great difficulty of finding a +suitable home for the child of the divorced couple. The child that is +not wanted and comes into a world hostile to his birth is handicapped +in proportion as the influence reaches him at the moment of conception +or lessens the power of the parents to give him what he needs before +or after he arrives. + +There must, then, be two parents, in love, as in law, to start a child +right--two parents who live until he has reached age of independent +direction and support, two parents who pull together for themselves +and for him, two parents who are equally recognized in law as acting +for him in guardianship throughout his minority. + +The recognition of some of these needs of every child has been more +general and intelligent than that of others. For example, the equal +guardianship of the father and mother, their mutual responsibility for +financial support when financially competent, their equal control over +the family life and their common pledge to the community of parental +care--this has not been recognized until recently, is not now in many +of the States of the Union and perhaps not perfectly in any one. + +At an Annual Meeting of the Uniform Laws Commission, at Cleveland, +Ohio, Mrs. Catherine Waugh McCulloch, partner with her husband in the +firm of McCulloch and McCulloch, Chicago, Illinois, and representing +the League of Women Voters, secured an almost unanimous recommendation +for uniform laws giving equal guardianship to fathers and to mothers. +As Mrs. McCulloch is the successful mother of four children, besides +being Master in Chancery of the Supreme Court of Illinois in Cook +County, and has long represented the legal interests of women in the +largest organizations of progressive women in the United States, she +could, and did, speak with special authority in urging the right of +mothers to protect their children on equal terms with fathers, by a +"Uniform Joint Guardianship Law." + +Some facts have given color to the claim of the extreme feminist that +if you can only get the right sort of mother the father is more or +less a negligible quantity. The history of the family, however, +proves, if it proves anything, that to actively engage two adults in +the business of rearing children is an immense asset to those +children. + +The two parents insisted upon as foremost necessity for child-care +may, however, be of a poor sort, perhaps only furnished with good-will +toward their task. Even so, whatever the lacks may be, however small +the capacity, feeble the will and poor the purse, however +society-at-large has to make up for deficiencies in the parents, it is +at least one step toward a successful life to have two recognized +parents who mean to do the right thing by their offspring and never +fail in love toward each other and toward the children whom they call +their own. + +=Every Child Should Have a Competent Mother.=--The second demand of +child-life is for a competent mother--competent in health, that the +baby may get really born alive, competent in nursing and household +skill, or in power to secure that skill from others, in order that the +baby may be sure of that first long start of two or three years toward +physical, mental, and moral sanity and strength. It is in those first +years that the child gains power to begin his own conquest of the +world at an advantageous point. That many women are not competent +physically for even the first test of childbirth we know from many +sources of inquiry. The facts brought out in legislative hearings by +those urging support for the so-called "Maternity Bill" amply prove +this. Taking the figures for New York State alone, in the year 1920 we +find a total of thirteen mothers out of every thousand dying in +childbirth, with an estimate from physicians that with proper care +two-thirds of these women could have been saved. A competent mother, +then, physically speaking, means not only one measurably strong but +one sufficiently cared for to prevent overstrain before the +birth-hour. Again, in New York State alone, we find that eighty-six +babies out of every thousand die before they reach the end of their +first year. This may be from ignorance on the mother's part, or it may +be from her physical weakness unequal to the care of the new baby. It +may be there are already too many children near that baby's age who +also make heavy demands upon time and energy. It may be that +discouragements from unhappy family conditions or worry over economic +disabilities sap the mother's vitality. It may be that taints of blood +doom the child and the mother. Whatever the cause, it is reason for +deep concern that a great state, like New York, for example, has a +rate of infant mortality nearly twice as high as that of New Zealand +and ranking eleventh in the twenty-three states of the registration +area in which the death of babies is set down with care. When we add +to this loss the death of at least 25,000 women each year in +childbirth, most of whom could have been saved under right conditions, +we are still more concerned. Of the 250,000 babies lost last year we +are safe in estimating at least one-half whose lives could have been +spared with even a minimum care. The effort now making all along the +line of social advance to give every child a decent start in life is +obviously necessary and wise. + +If the mother is proved wholly incompetent in mind or character we +have acquired a social right to take her child from her and place it +where it can receive better nurture and training. We are beginning to +recognize the corollary duty of social aid to all women of good +character, motherly feeling, and any fair degree of intelligence in +their function of motherhood. There are those hopelessly incompetent +who should never be allowed to have children. There are far more with +power to bear and rear children successfully whom adverse +circumstances submerge to incompetency. These, we are now learning, +must be helped in some way, for society's sake even more than for +their own, if they are willing to undertake parental service to the +race. + +The passage of the so-called Sheppard-Towner Bill is one answer in the +United States to the right of the child and its mother to life and +health. There are those who deplore the tendency to seek for such aid +to individuals through the Federal Government. The Governor of New +York State, for example, although a man of progressive ideas and +liberal point of view, opposed "starting aid to mothers and babies +from the Washington end," declaring that work for the "welfare of +citizens of any class should start at the locality to be benefited." +He would not have the people educated to depend upon the Federal +Government for benefits. He feared that the Sheppard-Towner Bill would +tend to "make the public expect to be nursed from the cradle to the +grave" and be a detriment to the public life rather than a benefit. +New York State made a good appropriation for its own aid to mothers +and babies, but did not apply for the Federal aid in addition. By the +middle of the second month of 1922, however, nearly thirty states had +accepted the Act as a welcome help in their welfare work, and few will +be left outside of its provisions by the end of the year. The fear +that such an Act would make the general government the active +controller and director of the lives of parents and their children in +most intimate ways seems not justified by the facts. The Bill, when +passed, simply provided money to be given to the states on the +fifty-fifty basis "for the purpose of cooeperating with them in +promoting the welfare and hygiene of maternity and infancy." The +specific plans for each state are to be made by the state agency in +charge of the work and the only Federal supervision is that of +standardization, by which the Chief of the Children's Bureau, the +Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, and the Commissioner of +Education must approve those plans as "reasonably appropriate and +adequate to carry out the purposes of the Act" before the money of the +Federal Government is passed over to any state. + +It is rather as a help to states desiring aid in this particular than +as a compulsory requirement that the Act is intended to operate. There +are those, however, who fear any extension of power of the National +Government even through influence acquired by subsidies for necessary +aids to the common life. It is a matter for thought and unprejudiced +study what form of public aid is, on the whole, the best for our +country. It cannot be denied, however, that different states have +differing burdens to carry for the immigrant, the ignorant, the +destitute, and the defective. It is at least desirable to press the +point that no state lives to itself and no one dies to itself. Disease +knows no boundary lines of political government and the death-toll of +mothers and babies does not halt at geographical limitations. We are +all one country insofar as bad social conditions are concerned. We are +all helped when any smallest country town most remote from the centres +of population is raised in its social standards and conditions. Hence, +perhaps, we may not fear national aid to each locality in need or feel +concerned as to what agency accomplishes a required social advance. + +Ellen Key declared that every mother should be maintained by the state +during the first year of every child's life and that afterward each +child should have one-half its support from the state and one-half +from the father. That may not be the ideal. We may believe that to +thus reduce the father's responsibility would mean a dangerous +lessening of his energy and devotion to the family well-being. It is +true, however, that while there are so many in every community without +essentials for care in childbirth or for the early nurture of infants, +we must find some way of providing these essentials, or the state is +endangered at its vital centre. + +=Every Child Should Have a Competent Father.=--The third demand of +childhood is for a competent father. That takes us at once into the +area of wages and economic conditions. When the Children's Bureau, +itself a testimony to the awakened social conscience in respect to +childhood, shows from careful investigation that in families where the +father earns only ten dollars or less a week more than twice as many +babies die before the age of two years than in families where the +fathers earn twenty-five dollars a week or more, we can see with +clearer vision than ever before that to give babies a fair chance in +life the father must be fairly paid for his work. + +The following table shows this fact in graphic form: + + [Illustration: INFANT MORTALITY RATES. ACCORDING TO FATHERS' + EARNINGS + COMBINED FIGURES FROM SEVEN CITIES STUDIED BY US CHILDREN'S BUREAU. + The baby death rate rises as the fathers' earnings fall.] + +=Economic Aspects of the Father's Competency.=--The death-rate of +babies in families in which the mother has to earn outside the home +under factory conditions of labor in order to secure absolute +necessities is so high that it is seen to be not socially thrifty to +thus place a double burden upon mothers. The death-rate and +sickness-rate of families in which the children do not have sufficient +nourishing food, in which the mother is half starved and wholly +deprived of rest and pleasure, and the father is under terror night +and day lest the rent money will not be ready when the landlord's +agent comes, cannot give us ease of mind. The families in which +unemployment is frequent or overwork keeps the father as well as the +mother under the pressure of nervous exhaustion, are the families in +which the right of the child to two competent parents is grossly +denied. The aid given the mother, by even the best of "Maternity +Bills," insofar as it transcends the wider dissemination of knowledge +and gives actual financial aid in economic distress, seems only a +makeshift. The sick have a social claim for social care and the +ignorant of all ages have a special claim upon the community for +instruction, whether from separate Commonwealth or from the Federal +Government, it matters little. The financial aid given, however, the +"material relief" that must be rendered in family emergencies, should +not be needed by the healthy, law-abiding, thrifty, honest, skilled, +or even half-skilled workman. He should be able to earn a necessary +minimum for himself and for his family by his own labors. We cannot +here enter into the economic problems involved, but must register a +conviction that real social progress must include not only a competent +father for every child but also a fairer chance for every man to +become that competent father through fairer sharing in the profits of +industry. Widespread and careful inquiry as to reasons for dropping +below the self-supporting line list as one cause of "necessity for +material relief, having in the family more than three children under +the age of fourteen." This fact must give us thought. At fourteen in +many states the child may begin to earn something toward his own +support. The question may well be debated whether or not an average +man in ordinary economic general conditions should be unable to care +for more than three children below the earning period if his wife is a +competent housemother and thus earns her part. If such a condition of +restriction upon family increase is accepted as inevitable and +permanent in our industrial order, then surely the cost of rearing +children must be far more widely distributed. In such a condition +there would be needed social help for fathers and mothers far more +definite and inclusive than merely the aid to expectant mothers. If it +is true that it takes from three and one-half to four children from +each married pair to keep up the population considered necessary for +national well-being, and if there is an increasing number of men and +women deterred from furnishing even two of that quota by the expense +involved, then it is high time that we consider at least how the +family burden may be more equally distributed. + +=The French Plan of Family Extra-wage.=--One plan of meeting this +unequal social burden of parenthood and the social danger involved in +too few children born, France has devised by the family extra-wage.[8] +This is simply a provision by which married workers with children are +preferred before married workers without children, and much preferred +before bachelors, in the matter of wages. French work-people with +families, irrespective of their station, rate of pay, premium or +bonus, receive: + +1. An indemnity of 200 francs at the birth of a child. + +2. A suckling indemnity, which is given to the wife, of 100 francs a +month during the first year. + +3. An indemnity of 3 francs a day for each child under fourteen years +of age, which becomes a part of the family income. The Paris district +alone for the first four months of 1920 shows 39,266 families in +receipt of these allowances, with 62,176 children benefited, at an +expense of 4,115,014 francs. The money comes largely from a pooling of +funds by combines of manufacturers in many industries, so that +although business pays the extra charge it is distributed equally +among all engaged in the same industry. The trade unions have not been +wholly pleased with this discrimination in favor of fathers and +mothers. They work for the strict equalization of wages. The national +need for more children of strength and health, however, and the effect +of low wages upon mothers and upon infant life have led to this social +measure. + +Surely, this is a way not wholly unreasonable by which a society can +help pay for the children it demands. + +=The Endowment of Mothers.=--In England, a different plan has been +developed, although not yet applied. _A Proposal for the National +Endowment of Motherhood_, advocated by K.D. Courtney, H.N. Brailsford, +Eleanor F. Rathbone, A. Maude Royden, Mary Stocks, Elinor Burns, and +Emilie Burns, has been published. In this plan the ideal is "that +within each class of income the man with a family should not be in a +worse position economically because he has a family than the single +man in that class." They demand that "the standard of living be not +lowered by children." The authors of this plan declare that in the +present system "The mother is still the uncharted servant of the +future who receives from her husband at his discretion a share in his +wages." They want the mother to receive from society, through the +Government, "a weekly allowance sufficient in amount to cover the +primary cost of physical subsistence, paid to the mother for herself +and for each of her children, throughout the period when the care of +the children necessarily occupies her whole attention." They claim +that such a plan would, in the first place, make "equal pay for equal +work" for men and women really possible, since the argument that "men +should be paid more because they have families to keep" would be +outgrown. They claim also that such a plan would remove economic +restrictions on parenthood which now often work social harm. They also +claim that the health of children requires this public allowance for +their care. + +The authors of this plan, although frankly stating objections to this +point, claim that the payment of this allowance should be directly to +mothers "as the first step toward raising the status of women and +blotting out, in what has been called the noblest of professions, +those conditions which compare only with the worst of sweated +employments." The whole discussion of this plan is worthy most serious +attention of all interested in preserving the family from injury +through economic inequalities. + +=Does This Plan Make Too Little of Fathers?[9]=--There is one +question, however, among others, to be asked of the authors of this +plan, and that is, Can not some means be devised to make the father's +share in the care of the children more definite and better rewarded, +less often shirked or incompetent, in any scheme for state subsidy for +the care of young children? The difficulties that inhere in all +subsidies for children are chiefly those that make people of small +intelligence and little conscience trade with the state for larger +subsidies for larger families, begotten by the less fit for parentage +and with an eye on the public purse. This catastrophe, not unknown in +the past history of England, must be avoided. If there shall develop +any scheme for equal sharing by all the community in the expense of +raising the coming generation then there must surely be no special +honor paid to those that have very large families. Better, for social +purposes, that no children above a reasonable number should in any +family receive a special allowance, even if older brothers and sisters +did do so. It may be that in France large families are desperately +needed. Not so in the United States. The number of five or six should +certainly be the limit for which any just scheme of family subsidy +should mulct the taxpayer. + +=Just Limits to Number of Children in Subsidized Families.=--The +difference between the three under fourteen years which in so many +cases can be cared for unassisted by the average workman, and the four +and more that bring the family down to the danger-point of financial +dependence, might be a subject for consideration in any scheme of +family subsidy, and some clear idea of social need in family fertility +should be a part of any proposition to make allowance from the public +funds for each child under the earning age. In any case, the father's +share in the self-sacrifice and burden of parenthood should have some +clear recognition in any law dealing with such state aid. In the last +analysis, unless some extreme form of socialism is better than the +present industrial order and to be sought, the best way to help the +family is to make fathers and mothers competent to take care of their +own children without too great effort for themselves and without +injurious consequences to the children. Those Trade Union leaders may +be right in principle when they hesitate to accept any public family +aid scheme lest it make wages less rather than more and bring on a +condition in which heroic struggle for one's own, the very pith and +marrow of manhood in its relation to the family, be less esteemed and +less practiced. + +We are confronted, however, both in the movements for aid to maternity +in care before and after childbirth, and in all the many provisions +for child-saving that publicly supported Boards of Health are +everywhere inaugurating, with a tendency of the greatest strength and +social appeal, tendencies toward a sharing by all of the burdens +heretofore borne only by the heads of families. Some way must be +devised by which such sharing will not cheat society of any gains to +character and to sense of family responsibility which old systems of +economic support of children have given the race. Some way must be +devised to recognize as economic assets of society the special +sacrifice and service of the housemother in her function of life-giver +for the coming generations and yet not ignore the father but rather +bring him nearer to competent fatherhood as social conditions make it +easier for him to bear his part of the family load. The place for full +discussion of these important considerations is not here, but the need +for the child to have a father who can be the efficient partner of the +competent mother in the task of rearing him must be always insisted +upon, else reform measures that help the mother will only take us +backward instead of forward. + +=The Right of a Child to be Officially Counted.=--The next right of +the child we must consider is the right to be listed as a member of +the population. A registry of facts concerning himself and his +condition that will enable the community to see where he is, what he +is doing, and how he, in general, fares, is essential. The fact that +only about one-half of the Commonwealths in our Union have full +registration of births, deaths, health conditions, school attendance, +and other vital matters concerning each individual, and of immense +importance to society as a whole, is a confession of social +incompetency too shameful for a nation that calls itself civilized. +Where there is no adequate registration babies may be easily lost +sight of altogether. Children may escape the call to school and child +labor be unchecked. When an investigation of conditions in almshouses +and remote country districts of a certain southern state was made the +numbers of defective and blind and crippled children brought to light +was appalling. Yet one political leader of that state, at least, +declared when the investigation began that "it was not only +unnecessary but an insult to an enlightened state." The enlightened +state simply did not know how many children were born dead, how many +died the first month or year of life, how many went to school later +on, how many were not able to profit by instruction because of +congenital defectiveness, how many needed special care and training by +reason of some special handicap, and how many ran away from such +public institutions as gave poor harbor to those without family +protection. One of the fundamental rights, surely, of every child is +to be counted, to have the community of which he is a part know +something about him, and have his record kept where those interested +in his protection and care, in his health, his schooling, his +vocational training, may find out what they need to know in order to +aid his progress or check his wrongdoing. + +=Every Child Should Have Social Protection.=--In the next place, the +demand of every child must surely be for community protection against +those who for greed or evil purpose would exploit his life. The first +law passed for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which aimed even +at parents who did not act a parent's part, was the Magna Charta of +child rights. After that the door was opened for all manner of +protective legislation for the benefit of the young. Yet we still have +many men and some women whose business it is, and a very profitable +one, to debauch youth or despoil children. + +Surely the time has come when all decent people should unite to +abolish such evils. + +=Child-labor.=--In the field of child-labor we have model laws, not +always well enforced, laws that aim to keep inviolate for childhood at +least a few years of schooling.[10] We have health laws which aim more +and more at reducing the diseases of children and making it possible +for all to share in the power and joy of normal existence. + +Yet, although something has been done for the child who would +otherwise be at work in factory, shop, or sweated trade at home, there +are, it is said, still "Two Million Overworked Farm Children." In the +South, in some sections, the little black children still pick cotton +for the little white children to weave in mills. In the North +undersized and mentally undeveloped youth still testify to industrial +exploitation even where laws against child-labor are on the statute +books. The agricultural workers, numbering more than any other class +and spread all over the United States, count too many little children +in their lists. It is estimated that in our country there are +38,000,000 living on farms, and of this number only 8,000,000 adult +men are listed as laborers; we hence can well believe that children +and youth are a disproportionate element in the working of those +farms. This makes the slogan proposed by Owen E. Lovejoy, the +Secretary of the National Child-labor Committee, "Keep the Farmer +Through His Children," a highly compelling one. In the tobacco fields +of Connecticut, boys and girls ten years of age and over; in the truck +gardens of Ohio among the onion beds; in the Michigan sugar-beet +fields; in the California asparagus beds; in the Southern cotton +fields, where children as young as three years of age have been +found--in all these and on lonely farmsteads doing general work we +find these children. Cut off from regular schooling, herded often in +the poorest substitutes for homes, moving about from place to place +with fathers and mothers unskilled or handicapped by weak character, +these children are defrauded of every right of a child at every turn. +It is not true, as some complacently assert, that all is done that +should be to prevent the sacrifice of young life to the industrial +demands for large returns for investment. It is not true that such +organizations as the Child-labor Committee can rest content with +accomplished tasks and disband. + +The exemption of agricultural labor from the legal protection of +children given in many states in the field of manufacture, and the +total lack of realization by the general public of the newer +conditions which specialized and scientific farming make for the +tenant hands, make this particular form of child-protection in farming +a question of supreme importance. + +As this book goes to press the Supreme Court decision which declares +the Federal Child-labor Law unconstitutional places upon those working +through state channels a still heavier burden of effort at +child-protection. This decision of the Supreme Court may well be +understood as indicating no indifference to child-welfare but rather +as a call to clear the method of child-labor reform from any +entanglements of taxation or doubtful alliance with Federal +officialism. The principle of child-protection, whether by national or +state laws, holds the moral devotion of our citizenship more firmly +than ever before. + +=Children Must be Protected in Recreation.=--The need for the +protection of children from commercialized recreation with its centres +set near all manner of vicious influences has aroused the conscience +of the nation. The investigations of social conditions near the Camps +of Training for our army in the Great War and many forms of social +service carried on by men and women in connection with the Red Cross +have given impetus to the general movement to "clean up the cities" to +make the rural communities and village centres more helpful to moral +living, and to make the streets safer for "the spirit of youth." + +Yet the rural schoolhouses are so many of them lacking in provisions +of decency and of playground supervision, and the village +lounging-places are so often the scenes of vicious association, and +the absence everywhere of sufficient provision for healthful and +safeguarded recreation is so obvious, that we know we have still a +long and heavy task before us to accord children their admitted right +to social protection from moral evils against which even the best of +parents can not adequately stand alone. + +=Standards of and Aids to Health.=--Health standards in the community, +fixed by experts and maintained, at least in minimum essentials, by +public provision, is the seventh right of children which society +should insure to each one. + +The difficulties and dangers which inhere in any form of financial +payment to parents, either fathers or mothers, in aid of their +parental tasks, are not so clearly present, if present at all, in +special aids given to all the population in matters of public +sanitation, personal hygiene and the care of the sick. If we make our +public aid topical rather than by classes, and to all citizens alike +in definite aid, we avoid much of the taint of charity. Few, if any, +propose, for example, to give maternity aid to the rich. Fewer still +advocate old-age pensions for those of independent incomes of moderate +size. Many see, however, that health aids should be so distributed +and so universally offered and used that the standard of health may be +equally raised thereby for all. The idea that there are no people +between the rich, who can pay anything asked, and those poor who can +pay nothing for hospital care, diagnosis, or general medical and +nursing service, is becoming an exploded one. There is general +agreement among those most intelligent in such matters that what is +needed more than anything else in the field of physical culture and +physical care is provision for the people of small incomes who desire +to be self-supporting. It is a common saying that no one but a +millionaire or a pauper can afford a surgical operation or a trained +nurse. We are moving, too slowly, but still moving, toward some form +of provision of doctors, nurses, hospital and convalescent care, to +which people of refinement, of independent feeling but of limited +purse, can resort when they need such aid without a sense of +humiliation or incurring the danger of wholly unsuitable +companionship. Whatever difficulties there may be in securing adequate +aid of this sort to adults, there can be none in the case of children. +When we started Boards of Health we definitely outlined a path from +the doctor's office and the nurse's service to the public school and +from the public school to the home. We saw more clearly as the years +went on that that path must be worn by many feet if we would have +adults strong and well and ready for the work of the world. We have in +many Boards of Health (as so efficiently working in New York City +under Dr. Josephine S. Baker) Children's Departments, officered by +those specially engaged in baby-saving, in child hygiene, in the +health of school attendants, and in the general instruction of mothers +in the care of children. This is an achievement which needs only to be +more widely understood, applied and supported to be of the greatest +social value. We have now the Federal backing in these matters in many +provisions outside that of the special Maternity Aid Bill with its +fifty-fifty financial plan to make the general government partner with +the states and with the various local communities in health aid to all +the people. What we need now is to make the care of the minor child +seem to all, as it now does to so many, a duty that can be isolated in +the mind from any doctrinaire socialistic plans, a duty to include all +the population in wholly free health-service from the state. There +are differences which may well be stressed between schemes for placing +medical service of every sort under state regulation and wholly +supporting it by public tax, and any plan for radically abolishing the +capitalistic regime. + +We are fast coming to a united conception of social duty as requiring +help to all parents that they may bring up their children in health +and give those children the physical training which they need. Let us +all, then, push hardest first for the standardization of health in the +case of children and youth and the best possible arrangements of +tax-supported aids to the realization of that standard. That is surely +one of the ways in which the parental burden of child-care can be +socially shared without starting embarrassing questions of radical or +conservative theories of logical next steps. + +=Health Boards Should Help All Alike.=--We can, however, thus divorce +health activities from economic disputes only by making the +investigation of children, the provisions for free examination and +treatment, and the establishment of hospital and clinic facilities +exactly the same for the children of the rich and of the poor. A +recent investigation of the diet of children deduced from reports of +undernourishment furnished by doctors specializing in children's +diseases, showed that in some cities, at least, the children of the +well-to-do were as often underfed or wrongly fed as were the children +of the poor. Sometimes the fact that a family is financially able to +employ a nurse, but not intelligent or conscientious enough to employ +a competent nurse, results in worse conditions, as to food and other +particulars, than are found where poor mothers do the best they can +with limited means. + +=Items of Work in Child Hygiene.=--The standards of health and the +public provisions for their realization, which even now in the crowded +city of New York are so ably enforced by "The Division of Child +Hygiene," show that "the hazardous business of being a baby" is much +reduced in risks. The list of details of work undertaken by that +Division of Child Hygiene as so fully reported in the document of 1914 +and in later publications may be of use if here repeated. They are as +follows: + + I. Control and Supervision of Midwives. + II. Reduction of Infant Mortality. + III. Supervision of Foundlings Boarded in Private Homes. + IV. Inspection and Supervision of Day Nurseries. + V. Inspection of Institutions for Dependent Children. + VI. Medical Inspection and Examination of School Children. + VII. Vaccination of School Children. + VIII. Enforcing of Child-labor Law in Issuing Work Certificates. + +For this many-sided work physicians, trained nurses, and various other +helpers are required. Could the public purse be drawn upon for a more +vital public necessity than this list indicates? + +When it is remembered that from forty to fifty per cent, of births are +in charge of midwives in the foreign-born population and that the +condition of housing and of water, air and food supply are deplorably +inadequate in manufacturing centres, and that in rural communities +there are few doctors and nurses and little hospital service, it will +be seen that the idea of having Federal aid for this large health +requirement was not one of concentration of power in the Government +(as some have thought), but rather of a diffusion of standards and +better sharing in all parts of our country. The health crusade is not +bounded by state lines, diseases may cross those lines without +consciousness of any check. The help toward the abolition of all +preventable illness, the protection of child-life from all manner of +preventable weakness, abnormality and suffering, seems to be the +business of society in general, if anything can be so called. The +children must be saved if the nation is to prosper. It used to be +thought that a high birth-rate was a sufficient indication of national +well-being. It is now seen that a low death-rate and a high level of +strength and vitality, of health and mental power, are still more the +required national asset. + +As Dr. Helen D. Putnam well says, "Democracy must finally depend on +its department of education for establishing the right: for mothers, +intelligence, health, economic opportunity to care for their babies; +for babies, either rich or poor, intelligent, physically competent +caretakers," If this be true, then the work of Health Boards and +kindred agencies is a part of general education as it has long been a +part of accepted charitable duty. The children stand first in line for +receipt of that health education because they are the promise of the +future. + +We must take humane care of all the misfits, all the crippled, all the +weak, all the defective, all the abnormal and the insane. This is now +admitted. We must prevent, so far as we are able, such weight and +burden falling upon our children and our children's children, as +charity now presses upon us. In this matter, at least, "we must begin +with the grandfathers if we would reform the world." + +=The Educational Rights of All Children.=--The right of every child to +a minimum of education, which was our eighth point, is also conceded, +and the duty of making public provision in tax-supported schools for +these essentials of reading, writing, fair knowledge of arithmetic and +the rest, is acknowledged. The idea, however, that some people have +that all the children in the United States have an elementary +schooling is erroneous. This is not a treatise on education, and +elsewhere the statistics of length of schooling per year for the +different parts of the country and of dearth of school seats in cities +and famine of teachers everywhere must be considered. From the side of +the family, however, the claim must be made that equal rights in some +accepted minimum of school training, and that determined in quantity +and quality of teaching by those who know what education means, should +be the demand of all fathers and mothers. In the older time young men +going through college on the way to one of the three learned +professions then listed, law, theology, and medicine, taught often in +the country school to earn an honest penny. Such teaching on the way +to some form of vocation deemed far more honorable was not of a sort +to make teaching a profession in itself. Later, some measure of higher +education was given young women in Normal Schools to fit them for +teaching little children, and the teacher of the elementary school +became, thereby, a professional. To-day few young men teach to help +themselves through college and only a few choose teaching as a +profession. To-day, also, the profession of teaching, which once was +almost the sole opening for higher vocational work for women, now +competes with a large number of professions or types of business or +applied art, and fewer women proportionally are headed for the +schoolroom when they leave college or normal school. + +This tendency to take other lines of work increased to unprecedented +extent during the Great War, which opened new worlds of paid work to +women. This gives us the present teacher shortage, which all who know +conditions feel to be the most serious menace to universal education. +There are not only not enough teachers to go around, there are still +fewer teachers fit to teach. If it is the right of every child to have +a good education in essentials, to be well taught as far as he goes in +schooling, how shall that right be realized if the teacher famine +continues? + +=The Use of Married Women as Teachers.=--The interest of the family is +specially concerned in one way to ease that shortage of teachers. That +way is the use of married women in the public schools. All women who +have "verified their credentials" as good teachers should be held on +to when they marry with all possible strength of appeal to fulfil a +social duty as a part of the teaching force of the locality where they +live. The old absurdity of making women resign from the teaching force +when they issued wedding cards, or conceal the fact of their marriage +if they were not scrupulous, so as to keep their positions, is fast +passing. Few communities hold on to this penalizing of the woman +teacher when she marries, but many school boards retain a sentiment +against urging the continuance of any married woman on the staff. This +must give way to an intelligent understanding of two things: one, that +experience in teaching is an immeasurable asset to the schools and +must not be lost in so great proportion of women as it has been; and, +in the second place, that teaching lends itself in unique manner to +half-time work, to vacations for maternity duties, to combining of two +or three married women in positions that might be filled by one +spinster, and to other social expedients favorable to married life; +and that all that is needed is good sense and some skill of +administrative adjustment to keep the larger majority of good teachers +in the field after they are wives and mothers. + +Moreover, from the point of view of the family, it is injurious for +social practice to keep women who have the qualities of good teachers +from marrying lest they lose their beloved profession. It is one of +the best, although one of the least tried, ways of bringing the school +and the home together by giving a good many teachers a clearer idea +from personal experience of what the home needs from the school, and +giving mothers a clearer idea of the reasons for school rules by +having them serve in both capacities. The normal school education of +women was obtained by appeals based on the fact of the first half of +the nineteenth century that unless women teachers were secured and +trained for the task the elementary school could never be enabled to +fill the need of the public school system. The fact of the early part +of the twentieth century should be as deeply pressed, the fact that +there are not enough women teachers of education and character for +elementary school service unless we mix teaching and marriage for many +of them. This fact should make a social appeal to-day equal to that of +Horace Mann's great mission. + +If we are to have enough elementary school teachers and continue to +increase the number from the most fit women for the task, we must also +institute a new social backing for the profession. In this connection +one is obliged to deal with the disrespect shown the average teacher +of little children and even of the high school and college instructor +as compared with leaders in other professions. The teacher of little +children is most often a woman, and if a woman away from home and +especially in some rural communities is very nearly a social outcast. +The "teacherage" is just beginning to be called for as the suitable +home for the teachers of a school; a "teacherage" which can become a +social centre if near the school building, and thus be uniquely +useful. The jointure of all the best homes in a community with all the +wisest teachers in that community, not alone for the occasional +discussion of "School Problems" or "Home Problems," but for some +common public work which will link both teachers and parents to the +larger life of the community--this is a necessity if we would have +enough teachers of the right sort. + +The attention to the physical details of school housing, school +gardens, school playgrounds, school lighting and seating, all these +the family life which furnishes the children must be keen about in +the interest of each child. The curriculum must not be left to a +school board chiefly interested in other matters than text-books, +except it may be for a business interest in the latter. The supply and +testing of teachers must not be left to a body more concerned in +getting places for relatives and friends than for securing the best +available teaching staff. + +In all the things that experts should direct, and in all the things +that mean health and comfort and happiness to individual children, +parents, even if not very learned, should have a voice and seek to +make their convictions work to actual progress. + +=Individual Sharing in the Social Inheritance.=--For the last point of +our list, namely, the right of every child to be made a conscious heir +to the social inheritance of his time and place in the world, little +need be said. The tendencies in American life which give thoughtful +people the most satisfaction are the tendencies toward extension of +culture privileges in public libraries, lectures, tax-supported and +educationally supervised playgrounds, in young people's organizations +like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, in summer camps (not all for the +rich), in vacation houses full of the flavor of the best of life, in +the varied clubs and classes of the settlements, in the pageants and +other forms of pictured world-life--all these, and more that might be +named, show an exuberance of effort to share with utmost speed and +fullest generosity the things that seem to the privileged few the most +precious heritage of our race. + +Yet, with all our effort so much more needs doing that multitudes live +and die wholly ignorant of the world they have come to or of the +race-life of which they are a part. Doctor Du Bois, in his classic +appeal for human comradeship for all, _The Soul of Black Folks_, has +shown what suffering comes to the cultured black man who finds all +cultured men and women of white races forcing him to be an alien +because of his skin. There is a sadder and more terrible, because +unconscious, deprivation; it is that of any one, white or black, rich +or poor, who loses the chance to partake of the culture of the past. +The man or woman, whether able to accomplish much or little on the +practical side of vocational service, whose outlook is bounded by the +narrow, the superficial, the personal, the ephemeral, is missing the +best part of his social inheritance, the capacity to "look before and +after and pine for what is not." + +Such a little time we are here! Even a Methuselah might wish to have +in his mental furnishings the glory of the past and the prophetic hope +of the future. All children, not merely a fortunate few, should have +this sense of a group-life of which each is a part, should be able to +see life and see it whole in the social inheritance that belongs alike +to each one of us. Children make a large order upon each generation as +they come into a vast group of all that have been and reach +consciously toward the expanding life of the coming time. + +The family must begin that culture by which the order shall be filled, +but no family can answer even the least of the social demands by +itself. "Culture," says Emerson, "shall yet absorb chaos itself," +Every child has a rightful citizenship in that order-giving world of +thought, of history, of poetry, of art, of science, and of religion. + +What a nation we might become if only every child had this, its right, +recognized and fulfilled! + + +QUESTIONS ON THE CHILDREN OF THE FAMILY + + 1. The eighteenth century was called the century of man, the + nineteenth century, of women, and the twentieth, that of the + child. What facts justify this statement? + + 2. What are the main elements in the modern standard of + child-care, child-protection, and child-nurture? + + 3. What of these elements can and should the private home supply, + and what must be the community provision and control? + + 4. In trying to effect both private and public conditions + favorable to the best development of child-life, what should be + the scale of values used, or what should be the order of + effort? + + 5. Dr. Alice Hamilton, in a Chicago study of I,500 families, found + that the infant death-rate in large families of six children + and over was two and one-half times greater than in small + families of four children or less. Was that an indication that + infant mortality rises with fecundity or was it one of many + indications that the better-to-do have smaller families? In any + case, should such statistics always include the statement of + the social standing and the income of the groups studied? + + 6. In _The Child_ of August, 1920, Miss Julia C. Lathrop + summarizes the Child-welfare Standards proposed by the + Children's Bureau as follows: + + (1.) Minimum standards for children entering employment: + + A. Minimum age, sixteen years in all employments; + eighteen years in mines and quarries; twenty-one + years for girls as telephone or telegraph messengers; + twenty-one years for special-delivery service of U.S. + Post Office; prohibition of minors in dangerous, + unhealthy, or hazardous occupations. + + B. Minimum education, compulsory education for all between + seven and sixteen years for nine months of every year. + Between sixteen and eighteen years those legally + employed to attend Continuation Schools at least eight + hours a week. + + C. Physical minimum, annual examination of all working + children under eighteen years of age; prohibition of + work unless found to be normal in physique and health. + + D. Hours, minors not more than eight hours a day or + forty-four hours a week, and prohibition of + night-work. Continuation School attendance to count as + part of working-day. + + E. Wages, minimum determined by wage commission or similar + agency. + + F. Vocational guidance and employment supervision. + + G. Employment certificate as needed protection against + industrial exploitation. + + (2.) Minimum standards for public protection of health of + mothers and children: + + A. Maternity aids; B. Infants; C. Pre-school children; D. + School children; E. Adolescent children. + + (3.) Minimum standards in relation to children needing special + care: + + A. Adequate income; B. Assistance to mothers; C. State + supervision; D. Removal of some children from their + homes; E. Home care; F. Principles governing + child-placing; G. Children in institutions; H. Care + of children born out of wedlock; I. Care of + physically defective children; J. Mental hygiene and + care of mentally defective children; K. Juvenile + courts; L. Rural social work; M. Scientific + information. + + (4.) General minimum standards: + + A. Economic and social; B. Recreation; C. Child-welfare + legislation. + + Read the above and compare your local conditions with these + standards. Do you think all these demands necessary? + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] Described briefly in _The Survey_ of November 12, 1921. + +[9] In New Zealand, which has so many "modern improvements" in +government, the proposition has been made to fix a basic wage for a man +and wife without children, and make it the same as for a single man. In +addition to this sum, each employer would be required by law to pay +into a State Fund a sum slightly in advance of this wage for the single +man and the childless married man, and that excess sum would be +distributed in the form of a children's allowance to each parent +according to the number of children. It is estimated that under this +plan the total sum paid out in wages would not exceed that now +distributed, but the receipt by the workers would be proportioned to +responsibilities. + +[10] See publications of the National Child-labor Committee. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE FLOWER OF THE FAMILY + + + "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in + faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in + action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the + beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!" + + "Sure, He that made us with such large discourse, + Looking before and after, gave us not + That capability and godlike reason + To fust in us unused." + --SHAKESPEARE. + + "The apostolic of every age are ever calling for a higher + righteousness, a better development of the human race, a more + earnest effort to equalize the condition of men."--LUCRETIA MOTT. + + "To every period its leaders: and the rise of every leader is + according to his watching for opportunity; and the chief quality + of leadership is the jewel of equity, by which alone the obedience + of men is justified."--ARAB SAYING. + + "He presses on before the race, + And sings out of a silent place. + Like faint notes of a forest bird + On heights afar that voice is heard; + And the dim path he breaks to-day + Will some time be a trodden way. + But when the race comes toiling on + That voice of wonder will be gone-- + Be heard on higher peaks afar, + Moved upward with the morning star. + O men of earth, that wandering voice + Still goes the upward way: rejoice!" + --EDWIN MARKHAM. + + +=The Proportions of Genius to the Mediocre.=--In Dr. T.S. Clouston's +suggestive book, _The Hygiene of Mind_, he estimates that at least +four-fifths of the human race are legally "sound" and of average +capacity. Of the remaining one-fifth who are "unusual" he and other +investigators name only one-tenth of one per cent, as entitled to the +distinction of "Genius." Clouston adds to this a class of "lesser +genius," often extremely useful to the race but often personally +unhappy from ungratified ambition or lack of temperamental balance. He +lists "reformers" for the most part in this class and "inventors who +do not succeed." He also specifically indicates a class of "all-round +talent" from which successful social and political leaders are drawn +and heads of big business and administrators of large enterprises in +educational fields. Dr. Lester F. Ward, on the contrary, believed that +we estimate the rate of genius and potential genius far too low and +that special talent is vastly more common than the usual observer +thinks. He says, "What the human race needs is not more brains but +more knowledge." In his clarion call for the better education of all +people of every race and condition, he affirms his faith in +environmental opportunity and a finer personal development as the +chief things needed to send the race onward. Professor Woods, of +Dartmouth College, writing on "The Social Cost of Unguided Ability," +confirms this conviction of Doctor Ward.[11] He declares that "for ten +men who succeed there are probably fifty more who might succeed with +adequate development and specialization of effort." He shows how +"education as an agency in the selection of personal ability fails +because of undue abbreviation of the period of training for most +individuals and the omission of elements of training of real +significance for the purpose of adjusting individuals to the specific +task." When we note that before the fifth elementary grade is reached +there is a drop in attendance showing only 80 per cent. of those found +in the second grade, and in the sixth grade only 66 per cent., and in +the seventh grade only 50 per cent., and in the eighth grade less than +40 per cent. remain of those entering the first and second grades, we +see good reason for his statement. When the high school statistics are +added, with the drop year by year in attendance until at graduation +only one in fourteen pupils remains to the end, we feel that this +author is right when he says that "Society suffers less from the race +suicide of the capable than from the non-utilization of the +well-endowed." + + [Illustration] + +=Eugenics.=--When Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin and one of +the first to apply to human beings the ideas of "selection for better +breeds," published in 1873 his article on "Hereditary Improvement," he +used the word "Stirpiculture" as indicating the application of +evolution to the method of improving mankind by the selection of the +superior in the process of reproduction. He later changed the +designation to "Eugenics," which is now held as the term best applying +in this connection. In 1891 Dr. Lester Ward himself said, "Artificial +selection has given to man the most that he enjoys in the organic +products of earth. May not men and women be selected as well as sheep +and horses? From the great stirp of humanity with all its multiplied +ancestral plasms--some very poor, some mediocre, some merely +indifferent, a goodly number ranging from middling to fair, only a +comparatively few very good, with an occasional crystal of the first +water--why may we not learn to select on some broad and comprehensive +plan with a view to a general building up and rounding out of the race +of human beings?" So keen an observer and philosophic thinker as +Doctor Ward, however, could not long accept the first allurement of +this idea. He soon began to show with his convincing power that "the +control of heredity is possible only to a master creature. Man is the +master creature of the animal world. Society is the master of its +defectives. But normal people are their own masters. Any attempt on +the part of society to control the choice of partners in the marital +relation would be tyranny." Recognizing the need for "negative +eugenics" fully, and declaring in its name that "mental and physical +defectives of society should be kept from perpetuating their defects +through propagation," he insisted that "eugenists must recognize and +admit the enormous force of personal preference" in marriage. + +Doctor Ward gives a figure--as above--which might be used to indicate +the conclusions of Galton, in his _Hereditary Genius_, and of Ribot +and others. Doctor Galton himself gave in his volume on the _Social +Order_ a chart somewhat more discriminating. In any case, however, the +eugenists must depend upon the mass of the mediocre for a supply of +geniuses and those of exceptional talent and depend upon the process +of reproduction for securing that supply. Doctor Ward, on the +contrary, looks to education, controlled and improved environment, and +the stimulus for all people to be gained from more scientific +knowledge more widely distributed. In his famous article, entitled +"Eugenics, Euthenics, and Eudemics,"[12] Doctor Ward says that +"eugenists tend to emphasize unduly the intellectual qualities" and +"manifest more or less contempt for the affective faculties." +"Nature," he thinks, "is far wiser and seeks to prevent all extremes." +He also reminds us that "much that is called genius is pathologic and +linked to the abnormal and the insane." Perhaps few would agree with +Doctor Ward that "genius is scattered somewhat uniformly through the +whole mass of the population and needs only favoring circumstances to +bring it to conscious expression." But that thought challenges +attention. He would improve mankind, first, by getting rid of error +through the full use of demonstrated scientific knowledge and, second, +by a "nurture" in accord with the laws of progress. + +=Euthenics and Eudemics.=--The pioneer treatment of "Euthenics," or +"The Science of Controllable Environment," with its "Plea for Better +Living Conditions as a First Step Toward Higher Human Efficiency," +was given by Ellen H. Richards in 1910. Doctor Ward, in alluding to +this, reminds us that "there is a tendency for the avenues of progress +to become choked and normal upward movements checked" and that "we +must at all times take vigorous action and in the direction of the +betterment of the human race." In respect to "Eudemics," or the +doctrine of the welfare of the masses of the people-at-large, Doctor +Ward uses the term first suggested to Doctor Dealey, of Brown +University, by Doctor Koopman, Librarian of that University, with +approval, and gives it a meaning of the greatest social helpfulness. +In his view it is not a misfortune that society is being to so great +an extent recruited from the so-called "lower classes." If there are +signs of decadence anywhere, he thinks, they are not in the +"proletariat;" they are among the "pampered rich," not the "hampered +poor." + +=New Types of Genius.=--Again, his plea is for universal education in +real knowledge and true inference from facts of life and a universal +sharing of the really best things to secure a just quota of genius and +talent from all classes. It seems clear that we are not obliged to +limit our hopes for "flowers of the family" to the few at the top of +the social pyramid. For the testimony of history agrees rather with +Doctor Ward than with the extreme eugenists, and we have often had +arising from the common life splendid examples of human capacity and +achievement. When the eugenists list their double columns of those +whom humanity takes pride in and those of whom humanity is ashamed it +is most often from the degenerative or defective members of society +that the second list is taken. From the great common life of average +condition, neither too rich nor too poor, too cultured nor too +ignorant, for "human nature's daily food," one rises now and then to +leave a mark high up on the list of great ones of the earth. Hence, +humble fathers and mothers can build magnificent hopes on the newborn +baby of their love. It is to be considered also that there is +difference of opinion as to what constitutes genius and what may be +called exceptional talent. One sociologist thinks that there are but +three really important classes of men, namely, "Mechanical Inventors, +Scientific Discoverers, and Philosophic Thinkers." Another type of +judgment may consider that genius shows itself almost exclusively in +those creative minds that give us great music, great pictures, great +sculptures, great temples, and great books of poetry, drama, and the +novel. Another type of mind, now growing fast among us in this +machine-dominated industrial era, may find genius the most appropriate +name for the master engineer or business-builder who rules a wide +realm of successfully administered economic order. There is, also, +although it is not often bold enough to claim loud voice, a small +section of those who look for supreme excellence in religious or +ethical attainment, a line of genius in mastery of the Way of Life. +Certainly serviceable goodness, that which does big things for others' +safety or help, may be given some place among the specially talented. +For example, the little French girl of nine years of age who, bereft +of her mother by the accidents of war, has brought up almost unaided +five little brothers and sisters, the youngest only seven months old +when her task began, and for two years, it is said, washed, cooked, +and dressed her charges, and "saw to it that those old enough went to +school where she went herself and took prizes for her scholarship," +might well be called one of the "unusual." The prize of 500 francs +awarded this "little mother" after two years of such able family +engineering and personal care of those dependent upon her shows that +some people at least rank those with ability to do social services and +the high purpose to achieve the best possible for others' welfare as +having a place In the company of the specially talented. + +In an inconspicuous book called _The New Party_, edited by Andrew Reid +and containing selections from many "labor" leaders, these words +occur: "We have had politics for politics' sake, religion for +religion's sake, science for science's sake, literature for +literature's sake, art for art's sake: we want politics for justice, +religion for right, science for happiness, literature for love of +humanity, and art for the social pleasure of all." Those who can thus +translate the separate achievements of mankind which taken at the top +have won the title of works of genius are beginning to be seen above +the human horizon as among the great of earth. + +It is still, however, as of old, the man or woman who has a special +gift of voice or pen or brush or sculptor's tool or command of +instrument or ability to compose music or to write literature fit to +live forever, or build temples that command wonder and admiration, or +who in some form of creative activity makes his mark upon history, who +is most often spoken of as a genius. It is now only a little while +since we began to add to this list the scientific, the commercial and +the political genius. The military genius has held a place for ages, +but his specialty is losing standing as a social asset, and we can +foresee a time when he must learn constructive rather than destructive +methods of action in order to qualify for the "Hall of Fame."[13] + +=Only Men in Lists of Geniuses.=--Genius along any line has for its +topmost reaches the names of men only. Few women have even attained +the secondary place of the talented. When we remember that higher +education for women is a child of less than a hundred years' growth, +and that all the higher walks of achievement in the intellectual, the +political, the scientific, and the industrial field have been +masculine monopolies in custom and even in law for ages after men had +opportunity of specialized development and work, this is not a sure +proof of the intellectual and vocational inferiority of women. Until +women have had several centuries of equal education and freedom of +activity with men no one can tell what they can do in any special +line. It is therefore idle at this date for any one to argue either +for or against the possibilities of a more balanced list of the sexes +in those at the top of human achievement. + +What we are now beginning to be sure of is that all talent is +precious, all special power a social asset, all leadership to be +conserved, and all real genius a priceless treasure--hence, that all +children who are gifted, whether boys or girls, shall be developed to +the height of social power. This means that although every gifted +child is born in a private family, society must see to it that its +chance for right nurture and fitting education is not limited to the +resources of any private family, especially to those of the poorer in +economic power. + +Galton estimates two hundred and fifty in a million as in the +"distinguished class," If, as Doctor Ward and others think, many more +might be able to qualify for that position if favorably situated, then +society, which is the loser by every undeveloped person, must learn to +know the possibilities of children as indicated by scientific study +and lessen the present waste of potential talent. Dr. Carl Kelsey says +"Heredity determines what a man may become, but environment determines +what he does become." This is not entirely true, perhaps, since many +noble and wise have risen from untoward surroundings, but it is +largely true. + +=Social Need to Learn What Children Are.=--If society is to really set +about the business of getting from the mass of mankind all the +intellectual and moral power and all the real leadership that may be +available for social uses, then surely we must learn first to know +more about all the children in every family. How can this be done? In +many cases children are slow in development and may have powers quite +unsuspected until the time for most skilful cultivation has passed. In +many cases parents are so partial that "all their geese are swans." In +other cases the nervous excitability may be such that precocity leads +to overstimulation and later there is arrest of development, and the +promising bud does not develop into the flower of the family. In any +case, the parents alone can not, as a rule, attain full comparison and +due balance of judgment even between their own children and certainly +not as between their own and the children of other parents. + +="Charting Parents."=--There is, to be sure, a new plan of "Charting +Parents" to find out what they are able to do and what they are +actually doing in the moral training and physical care of their +children. "The Parents' Score Card," prepared by Dr. Caroline Hedger, +of the Elizabeth McCormick Memorial Fund, and published in the +_Woman's Home Companion_ of March, 1922, aims to enable fathers and +mothers "to size themselves up as parents." The points to be noted and +on which parents have a rating as good, bad, or indifferent, comprise +those concerning "physical defects attended to," "adequate supervision +of athletics and recreation," "regulations concerning the below-weight +or nervous child," on "team-work in parents" (whether they pull +together or apart in the discipline of the child), and some very +drastic examination points on "fault-finding," "lying to child," +"punishing when angry." The chart deals, in general, with the +character influence of the parent. It is said that only one child in +three hundred had a perfect "score card" in an investigation of a +large number of children, and hence only a small proportion of parents +could be supposed to measure up to all the requirements of the +parent's outline of duties. + +This new device of putting parents to the test is being adopted in +many differing ways by health boards, by school boards, by children's +courts, by church committees of investigation, and by the +superintendents of charitable agencies. This all means that a standard +of child-life is being attained, a measure of the normal, divergence +from which is an indication of the abnormal, either in capacity or +condition. This is a wholesome movement, although sometimes carried +out in unwise and unsympathetic ways. This should enable parents to +find out if they have average children and what to do with defects +that are remediable. This is also one of the ways by which we measure +the social need to help parents who are themselves handicapped in any +way to do their duty by their children. + +What we need, however, is more than this--we need some definite +knowledge of what sort of children we have in one generation with +which to build the next generation. We need to be able to take account +of our social stock as we go along. To do this the home must be +supplemented specifically and adequately by the school. In the school +we have opportunity of wide study of varying types, of comparison of +differing rates of progress, of getting at actual knowledge of actual +quality and capacity in a child as related to the like in other +children. This investigative function of the school has been used for +the most part to ascertain what children were defective. This is +useful. We need, also, to use it with far more ingenuity to ascertain +what children are most promising and most likely to dower the race +with special gifts. + +=New Observation Records for Children.=--A very important "Observation +Record for the Selection of Gifted Children in the Elementary Schools" +has been drawn up by Julie A. Badanes, which has been published with +an introduction by Dr. Saul Badanes. In this introduction it is well +said that "the idea of establishing a norm for every school year" is a +new one. The measurement of intelligence by Binet dates only back to +1905. In the treatment of the "Intelligence of Pupils," Meumann +declares "that the problem of measuring the intelligence of school +children is the basic problem in education." Recently William Stern +has dealt at length with "The Selection of Gifted Children in Public +Schools" and with related elements of investigation of the +intelligence of children. William H. Allen, in his book, _Universal +Training for American Citizenship_, has, as Doctor Badanes notes, +given a chapter to the "Training of the Specially Gifted." We are all +concerned with growing earnestness in the problem of getting in +democracy the leadership which all social organization requires. It +is, therefore, of the most intense interest to all thoughtful people +how the flower of the family is nurtured and in what manner it is made +to bloom. + +This "Psychological-pedagogical Observation Record," which has been +devised as an aid in finding out if a child is specially gifted, and +if so in what way its gifts should be developed and how it should find +its way to achievement, is very suggestive. Any parent might well +study its itemized outlines for help in effort to understand the child +that is unlike the average. The "Record" requires attention to the +"general condition of the senses and nerves," to "memory and power of +learning," to qualities of "imagination," to strength and expression +of "emotions," to facility in "language," to "manner of work," to +"relation to home and community life," and in respect to "adaptation +to new demands." These things are vital not only to know about and +understand as respects one personality but to compare on the same +basis a number of personalities in order to get a ranking that is just +and useful for guidance in education. Suppose a father and mother feel +sure that a child of theirs is one of the exceptional, the gifted, +perhaps of great talent, even possibly a genius in the making. They +may get much help in arriving at sober judgment by many books and +treatises now available. But far clearer would be their own approach +to the matter in hand if they could study some such chart as is here +alluded to and get a clear direction as to what to look for and how +to measure what they find. If such parents, however, would be really +assured in their first appreciation of their child they need the +cooeperative observation and fuller opportunity of comparison which a +teacher of a school, who is herself or himself a good psychologist, +can place at their service. All of us can see our own children at +their best; few can justly estimate what the power of that best may be +in a competitive world. + +=What to Do with the Specially Gifted Child.=--The child may be one of +the few elected to leadership in some field. All who watch and study +and understand may agree that it is the gift of its birthright. Then +what is there to do? The question often arises, Shall the other +children in the family be given less opportunity in order that this +gifted one may have the larger chance which genius and great talent +really demand for fulfilment of promise? There was no doubt of the +answer to this question in the minds of those who believed that a +special gift carried with it special privilege provided the special +gift discovered were of a sort understood by all. For many generations +a boy feeling a "call" to the ministry of religion as rabbi, priest, +or preacher would be sure to have, if necessary, all the resources of +his family at his command and all possible aid of friends even at the +sacrifice of the elementary education of his brothers and sisters. In +the same way in a more limited circle the child who could do any +creative work of imagination in art would be considered entitled to +any self-sacrificing devotion of other members of the family which +might be needed to carry forward his work. In a larger way many have +looked upon all higher education as solely for those who have shown a +power of potential leadership. Not long ago the old saying was +revived: "Colleges are for the exceptional individuals who may become +the world's intellectual elite." On the other hand, the growth of +State Universities and of many forms of adult education, and the +offering of college courses in the evening to those employed in +earning-work during the day, show that the opportunities of culture +are more and more made free to all and that the conviction is growing +that it is not alone leaders who should be educated but that the +common life must be raised in mental and moral power in order for true +leadership to work effectively for the advance of social well-being. + +In the family the genius or near-genius is likely to get all that +should be its privilege and often more. And this not only from pride +in his talent and from desire to give that talent its proper chance of +expression but because genius and near-genius have often a +self-protecting and self-acquiring quality that make sure of much +unselfish care from others. If, as has been said, "The genius is +composed of a man, a woman, and a child," and there is much in life to +give color to that idea, then it is easy to see why the flower of the +family so often gets the larger share of every family advantage and +when the family resource fails is sure to find friends and helpers on +every side to help on his development. This is not unjust provided the +talented member can serve well in this specialty. The great trouble is +that many think themselves geniuses and find others, in youth at +least, to confirm their judgment of themselves, who are only a trifle +above the commonplace. This leads too often to selfish claims upon +others that tire even the family affection. It would be well on this +account, if no other, if every child could be wisely and adequately +diagnosed in respect to mental power so that fewer mistakes would be +made in confounding greatness with showiness or creative power with +mere discriminating taste. + +If the family really cuts off the education and vocational +opportunities of the less gifted below the point required for average +success in life, in order to give greater advantages to the gifted +one, it is an injustice. The mediocre have their innings now, and it +is one of the great demands of democracy, both within and without the +family, that the commonplace shall not miss its chance for learning +how to serve and enjoy the best it can. The family life must be for +all, the one place in which no life is wholly sacrificed to another +life. + +What, then, shall be done for the gifted whose talent, like that of +music, for example, means a high demand for expensive culture? The +answer we are beginning to give is that social agencies shall aid the +parents in securing that culture. Aristocracy had its "patrons" for +artists. Democracy must have its special educational aids for the +gifted. Already that demand is being met in countless ways that will +readily occur to all. Meanwhile, there is the public school organized +to meet the needs of the "average child." At first the grade-system +had a Procrustean bed that made it impossible to meet the needs of +those below the average and almost as difficult to meet the needs of +those above that average. We started special schools and special rooms +for those subnormal, retarded, slow, or specially difficult to manage. +Now we are beginning to consider how we can best make the +tax-supported public school serve the interests of the specially +gifted. The first thing we see clearly now is to find out which +children are exceptional on the upper side, and for that the newly +devised forms of scientific observation and measurement may be useful +if care is taken to mix every formula with common sense, patience, and +human sympathy. The next essential is to decide whether the children +who can go faster shall be passed along through the grades by special +arrangement more rapidly or whether they shall be kept on the regular +track of school promotions and be given extra lessons to "enrich their +curriculum." The part of wisdom, it would seem, is to find out what +kind of gift the exceptional child has and hasten his regular course, +or add to it, in accordance with his type of talent. If he is to be +one of those who are to mix with men and lead others in professions +that demand administrative and executive power, the chances are that +he should have the regular course in the usual order and add studies +that will early give him the facts of practical life and an +acquaintance with many phases of political, business, and scientific +activity that would serve in such work as he is likely to find to do. +If, on the other hand, the gift is creative, and the career nature has +seemingly marked out is one where the impulse will come from within, +and some special technical training can alone give that impulse +expression, then the chances are that the sooner such a child "gets +through with school," emerges from formal education into his own +atmosphere and his own free alignment with the masters in his own art, +the sooner he will really begin to be educated for his task. It seems +to be true that the more a human being is set apart by nature for a +specialty of art the less he gets from all teachers save those in his +own field of interest. It seems also true that the wider a human +being's range of dealing with other human beings in business, in +politics, in religious organizations, in educational work, the surer +it will be that "all is grist that comes to his mill" and there can be +no study that is at all worthy that fails to enrich his mind. Hence, +the new tendency to examination for the sake of finding out the +specially gifted children and giving them the special opportunity in +education which they need and will profit by, must be one guided +toward details of differing gifts as well as toward quantitative +power. + +=Genius Universal in Nature.=--If any family has in it a real genius, +that family shines forever in the reflected light of its choicest +treasure. Yet a genius belongs to no family, even to no country. Such +belong to the world. Mary, we are told, "pondered the things in her +heart" which marked the boy Jesus out from all the other lads who +played about the carpenter shop of Joseph. And it is not alone poetic +imagination that shows her as troubled as well as humbly proud at the +testimonies of His coming greatness. Many other mothers of those +destined to high achievement have had misgivings as the shadow as +truly as the sunlight of that greatness passed across their vision. +For true greatness is solitary and often dedicated to tragedies of +experience. The family life may be the only refuge from a +misunderstanding world while the hero lives and only after death may +the high quality of his service be known to all. + +=Genius Its Own School-master.=--The most comforting thought to +parents who have children "different" and perhaps different in ways +not yet appreciated by the world around them, is this: nature, which +takes care that we shall not have too many geniuses and doubtless will +still take such care when we grow wise enough to give all the children +a chance to prove whether or not they are geniuses--nature sees to it +that the most gifted among the children of men carry within themselves +their own school-master. If the regular lines of education do not suit +their needs they promptly emancipate themselves from the useless +pedagogy, and going after what they personally demand for inner +nourishment, get it at all hazards. Sometimes, not infrequently, all +the gifted child needs is a library and a chance to be free, or a +studio and the companionship of an artist and just his own sort of +training, at the time he can best appropriate it. + +=Varieties of the Gifted.=--Happily all the flowers of the family are +not geniuses or specially talented. Some are just beautiful to look at +and yet unspoiled by flattery. It is a great gift of nature to be able +to give happiness just by allowing people to look at one! The contour +of the face, the turn of the head, the light in the eye, the freshness +of the complexion, the grace of the movement, and the sweetness of the +voice all go together, if the manner and the feeling only match the +coloring and the form, to make it well worth while just to be alive. + +And some flowers of the family are not beautiful but charming, those +of tact and graciousness and understanding of others and consideration +and unselfish behavior. These are they of whom one has said, "The +charm of her presence was felt when she went, and men at her side grew +nobler, girls purer, as all through the town the children were gladder +who pulled at her gown." + +Some flowers of the family bloom late and come to their beauty only +when some disaster threatens destruction of the home or some sorrow +wrecks its happiness. Simple, plain, unassuming, neither very wise nor +very strong in other matters, they have a heart that can love with +such intensity that it warms the coldest spot and is the refuge most +sought when misfortune appears. + +And sometimes the flower of the family is but a memory of one who +early passes on. Emerson sang in his beautiful "Threnody": + + "The gracious boy, who did adorn + The world whereinto he was born, + And by his countenance repay + The favor of the loving Day,-- + Has disappeared from the Day's eye; + Far and wide she cannot find him; + My hopes pursue, they cannot bind him. + ...................................... + Nature, who lost, cannot remake him; + Fate let him fall, Fate can't retake him; + ........................................ + the feet + Of the most beautiful and sweet + Of human youth had left the hill + And garden,--they were bound and still." + +It is of such that affection speaks most tenderly. + + +QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER OF THE FAMILY + + 1. How far should the general family life be burdened for special + development of the genius, the near-genius, and the specially + talented member? + + 2. What added social provisions should we seek to secure to aid in + the self-training of the specially gifted? + + 3. What type of education may lead more surely to the discovery of + talent and special faculty in the mass of children? + + 4. Should the chief aim be to bring the subnormal or backward up + to grade or to give a free and helpful range of opportunity to + natural qualities of leadership? If both should be aimed at + equally, how can the public school aid in the double task? + + 5. A suggestive list of Books for Parents, issued by the + Federation for Child Study, headquarters at 2 West Sixty-fourth + Street, New York City, includes several of special value in + determining the mental powers and special requirements of + children diverging from the average quality and capacity. Read + at least one of the books indicated and compare local + provisions for examination of children with those advocated as + desirable. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] See _American Journal of Sociology_ for November, 1913. + +[12] See _American Journal of Sociology_ for May, 1913. + +[13] See chapter on "Democracy and Distinction," in _Social +Organization_, by C.H. Cooley. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE CHILDREN THAT NEVER GROW UP + + "It was perhaps an idle thought + But I imagined that if day by day + I watched him and seldom went away, + And studied all the beatings of his heart + With zeal (as men study some stubborn art + For their own good) and could by patience find + An entrance to the caverns of his mind-- + I might reclaim him from his dark estate." + --SHELLEY. + + "One man, at least, I know, + Who might wear the crest of Bayard + Or Sidney's plume of snow. + Behold him, + The Cadmus of the blind, + Giving the dumb lips language, + The idiot clay a mind. + Wherever outraged Nature + Asks word or action brave, + Wherever struggles labor, + Wherever groans a slave,-- + Wherever rise the peoples, + Wherever sinks a throne, + The throbbing heart of Freedom finds + An answer in his own. + Knight of a better era, + Without reproach or fear! + Said I not well that Bayards + And Sidneys still are here?" + --WHITTIER'S tribute to Dr. Howe. + + +=The Defective Children.=--Not those who die young, full of promise, +to leave a memory of exquisite budding loveliness cut short by +untimely frosts, but those who live on from infancy to childhood and +from youth to physical maturity and even on to old age, yet never +become responsible adults--these are the children we must consider. + +The demand of the eugenists that such, if obviously defective, should +be prevented from bringing forth after their kind is clearly the only +social wisdom. The statistics of social pathology all point to mental +defectiveness as the prolific cause of crime, immorality, vocational +incompetency, illegitimacy, family failure, and marital tragedy. In a +recent study of one hundred families in which feeble-mindedness was +obvious, a study carried on by the Massachusetts Society for the +Prevention of Cruelty to Children, immorality was found in 58 per +cent. of them; extreme filth and bad home conditions were found in 30 +per cent.; and in 47 per cent. one or more members of these families +were public charges. Where the mother is subnormal there is almost +certain to be a line of feeble-minded progeny, and in this study, +while there were only 7 per cent. of the fathers hopelessly deficient, +in 25 per cent. the mothers were notably defective in mind. +Thirty-seven of these families showed illegitimate children--a far +larger number than the average of normal population. Physical +deficiencies also figured largely in these family records. + +This particular study takes us into the region where Doctor Fernald, +Doctor Goddard and many others have prepared material for convincing +the public mind that no one thing so increases social degeneracy and +so adds to the sum of human misery as the unprotected freedom of +defectives to procreate and pollute the family currents.[14] This is +not a treatise on social pathology and elsewhere must be found the +details of investigation and information that justify this statement. +What is here attempted is only a study of what should be the attitude +of fathers and mothers toward feeble-minded children if such should be +their tragic problem. + +=Custodial Care of the Defective.=--In the first place, the attitude +of mind of the parents, if they are themselves normal, is to be +considered. What gives us feeble-minded children from feeble-minded +parents is clear. The social prevention for carrying on known +degeneracy cannot be too strongly stressed, and hence the first duty +of normal parents is to consider the social danger of leaving a +feeble-minded child, especially a feeble-minded girl, to any chance of +parenthood. This leads to the question of removal from home of +feeble-minded children to permanent custodial care in institutions +provided especially for their segregation, possible teaching and +thrifty use of small work-power. Alexander Johnson, who has done so +much in the United States to make all philanthropy wise and effective +and particularly has helped to form public opinion concerning right +methods of care and training of the feeble-minded, tells us that +"one-half of the mentally defective can become one-third of a normal +person," can be made happy and useful to the extent of considerable +aid toward self-support if under constant supervision and given the +trained care of special teachers. + +There are few private homes in which any feeble-minded boy or girl can +attain such a condition. The children who are "different," if having +the sole devotion of father and mother, may be protected and made +happy in the measure of their power for happiness. But if there are +other children in the family neither they nor the afflicted one are +comfortable. The measure of feeble-mindedness is usually the measure +of unhappiness when the normal and abnormal are in close +companionship. In most families it is not possible for either or both +parents to give entire time, strength and devotion to one subnormal +child. Where it is, there is no security that death will not prevent +the permanency of that devoted care. Hence, it is generally safer and +better for all concerned to place the feeble-minded in collective +homes where their own kind are cared for exclusively and where +segregated control can be complete and permanent through life. There +is no horror of such places for those who have seen what flowers of +happiness and what miracles of devotion may be found in "Training +Schools for the Feeble-minded." + +The affectional side of the nature of a mental defective may be of +unusual strength and may find special objects of love among those +still more handicapped than itself. Those visiting intimately in such +School-homes may see a higher-grade imbecile caring for a lower-grade +with patience and devotion; they may see the competitive element in +training, reduced in levels for the accommodation of the slender +stock of mentality, producing on that lower level the same good +results that normal children gain from trying to imitate and to excel. +Small attainments are sources of pride in a class of defectives which +if exhibited among the normal would give bitter experience of +contrast. By making the standard of behavior and of attainment suited +to their little power, the delight of conquest over difficulties need +not be denied to the feeble-minded. + +Hence, again, it is far from wise and often far from most loving to +keep the child who can never grow up in the company of those who +follow the usual path from infancy to maturity. This means, of course, +if this idea of the more general use of special homes for the +subnormal is to be carried out, a large increase in provision of such +homes. Such large increase is often opposed by short-sighted economy. +The expense of establishing and maintaining such homes in adequate +number and of scientific and humane provisions is counted over and +taxpayers made alarmed at the sum total. What is lacking usually in +the count is the sum total of the enormous sums society now pays out +for the unregulated and socially dangerous neglect of this class of +unfortunates. Doctor Goddard's "Kallikak Family" and many other +accurate showings of what it costs to leave uncared for one +feeble-minded girl in unbefriended freedom should convince any sane +person that the most wasteful extravagance any community can commit is +such neglect of what Mr. Johnson has called "the divine fragments" of +humanity. + +To make provision for the insane is seen to be a social necessity and +the family more than any other social institution profits by the +hospitals and asylums for the treatment and care of such. The relief +of having an insane relative taken away from the home, after months +and perhaps years of anxiety, fear, and suffering on the part of every +other member, cannot be too strongly pictured. The effort now making +to secure early treatment for the first symptoms of mental derangement +and to give even "border-line" cases and exceptionally "cranky" and +nervous people special treatment in mental hygiene marks the +beginning, we must believe, of effective preventive work in this line. +The feeble-minded, however, have a claim of perpetual childhood upon +the parental sympathy, and that, together with common ignorance +concerning their condition or numbers and the social dangers inherent +in their neglect, give us the alarming discrepancy in numbers between +the feeble-minded in suitable segregated care and those left to find +their way or lose it in the usual walks of life. Since Doctor Seguin +wrote his _Treatise on Idiocy_ in 1846 the verdict of science and of +philanthropy has been accumulating as to the need for the full and +complete protection of all who cannot manage successfully, even in the +simplest details, their own lives and the lives of those with whom +they are most closely related. Yet to-day, it is claimed by many +observers, we have only about fifteen per cent, of those requiring +special protection on this account adequately cared for by society. + +The family must be relieved of personal care of its insane, its +lower-grade feeble-minded, and its moral idiots. It must be so +relieved for the sake of the normal members of the family. It must be +so relieved still more for the sake of lessening vice, crime, +degenerative tendencies, and actual waste of public money in public +court procedure and in other public institutional provisions. + +To induce the state of mind in parents which will help on the better +and more adequate social care of these afflicted members of society, +the sense of shame and the keen suffering from social stigma in such +cases must be mitigated. It must be seen that although it may be the +fault of one or both parents that such a child has come into the +world, it is an added and deeper fault, even in many cases a social +crime, to leave that child in ordinary relations of life. It is true +that what Dr. Caleb W. Saleeby well calls "racial poisons" are often +the cause of the damaged germ plasm that starts the handicapped human +being along his devious course. Alcohol, syphilis, and other elements +of degenerative action may have doomed the child and in such cases the +father's or mother's sin or carelessness is the cause of the child's +tragical condition. In such cases the dullest conscience must feel +remorse. It is, however, not always the fault of the immediate +parents. It may be a far more remote inheritance that has started the +degenerative psychosis that results in either insanity, +feeble-mindedness, dipsomania, or "general debility of character." + +=Heredity.=--Prof. E.G. Conklin says, "Heredity may be defined as the +appearance in offspring of characters whose differential causes are +found in germ cells." Doctor Galton says "the two parents between +them contribute on an average one-half of each inherited faculty, or +each parent one-quarter. The grandparents contribute between them +one-quarter, or each one-sixteenth." The responsibility for a poor +specimen of humanity, therefore, is not solely the parents'; they may +share it with a considerable group. Many a defective obviously owes +his condition to some remote ancestor, "to the third or fourth +generation," as the old Scripture said; and many a charming trait, for +which the immediate parents would like to take credit, is really a +gift from some great-grandparent. + +This fact should make it easier for parents of defectives to bear the +burden and easier to make it seem less a shameful confession of +individual responsibility and more a sad confirmation of the fact that +we are all members one of another and no one lives to himself alone. + +=Difficulties in Care of Morons.=--The case is clear as to treatment, +so all enlightened social workers and social students agree, in +respect to the obviously defective or insane. The difficulty is to +care protectively and yet justly for the higher-grade defective or +what is now called the "moron." Doubtless we should all see it best to +begin at the lower levels of defectiveness and abnormality for +pressure upon society to socially protect in segregated institutions +all the afflicted. The point at which compulsory methods should be +used might be placed at a widely differing level by many most +acquainted with the need for some form of social control of and for +this class. Parents in particular would resent any snap judgment and +should do so as to the mental condition of children not obviously +imbecile. It is certain that the high-grade moron makes much trouble +and gives social tragedies without number, but it is still more +certain that no social machinery has yet been devised ingenious enough +to really classify such persons and place them where they can do no +more harm. As Dr. Lightner Witmer well says in his warning against +careless diagnosis, "In training clinical examiners I advise them not +to diagnose a child as feeble-minded unless they feel sure they have +sufficient facts to convince a jury of twelve intelligent men that the +diagnosis of feeble-mindedness is the only logical conclusion to be +drawn from the facts." It is undoubtedly true that many high-grade +imbeciles or morons would be adjudged not feeble-minded by most +juries. It is also undoubtedly true that many youths who are +"peculiar" or "backward" or unusually susceptible to influence from +others or especially lacking in power of self-control are in social +danger and need some form of social protection more effectual than is +required in the case of the normal child and youth. Higher grades of +abnormality and those less understood must be approached, however, +both in matters of examination and of care, from different angles of +observation from those used in discovery and treatment of the +obviously imbecile. + +In this connection mention must be made of the efforts to give +supervision of special sort and under official direction to those able +to earn their own living or partially so, at least, and who yet need +special protection and care. _The Proceedings and Addresses of the +Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Sessions of the American Association for +the Study of the Feeble-minded_ contain specially valuable articles on +"Extra-institutional Care" and on education of the higher-grade +defectives. Two articles published in _Mental Hygiene_ of April, 1921, +on the vocational elements in such extra-institutional care are most +enlightening as to possibilities in this difficult field. The first of +these, entitled "Experiments to Determine Possibilities of Subnormal +Girls in Factory Work," by Elizabeth B. Bigelow, shows that certain +kinds of routine work may be followed successfully by girls who are +mentally under the normal. The second article, "Vocational Probation +for Subnormal Youth," by Doctor Arnold Gesell, of Yale University, +shows how the courts may use probation power and agency in the +interest of self-support and a helpful industrial relationship. The +new Children's Code recently recommended to the Connecticut +Legislature by a special Commission advocates giving Juvenile Courts +power at discretion to establish the status of "Vocational Probation," +under the supervision of officers of the Court, in place of commitment +to an institution, provided helpfully supervised employment may be +found for the boy or girl in which they may become self-supporting. + +=The Colony Plan.=--The Report of Dr. Anne T. Bingham, Psychiatrist of +the New York Probation and Protective Association, based upon 839 +mental examinations of girls and women coming under notice because of +breaking the laws or because manifestly in moral danger, is an +important study. Doctor Bingham highly recommends the "Colony Plan" +for the care of the higher-grade feeble-minded. In this plan small +groups of those who show mental deficiency or any special need of +social care are established under necessary supervision and control in +colonies, near their own homes if possible, and given suitable work in +the profit of which their families may share if destitute. The natural +homes of such girls and women are often lacking both in helpful +discipline or moral protection and to leave them in full charge of the +parents is often the worst possible neglect. This Colony Plan is +described in an article by Charles Bernstein, entitled "Colony and +Extra-institutional Care for the Feeble-minded," published in _Mental +Hygiene_ for January, 1920. The needed supervision, protection and +care for higher-grade morons is difficult to secure unless some form +of official control is initiated. That official control is often only +available for those who have already suffered some serious consequence +of their abnormal condition. What we need to work out is a better and +more effective means for helping the family to do what is needed for +the mentally handicapped child. + +=Mental Hygiene.=--No adequate treatment of this vital movement can be +given here, but the family need for social provisions along this line +must be urged. Few families can afford the money, few parents have the +wisdom, to secure the right sort of special treatment for minds not so +diseased as to be legal subjects for insane hospital care or for +institutions for the feeble-minded, which yet make the family life +miserable and the family success difficult. There is growing a +conception of the need, especially in our complex modern life, that so +often unsettles or overburdens the mind, to have all manner of free +clinics and economical methods of care for those who can not well care +fully for themselves. This movement will go on until the mental +invalid of every sort will find as ready social sympathy and as +adequate social aid as does the physically weak, ill, or crippled. +Such a serviceable little pamphlet as that of Mr. Brady's on "Mental +Hygiene in Childhood" gives useful suggestions. Meanwhile, the family +interest is keen and must become more active and commanding in ridding +society of the inducing causes of diseased germ plasm. The whole +"social-hygiene" movement, so-called, is in the direction of cutting +off the supply of the defective and making every family less likely to +have children who never grow up. + +The call during the War, and a call heeded by many who had been +ignorant of all the facts taught them in training camps, was "Keep Fit +to Fight," The call of peace, and may it be heeded as the facts of +inheritance are better known by all, is, Keep Fit for Parenthood. The +sins of youth, so often sins of ignorance, carelessness, and unbridled +passion, which doom childhood to blindness, to congenital deficiency +of all kinds, to permanent twist of mental powers, or to lack of +ability to meet life's demands--these sins of youth will be less in +evidence when education is fitted to life's full responsibilities of +choice instead of being side-tracked in narrow lines of scholarly +acquirement alone. + +Meanwhile, for the parents whose children number one or more of the +handicapped there is the comfort of securing for such all that science +and special arts of teaching and institutional provision can give to +make the life of those who can never grow up at least comfortable and +free from exploitation by evil influences. That some of the noblest +and best of men and women are giving their lives in wise and loving +ministration to these least among the children of men is proof of the +overmastering power of human sympathy. Meanwhile, again, we are +finding out that the more discriminating observation of children and +their more truly scientific rating will take many children from the +lists of the "backward" and the "difficult" and even the supposed +feeble-minded into the ranks of the educable toward full normality. + +=Special Rooms in Public Schools.=--The special rooms in the schools +and the special schools in the school system and the school nurses and +school doctors and the visiting teacher, with her power of making +connection between the home and the school and playground, all show +that we are coming to a point where every child will have a better +chance for having his mental and moral as well as his physical +diagnosis correctly made. And such a diagnosis we have already learned +often shows that no congenital doom marks the child labelled +"different," but rather some curable bad condition in his life that +needs only wisdom and economic power to correct. The "Observation +Cards" to which allusion has been made as helping toward discovery of +the specially gifted may also, if used with discriminating judgment, +show that many whom we thought lagged behind their mates from native +disability can be made to keep up with the procession if they are +rightly fed, have enough sleep, get a chance at fresh air, and are not +made the victims of industrial exploitation. + +The new gospel of environmental change in the interest of better +physical, mental, and vocational opportunities for all, includes not +only the better care of all incompetent for self-control, +self-support, and self-direction, it also is coming to include a far +more searching investigation of the causes of degeneracy and +backwardness, and many children are thereby lifted from the hopeless +classes to the group of those requiring only special care and teaching +to be able to be classed as normal. + +=Training the Nervous System.=--Professor James said, "The great thing +in education is to make the nervous system the ally, not the enemy. +For this we must make automatic and habitual as many useful actions as +we can and carefully guard against growing into ways which are likely +to be disadvantageous." His advice for self-discipline is to "seize +every first possible opportunity to act on any resolution made, and on +every emotional prompting in the direction of habits one aspires to +gain." Professor Thompson, in his book on _Brain and Personality_, +says, "We can make our own brains, so far as special functions or +aptitudes are concerned, if only we have wills strong enough to take +the trouble." These and many other admonitions in the direction of +more effective mental training show the trend of modern education. How +many a will has been weakened by bad methods of family influence! How +many nervous systems made the enemy of education rather than its ally +by bad family conditions! + +The Parent-Teacher Associations are doing valiant service in bringing +to the home the best thought of the school and in bringing to the +school the best feeling of the home. It is not too much to hope that +when the jointure between real education and pure affection is made +more complete we may lessen the toll of incompetent personality and +raise the social standard of human powers. In this connection one +vital thought must not be over-looked, namely, the social advance we +may reasonably expect from the new power of women to select the +fathers of their children. Doctor Sumner said, "During the ages of the +man-family men could not make up their minds what they wanted woman to +become." If that be so, it is still more true that now, as the age of +the man-and-woman-family begins, women are undertaking to make up +their own minds as to what they want to be and to do and are attaining +a freedom of sex-selection such as they have not had before in the +civilization we call our own. Doctor Todd says truly, in his _Theories +of Social Progress_, that "from now onward the centre of selection is +shifted from without to within, from passive adaptation to active +self-determination;" and he adds, "To rationalize sexual selection and +make it serve progress will be to revise the 'mores' and inject into +them new principles." While women had no real power to select their +mates in marriage; while their economic helplessness led them almost +universally to marry as a means of support even when no real affection +softened and sanctified the process; while they had no power over laws +or customs, or knowledge of actual life outside the household, and +hence had to take wholly on trust the character and protestations of +the man they married; while women were in this subject condition they +could not contribute to family life either a high standard of choice +of parental quality or a forceful demand for previous purity and right +living in the husband. Hence, women have up to a recent time been more +sinned against than sinning if they passed on defective germ plasm or +doomed their children to suffering lives. + +=Responsibility of Women in Marriage.=--Now the case is different. No +woman of usual physical strength or natural ability or average +vocational efficiency is necessarily tempted to make "marriage a +trade." If she has any strength of character she can make her own way +and find many good things in life for herself. She can, therefore, +exact such a standard of character and attainment from any man who +seeks her in marriage as he may well demand of her and can pass by as +incompetent to family demand all who do not measure up to the +requirements. + +This may mean (in some circles of society, it is already coming to +mean) what Wallace indicated when he said, "Woman is to be the great +selective agent of the future." This cannot be, however, unless women +hold themselves to the best standards that men in the past have +exacted of their sex and so holding themselves (where the race needs +that they should stand) hold men also where the race needs that men +should find their place. The defrauded children of every generation +call with pathos of unique appeal upon men and women that the "racial +poisons" shall be abolished, and evil inheritance be checked, and that +every potential father and every potential mother shall hold sacred +the torch of life to pass it on the brighter for their handling. + +Meanwhile, such agencies as "The Committee on Provision for the +Feeble-minded," with its central office in Philadelphia, and the +"National Committee for Mental Hygiene," with its headquarters in New +York City and its important quarterly publication, together with local +associations of similar type, are at work, as is well stated by one +national body, "to disseminate knowledge concerning the extent and +menace of feeble-mindedness and to suggest and initiate methods for +its control and ultimate eradication from the American people." On +such social effort afflicted parents of a defective child may depend +for aid and direction. + +In Whittier's tribute to Samuel Gridley Howe, the pioneer in this +social care of defectives, one false hope is pictured, namely, that +"the idiot clay" could "be given a mind." That hope could not be +realized. The gates of destiny close at birth for many of the children +of men. What we can do and are now beginning to try earnestly to +accomplish is to prevent so many idiots from burdening the currents of +life, to wipe out the social disgrace of leaving neglected wanderers +on the highways of human effort who are unable to find the path of +safety and of success, and to make a protected place of guidance and +possible training for all the weak-minded and abnormal. We can, now we +increasingly understand, do more than this; we can help with ever more +ingenious and devoted care to give the merely slow and backward a +better chance at life's opportunities and help to make these least +able to adjust themselves easily to the common ways of the world more +amenable to life's discipline and happier in life's restrictions. + +=The Call for Preventive Work.=--The new call for social service for +the children that never grow up is along new lines of preventive work +as truly as in demand for more tender care of all who cannot be helped +radically toward self-control and self-direction. The family, once +overwhelmed by tragedies of abnormality, can now be aided as never +before in lessening or in bearing the burden of such troubles. For the +less seriously handicapped yet specially in need of social +consideration--the blind, the deaf, the crippled, those of cardiac +weakness, and the children born tired who might become rested and +strong--the family has helps in education, medical treatment and work +opportunities suited to the particular need, such as no previous era +could furnish. Agencies for finding employment for the handicapped now +show ingenuity of the highest sort in fitting the work to special +needs, and the way in which the blind are taught to rise above their +misfortune in happy use of the faculties and powers they actually +possess is marvelous. The deaf have as yet been able to triumph over +their misfortune in less degree, but the art of reading from the lips +and other educational devices used in their behalf make their +condition so superior to that of the deaf-mutes of old that it is +cause for gratitude to every parent of a deaf child. The crippled +children now are seen not to be different from other children in their +educational rights and as needing only more consideration of physical +requirements to be fitted for useful work. + +The significance of the removal of educational provisions for the +blind, the deaf, the crippled, and the invalid children from the +provisions of Boards of Charity and their assignment to departments of +state and local Boards of Education, is great. It shows that we are +becoming as capable in the community-at-large of understanding the +radical difference between those who are defective in mind and those +who are merely handicapped by loss of some special sense or some +physical power as loving and wise parents have been when either +defective or handicapped children have called upon them for special +care. The children that find it harder than most of their age and +station to grow up to full enjoyment and use of life's opportunities, +because of some weight of affliction, are, we now know, entitled to +all the training that the normal child receives and whatever else of +special education their condition requires. The children that can +never grow up to mental maturity, even with all that educational +ingenuity can offer, are the permanent members of Society's Infant +Class. + + +QUESTIONS ON THE CHILDREN THAT NEVER GROW UP + + 1. What is the modern social program in respect to the care and + training of the feeble-minded? + + 2. What should fathers and mothers of the feeble-minded do to help + realize that program? + + 3. How far should social control compel the segregation or + sterilization, or both, of those obviously unfit to become + parents? + + 4. What can be done by mental hygiene to lessen the numbers of the + insane, the "queer," the weak-willed, and the slow-minded? + + 5. The consensus of experts seems to indicate that the first need + is to segregate in suitable institutions under permanent + custodial care all the markedly inferior who cannot be + self-supporting and who lack power of self-protection against + the grossest forms of exploitation; the second need is to + introduce new methods of supervisory control and humane + protection and training in the care of those who are not normal + but who, under favorable conditions of vocational guidance and + direction and with a new home environment suited to their + peculiar needs, may become wage-earners and fairly useful + members of society. In the town for which you seek better + conditions, which of these efforts is most needed at the + present time? Is it to meet the needs for institutional care or + for supervision adequate and well applied for those left either + in their own homes or placed in colony-care? + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] See "Mental Diseases in Twelve States," as reported in 1919 by +Horatio M. Pollock, Ph.D., Statistician New York State Hospital +Commission, and Edith M. Forbush, Statistician of National Committee +for Mental Hygiene, published in _Mental Hygiene_ of April, 1921. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +PRODIGAL SONS AND DAUGHTERS + + "Because of fathers' sins the cost + Is counted in the children's blood; + They starve where once they might have stood + Content and strong as bird or bee."--H.H. + + "The primary function of social science is to interpret men's + experience in passing from stage to stage in the evolution of + human values."--ALBION W. SMALL. + + "Every wrong-doer should have his due. But what is his due? Can we + measure it by his past alone, or is it due any one to regard him + as a man having a future as well? As having possibilities for good + as well as achievements in bad?"--JOHN DEWEY. + + "Judge not, that ye be not judged. He that is without sin among + you, let him first cast a stone."--JESUS. + + "The Sage is ever the good Saviour of men; he rejects none. For + the good men are the instructors of other good men and the bad men + are the material for the good men to work upon. The good I would + meet with goodness, the not-good I would meet with goodness + also."--LAO-TSZE. + + "The good man is apt to go right about pleasure and the bad man is + apt to go wrong. It is only to the good man that the good presents + itself as good, for vice perverts us and causes us to err about + the principle of action."--ARISTOTLE. + + "I cannot but think that the extreme passion for getting rich, + absorbing all the energies of life, predisposes to mental + degeneracy, to moral defects, or to outbreaks of insanity in the + offspring."--MAUDESLEY. + + "Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world or out of it which + can be called good without qualification except a Good + Will."--KANT. + + "The object of moral principles is to supply standpoints and + methods which will enable the individual to make for himself an + analysis of the elements of good and evil in the particular + situation in which he finds himself,"--JOHN DEWEY. + + "I call that mind free which resists the bondage of habit, which + does not live on its old virtues, which does not enslave itself to + precise rules, but which forgets what is behind, listens for new + and higher monitions of conscience, and rejoices to pour itself + forth in fresh and higher exertions."--CHANNING. + + +=Who Should Hear Sermons on the Prodigal Son?=--A young woman deeply +interested in social service was asked by the warden of a prison to +address its fifteen hundred inmates on a Sunday morning when they +should be all assembled in Chapel. Hesitating at undertaking such a +difficult task, she asked the warden what he would think she should +talk about. "Anything you like," he said, "except this: don't speak on +the prodigal son, for the last fourteen ministers and speakers have +read that parable and talked about it." "Indeed, no," answered the +young woman, "that parable is not for them. They should be taught what +is justice to the elder brother and preached to from the text, 'Work +out your own salvation.'" It is really a bit difficult to find just +the right audience for a preachment on that appealing parable. The +harsh-natured fathers who most need its lesson are not likely to be in +church when it is read and the tender fathers often need to be +stiffened up to work with all the rest of society to make the prodigal +behave better; and the elder brothers, the hard-working "sons of +Martha," who have to save in order to pay the taxes for the +institutions and agencies that take care of the prodigal, should not +have the fact that their sacrifice and service are usually taken as a +matter of course unduly emphasized when they meet their fellows. + +The fact is that the prodigal, like the genius, is often one who takes +life's practical affairs so lightly that until he is really hungry in +the far land whither he has taken himself for pleasures denied at +home, he seldom considers how his behavior affects the rest of the +family. Moreover, the prodigal is often such a charming and engaging +creature that all is forgiven him many times more than is good for his +soul, and who, therefore, has many fatted calves set before him in +renewed festivals over his repeated home-comings. + +Yet, when all is said in the way of caution against overindulgence of +the wayward, the one thing about parental love that marks it as the +supreme type of affection is the fact that it holds all its own in +permanent bond whatever the character of the child or his return for +devotion. + +=Distinction Between the Mentally Competent and Defective in Criminal +Class.=--The parent who has a prodigal son or daughter to-day has the +benefit of much social wisdom and much educational treatment of the +wayward, unknown in the past. In the first place, we are learning to +sort out in the criminal and vicious classes those who are mentally +responsible and those who may be supposed to be the helpless victims +of their instincts and tendencies.[15] If it is true, as one has said, +that "the test of sound moral character is that it possesses coherence +under liberty and has learned those various arts of adaptation to +ever-varying circumstance which make it a working quality, constant, +rational, and automatic," we must perceive the intimate connection +between mental power and moral competency. In point of fact, we now +know that the overwhelming majority of criminals and constantly +vicious persons, in ordinary times when no social hysteria of recent +war gives a "crime wave," come from the mentally feeble or perverted +types. + +The draft examinations in the Great War gave a shock to all students +of social conditions in their revelation of the widespread +deficiencies, physical and mental, of young men of our country. Mr. +Henry Wysham Lanier, writing on this topic, shows "that out of a total +of fifty-four millions of men twenty-six millions were either in the +Army or Navy or registered and ready for call," and that of these +"three millions out of thirteen were unfit to serve their country as +soldiers." Nearly three-quarters of a million had some mechanical +incapacity, defects in bones, joints, etc. About one-half million had +imperfections of sense organs and nearly as many serious troubles of +the circulatory system. A third of a million showed nervous and +mental incapacity for the soldier's work. About 300,000 had +tuberculosis or severe venereal disease. About the same number had +skin or teeth ailments. Altogether, the first severe examinations +weeded out as unfit for the service nearly one-third of those who were +drafted. + +In addition to the revelation of physical and mental defects in the +average young manhood of our country, it was found by further +examination that five and a half millions of our young men were +illiterate. These facts show that in the mass of people from which +criminals and vicious people are recruited, large numbers have defects +of body, mind, or education, which handicap them in pursuit of an +honest living or in the search for helpful pleasures. The step to be +taken in order to help the family to deal justly and humanely, but +with due response to social duty, with the prodigal sons and +daughters, may be briefly outlined as follows: + +First and foremost, the weeding out from every field of competitive +life those manifestly incapable of holding their own in +self-protection and self-support. The unemployable among the +unemployed, the hopelessly criminal and vicious who cannot be rescued +from their condition, the more permanently backward among the school +pupils, the incompetent among parents, and the dead weight of the +"born paupers," all these must somehow be socially carried with least +expenditure of social force and at least cost to family stability and +family well-being. We have not yet learned to do this, but in every +field of social effort the primary need is to see what is the right +thing to do. When the ideal is accepted we are already a long way +toward learning the lesson of the method to be pursued to carry out +the ideal. + +=Moral Invalids.=--In the second place, when we have really +ascertained who among criminals and the habitually vicious, and who +among the recipients of "material relief" who are constantly returning +for more aid, and who among the unmarried mothers, and who among the +dependent children are really feeble-minded or morally imbecile, we +must segregate these as fast as we are able to supply the right +artificial environment for their weakness and treat them as incurable +moral and mental invalids. We must cease to deal with such as with +responsible human beings, who might do better if only they would. The +"indeterminate sentence" is a step toward such treatment, but it is +often rendered wholly futile by being mixed with "reward of shortening +term for good behavior in prison." Good behavior inside prison walls +gives no proof of ability to take good care of one's self outside +those walls; it may be only a proof that the moral weakling has to +have an external conscience and a strict watch in order to be amenable +to even simple rules. The parole system is also liable to great +misunderstanding and serious social dangers when it is used without +the most scientific knowledge of the mental power of the man or woman +concerned, and without utmost care in selection of work-place and +living conditions of the paroled prisoner. The essential thing in all +social effort to do justice to the wayward is to find out about them +and manage for them the essentials of environmental influence. If, as +many think, after careful study of large groups of wayward and +criminal, more than half, almost two-thirds of those who come before +the law for punishment are of less mental capacity than normal +children of twelve years of age, then we must take social care of them +as we would undertake to do if they were really under twelve. And the +parents of prodigal sons and daughters must help with all the might of +their parental affection in inspiring and supporting a public opinion +to that end. + +=Rehabilitation of the Competent.=--In the third place, for the +one-half to one-third of criminal and habitually vicious left after +the mentally incompetent are given proper care, we must use all the +rehabilitation methods that society has devised and be more ingenious +than we have yet been in adding to them. When such methods as Thomas +Mott Osborne used fail, they generally fail because they are applied +to those whom we should put under perpetual care, those indicated +above as incompetent to life's demands. To try and make over a nature +too weak in fibre to have anything of will or determination to "stitch +to" is to have a response only when under constant supervision, and +inevitable backslidings follow as soon as self-control is called for. + +It is true, however, that many who have gone far wrong make good and +reach to a high attainment of character. They are the "occasional +criminals," the "fallen" who met with extraordinary temptation, the +too hardly used by fate, the too early exposed to evil influences, the +wild natures too strictly curbed by mistaken methods of control, the +orphans without parental love and guidance, the victims of broken +family life, the "under-dogs" that could not make a way out to +successful vocation or to happy human companionship. These occasional +criminals among men, and the women or girls leading to sex +temptations, may be often saved if so as by fire, and live to help all +others to a stronger and better life than they have known. As this +book is written the news comes of the death of such a woman in +Chinatown of New York slums, a girl who had descended to the depths of +vice but who came up at the call of the Salvation Army and spent the +life left to her in helping others, such as she had once been, to hear +and obey that call. Some men show such power of moral recovery as to +put to shame those never tempted to a fall. These prove that mental +power and the raw material of character, even after many untoward +experiences, may take a fresh start and enable men and women to "rise +on stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things." + +=The Right Use of Leisure Time.=--In the fourth place, the agencies of +social protection of child-life must cooeperate with all parents, +whether those parents are wise or foolish, strong or weak, in +preventing occasional criminality and preventable vice. + +The helpful use of leisure time is a vital factor in the prevention of +vice and crime. The pioneer study of "Public Recreation Facilities" in +the _Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science_ of March, +1910, indicates lines of social service in this particular which have +been followed to great social advantage. + +=The Moving Picture.=--The influence of the "movies" is the strongest, +the most all-compelling influence to which children have ever been +subjected. There has never been an agency that so appealed to all the +senses, especially to the eye with its supreme registry of +impressions, and we have so far let it play upon child-life with +little direction from the educative process. What it is right and +helpful to read is not always right and helpful to put upon the stage, +with the more vivid and popular appeal to eye and ear and with the +lessened opportunity of the drama to explain and soften and balance +the presentation of tragedy and evil. What the drama may safely give +to the smaller and generally older audiences which it draws may not be +suitable from any point of view, either of art or of moral influence, +for the coarser and more pronounced representation of the moving +picture. There is a place for film presentation that is unique and it +may easily become the greatest educational agency in all recreational +life. That place, however, seems self-limited to pictures of life that +can be imitated without social harm, insofar as very young children +are concerned. + +=Needed Supervision.=--Although much will inevitably be given in the +moving pictures which contains incidents that any wise person would +not take part in for themselves, the main ideal and the outcome of the +situations must be such as to leave a tendency toward good and not +toward evil, if children and youth are safely to receive its strong +impressions. This is understood by those who are "trying to elevate +the moving picture," but too often the reformers and the educators are +so far removed from the main sources of control of any business or art +centre that they only brush the outskirts of the agencies that purvey +to public amusement and fail to reach any citadel of real control. +There is a general uneasiness, however, among many people of all +classes, even those usually very easy-going about any social +influence, as they read the tales of children testifying in the courts +as to their "hold-ups" and their burglaries that they did them "like +the movies" they had seen. It is surely true that the next thing we +must do is to tame these "movies" and make them work in social harness +for the better, and not the worse, in the lives of children and youth. +What line of cleavage may be drawn between what the elders may see and +what should not be allowed so vividly to impress the younger minds, no +one can predict. The recent public announcement of a determination to +cleanse and uplift the moving picture business from within its own +management is a most hopeful sign. But surely no parent can throw all +the blame of any evil influence of a film exhibit upon the managers of +a theatre! Where are the parents, and what are they about, that they +do not know what pictures their children see and how often they go to +any place of amusement? + +=The Automobile and Its Influence.=--The same thing is true of the +automobile, that now so often takes the youth of the well-to-do +classes too swiftly away from necessary social safeguarding. The +inventors and makers of these machines are not responsible that +criminals use them for unprecedented escape from arrest, and boys and +girls go to destruction of honor and purity in a whirl of wind and +dust. As in all the new inventions and discoveries, we have gained +more control over material things than we have yet learned how to use +for either our physical or moral good. We shall sober down, no doubt, +and learn to wholly profit by the new wonders of motion and of +recreation. + +=Parents Need Social Help in Moral Training of Children.=--Meanwhile, +the parents who are trying to make the right atmosphere and secure the +right influences for their children have a more difficult task than in +any previous time; for the young can so much more easily take on all +the new appliances as a part of their daily life and can so swiftly +change from old ways to the unaccustomed. Some of the most selfish and +cruel of the prodigal sons and daughters of our time find it easy to +escape from any parental appeal in the air or by the whirling wheels +of the machine or in any of the various ways by which space and time +are now annihilated. And "out of sight, out of mind" is true of their +psychology. All of which makes it clear that to-day, as in no previous +time, we must all stand or fall together. The old home privacy is for +the most part gone, the old home isolation wholly departed. All +recreation is more and more in the open and appeals at one and the +same time to all youth. The standards have to be raised for all or +they cannot be held firm for the favored few. Democracy, which aims to +make all better, may work to make all cheaper in taste, more vulgar in +language, less capable of fine expression of noble ideals, unless a +social conscience and a social intelligence take command of the common +life. + +It is, therefore, to-day, not enough to call upon parents to try and +keep their own sons and daughters from the prodigal life, it is a +necessity, stronger than ever before, to make the influences which all +must share what all careful and wise parents wish for their own +children. + +This is a mighty task, one that in the United States of America, with +its cosmopolitan population, and its multitude of people with a +smattering only of education or culture but with economic ability to +gratify their undeveloped tastes, is more vast and more pressing than +any nation has yet tried to accomplish. While we are working at it we +may well comfort ourselves by remembering that each generation has to +meet new problems, and that somehow, even when the young start wrong +or meet with overwhelming temptations or fail to get at the right time +the impulse toward the best which they need, life has them in hand and +teaches by experience much which helps them onward. The tendency of +life is toward strength and health and goodness and idealistic aims +and choice of the best each person knows. It is true, and the best +thing in human experience, that what parents cannot do for those they +love, life itself does for them, perhaps with needless suffering that +the wise and loving parent would have saved them had they but heeded, +but with a thoroughness which experience alone can give. + +=Parental Love for the Black Sheep.=--The attitude of parents toward +the black sheep who does not change his ways of evil and does not +become a comfort but remains always a burden and sorrow, is one of the +saddest and one of the noblest of human exhibits in sympathy and +affection. A woman of the finest nature who as a girl was captured in +imagination by a man of brilliant quality but of peculiar cruelty and +wickedness of nature, and guilty, after their marriage, of many +crimes, had two sons. One was like herself and became a man honored by +all, and of the greatest help to his mother. The other seemed the +image of his father in all ways, personal beauty, brilliant talent, +and a naturally depraved character. He landed in prison, sentenced for +many years for forgery and long-sustained robbery of a bank. His +mother said with truth that she never had had a moment's relief from +the most wearing anxiety until he was safely behind prison bars, where +he could no longer torture his young wife or hurt anyone else by his +wrong actions. Yet that mother, when he was breaking her heart by his +actions and most willing to do it, never failed in love, in patience, +in deep understanding of his moral twist and incapacity. + +A girl born of ordinarily intelligent and moral parents became a +prodigy of sex perversion and the accomplice of thieves and murderers. +She gave untold misery to all her family, but the father never gave up +his search for her when she left the home and never failed to give her +succor and the most tender care when she came back worn and ill, and +at last left all other interests in life to snatch her away from bad +companions and try to establish her in a new place and a better +surrounding. + +The story of the prodigal son was taken from life itself; it is the +moving story of the one greatest affection of the family bond, that +for the bone of bone and the flesh of flesh, the child that needs most +the tenderness of the parent, the child that has worn out all other +patience and lost all other consideration and has only the claim of +its deep need to insure its parent's service. + +=Children's Courts.=--Society has lately become wise and humane enough +to establish Children's Courts for Juvenile Delinquents. These, +beginning merely in "Separate Hearings" in Boston Courts, and assuming +definite and autonomous form in Chicago, have become more widespread +and more inclusive in character. Now we are securing, as by a recent +State Law in New York, the County Courts for children, in which the +limitations of local sentiment and neighborhood reluctance to testify +of family conditions are surmounted and yet the near-at-hand interest +in the children is preserved. + +All modern philanthropy tends toward dealing with wayward boys and +girls as those who need and should have not punishment but education, +necessary but kindly restraint, protection from bad surroundings and +training toward self-support. To this we are adding Domestic Relations +Courts dealing with juvenile delinquents not, as some one has said, +"so as to punish parents for the wrong-doing of their children," but +rather as indicating the recognition of the fact that one member of +the family cannot be "saved" without an effort to save all the other +members, and that in the family relationship there are permanent bonds +that courts should recognize and seek to enforce and make more helpful +to every individual concerned. + +=Domestic Relations Courts.=--When the history of cases coming before +either Children's Courts or Domestic Relations Courts is studied, +certain facts of social condition stand out prominently as causes for +juvenile delinquency. First of all, the broken family, one in which +there has been separation of father and mother, is a cause of +child-neglect and consequent wrong-doing. The death of either parent, +also, is often the cause of such unhappiness or privation in the home +as to induce disobedience to law and bring the child before a court. +The lack of employment by the father or his too low wages, which +reduces the family income dangerously and makes the mother attempt to +be both breadwinner and care-taker of the home, and hence lessens +family comfort and sends the children on the streets for amusement, is +also a cause often appearing as a reason for delinquency. The evils of +housing congestion, too many families living in one building or in one +neighborhood without chance for privacy, choice of companionship or +household arrangements conservative of domestic virtue or happiness, +these evils constitute a heavy indictment of society in the returns of +Children's Courts. The complex problems which the immigrant faces, +with his children early learning the language of the country to which +he has come, while it is to him a sealed book, are responsible for +much juvenile delinquency. Jacob Riis has told us, in compelling +description, the story of the evolution of the "gang" and of the +"tough" from the children of parents who, well-meaning and in their +own ancestral land capable of parental control, here lose command of +the family life because the children have to become the interpreters +and representatives of the family in the new country to a degree that +reverses the natural order of dependence and direction in the family +life, and gives the children undue power of leadership in family +affairs. As Professor Cooley wisely says, "It is freedom to be +disciplined in as rational a manner as you are tit for." We might give +the converse of this truth in the statement that it is not freedom but +dangerous tendency toward anarchy and disaster to be called upon for +rational decisions in advance of our intelligence and will-power, and +a tragedy to lose the habit-drill of parental control in the period of +life when that is a necessary foundation for wisdom in independent +choice. The child of the immigrant often lands in the Children's Court +not because he is bad or stupid or even mischievous by nature, but +because he is too early forced by circumstances into a position of +command and of unrestricted choice in action, due to the ease with +which the young can learn new ways and the difficulty of the old in +mastering strange language and manners. + +=Dangerous Rebound from Ancient Family Discipline.=--Again, the +Children's and the Domestic Relations Courts bear testimony to the +fact that to-day we are in a rebound from inherited forms of +discipline of children and youth which have given to all, immigrant +and native-born alike, a feeling that society exists for their benefit +and that they owe nothing to society in return. The very +standardization of child-care by public demand, in matters of health +and education, of free books and free recreation and free music and +free parks and playgrounds and even free lunches in schools, and free +baths and medical and nursing care--all that is increasingly called +for and provided out of the public purse for the nurture and +development of child-life--tend toward giving children and youth the +idea that the world belongs to them. + +The old crushing and often cruel pressure of older life upon the young +is happily gone. The new ideals of education, within the school and +the home, which emphasize the right of each human being to its own +development into a unique, a free and a happy personality, are ideals +that must grow in realization more and more if we are to have fit +people for making democracy work toward the rule of the best. It is, +however, profoundly true that we have gone farther in demand for and +effort toward individual freedom than we have in any translation of +the old social pressure upon the individual conscience and life to +assume social obligations and bear them worthily and usefully. There +is a dry rot at the core of any class or any nation which turns its +inmost psychology toward what it can get from life without regard to +what it should give back to life. Too many children and youth in +conditions in which, happily, the old despotism of age is outgrown, +have unhappily missed the old sense of obligation and old call to +service which the earlier forms of family and school discipline +implanted in all responsive natures. + +=Do Modern Youth Need New Community Disciplines?=--There is abundant +evidence that William James was profoundly right when he suggested a +need in youth for some required devotion to "the collectivity that +owns us," some "moral equivalent for war" and the military drill of +older forms of civic order. When the Athenian youth took his oath of +devotion to the city of his birth, he signalized his coming of age and +expressed the ideal of service of each to all and all to each. This is +not the place for detailed discussion of what is lacking in modern +training of American Youth analogous in spirit and effect to this +classic custom. It must be insisted, however, as we discuss the +conditions that make for juvenile delinquency, among the children and +youth otherwise normal and capable of useful life, that we have not +done all that democracy demands when we have made children healthy, +sent them to tax-supported schools, prevented them from too early +earning at "gainful occupations," and instituted all manner of +recreative and stimulating provisions for their free use. We must also +give them some sense of what Seneca meant when he said, "We are all +members of one great body; remember that each was born for the good of +all." We must also burn deep into the consciousness of youth in some +fashion that shall be through our modern mechanisms as effective as +were the old "Fraternities" of primitive life, and as are still the +outworn but persistent forms of military discipline, that idea of +subordination of private whim to public well-being which lies at the +base of all true and ordered social advance. The Children's Courts are +a response to the effort of society to give each child a fair chance +in life. There are needed, also, devices of education and of +compulsory social service and social obedience which may tend to give +society a fair deal from every adult. + +Prodigal sons and daughters, therefore, who are abnormal, weak, +morally invalid, must be cared for in the way easiest and best for the +social whole. Parents must help and not hinder in that task. + +Prodigal sons and daughters who are normal save for some accidental +divergence from legal or actual right-doing must be helped to come +back into the line of social usefulness. And, above all, the facts of +juvenile delinquency should give us impetus, strong and intelligent, +toward a social and family discipline that shall make freedom and +happiness of childhood a way to social order and never a pathway +toward social degeneracy or personal wrong-doing. + + +QUESTIONS ON PRODIGAL SONS AND DAUGHTERS + + 1. What has been the general trend of social ideal and practice + in the treatment of the criminal and the vicious? + + 2. What part has the family played in restraint of evil tendency + or in responsibility before the law for offences against social + order? + + 3. What part should the family now play in these vital social + matters? + + 4. What is "sentimentality" and what is "justice" in dealing with + the prodigal? + + 5. What can be done through physical and mental examinations, by + experts, of all children, to prevent development of + criminality, vice, and waywardness? + + 6. In 1724 the English law held any one legally responsible for + action subversive of law and order unless he was "totally + deprived of his understanding and memory and doth not know what + he is doing, no more than an infant, than a brute or a wild + beast." Since 1843, the criterion of responsibility under the + law is "knowledge of what is right or wrong in the particular + case." Following the same line of change, our statutes now ask, + in addition, if the person on trial is generally competent to + understand and to obey social rules of conduct. Is this trend + toward the lessening or toward the increase of crime and vice? + + 7. What does social well-being require shall be done for and with + those proved incapable of social habits? + + 8. Head "The Socially Inadequate; How Shall We Designate and Sort + Them?" by Harry H. Laughlin, Carnegie Institution, Cold Spring + Harbor, Long Island, in _American Journal of Sociology_, July, + 1921. This is an attempt to introduce a blanket term under + which feeble-minded; insane; criminalistic, including + delinquent and wayward; epileptic; inebriate, including drug + habitues; diseased, including tuberculous, lepers, and others + with chronic infectious diseases; blind, including all of + seriously impaired vision; deaf, including those with seriously + impaired hearing; deformed, including the crippled; and + dependent, including orphans, old folks, soldiers and sailors + in "homes," chronic charity-aided folk, paupers, and + ne'er-do-wells, may be listed. This article attempts to make a + classification inclusive, yet subject to minute subheading, + which may make reports more definite in listing human beings. + + Is such an attempt wise, and if so, how would each member of this + group classify the "socially inadequate?" + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] See a valuable study by Dr. Bernard Glueck, Director Psychiatric +Clinic at Sing Sing Prison, entitled, "Concerning Prisoners," and +published in _Mental Hygiene_ for April, 1918, showing the need for +mental examination of all convicted persons as an indispensable basis +for right understanding and treatment of prisoners. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE BROKEN FAMILY + + + "Every social ill involves the enslavement of individuals. Freedom + is that phase of the social ideal which emphasizes + individuality.--All mankind acknowledges kindness as the law of + right intercourse within a social group.--The ideal of service + goes with the sense of unity.--A likeness of spirit and principle + is essential to moral unity. The creation of a moral order on an + ever-growing scale is the great historical task of mankind, and + the magnitude of it explains all shortcomings."--CHARLES H. + COOLEY, in _Social Organization_. + + "The sanctity of oaths + Lies not in lightning that avenges them, + But in the injury wrought by broken bonds + And in the garnered good of human trust. + 'Tis a compulsion of the higher sort, + Whose fetters are the net invisible + That holds all life together. + 'Tis faithfulness that makes the life we choose + Breathe high and see a full-arched firmament. + We may see ill + But over all belief is faithfulness + Which fulfils vision with obedience. + No good is certain, but the steadfast mind, + The undivided will to seek the good; + 'Tis that compels the elements, and wrings + A human music from the indifferent air." + --GEORGE ELIOT. + + "Genuine government is but the expression of a nation + Good or less good; even as all society + Is but the expression of men's single lives-- + The loud sum of the silent units."--E.B. BROWNING. + + "There is no other genuine enthusiasm than one which has travelled + the common highway--the life of the good man and woman, the good + neighbor, the good citizen."--THOMAS GREEN HILL. + + "Let me not to the marriage of true minds + Admit impediments. Love is not love + Which alters when it alteration finds, + Or bends with the remover to remove: + O no; it is an ever-fixed mark, + That looks on tempests, and is never shaken; + It is the star to every wandering bark, + Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. + Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks + Within his bending sickle's compass come; + Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, + But bears it out even to the edge of doom." + --SHAKESPEARE. + + +=The Problems of Divorce.=--Having treated in some detail the subject +of "Problems of Marriage and Divorce" in a former book, _Woman's Share +in Social Culture_, and also in articles published in _The +International Journal of Ethics_, _The Harvard Theological Review_, +_Harper's Weekly_, and other magazines, this chapter, to avoid +repetition, will simply rehearse in brief outline the points of view +previously expressed. + +In the valuable and suggestive treatment of the family by Professor +Ellwood in his book, _Sociology and Modern Social Problems_, he says +that "divorce is but a symptom of more serious evils that in certain +classes of American society have apparently undermined the very +virtues upon which the family life subsists." If that be so, then no +tinkering with the laws which aim at preventing divorces will reach +the seat of the difficulty. The treatment must be more radical, and +the character of individuals be made more noble and strong, if the +family is to be made more stable and marriage more successful. + +=Frequency of Divorce in the United States.=--The first point to be +noted in any discussion of the broken family is the frequency of that +social tragedy in the United States. The pioneer study by Professor +W.P. Willcox, made in 1885 and reported in his volume entitled _The +Divorce Problem_, showed the fact that we had in this country at that +time more divorces per year than were recorded in all the other +so-called Christian countries put together. For 1905, statistics show +nearly 68,000 divorces in the United States as against the highest +number from Germany, which is only a trifle above 11,000, and from +France, 10,860, and running down rapidly to the number of 33 in +Canada. In England, in 1905, there was but one divorce to 400 +marriages. In the United States, in the same year, one divorce to +every 12 marriages. Since that count was taken, there has been no +evidence of a halt in the tendency of the United States to lead the +rest of the Christian world in this matter of separation of those once +joined together by marriage vows. In some of the States, the showing +is more pronounced on the side of free divorce than in other States, +since in Washington, Oregon, and Montana one divorce to every five +marriages is reported, in Colorado and Indiana one to every six, and +in Oklahoma, California, and Maine one to every seven marriages. We +need not accept the doleful suggestion of Professor Willcox that if we +go on this way, "by 1950 one-fourth of all marriages will be +terminated by divorce, and by 1990 one-half so terminated," for it is +not necessary or likely that we shall "go on" in this particular. +Already, movements toward the strengthening of family ties and the +better training of youth to responsibility, movements that tend to +make marriage less brittle, are inaugurated. + +=Cannot Now Make Family an Autocracy.=--There are several points that +all must agree upon if we are to stay the rush to the divorce courts +and yet not attempt the futile task of turning the family order back +to the patriarchal or the monarchical types. In those types there was +little or no legal divorce, it is true, but in them inhered social +evils that often killed the spirit of marriage, and doomed the +children of enforced unions to physical weakness, mental +defectiveness, moral taint, and affectional suffering. + +First of all, it should be noted that, although the divorce statistics +are serious indictments of American life and bode ill to American +society, they are not wholly a testimony to bad conditions. They are +also a testimony that he who runs may read, to the determination of +men, and especially of women, to exact a higher reality of mutual +love, mutual respect, mutual service, and mutual cooeperation within +the marriage bond. + +=New Standards of Marriage Success.=--When it was decided to +investigate the causes for the backwardness of school children, why so +many "failed to pass" and were "retarded" in the march from grade to +grade in the elementary classes, the first inquiry took no note of the +exactions of the grade standards. All who failed to move on at the +scheduled moment for "promotion," in any school examined, were listed +as "backward." Later, it occurred to the investigators, that the first +thing to find out was whether or not a given grade standard was one +that true pedagogy would approve, and second, whether there was a +serious discrepancy in that grade standard between the different +schools from which the children came for examination. + +In much the same way the first inquiries as to the evil of frequent +divorce seemed to take for granted that all who sought divorce were in +circumstances that might have been socially and usefully continued +within the marriage bond. We know better now. We know that the first +question to ask about a broken family is: What was its condition +before the break? Did justice, and a fair estimate of the quality of +the union and its effects upon the man and the woman involved, and +their children, demand that the family hold or be held together, or +was there a condition that made society more interested in the ending +than in the continuance of that union? + +If, as is beginning to be understood, it is not for the interest of +society that men and women should marry who are so physically +diseased, or mentally defective, or morally perverted as to make them +injurious members of a family circle, is it not as clear that in many +cases such persons when married are not helpful members of any family; +and if so, again, is it not clear that there is justification in +social need itself for the removal of such persons from the family +circle they have already polluted or injured in vital ways, to prevent +their doing more harm to family life? + +Whatever may be thought by many who view all divorce with horror, +there is a tendency within that movement toward free divorce, toward +the freeing of the currents of generative life from evil influence, +from despotism, from degenerative tendencies, and from the worst forms +of social wrong-doing. There is, also, of course, in that movement, a +testimony which should make all earnest lovers of their kind learn +how to urge socially therapeutic treatment, a testimony to human +weakness, to a lack of the sense of responsibility, to a love of +personal pleasure at any cost to moral obligation, and to a need for +social control of the whole family relation. + +The causes, in our country, for which more than 90 per cent, of the +divorces are granted, are the serious ones of adultery, cruelty, +imprisonment for crime, habitual drunkenness, desertion, and neglect +to provide for the family. This indicates that in most cases there has +been a failure on the score of basic family requirements from husbands +and wives, and from fathers and mothers, before the court was called +in to break the legal bond. Does this also indicate that such failure +of character has increased among our people to the extent of its +increased legal recognition in divorce? We can not think so. There are +special reasons why all bonds of intimate association are strained in +modern life, with its separate industrial, social, and educational +affiliations for each individual. But that all of us are going +downward, or most of us, is not a provable contention and should not +be an undemonstrated inference. + +=Dangers of Extreme Individualism in Marriage.=--The primary fact is +that we have allowed individualism in marriage to go beyond limits +which are socially safe, just as in the economic order and in the +administration of political affairs, we have supposed that the +"let-alone-policy" would work social good. No other civilization has +been able to secure successful family life without some support, +supervision, control, and aid to the married couple and their +children, from without. We cannot return to the collective family of +other days. We must learn how to make society in general work toward +the ends of stability and social order in the family, as in other +social institutions, and by methods that reverence and secure personal +freedom and fit well into a democratic state. + +=Free Love Not Admissible.=--Professor Ellwood says that "while +material civilization is mainly a control of the food process, moral +civilization involves a control of the reproductive process, that is, +over the birth and rearing of children." He argues from this that +social organization "precludes anything like the toleration of +promiscuity or even of free love." Most students of social history +will agree with this statement. We may, therefore, say that the +attitude of law, of custom, and of social standards, must be that of +demanding legalization of permitted sex-relationship, and the effort +to make legal sex-relationship permanent where possible without +sacrifice of the substance of family life to its outward form. + +=Must Work Toward Desired Permanency in Marriage.=--This means a quite +new approach to the problems of marriage and divorce. It means the +inauguration of legal and educational mechanisms in the interest of +making people want to stay married, rather than toward an effort to +make people stay wedded when they wish to separate. In this, more, +even than in any other field of social effort, we should take heed to +and obey the advice of Dr. Lester Ward "to use attractive rather than +compulsory methods of reform." + +=Needed Changes in Legal and Social Approach to Divorce.=--What are +the main points of change in our legal and social approach to the +divorce situation, which the modern need for social control through +democratic measures demands most clearly and strongly? They are, +first, a longer period of delay between reception and granting of the +request of a man and a woman for a license to marry. Several State +legislatures are now considering statutes which require an "interval +of three days" between the application for and the granting of +marriage licenses. This is certainly a short enough time in which to +find out if either of the parties is likely to commit bigamy if the +license is granted, if both of the parties are really of adult age +claimed, if either of the parties is afflicted with an infectious +disease that would make marriage dangerous to the other party, if +either of the parties has been a resident of a criminal or pauper +institution, if either or both of the parties are competent to +financial support of the twain, if there is any "just cause or +impediment" against the legal union. We may find it wise to return to +the old "three weeks publishing of the banns" in order to know what +the state is about in granting and what two people are about in +demanding a marriage license. In the second place, there are limits +outside of which society should not allow legal marriage to receive +its sanction. During the legal interval required there may develop +knowledge of facts that make it a social crime for one or the other or +both parties to be allowed to start a new family. This is matter for +serious and long-continued study, and the experimentation of our +different Commonwealths in determining the useful or necessary +restrictions upon legal marriage is not without value. The main thing, +however, is for society to recognize that there are just restrictions +upon marriage and that this is proved by the actual social burden +which unfit persons place upon their fellows when marrying and +bringing forth after their kind. The third point, which must be +emphasized more strongly than has been the case heretofore, is the +need of making the state, through its courts, the ally, not the enemy, +of marriage permanency. As it is now, the Divorce Court exists to +secure divorces. Its very existence invites to its use. The court +procedure in all cases of marital unhappiness which has become acute +enough for legal freedom to be sought should be a court procedure that +aims at arbitration, at "trying again," at winning harmony by just +concessions from either or both the parties, a court procedure +consciously and definitely set to the task of making more marriages +successful even when they have developed difficulty of adjustment, +rather than one allowed to act as a means of easy separation of even +fickle, selfish, and childish people on grounds of superficial +difference. + +=Prohibition of Paid Attorneys in Divorce.=--_The absolute abolition +of any paid service of any attorney in the interest of getting anyone +a divorce, is a primary social demand._ The establishment of a +"Divorce Proctor" service in a Domestic Relations Court, with sole +jurisdiction over applications for divorce, is a second vital social +demand. Some form of legal provision which would make judges of a +special and honored class the paid representatives of society's demand +for marriage to be as permanent as individual justice will allow is +essential to any genuine divorce reform. The often highly-feed +advocate of personal wish of two dissatisfied people, the agent that +deals with divorce problems as a lucrative trade, is one cause of the +prevalence of divorce among the idle and pampered rich. Those who have +greater social opportunity than they have brains or conscience to use +them aright, and who can pay lawyers so extravagantly, give us a heavy +total of marital separations and of remarriage of divorced persons in +the United States. + +Judges, the best and the wisest, must sit on all cases where the +breaking up of a family is the issue, and all privately paid attorneys +(in other kinds of social arrangement and difficulty also a hindrance +rather than an aid to justice) must be banished from every divorce +court and from every divorce proceeding, both of the richer and of the +poorer classes. + +=Divorce Proceedings Should be Heard in Secret.=--Newspapers should +not be tempted or allowed to gain advantage from the weakness, the +folly, or the vice of any member of any family which may be revealed +in such divorce proceedings. The fact of whether or not a divorce +applied for is granted, the fact of whether one or the other party or +both have received freedom, the fact of whether one or another was +pronounced guilty of treason to the marriage bond--these are all +subjects for news. The reasons for these decisions of wise and good +judges should not be given to the public in detail. The main +objections to the present publicity of divorce proceedings is, first, +that publicity is generally in proportion to the wealth of the +parties, as is also the prolongation of the proceedings; and second, +that such reports are generally of a demoralizing nature for the +public to read; and third, and not least, that few if any couples +seeking a divorce are without fathers or mothers or relatives, +children, or near friends, to whom the public revelation of the +marital unhappiness or the personal wrong-doing of the parties +involved is a pain and a shame. + +=Earlier and Better Use of Domestic Relations Court.=--Another way by +which society should undertake to supply in newer and more democratic +forms the supervision, the control, and the support to the individual +married couple and their children, which the older collective family +organization sought to supply, is an earlier and a better use of the +Domestic Relations Court, or of some advisory agency to prevent the +breaking up of families. There should be something analogous to the +old "family council," some body of advisers well known and well +equipped for actual service, to help the bewildered and the unhappy. +The religious ministry should be able to supply such help. It often +does do so. The circle of friends may sometimes contain those of +wisdom and understanding who give needed aid toward a resumption of +broken relations on a higher and more enduring plane. There is +needed, however, something between the court to which people go for +relief from bonds, and the solitary struggle with difficulties before +that relief is sought, something which, if related officially to the +Domestic Relations Court, would be of a more flexible and private +nature than most of its proceedings. We need more an aid to avoidance +of marital rocks than a rescue, as from a life-boat, after the +shipwreck. + +There are many forms of advice and help which the teachers and medical +practitioners in mental hygiene are now developing and offering which +may be used later on, when we are wiser, in this work of preventing +families from breaking up. Regularly constituted "social doctoring" +for the prevention, even more than for the treatment of social disease +as it manifests itself in family life, is surely called for. + +=The Children to be Affected Society's Chief Care.=--Above all, we +must place the children affected by any decision that gives society a +broken family in the front rank of interest and of protective care. If +the paid attorney were eliminated, divorces would certainly be +lessened in number. If publicity were avoided in all divorce +proceedings, much of the harm to children arising from separation of +married couples would be avoided. If, in addition, there were advisory +aid to the confused and unhappy, many now drifting to complete +division of interest and affection would be enabled to start on again +toward better realization of married opportunity. If, in further +addition, the Domestic Relations Courts were changed with the +supervisory care of all children whose parents were legally separated, +and the well-being of those children made the chief legal concern even +if it required the complete separation from both father and mother, +more fathers and mothers would hesitate to place themselves where +their parental control and their parental influence would be so +minimized. Yet who doubts that among the rich as well as among the +poor such judicial protection and care of the children, whom the +broken family leaves without true parental care, is needed? To give +children into the hands of either parent alone is in many such cases +no fitting substitute for the normal home influence. In any case, +there should be an external conscience and an external solicitude +enlisted in the interest of every child whose parents have made such a +failure of marriage and the home that the divorce court is the only +refuge. + +This does not ignore the fact that many couples separate to the +advantage of the children, that many parents are quite innocent of any +cause for the broken family, that many times there is a rehabilitation +of the family life on other lines that means full nurture and +development for the children. The fact remains, however, that the +average child of divorced parents has to meet difficulties and face +disadvantages in life which the child of permanently united fathers +and mothers does not suffer, and, for such, some exterior protection +and supervision should be provided. + +=A Uniform or Federal Divorce Law.=--Many persons deeply interested in +lessening the number of divorces in the United States place much +dependence upon a "Uniform Divorce Law" for the whole country, as +giving a basis for wise legislation. Recently, Senator Jones, of the +State of Washington, introduced in the Senate a resolution proposing a +new amendment to the Federal Constitution by which, if it passed, +Congress would have power "to establish and enforce by appropriate +legislation uniform laws as to marriage and divorce." The fact that a +couple may be legally married in one state of our Union and illegally +practicing bigamy or adultery in another state gives a plausible +reason for such a Constitutional Amendment. And perhaps the searching +investigation and discussion which would precede such a definite +change in our national law, if such change were made, would be of +great use in clarifying the public mind, and securing a consensus of +opinion as to what should and what should not be allowed in this +matter. Yet it is doubtful if such a law would, in itself, bring down +the number of divorces, now estimated by those advocating the law as +"one in every eight to ten marriages," or prevent the ratio of +increase in divorces to increase in population (now estimated "as +increase in population in a given period, 60 per cent., and increase +in divorces in the same period, 160 per cent."), or really mend our +family ills. The dependency upon Constitutional amendments and upon +legislation of every kind has, many believe, reached the utmost limit +of social serviceability in this country. The deeper question in all +such propositions is this: What, under the Constitution as first +affirmed and later amended, is proper subject for Federal legislation, +and what should be left to state and local action? We have not reached +a political unity as to the basic elements of just and effective +political method in the division of social control between the nation +and the various states. The habit of rushing to the National Congress +for Federal legislation with no plan or logical aim in relation to +such division, is one that may well be curbed. + +=Education Our Chief Reliance.=--Meanwhile, all must insist that +education, character-training for strong, unselfish, noble +personalities, is our main dependence, and must ever be in the effort +to make family life more stable, and more socially helpful. Men and +women must be made competent to self-control, and steadied with a +sense of obligation to others, and animated by an ideal of +faithfulness to contract, and of devotion to securing mutual rights in +a mutual plan of life together. Such education for character, must be +our chief dependence in efforts to lessen divorces, as in the effort +to do away with all social evils. There is no magic in marriage, there +is no magic even in parenthood, to make weak, and selfish and +superficial and ignorant and stupid and despotic people into guardians +of the best interests of home. A man or a woman is successful in the +family order, only on the same basis as is demanded in all other +relations of life, the basis of justice, good sense, right feeling, +and an honest effort to realize high ideals. + +=Helps Toward Family Unity.=--What remains for society to do, after +general moral training has worked its full service of individual +preparation for good intent and wise choices and competent mastery of +family arrangements, must be done or attempted on the basis rather of +helps toward permanence, than of prohibition of release from marriage +mistakes and wrongs. + +We have left undone much we should have done to make it easier for +young people to find their true mates, to start right in married life, +and to bear the burdens of parenthood without stumbling on the way. +Let us not add mistakenly to the duties left undone the attempt to do +things we should not, namely, to overbear instead of aiding the +personal life. + +There is nothing that works more tragedy of suffering than broken vows +in marriage, whether the fact of the actual separation be publicly +acknowledged or not. How many a disillusioned man or woman has felt +with the poet: + + "To look upon the face of a dead friend + Is hard; but there is deeper woe-- + To look upon our friendship lying dead + While we live on, and eat, and sleep-- + Mere bodies from which all the soul has fled, + And that dead thing year after year to keep + Locked in cold silence on its dreamless bed." + +=Shall Society Favor the Remarriage of Divorced Persons?=--Now that +the moral sense of most people allows another trial on Love's Rialto, +there are many individuals who can leave "that dead thing" to find its +own grave, and in the light of some new and dearer affection go on to +a renewed promise and joy of life. Can we think that wrong? Who shall +dare to say that alone of all mistakes of youth, a mistaken choice in +marriage shall be for all life a sentence of doom? Who shall dare to +limit the power of rehabilitation of the family order, even when what +has failed is the central heart of married love? Our gospel of hope +and courage, and renewal of opportunity, and rebirth of affection must +know no limits if we would rightly trust the spirit within our being. + +But for the shallow, and the selfish, and the pleasure-seeker without +reverence for the right way of life, and for the scoffer at all high +moods of feeling and of ideal aim, there can be little to justify his +flitting about on the very outmost limits of true love. For such, some +check must be had in ordered rules and legal bonds, in order that the +race-life shall go on in safety and in social health. Meanwhile, +although there is much to give us pause and to demand serious study +and earnest and wise social work in the situation revealed by the +divorce court statistics, there is nothing that need give hysterical +alarm lest the home is being destroyed and the family abolished. On +the contrary, there probably was never a time when so many people were +really happy, each and every member of the family, in the home +relation; and hence never a time when it was clearer that to keep the +home stable and permanent, and make marriage successful in the vast +majority of cases, we have only to get better and wiser people in +larger proportion. + +To understand the real reason for marital unhappiness and for family +instability, to know that such reason inheres primarily in personal +character and not in any statute, is to begin work for the real cure +and prevention of such unhappiness and instability. The broken family +may be a sad necessity, alike for individuals concerned, and for the +well-being of society. To prevent that tragedy is a social duty than +which none is more pressing or more open to social effort. + +=Turning From Compulsory to Attractive Methods of Reform.=--To +undertake that social task, the psychology of social effort must be +turned from compulsive methods of prevention of legal divorce, when +such divorce is sought, to ways of making marriage choices wiser, +marriage experience more sane and better balanced by sense of +obligation to the nearer and more remote of social relations, and by +putting at the command of all, the helpful sympathy and the social +guidance that can alone hold to firm and noble lines the wavering and +the weak. + + +QUESTIONS ON THE BROKEN FAMILY + + 1. Is the admitted increase in divorce wholly a testimony to + moral degeneracy? If so, what can be done about it? If not, + what else does it indicate? + + 2. What are the main points to work for in order to reduce the + number of divorces, and to remove the social evils of which + divorces are only the symptom? + + 3. Should the social psychology be directed principally toward + preventing people from getting divorce or from remarrying after + divorce, or toward making marriage so generally successful that + fewer people want to separate? + + 4. What is specially needed in education both of youth and the + adult in the United States in the interest of family stability + and family success? + + 5. Make a list of causes that in your opinion justify legal + separation or divorce and find out whether or not these causes + are named in the statutes of your State. If they are not, what + should be done about it? + + 6. What is done for and with the children of legally separated and + divorced persons in your State? + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE FAMILY AND THE WORKERS + + "It is all work, and forgotten work, this peopled, clothed, + articulate-speaking, high-towered, wide-acred world. For the + thistle a blade of grass, later a drop of nourishing milk, later a + nobler man. Man perfects himself as well as the world by + working."--CARLYLE. + + + "Every man's task is his life preserver."--EMERSON. + + "What was his name? I do not know his name. + No form of bronze and no memorial stones + Show me the place where lie his mouldering bones. + Only a cheerful city stands, + Builded by his hardened hands; + Only ten thousand homes, + Where every day + The cheerful play + Of love and hope and courage comes; + These are his monuments, and these alone,-- + There is no form of bronze and no memorial stone." + --EDWARD EVERETT HALE. + + "Let us now praise the artificer and the workmaster + Who is wakeful to finish his work. + These put their trust in their hands + And each becometh wise in his own work. + Though they sit not in the seat of the judge, + Nor understand the covenant of judgment; + Though they declare not instruction nor utter dark sayings + Yet without these shall not a city be inhabited + Nor shall men sojourn therein. + For these maintain the fabric of the world + And in the handiwork of their craft is their prayer." + --ECCLESIASTICUS. + + +=Changes from Ancient to Modern Forms of Labor.=--The change from the +domestic and handicraft stage in industry to the capitalized, +power-driven, machine-dominated, and highly specialized work-system of +the present day has been often described and is a part of all the +economic problems of modern times. We do not need here to rehearse the +details of that change or to speak of its effect upon workers in +general. What we must do, however, is to trace specifically some of +the results of that industrial change in the constitution and in the +development of family life. + +In the old order the worker owned his tool, selected his material, +controlled the process of his task, and often was master of the sale +of the finished product. Hence, as has so often been shown, the +character of a man was so obviously a part of the stock-in-trade of +the worker, his judgment, probity and skill were so clearly causes of +his success in handicraft, that the ethical training of life came +definitely through the exercise of work-power. Now, as we are often +reminded, the worker is divorced from the management and control of +his work-process and is a "hand," merely attached to a machine that +others must choose, buy and install, the product of which is in only +an infinitesimal part his responsibility and of the profit from which +another takes the lion's share. This has made many feel that ethical +training in life must come to the worker from his leisure hours only, +and that his task must be always merely a routine one, to be got +through with as soon as possible each day in order that he may "live" +in the hours left from work. This idea cannot be accepted by anyone +who realizes the character-drill that may inhere in any form of useful +labor. The need is to permeate the methods of modern industry with the +creative spirit, to mix the management of all business and +manufacturing with the brains of workmen as well as of directors and +to make a new connection, strong, obvious, and thought-compelling, +between the worker and the control and responsibility of his work. +While this is being accomplished the results of the change from +handicraft to machine work in the family order must be understood and +unsocial elements in that change minimized. It must be remembered that +among the opportunities of character-training in work lost by the man, +the woman and the child and youth, by the change in industrial +methods, is the constant influence of the home life while at work. The +old industries clustered about the fireside. It made the household a +work-place, and some feel that this was a detriment to home life and +that we have a better chance to make real centres of love and +happiness now that we have taken out of the domestic field almost all +the elements of manufacture and of trade. However that may be, this +much is sure, that when father and mother worked together, and +children learned how to work while still within the family influence, +it was easier than it is now to make the daily task one of mutual +cooeperation and mutual service within the family circle. + +=The Old Household a Work-place.=--We have passed laws now, forbidding +"home industries" because so many "sweated trades" find their last and +often impregnable fortress in the crowded rooms of the tenement +living-places. This may be necessary and may be well to do, but the +fact remains that something inhered in the old domestic training of +children and youth in useful work within the home which was lost when +the factory was built and the young workers had to seek their jobs +outside the family circle. And that something of work-drill and +habit-forming in the interest of self-support and family usefulness we +are now trying to reintroduce into the education of children and youth +by elaborate and costly "manual training," "Pre-vocational and +Vocational courses" and similar departments in the schools. + +=Welfare Managers in Modern Times.=--The fact that hours of work and +conditions affecting the workers can be standardized more easily when +those workers are massed in large numbers under one recognized owner +and manager of a great industry has sometimes blinded us to the need +of each young person to have constantly near at hand a personal +representative of society's interest in the development of his +character; some interpreter of social customs and ideals to follow +which will make for his advantage. We are trying now to get "Welfare +Managers," paid chaperons, nurses and teachers, into business concerns +to take the place of older forms of social direction and care for +youthful workers. These functionaries often do much good and are +recognized expressions of the social interest of employers. Since they +are installed avowedly for the purpose of making conditions better for +the younger, weaker, less trained and more needy of the workers, +"Welfare Managers" often find a hostile or at least indifferent +attitude toward their efforts on the part of the higher paid, the +better established, and more competent women workers, especially those +organized in Trade Unions with the slogan of "Not Charity, but +Justice." They do, however, reach with light and leading some of the +darker sides of modern industry as related to the younger workers. + +=Child-labor.=--The student of industrial history knows that +child-labor is not a new evil. Children were often overworked and +cruelly driven when parents, guardians, and those to whom they were +"bound out" as apprentices were the only taskmasters and their labor +was wholly within the household. Indeed, Hutchins and Harrison, in +their _History of Factory Legislation_, declare that "it is not easy +to say whether children were really worked harder in the early +factories than under the domestic system which they replaced." Edith +Abbott, in her excellent summary of _The Early History of Child Labor +in America_, shows clearly that at the bottom of the ancient desire to +use very young persons in industry was a conviction that work, +constant and hard work, is the only safeguard against evil. "Satan +finds some mischief still for idle hands to do" was not a figure of +speech to our ancestors, it was statement of a sober fact. This +feeling led naturally to the conditions that gave Samuel Slater, the +pioneer in textile manufacture in New England, a collection of child +workers in his first mill as his only laborers and at ages between +seven and twelve years. + +We are now able to see and remedy some evils of child-labor in the +factory system which passed unnoticed and for which no prohibitive law +was in existence in the handicraft stage. It is true, however, as all +must recognize, that the modern specialization of labor and modern use +of machines allows a wholesale exploitation of youth and of physical +weakness impossible in older forms of industry. Hence the facts of +modern industry justify and make necessary the "Child Labor Movement." +Yet vital and strong as that movement is, we have to-day, as has been +stated in another connection, a misuse of children by millions in +industry. We have also a dangerous overuse of youth in industry, and +we have a reckless waste of mothers and of potential mothers in +unsuitable work. We have also certain dangers to family life in the +turning of attention and of ambition of young people away from family +interests into fields of industrial activity which are inimical to +family success. This makes the problem of the family and the workers +one of great difficulty and one to be given the most serious attention +on the part of those who are themselves above the economic conditions +which operate to complicate that problem among the poor and +struggling. + +=Increase in Women Wage-earners.=--In the first place, we must note +the tendency toward rapid increase of the numbers of women listed by +the census as in "gainful occupations." Without noting in this +connection the conditions just before and during the Great War, +conditions not at all indicative of normal increase in the numbers of +working-women, we trace in the period from 1880 to 1910 a rise from +2,647,157 to 8,075,772 of the number of women in receipt of salary or +wages for work outside their own homes. The estimate of 1920, now +given, of nearly 41,609,192 "persons of both sexes and of ten years +old and over engaged in gainful occupations" shows us 8,549,399 +"females." Of these, over a million are engaged in "Professional +service" (a larger proportion than of men so listed and, of course, +indicating the great majority of women in the teaching profession). +More than two millions are listed in "Domestic and Personal service." +That leaves over three millions working in "agriculture, forestry, +animal industry, manufacture and mechanical industries," and nearly a +million and a half in "clerical occupations." The use of ten years of +age in such lists is now obsolete as an indication of custom in +employment of youth. Fourteen years of age is the norm in the listing +of youthful workers and the age limits should be revised to suit that +rise in the legal age of the child wage-earner as generally practised +now in the United States. With that understanding, the statistics for +"Child Labor Certificates" issued by the large manufacturing cities of +our country show an army of young workers, more than twenty thousand +in New York City alone, annually entering the competitive industrial +field with full consent of society. This all means that millions of +women and very young persons who under the earlier forms of industrial +life would have been employed (however steadily or with whatever +handicaps or even cruelty) within some family circle, are now under +the full control of mass-direction, mass-standardization, and +mass-influence in their daily work. + +=Social Pressure on the Individual Worker.=--This pressure is in +itself almost a sufficient reason for the family instability now seen. +To divorce all the working-time, and all the work-tendency, and most +of the work-training from home life is to weaken the hold of the +family upon the average worker. Members of a family in which each has +definite and firm relation to some different requirement and control +connected with a daily task are likely to acquire an independent +relation to society in general. In such eases it requires a far more +vital and enduring affection, a distinctly superior mutual +understanding and sense of justice, and a far larger natural equipment +of tact and power of adjustment than was required in other economic +conditions, in order to make the family life enduring and happy. The +economic self-interest of each member of the family in the domestic +circle was obviously that of every other member when the household was +a workshop. Even, the land and all which it implied was a family +possession in primitive days. And the worker's equipment, owned +privately, was limited in the early days. We read that "tools, +weapons, slaves and captured women and the products of some special +skill were generally private possession, but products of group-work, +such as the capture and killing of buffalo, salmon, and all larger +game among the North American Indians, and the maize which individual +women tended but which belonged to the household or the tribe in +common, were all shared as community property." When to this communal +possession of products of group-activity were added control over +marriage portions, however those might be appropriated, and the +management of all property thought to be of group-value, we can see +that all of economic weight of influence now so individualized once +went into the family asset. + +In the mediaeval times, when laborers were gaining slowly a class +consciousness outlined by Guilds and Unions of special groups of +workers, the family was still the main centre of work-direction and of +united profit from work, and hence it was evident to the dullest mind +and the coldest heart that members of a family should work and save +together. Now the whole trend of industrial relationship is toward +making independent and individualistic connection between the worker +and his job outside of family unity. Even movements for legal +protection of the worker against exploitation by masters in industry +often take little account of family relationship or the varying +inherited family ideals. Setting the well-being of one member of the +family against what is supposed to be the well-being of other members +of the family, as in the case of some child-labor laws, may be +necessary and socially wise, but it surely does not lead to family +stability. + +=Demands of Family Life Upon Industry and Labor Legislation.=--The +demands of family life should at least be stated and have some weight +in any further attempts to make the lot of the individual worker +better, and should be considered in any drastic attempts to enforce +labor legislation which sets the parent and the child against each +other in the courts, or which hampers a mother in what she deems of +vital necessity in the carrying out of her parental duty. + +"The Code for Women in Industry," issued by the division of Women in +Industry of the Department of Labor, in cooeperation with the "War +Labor Board" and the "War Labor Policies Board," when the questions +concerning standards for employment of women in war plants were acute, +as published in the _Survey_ of January 4, 1919, is in brief summary +as follows: No woman employed or permitted to work more than eight +hours a day or forty-eight hours a week. One day of rest a week +demanded for all and no night work for minors or women. The basis of +the wage-scale to be form of occupation, not sex; and no lesser wage +for women permitted unless it can be proved that their employment +lessens the output of work. A legal minimum wage for all women, which +should include cost of living of dependents as well as of individuals. +All work conditions to be good and safety adequately secured. Women to +be prohibited from working in occupations where exposure to heat or +cold or to poisonous substances, or where bad position or too great +muscular strain, endanger health. Home work prohibited. + +=Should Adult Women and Children be Listed Together in Labor +Laws?=--There is grave question whether some of these items listed as +essentials in the protection of women in industry, and certainly +useful in the peculiar conditions of munition manufacture into which +women rushed in such vast numbers in answer to the call of war, should +form a permanent outline of the relation of law to women workers. +Some of them have, and clearly, a place in any future code in peace +time. The requirement for one day of rest in seven; the demand that +quality and power of labor, not sex, shall set the wage-scale; and the +legal requirement for sanitary, safe, and moral conditions in +workshops and factories, all are vital to sound social demand in the +interest of women workers. Are these not also demands for just labor +conditions of men? The eight-hour day is now fixed as a standard for +men and women alike, with the forty-eight hour a week definition. A +minimum wage, including cost of living for dependents as well as for +individuals involved, has justice at its base, but requires for its +application less a blanket sum indicated by law than a wages-board or +other form of discriminating commission with power to adjust flexibly, +with due consideration of place and of quality of work, the wages to +the task. Conditions of labor should be "good" in all cases, and what +is good should be fixed by disinterested persons. Physical safety and +moral protection must be secured at all hazards, and in the case of +women special protection, particularly for those under twenty-one +years of age, is needed. Any work which is peculiarly a menace to +health and to the race-life for mothers or potential mothers may well +be forbidden by law. The absolute prohibition of night work and of +home work to adult women may well be left in the background, however, +until the industrial situation is clearer for all women workers. The +evils of night work for the "sweated" woman, untrained for any +lucrative labor and who has to catch on to the labor wheels at any +point open to her effort at middle age, must not blind us to the fact +that one of the most precious things in the inheritance of brave and +loyal natures is the determination to earn for one's own support and +for that of one's dearest. The tenement labor, which is such an evil +in many of our cities and one so impossible to deal with adequately by +ordinary inspectorship provision, is not all there is to "home work." +It may well be that, as has been before indicated, the new uses of +electrical power may return to the home, and in ways to the advantage +of the family, some of the processes now wholly under factory control +and provision. The point is that while there cannot be too much +protective legislation for children and youth, the place of adult +women in the labor world must not be too firmly and exclusively held +by the side of children lest we add to the difficulties women still +experience in finding and keeping a place in the world of modern +industry. + +=Women in War Work.=--In England, we are told, there were one million +women employed in war plants during the great struggle with Germany. +In every variety of munitions manufacture women were found in great +numbers, often furnishing eighty per cent, or more of the total number +employed. It is a fact that they "made good." It is also a fact that +the average of health among the working women of England rose in many +localities where women were employed at these unwonted tasks. The +reason given for this by one keen observer being that the higher wages +earned enabled many thousands of women, before undernourished because +of their poverty, to have "three square meals a day." When we remember +that in England there are nearly two million more women than men, and +that the men who served in the army and have returned physically and +mentally able to take back the jobs they left for army service are +clamoring for them, and when we remember that the struggle for a +standard of living never goes backward and that women workers once +used to good wages will not willingly take poor ones again, we can see +what difficulties the war has made in our sister country for both men +and women in industry. + +In our own country the one and a quarter million women engaged in +industrial work directly or indirectly connected with the war service +when the first investigation was made in fifteen states, under the +auspices of the National League of Women's Service, were but a section +of the army of women who were enlisted in war work, paid or unpaid and +of various kinds. Now we have an unemployment problem of our own with +something of the same complaint of the men of England that the +returned soldier finds a woman in his place, a woman who is still +wanted, perhaps, by the employer and who does not wish to relinquish +her job. + +When Mrs. Muhlhauser Richards took charge of the Woman's Division of +the Department of Labor in the effort to make a clearing house of +women's work in the interest of help to the government it was not +simply a measure for temporary use or of temporary value. The idea +still persists in peace as well as in war, and justly, that the +interests of women in industry require a special division of the Labor +Department in order that we shall be able to know what is needed for +their protection in the interest of family life as well as understand +what individual women require in justice when they are wage-earners. A +minimum wage is demanded and in several states made a legal +requirement, but to name a definite sum per week puts a stated figure +where a movable and changeable condition inheres in the situation. +Experts in labor reform, therefore, urge the passage of legislative +bills providing for "wage commissions to determine living wages for +women and minors," and such have been secured in several states. + +The linking of women of all ages with minors may be necessary for +protection of individual women from exploitation, but again, it must +be insisted that such a blanket cover for women workers of all ages +may not be for the ultimate good of the adult, competent yet +struggling women, who are trying to compete with men for a place in +the world of labor. The fact is that we often approach the problems of +work and wages and general labor conditions from the angle of the most +needy, the most exploited, the least trained, and the poorest in +opportunity. This may be the highway of philanthropy and to be +travelled in the interest of social helpfulness, but it is not all the +roads labor reform must use. + +=Minimum Wage for Fathers of Families Real Need.=--When we study +questions of labor as related to family well-being we must begin with +an ideal of what the normal family requires of its members, men, +women, and older children, and place in the first position of economic +requirement the family demand upon the husband and father. He must, we +have said, be in position to be a "good provider" for his group. That +means he must be trained to be a worker, faithful, efficient, +intelligent, who does something which society needs to have done and +for which employers can and will pay adequate wages. That means +vocational training, guidance, and opportunity. That means, also, an +economic system not easily convulsed by bad times and ups and downs in +the industrial world. That means, again, ease and cheapness of +transportation in order that families may live in decent homes and yet +the chief wage-earner go back and forth to his work without too great +strain of strength or purse. That means some social control of housing +facilities, food supply, public sanitation, and educational facilities +which will secure the essential of human living to all workers and +their families. To work harder to secure these vital elements of +family well-being is the task of all. If we were as anxious as +citizens to secure opportunity for the men and women who make up the +great army of average workers, self-supporting but at cost of struggle +often too severe, as we are anxious as philanthropists to ease the +burden and protect the weakness of the more backward members of the +industrial army, the current of upward movement of all in gainful +occupations would be stronger and more socially helpful. The family is +most of all concerned with the minimum wage of adult men who marry and +have children. + +=The Attitude of Women Toward Labor Problems.=--The family is +concerned next with the attitude of women who are wives and mothers, +or daughters partially supported from the family purse, toward the +whole area of industrial problems. It may be always right, as it is +often necessary, for married women, even when mothers of young +children, to earn in the outside labor world. It is, however, always a +social crime for women who try simply to piece out an insufficient +family income to do it in ways to bring down or to keep down wages in +the specialty of work they take part in, especially to bring down or +keep down the wages of men in that specialty of work. It may be best +(it usually is) for young daughters to earn wages even if they do +kinds of work which in the labor market will not secure a return +adequate for full self-support. The work may be educational in its +quality; much that young girls do in department stores is of that +character; but wages too low for full self-support must be reckoned as +part pay for a work-opportunity mixed of training and service, not one +that lists the worker in full competitive position. + +=Necessary Protection for Children and Youth in Labor.=--Where young +boys or young girls enter into the industrial world they should step +from either a Trade School, and if so, with the guidance and care of +some representatives of that school to aid them in making physically, +morally, and vocationally helpful alignment, or else should be given +half-time employment in the factory or shop that takes them on as +helpers and find in some "Continuation School" a right use of the rest +of the work-day. The right sort of protective aid to boys and girls +between the ages of fourteen, when the law allows some form of +wage-earning, and that of sixteen to eighteen years, when they may +safely shift for themselves, should halve the wage-earning hours (four +instead of eight each day or twenty-four instead of forty-eight a week +or alternate weeks at work or study); should double the numbers set to +each stated task in shop or factory; should treble the supervisory +control of society, in a union of Health Board, School Board, and +Employers' and Employees' Council; and should quadruple the fitly +trained teachers, the school sittings, the adequately equipped +recreation centres and all incitements to higher uses of leisure time. +The early years of every child should be held sacredly apart from the +whir of wheels and the din of machinery; he should then rehearse in +some degree, as will be later shown, the handicraft age of industry +and its personalizing influence. His entrance into the world of modern +labor should be not a plunge or a tumble but along a regulated highway +of well-outlined endeavor, with social influences on either side to +make his passage into wage-earning safe for himself and useful to +others. + +Social protection should be less a club marked, "Thou shalt not," and +more an opportunity inscribed, "Chances to rise, win them!" For the +woman, married and a mother, there must be not so many new ways of +enforcing prohibitions of what are deemed for her harmful forms of +labor, as more ingenuity in providing half-time work, better +adjustments of earning facilities to domestic duties, far more +cooeperative machinery for reducing the cost of living and for securing +the family against economic exploitation in food, clothing, and +shelter. + +=Women and the Cost of Living.=--There is a field of family +conservation which has been until lately almost wholly neglected by +women; a field which must be mastered by them, the field of +combination of all family interests in behalf of each family need. The +attitude of the new voters among women who have organized into a +League to enable them to become better and more efficient citizens is +eminently encouraging. When the League of Women Voters takes hold +definitely, consciously, and with intelligent devotion of the problems +of cost of living, market supply, distribution of essentials of life +and the whole range of economic interests which lie next to family +well-being, it means that women are taking into the electorate a new +and vitally needed form of social control and social service. That in +itself, alone, would justify the struggle of women to obtain the +franchise. More and more men in political life will come to understand +what a League of women, for the most part "home-women" and +family-serving-women, will demand of officials in the area of basic +essentials of comfort and security in the home. + +=The Family Demand upon Unmarried Women.=--The social demand upon +women who are at work in any field of personal endeavor, whether that +be professional, clerical, manual or artistic, has been outlined +before in this treatment of the relation of the home to society in +general as involving sortie special consideration of family needs. +This may seem a negligible quantity to many women, unmarried, with +relatives all self-supporting or well-to-do. There is no reason why a +daughter should be called "undutiful" or "selfish" who is absorbed in +her own work than why a son should be so esteemed when there is no +special reason why other members of the family should hold that +daughter's time and effort at their disposal. The selfishness may be +on the other side, and often is where parents or near relatives within +the family bond try to burden the young woman with odds and ends of +family service, which others might as well assume, and leave her with +no ambition or opportunity for personal achievement. There are, +however, in this complicated life of ours many contingencies of family +experience which still demand from daughters a share in time and +strength which sons may more easily concentrate upon their own work. +This fact, often operating unconsciously, leads many young women to +choices of types of work which have fixed hours and easy adjustment to +frequent absences from work. These give little chance for rising in +wage or position and often give low wages from the start. This +tendency keeps many women from success in work and is often a reason +why men distrust and oppose their entrance into a new field of +industry. + +The first essential of character, it must be insisted, is the power of +self-support, of self-direction, of self-achievement. This is, now +seen to be an essential for women as for men. The only adequate +solution of problems of commercialized prostitution includes for each +girl capable of that attainment the power of easy and complete +self-support. Hence, the family has no right to take from its members +some present advantage which will handicap potential workers, either +boys or girls, in their struggle to meet adult responsibilities of +economic life. Hence, again, the whole question of vocational +preparation for girls, as well as for boys, has right-of-way as +against any temporary or easily dispensed-with helping in family +emergencies which may seriously hamper the future wage-earner. This is +now being seen clearly; and the consequence is that parents do without +for themselves both luxuries and often comforts, in order that their +children shall have a chance in general education and in vocational +training to fit them for later economic success. This fact, so +honorable to parents, often leads away from family unity by increasing +a chasm of culture and of condition between parents and children. +This, again, indicates that the modern standardization of child-care +and of parental duty has in it elements that demand far more developed +character in all the members of a family in order to hold together by +affection, justice, and higher compulsions of tenderness those who +have by virtue of the self-sacrifice of the older ones lost touch on +many of the common fields of effort. + +=Farming and the Farmer's Wife.=--There is one great area both of +man's work and of woman's work which supremely needs better +understanding and more efficient organization in the interest of +family life. That is the basic industry of all civilized life, +farming, and woman's service in the farm home. We now generally place +our farm houses far apart from each other, and we have usually but one +house on the place and that for the owner and his family. We have no +adequate provisions by which the seasonal nature of agricultural work +can be so arranged by ingenious dovetailing with other forms of labor +as to furnish an all-the-year employment to men who wish to marry and +bring up families and yet do not own but work upon farms. We have few +means for easing the burdens of household labor for the farmer's wife, +and hence the larger the farm, the more property it represents, the +more men laborers it demands for the owner's successful conduct of the +business, the more unbearable the pressure upon health, strength, +time, and energy of the woman who is the farmer's helpmate. These are +some of the fundamental reasons for the drift away from farm life to +the cities and the towns, a drift seen to be ominous and if not +checked socially destructive of national prosperity when the Great War +forced us to take account of social conditions in the United States +more seriously than ever before. + +The girls of the farms want to go away from home to find easier work +than their mother's kitchens afford quite as much as do the boys who +wish to get away from the summer drudgery and the winter dulness of +the isolated farmstead; and now the girls can get away easily and +often do. It is the lack of workers to adequately aid those in command +of agricultural life which is more than all things else the difficulty +that must be faced, wrestled with, and overcome if we would keep +adequate numbers on the farms. The effect of the drift away from the +country upon general family life is too evidently bad to need any +intensive statement here. The congestion of cities, the street life of +children which makes legal offenses of acts natural and necessary to +free play, the walking of city streets by armies of unemployed fathers +and those who might be fathers while harvests are lost for want of +laborers, the lack of food in one stratum of society while in another +there are no people to eat what nature provides so abundantly--all +this and more rises in the mind of everyone who understands that in +the right adjustment of agriculture to the people's needs lies the +best interests of all. The sorry picture of the haggard woman, widow, +deserted, or divorced, scrubbing on her knees all night long the +marble floors of a vast office-building, to hurry back to her +locked-in children in the early morning hours, to fall exhausted on +the bed until the call of the alarm clock to get breakfast and send +the little ones to school--this picture has been portrayed often to +Consumer's League and Women's Club audiences and has made many women +of position and of influence call for drastic prohibition of such +overwork of mothers. It has also made women work diligently until they +secured forms of help from the public purse to subsidize such mothers +and give them state aid until the children were able to earn something +for themselves. There are many who can visualize that scrubwoman, and +who can place beside her as needing social aid the sewing-machine +operator, the garment-finisher or the flower-maker in the tenement +sweatshop, who can not see that the farm-house mother is often +subjected to labor conditions that sap life and health and doom her +children to weakness. These opposite poles of woman's work both call +for better social understanding and more intelligent and devoted +social work. The scrubwoman, or the poverty-bound tenement worker may +be proper subjects for public or private philanthropy; the farm-house +mother is or should be the prime object of social justice and social +engineering for ends of social well-being. Upon the farmer and his +wife and also upon the miner and his wife and the forest worker and +his wife rest the very foundations of economic stability and +industrial security. Those who procure at first hand the raw material +of manufacture and of commerce are too precious to social order for +any neglect of conditions in their work. In many foreign countries the +land seems to shrink dangerously as population grows. In our vast +country and in the stretches of Canada, North America seems, as Lowell +said, to have "room beside her hearth for all mankind." And yet, in +New York City and in other centres of population, there are swarms of +people, many of them of foreign birth, of varying races and of +different nationalities, crowding each other to suffocation and many +of them holding out hands for charity, who might, if rightly aided +toward a different environment, work to full support of themselves and +their families in the fresh air and healthful surroundings of the +country. The need is to transfer city advantages to the country in far +greater extent, and to transfer the people who cannot find or make a +human chance in the city to the wide spaces and work needs of the +country. Rural life must be urbanized, city life must be relieved of +those who hinder the making of a beautiful and noble civic life, not +because they are incapable but because there are too many of them who +have not yet arrived at full capacity for vocational achievement and +cannot do so in the crowd with which they have to contend. + +=Domestic Help and Family Life.=--For the relief of family life in the +matter of domestic help there must be an intelligent and an earnest +attack of educated women upon the problems involved. The admirable +suggestions of Professor Lucy Salmon in her _Democracy in the +Household_[16] indicate the chief difficulty in getting and keeping +the right sort of domestic worker. The personal relation is not that +of equals but of superior to inferior, and the helper in the home is +isolated socially from the group he or she serves. This is felt +peculiarly in cases where but one helper is employed within the +household. The petition of many housewives recently sent to Washington +to beg that "the restriction upon immigration now in force may be +lifted in the case of women who seek to enter the United States to +engage in domestic labor" on the ground of a household need, dire and +widespread, is an indication that many women, perhaps most, look +forward to a continuance of the present conditions of domestic work +but with ever-new sets of domestic workers from other lands. Their +attitude in this particular is wholly mistaken. Even if the races from +all the ends of the earth should one by one troop through the kitchens +of American housewives, most of them would not stay long enough to +even learn how to do good work in those kitchens. The first chance +they got the factory or shop or even the canning shed or the open +field of harvest would take them away. And this is not because the +work in the home is too hard, or the room and food not so good as +elsewhere, but because domestic service is the last stronghold of +aristocracy and no one brought in touch with democratic ideas will +long accept it. Miss Salmon's ideas, if carried out, would stay the +rapidity of the current away from domestic service. But a quite new +approach to the whole problem must be defined and realized by women of +light and leading if we would have adequate and efficient help In +household work. The fact that most professional or business women find +it far easier to get good help where but one domestic worker is kept, +than do most women who have no outside duties, gives one key to the +situation. As one woman of character and education far above that of +most household workers said, "I do housework for Mrs. So and So, for +she teaches and there is a reason why she needs help. I would not take +a place where there were women in the family who could do the +housework themselves perfectly well and wait upon them." + +The absurd hypocrisy that in one breath praises all work done for the +comfort of the family as the highest form of service and in the next +demands that the family "servant" accept all manner of inherited +insignia of social inferiority must be outgrown. In the city and +suburban towns the hour-service and the various forms of commercial +aids to household tasks may work, as has been before indicated, to +gradually do away with the servant class, in the old sense of those +words and without much social consciousness of the change. In the +small towns and in the rural districts, where is now the most acute +suffering and need of housemothers, there must be a conscious and a +wholesale movement to reinstate domestic service on a plane compatible +with democracy and amenable to high standards of intelligence and +efficiency. When one thinks of the rural need for teachers, for +nurses, for doctors, for kindergartners, for recreation managers, for +community leaders, one is tempted to call for a social conscription +that shall make all graduates from normal and teacher-training +schools, from all schools for social work, and all hospitals, from all +playground classes and settlements, serve for a period of one year or +two in the country districts as their part in social organization. +Surely if a government has the moral right to force youth to serve in +war for purposes of destruction of enemies, it has a right to compel +youth to serve in peace for purposes of human conservation and for the +just sharing of social advantages by all the people of a common +country! + +=The Application of Democratic Principles to Life.=--Finally, the +problems which inhere in work as related to the family have at their +base the same great demand for equality of educational and economic +opportunities which inhere in all that relates to the application of +democratic principles to actual living. This is not an essay on +economic theory or a statement of the results of special studies of +economic condition. Still less is it an attempt to make an appeal for +one or another type of economic reform. It is simply a partial view of +certain work conditions as they come closest to family life. There is +to this writer no more merit or demerit in any form of economic +dogmatism than in any special theologic creed. We may all differ, and +with reasons sufficient to our thought and without blame, on questions +of how we can best attain a true democratization of the industrial +order. We cannot now be of two minus as to the righteousness of such +democratization. We must all believe in giving all human beings a fair +chance at the best things of life; security against want, homes that +offer conditions for family well-being, educational entrance into our +common social inheritance, and leisure to enjoy the things that make +for happiness. The baptism of religious idealism by the social spirit +is now accomplished. As Dr. Walter Rauschenbusch, that great prophet +of a new social order, well says in his last thought-compelling book, +"The social gospel has become orthodox." + +=Women Must be More Democratic.=--Women have been so long held within +family interests that they, less than men, have had the discipline of +democratic life within the labor world. They are often the vicarious +expressions of man's remaining aristocratic feeling, as Veblen has +acutely outlined in his _Theory of the Leisure Class_. Husbands still +wish their wives to be more "select" than they find it wise longer to +be themselves and more tenacious of inherited conventional forms than +business or inclination longer allow for themselves. Hence, women have +not, as a rule, organized their households on as democratic principles +and methods as men have organized their own work. Women, now that they +have attained the democratic position in the state which they have +long worked for must apply the principles they have preached in that +crusade for political equality in the very stronghold of social caste +and rigid class-feeling, the family life itself. And even if they have +to educate their husbands in the process. + +Woman may do this, first, by wiping out and forever the stigma that +attaches or has attached to any woman who earns money outside her own +home. They may do it, second, by so relating themselves to +professional, clerical, manual workers among their own sex as to show +that they really believe in equality of rights and mutuality of duties +among all classes. They may do it, third, by taking hold of the +household service problem radically and from the basis of actual +knowledge of its importance to personal and family well-being. They +may show actual regard for the dignity of the functions implied, by +the treatment accorded the competent, faithful, and often +indispensable domestic helper. There is a big social job waiting for +women in matters concerning the work of their own sex both within and +without the family circle; and the social power of women will be best +shown, perhaps, in settling the worst problems of domestic service by +the wiser and more efficient use of better educated, more socially +respected, and more definitely standardized workers within the home. + +=The Social Effect of Trade Unions.=--No study of the relation of +modern industry to family life, however brief and inadequate, can +ignore the question, "How has the Trade Union organization of +wage-earners affected the home?" The immediate and direct effect has +often been disastrous when strikes and lockouts marked the course of +industrial warfare. All war is bad for family life and especially +injurious to the development of children. And economic war lacks the +appeal to the imagination and the ceremonial prestige of war between +nations or of civil war in one country. We have had in our +race-experience for untold ages the linking of military training with +military defence of political ideas and of the fatherland. To fight +for one's country seems highly honorable. This lift of the sense of +community unity into the area of supreme struggle gives to men often +what no other experience so far accomplishes, namely, a feeling of +spiritual union with all other men who also struggle for what they +believe to be right. In labor wars; in the strife between employer and +employed, that sense of race unity even when struggling against a +national enemy, that which gives what Professor James well called the +"mystic element in militarism," is lacking. It is a fight between men +who have and those who have not and feel themselves defrauded of just +due. Hence, although the fight may be bitter even unto death, and the +sacrifices of immediate comfort for ultimate ends beyond measure +heroic and even wise, there can be little of the pomp and circumstance +that accompany national and international warfare. The Decoration Days +when heroes of past conflicts are praised and receive from all the +reverence which patriotism pays to those believed to have saved some +precious inheritance from harm do not yet, perhaps will never, include +heroes of labor struggles for equal right and mutual justice. Yet the +history of industrial changes shows beyond cavil or doubt that in this +field, as in others, he who would be free himself must win his +freedom. The basic principle of the Trade Union, the right and +usefulness of collective bargaining, inheres in the conditions of +machine-dominated and capitalized industry. In this form of labor +organization the individual worker cannot bargain individually; his +place in the factory is too infinitesimal and his power measured by +that of his employer too invisible for such personal alignment. This +fact is now not questioned by any but those so enamoured of old +methods of control of the worker by those who hire him that they +cannot see what has really happened both to the employer and the +employed. The labor struggle had to come. The right of workers to +combine and to work together for what seems to them their best +interests is as inherent a part of modern democratic ideals as is the +right of all citizens to vote. And since modern industry has given +enormous power to a few master leaders and requires so many +wage-earners to carry out its enterprises the struggle has necessarily +been hard and long. No one can justly place all good behavior on one +or the other side in this conflict. No one can fail to see that power +attained by the Trade Unions has at times been used as selfishly as +the power of the employers has been. But when we remember that until +the first quarter of the nineteenth century combinations of workmen, +even to respectfully ask an increase of wages or a bettering of work +conditions in lessening of hours and in sanitary and moral provisions +in work-places, was legally a "conspiracy," and liable to harsh +punishments, we must be glad that at any temporary cost the main army +of laborers has been organized from a mob of oppressed individual +workers. But what a cost to the family has been often paid! Mothers +already overworked and under-nourished still further starved by the +"strike relief" that only serves to maintain wretchedness, not to +abolish it. The sufferings of children who miss even the meagre family +comfort which the too small pay of the father when at work was able to +supply. The greater suffering of children shunned and ill-treated by +school mates when the father is called a "scab." The deeper tragedy of +experience of men who take work that their labor comrades have refused +because of the claim of wife and children, and are abused, both in +body and in denial of sympathy and respect, because they are thought +to be traitors to their striking fellows. What is hinted at in these +few words could be made into one of the great dramas of the ages if +only the social imagination could take into understanding and show +without partiality both sides of the picture. The time may come when +it will be seen that in all wars some heroes fall on the side that is +called wrong and have right to meed of deferred praise. When that time +comes, the history of labor conflicts will show that in the struggle +between the father's duty to his children and the wife who shares his +service to them, and his duty toward the democratizing of labor by +force of battle for justice and a fair chance for all his class, +heroes and martyrs have fallen on both sides of the line. Meanwhile, +the encouraging thing is that Labor Commissions and permanent Boards +of Investigation and Arbitration and many government devices for +securing a more even justice all around the circle of wage-earning +activity are increasing in evidence as a sign that we are on the way +to bring the common need for peace and order in industry to bear upon +its warring elements. It only needs that the great consuming public, +the final and the worst sufferer when labor wars are waged, shall +understand and use its overmastering social power to bring order out +of the chaos of opposing interests. + +=Women's Trade Unions.=--The entrance of women into the Trade Union +field is a significant feature of modern industry. Denied in many +men's Unions the right of membership and in many fields of work +competing only with those of their own sex, yet obviously in need of +the same declaration of rights and the same class support of each +other in securing better conditions of labor that men realized before +them, the Women's Trade Union members have much the same spirit and +many of the same methods that men have used in similar bodies. They, +as a rule, stand, however, for more protective legislation for women +than men demand for themselves and have one element unique in such +bodies. That element is the membership within Women's Trade Unions of +women of social position, of financial security and even of wealth and +of broadest culture. These women who join the Trade Union League not +to benefit their own class, which is usually the professional or the +employing class, but to help wage-earning women to better conditions, +have often been the laboring oar in the organization and maintenance +of such Unions. Nothing analogous to this is found in the Men's Trade +Union movement in the United States. It bears witness to two elements, +one that women of the so-called privileged classes are growing very +sensitive to the claims of social justice as these are related to +wage-earning women, and the other that the average age of wage-earning +women is so much younger than that of men employed in similar work +that the need for help from without in any effective effort for relief +from bad conditions is more apparent. The transitory character of much +of women's work makes the permanent personnel of any Trade Union +League of women a smaller minority of its membership than in the case +of men. It is said that in any trade where both the men and the women +are well organized the membership of the men's Union will be fairly +stable for twenty years, that of the women's Union will show a radical +change each five years, making almost a complete turn-over in the +twenty years' count. That is, of course, due to the fact that most +women use for wage-earning only the period between leaving school and +marrying, usually about four and a half years. That makes the term +"working-girls" most appropriate and is a contrast to the working +man's longer hold upon his trade. + +=The New Solidarity of Women.=--The fact that women of all types of +social advantage and disadvantage are already linked together in the +Women's Trade Union movement, has, however, deep social significance, +especially as wage-earners' organizations relate themselves to family +life. No woman who has had right opportunities for education and +family life in her own experience can work in intimate comradeship +with those who have been denied such advantages without aiming +directly for social arrangements in labor which will no longer cheat +any young life of its joy, its culture, or chance for its possibility +of right relation in the home. The signs are full of hope that more +and more members of each class will feel that society as a whole has +claims upon them above all that any group may attain by working only +for its own advantage. No law of justice will stand the test of time +save that which ordains an order in which "Each for All, and All for +Each" will be the rule in industry as in the nobler state! + + +QUESTIONS ON THE FAMILY AND THE WORKERS + + 1. What is most important to the success of the modern family, a + minimum wage for working women or a minimum wage for men which + can supply decent living for a man, his wife, and at least + three children? + + 2. What effect has the wage-earning of married women and mothers + in gainful employments outside the home had upon the stability + and happiness of the family? + + 3. What effect have the laws protecting women and children in + industry had upon family life? + + 4. What effect would the proposed increase of legislation placing + men and women, married and single women, and unionized and + non-unionized labor upon an identical legal plane be likely to + have upon family life? As, for example, in the case of + "deserting husbands," or in work especially inimical to women's + health? + + 5. How can the admitted evil of industrial exploitation of + children be best and most surely prevented? + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] See _American Journal of Sociology_ for January, 1912. + + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE FAMILY AND THE SCHOOL + + "To prepare us for complete living is the function which education + has to discharge, and we judge the value of any training solely by + reference to this end. For complete living we must know in what + way to treat the body, in what way to treat the mind, in what way + to manage our affairs, in what way to bring up a family, in what + way to behave as a citizen, in what way to utilize those sources + of happiness which Nature supplies, and how to use all our + faculties to the greatest advantage of ourselves and of + others."--HERBERT SPENCER. + + "The final value of all institutions is their educational + influence; they are measured morally by the occasions they afford + and the guidance they supply for the exercise of foresight, + judgment, seriousness of consideration, and depth of + regard."--JOHN DEWEY. + + + "Socialized education has four aims: + + First. That the pupil shall acquire control of tools and methods + of social intercourse,--language, number, social forms and + conventions. + + Second. That the pupil shall be favorably introduced to society + through acquaintance with science, arts, literature, and + through participation in present social life. + + Third. That the pupil shall be trained for an occupation. + + Fourth. That the motives of his conduct, his own individually + appreciated and chosen ends, shall be intelligently + socialized."--GEORGE ALBERT COE. + + "The unbeliever says, 'You can never construct a true society out + of foolish, sick, selfish men and women as we know them to be.' + But the believer sees already a better state beginning to exist in + men transfigured by the power of education. And there is nothing + that man will not overcome, amend, and convert until at last + culture shall absorb, chaos itself."--EMERSON. + + "At the present time it may be that only the least effort is + needed in order that truths already revealed to us should spread + among hundreds, thousands, millions of men and women and a public + opinion become established in conformity with the existing + conscience and the entire social organization become transformed. + It depends upon us to make the effort."--TOLSTOI. + + +=New Forms of Education Demanded by Modern Industry.=--When the +power-driven machine ushered in the new era in industry it lessened +both the prestige and the dignity of the individual worker in three +particulars. First, it destroyed the apprentice system and hence +reduced all workers to a level in the eyes of the employer of labor +and the general public. The apprentice system had used for educational +purposes the important period of adolescence between childhood and +youth. It had served with its ceremonial of entrance into the +journeyman's right and public recognition to give distinction to the +skilled workman, and it had made a nexus of social relationship, built +upon craftsmanship, between those of the same and those of varying +trades and occupations. In the second place, the handicraft system had +given a distinct political right and power to skilled workmen. The +craftsmen, and the burghers of cities who represented them, had to be +called upon by kings and nobles to give assent to wars and to furnish +the sinews of war after the Guilds had gained money-power. And there +has as yet developed in modern government no substitute for this older +and more direct political appeal to individuals, through their work, +to make the vote alluring to the imagination of modern laborers. In +the third place, the transition from the feudal law of personal +service from each class to each class above to the tax system of +modern times, whereby a citizen pays his dues to society in cash +instead of in such personal service, took place in the era of +handicraft and was so bound up with the apprentice system and the +Guild organization that the connection between labor and public right +and duty was obvious and definite. We feel that it is an advance in +political development when a man, and now a woman, also, gains the +franchise directly as a human being without regard to social station +or vocational approach to life. But when in any country the franchise +is on simply human grounds and the economic life is founded on class +distinctions, and class distinctions as wide and deep as those which +modern industry makes between employer and employed in the great +divisions of manufacture and the provision of raw material for that +manufacture, the human basis of the body politic is blurred. + +When the socially bad effects of the decay of the apprentice system +were recognized, and the need for some new forms of distinction +between the skilled and the unskilled in labor was understood, there +was a movement to introduce into the school system a substitute for +that older form of craft-training. The first Manual Training High +School marked that movement. The starting of Trade Schools in +connection with certain large industrial plants or groups of plants +signally demonstrated an effort to reinstate skill as a distinction of +those who had acquired it. The pioneer work of such educators as Dr. +Felix Adler in the Ethical Culture School of New York, at first called +the Workingman's School, to introduce manual training and some +definite use of handicraft processes for educational purposes in the +grade schools, and thus make a logical connection with the +Kindergarten, was a striking example of the new sense of need for a +new education to fit the new industrial situation. The Kindergarten +itself, with its response to the natural desire of childhood to make +things and to do things and to act together in the play rehearsal of +activities of later life, was a testimony that the school was to be +called upon from henceforth to do what in the older time was done +within the home and to do it better than the home had succeeded in +doing. + +The connection between these movements in education and the family +well-being must be clear to all. Anything that lessens the dignity and +power of the worker lessens the ability of the average man to be a +competent and successful father; just as anything that lessens the +dignity and power of the worker or makes him seem but a machine for +others to use in building up industrial organization lessens his +influence in the political order. The importance to the family and to +the state of the elements of education which are aimed at reinstating +standards of skill and recognition of superior ability in the +industrial field, by the school, can not, therefore, be overestimated. + +=Education a Social Process.=--These elements are attempts to +socialize education. We say that education is a process in the +development of human personality. So it is, but it is also a process +by which individuals are fitted for serviceableness to the group life. + +Education is not now for the first time "socialized" because we now +theorize upon its social function in a new way. Each group of people, +in each phase of social relationship, aims to express and to +perpetuate, through the training of the oncoming generations, the +ideals, the customs, and the institutional forms deemed by them +necessary and desirable. The educative process is indeed a personal +one, teacher acting upon pupil directly to secure individualized +results; but it has always been socially determined, both in purpose +and in method, by the group "mores" and the group needs.[17] The +family has been called "the first and primitive school," but hardly +with accuracy; since, although the family is the first agency to begin +the educative process, what each family has demanded in loyalty and in +activity from each child has been determined, since the beginning of +social organization, by what the group of which that family was a part +had accepted as the right and useful end of child-training. The +limitations of the family, therefore, in early as in later education, +have been as marked as its powers, as has been well shown by Doctor +Todd in his book, _The Primitive Family as an Educational Agency_. + +=The Three Learned Professions.=--When there were but three learned +professions, law, medicine, and theology, and the man of action, +soldier or ruler, thought lightly of them all in comparison with his +own field of activity, the higher education could be limited to those +of selected classes. Now the social need is for trained talent in a +far broader area, and the consequence is that not only is the +grade-school being made over but the professional goal of college and +university is being extended beyond the dreams of old pedagogues. When +physical, economic, and social sciences were born they gradually +demanded a place in the educational system from top to bottom of the +line. The study disciplines they introduced, at first by apology of +the cultured, and later by open response to a social demand for +leadership in a vastly wider range of activity than was known when +colleges first came to be, have attained a higher and higher position +until now the various degrees which aim to differentiate the type of +social usefulness for which the student is prepared are for the most +part on a par with each other. + +=New Calls for Trained Leadership.=--This pressure of the new +subject-matter of education from the top down, and the pressure from +the bottom up of the new ideals in methods of training of the +child-mind, have made an educational ferment which has often given +confusion of aim and ineffectiveness of accomplishment, but both mean +educational advance and educational advance in obedience to new +conceptions of common social need. All this movement in the +educational world has a direct and immediate influence upon family +life. What was good in the old domestic training for individual +life-work we are trying to put into the school, and what is needed for +skill and leadership in the modern industrial order we are trying to +put into the college and university. This means not only that the +family rule is less deferred to in the education of even the youngest +child, it also means that if we would save the family influence in +education we must bring the parents and teachers together in council +and in united control as never before. This is being attempted; the +Mothers' Club and the Parent-Teacher Associations now in evidence +being impressive symbols of a larger social movement through books, +pamphlets, magazines, reports, and "Foundations," together with clubs +of more general social type. The value of the Trade Unions and of +other special forms of organization of workers in the matter of +securing rights and opportunities in the labor world has been alluded +to, but the definite educational value of such class organizations +must not be ignored. It is true that there is a loss of emphasis upon +skill and good workmanship in much of the modern Trade Union influence +as compared with the Guild ranking of older craft-unions, but there +is a type of education for citizenship which, with all its crudity and +coarseness of ideal, inheres in the Trade Union as in few other +organizations. To emphasize class feeling, it is said, is to work +against democracy. True, but to have a political system in which one +class is ignored, as "hands," not heads, is still more detrimental to +democratic government. The class consciousness of the worker was +strong in the days when the Guilds had political power, and it was a +wholesome check upon the claim of divine right of kings and nobles to +rule. The class consciousness of wage-earners is needed in modern +times and should have its due representation in halls of legislation +where it could meet naturally, in healthful competition and debate, +the class consciousness already there in the persons of employers of +labor and managers of legal interests of great corporations. The +education that will finally unite in better understood cooeperation all +class interests in public well-being is to be found in such use of the +school as will show how we are all bound together in industry, as in +the political body; in work as in voting power. That education which, +with more or less intelligence and with deeper or more shallow +understanding, society is now working toward will make the home life +more secure as well as the state more united. + +=The Special Education of Girls.=--The application of new educational +ideals and methods to the training of girls and young women is of +first-rate importance in the matter of home relationship to the +school. And this is the case not only because there are far more women +than men at work in carrying out those ideals and methods in the +schools but because if there is to be made valid and useful, conscious +and definite, union of school and home in one educational approach to +childhood it must be largely through the mothers and women-teachers +that such union can be effected. The reasons for this are too obvious +to require explanation. + +There are those who believe that there is no question of +sex-differences in education, that all that is needed is to open all +educational opportunities to boys and girls alike and give both +precisely the same instruction. There are also those who still believe +that some varying elements of child-training and the instruction of +youth should be retained and further developed in the case of boys +and girls. Some basic facts must be in mind when we attempt to answer +the question, Shall we try for somewhat divergent schooling for the +two sexes? + +First of all, we must remember that we have inherited the fruits of a +long race-experience in which men and women were for the most part so +separated from, each other in functioning that the education of boys +and girls was made wholly unlike after sex-differentiation began, and +sometimes, as in Sparta, before that period. The difference in ideal +and in method of training was not, as some have said, that "boys were +trained for human and socialized work" and "girls were fitted for +personal and generally menial service alone." Both were trained for +personal character and for social ends. The men were tied to the land, +and the political order, and the family responsibility for parenthood, +and some distinct personal service in behalf of the group life, as +were the women. The difference, the tremendous difference, was this: +that the service demanded of men, whatever their part or lot might be, +was early seen to require a definite schooling for some particular +vocation, demanding some measure of intellectual concentration and +technical skill; while the service demanded of women was supposed to +be of a nature requiring only general apprenticeship within the family +life. The specialization of labor, as is often shown, took from that +family apprenticeship of women, one by one, its vocational elements of +manual work until the housemother seemed to need only that general +ability which can quickly and wisely use the fruits of others' expert +knowledge and technical training. It as surely added for men, in every +division of vocational alignment, an increasing differentiation of +training and of labor. The reaction upon the educative process of this +specialization and organization of industrial and institutional life +has been distinct and far-reaching. The girls were left to the +experiential apprenticeship of the family, since they were not counted +as citizens. Even the ancient education of boys was in comparison +formal and definite, having at its core the group loyalties which +united them in patriotic devotion to "the collectivity that owned them +all." When, again, the peaceful industries which women had started in +their primitive Jack-at-all-trades economic service to the family and +clan life needed organization into separate callings of agriculture +manufacture and commerce, and primitive means of transportation had to +be perfected for interchange of products between nation and nation, +women were again left out of control of the processes which man's +organizing genius set in motion. Hence, neither political nor +industrial changes in the social order gave to popular thought any +conception of the need for sending girls to school. In point of fact, +as we need often to be reminded, the fine talk about an educated +common people referred for the most part to boys alone until near the +middle of the nineteenth century. All that women needed to know it was +believed "came by nature." Much of it did come by imitation and +unconscious absorption, aided by the occasional better training of +exceptionally able and fortunate women; but the general illiteracy of +women was both a personal handicap and a social poverty. It is not +true, however, as some have said, that women have been "left out of +the human race" and have had to "break in" to man's more highly +organized life in order to taste civilization. Men and women have +stood too close in affection, girls too often "took after their +fathers," the family, even under the despotic rule of men, bound all +other social institutions to itself too vitally for the sexes to be +wholly separated in thought and activity. Even when most women had to +make a cross instead of signing their names on official documents and +could not have passed the fourth-grade examinations of a modern +school, they often became truly cultured and by reason of the very +demands of family and group life upon them. The reason most women were +denied formal school training so long after such denial became +actively injurious to the family and group life was because the +popular conviction still held that the most useful service which women +could render the state did not require, would even find inimical to +its best exercise, the kind of schooling which had been developed to +fit boys for "a man's part in the world." + +=Formal School Training of Women New.=--When the principle of +democracy began to work in women's natures with an irrepressible yeast +of revolt against longer denial of opportunity for individual +achievement, and the vitally necessary and too-long-delayed "woman's +rights movement" was born, its first pressure was against the closed +doors of the "man-made" school. Enlightened women now demanded equal +chance with men for preparation for vocations. The school they sought +to enter was inherited from a past in which not only sex lines but +class lines held the opportunities of higher education for a small +clique. The ancient college and university did indeed lead towards +vocations, but only the three "learned professions" and general +training for commanding leadership in state and industrial affairs. +When physical, economic, and social sciences were born the study +disciplines they introduced into higher education appeared in answer +to an imperious social demand that leadership should be provided in a +vastly more varied range than the older civilization required. At +first the leaders in the higher education of women, like all _nouveaux +riche_, showed determination to prove themselves adept in the +traditions of the scholastic world into which they had so recently +entered. Classic curricula were strictly adhered to and all +"practical" courses viewed with open distrust except those leading to +the inherited professions, and to teaching, as these were pushed +upward toward college professorships. Happily, however, almost +coincident with the entrance of women into larger educational +opportunity came the broadening of that educational opportunity itself +to which reference has been made; and the marvelous growth of the +State Universities in the United States rapidly increased both the +more varied vocational stimuli and the wider preparation for +leadership now opening in our country for women as for men. + +=New Training for Social Service.=--Two movements have resulted from +the widening of the field of higher education, movements not yet +recognized at their full social value, but already showing immense +influence both upon the vocational alignment of trained women and upon +the courses of study in colleges and universities. These two movements +are, first, so to improve the social environment as to make average +normal life more easily and generally accessible to the requirements +for human well-being; and, secondly, the movement to put the social +treatment, ameliorative and preventive, of abnormal or undeveloped +life, under scientific direction. When it was discovered that to lose +in death one baby out of every three born, to prematurely age or kill +mothers in a hopeless endeavor to make good that waste, to leave the +majority of the human race the helpless prey of preventable disease, +poverty, feeble-mindedness, vice, and crime, was to show lack of +rational social consciousness and effective social control, then it +speedily became a recognized social duty to provide schools, both +higher and lower in grade, which might do something to lessen +ignorance and increase knowledge in the practical arts of race culture +and of social organization for common human welfare. This conviction +led on one side to the introduction of courses of study in +universities, colleges, normal, high, and even some elementary +schools, which had bearing upon management of sanitation, food supply, +housing, street control, recreation, economic reform, social +engineering in politics, and kindred agencies for social betterment. +It led on the other side to the attempt to make the office of the +philanthropist a vocation, for which definite training and +standardized compensation must be provided. So rapidly have these two +elements of applied social science invaded the vocational field that +to-day, outside of general and special teaching, they draw the +majority of women seeking professional careers into work directly +leading to social and personal betterment. A few women became lawyers, +doctors, ministers, and now aspire to political leadership; but for +the most part women are true to their sex-heritage now that they have +a chance to choose and fit for their work. The nurture of child-life, +the moral safeguarding of youth, the care of the aged, the weak, the +wayward, and the undeveloped--these, which have been their special +tasks since society began to be rational and humane, are still their +main business in the more complex situations of modern life. + +=Departments of Household Economics in Colleges.=--When the +departments of household economics were added to college courses they +were hailed on one side as a needed attempt to "make the higher +education fit women for wifehood and motherhood;" and on the other +side they were opposed as a base concession to conservative views of +woman's position, and as leading toward a lowering of standards in +women's higher education. They were, and are, neither of these. The +college courses in subjects related to the scientific improvement of +human beings and their environment are courses leading toward new +vocational specialties, which the newly outlined science of +race-culture demands. Women who excel in these specialties do so as +paid functionaries and are oftener unmarried than married. Nor are +these studies limited to feminine students, although far more women +than men choose them. The interrelation of the present social order by +which a milk or a water supply has to do with "big business" and with +law, and "a garbage can is a metal utensil entirely surrounded by +politics," requires some knowledge of these things on the part of men; +especially if they are to be "heckled" in political campaigns by women +voters. There are, to be sure, now outlined school training +"departments of homemaking" intended to help individual women in their +work in private homes, but such departments are generally of the +nature of "extension courses." Regular college courses, especially +those of four years and leading to a special degree, in household +economics, as in other groups of studies, lead directly toward a +vocational career, standardized and salaried, related to general +social organization, and subject to the "factory" tendencies of the +modern industrial order. Students in such courses, generally speaking, +graduate either to teach household arts in schools and extension work, +or to take positions as expert dietitians, managers of hospitals and +other public institutions, directors of laundries and restaurants, as +trained nurses, assistants or directors in chemical laboratories, +architects, interior decorators, landscape gardeners, and what not. +All these specialties are essential to social progress, and all are +linked to family life in general, but none of them is particularly +related to any one family group of one father, one mother, and their +children. They, therefore, while tending to make family life in +general far more successful than of old, fit no woman surely for +wifehood and motherhood; and they cannot do so unless omniscient +social wisdom can tell in advance what girls will marry and have +children and social control becomes despotic enough to oblige such +girls to take these courses in preference to any others; or unless +society returns to its old drastic compulsion for all to marry and +bear active part in the race-life as parents. + +=Society Now Based upon Man's Economic Leadership.=--Any study of the +needs of the family in relation to the school, especially in relation +to the tax-supported, free, and compulsory educational system, must +take account of two outstanding facts: namely, first, that the whole +arrangement of society as we have inherited its condition is based +upon the economic leadership of the husband and father in the home +partnership. This continues to be the rule even in social strata +where the sense of justice gives both parties a common purse and where +finest quality of affection and of comradeship makes it a negligible +matter which one makes the larger contribution to the united treasury. + +=Women Socially Drafted for Motherhood.=--The second fact which must +have its recognition in any study of education in relation to the +family, is that no married woman is exempt from all demands of +motherhood unless some "selective draft," more delicate in its +evaluation than any we have yet evolved, shall indicate her right to +exemption, and that if marriage is to continue on anything like its +present basis commonplace women cannot have all its advantages without +paying some adequate price. + +=Father-office and Mother-office Still Differ.=--We are now in the +midst of a social order in which the father-office and the +mother-office do differ essentially in their requirements in the vast +majority of families. The father-office leads directly toward +specialization and achievement in some one calling. To be a good +father is, in ordinary family conditions, not so much to give constant +personal attention to his children as to do something well which the +world wants done and will pay for and by which he may maintain and +improve the economic and social standing of his family. To "give +hostages to fortune in wife and child" may, indeed often does, hamper +a man's idealistic relation to his vocation and oblige him to work for +money when he wants to work for fame or for higher usefulness, but it +serves almost always to keep him steady to his job. For the average +mother this is not the case. Where there is a family of children more +than large enough to make good the parent's share in life's ongoing +stream, or where physical, mental, or moral peculiarities demand +special attention to one child or more, or where aged, delicate, or +incompetent members of the family circle call for special +consideration, or where the environment does not provide, or the +income cannot pay for elaborate aids to domestic comfort from without, +the average conscientious housemother must give the best of strength +and the most of time in the service of the private family for many +years of life. That is to say, getting a group of children up to adult +independence and saving the community most of the intimate duties of +care of the aged and of the weak, while it calls upon the man-head of +the family for greater activity in his special line, calls upon the +woman-head of the family for a general and personal service as a +primary duty. This puts any vocational specialty she has chosen in a +secondary place while the family obligation is most pressing. The +result of this obvious fact is that the average woman does still have +a double choice to make when marriage offers; a choice for or against +the man, and a choice for or against her vocation. In proportion as +women are highly educated or industrially trained they have been +pressed toward some one calling for which they can be definitely +prepared and in which they may hope to rise in personal achievement +and in financial compensation. On the other hand, marriage and +motherhood appeal to the deepest instincts of human nature; and if the +man seems worth it a woman will generally risk vocational impediment +and awkwardness of economic adjustment for the sake of a congenial +mate and children of her own. + +=Should the Education of Girls Include Special Attention to Family +Claims?=--These facts indicate that social prudence must at least ask +the question, Should not the education of girls include some distinct +recognition of special problems to be met, often in acute experience +of contrary currents of personal desire and social pressure, in the +lives of young women? As has been shown in other connection what we +are witnessing now in domestic life is the passing of the servant +caste, of the ordinary "hired girl" and of the unpaid family drudge; +not the eclipse of the housemother or the waning of the homemaker's +power or charm. In this household change and in the demand that goes +with it upon any woman who would have or make a home, and with clear +understanding of the new responsibilities which the new freedom of +women place upon them, certain fundamental principles should be held +firmly in mind as we deal with special problems of adjustment created +by new social situations. First of all, let us admit, and never cease +to emphasize the fact, that the social education of women demands from +now on the most scrupulous regard for the training of every normal +girl for self-support. This cannot be too much emphasized. This is the +only sure foundation for socially helpful sex-relationship and for +that democratization of the family without which social progress is +now impossible. The social education of women in general demands, +also, the cultivation of domestic tastes and of some measure of +household technic, not as a concession to the past, but as a safeguard +of the future, in such fashion that the call to personal service of +the family life may recall familiar and pleasant educational +activities. These educational activities should precede those which +tend directly toward vocational preparation for self-support. This +point, too, is vital. The age when almost all little girls like to do +things which concern the family comfort is from the eighth to the +fourteenth year, a period too young for proper vocational drill. Then, +when they are most likely to be ordered out of the kitchen if there is +a paid cook to give the order, and most likely to be thought "in the +way" if trying to help in domestic process of any sort, is the period +of all others when to "learn by doing" what they are interested in +will give them a background capable of easy adjustment to the later +demands of family life. The training of boys of the same ages has an +analogue in farming and handy use of common tools; and in the "work, +play, and study school" boys and girls learn much together which fit +both for mutual aid in the private family. The new education of the +grade schools, therefore, is coming to the rescue of the housemother's +task, as the high school and college have come to the aid of those who +would provide vocational careers for women. They may meet in helpful +alliance just as soon as a few social principles, which can make a +bridge between them, are outlined and accepted. + +=Adjustment of Family Service and Vocational Work.=--First, most women +should allow for marriage and maternity first place for the years +socially required. Second, women cannot afford to lose entirely out of +their married lives vocational discipline, by the use of leisure time +left them by new easing of household service, even in odd jobs of +unpaid "social work," as is now so much the custom. The very +multiplicity and variety of ancient crafts practised in the home make +some one activity, held to rules of specialization, essential to the +housemother's development. The chosen vocation retained as an +avocation, during the housemother's active service, must not, however, +be a chief dependence for either her own or the family support lest +the family or herself suffer. It must be in the nature of a leasehold +upon her chosen career to be retaken for full occupancy as soon as the +children are out of hand and she has begun to feel the call of empty +hours to the old familiar task. This is not an impractical plan, as +many women are proving by experience. And as has been previously +demonstrated, society in the past has wasted the work-power of women +past the childbearing age in more ruthless and stupid prodigality than +any other of its treasures. Third, as has been before indicated, +married women with young children must learn to combine in "team +work," as they have never yet done, and to make engagements by two's +or three's for the work one unmarried woman may take alone. This is +especially called for in the great social task of teaching, "woman's +organic office in the world," as Emerson called it. The evils charged +against a "feminized school," where they really exist, are those due +not so much to the sex of the grade-teachers as to the celibate +condition in the "permanent supply" and to the too rapidly changing +personnel of those who marry. The same suggested team work would +operate well in all the higher professions; and the success of +"continuation schools" proves that half-time and third-time labor +schedules are perfectly feasible in manual work. The fourth social +principle to be accepted in the interest of women and the family is +one little perceived at the present time: namely, that which marks the +limitations of social usefulness in the specialization of labor +itself. + +=Dangers of Specialization in Professional Work.=--We are beginning to +see that this process may be carried so far that a shallow and a cheap +person may so fill the exacting and narrow routine of a specialty of +manual work or professional service as to check ambition and power to +achieve a full and rich personality. Last of all, the social +principle, by which the claims of personality and the demands of +social solidarity (now so entangled in friction) may work smoothly to +individual and social well-being, the principle yet to be clearly +outlined and helpfully applied, should receive interpretation and +guidance through the race-experience of women. For that service the +social education of women must be lifted to a far higher plane of +intellectual and ethical culture. Deeper than all the problems which +the booming of the guns of this world war has forced upon the dullest +social consciousness is the question, How may the individual +conscience and personal ideal of the spiritual elite be harmonized +with, not destroyed by, the levelling process of democracy? Saints +and sages have always marked out the pathway of the future. How can +they still dower a common life pressed insistently toward uniformity +of action? May it not be that human beings of the mother-sex who have +paid and still must pay a price, one by one, for each single life, and +who have at the same time always been held and still must be held as +supreme upbuilders of the social fabric, shall lead the race toward +the solution of this most spiritual problem of democracy? It is not, +however, solely to make women better fitted for a dual role in social +order and social progress that we are socializing education: men also +must be better fitted to the tasks of social serviceableness within as +truly as without the family. No one has doubted the claim of society +upon man to be a useful worker and a competent manager of affairs in +the world. Until lately, however, few have seen that, as the +"Declaration of Eights and Duties" set forth in 1795 by those who +willed the freedom of France, "No one is a good citizen if he is not a +good son, a good father, a good brother, a good friend, a good +husband." It has been enough for a man to be able to achieve something +of value; his personal character has not been, held of such great +moment throughout the ages of the past. + +Now we are beginning to demand that men be good in the sense they have +long demanded that women shall be, and that women shall be strong in +what they do as well as in what they are. This new demand strikes at +the roots of what has been called the "social evil," but which is the +most unsocial of all the pathological conditions of modern society. + +=The New Training in Sex-education.=--The need to have the right sort +of fathers as well as fit mothers requires a new training in lines of +sex-education. One of the most perplexing of all educational problems +is how to give the needed training in this line in the best and most +effective way. In the admirable volume on _Sex-Education_ written by +Professor Maurice A. Bigelow, of Teachers College, Columbia +University, a list of eight reasons for sex-instruction is given which +are here quoted by permission: + + 1. Many people, especially in youth, need hygienic knowledge + concerning sexual processes as they affect personal health. + + 2. There is an alarming amount of the dangerous social diseases + which are distributed chiefly by the sexual promiscuity or + immorality of men. + + 3. The uncontrolled sexual passions of men have led to enormous + development of organized and commercialized prostitution. + + 4. There are living to-day tens of thousands of unmarried mothers + and illegitimate children, the result of the common + irresponsibility of men and the ignorance of women. + + 5. There is need of more general following of a definite moral + standard regarding sex-relationships. + + 6. There is a prevailing unwholesome attitude of mind concerning + all sexual processes. + + 7. There is very general misunderstanding of sexual life as + related to healthy and happy marriage. + + 8. There is need of eugenic responsibility for sexual actions that + concern future generations. + +To the propositions thus clearly stated all thoughtful students of +family needs in education will give assent. This is not the place for +specific treatment of prostitution and its effect upon the home, nor +is it the place for a detailed statement of methods of sex-education +and of social hygiene now advocated and beginning to show encouraging +results in use. The simple statement must be made that if, as Spencer +has said, one test of education is its ability to make men good +husbands and fathers, the element of sex-education must not be omitted +from the educative process. How or where the necessary information and +stimulus to truly social conduct may or should be given is matter for +another statement. + +=Heroes Held Up for Admiration.=--One point, usually wholly ignored, +must have some mention here, and that is the effect upon the minds of +children and youth of types of social order that are taken for granted +as proper and right in the setting of heroes and even of heroines +commended to their example. We have taken our heroes from the past. +That is natural. It requires an atmosphere of distance to render clear +in outline the lives of the great and good. It may be that some +prophets are held at just value by those with whom they live; it is +almost never that great prophets are seen at their full stature, by +the common apprehension, in the time of which they are a part. This +makes us offer as stimulant to the ethical imagination, and sometimes +as definite incitements to imitation, men and women whose social +surroundings were quite other than those we are now striving to +secure. How seldom is the teacher able to make the distinctions in +social judgment required for full understanding of the character +without spoiling the personal influence of the hero extolled. This is +particularly true in the use of much Biblical material in Sunday +School and in the unexplained classic references to the great and +good. One wonders what children are thinking about, children who read +in the daily papers long and spectacular accounts of trials for bigamy +or adultery, when the worthies of the Old Testament are spoken of and +their two or several wives taken as a matter of course in the lesson! +One wonders what is the meaning of justness or kindness to the +"servant" conveyed to the child in commandments which link together a +man's ox and his ass, his laborer and his wife! The fact is that +education has a narrow and perilous path to travel in moral lessons of +every sort, a path between a dull and critical analysis of differences +in moral standards and moral practice in the ages from which we have +come and a wholesale commendation of people who would be haled before +our modern courts for disobedience to laws were they to reappear upon +our streets. The need for stimulation of the ethical imagination is so +great, however, that we must dare this perilous path and master its +difficulties. Perhaps no one has been able to do this more effectively +than Mr. Gould, of the Moral Education Committee of England, who has +used the story method with consummate tact in building up from the +lower motive and the more ancient condition a series of pictures of +human greatness, which end always on some summit of personal devotion +in universal conditions to universal laws of right.[18] His method +leaves the pupil in a glow of admiration of excellence without dulling +his perception of realities of every-day life in his own time and +place. + +However difficult, we must try by some method to make youth realize +what is excellent in those who have lived far enough in the past to +inspire reverence and yet keep some connection between those heroes +and sages of the older times and the march of human life upward and +onward. Especially is this the case in all treatment of the family +relation. We need not banish Chaucer's "Griselda" from the collections +of poems worthy to live and to be read, but at least we should insert +some companion pieces which show wifely fidelity in a more modern +form. We may well ask the child's admiration of the craftsman's +passion for achievement in "Palissey the Potter," but there might be +ethical significance in pointing out that nowadays we sometimes +question the right of a man to sacrifice to his art not only himself +but his wife, his children, and all related to him. The fact is that +although we cannot make use of any cumbersome scheme of historic +outlines of social progress nor of any learned history of matrimonial +institutions, we must somehow learn to permeate our teaching of +history and of literature and our exaltation of examples of human +greatness of character with the spirit of those who believe that +humanity is learning, and can know how to manage social affairs better +and better as the years of life-experience go on.[19] + +=Moral Training at the Heart of Education.=--The right and helpful +relation of the school to the family, then, is one that must first of +all place moral character, the power to live a good and useful life in +all social relations, at the centre. And it is one also that takes +account particularly of the development of the family order and of +what we must save and of what we may throw away in that order, if we +would have a stable inner circle of human rights and duties as a +pattern for all relationship in the industrial order and in the state. + +=Drill to Avert Economic Tragedies.=--In view also of the danger of +economic tragedies that affect the family,--dangers of unemployment of +the father by reason of bad times beyond his control, of his +disablement by industrial accident, of his too-early impairment of +strength by reason of industrial misuse of his powers in ways he can +not prevent,--it may be that education for every boy should include, +while he is still under the legal wage-earning age, efficient drill in +the simpler arts of agriculture. He who can get from the land the raw +material for family comfort is alone, it would seem, able to meet all +industrial catastrophes without alarm. In this country, at least, such +a man, whatever his failure or misfortune in professional, in +clerical, or in manual labor, may make good his father-office in basic +essentials of family support. All that has been said about the need of +mixing vocational training with preparation for home-making in the +case of girls may be said with almost as much, force about the need of +giving the average man an economic refuge in case of vocational +disaster in the ability to work the land to meet essential family +need. This is beginning to be understood as never before. The newest +education of all, as has been said, is intent upon providing for girls +and boys alike this training for economic safety in some expert use of +land for self-support as well as for retranslation of older work +interests. In these "schools of tomorrow" the boys as well as the +girls, while still very young, are being trained to cook and to do +necessary things for household comfort. This is not subversive of +inherited divisions of labor in the home. This teaching only adds to +the economic security of both sexes and may make the men of the future +able to exist comfortably without so much personal service from their +womenfolk, and, above all, may make the home a more perfectly +cooeperative centre of our social order. + +=A Graduated Scale of Virtues.=--In the French _Categories_ of "Moral +and Civil Instructions," first outlined in 1882 and perfected and +applied in 1900, the children of the Public Schools of that country +have their attention called first to the duties related to "Home and +Family," going on from that topic to "Companionship, The School, +Social Life, Animal Life, Self-respect, Work, Leisure and Pleasure, +Nature, Art, Citizenship and Nationality," and ending with a study of +the "Past and Future." The latter topic indicates an intent to give in +some fashion the idea of human progress and something of its +outstanding points of interest and value. Other moral codes aim at +some sublimation of history and literature as a finish to courses in +ethical instruction. It is for the student of social progress to +insist that such study of the past, linked to the study of the present +and to some hopeful outline of the future, be not used merely as a +capstone but shall be woven in, as warp and woof of all education, as +it touches every side of life. + +=Types of Education.=--Dr. Lester Ward, in his _Dynamic Sociology_, +lists the various types of education we must cherish and realize in +the common life as follows: + + "The Education of Experience; + The Education of Discipline; + The Education of Culture; + The Education of Research; + The Education of Information." + +To this list, with which most educators would be in agreement, the +believers in the "New Education" might add the Education of +Development of Personality. + +Experience, discipline, culture, research, and information are, +however, the great means by which the personality absorbs the social +inheritance and thus finds its own place in the social whole. The +early initiation by the family to all these means of personal +development is not yet exhausted either in function or in social +usefulness. The family still begins the socializing process. + + +QUESTIONS ON THE FAMILY AND THE SCHOOL + + 1. In child-training, should the general aim be to give as much + as possible of that training in the home or as much as + possible in the school? or what is a wise and efficient + balance between family and society influence in education? + + 2. Given a necessity in character-development for drill in + obedience, stimulus toward self-development, capacity for + self-control and for helpful association with others in the + interest of the commonweal, what part, if any, can the home + play which the school cannot? + + 3. What is the duty of citizens in respect to tax-supported and + compulsory education and how can that duty be effectively done + in city and country life? + + 4. How can educational systems be made to work for the better + cooerdination of family life among the newly arrived immigrants? + + 5. Outline, in general suggestion, an educational program for boys + and for girls which would be likely to directly aid the family + in attaining stability and success among all classes, having + regard to aim, subject-matter, methods of character-development + and form of social provision and control in the school. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] See _Democracy and Education_, by John Dewey: "Because of death of +individuals, life has to perpetuate itself by transmission, by +communication; must be social in character." + +[18] See _The Children's Book of Moral Lessons_, published by Watts and +Co., London. + +[19] See _Principles of Sociology with Educational Applications_, by +Frederick R. Clow, a valuable and suggestive book for the general +reader. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE FATHER AND THE MOTHER STATE + + "I should like to point out by what principles of action we rose + to power and under what institutions and through what manner of + life we became great. We are called a democracy, for the + administration is in the hands of the many, not the few; but while + the law secures equal justice to all, the claim of excellence is + always recognized. When a citizen is in any way distinguished he + is preferred to the public service, not as a matter of privilege + but as a reward of merit. Neither is poverty a bar, but a man may + benefit his country whatever be the obscurity of his position. + + "We are unrestrained in private intercourse, while a spirit of + reverence pervades our public acts. We are prevented from doing + wrong by respect for authority and for the laws, having an + especial regard for those ordained for the protection of the + injured, as well as to those unwritten laws which bring upon the + transgressor the reprobation of general sentiment. + + "We are lovers of the beautiful, though simple in our tastes, and + we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness. An Athenian + citizen does not neglect the state because he takes care of his + own household, and even those engaged in business have a fair idea + of politics. + + "The great impediment to right action is, in our opinion, not + discussion, but the want of that knowledge which may be gained by + discussion. + + "We do good to our neighbors not upon a calculation of interest + but in the confidence of freedom and in a frank and fearless + spirit." + From the oration of Pericles, 450 B.C., + as reported by Thucydides. + + "Statesmen work in the dark until the idea of right towers above + expediency or wealth. The Spirit of Society, not any outward + institution, is the mighty power by which the hard lot of man is + to be ameliorated. + + "Every line of history inspires a confidence that things mend. + This is the moral of all we learn; it warrants Hope, the prolific + mother of all reforms. Our part is plainly not to block + improvement or to sit until we are stone but to watch the uprise + of progressive mornings and to conspire with the new work of new + days."--EMERSON. + + "Nations are the citizens of humanity as individuals are the + citizens of the nation. As any individual should strive to promote + the power and prosperity of his nation through the exercise of his + special function, so should every nation in performing its special + mission perform its part in promoting the prosperity and + progressive advance of humanity."--MAZZINI. + + "Our country hath a gospel of her own + To preach and practise before all the world,-- + The freedom and divinity of man, + The glorious claims of human brotherhood." + --LOWELL. + + +=The Socialization of the Modern State.=--In a previous book before +mentioned[20] and in many special articles published elsewhere, the +idea has been stressed that society is now witnessing a remarkable +coalescence of two ethical movements which are of special significance +in the new political equality of men and women. These two movements +are, first, the call for the application to women of the principles +embodied in our national Bill of Rights; and, second, the introduction +of what is called social welfare work into governmental provisions and +administration. The first marked the reaction of women, belated but +strong, and at last successful in realization of purpose, to the +eighteenth Century demand for the recognition of human rights +regardless of color, sex, or previous condition of servitude. The +second was a reaction of social sympathy and a growing sense of social +responsibility for the better development of the common life. These +two movements so worked together that as women marched toward the +citadel of political power and responsibility, political action became +more and more permeated by forms of social interest in which women +were already alert, and by forms of social activity in which women +were already proficient. This is particularly noticeable in the United +States. For example, in our country we have changed the common point +of view and the general governmental approach to individual and +private life in the following important particulars: + + 1. Health--public and private, in matters of prevention of + disease and in care of the sick and the convalescent. + + 2. Education--in respect to all ages and to all peculiar needs of + special training. + + 3. Philanthropy, or the social care of the dependent, the + poverty-bound, the defective, and the juvenile delinquent. + + 4. Penology, or the laws and their administration which deal with + crime and criminals and with both the victims of and the + panderers to vice. + + 5. Recreation and all manner of publicly provided opportunity for + helpful use of leisure time. + + 6. Conservation of natural resources in the interest of common + wealth. + + 7. Checks upon economic exploitation by the greedy and strong of + the young, the weak, and the ignorant. + + 8. Checks upon those commercialized forms of recreation which tend + to despoil childhood and youth of innocence and refinement. + + 9. Official standardizing of ways of living found to be conducive + to physical, mental, and moral well-being, and social aids + toward vocational training and guidance. + + 10. The union of Federal with State and Local efforts for the + general welfare. + +=The Interest and Work of Women in This Process of Political +Change.=--In every one of these new forms of approach to individual +life by the general public through law, tax-supported opportunity, or +special grant of official aid, women have played a distinct and a +large part. When, therefore, women entered formally into the body +politic of these United States, they entered into a place of power +already familiar to them in many of its activities. Indeed, they had +helped to outline and to make effective many of those activities and +came into a new relation to them only by virtue of a recognized +access of control over their administration. When government was +merely a restraining or a military power over individual life, there +might be to many minds an incongruity in women assuming voter's +privileges and duties. When government became a means for conserving +and nurturing and developing individual life, mothers, at least, could +be easily seen to have proper part in its functions. + +=Health a Social Enterprise.=--To briefly rehearse this list of +political activities is to show marked changes in social ideals. We +have entered upon a crusade against preventable disease and for the +better physical development of all citizens and potential citizens. +This crusade now makes the official Boards of Health, the hospital and +medical service, the nurse's vocation, and the lay volunteer support +of all these, the outstanding features of our community life. +Epidemics used to be considered visitations of an avenging Providence +for the people's sins. So they are in essence and in modern +translation of old ideas, a punishment by Nature for broken laws; +experiences to be ashamed of now that we know how to prevent them. +Deaths of babies, once mysterious dispensations of Infinite power, +have come to mean indictments of community and family for failure to +furnish right conditions for infant life. Deaths of mothers in +childbirth, leaving older children without suitable protection and +care, once thought events to which to be resigned, however sad and +pitiable, are now seen to be preventable calamities for which society +is to blame. Avoidable cripplement and invalidism of workmen, once +considered either their own fault or unexplained misfortune, are now +listed as cause for receipt of sickness and accident benefits under +Workmen's Compensation Laws. Premature old age, due to overwork and +undernourishment, is on its way to be proceeded against as a record of +social neglect. All waste of life's vigor and happiness which is +indicated by lower levels of health and strength in any class or age +than can be secured by the more favored is from now on recorded as +social failure and social fault. Hence, the state and all manner of +private agencies are at work to make physical standards higher and +physical conditions better for all. When we remember that the pioneer +worker in organization of Boards of Public Health and the founder of +the American Public Health Association, Dr. Stephen Smith, has just +passed away after reaching the hundred year mark of life's usefulness, +we can readily see how rapid has been the growth in scientific +attention to health and social agencies for its advance. + +=General and Vocational Training for All.=--In education we have not +accomplished all that the leaders in that field outlined for us two +generations ago, but there is a movement all along the line to make it +possible for every person to have at least a fair start toward +education in the compulsory free school; and for adults, younger or +older, to make up for early deficiencies by constantly increasing +later opportunities of special and of general training in the things +every citizen should know. Allusion to new specialties of varied +educational facilities has before been made. + +No one can doubt that as teachers and helpers to teachers, as members +of educational societies, and as acting on official boards by +appointment, women have been long serving in the ranks and needed the +ballot only to make their function more inclusive and more commanding +in directive power. When we remember that it is only since 1837, when +Horace Mann published the first Report of a State Board of Education +and began his great work for the Common School of his country, that we +have had even a distinct social goal in this great field of endeavor +we cannot be pessimistic about future accomplishment. When that +educational leader declared in response to those who remonstrated with +him for turning aside from the usual and, for him, brilliant +opportunities of the law, "The next generation is to be my client," he +started a new profession, and the present effort in education is but +the widening of that social furrow. When we recall that Mary Lyon, in +opening Mt. Holyoke Seminary for Girls in that same year of 1837, +offered the first opportunity to girls of limited means of what could +be called higher education, we can better realize how rapid has been +the movement to fit women for educational service. We, at least, now +have a clearer aim in education and are at liberty to use fit men and +fit women alike for its realization. The one great contribution of +later times is the determination to share with all the opportunities +once held sacred to a select few. + +=Women's Work in Philanthropy.=--In philanthropy there has been so +great a transformation both in ideal and in method that it amounts to +a change in the centre of gravity. Charity once had for its aim the +easing of unbearable misery, the giving of alms to relieve the +starving, and personal aid of all sorts to those who were not expected +to be lifted out of the category of the poor, those who must be always +helped, but should be helped in a spirit of kindness. Now we have the +command for permanent care for the helpless where they will not +handicap the normal. We have the varied agencies for preventing +delinquency in youth and many a new type of moral rehabilitation for +all who have stepped but a short distance out of the ordered path of +life. We have the ideal of every defective child in permanent +custodial homes, every insane person cared for with humanity and +trained intelligence, every dependent child readjusted to family life +by adoption or trained happily and usefully in residential school, +every aged person protected from want and misery in public or private +homes, every widowed mother helped to take care of her own children, +and every sick person aided by hospital and clinic and visiting nurse +and convalescent home in readjustment to normal activity. Finally, we +have boldly replaced the motto, "Relieve Poverty," by the new slogan, +"Abolish Poverty," and we are impatient with ourselves and with social +arrangements if any considerable number of our fellow-beings are +obliged without fault of theirs to receive material relief. In all +this, what a part has been played by women! Dorothea Dix +revolutionized the care of the insane in the United States. Louisa Lee +Schuyler organized and for fifty years energized and directed the work +of the New York State Charities Aid Association which made over into +humane and intelligent social care-taking the inherited institutions +of a more ignorant and indifferent time. The first woman to serve on +the State Board of Charities in New York, Josephine Shaw Lowell, whose +motherhood in the family and the state knew no bounds and whose +statesmanship comprehended every social relation, is not the last to +so serve. "The lady with the lamp," Florence Nightingale, who +pioneered in trained nursing has had many a follower in this as in +other countries. The annals of all charitable agencies show that at +every step, whether recognized as responsible members of the body +politic or not, women have done the work in large and efficient +measure when the state took over a new job of life-saving and of +life-nourishment. + +In the realm of penology we have moved far from the old private prison +into which the noble could cast his enemy and no one question his +acts. We have moved far from the early prison which was easily +neglected in all sanitary as in all moral conditions, since it was +then only a stopping place, often for a short time only, on the way +from court condemnation to hanging or mutilation, flogging or exile. +When the prison became a place for longer sojourn, and sentence to it +became in itself a legal punishment, humane men and women began to +feel the importance of knowing what went on in the places set aside +for offenders against the law, and Howard and others set the tendency +toward a more humane and reasonable treatment of criminals. We now are +at work finding out who are real criminals and who are accidentally +caught in the meshes of hurtful circumstances, who among the offenders +against the law are mentally responsible, and who are but children of +adult bodily size, and what to do for and with the intentional enemy +of social order. We have not yet learned to apply the ideals we have +gained in wise and effective treatment of the small minority of men, +and far smaller minority of women, who cannot or will not walk the +safe and well-outlined road of the law-abiding, but we have some +concepts that promise to guide us in this particular and the new +Penology is born. Men and women alike are working out details of +direction and shouldering the heavy social work demanded. The thing +that is most conspicuous in Penology is the new attitude of courts of +law, of judges and even of juries. This is an attitude of humane +inquiry into causes of moral breakdown, and humane dealing with +criminals as of right entitled to a fair chance. Surely this is a +fatherly attitude taking the place of old punitive ideas. + +=Culture Aids to the Common Life.=--When we come to the new work of +making the streets safer for the spirit of youth, and the life of all +more protected and happy by recreative measures standardized for +personal uplift, we are distinctly in the area of parental functions +of the modern state. It takes fatherly men and motherly women to run +the public playground, and to make the parks, the museums, the +settlement clubs and classes, and the children's rooms in public +libraries what we now will that they shall be,--the centres of eager +interest and the nursery of character development. The mention of the +free public library suggests what is probably the most potent of all +the higher social influences in our American life. In the large city +and in the small town alike, and even in remote rural districts served +by the Loan Libraries, the opportunity to find what will feed the mind +and lead toward the delight of the printed page is one that has meant +more to more people who were aspiring and able to become leaders in +any sphere of life than has any other opportunity; perhaps than even +the public school after the main essentials of early grade teaching +have been gained. + +To sit in a public library and watch the eager interest of each +newcomer, to see the patience, the understanding, the sympathetic +attitude and the earnest effort to be of utmost service which the +librarian almost invariably shows, and to see the absorbed attention +of the readers in what they have been assisted in selecting, is to +bless the generosity and public spirit of every one who has made the +public library so common a blessing. Not all books are equally +helpful, not all give equal pleasure, it is true, but when one gets a +book with a message in it for him, what a joy! + +One often thinks of the lovely song of Emily Dickinson when sitting +thus in a public library: + + "He ate and drank the precious words, + His spirit grew robust; + He knew no more that he was poor + Or that his frame was dust. + He danced along the dingy ways + And this bequest of wings + Was but a book. What liberty + A loosened spirit brings!" + +=Many Languages in One Country.=--In this connection must be noted the +effort of many to limit this "bequest" to the language of the country. +In another connection we have noted the difficulty that inheres in +having many differing tongues in one community, the difficulty of +reaching a common ideal and method of living when language is a barrier +and not an aid to companionship. This barrier of language to the +foreign-born is often cited as a reason why the immigrant is +handicapped. It is also a reason why social efforts and religious +influences often fail of success and why so many native-born Americans +fail to understand the newer Americans. If, as many prophesy, the +English language becomes the standard tongue for business and diplomacy +and literature, all the best products of every nation being made +available by translation, at least, for those speaking English, it can +become that ruling tongue only by slow degrees. Meanwhile, the chasm +between citizens of a common country made by differing languages may be +bridged by far greater effort on the part of older Americans gifted in +the use of foreign tongues. We see women by the hundreds flocking to +Europe and the East to "get local color" and perfect themselves in +foreign languages, who might find at their own doors, among those +illiterate in English, but with a wealth of knowledge of their own +native literature and speech, men and women who would be able, if +rightly approached, to exchange national values both in literature and +history to mutual advantage. The need of adult education on the part of +the foreign-born is not always a need to be met by condescending from +above to those of low intellectual estate. It is often a mere +requirement to master another form of speech by those, already +linguists, or at least in possession of a broader use of language than +is the average citizen of the United States. The ways of social helping +in this line are many and of the highest political importance. The +variety of languages spoken in the United States, however, is not so +serious an obstacle to the intercommunication of our population for +political information and in organization for common ends of the public +good as is the shameful condition of illiteracy among the electorate. +The foreign-language publications in the United States numbered, in +1914, 1404, of which 160 were dailies, with total circulation per issue +of 2,598,827, and 868 weeklies with a total circulation per issue of +4,239,426, and other publications to the number of 376 with a total +circulation per issue of 3,609,735. These foreign-language journals are +not all or many of them devoted to "stirring up strife" and do not +prevent absorption of the foreign-born in the body politic. They are, +on the contrary, necessary means of making those who speak foreign +tongues acquainted with facts and conditions which newcomers need to +know and understand. During the Great War our government used these +foreign-language publications to spread broadcast appeals for +financial and personal support. The excellent "Foreign Language +Information Service," still existing and having Federal backing, has in +hand the introduction into the principal foreign-language publications +of information and appeal calculated to make good American citizens. +The demand that has been made in moments of excitement for the +abolition of the foreign-language press is therefore as stupid as it is +unfriendly. Only by the use of his native tongue can a man who does not +yet understand English be made to feel and act as a genuine part of the +citizenship of his adopted country. It is for those who cherish real +Americanism to try to get into these publications, which are the +strategic point of contact between older and newer Americans, all that +is deemed vital to the welfare of our common country. Through a wise +use of this material in every free public library and in the multiplied +Loan Libraries in remote districts, the newcomers in our country who +read intelligently their own language and are eager to learn, may gain +all that a good citizen needs to know. And if in parallel columns the +English with the foreign language should be used to convey the same +thought, the progress will be doubly fast in true Americanization. + +=Personal Conservation.=--In the conservation of natural resources for +the benefit of all the people we have been slow to understand either +our social danger, or our social opportunity, but our Federal +Government is setting us notable lessons and local communities are +trying to learn and follow them, and Women's Clubs all over the +country are staying up the hands of officials and trying to help save +the people's inheritance for the people's wealth; surely a fatherly +and a motherly office if any state function can be. When we enter the +area of protection of the young and weak and ignorant against the +exploitation of vice and greed and selfishness, we are in the very +centre of that parental care which the modern state now seeks to give +to its citizens. When the Great War turned into training camps the +flower of our youth, these agencies for moral protection and social +watch-care which had been so largely developed as volunteer and +private social work, became the resource of a government bent on +keeping men "fit to fight," and on preserving young women in the +vicinity of the camps both from giving and receiving harmful +influences. Since then, more than ever, such agencies for moral +protection have become official in civic life and have the endorsement +and the aid of government. It is one new feature of all modern +protective work that women are employed as members of the police, as +matrons in public places supported by tax, and indeed in places of +commercial recreation, as judges of special courts where parole and +methods of suspended sentence are used, and in all places where boys +and girls are exposed to danger and to temptation. Thus the home +influence is spreading out toward the work-place and the +play-centre--truly a retranslation of family service in terms of the +public life. + +=The Children's Bureau.=--Our government at Washington used to be +limited in its function to those political services which no state +organization could accomplish by itself, but now the Federal +departments are busily at work setting standards, if only through +authentic information and suggestion, which aim to raise the average +life in all directions, economic and social. The Children's Bureau is +preeminently a standardizing body, although with no power to issue or +enforce decrees. The Bureaus which have to do with foods and animal +life and farm management are setting higher and higher levels of +attainment for the common people in their home life and in their +vocational work. There is a strong movement to enlarge the educational +influence at the very heart of our national government with a Cabinet +Head to set a high standard of attainment in both the art, the +science, and the administration of education as well as to aid in +equalizing educational opportunity. Moreover, there is a strong +tendency, seen most recently and vividly in the provisions of the +Maternity Aid Bill, for all social efforts to ask and to be granted +Federal financial aid on the fifty-fifty plan. There is not a +consensus of opinion among the thoughtful as to the wisdom of thus +placing upon the general government the burden of social schemes upon +which a minority of the people, be that minority large or small, are +alone agreed. The force of persuasion may secure national legislation +in advance of that which many local communities already have or are +seeking to secure. The increase of national power through the work of +national officials is not deemed politically sound by some persons who +favor specific action by the states alone in such matters as maternity +aid. The tendency is, however, a proof of two things, one that we are +as a people becoming a nation; that is more a centralized and united +governmental force--and the other that more and more people are trying +in every way to secure a more uniform as well as a higher standard of +living for all our citizens. + +=A Women's Lobby at the National Capitol.=--It is said that the most +powerful lobby in Washington is "the Public Welfare Lobby backed by +seven million organized American women." This lobby is composed of +representatives of the following organizations of women with number of +members estimated as indicated: + + National League of Women Voters 2,000,000 + General Federation of Women's Clubs 2,000,000 + Women's Christian Temperance Union 500,000 + National Congress of Mothers and + Parent-Teacher Associations 310,000 + National Women's Trade Union League 600,000 + Daughters of the American Revolution 200,000 + American Home Economics Association 1,800 + National Consumers' League (No number given) + American Association of University Women 16,000 + National Council of Jewish Women 50,000 + Girls' Friendly Society 52,000 + Young Women's Christian Association 560,000 + National Federation of Business and + Professional Women 40,000 + Women's League for Peace and Freedom 2,500 + +This represents a formidable influence upon public affairs, one that +may do some harm along with much good, unless it goes to school to +social facts and balances its social sympathy (already shown in such +alert attention to the needs of the weaker and younger portion of the +nation) with sober and sane understanding of the difficulty of getting +progress in any line unless a majority of the people are unitedly in +favor of it and willing to sacrifice something in order to secure it. + +There are signs already that among the leaders of women in the new +organization of Women Voters there is a feeling that the pendulum may +swing too far toward philanthropic measures, for some of which the +general public is as yet unprepared. The call is already made for +more concentration upon the better enforcement of existing laws, +rather than upon constant demand for new legislation in the interest +of social welfare. + +=Women's Interest in Public Life a Social Asset.=--The fact, however, +that so many women are actively engaged not only in watching +legislation and in learning the character and ability of political +leaders in the national Congress, but also in trying to raise the +average life of the people of the country by and through better laws +and more efficient enforcement, is cause for great encouragement. It +shows that women came into their kingdom of political power just as +the state was ready to take on the functions no longer fully expressed +within the family circle. If we must be shocked by learning that a +baby a day is being given away in New York City through advertisements +in the daily papers, and with a haste and carelessness that proves +lack of responsibility in parents and guardians, we may be relieved of +fear that love of children is dying out when we see what are the +things that millions of women are now banded together to secure for +the betterment of all child-life. Largely owing to such efforts, fewer +babies die during the first year of life now in any listed one hundred +thousand, than ever before in our American history. If we find that +many people are living without the comforts they need and in +conditions inimical to health and morality, we can at least take +comfort in the fact that fewer go to the "poorhouse" than used to be +found there when all sorts of dependents were sent to that one +institution. With the state's new discrimination and graded assorting +of young and old and sick and well and sane and insane and normal and +subnormal, the state care is on lines at once more humane to the +individual and more helpful to social organization. + +The state is indeed turning father and mother in its newer agencies +for social conservation and social aid to the distressed and +miserable. And as the state thus does the work that once was attempted +and poorly done by the collective family, it must more and more call +to its service the men and women of parental quality and of fit and +devoted expression of the protective and the nurturing elements of +human nature. + +=Social Service in Peace.=--The state has always called for +sacrificial service from its members. It has called most of all for +such sacrificial service when danger seemed to threaten the national +existence, or enemies of the government lifted treasonable intent +against the peace and order to which the majority of citizens were +devoted. Now we are called upon, if only we can realize the new claims +upon the higher patriotism, to make the country we love what all +countries should be, a home of freedom, of mutual helpfulness, of +economic well-being and of incorrupt and progressive political order. +It has been said and truly, "The ideas of great men are apprehended +slowly, and a free and rational society must in part exist before the +dream of such a society can be interpreted." We have a dream of a +free, a noble, a competent, a happy people in our America. We must be +careful at every point lest by carelessness of political forms or lack +of understanding of what those forms should be, we hinder the +development of that free and rational society in which the noblest +thoughts and highest ideals of the best and finest of our leaders can +alone find root and grow. + +=Problems Voters Must Solve.=--Three special problems are before the +voters of our country, problems commanding in importance and not easy +of solution. They are, first, the problem which inheres in our union +of States, with their wide divergence of climate, soil, industries, +population, standards of action and ideals of national and local +action. The problem is this: what shall we decide is the measure of +wise and useful division between the laws and conditions we shall make +national in extent of social control and in practical functioning of +political administration, and those of smaller autonomous units? What +shall belong to the Federal Government and make field for its +activity? What shall belong to the various States and make up their +separate systems of law and administration? And what shall be left to +each locality, or each county of each State, for its own political +activity? These are not easy questions to answer, and the constant +movement toward centralization of power, not only of standardization +but of control in the National Government (a movement which received +such an immense impetus during the war), is likely to make this a +movable problem of differing answers as our nation grows older. The +division of States may give a geographical symbol of deep inherent +differences of background of culture and even of race, or that +division may mean only a superficial mark of geographic outline +between two sets of communities alike in all their inheritance and +tendency. In any case, how much weight shall still be attached to +"States Rights," and how much shall we press for a uniform life +throughout all the land? What shall be the special duties of each +local community toward its common needs of education, of recreation, +of moral protection, and social order? How much in any given place +shall the tendency of neighbors to be unwilling to testify against +each other when wrong-doing is practised, and unable to withstand any +evil influence when near the centre of its working, lead us to unite +in demanding a larger unit for the Juvenile Court or the enforcement +of laws against commercialized vice or any other social concern where +justice demands a free hand and no favor to any group? These are +questions with which some of our volunteer agencies of social work +have wrestled. The answers that wise and good people have made to them +should have weight in any decision we may make as to the right and +effective divisions of law and its enforcement in our American system. +This problem of division of authority has within it a puzzling +counter-interpretation of our original Constitution and of our history +up to date. The doctrine of "States Rights," it is said, received its +death blow in the Civil War, but the equal political and civil rights +of the negro, which that war was supposed to establish as a national +concern, vary with the varying attitudes of people of the different +states toward the enforcement of the Constitutional Amendments which +were intended to secure those rights. The Southern States, it is said, +still stand for the dignity and autonomy of each Commonwealth in +matters of restriction upon labor and of provision for tax-supported +education, but the inner stronghold of the Federal Prohibition +Amendment is the section of the country south of Mason and Dixon's +line. The new States, again it is said, are more tenacious of national +centralization of government because more evidently drawing their +powers from the federal centre, but in the valley of the Mississippi +from north to south,--that section which promises to have the +determination of the course of American history in its hands for the +next hundred years,--there are signs that the state autonomy and the +state jealousy of invasion of local authority in the interest of +national conformity to federal law are not by any means unknown. +There should be some more carefully outlined and more commonly +understood principles of judgment to lead us to decisions, when a +thing we believe it good to do or a law we desire to set in place and +in operation call upon us for support, as to the best way of using +that support. Whether to try for a federal amendment or a national +statute, whether to work wholly within each State, or whether it is +matter which so depends upon local sentiment and local cooeperation +that each smallest community centre must work out its own salvation, +or secure its own advance in independent work,--this is the problem. + +=Comparison Between National and Local Effort.=--One reason why some +elements of social progress lag behind others which are not more +firmly believed in is that confusion of effort has followed the +contrary forms of attack upon the national, the state, or the local +governments for the furtherance of the object in which all parties +believe. Instances are not needed in this connection for every person +who has worked or who desires to work for social betterment finds this +question at the gateway of organized effort. Shall one turn to the +centralizing tendency in political life of our country for support of +a given measure, or shall one make a breakwater in that tendency and +concentrate attention upon the smaller political units? + +=Preferential Voting.=--The second problem of political science and +art which presses upon the attention of our electorate is one which is +bound up in methods of selection and election of our legislators and +executives. The ever-recurring question of, "For whom shall we +vote?"--rests back upon the deeper question, "For whom shall we have a +chance to vote?" The primary was supposed to end the acknowledged +corruption and inadequacy of the caucus system. The primary is an +advance on the secret caucus with its choice of men for the highest +office by a few partisan politicians only, whose business it is to +keep party lines strong and to make them carry their candidate into +office. The primary, however, we see, is a very expensive method and +open to many dangers, and progressive students of political methods +are not satisfied with it. Why can we not move, and strongly, for +preferential voting? For some plan by which it shall be the public +purse only which secures the necessary printing and circularizing for +required information, and no personal differences in wealth shall have +any weight in the listing of names on the ballot? To have a law by +which any legally named number of voters (a sufficient number to keep +out lonely cranks, but not a sufficient number to suppress +considerable minorities) should indicate by petition desire for a +chance to vote for a specific representative of their political +ideals? The legal requirement that such persons so named should have a +place on the official ballot and that all voting citizens should be +able to indicate their graded preference for all candidates thus +officially listed, would give the people of a democracy a chance to +really choose the kind of legislators they want and the kind of +executives they think they need. In the present situation the +independent mind and conscientious purpose often has a choice only +between "necessary evils" or the refuge of the political "woods." + +=Proportional Representation.=--The adoption of some form of +preferential voting can alone give the voters a chance for +proportional representation of their ideals and aims in legislative +bodies. We are seeing that the limits of useful partisanship in +politics are narrower than was once thought. No sane and sensible +person really believes that all of goodness and of wisdom is contained +in his party and that its success is a valid reason for "turning out +the rascals" of the other party. No sane and sensible person believes +that there is such a thing as "Democratic" economy, or "Republican" +justice, or "Socialistic" efficiency, or "Labor Party" good +government. There are only economy, efficiency, justice, and good +government. Each party may have a different ideal of the best method +of attaining these political necessities, and, therefore, since truth +is not gained by dogmatic assumptions of any one set of persons but by +approach to problems of mind and character from different angles of +experience and of study, each party should have its representatives in +the legislative bodies of nation, state, and community. And every new +idea of political reform and social progress that by dint of hard work +among the intellectual and moral elite has gained a substantial +following in public opinion of even a relatively small minority, has, +in justice, and in demand for constant advance in human affairs, a +right to a place in the high debate of political leadership. It is, +therefore, for those who believe in the worth and use of freedom and +of mutual tolerance and respect, in political discussion and action, +to work for some method of selection of political representatives of +the people which will make our legislative bodies more truly official +sections of the thought and moral ideal of the whole life of the body +politic. This is, perhaps, the greatest of the political calls for +increased wisdom and practical sense in our country. + +The third problem which presses for attention, study and possible +solution upon the voters of the United States, and one in which the +new voters, the women, are peculiarly concerned and in a position of +past experience and of present activity to add much weight and value +to the debate it occasions, is this: + +=What Shall Public and What Shall Private Social Service +Attempt?=--How far and by what ways shall the varied philanthropic and +educational activities which are named in mass "social work," and +which have been developed and are now so largely operated by private +and volunteer agencies and organizations, be made a part of the +official service of the father and the mother state? In this social +work, so far, the few have set a pattern of aid to individuals, which +public agencies have tended to take over without much serious study of +whether in any particular case the transfer was necessary or wise. +This change has often been made, also, without determining whether or +not further supervisory work by the private citizen was needed to keep +the social enterprise true to its original and tested principles of +action. The time has come when in all such changes from private and +volunteer work of a few to the demand for support and the dependence +upon guidance of the many, through public officials, we should have +some clear guiding principle. What that principle may be it is not the +purpose here to discuss, but the state that is now doing so much that +only families were formerly expected to do, and is attempting to do so +much that only trained and devoted service of experts chosen by +acknowledged leaders in social service has previously tried to +accomplish, must be tutored and must be supervised by a more +intelligent electorate if it is to do its more ambitious tasks well. +No private agency should allow its finest fruits of longest study and +effort to be absorbed by official provision and control, unless it can +gain assurance that those fruits will be secure in the transfer. + +This all indicates that women voters who have, happily, no past +bondage to partisanship to overcome, who entered upon their political +power with no pledges to any one party to hamper their free action, +and who, being indebted to progressive party leaders in every one of +the political divisions, have friends in every one, may and should do +much to help progressive and independent men voters to solve the +deeper problems of our political situation with clarity of judgment +and true patriotic devotion.[21] + +=Difficulty in Being a Good American Citizen.=--We have the most mixed +of populations. We have the greatest variety of inherited national and +racial backgrounds in the electorate. We have the widest stretches of +country, and therefore the most difficult adjustments to any +centralized system of government. We have the most mobile common life, +our people moving from State to State, and from one sectional interest +to another with bewildering frequency. We have as yet no universal +schooling even in the rudiments of reading and writing of the English +language to serve as common basis for common knowledge. We have a lack +of ethical unity in many basic problems of the family, the industrial +order, the type of tax-supported schooling, and the ideals of +patriotism. These conditions seem to make it more difficult to become +a first-class American citizen than to achieve political competency in +any other government on earth. Even with the confusion in countries +abroad, even in the European tangles of feuds and suspicions and the +horrible weight of starvation and physical weakness of the Old World, +we may yet, if serious in our judgment of American life, soberly +acknowledge the greatest difficulties of all political adjustment +which lie within our own political life. Such acknowledgment is not to +any true American of the older stock and the more noble patriotism a +confession of discouragement or an apology for social failures in our +common life. It is rather, for all nobler and wiser citizens, a +stimulant to constant vigilance in defence of inherited liberties and +a call to deeper consecration and more devoted service in our +political relationship. Finally, the father and the mother state does +not try or want to live to itself alone. We have learned that +selfishness in the private family leads to social ills and weakness +which society in general, which surrounds all private families, must +correct and amend. Are we not learning in the awful light of the +recent world conflagration that selfishness in nations leads to social +ills and weakness which can be corrected only by world organization +for world well-being? + +=Our Country a Member of the Family of Nations.=--That America we love +and would serve with a higher patriotism and a wiser political method +is a part of the great family of nations, and if it has learned any +lessons of fatherly and motherly function of state care and +development of the individual life, it has learned those lessons not +for isolated national culture, but as a part of the universal +schooling in the gospel of human brotherhood. + +Rightly to understand and rightly to apply that teaching of +race-experience in all the complicated life of international +relationship is more truly to serve the best interests of every +smallest community within our own nation. As Immanuel Kant declared so +long ago, "The constantly progressive operation of the good principle +works toward erecting in the human race, as a community under moral +laws, a kingdom which shall maintain the victory over evil and secure +under its domination an eternal peace." + +It has been urged that patriotism is the piety of the school, and +brotherhood is the gospel of the church, and justice is the righteous +law of industry, and mutual reverence and mutual affection are the +heart of the family life. If this be true, then patriotism itself is +the working-out in ever-widening circles of that ideal of cooeperation +for the common good, which shall at last make every Father and Mother +State a worthy member of the Family of Nations. + +=Vows of Civic Consecration.=--The Athenian youth took a solemn pledge +when he arrived at the age when his relation to the City became +consciously one of loyal service. This vow may be translated as +follows: "We will never bring disgrace to this our City by any act of +dishonesty or cowardice nor ever desert our comrades. We will fight +for the ideals and sacred things of the City both alone and with many. +We will revere and obey the City laws and do our best to incite a like +respect and reverence in others. We will strive unceasingly to quicken +in all the sense of civic duty, that thus in all ways we may transmit +this City, greater, better and more beautiful to all who shall come +after us." Should not some such solemn act of consecration mark the +advent of each youth into the actual citizenship of his town and his +country? A modern writer, Thomas L. Hinckley, has summed up a +"Municipal Creed" as the utterance of the "Spirit of the Modern City," +as follows: + + "I believe in myself--in my mission as defender of the liberties + of the people and guardian of the light of civic idealism. + + I believe in my people--in the sincerity of their hearts and the + sanity of their minds--in their ability to rule themselves and to + meet civic emergencies--in their ultimate triumph over the forces + of injustice, oppression, exploitation and iniquity. + + I believe that good food, pure water, clean milk, abundant light + and fresh air, cheap transportation, equitable rents, decent + living conditions and protection from fire, from thieves and + cut-throats and from unscrupulous exploiters of human life and + happiness, are the birth-right of every citizen within my gates; + and that insofar as I fail to provide these things, even to the + least of my people, in just this degree is my fair name tarnished + and my mission unfulfilled. + + I believe in planning for the future, for the centuries which are + to come and for the many thousands of men, women and children who + will reside within my gates and who will suffer in body, in mind + and in worldly goods unless proper provision is made for their + coming. + + I believe in good government and in the ability of every city to + get good government; and I believe that among the greatest + hindrances to good government are obsolete laws--which create + injustice; out-grown customs--which are unsocial; and antiquated + methods--which increase the cost of government and destroy its + efficiency. + + I believe that graft, favoritism, waste or inefficiency in the + conduct of my affairs is a crime against my fair name; and I + demand of my people that they wage unceasing war against these + municipal diseases, wherever they are found and whomsoever they + happen to touch. + + I believe that those of my people who, by virtue of their + strength, cleverness or thrift, or by virtue of other + circumstances, are enabled to lead cleaner lives, perform more + agreeable work or think more beautiful thoughts than those less + fortunate, should make recompense to me, in public service, for + the advantages which I make it possible for them to enjoy. + + I believe that my people should educate their children in the + belief that the service of their city is an honorable calling and + a civic duty, and that it offers just as many opportunities for + the display of skill, the exercise of judgment or the development + of initiative as do the counting houses and markets of the + commercial world. + + Finally, I believe in the Modern City as a place to live in, to + work in, and to dream dreams in--as a giant workshop where is + being fabricated the stuff of which the nation is made--as a + glorious enterprise upon whose achievements rests, in large + measure, the future of the race."[22] + +We may think that these utterances stress too much the city life and +fail to visualize the wide stretches of rural communities and the +small towns where a few people only make the atmosphere and administer +the laws. The spirit, however, must be the same, whether one dwells +with the crowd or on some lonely farm. The spirit of that genuine +patriotism which is not satisfied to have one's country less noble and +less unselfish than its own ideal of what a country should be. + +=The Children's Code of Morals.=--It is in the spirit of such a +patriotism that _The Children's Code of Morals_ has been prepared by +William J. Hutchins, and is sent broadcast by the "National Institute +for Moral Instruction," In this code, boys and girls are enjoined and +pledge themselves to be good Americans by obeying the following laws: +"The Law of Health; The Law of Self-control; The Law of Self-reliance; +The Law of Reliability; The Law of Clean Play; The Law of Duty; The +Law of Good Workmanship; The Law of Friendly Cooeperation in Good +Team-work; The Law of Kindness; The Law of Loyalty." + +Though children and youth may learn these laws by heart and understand +and agree to the fine statements by which they are expounded and make +through them a detailed promise to obey the laws of "right living" by +which alone the citizenship of our country may serve its best +interests--that in itself could not make all citizens what they should +be. It is, however, a lesson of the past that youth needs some outward +and visible sign of its "coming of age." Now, as in the past, youth +needs some form of consecration to high ideals. It needs some ceremony +that shall fix the lessons of patriotism, of social responsibility and +of community service, and stir to noble purpose. The education that +begins in the home is not finished by any college graduation or even +by vocational training for a useful career. Its great "Commencement" +is that which ushers the young man, and now also the young woman, into +conscious and responsible relationship to the body politic. This +Commencement should have its solemn and beautiful ritual and should be +made the great event of all young life. + + +QUESTIONS ON THE FATHER AND THE MOTHER STATE + + 1. What changes in legislation and in law enforcement is the + entrance of women into the electorate likely to effect? + + 2. Should the State be more and more charged with responsibility + for care of the weak, the defective, the delinquent, dependent, + and sick, the out-of-work, the aged, and those heavily burdened + by parentage of young children, and if so, how can society + escape a tendency to remove from individuals and from the + family that sense of personal responsibility upon which the + best things in our inherited social order have been built? + + 3. Should women voters particularly address themselves to + increasing public welfare provisions or should they try to + solve difficult problems of adjustment between public and + private effort for the common good? If both, how can they + adjust effort to party politics on the one side, and to + independent use of the power of the vote on the other side? + + 4. When volunteer organizations of charity, correction, and + education transfer their work to official boards and legal + provisions, that work, experience shows, sometimes is lowered + in standards and loses in efficiency. How can voting women + prevent this? How can a new class of voters, hitherto specially + interested in getting things desired done by others, best help + others to do things through their own political action? + + 5. The army intelligence tests showed that our white drafted army + contained 12 per cent. superior men, 66 per cent. average men, + and 22 per cent. inferior men. This statement, made by Cornelia + J. Cannon in _The Atlantic Monthly_ of February, 1922, leads + the author of the article to the conclusion that "our political + experiments, such as representation, recall, direct election of + senators, etc., are endangered by the presence of so many + irresponsible and unintelligent voters." Is there a remedy for + this, other than waiting for the slow process of education? If + so, what is it? + + 6. _The Neighborhood: A Study of Social Life in the City of + Columbus, Ohio_, by R.D. McKenzie, of the University of + Washington, gives a good example of what such a study of one's + own locality should be. Is it not the duty of those having the + leisure and the ability to inaugurate such a study in the + locality in which their political relation is most immediate? + If so, how can a Women's Club, or a League of Women Voters, + start such a study? + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] _Woman's Share in Social Culture._ + +[21] See _A Course in Citizenship_, by Ella Lyman Cabot, and others. + +[22] Printed in _The Survey_ of October 31, 1914. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +BOOKS AND ARTICLES MENTIONED IN THE TEXT + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE AND CHAPTER I Page 5, 19 + + Man and Woman, by Havelock Ellis. + The Evolution of Marriage, by Le Tourneau. + Woman's Share in Primitive Culture, by Otis T. Mason. + The Evolution of Sex, by Geddes and Thompson. + The History of Matrimonial Institutions, by George Elliott + Howard, University of Chicago Press. + Sex and Society, by W.I. Thomas. + Descriptive and Historical Sociology, by Franklin H. + Giddings. + The Family as a Social and Educational Institution, by + Willystine Goodsell. + Social History of the American Family, by Arthur W. + Calhoun. + Sociology and Modern Social Problems, by Charles A. + Ellwood. + The Primitive Family as an Educational Agency, by Arthur + J. Todd. + Woman and Labor, by Olive Schreiner. + The Family, by Elsie Clews Parsons. + The Family, by Helen Bosanquet. + Women and Economics, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. + Love and Marriage, by Ellen Key. + The Family in Its Sociological Aspects, by J.Q. Dealey. + The New Basis of Civilization, by Simon Patten. + Social Control and Social Psychology, by Edward A. Ross. + Children Born Out of Wedlock, by George B. Mangold, + University of Missouri. + The Federal Children's Bureau, Publications 42 and 77. + Report of the Committee on Status and Protection of + Illegitimate Children of the National Conference of + Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, 1921. + Normal Life, Chapter V, The Home, by Edward T. Devine. + Taboo and Genetics, by Knight, Peters, and Blanchard. + A Social Theory of Religious Education, Part IV, Chapter, + The Family, by George Albert Coe. + +CHAPTER II Page 46 + + Conveniences for the Farm-home, Farmers' Bulletin No. + 270. + The Farm Kitchen as a Workshop, Farmers' Bulletin No. 607. + The Business of the Household, by C.W. Taber. + +CHAPTER III Page 69 + + Agamemnon, The Choephori and The Furies, The Tragedies of + Aeschylus. + Native Tribes of Southeast Australia, Chapter on The + Education of the Australian Boy, by A.W. Howitt. + The Patriarchal Family, by Sir Henry Maine. + Pure Sociology, Chapter XIV, The Androcentric Theory, by + Dr. Lester F. Ward. + Successful Family Life on the Moderate Income, by Mary + Hinman Abel. + +CHAPTER IV Page 90 + + Danish Care for the Aged, by Edith Sellers. + The State and Pensions for Old Age, by J.A. Spender. + Report of Bureau of Census, Department of Commerce. + Old-age Support of Women Teachers, by Lucille Eaves, + Department of Research of Educational and Industrial + Union of Boston, Mass. + The Trade Union and the Old Man, by John O'Grady, + _American Journal of Sociology_, November, 1917. + +CHAPTER V Page 116 + + Deuteronomy, The Bible. + Tembarom, F.H. Burnett. + +CHAPTER VI Page 124 + + Early Massachusetts Laws, quoted by Howard in Matrimonial + Institutions. + +CHAPTER VII Page 141 + + Successful Family Life on the Moderate Income, by M.H. + Abel. + +CHAPTER VIII Page 164 + + A Uniform Joint Guardianship Law, Conference of + Commissioners for Uniform State Laws. + The Sheppard-Towner Act for Maternity Benefits, U.S. + Children's Bureau. + Infant Mortality Rates, U.S. Children's Bureau. + Extra Family Wage, _The Survey_, November 12. 1921. + National Endowment of Motherhood, English Authors. + Reports of the National Child Labor Committee. + Report of Division of Child Hygiene, New York City, Dr. + Josephine Baker. + The Soul of Black Folks, by Doctor Dubois. + Chicago Study of 1,500 Families, Dr. Alice Hamilton. + Summary of Child Welfare Demands, by Julia C. Lathrop, in + _The Child_, August, 1920. + +CHAPTER IX Page 189 + + The Hygiene of Mind, by Dr. T.S. Clouston. + The Social Cost of Unguided Ability, by Professor Woods. + Hereditary Improvement, by Francis Galton. + Eugenics, Euthenics, and Eudemics, by Dr. Lester F. Ward, + _American Journal of Sociology_. + Hereditary Genius, by Francis Galton. + Euthenics, A Plea for Better Living Conditions as a First + Step Toward Higher Human Efficiency, by Ellen H. + Richards. + The New Party, by Andrew Reid. + Charting Parents, by Caroline Hedger, Elizabeth McCormick + Memorial Fund Publications. + Observation Record for the Selection of Gifted Children in + the Elementary Schools, by Julia A. Badenes. + Universal Training for American Citizenship, by William H. + Allen. + Books for Parents Listed by Federation for Child Study, 2 + West Sixty-fourth Street, New York. + Social Organization, Chapter on Democracy and Distinction, + by C.H. Cooley. + +CHAPTER X Page 205 + + Mental Diseases in Twelve States, by Horatio M. Pollock + and Edith M. Forbush, _Mental Hygiene_, April, 1921. + The Kallikak Family, Dr. F.H. Goddard. + Treatise on Idiocy, by Dr. Edward Seguin. + Proceedings and Addresses of Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth + Sessions of American Association for Study of the + Feeble-minded. + Experiments to Determine Possibilities of Subnormal Girls + in Factory Work, by Elizabeth B. Bigelow, _Mental + Hygiene_, April, 1921. + Vocational Probation for Subnormal Youth, by Arnold + Gesell, _Mental Hygiene_, April, 1921. + Report of Mental Examination of 839 Women and Girls, by + Anne T. Bingham, New York Probation and Protective + Association. + Colony and Extra-institutional Care of the Feeble-minded, + by Charles Bernstein, _Mental Hygiene_, January, 1920. + Human Nature and the Social Order, Chapter on Personal + Degeneracy, by C.H. Cooley. + Psychology, by William James. + Brain and Personality, by F.E. Thompson. + +CHAPTER XI Page 219 + + Concerning Prisoners, by Bernard Glueck, _Mental Hygiene_, + April, 1918. + Report on the Draft Examinations, by H.W. Lanier. + Out-of-school Activities, _The Survey_. + Moral Equivalents for War, by William James. + The Socially Inadequate, by Harry H. Laughlin. + +CHAPTER XII Page 233 + + Sociology and Modern Problems, by C.A. Ellwood. + The Divorce Problem, by W.F. Willcox. + Problems of Marriage and Divorce in Woman's Share in + Social Culture, by Anna Garlin Spencer. + Marriage and Social Control, by Anna Garlin Spencer, in + _Harvard Theological Review_, July, 1914. + +CHAPTER XIII Page 246 + + History of Factory Legislation, by Hutchins and Harrison. + Census Estimates of Women Wage-earners. + Code for Women in Industry, by Department of Labor, + Division of Women in Industry. + Democracy in the Household, by Lucy Salmon, in _American + Journal of Sociology_, January, 1912. + +CHAPTER XIV Page 269 + + Ethical Culture School and Pioneer Manual Training School, + New York, Reports. + Democracy and Education, by John Dewey. + The Primitive Family as an Educational Agency, by Arthur + R. Todd. + Sex-Education, by Maurice A. Bigelow. + Moral Education Lessons, by F.A. Gould. + Categories of Moral and Civic Instruction, French School + Book. + Principles of Sociology with Educational Applications, by + Frederick C. Clow. + Dynamic Sociology, Chapter on Types of Education, by + Lester F. Ward. + A Social Theory of Religious Education, Chapter on The + Learning Process Considered as the Achieving of Character, + by George Albert Coe. + +CHAPTER XV Page 290 + + First Report of Massachusetts State Board of Education, by + Horace Mann. + Songs, by Emily Dickinson, The Book. + Publications of the Foreign Language Information Service. + Publications of the Children's Bureau. + List of Representatives of Women's Organizations in the + Public Welfare Lobby at Washington. + Publications of the Societies to Further Preferential + Voting and Proportional Representation. + A Course in Citizenship, by Ella Lyman Cabot, and others. + The Pledge of the Athenian Youth. + A Municipal Creed, by T.L. Hinckley, in _The Survey_, + October 31, 1914. + The Children's Moral Code of American Citizenship, by W. + J. Hutchins, National Institute for Moral Instruction. + Army Intelligence Tests, by Cornelia J. Cannon, in + _Atlantic Monthly_, February, 1922. + The Neighborhood, by R.D. McKenzie. + + +ADDITIONAL REFERENCES UNDER CHAPTER HEADS + +Chapter First, The Family: + + The Ethics of the Family, James S. Tufts, Ph.D., + _International Journal of Ethics_, Chicago, Illinois. + College Women and Race Suicide, by William M. Sadler, + M.D., in _Ladies' Home Journal_ of April, 1922. + Applied Eugenics, by Paul Popenoe and Roswell Hill + Johnson. + Program of a School for Homemakers, by L.D. Harvey, of + Stout Institute, Menominee, Wisconsin (a pioneer + movement for special training of women in higher + institutions of learning), published by Bureau of + Education, Washington, D.C., in 1911. + The Sex-Factor in Human Life, by T.W. Gallaway, Ph.D., + American Social Hygiene Association, New York City. + Can the State Solve the Marriage Problem? by Gordon + Reeves, in _Physical Culture Magazine_ of May, 1918, + summing up 400 answers to 60 questions concerning + government financial aid to mothers. + Mothers' Pensions, For and Against, in _The Independent_ + of November 9, 1914. A brief summary with bibliography. + +Chapter Second, The Mother: + + On the side of Birth Release, address by Louis J. Dublin, + Ph.D., Statistician of Metropolitan Life Insurance + Company, at Sixth Annual Meeting of American Social + Hygiene Association, October, 1919. Library American + Social Hygiene Association, 370 Seventh Avenue, New York + City. + Motherhood and the Relationships of the Sexes, by C. + Gasqueine Hartley. + La Question Sexuelle et la Femme, by Doctour Toulouse. + Bibliotheque-Charpentier. + The Logical Basis of Woman Suffrage, by A.G. Spencer, in + _Annals of American Academy of Political and Social + Science_, February, 1910. + Equal Pay and the Family: A Proposal for the National + Endowment of Motherhood, published by Headley Bros., + London, England. + +Chapter Third, The Father: + + What Makes a Man a Husband? by Havelock Ellis, in + _Pictorial Review_ of September, 1919. + +Chapter Fourth, The Grandparents: + + Old Age Dependency in the United States, by L.W. Squier. + +Chapter Eighth, The Children of the Family: + + Program of Nutrition Clinics for Delicate Children, 44 + Dwight Street, Boston, Mass. + Text of Bill H.R. 15400, to Create a Department of + Education in the Federal Government with a Cabinet Head. + +Chapter Twelfth, The Broken Family: + + Resolution for Uniform Divorce Legislation Introduced in + Senate by Wesley Jones, of Washington, with Hearings + before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Judiciary, + Senate Proceedings, Washington, D.C. + The Broken Family, Jane Colcord, Russell Sage Foundation. + +Chapter Thirteenth, The Family and the Workers: + + The Labor Contract from Individual to Collective + Bargaining, by Margaret Anna Schaffner, Ph.D., _Bulletin + of University of Wisconsin_, No. 182. + Women and Economic Revolution, by Theresa Schmid McMahon, + Ph.D., _Bulletin of University of Wisconsin_, No. 498. + The Industrial Training of Women, by Florence Marshall, in + _Annals of American Academy of Political and Social + Science_. + Report of Committee on Elimination of Waste in Industry of + the American Engineers' Council, appointed by Herbert + Hoover, in Publications of the Society of Mechanical + Engineers, 29 West Thirty-ninth Street, New York City. + Women in Industry in War-Time, by Frederick Warren + Junkins, a bibliography in _Bulletin of the Sage + Foundation Library_, 130 East Twenty-second Street, New + York City. + +Chapter Fourteenth, The Family and the School: + + A National Program of Education, by Hugh S. Magill, Field + Secretary of the National Education Association, Address + at Commission on Reconstruction, Headquarters N.E.A., + 1201 Sixteenth Street, Washington, D.C. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CURRENT PUBLICATIONS, WITH SUGGESTIONS + +In pursuance of the practical aim of this book, an up-to-date study of +current social problems is urged and the use of reports and literature +issued by National and State organizations is recommended. + +In addition, therefore, to the list of books and articles cited or +referred to in the text, the following special sources of information +concerning current activities and the discussion of immediate social +problems are given as aids to class study or to individual reading: + + 1. The Reports and Bulletins issued by the Federal Departments; + especially the Children's Bureau, Bureau of Education, + Vocational Education Board, Department of Agriculture, + Washington, D.C. + + 2. Reports from State Departments in the fields of Labor, + Education, Charity, Correction, Employment Agencies, and + Health. + + 3. Reports of the National Conference of Social Work (formerly + called the National Conference of Charities and Correction), + Office, 315 Plymouth Court, Chicago, Illinois. These Reports + constitute the best record of social movements we possess. + Since 1873 the attempt has been made each year to take account + of social stock and show what is being done for all classes + needing help toward better living. Alexander Johnson prepared + a Topical Index which serves to guide the student through the + earlier volumes, and there are now arrangements for securing + separate papers on particular subjects. + + 4. The Russell Sage Foundation, office, 130 East Twenty-second + Street, New York City, aims at the improvement of living + conditions and issues valuable publications which are + generously distributed. Enquiries are answered in a helpful + manner. + + 5. The American Social Hygiene Association, Office, 370 Seventh + Avenue, New York City, offers aid to all who seek to check + vice, sustain family life, and lessen diseases related to + prostitution. It publishes both a Quarterly and a Bulletin and + shares in a special library open to students. + + 6. The National Committee for Mental Hygiene at the same Office + Headquarters, publishes a valuable Quarterly and is a source + of information respecting the treatment and prevention of + mental diseases. + + 7. The American Association for Organizing Family Social Work, + Mrs. John M. Glenn, Chairman, with Office at 130 East + Twenty-second Street, is able to advise in relief work and + organized efforts toward family rehabilitation. + + 8. The Child Welfare League of America, C.C. Carstens, Director, + at the same Headquarters, 130 East Twenty-second Street, New + York City, can be consulted as to standards of child-care and + the status of child-helping in various parts of the country. + + 9. The National Child Labor Committee, Owen Lovejoy, Secretary, + with Office at 105 East Twenty-second Street, New York City, + furnishes information and practical aid in any part of the + United States and publishes valuable pamphlets showing + child-labor conditions. + + 10. The Community Service Agency, headed by Joseph Lee, with + Office at 315 Fourth Avenue, New York City, will help local + communities anywhere in organizing for better use of leisure + time. + + 11. The Consumer's League, Mrs. Florence Kelley, General + Secretary, with Office at 44 East Twenty-third Street, New + York City, promotes legislation for enlightened standards for + women and minors in industry and publishes important material + for students and workers. + + 12. The American Home Economics Association, which publishes the + _Journal of Home Economics_ at 1211 Cathedral Street, + Baltimore, Maryland, is an organization devoted to + standardizing the housemother's task and helping toward + efficient home-making. + + 13. The National Woman's Trade Union League, with Office at 311 + South Ashland Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, publishes a + journal and other material of special interest to women + wage-earners. + + 14. The National Health Council, with Office at 370 Seventh + Avenue, New York City, and at 411 Eighteenth Street, + Washington, D.C., issues valuable publications. + + 15. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored + People, with Office at 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City, and the + National Urban League for Social Service among negroes aim at + helping in problems of race adjustment. + + 16. The General Federation of Women's Clubs, with headquarters in + Washington, D.C., at 1734 N. Street, N.W., has centres of + influence throughout the country and furnishes the personnel + of many leaders in local social enterprises. + + 17. The National Council of Women of the United States, member of + the International Council of Women of the World, has + headquarters at the home of its President, Mrs. Philip North + Moore, Lafayette Avenue, St. Louis, Mo., and includes in its + membership all the leading bodies of organized women in the + country. At its Biennial gatherings reports of work are + presented from all these Associations and afterward published. + + 18. The National League of Women Voters, the child of the National + American Woman Suffrage Association, has its headquarters at + 532 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., with Mrs. Maud + Wood Park as President, and energizes and directs a large + force of women in numerous local Leagues in non-partisan work + for better government. + + 19. The Woman's Party, with Headquarters also in the National + Capital, aims to secure a Federal Amendment which will wipe + out all sex-discriminations. It publishes much interesting + material. + + 20. Among the most valuable publications for constant reading for + those who would keep in touch with important social movements + in all fields is _The Survey_, published at 112 East + Nineteenth Street, New York City, Paul U. Kellogg, Editor. + + 21. The _American Journal of Sociology_, published by University + of Chicago Press, and the _Journal of Applied Sociology_, + published by the University of California, give more extended + treatment of the principles underlying social service. + + 22. The Council of Jewish Women, the National Catholic Welfare + Council, the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian + Associations, and the Federal Council of the Churches of + Christ, together with the Federation of Religious Liberals, + The Laymen's League, and Women's Alliance of the Unitarian + body, and other church organizations, have departments or + committees engaged specifically in work for the stability of + the family and the betterment of the home, as well as for the + ennobling of the common life and for the organization of the + world for permanent peace. + + 23. The Educational interests of the country are served by many + agencies and organizations, chief among them the U.S. Bureau + of Education, the Federal Board of Vocational Education at + Washington, D.C., which publish invaluable material, and the + National Education Association, with office at 1201 Sixteenth + Street, Washington, D.C., membership in which keeps one in + touch with progressive movements. + + The vital thing for one who would prepare for practical service in + any line of social work is to study people and conditions in + one's own locality and then compare what is done or attempted + in that locality with what is considered by those best fitted + to judge to be the best and most efficient standards for + service of the kind considered. + + The vital thing for those who would help in the educational field + is to know their local schools, their teachers, buildings, + equipment, management, and financial support, and then to + secure all possible national, state, and local aid in making + those schools the best they can be. + + 24. If the newest movements in education are chosen for study, + read The New Education, by L. Haden Guest, and other articles + in _The New Era_, published by Hodder and Co., London, + England. Also Nursery School Experiment, by Bureau of + Educational Experiments, 144 West Thirteenth Street, New York + City. + + For comparison with these, read Talks to Teachers, by William + James, and also pamphlets of Home Education Series, by + Charlotte Mason, published by Parents' National Education + Union, 26 Victoria Street, London, England. + + 25. For economic reform especially helpful to family life, study + the publications of the Cooeperative League of America, Doctor + and Mrs. Warbasse, Directors, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City. + + 26. For political reform, study the publications of Proportional + Representation League, 1417 Locust Street, Philadelphia, Pa. + + + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Typographical errors corrected in text: | + | | + | Page 313: inagurate replaced with for inaugurate | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Family and it's Members, by Anna Garlin Spencer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAMILY AND IT'S MEMBERS *** + +***** This file should be named 20645.txt or 20645.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/4/20645/ + +Produced by Jeannie Howse and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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