;l|HmU)!(i!li.'i: !!!' iiniijii A^\ «^jj:i^. Southern Branch of the University of California Los Angeles Form L-1 . "yss VY4-I v.\ This book is DUE on the last date stamded below 0CT2^^^^^ FEB 2 5 1925. APR 2 7 1925 MAR 2 4 1928 OEC 1 5 1916 JAN 3 1927 JUL ^Sl!^< NOV 2 8 1927 DEC 7 1921 Sep ? t927 1 HMD ^ ' . I ^^^ 16 1928 I Form L-9-5m-7,'22 my 29 1928 ^^^^4 1929 M, 22 t929 MAY .. JAN 5 1931 lAPB 2 2 1938 ^^'^ I 6 1949 : ?:«?: ?A?:ivrHOor. H^f- c. f—- CHi---?. XV PRACTICAL A7 7:.:CATIOX^ ;? ct::!!' stvdy, r_^ i-v -.-;- 140 ECOMOMIC WORTH OE HILI ^7 DY, O. H. Bakdess 146 Definition of duld study — Knowledge of the physi- cal diild a eadb a^et — Knowledge of the child's moBtal eiMDstitation a ca^ asset — A knowledge of the diild's moial natme and development a ca^ Chj.?'—^. xvn SYMPATHETIC PAFI^THOOD, Mis. Tlieodoie Bizney 155 Objeetiv« sofEenng jren — Sobjeetive soffer- ing of difldren — Kee log for parenthood — For ^diat the Comi: - : V.-^'^sxs worts— Sym- pathy without aeti . :. — A . . . : s basinet and a man'sL COKIENTS 11 Chaptte XVIII Page GENERAL IXFORiLlTION FOR PARENTS, John L--^-^ ■.•■•■■ .: ■ l'>t T; " - — K : eating - —'V rToral . ■-.;- — - -_ - .:s — Praise and commendatir.— i; : ;:,; and eom- mendation— Consider i.:.. a:.i rt^pect ior diildraj- Ceapt£?. XIX WHAT COXSTITrTE.S A GOOD FATHER. J.L- r -. - ,„, l-^O ^ ri " ::ison lyO tompaniondiip between father and son — Fa:: "; advise as a friend — Friendty discourse .i/i i\i: 3-^ pupil— Mutual obligations of fathers and r: ~— CharaeteristicB of a good father — Strenuous business an obstacle — Mother's need — Bread^^rnnirg' not the whole duty. Chapter XX WHAT COXSTITrTES A GOOD :.p''THER, ^r^rr H. Weeks 195 Motherhood a eommon : : — T: - : . . r Pve — The intelligent mother — Tz^ patient mc::rr — 7i^ good mother self-respecvr— Mother fail - —T good mother creates trut : !: rss, honesty mindedness — Methods of teaching untruthi\:^::esi — Honesty taught by example. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PARENTHOOD 202 QUOTATIONS 207 ChaP'TI?. XXI THE HOME ATMOSPHERE. Mrs. Da-Id 0. Mears.. 209 Ch A PTE2 XXH THE HIGHEST AilBlTION, Delc^ F. Wilcox 213 12 CONTENTS Chapter XXIII Page THE RIGHT OF THE CHILD TO BE WELL BORN, George E. Dawson 215 Scientific and philanthropic interest of the day — Declining parenthood— Regenerated biological he- redity—Recognition of children's rights— New ideals for parenthood— Education for parent- hood—Moral fitness— Parental adaptation. Chapter XXIV FITNESS FOR IVIARRIAGE, Mary H. Weeks 227 Health necessaiy to the social unit — Requirements from man and woman imequal and not sufficient — The husband's qualities — Requirements of health — Parenthood should supply a good home — The true ambition for parenthood— Perfect health. Chapter XXV THE WRONG KIND OF VOCATION FOR A FATHER, W^illiam Byron Forbush 233 Vocations detrimental to children — Compensations of good vocations — Vocations in relation to their environment— Separation of father and children. Chapter XXVI WHAT IS A SUCCESSFUL WIFE? David Graham Phillips 238 The plain truth — Successful wife as a human being — French idea — Danger in monotony — Intelli- gence versus intellect— Make yourself good enough for him— The remedy. Chapter XXVII MODEL HUSBANDS 248 Chapter XXVIII THE CHRISTIAN IDEALS OF MARRIAGE, Lyman Abbott 250 Divorce in the United States— Object of the family not happiness— Individualism and divorce. CONTENTS 13 Chapter XXIX Page THE HOUSE AS A HOME, Charles Francis Osborne 254 Difference between them— The home and family life— Ownership versus rent— Building associa- tion—House to fit the family— Rich man's troubles— Careful buying— Individuality— Conven- ience not size. Chapter XXX WHERE SHALL THE HOUSE BE? Charles Francis Osbonie 264 Site — Distance from work — Transportation prob- lem—Neighborhood—Noise and smoke— What sort of a street— Lot — Town or countiy — Moral advan- tages. Chapter XXXI WHAT DO WE BREATHE? Maiy Hannon Weeks. 275 Air and school work— Air and blood — Throat and nasal troubles and unclean air— Cold air box— Foul air vent and playgrounds— Fear of drafts— How to get the bad air out— Fresh air must come easily. Chapter XXXII THE RESTFUL HOME, Mrs. A. W. Merrill 285 Chapter XXXIII THE HOUSE MONEY, Mary H. Weeks 288 Household allowances— Knowledge of business methods essential to wise expenditure— Household accounts, their value in housekeeping and to the public— Promise of better results. Chapter XXXIV MAKING HOME ATTRACTIVE TO YOUNG PEOPLE, Mrs. F. W. Wyman 293 Routine work and the gi'eat problem— What home must do for the child— Home attractive to children and their friends— Unattractive parents and homes— Sympathy with young life— Daughter's room — Boy's room. Vol. 1—2 14 CONTENTS Page ENCOURAGING A LOVE OF HOME, Hannah K. Schoff 298 WHY CHILDREN GO OUT ON THE STREETS, Louise DeKoven Bowen 300 HOUSES SHOULD BE MADE FOR CHILDREN AS WELL AS FOR GROWNUPS, Caroline Bartlett Crane 301 Chapter XXXV HOW THE FARMER'S WIFE MAY LIVE A FULL LIFE, Harriet M. Shepai-d 303 Chapter XXXVI LIFE'S LARGE RELATIONSHIP, Graham Taylor. 306 The best way to fulfill our social obligations — Function of family relationship — Neighborship — Industrial relationship— Citizenship— Relationship of religion. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FOUNDING THE HOME ... 309 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Volume I PAGE NoRiiAKDY Coast (Color Plate) By George Innes Frontispiece Reproduced by courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago. Expectation By Joseph Israels 28 Reproduced by courtesy of the Metropolitan Mu- seum of Art, New York. The Sheepfold By Charles Emile Jaeque 60 Reproduced by courtesy of the Metropolitan Mu- seum of Art, New York. Cat and Kittens By Louis Eugene Lambert 92 Reproduced bj^ courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Spring By Pierre Etienne Theodore Rousseau 124 Reproduced by courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago. A Wedding Procession in the Bavarian Tyrol. By William Riefstahl 188 Reproduced by courtesy of the Metropolitan Mu- seum of Art, New York. Return from the Christening. . • .By Gustave Brion 220 Reproduced by courtesy of the Metropolitan Mu- seum of Art, New York. The Home of Our Ancestors 252 From a photograph. The Boy With a Sword By Edouard Manet 284 Reproduced by courtesy of the Metropolitan Mu- seum of Art, New York. PREFACE HESE books are offered the public as helps along the road to child welfare in home, school, church and state. They are intended primarily for parents. The close scientific stu- dent will find his field in the laboratory and the com- plete records of child study. For these, the average man and woman have neither time nor training. Yet the problem of child rearing is with them, and they ask for aid in its solution. To bring to them the best thought in brief and thus rouse them to forceful ef- fort in the solution of their own problems- is the pur- pose of these volumes. Each article has been read by the Publication Committee of the National Congress of Mothers and approved as useful in its special line. Most of the articles are short enough to be used as bases for dis- cussions in parents' meetings, and those who desire further presentations of the topics are directed to the recognized sources of information listed at the end of the sections. Every class of thinkers has contributed to this collection of papers. The scientific expert, the teach- er, the physician, the father and mother in the midst of the struggle, the trained kindergartner, the plain business man with an eye to his own needs, the trained nurse and the social enthusiast, the dreamer and the every-day worker — all have presented their messages in their ovm way. The contributions of the editor herself make no claims to originality. Through many years of con- 17 18 PREFACE tact with those seeking help and with those who have a message, a thousand and one suggestions have come to her from sources no longer recognizable. She gives them forth again, glad to transmit the word to those whose need it serves, and confident that in transmit- ting it, she renders kind service to both givers and receivers. The world divides itself into artists, teachers, taught. "We cannot all be artists, but it is an inspiring thought that we may each translate some part of the great master's word, and thus "pass the torch of life from lifted hand to hand along the gen- erations. ' ' To all the unthinking, all the troubled, all the puzzled fathers and mothers, to all the workers for child welfare, these books are offered. If they trans- mute thought into action, and thus make child life happier, saner and more effective for right thinking, creative activity, and true living, they will have ac- complished their purpose. A PLEA FOR THE CHILDREN MRS. THEODORE W. BIRNEY First President of the National Congress of Mothers ( ^^^TjS soon as adults cast aside their indiflference Ntl^fiiliik and enter more fully into the study, life and needs of infancy and childhood, just so soon will the regeneration of the race be effected. Ah, the misery entailed upon helplessness through ig- «norance ! If all the unnecessary heartaches and cruel 'sense of injustice which little children suffer could be 'expressed in a single sob, the earth would tremble with its force and our hearts stand still in awe of our hid- ^eous selfishness. That perhaps sounds harsh, but is , the world not selfish where children are concerned ? , T hey should be the first_consi deration of both parents and state. Are they? Look into your own life first, and then that of your neighbor, and answer. If you are a man, nine chances out of ten you are so ab- sorbed in business cares that you have little or no time for your children. You work to surround them with material comforts while you deny them the priceless boon of your sympathy and companionship. No amount of gold can ever atone to them for this loss, and the probabilities are that the wealth you accumulate will prove a stumbling block in their pathway. If you are a woman — but why go into these details, these trite old stories. Mother love and devotion do not always stand for unselfishness. It is not so hard for a mother to make a grreo^ sacrifice ; it is sometimes hard for her to real- ize thatjsvhat she regards as saintly unselfishness in 19 / ( 20 A PLEA FOR THE CHILDREN herself is really a subtle, disastrous form of selfish- ness which will not fail to dwarf the development of her children. There should be no patent on unsel- fishness in any family ; each member should bear his or her part of the family burdens. We are all agreed in this, and yet do we live up to our conviction in the matter? Our obligati^njs that dual one which exists in every relation of life, a duty not only to ourselves but an equallyTmportant one to those less privileged. And so it behooves us to act, to speak, to feel in such perfect harmony of purpose that the listening world f'may hear such strains of aspiration as of themselves will lift humanity nearer the realm of the ideal. The methods of accomplishing the purpose for which we are striving may be diverse ; in our zeal we may commit errors in judgment, but if our hearts are true and steadfast we shall stand together, united by . a common cause, the love of childhoo d. It seems to I me that all should perceive what intelligent parent- I hood means for the race, and that to attain it is as / well worth our effort and attention as the study of Greek, Latin, higher mathematics, medicine, law, or any other profession. I This National Congress of Mothers is unquestion- ably a popular movement ; the thoughtful welcome it and recognize in it unlimited power for good, and yet it has its critics. And to these critics, I say a few words, not in antagonism, but in the hope of awaken- ing them to the importance of this movement. Their first objection is that to attend a Mother's Congress or a Mothers' Club, a woman must neglect her chil- dren and her home, but they neither condemn nor criticise the woman who goes regularly to market to supply the physical needs of her children, who often spends many hours weekly shopping for their cloth- A PLEA FOR THE CHILDREN 21 ing or her own, who cheerfully devotes an entire jaorning to a search through the shops for some par- ticular color or design in material or trimming, when another might have served her purpose equally well and saved much valuable time, who gives hours to her machine and sewing, and by doing this work her- self is enabled, as she explains, to have finer trim- mings and materials than she could afford if she put her sewing out. Such is our truly domestic critic. The chances are that she belongs to a progressive euchre club which meets weekly, and that she makes frequent neighborhood calls; that she does not hesi- tate to gossip about the affairs of others in the pres- ence of her children, and that she and her husband argue before them the question as to how they should \ be disciplined ; it is not unusual for parents to differ I on this point, and for children to witness such a lack of self-control in those they should respect above all others, as dwarfs their ideals as surely as a black 1 frost blights a fruit tree when in blossom. They see |no objection to "showing off" their children on all occasions, to attracting attention to them by unwisely tepeating A^thin their hearing the bright and cun- ing things they have said. These are a few of the things which are done by all classes of our critics, jfrom the woman who poses as a "domestic mother," /to some of the women of fashion who see little of their children and know less. Then, there is the in- consistent woman who belongs to a dozen clubs for Ibetterment of the human race, but who "really hasn't /time for a mothers' club." Should we not pity rather than condemn the shortsightedness of such critics, who feel that they know quite enough to bring up their children without any outside aid? Let us eliminate from childhood the swords and 22 A PLEA FOR THE CHILDREN guns and caps, the toy cannon and other destructive emblems of strife, let us educate our children away from false and demoralizing ideas of valor, and through such education may we not hope that the time will come when war, with its attendant horrors, "will be replaced by a stern and united determination on the part of the nations in behalf of peace — when no civilized people will glory in the sacrifice of hu- man life, but when all humanity will know that it is better served by that arbitration which makes for universal peace? Let us teach our children that if there be an unpardonable sin it is the misuse of power, intellectual, political or social; that the high- est development of any faculty is obtained only through use, and that life means service, glad, joy- ous service, for mankind and the world. All nature sets us this beautiful example of service. The sun rises and the darkness falls, the seasons come and go, the earth yields up her fruits, all for the benefit of man ; no tree absorbs its own fruits, no flowers bloom for themselves alone. If we did but keep close to the heart of nature, we should learn much to which our eyes are now blinded through too long study of graven image of wood and stone and printed page. ^ EDUCATION FOR FAMILY LIFE QUOTATIONS "Home, a place for rest, for cheer, for warmth, for com- fort, for forbearance, a place for peace, repose, a place where the soul may extend toward a nobler, better Ife." "Home-making may be classed among the tine arts, for it gives mental and moral atmosphere to the 'joy of the home' as Ruskin happily expresses it. The art of being lovely at home is well worth cultivating. The true home- maker will give co-operation and sympathy to her hus- band in his life work, and train her children for a noble, useful career— to be a blessing to the world. She will consider it her privilege and sacred duty, as wife and mother, to make her home a radiating center of goodness and happiness; a place of peace; 'a world of strife shut out; a world of love shut in'— a place of joy, of inspira- tion, of growth in all that is highest and best, and a place to which the heart gladly turns in the turmoils of life." "Home is the nearest earth pomt from which one may step into heaven, and if the earthly home has been a type of the heavenly, the transition will be easy and sweet into the realms of the hleesed."— Unknown. "The home has got to be founded inside the imperfect thing we call society, and these two, nature and society, are continually getting into each other's way, wrecking each other's plans, frustrating each other's schemes. The woman almost never is able to adjust her life so as to fully satisfy both."— Ida M. Tarhell. "Women's place is in the home, where they can be the housewives and the mothers. In the home they will have all the influence which they need through that influence which a good wife will have over a husband. "I would advise young women to pay particular atten- tion in after life to the lessons of courtesy, the acts of kindness and of self denial. These appear as trifles, but they mean in the end perfection, and perfection is not a trifle." — Cardinal Gibbons. 25 THE SPIRIT OF THE HOME MRS. HENRY J. HERSEY Ex-President of the Colorado Congress of Mothers jN speaking to an organization which pledges Dignity of itself first of all to "raise the standard of ^™*" * °*' home life, ' ' it may be unnecessary to suggest the importance and dignity of what we call "small things." The true mother learned long ago that while her ' ' sphere " is in her own home, she must draw from the whole wide world the helps which xsill enable her to bring that home up to its highest possi- bilities. No doubt the feature of the National Con- gress of Mothers which attracts the interest and calls out the devotion of men and women alike is its prac- tical following of the guidance of the old hymn : "WHEBE SHALL I SOW MY SEED?" "At thy feet," the angel answered; "Sow at once thy nearest field; ' "First the dooryard ; then beyond it ; "Let new fields new furrows yield." "Fill the nearest spot with gladness; "Fill thy home with goodness sweet; "Wider fields shall ask thy sowing, "If thou first sow at thy feet." No one can live another's life, nor solve another's problems; the Divine purpose, which has made us individual, forces each to do that for himself. But the mother may greatly help ; or she may hinder. 27 28 THE SPIRIT QF THE HOME Methods are methods only — not principles Basis of happiness, the ideal home As we look back, we all see that this was hard to learn. How confident we were, after the first baby was well out of infancy, that we had learned all about it, and that any intelligent woman who had studied the subject could make theory and practice harmonize. The second baby brought a rude awakening. Every- thing that had worked so beautifully before failed this time. He would not sleep as the other had done, he could not digest the same food, and as he grew older the methods of correction and discipline so tried and proved were found useless. So we learn, really learn, that method is not principle, and that when a woman says, ''I always do 'so and so,' " she is not master of her subject. And yet there is a right and wrong, and we all yearn for the one and shrink from the other. And our common purpose is to find the touch- stone which will discriminate between them. This touchstone may well be called "The Spirit of the Home," and the three sides of its symbolic triangle are named Unity, Co-operation and Courtesy. The home is more than house and parents and children. "Four walls do not a home create, Nor wealth and station peace." Listen to the words in which the Church recognizes the establishment of the New Home : ' ' For as much as these two have consented together," not one con- sented to the other, but the two consented to a com- mon purpose. Think what it would mean if in the heart of every man and woman were hidden a definite home ideal ! A conscious purpose toward which every thought, word and deed would contribute. Its im- pulse would send every faculty in search of material to serve its purpose. The day comes when the mother sees her daughter, whose every hour till now she has herself carefully mtei^SSSS^iiS^ \..^ EXPECTATION After the Painting by Joseph Israels. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. THE SPIRIT OF THE HOME 29 guarded, go forth into a new and untried experience — to solve her own problems, and bear her own pain; her happiness wholly dependent upon the character of the man with whom she goes. In such an hour one turns for assurance not to wealth or position, but to the presence of the Ideal. The mother knows that the basis of happiness is laid not in material things, but in the Ideal, and if she is assured that these two dear ones have this lofty conception of their united life her ' ' Soul puts by its fears. " It is plain that the supreme gift to them would be a comprehension of the "Spirit of the Home." I The ultimate purpose of motherhood is the repeti- tion of motherhood, with the inheritance of some measure of the wisdom which was the outgrowth of the one before it. And it is this legacy of wisdom which laj's emphasis upon the vital importance of implanting in each childish heart devotion to the home ideal. J It is an impossibility that anything should be a The good of good for any member of the family, which is not a good of au good for all. When John indolently knocks cigar ashes all over the hearth, with an ash tray mthin easy reach of his hand, the point is, not that Mary's care- ful housekeeping is destroyed, but that he violates the "spirit of the home," and substitutes the spirit of the tavern or club, because if he and ]\Iary had "consented together" in the matter, either he would act in harmony with her efforts to have the hearth clean, or Mary would agree with him to keep the hearth for a handy place to drop things. Experiences, no matter how trying, are only the straws which show how the wind blows, and, as ex- periences, we should not lay too much stress upon them. Freedom, diversion, pleasure, are good to the Vol. 1—3 30 THE SPIRIT OF THE HOME ; Common point of view necessary Co-operation necessary ^^-->^ // point where they will bear the touchstone ! Freedom for one, to the point where it means bondage to an- other, does not conform to the "Spirit of the Home," j Diversion, to the point where it becomes social dis- ' sipation in the mother, or equally, business dissipation in the father, changes its character. Things of necessity come under this rule, as well as those of privilege ! Oh! if we could all realize the necessity of the common "point of view," and the greatness of the reward of the woman who seeks this first! If she seeks it intelligently and good naturedly, she will surely "overcome evil with good." A common life must be regulated by common rules, and no one stands I alone in the home. There can be no perfect home life 'unless all love and serve the home ideal. They who would create a home from which will come only fine and true and noble things must create it in spirit and in truth. The second side of our triangle. Co-operation, is the effort and sacrifice which each member of the family makes to serve the home ideal. Any effort which supplements or sustains any other effort made 1 for the family as a whole is real co-operation. The 1 child who is given no regular duty relating to the J comfort of the home is defrauded of a part of his inheritance. Nothing else so brings out his conscious- ness of being an integral part of the family. The ideal of the past generation was implicit obedience on the part of the child. While we recognize quite as strongly that the authority must rest where the re- sponsibility does, on the parent, we see, as our fore- fathers did not, that the more freedom we can give the child in making his own decisions, the more mental force and will-power he has acquired to aid him in THE SPIRIT OF THE HOME 31 the day when he must decide vital questions for himself, by the aid only of the light which is in him. So we try to hold the home ideal before the children, that we may awaken in them the desire to become our comrades and co-operators, knowing that an ounce I of spontaneous desire is worth a pound of compulsion. The third side of our triangle symbolizes a vital ?f"5*f,*7„ point, and I would that every young wife could so realize it that she would establish it — the spirit of Courtesy — as the law and habit of her home. The quality of the family life is determined by the manner in which the members make their contributions toward it. We have all seen righteous homes to which grace and joy were strangers. The selfish person of gentle manners adds more to the comfort of a home than the unselfish one who calls attention to her sacrifices, and wears the martyr's expression, or is abrupt and snappish. Nothing so strains the spirit of Unity, which is the basis of family life, as personal rudeness. What a comment upon the home ideal is the fact that we feel at liberty to be impolite to those we love the most! It is better to give up one's own way, one's pleasures and even one's best interests, than to pre- serve them at the sacrifice of Courtesy between hus- band and wife, or parent and child. What is the use ' of the inharmonious home ? What does it create but unhappy, discontented people who add to the unrest of the world ? No result can come from any effort of the mother, if the child sets itself against it,, and re- fuses to co-operate in obedience. And no joy can come to any of them, if every happening calls out irritability and rudeness. The home is privilege, but it is duty, too. One may love it with all one's heart, I but one must order it well and wisely, or it proves but "Dead Sea Fruit." II Division of duties between husband and wife HOME-MAKING VERSUS HOUSEKEEPING CAROLINE L. HUNT Author of "Daily Meals of School Children " UBLIC opinion prescribes quite exactly the duties of man and those of woman in connec- tion with home-making. Of each it expects a certain responsibility for the comfort and happiness of the other sharers of the family life. In ad- dition it expects man to earn the money that is neces- sary for the maintenance of the home, and woman to do the housekeeping. The chief work for the home which it requires of man he can perform by continu- ing the occupation which he selected for himself in early life because he felt it was suited to his talents and abilities and because he thought he should enjoy it. With this occupation it does not expect his home- making to interfere. On the other hand, woman's chief work for the home, if we understand thereby that which absorbs most of her time, is done in an unspecialized occupation upon which in most cases she would never have entered except as a means to home-making. For this occupation any special work which she has previously undertaken must be either wholly or partially sacrificed when she becomes a home-maker. Thus while man is at present, as a mat- ter of course, securing both the advantages of home and the opportunity to make use of special talents, woman is being forced to a choice between the two. This condition of affairs is the result, natural per- 32 HOME-MAKING VERSUS HOUSEKEEPING 33 haps, of social conditions in the past. There was a time, not so many years ago, when, except among the members of privileged classes, the activities which were necessary to home-making were, in the case of man as well as of woman, identical "with those that represented the best outlet for special talents. To make a home for wife and children, the man hewed timber, built a house, gathered fuel, and raised food. To express her love for her family, the woman cared for the house and cooked the food. Nor did society offer to either a more specialized occupation. But the time came when the world began to think that there was a great waste of time in these indi- vidual methods of meeting the universal desires for food and shelter, and also a great diversion of energy from the special talents with which individuals were endowed, and so there was instituted a system of specialization and co-operation, which has with time gro"WTi more elaborate and intricate. It was then that man made a discovery and re- ceived a reward for his far-sightedness. He saw that the a^, physics, chemistry, biology, physiology, bacteriology, sanitation, architecture, dietetics, hygiene, history and art to the problems of home life. "It is the nucleus of every other economy in the world," because it means the conception and maintenance of life at its best in the safest environ- ment. Mrs. Richards declares home economics to be the fourth '*R" in education — right living. The Mary Lowell Stone exhibit, in which the As- sociation of Collegiate Alumnae w^as so deeply inter- ested, gives the declaration that: Purpose home economics courses of What home economics stands for 42 THE ART OF HOME-MAKING Domestic economy defined Euthenics defined J "Home economics stands for the ideal home life for today unhampered by the traditions of the past. "The utilization of the resources of modern science to improve the home life. "The freedom of the home from the dominance of things and their due subordination to ideals. "The simplicity of material surroundings which will most free the spirit for the more important and permanent interests of the home and society." It might be of interest to add in this connection the difference between the numerous terms used to designate the work. The following nomenclature was offered by the Lake Placid Conference: " 'Hand Work' is the proper term to apply to work in primary and grammar schools, its main ob- ject being to teach the child skill wath the hands, to know materials, to observe details, to direct the mind in the early formative period toward home interests." " 'Domestic Science' is the term used to describe the work in secondary schools, which offer the best illustrations of the scope of work classed under the term." " 'Domestic Economy' and often 'Domestic Arts' are the terms used in the normal schools, agricultural colleges and professional schools. In those institu- tions the subject of applied art and science are cor- related AWth the subjects, physics, chemistry and physiology, etc., expanding the work upon the broader basis. ' ' "Euthenics is the new term suggested for the work in universities and colleges. The course includes \ all that is given under the term Domestic Science ' and Domestic Economy, and the work of the profes- sional schools, together "vvith research work. Eu- thenics is derived from the Greek, meaning 'Better THE ART OF HOME-MAKING 43 1 living.' As yet it has not been universally accepted. Therefore the old terms Domestic Economy, House- hold Arts or Home Economics are more generally adopted." "Household Administration," "House- hold Technology" and "Domestic Engineering" are terms that have been adopted in some professional schools. It matters little what term is applied if the scope of work is adjusted to conform to the class of institu- tion, and if the method of teaching is all that could be desired, considering time, money and opportunity for giving the training. After all, home economics courses offer a rational means to obtain and transmit essential knowledge that cannot be secured in other branches of study and research. Each year there is less controversy over the sub- Rank of ject of academic credits and the effect upon stand- economics in ards of scholarship. There is also a marked increase in the number of universities and colleges of high rank which offer advanced training in home econom- ics. It is no longer an experiment in education. It has endured the scientific test and has gained its proper place in the colleges and universities. A home economics course founded upon a scientific and peda- gogical basis deserves without question the same rank in the college and university course as any literary subject. It is upon this standard that all the college and university courses have been established. In some of the secondary schools home economics count one- half unit or one unit of science credit for college en- trance requirements. These are encouraging facts to note for those who have been the promoters in ad- vancing the work and who have been the pioneers in its development and expansion in the modern system of education. schools 44 THE AET OF HOME-MAKING One of the world's most distinguished university presidents declared a few years ago that, ' ' In the evo- lution of education, educators have come to see that all knowledge which is put into scientific and peda- gogic form and which takes hold on life and thought has value for mental discipline, and may properly be classed with the humanities." He strongly recom- mended the establishment of courses of home econom- ics in our co-educational universities upon the basis referred to in the foregoing. The first requisite in the general training of the girl and the home-maker is a definite understanding of social economics in all its aspects. Those who have given thought to the question declare it is pre-eminently a woman's problem. "If Munsterburg's assertion is widely true, that in America it is the women who have the leisure and cultivation to direct the development of social condi- tions, ' ' then with their leisure and talent comes a cor- responding responsibility which the American woman cannot cast aside. The economic function of woman and her part in the social economics of the world must be studied to gain the idea hoped for purposeful womanhood. IV WHAT THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE IS DOING FOR THE HOME JOHN HAMILTON Farmers' Institute Specialist, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. N a broad sense, every act of the Government affects the home life of its people. The Gov- ernment itself, in its last analysis, is only a great aggregation of homes. They are the sources, the springs of its life. From them it draws all of its vitality. If they are defective in any important respect, the nation, or what is its equivalent, the Gov- ernment, is necessarily defective and in similar respects. If these fountains of national life are cor- rupt, their waters will carry disease and death wher- ever they flow. If they are clean and sweet and pure, the national life is likewise clean and sweet and pure. Because of this, there is nothing that we, as a people, need so much as homes — good homes — not dwelling places merely, although we need these as well, but homes — intelligent, comfortable, permanent, restful, genuine, God-fearing homes. In 1900, 10 per cent of the families of this country were houseless. At that time there were on the main- land of the United States over sixteen million (16,- 187,715) families, and only 14,430,145 houses in which to dwell. In other words, in 1900 almost two million families (1,757,740) in this country were in need of shelter, which is the first requisite of a home. Of the families for whom houses were provided. What is the government doing to establish and foster such homes? Vol. 1 — 4 45 46 THE GOVERNMENT AND THE HOME less than one half (46.5) per cent owned their own dwellings. Fifty-three and five-tenths per cent were renters, changing their abode from year to year with no traditional strong attachment to any one locality and with no permanent property interest in any com- munity, or in any single foot of ground. Of more than sixteen million families in the United States, 5,698,901, or 35.2 per cent, are located upon the farms, and 10,488,814, or 64.8 per cent, live in the cities and the towns. One hundred years ago, or less, these proportions were almost precisely re- versed. The trend of population during the last cen- tury has been cityward, until now fully 65 per cent of our people live in towTis and cities. The remark of a gentleman to a friend who was rushing down the street to take his suburban train carries at least a particle of truth. To the inquiry, ""Where are you going in such a hurry?" the answer came, "I am going out to the country to my home." The gentleman replied : * ' Happy man ! I congratulate you. I have no home. I live in a city." Of the 5,698,901 families dwelling on farms, 64.4 per cent of these farms are o\ATaed by their occupants, and only 35.6 per cent are in the hands of tenants. Whereas of the 10,488,814 towTi and city families, only 36.5 per cent own the property in which they live, and 63.7 per cent are renters. The Government of the United States from its very foundation has been deeply interested in locat- ing its citizens, not in towns and cities, but out upon the land. For this, cheap lands reserved for actual settlers, home-makers, has ever been its policy. Mil- lions upon millions of dollars have been expended by the Government for rendering available arid regions and reclaiming swamps and miasmatic districts for THE GOVERNMENT AND THE HOME 47 the benefit of those who wish to locate upon the land — to those who wish to become permanent dwellers in this nation, an integral part of the citizenship of the state. The most far-reaching and effective method that the world has yet discovered for insuring the pros- perity and the perpetuity of the State is in anchoring every family by title in fee to a piece of land. Nothing identifies a man with his own country more closely than the ownership of a piece of land, particularly of the piece of land on which he lives. A landless people is a homeless people, and a homeless i)eople is in a great degree a disintegrated people. They can never ** strike for their ancestral altars" or for "fires" — they own neither. The ties that bind them to their country are largely commercial ties. "When distress appears in one locality, they are free to flee to any other, and not infrequently they leave the home of their nativity for foreign shores. They, and their children, and their children's children roam the earth. No single spot is made especially sacred to their life and memory by the name of ' * home. ' ' There is something in the ownership of a piece of land that steadies a man for life. He is no longer a hoodlum, nor a rioter; he is no petty thief to pilfer upon his neighbors; he respects the property of others because he has property of his own ; he is not a member of the commune or of an anarchistic club ; he is a supporter of government and law in times of peace ; he is their defense in times of war ; he is a citi- zen of the State in the highest sense in which that term is used. He is no Ishmaelite, whose hand is against every man. He owns a home and lives in it. All that he cherishes and holds most dear in life is centered in and about that spot. There his children 48 THE GOVERNMENT AND THE HOME National G-overnment and Ideal homes are born and reared; there the ideal family life that makes for strength of character, love of country, self reliance, sturdiness of body and vigor of mind are all developed. It is the "gymnasium" of the future artisan; the practice school for the future citizen, through whom the material resources of the nation are to be developed and all that is valuable in the in- tellectual, moral and civic life of the commonwealth is to be perpetuated. There cannot be too many such homes. Whatever, or whoever, in Church or State, establishes even one of them and promotes its growth is contributing the most valuable service that one gen- eration can render to its successor. Whatever or who- ever strikes at the integrity of such a home, strikes at the nation 's life and is a curse, whether appearing in the form of an angel of light, as fashion, extrava- gance, ostentation, frivolity and love of ease ; or in the dark garb of pestilence, ignorance, poverty or sin. What is the National Government doing to plant ideal homes, to cherish and uplift the home life of the people of the United States? I have just referred to the cheap lands that are being offered and to rec- lamation schemes that the Government has under- taken in the interest of home-seekers and home-mak- ers. These, however, are only the fomidatious upon which the homes are to rest. On these foundations must be erected superstructures, partly out of wood and brick and stone, but consisting chiefly in mental, moral and physical qualities, in the spirit of self-for- getfulness, helpfulness and love that, together, make up the ideal in family life. The general government in its Department of Agriculture has established an extensive system of national aid and co-operation for the betterment of the homes of the people, particularly such as are lo- THE GOVERNMENT AND THE HOME 49 cated in rural conununities. There are now assembled in this Department over ten thousand (10,420) men and women, more than two thousand of whom are ex- pert specialists, scientists, or scientific assistants, all engaged in work that bears upon the improvement of conditions in the life of the people. Some of these efforts bear directly upon that life as it exists in the home. No less than twenty-nine publications, in the form of farmers' bulletins, pre- pared b}' the most skillful experts to be had in the United States, have been issued by the Department relating to the character and value of various pro- ducts in their use as food. Some of these publica- tions discuss broadly the principles of human nutri- tion; others specifically the composition and prepara- tion for use of various food products that make up the dietary list found upon the tables of the people. All of these publications have been put in popular language and are adapted to the conditions and every day use of the home-makers of the United States. Fifty-seven other bulletins published by the office of experiment stations are devoted exclusively to diet- ary subjects, giving the results of investigations, along human nutrition lines, continued through many years. There are also published articles upon house- hold topics in all the editions of the year book of the Department from 1894 to 1906. The work of the De- partment in the direction of food investigation and human nutrition is perhaps the most extensive and valuable of that of any other nation in the world. The Department is also rendering assistance in an educational way to the higher institutions of learn- ing by collecting information respecting the best methods of teaching subjects relating to the life of the people and formulating this information into edu- Home bulletins Assistance to educational institutions 50 THE GOVERNMENT AND THE HOME cational courses for use in colleges and universities. Courses have been prepared, or are in course of prep- aration, in home economics, agronomy, dairying, rural engineering, rural economics, zootechny and kindred subjects. The Department has also expanded its efforts to benefit country life beyond the walls and class rooms of fixed institutions of learning. It has had prepared courses of study for movable schools to be sent out to the homes of the people. In these schools are taught to classes of adults, regularly or- ganized, domestic science in its various phases, dairying, poultry rearing, orchard management and the various other operations that in the aggregate make up what is called the agricultural industry. The Department is also assisting in the improve- ment of the rural schools by preparing and issuing courses of study in agriculture and its various divi- sions adapted to high schools and those of normal grade. It has had prepared outlines of courses in school garden work for boj's and girls for use in pri- mary country schools. It is also aiding rural people in a very practical way, through the extension of higher education of an agricultural character. This is accomplished by means of experts who are sent out to give advice for the improvement of the various operations of agriculture and who organize and con- duct demonstration farms, and by inspecting, collect- ing and analyzing the various food products offered on the markets, detect fraud in their composition and protect the public health against injurious ingredi- ents introduced into foods as preservatives, or ap- pearing in the form of decayed, diseased and other- wise harmful substances. The work is extended also to assist the mass of our population through the pub- lication and distribution annually of over sixteen millions of bulletins and other documents, giving THE GOVERNMENT AND THE HOME 51 reliable information upon the various operations em- ployed in agricultural production. It is also con- ducting extensive investigations for the discovery of better methods of practice in farming operations. In pursuing these investigations, Department men are sent out to all parts of the world to secure plants and animals and to discover methods adapted to the spe- cial conditions existing in districts in the United States now comparatively unproductive. AU of the work of the Department in all of its Bureaus and Divisions is directed to the betterment of the life of the people, and much of it is in co- operation with the local public agencies existing in the several States. Much of what has been done has been with a view Homekeeping not to taking home-keeping out of the ranks of drudgery drudgery and giving it inspiration ; to affording those who wish to know better methods opportunity to learn them ; to enabling the home provider to furnish wholesome food and to teaching the home-keeper how to prepare and serve it well ; to insuring clean, comfortable and sanitary accommodations for the mother and her fam- ily ; to adorning the interior of her dwelling with the various comforts and refinements of life, as appro- priate furniture, attractive pictures and decorations, that do so much to lend to home life its charm ; to providing a vegetable garden for every family ; to furnishing healthful and nourishing food for growing children and hard working men ; to planting the im- mediate surroundings of the home with ornamental trees, shrubbery and flowers; to furnishing an abun- dance of pure water ; to providing beautiful and health- ful surroundings, free from exposure to malarial fever and other injurious diseases arising from the overflow of rivers and from undrained swamps and bogs, and to organizing and making accessible schools, 52 THE GOVERNMENT AND THE HOME churches and local societies for the education — secular, religious and social — of the members of the home. Agencies j^ would not be fair in making this very imper- states feet presentation to leave the impression that the National Government, great as is its work, is doing all that is being done for the betterment of homes in the United States. There are many agencies at work in the respective States that supplement that which the National Government is doing. The agencies that are in operation in the States in aid of home life may be roughly divided into two : those that are of a public character and those that are operated through the instrumentality of private institutions and societies. Of the public institutions for material betterment of rural communities there are the agricultural experiment stations, established for research, for investigation along agricultural and domestic science lines. These are endowed by the National Government and are also assisted by ap- propriations from the States. There are also boards of agriculture, and various other public societies for the promotion of special interests in agriculture, as horticulture, dairv'ing, poultry rearing, beekeep- ing, animal husbandry, market gardening and kin- dred lines of work, all relating to increasing the pro- ductive powers of farming people. In an educational way there are the colleges, especially those of agriculture and the mechanic arts. These, too, have their origin with the National Gov- ernment, but also receive liberal support from the treasuries of their respective States. There are the farmers' institutes, which last year reached 2,400,000 rT^ril people, with agricultural instruction, and which have a force of more than 1,100 expert lecturers in the employ of the State Directors and also a large number, running into the thousands, of local lecturers THE GOVERNMENT AND THE HOME 53 and experts, to assist this teaching force. There are the high schools and normal schools, the State De- partment of Public Instruction and the entire sys- tem of primary education as exemplified in the pub- lic schools, all at work preparing the youth of the country for the productive industries and for the duties of home-making and of citizenship. These agencies are operated either in whole or in part, and are supported mainly by the States as public institu- tions. I have said that there are two main divisions or classes of agencies at work for rural betterment, one of a public nature, such as those just described, and the other of a private character. This last includes such organizations and societies as civic clubs, read- ing circles, study clubs, libraries, granges, farm clubs, organized for the betterment of home conditions, but maintained chiefly by private means and undertaken by private initiative and operated by private individ- uals or boards. The sum of effort by all of these organizations in the betterment of home life is simply incalculable. Out of these voluntary efforts by individual societies has come much of the wider work undertaken by the public institutions under the direction of the several States and the National Government. With- out the assistance and co-operation of these local or- ganizations much of the value of the work by the States and the National Government would be lost. They form distributing agencies for disseminating the results of the researches and discoveries made by the higher governmental institutions among the people. They provide effect4ve channels for convey- ing information and for incorporating it into the every-day practice and home life of the nation. The home is the heart, the center, toward which 54 THE GOVERNMENT AND THE HOME What should the Govern- ment do in the future for home and chUd? all that is being done, both by the States and by the Nation, is directed. From this center the physical, moral and spiritual life that is to control and ener- gize this nation in its future must proceed. It is be- cause of the important position that the mother main- tains in the family life, and consequently in the life of the nation as a whole, that efforts to assist her by national, state and local means are justified. If she is degraded, or if her conditions and surroundings are hard, so that physically, mentally or morally she is dwarfed and weakened, her offspring and the nation are injured to an irreparable degree. If, on the other hand, her load is lightened and the home life made bright and full, her soul expands and her comfort- ing and protecting love surrounds not only all the children in her home, but goes out to the lonely waifs that have lost a mother's care and need food, cloth- ing and shelter, but, more than all, a gentle mother's love. This, perhaps, can best be answered by another question. What is the home established for? As I have already intimated, it is the garden spot in which seed is sown that is to produce the harvest that is to nourish and sustain our national life. The Gov- ernment must see that good seed is sown; that it is cultivated and nourished with all the skill and tender care that a planting of such importance must receive to thrive and bring forth abundant and perfect fruit. The Government shall see that all that tends to harm this home, this garden, or break in upon it, to blight or injure its tender plants, is immediately driven off, and it must teach those who are the im- mediate custodians of its breathing, thinking and maturing life, the mysteries of its mental, physical and spiritual needs and show them how best to min- ister to secure their fullest development and growth. EDUCATION OF WOMEN FOR THE PROFES- SION OF LIFE '' SARAH S. PLATT DECKER Former President of the General Federation of Women's Clubs ROM the time of Dr. Gregory's famous writ- ing in which he counselled his daughters after this wise, "If you happen to have any learning, keep it a profound secret, especially from men, who look with a jealous, malignant eye on a woman of great parts and a cultivated understand- ing," and from the time when men commonly sold their wives in England for a guinea apiece, up to fifty years later when Lucy Stone was not permitted to read her graduating essay at Oberlin, as it would be considered "indelicate" — from these times to the present is a long step. Women now form about one- \ third of the college students in the United States, one woman in every one thousand is receiving a college education, and in place of seven occupations being \ open to her, as in 1840, she may have choice in this I good year, of upward of three hundred distinct trades and professions. We have cause for great satisfac- tion in our splendid outlook. But because woman's progress has been so rapid and unexpected, more, and much more, is required of her, and therefore most carefully should we study to guide this great and new force for the best interests of individual and community. 55 Trades and professions open to women 56 EDUCATION FOR PROFESSION OF LIFE Why girls are sent to college Dissatisfac- tion with college education "We send our sons to college, and from the first mention of his university course, we choose his work in life. We talk of it with him, and with his college masters. We read books about his chosen profes- sion. We direct his whole thought and study toward this life work. How about our daughters? Do we ever ask why we send them to college ? No. We send them because it is the fashion; because some friend's daughters are going; because we wish them to make i^quaintances outside their own state or city. Or, as a mother made answer to me not long since, "I send Mary to college because — Oh, just because." You will say that this condition applies only to the mother who has means, whose daughter will live at home, a life of leisure, etc. Let us accept the state- ment. Why not teach these daughters of the well- to-do, then, to live at home? I have in mind many mothers who have found that much desired college advantages have resulted in the dissatisfaction of the uoved daughter "with the ordinary life and conditions bf the household, and that home-making and home nappiness have been left entirely out of the college curriculum. The answer to this always comes from those in authority! But we teach cooking and domes- tic science in our college ! Friends, cooking and do- mestic science are not home-making. A home may be made as beautiful as heaven with cold potatoes served on a deal table. The cooking and household work should go hand in hand ^vith the college training, but from the first day of the freshman course, to T the croA^Tiing glory and honors of commencement day, f could we not instill into these daughters who are to { be, we hope, future wives and mothers, the idea that \^ home-making is a science to be learned, and not a \ drudgery to be dreaded? EDUCATION FOR PROFESSION OF LIFE 57 Could we not establish a profession of "daughter- ]for'^iffo°'' hood" or motherhood which would include the knowl- edge of, and willingness to share, the small economies of home ; the courtesy and attention due to the aged ; the sacrifice of selfish plans and the thoughtful con- sideration of the mother, father, and other members of the family ; the habits of industry, and the graces and accomplishments of happiness and personal service ? Let us leave out of the curriculum, perhaps, some of its long list of topics and substitute a chair to be called "The Profession of Life," because, the average woman, let us pray, will have as her chief J vocation, not only the moulding of her ovm. life, but I the fashioning of many others as well. The average woman, too, will have nothing beyond her college course. I think many great and experienced educa- tors disagree with this point of view, claiming that all special life fitting should be outside the broader education, but can the majority of women afford the time for this separate training? A girl leaves high school or preparatory at the age of seventeen years, more often eighteen; four years of college and two years' technical training make a woman of twenty- four years, an absence of six years, perhaps, from the home, and the consequent weakening and weaning therefrom, in addition to the expense and strain upon family income. It is the opinion of modern educators that men cannot afford so much time before beginning their lives, and Columbia and Harvard give an A. B. degree, now, for a three years' course. Put the life training into the four years' course for women. Mrs. Perkins, of Tennessee, puts the thought of of ^cou"|e "f e ' what this training should be most forcibly : for girls ' ' Efficiency is the condition of productiveness, and the girl's college course should be such that when 58 EDUCATION FOR PROFESSION OF LIFE she leaves her alma mater she will realize that she has a work to do and is a producer of values (not material) for herself and for others. She should stand for something in the community in which she lives. She should be instructed in ways which will show her how to be of service in the world, and there should be more practical courses that will fit her to know how to better the world in which she \ lives. That woman who has done nothing toward / helping some individual life or bettering the cora- t munity in general, may be said to be a failure. Our girls should be taught to see how much they can put into life, not how much they can get out of it." Suppose the home is one of wealth where only the gentle ministrations of kindness and unselfish desires are needed, yet, even then, how great the op- portunity for our college woman for service to others not so fortunately placed. Has she been trained in practical work: sewing, cooking, household work and the gentle art of serving? In every community so many are in need and thirsting for this knowledge. I have in mind one college woman who, unaided and alone, brought a new condition, not only of cleanli- ness and industry, but also of hope and courage, into a city street of fifteen houses which were homes only in name. This is an exceptional case, however, and too often to the eye of the layman the college train- ing has produced a daughter not in touch or content with home surroundings, with no definite plan for life work, with no apparent interest in the conditions of her community, and with no desire to give service / thereto — living upon college days and doings, and making plans only for her own diversion and pleas- ure, without thought of the obligations which her great opportunities have entailed upon her — oppor- EDUCATION FOR PROFESSION OF LIFE 59 tunities which should have made each homeliest duty agreeable, and each dullest day profitable. Cannot the college give something better than this to its women graduates? It can never be done by one baccalaureate sermon, or one course of lectures, but by a consistent, constant, scientific training of head, hand and heart throughout the entire college course. It can never be put into the short time given to technical training, for it must be interwoven in the warp and woof of the whole college life, and must include proper values, essentials, obligations of citi- zenship, knowledge of business methods, courtesy of the heart, contentment and pleasure to be obtained from every-day happenings, the divine art of hap- piness and the still diviner art of common sense! These lessons will not come to woman simply through abstract book knowledge of college fashions and tradi- tions. They will not come as they come to man, be- cause of her past limitations and narrow outlook, but they must be studied and learned, lived and practiced, and must be the new salvation which is to come to the world through the college woman. Yl A new ingredient ol the educational dougli The new mathematics THE SCHOOL BEGINS TO PREPARE FOR THE HOME* WILLIAM HARD Editorial Staff of "Everybody" and "The Delineator" T isn't just taking a few household arts (such as sewing and cooking) and nailing them on to education. It isn't just gently spreading another layer over the top of the educational layer-cake. It 's much more important. If you like, it's much more dangerous. It amounts to nothing less than mixing a new and extremely powerful (even %'iolent) ingredient into almost every bit of all the dough out of which the educational cake is made. "We'll begin with the gentlest possible manifesta- tion of the workings of that ingi*edient. A teacher of Mathematics in the new Technical High School in Cleveland, Ohio, is about to give her girls a problem in Percentage. The mind of the hu- mane visitor recoils before the prospect. "Wrung by recollections of his own hapless childhood, he medi- tates decent and instant withdrawal from a room in which innocent young creatures are about to be men- tally vivisected on some such operating table as: 34.159% of .003 1-^19 X 18 .17 .8 of of .5 4 .3 1.009% of 9,837,476,859 *An article for parents who do not understand the school cur- riculum, and what the teachers are trying to do; printed by per- mission of "The Delineator." GO o u. a. UJ ILI I O) UJ I h o o2 LU < ± re ♦^ t^ c — — o re Q. Q. o THE SCHOOL PKEPARES FOR THE HOME 61 But the problem set by the teacher of Mathematics in the Cleveland Technical High School (which is preparing some 1,300 boys and girls to make the most, and the highest, of the duties of the shop and of the kitchen) turns out to be this: "Salmon sells for 18 cents a can; weighs li/4 pounds; and contains 19.5 per cent, of protein and 14.2 per cent, of waste. Sardines sell for 25 cents a can ; weigh 11 •"4 ounces ; and contain 23.7 per cent, of protein and 5 per cent, of waste. Which is cheaper to use?" Well, that isn't so painful. Of course, it's painful enough. It ought to be. It's perfectly good Mathe- matics. It demands effort. But it goes farther. It creates the interest, and therefore the energy, to meet the effort demanded. It tells a girl something about food values. It makes her think a bit about food costs. It's studying. But it indicates the issue from Studying into Living. The boys and girls in the Cleveland Technical High School come very near Living all the time. They have entered far into that happy day foreseen by Professor John Dewey of Columbia University when "the school shall be a genuine form of active community life in- stead of a place set aside in which to learn lessons." Let's go from the Mathematics room into the Chemistry room. There's a girl pouring hydrochloric acid over cal- cium carbonate. Kesult : a gas called carbon dioxide. Rather remote. "Is it interesting?" "Why," says the girl, "it's the same gas that we get in the Domestic Science room when we make bread. ' ' That's what makes her remember her Chemistry — its issue into Living. Vol. 1—3 A definition of school Chemistry and llTlng 62 THE SCHOOL PREPARES FOR THE HOME Mr. Barker, the principal of the school, explains: "Last year that girl took Physiology. So last year her cooking lessons were made to bear especially on physiological matters, such as digestion. This year, her second year, she takes Chemistry. So this year her cooking lessons are made to bear especially [on the chemical compounds which appear in food." Perfectly good Mathematics. Perfectly good Physiology. Perfectly good Chemistry. Sem°? °' Action ! Perhaps that 's the reason why one almost action always observes, in such schools as the Cleveland Tech, the two following remarkable facts : First — There are hardly any irritated, soured, crabbed faces among the teachers. Second — There is hardly any system of discipline { for the pupils, and hardly any need of it. Is it not worth thinking about, that in these ' ' bread- and-butter" schools there is usually less coercion in government and more ''sweetness and light" in tem- perament than there is in many of the schools ded- icated to "pure culture"? The fact is that "pure culture" is one of the most nervous things in the world. The French philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, noted that characteristic of it when he wrote : ' ' The woman of culture is the plague of her husband, her children, her family and her servants." Nothing is complete when it is "pure." It must be "applied." Applied It is to "a pplied culture" that schools like the the schools Cleveland Tecli^ro dedicated. For instance : Here's a room in which, from books and pictures, the girls of the Cleveland Tech study the history of Art, Here is another room in which, from plant forms, they trace the development of conventionalized THE SCHOOL PREPARES FOR THE HOME G3 designs. And here's still another room in which they take the designs which they themselves have made and apply them to fabrics which they themselves are going to wear. Art and Sewing have run together into Living. Those girls, before they are graduated, will have had four years of Handwork in various materials, including clay. But they will also have had two years of back-grounding in Applied Art. And, for further back-grounding, they will have had a year of Euro- pean Art History and a half year of American Art History. When they come to make their graduation dresses in one of the school sewing rooms, they will have ac- quired something besides a familiarity with the needle and other tools of handicraft. Nevertheless that something is something which most of them, being normal human beings, would never have acquired to any such degree except through that very familiarity with the needle and other tools of handicraft. "No impression without expression," said the fiiifowing"^ great psychologist, William James. impression Those girls have taken in impressions of alleged beauty. They have given forth expressions of at- tempted beauty. They have completed the psycho- logical circuit. They have lived beauty. They have therefore (within the limitations of their individual temperaments) changed beauty from an external ob- ject of admiration to an abiding function and need of their nature. Wall paper, hats, waists, ribbons, towels, vases, chairs, mantelpieces, rugs, lamps, gas fixtures, tables, curtains, all material equipment of daily life, the things which we see most, will move toward greater 64 THE SCHOOL PREPARES FOR THE HOME Science issues into living ■through cooking and greater beauty in the homes of all the people un- der the effective demand of graduates of just such courses of study as are offered by the Cleveland Tech. A comparison of the pottery displayed for sale in the shops frequented by the mothers of the Tech girls with the pottery manufactured by the Tech girls themselves, is an astonishing proof of the advance in taste which can be made in a few years. "When that advance is translated, as it will be, into a commercial demand, the change in the character of the shop win- dow displays will be equally astonishing. That change is already begun and has been caused, in no small part, by the practical art work already in- troduced into so many American elementaiy and secondary schools. Sara A. Burstall, an English woman, head mis- tress of the Manchester High School for Girls, in her book called "Impressions of American Education in 1908" speaks of the relation between the art courses and popular tastes. ' ' One is not surprised, ' ' says she, "at the artistic arrangement of American homes of a modest t3'pe when one sees in school after school the Avay that the application of art to the home is taught: America is indeed rapidly becoming, so far as her women are concerned, an artistic nation." But let's leave the Dressmaking and the Millinery and the Pottery, and the whole general field of Domes- tic Art and go into the Domestic Science laboratory. Just as Se\ving is the main channel through which the Arts issue into Living for the girls of the Tech, so Cooking is the main channel through which that same transformation is accomplished for the sciences. The girl who takes a "general course" has four years of Cooking, just as she has four years of Sew- ing. THE SCHOOL PREPARES FOR THE HOME 60 In the last two years, however, the work in the Domestic Science laboratory expands beyond Cook- ing to include such subjects as Laundry, and Home Nursing and Household Sanitation, and Household Management, and Household Accounts.^ But Laundry (which includes the making of soap ' and the removing of stains) takes us back to Chemis- try. And Home Nursing and Household Sanitation takes us back to the sciences underlying public and I personal Hygiene. And Household Management and Household Accounts take us back to ]Mathematics. The work of the last two years, therefore, even that part of it which isn't Cooking, is just as much Domestic Science as was the straight Cooking of the first two years. That straight Cooking! To what extent is it straight Cooking? To what extent is it science f To this extent: At a certain time in the first year's work (one illustration will suffice) there is much boiling and steaming of cereals. But at that same time there is an examining of grains of starch under the micro- scope; there is a testing of potatoes and rice, and eggs and meat with tincture of iodine for the pres- ence, or absence, of starch; there is an inquiring by experiment into the change from starch to sugar ac- complished by the digestive juices. The girl who has thus seen the facts of Chemistry Life purposes merged into the facts of daily living, who has thus taterMt"""^ got a glimpse into the life purposes of Chemistry, is in a fair way to want to learn some Chemistry. We haven't yet realized to what a degree life pur- poses are necessary in order to arouse interest and to create energy among the boys and girls and young men and young women in all the successive strata of the school system. But we are beginning. 66 THE SCHOOL PREPARES FOR THE HOME Professional and technical BCbools Compositions and life purposes President Emeritus Eliot, of Harvard, lias al- ready on several occasions, pertinently contrasted the young men in the colleges with the young men in the professional schools. The young men in the class- rooms of the academic colleges are by comparison listless and indifferent. The young men in the pro- fessional schools of law, of medicine, of engineering, or of any other life task, are by comparison alert and interested. The former think they are just study- ing. The latter know they are living. A vision of life purjjoses would enliven Mathe- matics for the college boy. It was a vision of life purposes that enlivened that study for Abraham Lin- coln — it wasn't just Mathematics itself. When, in his young manhood, unguided save by the flashes which his own genius threw across the dark sky of his surroundings, Lincoln found and read Euclid, he didn't say: "Now I've acquired knowledge. Now I'm learned. Now I'm educated." His comment was quite different. Thinking of the political disputes to which he had devoted himself; thinking of the controversies of fact and of logic to which his voca- tion carried him ; thinking of his trade, he said : ' ' Now I know what an argument is. Now I understand when a proposition is proved." Lincoln was capable of seeing the relationship between Euclid and his own character and destiny. Life purposes were not taught, they were revealed to him. But he was Abraham Lincoln. What w^as done for him })y nature has to be done for others by artifice. Schools like the Cleveland Tech try to do it. They try to hold life purposes before their pupils, so far as possible, every day in every study. Among the themes in English composition set in the Cleveland Technical High School for the Girls, THE SCPIOOL PREPARES FOR THE HOME 67 many visitors might be amused to find these : ' ' Pottery Theme : How to Make a Tile." "Domestic Art Theme : The Sewing Bag, Materials, Cutting, Making." "Do- mestic Science Them.e : A Comparison of the Prepara- tion of Rennet Custard with the Digestion of Milk." The newspaper or magazine editor, observing these themes, might be amused; but he would ap- prove. He knows that it is easier today to find a hundred men and women who can write good English about the influence of Shakespeare on Milton than it is to find one man or woman who can vn:'ite good English about a fire, or a wedding, or a muffin, or an election. He will therefore rejoice when he sees young people being trained to bring the resources of the English language to bear on those matters which most need to be enriched by imagination, refined by correct expression, irradiated by a light from afar. That light from afar is not neglected. The boys and girls in the Cleveland Technical High School read Shakespeare 's " Macbeth " and Arnold's "Sohrab and Rustum" and other masterpieces. But they are also encouraged to take the Muses of verse and of prose by the hand and lead them down out of the temple into the workshop, the basketball field, the millinery store and the kitchen. But what has this kind of English teaching to do -with, the teaching of Domestic Science and Art? Everything. The Domestic-Science-and-Art move- ment is only a part of a larger educational movement. That larger educational movement is only part of a still larger world-thought movement. And that larger world-thought movement has for its driving force a belief in the importance, the beauty, the grandeur of common things. 68 THE SCHOOL PREPARES FOR THE HOME Tie The fact is that we might as well go straight at philosophy „ , . -^ , ^ • j. j of education the philosophy of our subject, it s a subject as deep as any could be. "How shall our daughters be edu- cated?" If we don't get the right philosophy of it, we shall never arrive at being really right in practice. ■\Ve shall be contented with some such incidental, al- most irrelevant reform as the employment of a seam- stress to teach the girls a few stitches, and the em- ployment of a cook to teach them a few dishes, dur- ing a few "practical" hours inserted into an other- wise undisturbed "cultural" school-day. "Whereas the spirit of this new movement, in education as well as everj-where else, demands that "practical" and "cultural" shall cease to be separate compartments in a box and shall become tT\-in poles in a battery con- nected by a continuous life current. The fact that the "new" education in enlarging the little matters of daily living, and in therefore in- cidentally magnifying the whole realm of woman's home work, is not being eccentric and "faddy," but is, on the contrary', showing itself to be in harmony with the controlling forces of the age — this fact could be proved from almost any field of human endeavor. In the Cleveland Technical High School, the boys and girls are segregated from each other in class- room work. It's not on the theory of sex danger. It's on the basis of a difference between the purposes which can be best used to vitalize study for the boys and the purposes which can be best used to vitalize study for the girls. The boys, headed toward the shop, have their Chemistry and their Mathematics and their other academic studies animated by the applications which are going to take place in the shop. The girls, who, whether they go to work or stay at home, vnR be Eeason for segregation in Cleveland schools THE SCHOOL PREPARES FOR THE HOME 69 concerned largely with foods and fabrics, have their Chemistry and Mathematics and other academic studies animated by the applications which are going to take place in foods and fabrics. Manifestly, however, an exceptional boy might want to be a nutrition expert and an exceptional girl I might want to be a metallurgist. In such cases the boy would logically take "girls' " chemistry, and the girl (as some girls do) would logically take "boys' " chemistry. Each would take the chemistry which corresponded to the purpose held in mind. When vou see how thoroughly colored by domestic p°^ °f T^i • 1 teachers science and art the Chemistry, and the Physiology, needed and the ]\Iathematics, and the History, and the Eng- lish, and the other "academic" studies of a school may be, you cease to want just a cooking teacher, or just a sewing teacher for the school in j^our neighbor- hood. You begin to see that the teacher of cooking and the teacher of sewing ought to be able to co- operate with the teachers of the "academic" studies. You begin to see that, aside from that co-operation, the teacher of cooking should have certain Sciences and the teacher of sewing should have certain Arts, be- cause it is in their class-rooms that for most young people the Sciences and the Arts can be most made to live. Such are the cooking and sewing teachers needed. And they are being trained. In Drexel Institute in Philadelphia, in Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, in Teach- ers College in New York, in Stout Institute in Me- nomonie. Wis., in the home economics departments of universities like Chicago and Illinois — in these and other places several thousand young women are tak- ing two, three, four years of preparation to be — what ? Teachers of cooking and sewing? Yes, indeed. But 70 THE SCHOOL PREPARES FOR THE HOME more. To those young women, as much as to any women or men in the whole educational system, is given the chance to be Interpreters of Life. Spread of How fast it grows ! In the State of Illinois, in training | ° . ' for life / the year 1908, there were forty-two high schools in ' which some phase of domestic science or of domestic art was taught. Last year, just two years later, there were seventy-one ! There are thirteen Illinois high schools in which the work in domestic science and art is credited at the State university. Girls from those high schools, when they go to the university, can offer their do- mestic science and art work as one of the fifteen "units" of work which they have to offer for admis- sion to the freshman class. This "cosmopolitan" policy is being illustrated in Chicago. In Chicago the regular high schools have just begun to offer a certain combination of studies extending through four years, to which the title "Household Arts Course" is given. It is a course made up as follows: English and Art are studied through all four years ; Physiology and Botany are studied in the first year; Chemistry in the second; Physics in the third; and United States History and Civics in the fourth. These studies will be taught by the regular "aca- demic" teachers. Then, paralleling the "academic" studies, there will be, in each of the four years, an eight hours a Aveek "home" study, either Textiles or Domestic Science. "We have confined ourselves in this article to high schools. We wish we had time to go into other fields. We wish we had time to speak of the extent to which American colleges and universities are recognizing "home" studies, not only by accepting them for en- THE SCHOOL PREPARES FOR THE HOME 71 trance, but by installing them in their own curricula as college grade studies to be pursued during the college course. And we wish we had time to go all the way down from the universities to the elementary schools and speak of the extent to which in many of those schools the activities of home life are being laid Ihold of, not to displace, but to enliven and strengthen the three R's. We could show that the principles which have made their way into the Cleveland Tech are also making their way, by various routes and in various forms, into every level of the educational fabric. We have kept to the high school level, because we ^ifninl^^or^^ wanted this article to have the greatest possible mean- life ing for mothers and fathers. The high school age . is the age at which the life purposes of the future I woman first become really clearly defined. It is there- \ fore the period during which her father and mother must think most definitely about the sort of training they want her to have. What sort of training is it, in the case of most mothers and fathers? Well, they want her to have the best ''education" possible. That's what they say. And that's what they mean, almost all Americans. Of course, in a general way, they want her to be able to cook and to sew. But they are not crazy about that. Not half so crazy about it as the girl 's husband may some time be. The argument for teaching a girl to cook and to sew is based more on what her future husband 1 and children may need than on what her parents want. Under modern conditions of life and of thought there is enough housekeeping to keep mother pretty busy. But not enough to bother Agnes about. And what mother and father want, indomitably want, de- 72 THE SCHOOL PREPARES FOR THE HOME fiantly want, for Agnes is culture. Culture, culture. And that ambition on the part of mother and fatlier, though it leads to many tragedies, is one of the great- est and noblest things in American life. It's why we've said so much about culture in this article. And it 's why we say now : a b^-p?oduct '^ Real culture, like real happiness, is a by-product. It was never yet caught by straight pursuit. The girl who deliberately singles out happiness for a pur- suit may be frivolous, but she won't be happy. The girl who deliberately singles out culture for a pursuit may be a culturette, ' ' the plague of her husband, her children, her family and her servants," but she won't be a really cultivated woman in the broadest, most human sense of the word. Culture, like happiness, I comes in association with action. Your Agnes, our Mary, all the little girls just through grade school, just starting into high school, are beginning now to grow into the purposes of adult life. Let's find those purposes. They are really Agnes 's human meaning. They're the core of her existence. What is she go- ing to do and be when she's a woman? Let's study those purposes. And then let's take the accumulated knowledges and beauties of the world's history, its capital Science and its Art, and by intimately as- sociating them with those purposes throughout the high school course, make them not merely coat and varnish Agnes, but enter into her very soul. This article, therefore, is not an advocacy merely of domestic science. It is an advocacy of a deeper culture, a culture which, reaching the soul, will abide and dominate. We have advocated domestic science because home work is a life purpose. But there are other life purposes besides home work, even for / girls. THE SCHOOL PREPARES FOR THE HOME 73 One of those other life purposes is self support. "We shall not speak about the urgent importance of that purpose. We shall here only mention the way in which the existence of that purpose is recognized in a certain school. They have in Boston a school called the Girls' l^^^^'oi^j^^ High School of Practical Arts. You might suppose Jj*g<="'=*^ that it was dedicated exclusively to preparing for the Home. But it isn't. It prepares both for home life and for self support. In the first year in that school the girls all take the same studies. But in the second, third and fourth years, in addition to taking certain studies which are required of all of them alike, they must choose between a special "Dressmaking Course," a special "Millinery Course," and a special "Household Science Course." In other words, they must begin to specialize in a certain life purpose. The school says that "The course in Household Science is offered to girls who desire to make an in- telligent study of the home from the standpoints of sanitation, furnishing, decoration and care." It says that "the Dressmaking and Millinery Courses aim to give ideals, taste and skill, which shall have money earning value for the possessor." But won't the girl who becomes a milliner or a dressmaker become later the manager of a home? And may not the girl w^ho takes ' ' household science ' ' , and expects to go straight back to a nice home find herself obliged by some financial disaster to earn her own living in a trade for which she isn't prepared? Isn't there, or is there, an "irreconcilable" con- flict here, in education as in life ? 74 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FAMILY LIFE BIBLIOGRAPHY I Women and Higher Education Edited by Anna C. Brackett (An epitome of the struggle of those who secured this education. Should be read by every mother and daughter. ) Home and School for Social Living Heniy Cope (Pamphlet.) Children of Good Fortune C. Hanford Henderson Child Welfare Magazine (Contains accounts of work accomplished, work to be done and how to do it, and articles most useful to parents.) EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD QUOTATIONS "We have been long expecting that you would tell us something about the family life of your citizens — how they will bring children uito the world and rear them when they have arrived — for we are of the opinion that the right or wrong management of such matters will have a great and paramount influence on the State for good or evil." — Plato. "On observing what energies are expended by father and mother to attaua worldly successes and fulfill social ambition, we are remmded how relatively small is the space occupied by their ambition to make their descendants physically, morally and intellectually superior. Yet this is the ambition which will replace those they now so eagerly pursue, and which, mstead of perpetual disappointments, will bring permanent satisfaction." — Herbert Spencer. "The query of a humorist, why he should do anything for posterity, since posterity had done nothing for him, set me thinking in my early youth in the most serious way. I felt that posterity had done much for its forefathers. It had given them an infinite horizon for the future beyond the bounds of then* daily effort. Through our fathers, without our will and without choice we are given a destiny which controls the deepest foundations of our being. Through our posterity, which we ourselves create, we can in a certain measure, as free bemgs, determine the futiu'e destiny of the human race."— Ellen Key. "More and more must this necessity for preparation be put before our childi'en ; more and more must they be fired with an ambition to make their years of youth count for this great end, more and more made to realize their inseparable connection with the generations before and after them, and their gift of character to those who will call them ancestors." — Emma F. A. Drake. "It is time \-o teach the man the importance of his chastity to the family, state, nation. The average man, Vol. 1—6 "^"^ 78 QUOTATIONS says Hepburn, in his heart, does not acknowledge to himself that there is any competent reason why he should control his passion beyond the sentimental idea of the justice of men's remaining chaste if they require it of women. It must, therefore, be shown to the man that there is also an important racial reason for him to abandon promiscuous life. "If it is shown to the young man, at a time when his heart and mind are still in thrall of the early and eternal poetry of the race, that it is as important to humanity that he should be chaste as it is for the woman to be pure, then he will refrain from indulgence."— J?. S. Talmey. "It should be impressed on every boy that every girl is somebody's daughter and usually somebody's sister, and that it is his sacred duty to afford her the same respect and protection which he would expect from another boy toward his sister." — Joint Committee Report. "Out of our highest scholarship men, only a very small percentage (about five) use tobacco, while of the men who do not get appointments over sixty per cent are tobacco users. But this does not mean that mental decrepitude follows the use of tobacco, for we may read the results m another way, viz : the kind of mind that pennits its possessor to become addicted to a habit that is primarily offensive and deteriorating is the kind of mind that would be graded low in general intellectual tests."— Dr. Seaver of Yale. . "The greatest social privilege women can have is to be /the chief agent in the improvement of the race, and through /it the regeneration of society itself. . . . Being pos- sible mothers, it is necessary, if the race and society are to be improved, that women shall acquire the highest physical, intellectual and moral education of which they are capable, and if they require the same qualities in their husbands, their problem is solved."— Holb rook. "Self development is an aim of all, an aim which will QUOTATIONS 79 make all stronger ana braver, and wiser and better. It will make each, in the end, more helpful to humanity. To be sound in mind and limb, to be healthy of body and mind; to be educated, to be emancipated, to be free, to be beautiful— these things are ends toward which all should strive, and by attaining which all are happier in themselves, and more useful to others. ... To prepare ourselves for paternity and maternity, by making ourselves as vigor- ous and healthful as we can is a duty we owe to all our children unborn and to one another. . . . And what is true of the body corporeal is true also of the body spiritual, intellectual and esthetic. . . . "We shall ex- pect in the future a purer and timer relation between father and mother, between parent and child. We shall expect some sanctity to attach to the idea of paternity, some thought and care to be given to motherhood. We will not admit that the chance miion of two unfit persons, who ought never to have made themselves parents at all, or ought never to have made themselves parents with one another, can be rendered holy and harmless by the hands of a priest ex- tended to bless a bought love, or a bargain of impure marriage. In one word, for the first time in the history of the race, we shall evolve the totally new idea of responsi- bility in parentage. And as part of this responsibility we shall include the two antithetical, but correlative, doctrines of a moral abstinence from fatherhood and motherhood on the part ofthe unfit, and a moraTobligati on to fat herhood and motherhood on the part of the noble st, the p urest, the sanest, the healthiest, the most a b le amo ngus."— Grant Allen in "New Hedonism." VII DO WE NEED EDUCATION FOR PARENT- HOOD? MARY HARMON WEEKS Vice-President of the National Congress of Mothers ONG years ago, when Jane Addams was still explaining Hull House to those to whom a so- ^ cial settlement was a new, strange, and untried dream, some one asked her if she thought that child training should be the central pivot in the work of the world. To which she replied, "Oh, we do so 1 much for the children ! Let us do something for the I drab lives of their fathers and mothers. ' ' In reading a report of a much later talk by Miss Addams, I found her saying, "We can do comparatively little ' for the lives of adults. Let us begin with the chil- dren." We all come back to that sooner or later, do we /not? Everything else seems mere cobbling of the effects of wrong thinking, wrong living, wrong speak- ing, wrong doing. Everything else seems pure tem- porizing with results. Because the beginnings of life were wrong, we have all our social problems. Little wonder that we long to have things begin all over again, with right parenthood, right physical care, right training, and so prevent the social wreckage vrhich hampers every step toward regeneration.J Do we not send a visiting housekeeper into the poorly kept homes of a district, only to end in a practical housekeeping center for the children, through whom 81 Social problems lead always to children 82 EDUCATING PARENTS alone can the care of the home be reconstructed? Do we not employ a visiting nurse to direct the home care of the sick, and does she not come away from such a home with a sense of satisfaction when she has been able to give her instructions to the plastic mind of some child of the house rather than to the habit-ridden grown people? Have we not often longed to rid other homes, in which visiting house- keepers and nurses would be deemed an intrusion, of the short-sighted, incompetent, ruinous leadership of uneducated parenthood, and start the children fairly and squarely with a good chance to do their best? Mother or . Yet SO inscrutable are the movements of divine ' love, that even a very poor home is better for the child than no home, and it is only in very bad mo- ments of discouragement, that we allow • ourselves to tentatively suggest that no parents would be better I than bad ones. "We know that the coddling love of " even a poorly trained mother is necessary to the phys- ical well being of her child, and that for the sake of it, the child may well endure much ill treatment, de- privation and even cruelty in the home. with'l;?^ Since we cannot with safety to the democracy of America destroy the integrity of the home, since we cannot destroy it with safety to the physical well being of the child, how can we begin with the children without beginning with the grownups; not to change their hard and fast habits, not to make them over, but \to induce them to give to the second generation a ^ better parenthood ? The weakest father longs to pro- vide something better for his children than he has known. The most trifling mother wishes for sons and daughters, better conditions than have fallen to her lot. Parents in every grade of society, while re- .fusing to readjust their own lives to any ideal scale I children we must begin with the grown-ups EDUCATING PARENTS 83 of right living, will unconsciously, through love of their little ones, make a thousand adaptations and sacrifices to give their children larger opportunities for happiness than they themselves have had. '^ But parents must realize the importance of direct training for parenthood. They must come into a full comprehension of a new sort of responsibility — a re- sponsibility not only for right training, but for the physical mould, the in herited traits, the spiritual ten- dencies which constitute the child. It is the larger opportunity for a knowledge of nature's laws of transmission, and a training for the duty such knowl- edge involves, which parents can give to the next generation. They must train the child of today to be :^he parent of tomorrow. Education for parenthood is a comparatively new thought, but when its true prophet arises, crying in the language of the people that the promise of hap- piness lies here, every parent will desire it for his children, and will do his best, intelligently or unintel- ligently according to his light, to start his sons and daughters on the road toward the new goal. Froeb el gave us the talisman for child study when he invited us to live with the children. By living w ith them we have learned to really know them. The / , United States may be said to be obsessed with the ' idea of child welfare. But the thought of living for ' children in the larger sense of so directing one 's whole I life as a preparation for right parenthood has yet to I come into its own. 1 A considerable part of the world still believes tharTTvery child is born with a card of instructions labeled "mx)ther instincts" and wax- ranted to teach the most immature and inexperienced mother how to train body and soul for their best life work. Reformatories, asylums, penitentiaries and all Need of direct training for parenthood Living for children a new thought 84 EDUCATING PARENTS I the paraphernalia for caring for humanity's waste product stand like glaring headlines to the inade- I quacy of mother instincts. The costs of maintain- ing these receptacles for castaways grows apace, and a large part of modern social effort is a struggle to undo the mistakes of parents. On every hand we are facing, without really seeing, proofs that parent- hood does not make wise parents. We make a fetish of education ; but in our system of public schools, the crucial education for parenthood has no place. Yet to arrest the enormous social and financial waste which results from this omission, we need educated parents. Laws for j^-'-ODivine Providence has established certain laws for parenthood parenthood, physical, mental and moral. Their viola- tion, whether conscious or unconscious, injures future generations, burdens society, and hinders civiliza- tion. That, as individuals, we suffer from violations - of these laws unto the third and fourth generation, ' is the punishment of our ignorance, as surely as of our intentional guilt. ''Our first duty as a people is to search out these laws, our next to provide their teachers, and our third and individual duty is to obey the laws, ' ' to the end that our children 's children to the third and fourth generation may rise up and call us blessed. Creating *'We cannot have right marriages until standards pa^renthood are SO formed that only a wholesome person and character will attract love. We cannot have good parenthood unless the foundations are laid long be- fore the event, before errors are committed and duties omitted in childhood and youth." If to make a good man, we must begin with his grandfather, let us begin with the grandfathers of the third generation to come, who are now ready to our hands. EDUCATING PARENTS 85 Theodore Roosevelt said, "No Christian and civil- fo^plren^"*^ , ized community can afford to show a happy-go-lucky iiood lack of concern for the youth of today; for, if so, the community will have to pay a terrible penalty of financial burden and social degradation in the tomor- row. There should be severe child labor and factory inspection laws. It is very undesirable that women should work in factories. The prime duty of the man is to work, to be the breadwinner; the prime Iduty of the woman is to be a mother, the housewife. All questions of finance sink into utter insignificance when compared with the tremendous, the vital im- portance of trying to shape conditions so that these two duties of the man and of the woman can be ful- filled under reasonably favorable circumstances. If a race does not have plenty of children or if the chil- dren do not grow up, or if when they grow up they are unhealthy in body and stunted and vicious in mind, then that race is decadent, and no heaping up of wealth, no splendor of monetary material pros- perity, can avail in any degree as offsets." ids it VIII PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE^ "A little child shall lead them" DR. CHARLES W. SALEEBY, F. R. S. E. University of Edinburg :an need ff^EIHIS book will be mere foolishness to those who Dt take the || jfigSM I ... orid as he i^aBy I'^PS'^t the inhuman animal cry that we have to take the world as we find it — the motto of the impotent, the forgotten, the cowardly and selfish, or the merely vegetable, in all ages. The capital fact of man, as distinguished from the lower animals and from plants, is that he does not have to take the world as he finds it, that he does not merely adapt himself to his environment, but that he himself is a creator of his world. Jf our an- cestors had taken and left the world as they found it, we should be little more than erected monkeys to- day. For none who accept the hopeless dogma is this ! book written. They are welcome to take and leave I the world as they find it ; they are of no consequence to the world; and their existence is of interest only in so far as it is another instance of an amazing waste- fulness of Nature in her generations, with which this book will be so largely concerned, :uman life Beginning, perhaps, some six million years ago, minant the fact which we call human life has persisted hither- to, and shows no signs of exhaustion, much less im- pending extinction, being indeed more abundant numerically and more dominate over other forms of life and over the inanimate world today than ever y *From "Parenthood and Raco Culture." Copyright, 1907, by Moflfat and Company. All rights reserved. 86 PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE 87 before. It is a continuous phenomenon. The life of every blood corpuscle or skin cell of every human being now alive is absolutely continuous with that of the living cells of the first human being — if not, indeed, as most biologists appear to believe, the first life upon the earth. Yet this continuous life has been and apparently always must be lived in a tissue of amazing discontinuity — amazing, at least to those who can see the wonderful in the commonplace. For though the world-phenomenon which we call Man has been so long continuous, and is at this moment, perhaps, as much modified by the total past as if it were really a single undying individual, yet only a few decades ago, a mere second in the history of the earth, no human being now alive was in existence. "As for man, his days are as grass ; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more." Indeed, not merely are we individually as grass, but in a few years the hand that vsrites these words, and the tissues of eye and brain whereby they are perceived, will actually he grass. Here, then, is the colossal paradox: absolute literal continuity of life, every cell from a preceding cell throughout the ages — omnis cellula e cellula; yet three times in every century the living and only wealth of nations is re- duced to dust, and is raised up again from helpless infancy. Where else is such catastrophic continuity? Each individual enters the world in a fashion the continuity dramatic and sensational character of which can be °^ ^^^ realized by none who have not witnessed it ; and in a few years the individual dies, scarcely less dramatic- ally as a rule, and sometimes more so. This continu- ous and apparently invincible thing, hiiman-Jife^. which began so humbly and to the sound of no trum- 88 PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE Parenthood the life link pets, in Southern Asia or the neighborhood of the Caspian sea, but "which has never looked back since its birth, and is now the dominant fact of what might well be an astonished earth, de pends in every age and /from moment to moment upon here a baby, there a baby, and there yet another ; these curious little ob- jects being, of all living things, animal or vegetable, young or old, large or small, the most utterly helpless and incompetent, incapable even of finding for them- selves the breasts that were made for them. If but one of all the "hungry generations" that have pre- ceded us had failed to secure the care and love of its predecessor, the curtain would have come down and a not unpromising though hitherto sufficiently gro- tesque drama would have been ended forever. It is thus to the conception of parenthood as the vital and organic link of life that we are forced. "We shall see, in due course, that no generatio n, wheth- er of men or animals or plants, determines or pro- videsr~a&_-^a whole, the future of Jhe race. Only a perce ntage as a rule, a very small percentage indeed, of any species Teach maturity, and fewer still become . parents. Amongst ourselves, one-tenth of any genera- tion gives birth to one-half the nest. These it is who, in the lorg run, make History: a Kant or a Spencer, dj'ing childless, may leave what we call immortal works; but unless the parents of each new gene ration are rightl y chosen or '' selected " — to use the techni- )cal word — a new generation may at any time arise to whom the greatest achievements are nothing. The newcomers will be as swine to these pearls, the im- mortality of which is always conditional upon the capacity of those who come after to appreciate them. There is here expressed the distinction between two kinds of progress: the traditional progress which is PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE 89 dependent upon transmitted achievement, but in its turn is dependent upon racial progress — this last be- ing the kind of progress of which the history of pre- human life upon the planet is so largely the record and of which mankind is the finest fruit hitherto. It is possible that a concrete case, common enough, and thus the more significant, may appeal to the reader, and help us to realize afresh the conditions under which human life actually persists. -n T . . T , -i • £ Meaning of Forced mside a motor-omnibus one evening, for motherhood lack of room outside, I found myself opposite a woman, poorly clothed, with a wedding ring upon her finger and the baby in her arms. The child was covered with a black shawl and its face could not be seen. Tt was evidently asleep. It should have been in its cot at that hour. The mother 's face roused feel- ings which a sonnet of Wordsworth might have ex- pressed, or a painting by some artist with a soul, a Rembrandt, or a Watts, such as we may look for in vain amongst the be-lettered today. Here was the spectacle of mother and child, which all the great historic religions, from Buddhism to Christianity, have ri ghtly jw orshiped ; the spectacle which more nearly symbolizes the sublime than any other upon / which the eye of a man, himself once such a child, can j rest; the spectacle which alone epitomizes the life of mankind and the unalterable conditions of all human life and all human societies, reminding us at once of our individual mortality, and the immortality of our race — "While we, the brave, the mighty and the wise, We Men, who in our mom of youth defied The Elements, must vanish — be it so. Enough, if something from our hands have power To live, and act, and serve the future hour:" 90 PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE the spectacle which alone, if any can, may reconcile us to death ; the spectacle of that which alone can sanctify the love of the sexes, the spectacle of mother- hood in being, the supreme duty and supreme priv- ilege of womanhood — "a mother is a mother still, the holiest thing alive." This woman, utterly unconscious of the dignity of her attitude and of the contrast between herself and the imitation of a woman, elegantly clothed, who sat next her, giving her not a thought nor a glance, nor yet room for the elbow bent in its divine office, was probably some thirty-two or three years old, as time is measured by the revolutions of the earth around the sun. Measured by some more relevant gauge, she was evidently aged, her face gray and drawn, desperately tired, yet placid — not with due exultation, but with the calm of one who has no hope. She was too weary to draw the child to her bosom, and her arms lay upon her knees; but instead she bent her body downwards to her baby. She looked straight out in front of her, not at me nor at the passing phan- tasms beyond, but at nothing. The eyes were open but they were too tired to see. The face had no beauty of feature nor of color nor of intelligence, but /it was wholly beautiful, made so by motherhood; and I think she must have held some faith. The tint of her skin and of her eyeballs spoke of the impoverish- ' ment of her blood, her need of sleep and rest and ease of mind. She will probably be killed by consumption within five years and will certainly never hold a grandchild in her arms. The pathologist may lay this crime at the door of the tubercle bacillus; but a prophet would lay it at the reader's door and mine. PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE 91 f While we read and write, play at politics or ping- "*- Protection pong, this woman and myriads like her, are doing the through essential work of the world. The worm waits for us as ™° well as for her and them: and in a few years her children and theirs will be Mankind. We need a prophet to cry aloud and spare not; to tell us that if this is the fate of mothers in the ranks which supply the overwhelming proportion of our children, our I nation may number Shakespeare and Newton amongst the glories of its past, and the lands of ancient empire amongst its present possessions, but it can have no future ; that if, worshiping what it is pleased to call j success, it has no tears or even eyes for such failures las these, it may walk in the ways of its insensible heart and in the sight of its blind eyes; yet it is walking not in its sleep but in its death , is already doomed and damned almost past recall ; and that, if it is to _be saved, _ there will avail not "broadening the basis of taxation," or teaching in churches the worship of the Holy Mother and Holy Child, w^hilst motherhood is blasphemed at their very doors, but this and this only — the establishment, not in statutes but in the consciences of men and women, of a true religion based upon these perdurable and evident dogmas — that all human life is holy, all mothers and /all children, that history is made in the nursery, that the individual dies, and therefore children determine r the destinies of all civilizations, that the race or I society which succeeds with its mammoth ships and I its manufactures but fails to produce men and women, is on the brink of irretrievable doom; that the body of man is an animal, endowed with the neces- sary animal instincts necessary for self-preservation and the perpetuation of the race, but that, if the possession of this body by a conscious spirit, "look- 92 PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE ing before and after," is anything more than a "sport" of the evolutionary forces, it demands that, the blind animal instincts notwithstanding, the des- ecration of motherhood, the perennial slaughter and injury of children, the casual unconsidered birth of children for whom there is no room or light or air or food, and of children whose inheritance condemns them to miserj', insanity or crime, must cease ; and that the recurrent drama of human love and struggles reaches its happy ending, not when the protagonists are married, but when they join hands over a little child that promises to be a worthy heir of all the ages. This religion must teach that the spectacle of a prematurely aged and weary and hopeless mother, which he who runs or rides may see, produced by our rude foreshado'wdngs of civilization, is an affront to all honest and thoughtful eyes : that where there are no mothers, such as mothers should be, the people ^vill assuredly perish, though everything they touch should turn to gold, though science and art and phi- losophy should flourish as never before. I believe that history, rightly read, teaches these tremendous lessons. CAT AND KITTENS After the Painting by Louis Eugene Lambert. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York. rx THE IDEALS OF EUGENICS Its Ideals and What It is Going to Do G. STANLEY HALL, Ph. D., LL. D. President, Clark University, Worcester, Mass. UGENICS may be roughly described as the science and the art of breeding applied to man, whom we have shamefully neglected, although we have long applied them to plants and animals. "We can breed cattle, but not men." If heredity is the most precious kind of wealth and worth, more important than education or even en- vironment, then eugenics is larger than pedagogy, religion and all other culture influences combined. At any rate, no one questions the importance of being born not only without moral or physical taint, but of healthy, vigorous and upright parents and grand- parents. 1. The Mannheim International Congress and all the prophylactic societies agree that sex should be /taught in week day and Sunday schools, that there is tragic ignorance and misinformation, and the in- struction should come early. This, the statistics, now a body of literature by itself concerning secret vice 1 and sex diseases among young people and in men's I colleges, appallingly shows, we must provide. The only open questions are now by whom these topics shall be taught, whether by parents, teachers, or doc- tors ; and how, whether directly or indirectly, and how early, whether in the upper grammar grades or later. Vol. 1—7 ^3 Definition of eugenics Teaching sex 94 THE IDEALS OF EUGENICS The answer to these three questions when a mature consensus is reached will, I think, run somewhat as follows : a. By whom? By the physicians, with their /horrid array, only to individuals in special need. Most physicians know very little indeed of the practical psychology, pedagogy or hygiene of sex. These topics are not in the medical curriculum and even venereal diseases are little stressed in medical schools. Again, I the medical code is a standing menace to the public health and in reference to these infectious diseases as it is not in reference to any others that are contagious. /This teaching should be given by parents if possible, ^ especially by mothers to daughters, but only a very few parents are competent, and most of the wisest fathers find that sex shame makes it hard to speak out plainly enough to their adolescent sons. Hence it is up to the / teacher and the clergyman in a large majority of cases to enlarge their function and fit themselves to be guides of the rising generation. b. How should sex be taught? Briefly and con- cisely and not by books of many pages of the Stall order, some of it by printed matter in the form of leaflets with condensed information such as are now procurable from half a score of societies that have provided them. This should be supplemented by per- sonal counsel upon individual needs and seizing op- portunities and openings as they arise in a confes- sional way and on the basis of relations of friendship between older and younger people such as e. g. the Big Brother Movement affords, by advisers and men- tors, godfathers and mothers, or lay or accessory parents. Curiosity should be watched for as it arises, and fed but not anticipated. Young people should be / told of their origin in the mother 's body but not at 1' THE IDEALS OF EUGENICS 95 first of the paternal function. Where babies came from is often the theme of long and neuroticising secret quest on the part of children and if told at the right moment a little information satisfies for the time and may prevent not only undue tension but hypertrophy of sex interest and bring children some immunity to the mass of infectious obscenities in their midst. Nature and growth rub out the very memory of these things for us so that adults have no conception of the eagerness of children about these topics, nor do they realize how briefly and concisely all that is needed may be told in a way to make it sink deep forever. Once is enough, like a word to the wise, and no examination is necessary to make it stick. Flowers, cross fertilization and the romance of plant life tell much, especially to girls, but this is not enough for them, and still less would it suffice for boys, who need lessons from animal breeding. Such I knowledge must be given very plainly and unmis- "" takably but without self-consciousness on the part of the teacher. Self abuse must be spoken of, at first as chiefly a dirty habit, and the scare element, which makes it the cause of all sorts of most baleful con- sequences, should be vastly reduced, both because terror is so liable and also because it is not true. Bad as it is, its evils have often been preposterously and 'disastrously magnified. Then there should always /'be some class instruction, mostly to each sex by itself, / for the needs and also the capacities of boys and girls differ greatly here. Both, however, can be told of ^ their inheritance from parents, grandparents, etc., as we go back to a host of ancestors to whose virtues we OM^e all that is good in us, health, sanity, etc. They can also be told of the supreme duty of transmitting the sacred torch of life undimmed to the future as Si. 96 THE IDEALS OF EUGENICS the highest point of honor and loyalty to the count- less generations who will throng this earth long after we and they are all dead in saecula saeculorum. Boys can be told of the respect they owe their mothers and sisters and all other boys' mothers and sisters, and girls of their duty to their person, especially when periodicity is seeking to establish itself, and also of the danger and unmaidenliness of granting liberties to those of the other sex whose regard they. wish to hold and that the attention of no young man is really worthy or permanent which cannot be held by means that do not compromise self respect. c. As to how early, I reply we have no right nowadays to let any boy or girl leave school satisfy- ing the laws of attendance without some essential in- ■ formation on these vital themes and a series of at least occasional talks should go on through the high school and into college. Otherwise our youth are not forewarned and fore- armed against the most insistent and insidious of all temptations. Sex hygiene 2. Sex hygiene and regimen is twofold, of the and regimen ]-,Q(jy g^^^^ Qf ^j^g mind. If both are sluggish, idle, un- occupied, sex is so imperious that it tends to push to the front and possess both and may easily come to dominant interest, especially through the adolescent i decade. It may sweep everything before it, break- I ing through better knowledge, prudence, shame, honor, decency and defy conscience and religion. Hence no amount of knowledge, however fit, adequate and time- ly, is enough. We have only begun our duty to the young when we have instructed them. "What is need- ed? I reply first and foremost, absorbing occupa- w tion. For the body, active, healthful, daily exercise.^ to the point of normal fatigue, and for the mind inter- THE IDEALS OF EUGENICS 97 ests of every worthy sort, intellectual, social, aesthetic, vocational, religious. Every healthful zest and activity makes directly for sexual hygiene. The boy who loves exercise and can abandon himself to it, whether it be work or play, who keeps his muscle, digestion, complexion, up to concert pitch, who ca- vorts eagerly with good companions and lives out of doors, who roughs it occasionally, gets close to nature, the boy who really wants to know something about many things axid much about something, who is curious about autos, kites, flying machines, who really and actively cares about science, art, invention, busi- ness, trade, who is ambitious to excel — such a boy may once and may repeatedly fall into sexual error '""^ and not live up to the standards set for him by maiden aunts, but will probably come out all right, become a good husband and father, as every boy should early plan to be. On the other hand, merely mechanical routine, sedentary, indoors occupations, the diathesis of living from hand to mouth without thought of the future, indolence, lack of vital interest, these make the soul in which every sort of sex perv ersion and aberration flourishes. But even this is not enough. There must be active cultivation of specific sentiments and ideals. First of all, honor, which, pagan though it be, in origin, I believe to be more effective as a preventive of error in this field than even conscience itself. For what is honor, of late so much discussed? I believe it bot- toms on and is essentially fidelity to the interests of ^^^^^<-'\^ the unborn. It means ideal conduct and life which realizes that the transmission of life is the supremest of all human functions, conditioning about everything else, that it is the center of the most and best faculties and the touchstone of the other virtues and gives on 98 THE IDEALS OF EUGENICS s the whole the best and loftiest standards by which the real value of individuals can be judged. Those who are in all respects the best fathers, the eugenicists of Europe would have constitute a new order of no- . bility, lords, knights, barons and princesses of the truest, bluest blood of the nation. Some would even endow the choicest parenthood and if needed pay bonuses for well born babies and thus make the bear- ing and rearing of superior and of many children a lucrative vocation rewarded by the state. This is well. Nor is this all. They would have positions in business and government employ given by preference, other things being somewhere nearly equal, to those having most and best children, and would consider this in all questions of advancement, whether in place or pay. Some firms in Germany, where the birth rate is declining, as it is in nearly every country in Europe, save Russia, when the world never so wanted men for its colonies, armies, industries, have actually put these principles into practice. In the Orient nearly every woman is bearing children during all her fecund life- time, while in the West, according to Ehrenfels, only about two-thirds of their child-bearing capacity is utilized. This fact is the root of the yellow and ' ' Oriental peril, for the future belongs to those people who bear most and best children and bring them to fullest maturity. They will, in the end, wield all the accumulated resources of civilization and infer- tile races will fade before them. Thus children are the most precious of all our national resources, which in these days of their conservation we ought chiefly to consider. Eugenics / Nor is this all. Galton and his followers would as & new creed v have eugenics proclaimed as the new religion of the \ future, the religion of this rather than of another life. ^ THE IDEALS OF EUGENICS 99 The slogan of eugenics, a new religion, the religion of this world, not of another, has caught the imagina- tion and won the applause of many who are critical if not hostile to Christianity. It does indeed suggest a creed and a cult which modern culture and espe- cially science and most of all those who serve the great biologos or spirit of life, would place as the supreme end of man. But I ask in closing, why call it a new religion? Is it not all of it simply a legitimate new interpret-ation of our Christianity ? Is it not all latent in our Scriptures ? Was anything more characteristic of the ancient Hebrew of Old Testament days than their purity and to keep the purity of their blood, than duties of parents to children and vice versa, and is there any trait more peculiar to the Jews in our day than that they excel all races save, perhaps, one, in fecundity? The very covenant of Javeh with Abraham, the great cattle breeding sheik who founded the Jewish nation, was that if he kept God's law his seeds should be as the stars of heaven for multi- tude, as if that were indeed the chief human felicity. ; This means, according to the newest and highest psy- chogenetic criticism, simply that Jehovah's laws are at bottom those of eugenics. The supreme criterion of ' virtue indeed is living in every item for the interests of posterity. The world is for the chosen, the best, it belongs to those who come after us, who will be in number like the grains of sand upon the shore. That their seed fail not is the supreme blessing. The en- tire Old Testament from the myth of Eden to the latest prophets, needs a new eugenic exegesis, while jthe dominant theme of the New Testament is love, the 'strongest thing in the soul of man, centered upon ]j service and welfare of the race. Love and serve God and man ; that is the quintessence of our religion. "We 100 THE IDEALS OF EUGENICS only need to turn a little larger proportion of the love and service we have directed toward God, who does not need it, to man who does, and we have eugenics, J for who serves mankind so much as he who transmits the sacred torch of heredity, which is the most pre- cious of all wealths and worths, undimmed to later generations by bringing more and better men and women into the world and rearing them to the fullest possible maturity? Every human institution, family, school, state and church, are, in their last analysis, graded and measured by what they contribute to this all comprehendingness. I can merely say it in bare phrases here, but think it out for yourselves, think seriously; read in this field and you will see only what has so long lain in concealed Christianity standing forth here revealed. The beatitudes are full of it. The meek inherit the earth on the simple biological law that over-individualization is at the ex- pense of genesis and beyond a certain point inversely as it. Nothing was ever so pedagogically potent in quenching youthful passion as hell fire when it was believed in. The better elements of the gross phallic religions that once covered the whole earth are all re- tained and sublimated in Christianity. Do you clergy- men falter in your belief in total depravity, or are you unsound on the doctrine of the unpardonable sin? If so you only need to hear as I sometimes do, youth, who have lost all control of their passions and feel that the possibilities of normal parenthood are forever lost to them or that they are tainted with venereal disease and that their ancestry must end with them, in order to realize that the ancient makers of this new life, in all the intimacy of the confessional had at their disposal both a diagnosis and a psycho- therapy that we have well nigh lost. Mr. Northcote, THE IDEALS OF EUGENICS 101 the author of Christianity and Sex Problems, is right. I Those who know not sex and eugenics know not the essence of Christianity. Christianity has never said all that it meant. It is not yet all revealed to man. Scholarship on the one hand and religous experience on the other are con- stantly finding deeper, larger things in it, things not read into but evolved out of it. Since Darwin showed how much of the whole process of selection I by which ever higher forms of life were unfolded was sexual and that many of the best things from flowers onward and play activities up were secondary sex qualities, and again since psychotherapy ha3 )f shown the hitherto undreamed of potency of this \ factor in human nature to make health and disease, sex also is becoming more and more long circuited and spiritualized or literally transfigured with new po- tency until now we have in it almost a new organ of apperception for moral and religious experience, con- firming much that some had begun to doubt and re- viving much that we were well on toward forgetting. jLove rules the court, the camp, the grove, for "love is God and God is love" might be the watchword of the new eugenic aspect of Christianity. To separate religion and sex does great wrong to both, for to teach sex, at least to the young, without religion is to leave out the motivation which is the most practical and effective, and to conceive Christianity without sex is to lose some of its choicest and deepest insights. In fine, sex and reproduction have played a more and more important role in each of the following fields, in some of which they are already dominant; in natural history since Darwin's sex selection; in an- thropology and sociology from McEennan to Havelock Ellis; in criminology since Lombroso; in medicine 102 THE IDEALS OF EUGENICS since Krafft-Ebing, Tranowski and Moll and the advo- cates of prophylaxis; in psychology beginning with Freud and his followers ; in morals since Sutherland 's biological ethics ; in religion since Ferguson, Furlong, Inman, Morse and Northcote. In all these fields sex is a common ground of larger and larger dimension. It gives them more interest in each other and may be destined to bring them into a new and higher unity. The time for this scientific synthesis has of course not yet come and may be long delayed, inevit- able though it seems sooner or later. Meanwhile eugen- ics draws upon all these domains and has pointed out many and will, let us hope, find out many more prac- tical ways of improving the human stock and helping the world on towards the kingdom of some kind of superman to which the men of today may prove to be only a transition, a link which with all that absorbs us now may be lost sight of and. possibly become a missing link. — [From '' Religious Education."] INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY AND ENVIRON- MENT UPON RACE IMPROVEMENT CARL KELSEY, Ph. D. Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia NE of the most eminent of living biologists has sociology's recently written: "It is well known that the t^fio^'*"* sociological inquiries of Malthus as to human population influenced Darwin, "Wallace and Spencer, and that the concept of natural selection in tlie struggle for existence came to biology from above rather than from within its own sphere. The same is true of the fruitful idea of division of labor, of the general idea of evolution itself and of others — they came to biology from the human social realm. *'To keep to the concept of selection for a mo- ment: It was applied to plants and animals, it was illustrated, justified, if not demonstrated, and formu- lated; and now, with the imprimatur of biology it comes back to sociology as a great law of life. That it is so we take for granted, but it is surely evident that in social affairs, from which it emanated as a suggestion to biology, it must be reverified and pre- cisely tested. Its biological form may be one thing, its sociological form may be another. ' ' I have given this quotation for several reasons. It shows us clearly that the subjects under discus- sion in this volume are in part biological, in part sociological. These fields have much in common, are often interdependent, yet are separate. Many anal- 103 104 HEREDITY AND Em^IROXMENT Comparative importance of heredity and environment ogies exist, but laws in one are not ipso facto to be considered laws in the other. Clear thinking then de- mands that the two fields shall be sharply defined. Social theory gave a great impulse to biological re- search. Biology now places at the disposal of social workers a mass of knowledge as yet little appreciated whicli is, however, destined to revolutionize social programs. A discussion of "the comparative importance of heredity and environment" is likely to be very mis- leading. The problem is not to determine which is more important, but to discover the contribution each makes to the body politic. I know of no way of com- paring the relative importance to a given man of heredity and environment any more than I know how to determine whether the stomach or the brain, whether food or air, is more important. Essentials cannot be compared. They can only be discovered and the functions of each studied. It can easily be shown that evils arising from bad heredity are not affected by changing the environment and vice versa. A feeble-minded person remains feeble- minded whether he vegetates in an almshouse or is cared for at Elwyn — nor does any change affect his children. The children of athletes are not dif- ferent from those of scholars provided the stock be the same ; nor are those descended from church mem- bers or heretics, saints or sinners, the stock being the same, and this is true, popular opinion to the contrary not\\ithstanding. At the outset clear thinking is difficult because of the different, often conflicting, meanings given to words. "When a college senior defines animism as be- lief in the Father and Son, but not in the Holy Ghost, we smile. Our feeling is a bit changed when the head HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 105 of an institution for children on being asked if he favored the indenture system, replied, no, that he pre- ferred manual training. But what progress can be made when even physicians confuse congenital with inherited characters and do not see that the transmis- sion of a disease like syphilis from parent to child does not mean that the child inherited the disease? In my judgment, we should limit the term inheri- / tance to those physical characters which are deter- mined, we know not how, in the germ cells. These germ cells unite and growth begins. All modifica- tions, whether caused by some poison, say alcohol ; by disease, say syphilis ; by accident ; by over or under nutrition, are technically known as acquired charac- ters. Congenital, then, refers merely to the fact that certain characters exist at birth — it tells nothing as to their origin. Contrary, again, to popular judgment, biologists now almost unanimously believe that such acquired characters or modifications have no effects on germ cells later produced by the individual, and therefore produce no change in the next generation. Be it remembered that "acquired characters" do not refer to any of the features which may have come Oto the human race through inborn variations. Our language is at fault. "When we say the human race has ,^ acquired given characteristics we refer to inborn not \ to "acquired characters." Failure to make the dis- tinction is a fruitful source of error for those not trained in biology. Space prohibits the discussion of this most important point. It must suffice to say that, while no one knows what causes the offspring to vary from the parents, we now know that certain things formerly held all-important are of no effect. At this very point a new difficulty arises. Heredity is often used in the sense of social heredity. We say Definitions of "inherited," "congenital" and "acquired" 106 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT a child inherits the customs, ideak, learning — the whole culture of the parent group. A little refiec- y tion makes clear that these are social inheritances, '• not physical — quite as important, but different. Noth- ing is more obvious than that the children of certain groups are better housed, better fed, better trained and educated than those of other groups. That, on the whole, these are to be leaders is evident. So quick are we to jump at conclusions, however, that the world-wide assumption has been that these chil- dren have a better line of physical descent. Is this a self-evident fact? May not their superiority be due to their environment, not to heredity ? Investigation, not argument, must furnish the answer. Grotmds The qucstion to be considered in this connection is mLriage whether the marriages of human beings have been consummated on physical or social grounds. If the evidence shows that social, political, financial consid- erations have determined the bulk of the matings, then there is little reason to believe that better strains have been created and perpetuated. That they could be, no biologist doubts, but social customs prevent. Bagehot somewhere says: "Man, unlike the lower ani- mals, has had to be his own domesticator. ' ' Man has found it worth while not merely to tame, but also to carefully breed the domestic animals. Unfortunately, it would seem, the suggestion that he might improve his 0"WTi stock has received little consideration. The term "Eugenics" is hardly understood in America, though better known in England. Here is a vast field for study. I could only suggest that it is doubtful if it can be shown that during all historic time the human race has made any material change via the road of heredity. HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 107 / Race is another hobgoblin. "We all know what a race is, yet no one can tell where one race stops and another begins, physically — that is, legally we often accomplish the impossible. What are race differences, physical or social ? What are the effects of race cross- ings? These are tremendously important questions for us today. In many states certain inter-race mar- riages are prohibited by law. Why ? Because of phys- ical or social results? There may be important physical differences between the races. I know not. I only venture to state that no one has yet shown what they are. If this be so, then popular discussion should yield to scientific inquiry. Race differences aside, the problem of maintaining a sound physical stock confronts us^ For a century we have boasted, vain-gloriously, of our wonderful pro- gress, of our physical as well as mental superiority. Suddenly we find our faith challenged. Anglo-Saxon in civilization we may remain, but not in stock. Our ancestors first "fell on their knees and then on the aborigines," and prevailed because of their superior- ity. Now their descendants claim that the inferior peoples of Europe are destroying them. How can such a paradox be explained ? Can it be that the vir- tues of the old stock were due to the development caused by the outdoor frontier life? It must not be forgotten that the earlier immigrants found their op- jportunities in the open, while those coming today find ^theirs in the crowded industrial centers. The signifi- cance of this is more apparent when we reflect that every study shows that great groups of our people are living and working under improper conditions. In our haste we say that they come here from stocks of low vitality, but is it not possible that the trouble lies in our own social institutions? When it is found Considerations of race MaintaiaiBg soand physical stock environment 108 HEREDITY AND EN\''IRONMENT that the backward children in our schools are phys- ically subnormal better methods of instruction alone will not suffice. The serious problems of immigration are then apparently due to social differences rather than to inherited physical differences. So far we have considered the problem from the side of heredity. Recognizing that there are many un- solved questions, it would seem clear that our first duty is the elimination of the unfit, that they may: not become parents. Next comes the attempt to im- prove the race stock by paying some attention to bio- logical factors underlying matrimony. Personally, I believe we are safe in assuming that the great ma- jority of children in America are born normal and with average possibilities. Controlled^ Normal growth requires more than mere adapta- tion to environment. Social progress in large meas- ure consists in controlling the environment in ever- increasing measure. Contagious diseases no longer rank among the properties of the germ cells nor do we charge them to divine providence. Kno"wing them now to be of bacterial origin, we attack them and conquer them one by one. But progress starts reac- tion against itself. There are those so affected by the statement that forty million bacteria may exist in a drop of milk that they prefer diseased milk to such knowledge. Prudery prevents the open and frank discussion of those venereal diseases which so vitally affect the human race. Such opposition must not pre- vail. It is increasingly evident that the conditions of life and labor of the workers of the world — children, men and women — are of fundamental importance. Better a slow development than one purchased at the expense of the future efficiency of child laborers. HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 109 Fatal to process is the continued existence of large groups under conditions causing physical or mental breakdo^^Ti. Self-evident, you say? Granted, by everyone in theory, but often denied in fact. Vested interests, private profit, selfishness, are here the han- dicaps. Evident, too, it appears to the student that many old social institutions must be speedily and perhaps radically changed to meet new conditions if contin- ued prosperity is to be ours. Our schools must pre- pare the ninety-five per cent for life, not the five per cent for college, for instance. Here the handicap is conservatism. In a word, we live and think too much in vicious circles. Men and women live and work under bad conditions. The children are poorly nourished and sadly neglected. Low ideals are inculcated. Result — inefficiency, poverty, vice, crime. In another group opposite conditions prevail, opposite results follow. Popular opinion of the successful group says hered- ity-blood tells ; that of the other says environment, exploitation, lack of opportunity. I know of no bet- ter way of contrasting the philosophy of the so-called upper and lower worlds. To such loose thinking an increasing protest is arising. Unconscious, perhaps, of its full significance, many of those now grappling with social problems are condensing their statement of causes into the one word, ''maladjustment." In a word, we create the evil as well as the good. Nature is impersonal. To an increasing degree man determines. The race stock remains practically unchanged. Each generation starts on the same physical level. Are conditions such that physical strength will be conserved or ex- hausted? Will children become robust men and Vol. 1—8 Duty of schools Maladjust- ment 110 HEREDITY AXD EN^^IRONMENT women or weaklings" Do social institutions provide opportunities or check ambition by some form of privilege ? S^ America'" In America we must face the issue. God cares no more for us than for other nations. The problems of vice, crime, poverty, are ours. Only by intelligent study of the situation, only by effective co-operation in remedial and constructive measures can ultimate downfall be averted. As individuals we are helpless. In my judgment the situation is hopeful. To realize that our problems are chiefly those of environ- ment which we in increasing measure control; to realize that, no matter how bad the environment of this generation, the next is not injured pro- vided that it be given favorable conditions, is surely to have an optimistic view. Shall not our ideal be, then, a sound body as the necessary basis of a sound mind, a healthy, progressive race? XI laws. INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY ON HUMAN SOCIETY CHARLES B. DAVENPORT Director, Station for Experimental Evolution (Carnegie Institution of Washington), Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, N. Y. |UMAN society is a loose organization of the people of any race or country that is based on traditions and consensus of opinion ex- pressed both in "good manners" and written Such an organization tends to make more agreeable and effective man's existence as a gregari- ous species. Human society is not everywhere the same, because the traditions of peoples differ. The best citizens in certain regions of Africa go clad in a way that would lead to incarceration in Philadelphia, while the marital relations of certain oriental coun- tries would have been considered impossible in the loosest year of the Dakotas. Recognizing once for all the arbitrary nature of our social traditions, we have to consider how heredity influences the white man's society of the United States of today. First of all it is necessary to point out that, until recently at least, human society was founded on a fundamentally wrong assumption that all men are created alike free agents, capable of willing good or evil, and of accepting or rejecting the invitation to join the society of normal men. But in recent de- cades legislators have come to realize that human protoplasm is vastly more complex than their phi- Ill Cbanging basis as to man's individual responsibility 112 HEREDITY AND HUIVIAN SOCIETY losophy conceived, and that the normal man is an ideal and hardly a real thing. Every man is a bundle of characteristics, and no two are exactly alike. Not only has he the physical characteristics of brown, black or red hair, blue or brown eyes, short or tall stature, slight or heavy weight, but he has a mass of less evident but, in their relation to human society, more important qualities. His sense organs may be nearly normal or very defective, so that he cannot see the color of the signals displayed to the train he is controlling or hear the submarine sound that tells of impending collision, or smell the smoke that should warn him to alarm the sleeping inmates. The posi- tion and connections of the association fibres of the brain may approach the typical condition or they may be so aberrant that the person misinterprets the things he sees. His brain may be incapable of de- veloping properly in single or all directions, so that he remains with defective judgment, memory, and even instincts, unable to appreciate the traditions of human society, or, perhaps, impelled constantly to run counter to the fundamental principles of that so- ciety — tearing them into shreds. He may be subject to illusions or hallucinations ; he may suffer from melan- cholia or paranoia in its multifarious forms, leading him to commit arson or murder and to assassinate high officials. Heavy is the toll human society pays for the presence of these degenerates. DegeneratiTe If thcsc qualities of degeneration were merely forces at sporadic, accidental, due to a rare combination of en- vironmental conditions, human society could protect itself sufficiently by secluding the feeble-minded, im- prisoning those with active forms of psychoses and putting to death those with homicidal tendency. But, on the contrary, just such defective conditions are HEREDITY AND HUMAN SOCIETY 113 inevitably transmitted in the germ plasm as are ap- parently being reproduced faster than the more nor- mal characteristics. Thus Dr. G. A. Doren, of the Ohio Institution for Feeble-minded Youth, states: "Unless preventive measures against the continu- ously progressive increase of the defective classes are adopted, such a calamity as the gradual eclipse, slow decay and final disintegration of our present form of society and government is not only possible, but probable." At a time when, through prudential re- straint, the birth rate of the best blood of our nation barely suffices to replace that lost by death, the un- restrained, erotic characteristics of the degenerate classes are resulting in large families, which are with- drawn from the beneficent operation of natural selec- tion by a misguided society that is nursing in her bosom the asp that may one day fatally poison her. Modern studies in heredity show us the danger. Whenever a unit quality or characteristic is lacking in hoth parents it will be wanting in all of their off- spring. If both lack the capacity of developing prop- erly the cortical cells all of the children will be want- ing in this respect. Some of the cases described by Dr. Martin W. Barr are certainly or probably of this sort. He states that he has known "Three imbecile children who have parents each of whom is both im- becile and drunken ; an imbecile deaf mute, an in- mate of an almshouse from girlhood, is the mother of six illegitimate idiot children. I have recently been called to examine ... an imbecile woman with seven illegitimate idiot children. I know, fur- thermore, of a family of twelve brothers and sisters all of the lowest grade of idiocy, two lapping their food like dogs, their only language animal cries." The history of the Jukes suggests the same method 114 HEREDITY AND HUMAN SOCIETY i Percentage of develop- ment of , family traits of inheritance for laziness. The pauper harlot, Ada Juke, married a lazy husband. Both parents are temperate, but all four children are indolent, even the most industrious having received outdoor relief. One of these children married a lazy man, and all of the six children of whom as adults there is knowledge were lazy. One of these married a lazy woman, by whom he had nine children. Nothing further is known of three of them, but all of the others were recipients of outdoor relief. It will be observed that we have not here to do merely with a high percentage of pauperism in the offspring of two lazy people, but with one hundred per cent, or complete pauperism. The children cannot rise in any particular quality above the potentiality of their more advanced parent. Training the feeble-minded will develop the charac- teristics that are present, but vnll create no new ones. No amount of training will develop that of which there is no germ ; you may water the ground and till it and the sun may shine on it, but where there is no seed there will be no harvest. Modern studies in heredity, again, show that when one parent has a characteristic, and comes of a strain that has it purely developed, while the other lacks the characteristic, the children will all tend to have the characteristic, but in a diluted condition. Such a, diluted characteristic is called heterozygous. In the germ cells of such children the character segregates into half of the germ cells and the other half lack it. Where two such individuals possessing a heterozy- gous character marry each other, then, on the aver- age, one-fourth of the offspring will result from the union of two germ cells possessing the character, two- fourths from one germ cell possessing and one lack- ing the character, and one-fourth from two germ HEREDITY AND HUMAN SOCIETY 115 cells lacking the character — children from two such germ cells will, of course, be without the character even though both of their parents possess it. We have, possibly, a case of that sort in the Jukes, In the legitimate branch of Ada, the harlot, which in- termarried with that of Clara, the chaste, there are in generation No. 5 four sisters, children of an indus- trious father and a chaste, legitimate mother, whose mother, in turn, was a chaste daughter of Clara. Re- turning to the father, we find his mother a chaste daughter of Clara. From two such chaste parents, then, are born the aforesaid four daughters — three chaste and one a harlot. How is this? Simply the chastity of the parents was heterozygous. Their father's father was the licentious son of Ada, the har- lot, and their mother's father was the son of Belle, the prostitute. The proportions three to one, familiar to every student of mendelian heredity, is thus ex- actly realized in these children of tw^o parents heter- ozygous in respect to chastity. Environment seems to have had as little to do with the result as with the color of the lambs in my flock of sheep. Indeed, we know already that many human characteristics are inherited in mendelian fashion — polydactylism, syn- dactylism, short fingeredness, bleeding or haemophilia, night blindness, congenital cataract, color blindness, keartosis, palmae, albinism, eye color, color and curli- ness of the hair. Doubtless many, if not all, of the elementary physical, intellectual and moral charac- ters are thus inherited. The clear lesson of mendel- ian studies to human society is this : That when two parents with the same defect marry — and there is none of us without some defect — all of the progeny must have the same defect, and there is no remedy for the defect by education, but only, at the most in a < few cases, by a surgical operation. 116 HEREDITY AND HUMAN SOCIETY Inheritance of positive characters Inheritance In noted families Hitherto I have spoken chiefly of heredity of de- fects, and I have done so because here heredity ap- pears in its simplest form. When any quality is ab- sent in both parents it is absent in all children, while a quality that is present in the parents may be heter- ozygous in which case it may become absent in some of the children — or it may be homozygous, in which case it will be passed on to 100 per cent of the prog- eny. Moreover, the presence of a character in one parent will dominate over its absence in the other parent, and that is why the offspring of a parent j with a pure character mated to a parent without will ' all possess the character. The advanced condition masters the retarded or absent condition. It is ob- vious that the inheritance of positive characters is relatively complex. The importance to human society of positive char- acteristics in the germ plasm needs irttle argument. All will admit the debt of society to the Bach family, containing musicians for eight generations, of which twenty-nine eminent ones were assembled at one fam- ily gathering; to the family of the painter Titian (Vecellio) with nine painters of merit; to the Ber- Jnouilli family, of Swiss origin, with ten members f famous as mathematicians, physicists and naturalists ; to the Jussieu family, of France, with five eminent botanists ; to the Darwin family, which gave not only Charles Darwin, his eminent grandfather, Erasmus, and his cousin, Francis Galton, but also among the children of Charles, a mathematical astronomer of the first rank, a professor of plant physiology at Cam- bridge University, an inventor of scientific instru- ments of precision, and a member of Parliament; in this country to an Adams family of statesmen, an Abbott family of authors, a Beecher family of authors HEREDITY AND HUMAN SOCIETY 117 and preachers, and an Edwards family that has sup- plied this country with many of its great college presidents and educators, men of science, leaders in philanthropic movements, inventors, and leaders in the industrial world. Important as are these great families, their quali- ties represent only a small fraction of the powerful hereditary characteristics that are inherent in our best protoplasm. In this day of conservation would that we might keep in mind that this protoplasm is our most valuable national resource, and our greatest duty to the future is to maintain it and transmit it improved to subsequent generations', to the end that our human society may be maintained and improved. We have considered the influence on human so- ciety of protoplasm deficient in the characters that determine sensitiveness, energy, proper association of ideas, inhibitions and other qualities that go to make a normal, moral, effective man. We have seen, on the other hand, what a precious heritage is in the ex- traordinarily favorable combinations of favorable characters found in certain grand families. Between these extremes lie the great mass of human beings that are not enrolled on the record books of asylums or houses of detention or listed in "Who's Who," but which constitute the mainstay of human society. What that society shall be in the future depends on the characteristics of the common people of the fu- ture. The question of questions in eugenics is this : How shall the inroads of degeneracy be prevented and the best of our human qualities preserved and dis- seminated among all the people? First, the scandal of illegitimate reproduction among imbeciles must be prevented. That class often shows a frightfu Lfecun dity. If segregation is inade- Our most important national resources Protection against imbecility 118 HEREDITY AND HUMAN SOCIETY quate protection and since reason cannot overcome the sentiment against destruction of the lowest-grade imbeciles, at least operation should be required that will prevent the reproduction of their vicious germ plasm. Mating! Second, the old idea that there is in society any class that is superior to any other class should be abandoned. It is the characteristics of the germ plasm and not individuals as a whole that are favor- able or prejudicial to human society. The way to improve the race is first to get facts as to the inheri- tance of different characteristics and then by ac- quainting people with the facts lead them to make for themselves suitable matings. The only rule, a very general one, that can be given at present is that a person should select as consort one who is strong ; in those desirable characters in which he himself is I weak, but may be weak where he is strong. Such a marriage will not necessarily lead to a reduction in the children of the strong characters, certainly not to a permanent reduction in subsequent generations, and it will probably lead to a functional disappearance of the weak condition. By appropriate selection of consorts in subsequent generations the weak condi- tion may not reappear for a long time, if at all. Thus parents, deaf from different causes, will have only hearing children, because each parent contributes the factor that the other lacked, and if the children marry into stock with normal audition the ancestral defect will probably not reappear. But if cousins with the same hidden defects marry, there is one chance in four of two germ cells with the same defect meeting and reproducing the defect. Herein lies the danger of consanguineous marriages. For there is hardly a person born with every desirable character- HEREDITY AND HUMAN SOCIETY 119 istic present in the germ plasm and relatives are apt to have the same defects and so are especially apt to have defective children. Out crossings, marriages between unrelated persons, diminish the chances for a similar combination from both sides. The mating of dissimilars favors a combination in the offspring of the strongest characteristics of both parents and fits them the better for human society. In what I have said I have repeatedly approached, and very likely at times passed beyond, the border- land of science. I would not be satisfied to leave you with the false idea that our knowledge of heredity is now complete. Rather would I urge that perhaps the greatest need of the day for the progress of social science is additional precise data as to the unit char- acteristics of man and their methods of heritance. xir THE DUTY OF RECORDING FAMILY TRAITS CHARLES B. DAVENPORT ANY persons regard the facts concerning physical and mental traits of their families as personal and private matters. But this is surely a narrow and false view. The traits of any person, taken together, form a mosaic whose elements have been derived from thousands of germ plasms and may be passed on to thousands of persons who will form part of the social fabric of coming gen- erations. "What right have I, whose elements are derived from the society of the past and will pass I into the society of the future, to maintain that the society of today has no right to question me — ^who am merely a sample of this universal germ plasm? No one who looks broadly at the relation his family bears to the commonwealth will hesitate to put on record an inventory of his family traits. But a record to be permanently useful must be deposited where it may be kept free from danger of fire, properly indexed so that its contents are acces- sible, and used for the determination of the laws of heredity, for the identification and connection of fam- ily strains and, under proper restrictions, for geneal- ogists or for those contemplating marriage. Such a depository is provided by the Eugenics Record Office, located at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, N. Y. By writing to this office you may obtain a blank sched- ule upon which you may record your herita ge. This 120 RECORDING FAMILY TRAITS 121 should be conscientiously filled out and returned to the office, where it will be indexed and kept in its fireproof vault. A second copy of the schedule will be given to any collaborator for his own use. Spe- cifically, the Eugenics Record Office seeks pedigrees of families in which one or more of the following traits appear: — short stature, tallness, corpulency, special talents in music, art, literature, invention, me- chanics and mathematics, rheumatism, hereditary I ataxy, chorea of all forms, eye defect of all sorts, :hardness of hearing, peculiarities of hair, skin, nails, teeth and fingers and toes, red hair, albinism, harelip and cleft palate, cancer, Thomson's disease, hemo- philia, exopthalmic goitre, diabetes and gout. The method of inheritance of many of these characteris- tics is still insufficiently known. Those who con- tribute data will be helping in studies that will be of use to all civilized human beings. You are urged to write to the Eugenics Record Office, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, and indicate your willingness to co-operate in this work. XIII 1. The study of genealogy THE STUDY OF GENEALOGY AND FAMILY TRAITS* CHARLES B. DAVENPORT OWHERE else is a genealogical interest keener than in America. The possibility of tracing one's pedigree back to the first an- cestor of the name in the country has in- spired thousands of genealogical researches, and the demand for assistance in working out pedigrees has created the professional genealogist. Still the ama- teur's work, like most labors of love, is usually to be preferred because of the personal element involved. The study of genealogy, under the stimulus of our modern insight into heredity, is destined to be- come the most important handmaid of eugenics. The conscientious and scientific genealogist records a brief biography of each person of the pedigree and such. a biography should be an analysis of the person's traits ; an inventory of his physical and mental char- acteristics ; his special tastes in gifts as shown by his occupation, and especially his avocations. It would be well, so far as possible, to go further than that, if not for publication at least for record. It will be desirable to get a statement of physical weaknesses, diseases to which there was liability and causes of death. There are none of these classes of data that are not included in some genealogies ; it would be well if all were included in all genealogies. Another de- *Froia "Heredity in Relation to Eugenics." 122 GENEALOGY AND FAMILY TRAITS 123 sideratum is abundant photographs of the persons whose biographs are given; especially, strictly full face and profile, to facilitate comparison; and two or three photographs at successive ages would be still better than one. Attention should be paid to the form of the pedi- gree. The commonest form is that which begins with the first known male ancestor bearing the surname. His children are given, but in the later generations only the offspring of males are named. Few gene- alogies attempt either to trace the lines going through females or to give the ancestry of the con- sorts. A second form of pedigree begins with the author or some other one person and gives an ac- count of all of his direct ancestors in ever expand- ing number toward the earlier generations. This method is scarcely more valuable than the other from a scientific point of view, based as it is upon the ex- ploded idea that inheritance is from parents, grand- parents, etc. The ideal genealogy, it seems to me, starts with a (preferably large) fraternity. It describes fully each member of it. It then describes each member of the fraternity to which the father belongs and gives some account of their consorts (if married) and their children. It does the same for the maternal fraternity. Next, it considers the fraternity to which the father's father belongs, considers their consorts, their children and their grandchildren and it does the same for the fraternities to which the father's mother belongs. If possible, earlier generations are to be similarly treated. It were more significant thus to study in detail the behavior of all the available product of the germ plasms involved in the makeup of the first fraternity than to weld a chain or two of 124 GENEALOGY AND TAl^nLY TRAITS links through six or seven generations. A genealogy constructed on such a plan will give a clear picture of heredity, would be useful for the prediction of I the characteristics of the generations yet unborn, and I would, indeed, aid in bringing about better matings. It is to be hoped that the time will come when each person will regard it as a patriotic_duty to co-operate in the compilation of such genealogical records even to the statement of facts which are, according to the (often false) conventions of the day, not considered "creditable." traits*"^^ The results of such genealogical studies will be striking. Each "family" will be seen to be stamped with a peculiar set of traits depending upon the nature of its germ plasm. One family will be char- acterized by political activity, another by scholarship, another by financial success, another by professional success, another by insanity in some members with or without brilliancy in others, another by imbecility and epilepsy, another by larceny and sexual immor- i ality, another by suicide, another by mechanical abil- ity, or vocal talent, or ability in literary expression. In some families the members are prevailingly slen- der, in others stout; in some tall, others short; some blue eyed, others dark eyed; some with flaxen hair, others with black hair; some have diseases of the ear, others of the eye, or throat, or circulation. In some nearly all die of consumption; in others there is no weakness of the mucous membranes, but a ten- dency to apoplexy; others die prevailingly of Bright 's disease or valvular disease of the heart, or of pneumonia. In some families nearly all die at over eighty, in others all die under forty years of age. Stammering, hirsuteness, extra dentition, aquiline nose, lobeless ears, crocked digits, extra digits, short o z Q. CO o o o 1) o lij J2 TO V — -H £ E Q. GENEALOGY AND FAMILY TRAITS 125 digits, broad thumbs, ridged nails — there is hardly an organ or the smallest part of an organ that has not its peculiar condition which stamps a family. Said a lady to me, ' ' I was traveling in Egypt and met a man who was introduced to me as Mr. Osborn. I said to him 'My mother was an Osborn. I wonder if we are related.' He replied, 'Let me see if you have the Osborn thumb,' " and she was able to show the family trademark. How often a peculiar laugh, a trick of speech or gesture, wall serve to identify the family of a stranger. Once in a city where my fam- ily was well kno\\Ti but where I was a stranger, I needed to get a check cashed and went to an office where my father and brother had done business. On explaining my need to the head of the firm he sup- plied it without hesitation, saying: "Though I have never seen you before I would know anywhere that you were a Davenport." So wonderfully are de- tails of facial muscles, form of skull bones and nose cartilage stamped in the family blood. Such fea- tures as these deserve full treatment in the philo- sophical family history. Many works on genealogy, as I have said, give a little account of family traits. A few of those have been excerpted from the public works and are re- produced here chiefly to illustrate the specificity of human families. Of course, except where there is much consanguineous marriage, not all traits will appear in all or even most individuals of the family, and new traits are being introduced by marriage. But certain characteristics, because of their special nature or the frequency with which they occur in certain branches of the family, will come to be known as ^'family traits." Vol. 1—9 XIV EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD HELEN C. PUTNAM, A. B., M. D. Ex-President of the American Academy of Medicine, and a Director of tlie American Association for Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality. ^uwtoo^d^' ri i ^ /l -^ ^^® facing certain facts. One is that parent- hood does not make wise parents ; for some fathers and even some mothers deliberately teach their children vice ; more, by their con- versation and acts, carelessly teach evil; many more, while perhaps guarding their own, will, in order to make money, degrade the children of other parents by employment and wages, by housing conditions, by en- tertainments and reading matter and pictures, by saloons and other details of city management; very many more parents neglect their children through ignorance, or other occupations and pleasures. A very large part of modern social effort is struggling to undo the mistakes of parents. We are, too, facing the facts that manhood does not always make a wise citizen, nor womanhood al- ways an unwise citizen ; that political elections do not make wise government or wise school officials. Right education is the remedy for unwise parents and citi- zens of either sex; for unwise officials in state house, city hall, and school department. The crucial educa- tion is that for parenthood. Parenthood may become the nearest to Godhood. The Creator has established certain laws for parenthood. Their violation even ignorantly injures 126 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 127 'uture generations, burdening society and hindering higher civilization. Our first duty is to search out his laws, and this is done by expert students of his handi- work — man and the not-man. We call them scientists, whether they study mind, or matter, or social rela- tions. Our second duty is to prepare in this scientific knowledge of parenthood teachers of children — the potential parents ; for the foundations of good parent- hood must be laid before the event; after is too late to undo the errors committed and duties omitted in childhood and youth. Neither can we have marriages according to the laws of God until standards are so formed that only a wholesome person and character attracts love — the consummation of the law. The af- fections once engaged, even if sinning against the laws of parenthood, can be diverted only in exceptional cases and with suffering. This preparation of teachers of potential parents courses for has been developing during the last twenty years in p^^^^^^o"** certain places along definite lines, until paths well blazed by successful experimentation indicate where our efforts should concentrate. Preparing for wise parenthood is as definite a process as training for nursing, or for running a bank, or for building a bridge. As schools for nurses, one of the most benefi- cent undertakings of the nineteenth century, were initiated by medical women in their owti hospital, so this training for parenthood was launched in the pub- lic schools of Boston by the intelligent persistence of college women, and against political indifference or incapacity or opposition is wanning its way in every state. Such courses for teachers are found in twenty or more universities and academic colleges, in twice as 128 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD many special institutions and high schools, and in practically every agricultural college, for the United States department of agriculture has been their strong supporter. The ages of pupils range from seventeen to twenty-five or thirty. They may teach, and they may marry. These courses have minor variations ; but the brief description of one will give a fair idea of the trend of all. This course takes the larger part of pupils' time for four years, the remaining being given to the usual studies — language, literature, history. The wise locat- ing, planning, and building of a house, its wise care, the care and feeding of a family, depend fundamen- tally on understanding certain laws of chemistry, physics, and living things (biology), and on still in the arts of applying them to the duties of parents. These sciences are taught, not as we find them ordi- narily in men's curricula, but as they directly con- cern healthfulness of premises, clothing and habits, wholesomeness of food, and, finally, the creation de- veloped out of these factors and habits, character and social relations. The central thought on which these four years of work is focused is : " Improving the individual so that future generations may attain a higher level than ' those preceding them." Education before this has . i'- stopped with more or less of improving the individual so that he may win "success," or "happiness," or wealth. This definitely holds up an ideal of respon- sibility that is infinite — future generations. A course A Summary of their study of'social relations* will ^outiined |-,g uscful. It comes after two and a half years in chemistry, physics, biology, bacteriology, and physiol- ogy, and household management. The development of * Under Prof. Abby L. Marlatt, University of Wisconsin. EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 129 the infant before birth from the single cell is first dis- cussed, and as the students have seen these beginnings many times in plant and animal life in their biologic laboratory, it is a simple matter to adapt that knowl- edge to human life. The discussion of heredity, of which they have already tested certain facts in their biology, takes up Mendelian laws of heritance of in- herent characteristics, the inheritance of acquired characteristics, the effects on germ plasm of alcohol- ism, syphilis, drug habits. They learn the fact that drunkards, insane, feeble-minded, habitual criminals, and sexually depraved men and women usually have children with defective nervous systems, and usually breed their kind. They learn the real significance of "good stock" on the father's and on the mother's side. Teachers with this knowledge can do much, in- directly and directly, in mothers' and parents' clubs, and with children, to develop through the country right ideas of marriage to replace the unwholesome ones now so common among young people and among their parents, who should know and teach their chil- dren better. There is a far-reaching significance in their enum- eration of syphilis and gonococcus infection (not "gonorrhoea," one of its manifestations) among or- dinary contagious diseases, and in their study of these statistics as well as the others in government and scientific reports, and their relation to the home; for they are not less than five times as prevalent as tuberculosis and all other contagions together, and they injure wives and children to an extent not pos- sible to estimate. They are the cause of many deaths before birth (characteristic of syphilis) ; of the death, degeneracy, blindness of many infants in the first -C^O"f ' :._J— , Extent and dangers of Bjrphilis and gonococcus infection 130 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD Securing adequate laws on reporting these contagions years of life ; of many childless families and one child families (a peculiarity of gonococcus infection) ; of the invalidism, surgical mutilation, and death of many wives; of much insanity, rheumatism, heart disease, and other physical and mental incapacity; of much divorce, unhappiness, crime; of expenditure of large public and private funds and effort on misfortunes that can and should be prevented. They have through slow processes, exterminated ancient nations and mod- ern communities. If they increase through the next quarter century at the rate of the last, it would seem as if this nation, too, must decline. In my own professional experience, as in that of other physicians, the fate of married sister or friend has prevented — is preventing — marriages.* The students see logically that control of these contagions must be the same as control of smallpox, scarlet fever, and any other of the several that we have almost eliminated — every case must be reported to the board of health. That this so evident first step is not taken is due to the fact that boards of health, who are charged with the administration of health laws, do not enforce the law requiring this done ; that in the majority of states these laws have still to be enacted; that the great majority of phy- sicians will not report these cases because they are al- most always connected with the illegal sex relations of men which they wish concealed ; and that city gov- ernments, through their courts and police, permit these dangerous men to pass freely about in the com- *For the above and additional facts see chapters XV., XVI., XVII. of "Medical Gynecology," by Dr. H. A. Kelly of the Johns Hopkins University; "Social Diseases and Marriage," by Dr. Prince A. Morrow (Lee Brothers & Co.); Education Pamphlet No. 3 issued by the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, 29 West Forty-second Street, New York (a reprint of one of Dr. Morrow's most important chapters.) EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 131 ( munity and into the homes where prostitutes never 1 go, because of the established idea that men may lead irregular lives not permitted women — the so-called ' ' ' double standards_of niorals. ' ' The use oFlhe^ unscientific terms "sexual" and "venereal diseases" makes the securing of laws re- quiring the reporting of such diseases unnecessarily difficult. Both syphilis and gonococcus infection are very frequently acquired without sexual irregularities, for example from a common cupL or jtowel, from kiss- ing, handshaking or other open contacts, by mar- riage or birth; all these being agencies for com- municating other diseases also. Neither affects the sex organs exclusively. Both are systemic diseases affecting many parts of the system, as brain, bones, eyes. Both resemble other diseases (syphilis, for ex- ample, is mistaken for tuberculosis or malaria) and both pass under other commonly used names. Until we report syphilis and gonococcus infection as such to boards of health, avoiding names that often stigmatize patients unjustly, we cannot secure en- forcement of laws sufficiently effective to control the pale spirochete and gonococcus as we control other "germs." Mothers and other straight thinking women can hasten the wholesome mindedness by using, in- stead of these obnoxious terms, the scientific names, in which there is no suggestion of evil, or by using the term ' ' social diseases, ' ' being mindful that tuberculo- sis, typhoid and others are also social diseases — diseases encouraged by present social customs. I Education for parenthood necessarily brings with j it the insistence that government shall protect parent- hood from these contagions and their inseparable ; evils ; and as government does not do so, never has i been known to do so, possibly never can do so, as 132 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD the great majority of men claim, women in various countries in increasing numbers, and with the co- operation of many of the best men, are securing the political right to protect their own and the children's lives according to their duty to the laws of God. There is no doubt in the minds of keen students of social ^relations that political dominance of sex is wholly ' an evil, and to both sexes; and that the only right dominance is wisdom, of which education and ex- perience are giving women full share with men. Civil law made by men not based on biologic law which, women are learning, ends in disaster. The wise intelligence of mothers, of professional women in the ministry, in law, in medicine, in sociol- ogy, and in education; of laboring women with their sense of vtronging their children when they go out from the home to earn their food and roof ; and of the other mothers who see their dearest, without legal protection or redress, contaminated, body and soul, out of the underworld, whose pollution reaches all classes ; these are concentrating on the demand and are win- ning it. It is an indispensable step toward the es- tablishment of right sex relations, study After this study of heredity comes_ study of phys- ical and mental development of child and adolescent ; the influence of city life and country life on develop- ment, with school statistics of the rates of growth of boys and girls ; the kind of education adapted to dif- ferent kinds of children ; infant mortality — the effect on it of women's work outside the home, and of dif- ferent kinds of occupations of mothers before the child is born ; governmental and social efforts to reduce in- fant mortality ; the pension system for mothers, paying a small sum enabling them to stay at home and nurse their babies, thus saving citizens to the state, as gov- EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 133 ernments have hitherto pensioned soldiers ; the effects jof institutional care of babies and children on death rate and on development ; the cause of reduced birth rates, and the duty of the educated in the preserva- tion of the race ; children in industry, and its legisla- tion ; the housing problem ; child psychology ; chil- dren 's vices ; education of the will ; a study of nervous states and their hygiene.* Such topics in some schools are, so far as practic- able, made vital by co-operation with neighboring nurseries, hospitals, or other institutions ; and there are, of course, children's classes in the practice school wherever teachers are trained. One has to regret that there is not yet a course for men complementary to this in some of its details. Many of the universities and colleges giving these courses have in the winter extension courses of a week or more, whicTi~are taken by thousands of farmers' wives and other woineii. In elementary schools competent teachers have organized many hundred classes of mothers and of parents, where study of and home co-operation in the education of their children is steadily being developed. What some teachers are doing with children them- 7^* ^o'k selves can best be indicated by a few typical instances. Teachers of the youngest grade, in their study of flowers, birds, and other animals, speak of mother flower or animal, father and baby flowers and animals, tracing likenesses between parents and young, com- paring their ways with people's ways, establishing thus indirectly the consciousness, or, better, sub-con- sciousness that every life is from fathers and mothers, \^ from eggs or from the mother's body, that there are fertilized and unfertilized seeds, that hereditj" and *For fuller account of this and other courses, see report of Educational Session, 1910, American Association for Study and Pre- vention of Infant Mortality. Address 1211 Cathedral Street, Baltimore. / 134 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD environment are factors in life — not using, however, these polysyllables. For children a little older, nine to eleven, a teacher who had studied biology began in the seventh grade a "continued story," "The Story of the World We Live In, ' ' The ' ' first chapter ' ' was brilliant chemical experiments illustrating gases, vapors, condensations into liquids and solids, some of the curious properties of water. In the following lessons they saw simplest plant life, yeast cells, through a microscope, and learned how they multiplied. They took for their text, "The two objects of every living thing are to perfect itself and to reproduce itself." This text was re- peated, and formed the line of study for every plant through the year — how it grew and how it multiplied. The next year, in the last grammar grade, the con- tinued story used the same text for every animal studied, how it grew, perfecting itself, and how it multiplied, giving as much, but no more, attention to reproduction (which instructors usually omit) than to other functions. It is to be remembered that the in- structor was a student of biolog\% and the teaching was from that viewpoint. In answer to my question, "Do you think you have taught anything of clean living?" she replied em- phatically: "I am sure I have. There were two boys two or three years older than the others. They were precocious and unclean minded. It could be seen in their faces in the beginning. I had no private talk with them ; but at certain x>oints I took certain pains to have them understand. Before the course was over there was a complete mental revolution and moral too, I know from their manner. They are clean, good boys now, and twice as bright." EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 135 0^ There is a grammar school in the tenderloin dis- trict of a large city. The sights and sounds of the district educate the children more hours in the year than the school. The innocently expressed ambition of the little girls was to be a "fancy lady," whose idleness and gay dresses were more attractive than ! their toiling mothers' lives. The little boys, too, ad- mired the "fancy ladies." The teachers, startled by the children's standards and unconscious vulgarity in many ways, begged the superintendent of schools to have a physician talk to them. He did not say, as some: "Let it alone. You only set them to talking and make matters worse" ; nor as another said : "You are a dirty minded woman yourself, or you wouldn't see such things." He asked a medical woman who • had been a successful teacher before studying medi- cine to give a talk to the girls ; and he asked a medical man to do it for the boys. Each, ignorant of the other's action, refused, saying that one talk from a stranger would do harm, not being enough to cover so , much. The medical %voman offered to give twelve or ( fifteen talks, and include what was wanted. When , she had so discussed general health habits that she j had interested them and changed their mental attitude toward their bodies and toward life in some ways, she then safely discussed sex and its duties. After a few weeks of this course, the boys sent a petition to the principal, "Can't a doctor give us talks like the girls?" The medical man then gave three talks on general hygiene, and finally one on sex, beginning with laws and phenomena in plants and animals, so plac- I ing human law in relation to universal law. The results of this experiment were highly satis- factory. Conduct, conversation, and ideals were for the time changed among these unfortunately sur- For the city child Eesponslbility of property owners for vicious conditions 136 EDUCATION TOR PARENTHOOD rounded children; but it would be a miracle if these If ew hours could undo the constant influence of a. "red light" neighborhood; environment such as every large city permits for some of its children, centrally located for the sake of business, yielding extra high rentals to people of large means who own such real estate, and are not infrequently found among subscribers to philanthropies and to churches. Nearly every genuine attempt to break up such resorts is halted by the dis- covery at the tax assessor's office that the landlord or landlady is a person of social consideration. These reasons: "My property is my own to do with as I please. If they pay their rent, I can't meddle with their morals" — the philosophy that a distinguished student of immoral women tells me is theirs, "My body is my own to do with as I please. I can earn more money this way. I will not work in a factory. ' ' Prostitution is largely an economic problem with sev- eral sides. These school authorities consider this as the handling of an emergency not as what should be done regularly. They are developing systematic in- struction in nature study and hygiene as rapidly as capable instructors can be found.* In a large city is a teacher of biology for children from twelve to sixteen, who, year after year for nine years, has taught in her classes of both boys and girls, how every plant and animal they studied not only grew, but how it multiplied. She says enough, but no more than enough to set them almost uncon- sciously to reasoning from these to laws of human life. They actually demonstrate principles of heredity while cross fertilizing flowers, and of environment in other *Dr. Zenner gives a full account of this and his further personal experience in talking to pupils in a little book, "Education in Sexual Physiology and Hygiene" (The Robert Clarke Co., Cincinnati). He makes no attempt to cover the subject, but contributes what we specially need just now, "clinical evidence." EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 137 experiments. This instructor and other biologists are increasingly including the discussion of contagions which are due to minute vegetable and animal organ- isms, ''germs"; and in the list of commonest con- jtagious diseases enumerate syphilis and gonococcus infection along with the others, perhaps giving a few facts and statistics concerning each, without discrim- inating against these in particular. This is the honest and clean minded course. In the last few years former pupils who have be- come parents and others have told her gratefully what an illumination and help this knowledge had been to them. She says, as others a lso, that quite without her anticipating it An_the_ Jjeginmng, the undercurrent of vulgar talk among the children spon- taneously ceases as they advance in the study. The normal curiosity about sex and new life, as much a part of human nature as is love for pleasure, is di- rected in open channels where it can be enlightened healthfully, without defilement. A well known edu- cator of large experience once said to me, reflectively passing the problem through his mind, "I know no man in the schools of my city and but few women that I would be willing to have talk to my boy and girl on sex matters." "Would you be willing to have them take a sensible course in elementary biology?" He replied promptly: "I not only would be willing, but glad to have that. ' ' These teachings, so rapidly outlined, agree in cer- princf^eg'^ tain very important points, and demonstrate certain very important principles: 1. Not all teachers should undertake this; but only those prepared to teach the elementary science of living things, and with understanding of elementary sociology. Such do little with books or talks. Pupils 138 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD see and handle plants and animals, watching life pro- cesses with minds that are guided to search for law. 2. Direct sex instruction in class is not given even in emergency until there is a well laid groundwork in the renewal of life in all nature ; a scientific set- ting or background, with a scientific vocabulary, that eliminates the vulgar attitude toward facts of sex in- evitable when they stand alone. We have made the deadening mistake of omitting from education all direction of the duty of passing on the torch of life entrusted to each for a few years. Education has been limited to self-preservation. Our sins of omission cannot be undone. The sorrow and suffering have been and left their blight. "We are in some danger, in our haste to get wise, of going to the other extreme, and overemphasizing what is called "sex hygiene." This can hardly do more harm than altogether omitting it ; but agitation for ' ' instruction in sex hygiene, ' ' and for societies of "sex hygiene" seem overemphasis. What we should agitate for and have organized effort to secure, are : 1. Compulsory control of syphilis and gOROcoccus infection by boards of health. A very few societies with this object exist, working as definitely as do our many anti-tuberculosis societies on their problem. 2. Efficient teaching of home-making ("domestic science," "home economics").* 3. Sensible teaching of the science of living things ("nature study," "school gardening," botany, zo- ology, elementary biology) as compulsory study in elementary and secondary schools. With these must be school environment and prac- tices that grow healthier children to become healthy *For a discussion of Continuation Schools of Home-making:, see Transactions, 1911, American Association for Study and Preventioa of Infant Mortality. EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 139 parents, and that are essential factors in "teaching hygiene." Our schools encourage tuberculosis, ner- vous disorders, and some other ills whose prevention iis outdoor air and more occupations that increase the circulation, which means stronger heart, lungs, and .other vital organs. If home-making, gardening and industrial training are wisely developed, they will im- prove the health of parents as well as their efficiency. Schools should aim to create a national conscious- ness, a sub-consciousness developing through child- hood, that life is a trust received from many who have gone before, to he guarded and hetterecTinTane' s turn, and passed along to many after — a simple' and easily demonstrable supplement to the more vague jdea of God, stimulating an early sense of responsibility that is to moral life what physical exercise is to bodily life.* *Furiaier discussion of school work is in Educational Pamphlet No. 2, "FSi;.J£eachers," published by the American Society of Sani- tary and MoralProphylaxis, previously mentioned. Important popular discussions of education for parenthood are in the Report of Con- ference on Prevention of Infant Mortality, 1909, American Academy of Medicine, Easton, Penn. ; also in the Reports of the Association for Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality mentioned in previous footnote. XV PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF CHILD STUDY THEODATE L. SMITH, Ph. D. Clark University N its broader meaning child study includes the mental, moral and physical nature of the child, and in all three of these departments there has been, during the last twenty years, a rapidly multiplying body of facts whose application to problems of child life is increasingly recognized. The practical application of child study to educa- tion may be said to have begun with Pestalozzi and Froebel, neither of w^hom had any training in the prin- ciples of scientific psychology though their intuitive genius anticipated some of its results. By Froebel, a new point of view was introduced into education I which had hitherto been conducted from the stand- |i point of the adult. Thenceforward the child and his ;/ needs began to be considered and he ceased to be treated as a miniature adult. A modern development of the same type of pedagogic genius united wath scientific training and based upon the results of child study is Dr. Montessori's system of early education which has recently been attracting so much attention both in Europe and the United States. So fully has the necessity of child study for the solution of educational problems been recognized in recent years, that experimental pedagogy has now be- come a university department. Thus far its methods have been largely modifications of those of the psycho- 140 APPLICATION OF CHILD STUDY 141 logical laboratory, adapting them to children of school age. Valuable studies have been made on the mech- anism of reading, showing the length of line, char- ' acter of type, etc., best suited to avoid eye strain. Ex- periments on memory have also been carried out, showing how the best conditions of memorizing may be attained. Tests of attention and fatigue have also brought about some practical results. But perhaps the most important contribution in this line is the development of mental tests, by means of which causes of retardation in school may be analyzed. The Binet tests of which we have heard much during the last few years are a series of questions or simple tasks ar- ranged to fit the years from three to thirteen. If a child succeeds in the tests for his age he is considered of average normal intelligence ; if he succeeds in those beyond his age, he is regarded as above the average ; if he fails in those two years below his age there is J -suspicion of mental defect and a retardation of more than two years renders this almost certain, unless he has been hampered by physical defects which may have been the cause of the retardation. While mak- ing no pretense to the finer distinctions necessary for the complete diagnosis of individual cases, these tests have nevertheless proved a valuable aid in grading in- telligence. This is not only a great gain for the chil- dren themselves but it relieves the regular teacher of much unnecessary strain, for it is the unusual chil- dren whether they are above or below the normal who are the teacher's problems. The establishment of special classes for backward and defective children ' confers a triple benefit, by giving such children them- * selves better opportunities, by allowing the other chil- dren to advance at a normal rate instead of being kept / back for the sake of the weaker, and by leaving the Vol. 1—10 'jrJ^^ 142 APPLICATION OF CHILD STUDY teacher free to devote her whole energies to the proper- ly graded members of the class. But the study of defective children has by no means l)een confmed "to i school problems. Its great sociological significance, j its relation to crime, pauperism, and degeneracy is now being recognized. In connection with the Ju- venile Court of Chicago there has been, since 1909, a psychopathic clinic where children have been tested to determine their moral responsibility before^irand- ing them over to the arm of the law as delinquents. Occasionally, too, a really talented child, who has been the victim of unfavorable environment, is rescued by this clinic and given an opportunity for develop- ment. More recently the Juvenile Court of Seattle has obtained the co-operation of the Gatzert Foundation of Child Welfare which is a department of the Uni- versity of Washington, and a physician, aided by a psychologist, gives two days in the week to the ex- amination of court children so that the judge's de- cision may be based on expert knowledge of the phys- ical and mental condition of the child under consid- eration. Psychological clinics, of which there are now ten or twelve, in the United States, have also, through their studies of heredity, shown the necessity of per- manent custodial care for the feeble-minded, for though most of them are educable to a greater or less degree and may, under institutional care, become partly or even wholly self-supporting and lead harm- less and happy lives, they always remain dependent upon their environment. If turned out into the world to care for themselves they fail in the struggle for ex- istence and recruit the ranks of paupers, criminals and degenerates, and worst of all, almost invariably reproduce their kind. Child study has also taught us that speech defects r APPLICATION OF CHILD STUDY 143 not only retard a child in his school progress, but re- act to produce mental conditions that are a handicap to his mental development. In America, we are still behind the times, in this respect, but nearly every Eu- j ropean country has made provision for the treatment ' of such children, usually in connection with the school ' system, for the majority of cases are curable and the method of treatment is an educational process. Our attitude toward the delinquent has been com- pletely changed by child study and this has led to the establishment of juvenile courts, probation sys- tems, junior republics, and, best of all, to associations like the Chicago Juvenile Protective Association, whose object is, by studying the,. conditions whicK'pro- duce delinquency, to better them, so that children shall be prevented from becoming delinquents rather than reformed after they have become so. To the study of the child and his needs we also owe the playground movement and the campaign \'^, against child labor. However much it may be desired by those who have looked at the question solely from the financial point of view, public opinion, enlightened by the knowledge of the effects of prematurely en- forced labor, will no longer tolerate the employment ,of children in work dangerous to life and limb, or in occupations deadening to mind or tending to moral and physical degeneration; for although it is impos- sible to make a feeble-minded child normal, it is quite possible to reduce a bright child to a state of autom- . atism, little better than feeble-mindedness, by set- \ ting him at work under unhygienic conditions at an labsolutely monotonous task for ten hours a day. Child study has also brought about beneficial effects in the methods of dealing with dependent children. "We no longer point with pride to large, spotlessly kept in- ^/^^4t 144 APPLICATION OF CHILD STUDY ) stitutions, where children are marshalled through long corridors in military order for school, meals or recrea- tion, for we have learned that to make a human ma- chine of a child is not conducive to his future in- dependence and usefulness as a citizen. As our knowledge of the physical needs of the child has grown, we have come to recognize that a large proportion of the enormous death rate of in- fants is due to preventable causes, and various move- ments for the prevention of infant mortality have developed, with the result that in localities where the death rate among children under a year old was for- merly 25% to 40%, it has now been reduced to not only less than half this but, in some eases, as by Dr. Miele's work in Ghent, from between 30% to 40% to less than 4%^ In European countries, schools for working mothers to teach them how to care for their children, are rapidly multiplying, and England has now 97 of these, all established since 1907 and main- tained in a variety of ways. St. Pancras, in London, the first to be established in England, is an indepen- dent institution modelled after Dr. Miele's plan in Ghent, but some are connected with settlements ; some are conducted by local boards of health and others by philanthropic societies of various kinds. A unique in- stitution is the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria Haus, in Berlin, which is perhaps best described as a physi- ological institute, whose object is the scientific investi- gation of all problems relating to motherhood and infancy with the ultimate aim of determining the best conditions for the production and rearing of healthy children and thus lessening infant mortality. This is a national institution and its results will be interna- tional. The establishment of out-door schools must be APPLICATION OF CHILD STUDY 145 credited to study of child hygiene and these, having proved their value for the mental as well as for the physical development of the child, are now being es- tablished for normal and healthy as well as for back- ward and delicate children. Child study has also enlarged our knowledge of the moral nature of the child. Studies of children's faults have been made which, in pointing out the causes, have indicated the remedies, or better still, the means of prevention. Of especial value in this field are the studies which have been made of dishonesty, lying, etc. And last, but by no means least, is that knowledge of the child mind which has taught us that on the question of the origin of life and the normal development of its functions, instruction must not be left to chance information picked up from companions or perchance from the street, but must be given in a rational, simple and scientific form, so that it may be a safeguard from evil. XVI ECONOMIC WORTH OF CHILD STUDY PROF. O. H. BAKELESS Department of Pedagogy, State Normal School, Bloomsburg, Pa. Definition of chUd study I ef HILD study sets for its task the problem of the child genetically, from the side of its physical, its mental and its normal nature. It aims to make child rearing scientific. And why not ? Is not the ' ' human plant ' ' greater in pos- sibility and destiny than plant life about us, or the lower animal life of the earth? American educators and scholars are deeply and enthusiastically, I may say sanely, wedded to this movement. Italy, Germany, Poland, and many other countries have toiled and are toiling wisely that the next generation may stand on a higher and firmer scaffolding of health, intelligence and morality than the present. Far-away Japan, alert, and breathing the invigorating air of progress, recognizes in this movement the hope of her energetic race. We would breed superior men and women as II well as superior dogs and horses. In the results of the last decade of research on this subject we hear, faintly perhaps, but clear and beau- tiful as divine music, the note of a sane pedagogy based on an abiding foundation ; a surer_note of pro- gress than has thrilled the world since Christ said: ' ' Suffer little children— and forT)Td~fh"em not. " "The child is the keynote to the regeneration of the race." The mute, dumb impulse of the child is" the index 146 ECONOMIC WORTH OF CHILD STUDY 147 \ finger, the humble beginning, the hint towards all that the wise men would do for his development. Today the person nearest the child, best knowing him in his helplessness and beauty, commands a re- spectful hearing wherever the child is concerned ; the parent, the teacher, the pastor, the guardian of child- hood everywhere, hears his message wdth gladness and humility. All earnest, progressive teachers hear the message and strive to apply its teachings. Literature upon this subject in recent years is multiplying apace and growing stronger and more authoritative with each output. The future of the subject is secure. Child \ study has made the world realize that the school is • for the child and not the child for the school. Physical knowledge of the child is a cash asset in all dealing with him. What an arraignment of facts have we here! Knowledge rightly understood and applied is power. Knowledge of the children physi- cally would make for millions annually. Countlthe loss to effective growth because of the neglect of the sight of the children. Indifference to their seating with re- gard to the light, heat and ventilation; best condi- tions for study, wide assignment of lessons and hours of study, improper conditions for best work, ineffective distribution of light, harmful influences of reflections ; the dust and filth and carelessness that foster the spread of diseases that little children are subject to, and this barely introduces the list of conditions that obtain in the school buildings everywhere. Thou- sands of teachers do not attempt to enlighten them- selves on these subjects. They do not know boys and girls or their physical needs, take no thought of their general welfare. How often, by the merest accident, we find the pathetic victim of deafness due to a dozen causes wrongl/ placed in school, losing time, becom- Knowledgo of the physical chllda_c|*k assef^ 148 ECONOMIC WORTH OF CHILD STUDY ing careless, indifferent, peevish, a case of arrested development, because of his lack of power to profit by the teaching, due to the defect which a change of seating alone or consideration on the part of the teacher might improve. How often a case of bodily exhaustion or brain fatigue, due to irregular hours, nervous strain, insufficient food, and a thousand other causes, is overlooked week after week, counteracting the influences of the school room, wasting time and money, the teacher in despair thinking that it is im- possible to do anything, when a vigorous study of conditions and a knowledge by the people of facts, carefully tabulated, forced upon the attention of the school authorities, would cause modification or re- moval. Good teachers treat health and physical con- ditions as of importance comparable with intellectual progress, take account of bodily conditions of pupils, co-operate with parents and authorities and allow for them in educative work. Scores of earnest men have wrought heroically but in vain if, for want of read- ing and study of their formulated work, a rational first hand sympathetic study of every child from the physi- cal side is not made. As a teacher discovers cases of backwardness, slowness, dullness, lack of interest, poor health, he will come into close and vital touch with the work of his classes, with the problems of instruc- tion, with the life of the school and with the com- munity as he can in no other way. ' ' The practical lessons of child study are always the problems of the home and the family as well as the school, and both will be drawn together and economic problems of in- calculable value will have their solution begun." An intelligent, sympathetic student of children may be- come an apostle of life for a community. "Biolog- ically, the whole problem of transmission of life is ECONOMIC WORTH OF CHILD STUDY 149 involved here. ' ' Sound bodies, sane minds, noble souls well adjusted to their environment, is God 's plan. Study the child, under the most favorable condi- tions and under the most unfavorable, and thus make the school room tell on the next generation. Lead the young teacher into the understanding and enjoyment of the study of these problems, or drive him out of the teacher's profession. The problems of this age are too momentous for a mere tyro in the work. A knowledge of the mental constitution of the child considered from the genetic side, is another powerful cash asset in education. The teacher must realize that nature and nurture must work together to build the man from this growing cell mass he calls the child. He must accept the work of nature, allow for her forces, know instincts and tendencies, as the starting point of all that may be done for the child. He must recognize dormant capacities and stimulate them to proper growth. To teach boys and girls without re- gard to their instincts and tendencies ends usually in their demoralization and the humiliation of the teacher. It is a waste of time and energy and, con- sequently, a money loss to the community. The study of genetic psychology', the study of the characteristics of the developing child mind from stage to stage, the study of adolescence, makes it alone possible for a teacher rightly to stimulate mind and provoke healthy response — his only business. To be able to favor and encourage right tendencies, to rightly direct and guide favorable ones, tendencies valuable \to the individual and to the community, and to in- hibit wrong ones, implies knowledge and skill on the 'ipart of the teacher, and comes only from an exhaus- tive and self-denying study of children themselves, and books about them. Education can be economic only as these principles are applied at every step. A knovledgo of tb9 mental eonstitution of the chUd » ctMk asset uM 150 ECONOMIC WORTH OF CHILD STUDY Dam up the natural channels of the stream and dev- astation and ruin will follow quickly. Thwart the natural bent and trend of the boy or girl and dire re- sults follow. Oh! the pathos of misapplied instruc- tion, or training out of time — the tragedies of these wasted lives and lost souls ! America is lpsin_g mil- P ' lions yearly because of the work that was misunder- stood, mismanaged or undone in the homes and schools of a generation ago. A child's mind is active, will continue to be so whether the teacher encourages or opposes it. It resents restraint, monotony, futility. The teacher who keeps the ear of his soul close to the mute lips of childhood will learn to preserve intact, the force and freshness of the original instinct of mental activity by giving it exercise of the right kind at the right time and rewarding the child's effort with satisfaction, thus gradually leading the aimless, random thing from weakness to strength and power. The money-sayed in school work by putting joy into the school, by working with the child rather than against its nature, is incalculable. How can the teacher do this if she knows not the child's intellectual equip- ment, in general and particular, and child life as it manifests itself in each individual pupil? A mere college girl, inexperienced but well trained in the needs and nature of the child, with a love and sym- pathy for child life, took a group of children and by working upon their play instinct, their curiosity, their love for the story, their dramatic instinct, so success- fully built up their language power, their abilit}' to read, to spell, to write, their enjoyment and apprecia- tion for school, that in two years she accomplished more than could ever be accomplished by the old routine ; and best of all, in the doing of it made school such a dream of delight to her children that all life was ennobled thereby. The old time routine teacher ECONOMIC WORTH OF CHILD STUDY 151 would sit by incapable of recognizing the sound prin- ciples underlying the work, declaring the whole pro- cess hypnotic or pure chicanery. Earnest students of the child by the score have solved many problems of the elementary school, prob- lems of number work, observation and object lesson, reading, type and printing of text books, reading in- terests of boys and girls, moral and religious interests, adolescent changes, tastes and tendencies ; norms of I psychological age in grading, methods of history and ' geography in relation to interests, measuring general ability. In drawing and music and manual training the way has been pointed out, and principles applied have wrought a wonderful change ; rational approach to nature study and application of the play instinct in education have been made. Familiarity on the part of the elementary teachers with this work would mean practically an enhancement of value for every minute of the school day. Every failure on the part of a pupil to understand arithmetic or algebra or to enjoy j history or geography is a psychological problem set I for the teacher-student to solve, and when solved it is I a cash asset to the community. "The child needs to develop to the utmost each stage through which he passes, often to be retarded more than to be accelerated ; to experience all the es- sentials the race has experienced in its long climb up- ward, " says an expert. Consider the statement and then remember how parents and teachers constantly violate the truth of the physical and intellectual de- velopment of the child. If grades are good, percents are high and children pass, what matters it whether the stage of development has been secured or not? The texts of Hall, Baldwin, Preyer, Taylor, Cham- berlain, King, Tanner, Kirkpatrick, S^vift, O'Shea and others shoul/i be in every teacher's hands and 152 ECONOMIC WORTH OF CHILD STUDY k knowledge >f the chUd'B QOTkl nature ind levelopment k easb l8Mt read persistently. The view of consciousness in the growing, the genetic view, tends at once to bring him into closer touch with life and growth in his school room, and permits him to see "the whole of the an- cestral human race peering — sad-eyed, half-fright- ened — at him through the eyes of the little child." Problems of temperament, of differences of types, of eye and ear mindedness, of sex differences, of succes- sive ages or stages, all throng upon his attention as 1 possible assets as he solves them and sets the answers iOn the credit side of his professional ledger. Conduct must also look to the mental impulse and instincts of the child for its beginnings ; then habit de- termines the trend or direction the stream of behavior takes, and the child's environment — home, school and community — give the child his ideal. To the extent that this principle is understood will the guardian of I'the child rightly stimulate and guide him into the Iways of safe moral development. Child study has the last word to say on this also, but has not yet said it. Every one with teaching sympathy who knows its conclusions can safely guide the young. Others are experimentalists. This knowledge, wisely applied in the home or the school or by civic authorities in dealing with the child, will mean millions to the home and to the community. The study of the tendencies to crime and the causes of it has revealed much. /"Every child kept from being a criminal wins for the State a good citizen ; but a child left to be a criminal /by neglect is a vicious parasite, and whether free or imprisoned, feeds on the people — is a dead weight on the body politic." The moral trend of the child depends upon his family life to a great extent. What the teacher can do for him depends almost entirely on his knowledge of the child, his ideals and outside conditions. Ten- ECONOMIC WORTH OF CHILD STUDY 153 dencies to wrongdoing can best be understood and worked with by knowing conditions. ' ' Children often are vicious, not necessarily because parents are poor or j ignorant, but because worthy examples to imitate and Jhigh ideals to emulate are wanting; opportunity to wrongdoing means gratification, and unworthy habits are formed quickly and surely." Dirt and defilement, deviltry and disease, destruction and death, are an unfortunate and alliterative array. But it is, never- theless, a breviary of immorality and criminality. "Children become moral, cultured, educated, by a pro- cess of gradual upbuilding and unfolding, healthy exercise of cerebral cells, or otherwise, as their ex- perience or training warrants. At any age between six and sixteen the children of charitable institutions, industrial and reform schools are reported undersize and underweight; dwarfed bodies mean dwarfed j( minds and anti-social attitudes. All this is loss to the State. Poorly nourished frames do not go hand in hand with healthy brain and nerve cells, clear normal intellects and moral development. Children, as a rule, act in their lives the influences that have been brought to bear upon them. Warner is responsible for the statement that one-third of all the criminals have a warped and defective mental de- velopment. Something of a key, this, to the unlock- ing of the secret of the "bad boy," "the degenerate," Ithe inmates of the truants' school. The cleaning up process, whether of individuals, of homes or of schools, begins from within. Where growth ceases, decay be- gins. The world wants three-sided men, not one-sided ones, everything on its highest level. A boy plays as a man works, with his whole soul. Fresh air and good food and active minds and ennobling ideals are economy in education. Parkless towns, crowded tene- ments, no provisions for the activity of childhood, / 154 ECONOMIC WORTH OF CHILD STUDY dam the child into a perverted adulthood. "When some of our schools and customs have been dug out of the ruts of antiquity, and the little child shall be permit- ted to lead his instructor in the way he should go, there will be money enough to run the schools. Cam- paigns against ugliness, against improper and exces- sive picture shows, bad advertisements, filthy streets and lack of civic pride, will not be amiss in summing up educational economic conditions. ' ' A boy will try to be what he thinks you think he is." Faith in a boy helps him. He is bursting out with energy to do. Let him help the other fellow. To the point is this brief extract from an item of news in a recent Outlook: "They certainly used to be a tough gang, but this year since the playground come, they don't give me no trouble," said the playground police officer. "The boy without a playground is father to the man without a job." Idleness and va- grancy in the man are a natural product of a boyhood without opportunity for wholesome play. There is close connection between the social spirit that finds expression in wholesome sport and the social spirit that finds expression in public service. The dead routine in education is giving way ; schools no longer kill, but make alive. The field is vast, far-reaching, hopeful. Whichever way we turn, body, mind, morals, school, church, state, the way of econom3' and the way of perfection, are through an adequate knowl- edge of that little squirming, crjdng, roguish, laugh- ing, joyous, healthy bundle of possibilities that brings gladness to the home and heart, joy to the life and hope for the future. Inspirational leadership on the part of teachers, rather than playing the part of restraining police, will take the school work on easy grades, in big sweeping curves, toward perfection on half fare tickets. XVII SYMPATHETIC PARENTHOOD MRS. THEODORE W. BIRNEY Founder of the National Congress of Mothers ONCE saw a mother standing, white with unstring ot anger, over a little girl of six, who was kneel- children ing, and with trembling, tiny uplifted hands, was pleading: "0, mamma, do not beat me, please do not beat me, ' ' and painful as is the recollec- tion, I always recall the experience, at least mentally, whenever I am to lift my voice before such an au- dience as this in behalf of childhood, for my platform courage, like that of all the dear women associated with me, in this work, from the beginning and since, is decidedly of an acquired character, and I need this call to my emotional nature, ere I can forget you and myself in my theme. Your heart aches with mine at this picture, be- cause you know that it is daily an action in millions of homes throughout the world — not your home, not mine, but in homes of others less fortunate in their environment and opportunities than we, the un- trained, the irresponsible mother. "Was I angry with her? No, how dared I be, when I knew so well the limitations of her life? A great pity filled my heart, and asking her to step aside I remonstrated with her as tenderly as I could. In a few moments all signs of rage had disappeared, and she was sobbing and saying, "Ah, Madam, if somebody had only talked to me like this before, I might have been a better 155 156 sy:mpathetic parenthood Subjectlre enffering of cMldxen Need of tr&lnlng for parenthood mother." Such opportunities come to us all, and no mistaken idea of interfering with other people's chil- dren should ever deter us, in hovel or palace, from speaking the word which may stay any hand lifted in wrath against the most helpless of all beings on earth — a little child. There is no need to elaborate upon such an incident ; you know all the other ills which surround the children of this poor mother and others of her kind. So much for the objective suf- fering of unfortunate childhood, that which he who runs may read! There is another phase of childish suffering which is so subtle that only they who not only truly live with their children, but are always earnestly seeking for knowledge through the medium of child study, can ever hope to fathom its mystery, and that is the subjective life of the child, all that its mind holds of so-called childish griefs, fears, disappointments and anxieties. "We shall not be sympathetic mothers if we cling to the old idea that there are no such things [as childish griefs. Grief is grief, whether it be over a broken toy or a broken life ; the results, I grant you, are widely different, but the mother who smiles lightly over broken toys may live to weep over broken lives. Some of the saddest letters I have ever read were ' written by people whose characters had been warped through a misunderstood childhood. And now I ask you — if you were going to build a valuable house, to whom would you go, an architect with little knowl- edge and limited experience, or to one who had made the most of large opportunities? Has it oc- curred to you to compare the vocation of child train- ing to that of architecture? It is all building, save that one is a structure for temporal use alone, while character building is for eternity. And as a wise SYMPATHETIC PARENTHOOD 157 architect gathers ideas from the architecture of many lands, so should they who have the care of children . seek for enlightenment as to their spiritual, physical, ' moral and mental needs. I place the spiritual first, for I believe that the youngest child may drink in spirituality from the spiritually minded about it. And now where would you seek for this enlightenment which is to make the child into the ideal man or woman ! "Would you depend upon your own personal experience for guidance ? Not if you were a thoughtful man or woman; you would cherish your experience and discoveries, but you would experiment as little as possible ; you would seek a basis for your work of the highest obtainable authority ; you would carefully read and ponder over the books of Susan E. Blow and Elizabeth Harrison and others I might mention. I grant you the authors of these books are not all physical mothers, but their knowledge of child nature is great and accurate and they have given me more light upon my own problems of motherhood than all the physical mothers I have ever known. "Would you depend upon your limited knowledge to guide the bark \ of life through that mysterious sea of adolescence, so vast in its possibilities for good or evil? There is a book written long ago by Herbert Spencer, entitled "Education." If you think child study through other mediiims than your own limited experience a theory, read that book ; it will change your conviction as no argument of mine can ever do. I am sometimes asked is not the work of the Con- For what gress purely theoretical. 'I think every mother wo^ks""""^^^^ knows best how to bring up her own children." Does the observation of any of you confirm such a statement ? There are ideal mothers, I grant you, who never Vol. 1— H 158 SYMPATHETIC PARENTHOOD belonged to a Mothers' Club, who never read a line on child study, but they are women vvith a genius for motherhood; yet even they, with tiieir snow-crowned heads, will willingly tell you of the penalities which ignorance cost them. , You know the Mothers' Congress and its work; /' it is a living epitome qI sympathetic motherhood. As Daniel Boone, the brave pioneer in Kentucky, plac- ' ing his ear to the earth 'neath the shade of primeval .1 forests, exclaimed to his companions: "I hear the tramp^^ unborn millions, who will, in the years to come, cross this land." So we tell you, we are work- ing, not only for the children of today, but for the untold numbers who are even now journeying earth- ward, andjg^ho will rise up]]a^M51ess you for what you an d_e very__oth^r_orgamzationin~^he world is doing to give us the ideal civilization. Are there any lonely men or women here tonight, any whose hearts are burdened with grief for the liv- ing or dead, whose lives for one reason or another seem narrow and shut in? If such there be, may I remind them of the message, ' ' A little chi ld sjiajj. lead the m"? Following that leading, open your Jbearts and minds, and see the sunlight which rests in all fields of true service, but mark well, that service which offers richest compensation for a]l the ages is to be found in those fields wherein childhood rests. / We have a present need of our hospitals, asylums, j almshouses, prisons and reformatories ; they are merci- ' ful, humane, but justice and common sense alike de- mand that the necessity for them should diminish, as the value of preventive over reformative work is un- derstood. V I know one dearly loved woman, not a thousand Smiles away, who has no children of her own, but whose / SYMPATHETIC PARENTHOOD 159 beautiful maternal spirit broods over the childhood of the world, and whose life is spent in their service. When the maternal longing is strongest upon her, she sends messages to other mothers which may help them to a realization of their blessings as well as their re- sponsibilities. The world is full of sympathy, but as perfect love must embrace justice, so must sympathy in its highest development embrace wdsdom. There is the mistaken sympathy which dwarfs the objects upon which it is bestowed, which fosters weakness rather than strength. The sympathy which does not result in action is sympathy mere sentimental emotion, and our soul growth de- laton^ mands that we shall express our loving thought in service of .some kind. Cultivate sympathy in your children, but beware lest you overdo this and make them morbid. Like all other great truths, it is best taught by example. Children are naturally sym- pathetic. Looking from my window one day on the eve of a summer departure, I saw two little figures going slowly do-«Ti the path, and carefully sprinkling some- thing as they went. Upon inquiry at luncheon as to what they were doing, the eldest replied, "Oh, mamma, we are sprinkling bread crumbs, so the poor little ants won't get hungry while we are away." Many heart-broken lonely men and women suffer so much before they attain to joy and sympathy with others and of service to them, and this they might often have been spared, had they been encouraged to think of others in their childhood. If we could only know all that a little child feels and thinks, we should be so tender, so considerate of them; we hurt them in a thousand ways, we grown- ups; we are so absorbed with our point of view, we cannot see theirs, and some mothers and fathers never 160 SYMPATHETIC PARENTHOOD realize the full need for sympathy until the baby hands can no longer give that little tug at coat or skirts with which all parents are familiar, and the baby voice has passed forever from earth, and there remains only that unending tugging at the heart- strings, which we call vain regret. What was it which made me feel at home with the Mexicmn women as I passed their little adobe houses and saw them sitting in the doorways with their babies ? The bright answering smile they always gave me when I smiled upon their little ones and said bebe, ninya, or ninyo, as the case might be ! I 'm glad the first Spanish word I ever learned was ninya, which means little child. Eight years ago I made the_plea at the First Na- tional Congress of Mothers that this work should be for all, regardless of race, color, creed or condition, and I still hold the conviction expressed then that ignorant parenthood is the greatest "Tn'enace" which shadows all the nations of flie earfK today. I do not mean ignorance of Greek, Latin, higher mathematics, literature or any of the many attractive forms in which learning appeals to us, but ignorance of those things which vitally concern the child's well-being. A chud's A young merchant, intent on business, while rush- a"man'^s^ ^"*^ ing across the city on his wheel, met with a collision. The result was numerous bruises, sprains and disloca- tions, which laid him aside from active duties for a few days. The mental currents which had been rush- ing out along lines of business activity were suddenly checked, and boiled and seethed in irritation and re- bellion. "It would not have been so hard," he said, "if I could have been let down easily ; but this sudden stoppage from a point of intense activity to a state of enforced quietness is almost unbearable." One SYMPATHETIC PARENTHOOD 161 evening while lying upon his sofa, he noticed that his little boy, a bright little fellow of four years, was re- maining up after his usual bedtime, and, calling the nurse, he commanded her to take the child to bed. The little fellow resisted with kicks and screams, was scolded and slapped by his father into sullen ac- quiescence and carried off rebelliously to bed. ' ' I de- clare, " said the father, "that child is getting to be incorrigible. I shall certainly have to take him se- verely in hand." This remark was addressed to a friend, a woman of experience, who, sitting in the room, had been a witness to the proceedings. The comment of the father opened the way for the expression of thoughts which were welling in her mind. ' ' Did you notice what the child was doing when you ordered him to bed?" she said. "Why, no; not pa^ticularl3^ He was playing, I believe. " " He was very busy, ' ' said the friend. i"He had a grocery store in one corner of the room, ia telephone in another and a magnificent train of cars with a coal scuttle engine. He was taking orders from the telephone, doing up packages in the grocery store and delivering them by train. He had just very courteously assured Mrs. Brown that she should shortly have a pound of rice pudding and a bushel of baked potatoes ; had done up a pumpkin pie for Mrs. Smith, when he was rud ely disturbed in jijs business by Sarah and carried off to bed! He resented, and probably if he could have put his thoughts into words would have said just what you did a short time ago — /that if he could JiayeJieen let down easy it would not 'have been so hard. But to be dropped suddenly right in the midst of business was intolerable. Now, he knows that tomorrow the grocery store will have been demolished, the telephone will have disappeared, 162 SYMPATHETIC PARENTHOOD the train will have been wrecked, and if he goes into business again he will have to begin at the founda- tion. You think your experience is hard enough ; but you know there are others at your place of business who are looking after things as well as they can. How would you feel if you knew that your store was de- molished and had to be built up again from the foundation?" "Oh! well," said the father, ''but that is business. The boy was only playing. " " The boy 's occupation to him was business, just as much as yours is to you; his mental activities were just as intense; the sudden checking of his currents of thought were just as hard to bear, and his kicks and screams were not more unreasonable in him than have been your ex- clamations and sufferings during the time that you have been ignominiously consigned to bed. You have been worrying over plans that were suddenly confused because of your accident ; he goes to bed feeling that Mrs. Brown will be disappointed because she didn't get her rice pudding, and it was just as hard for him to bear this as it was for you to bear your experience. ' ' "Well, what would you have me do?" said the father. "Would you let the child sit up all night because he is interested in his play?" "No, but you might have let him down easy. Suppose you had given him fif- teen minutes in which to rearrange his thoughts. Sup- pose you had called him up and said: 'Well, Mr. Grocer, I would like to give you some orders, but I see that it is about time for your store to close, and I shall have to wait until tomorrow.' No doubt the little grocer would have been willing to have filled your orders at once ; but you could have said : ' Oh, no. Shops must close on time, so that the clerk can go home. There will be plenty of time tomorrow. I see you still have some business to deliver, and your engineer is getting very anxious to reach the end of SYMPATHETIC PARENTHOOD 163 his run. In about fifteen minutes the engine must go into the roundhouse and the engineer must go home and go to bed, so as to be ready for work to- morrow. ' "Do you not see that this would have turned the thoughts of the child into just the line that you wanted him to go? He would have been glad to close up his shop, because that is the way men do ; and as the little engineer at the end of a run he would have been very glad to go to bed and rest. Instead of a rebellious child sobbing himself sulkily to sleep with an indestructible feeling of injustice rankling in his heart, as a happy little engineer he would have gone willingly to bed, to think with loving kindness of that father who had sympathized with him and helped him to close his day's labors satisfactorily." "I see," said the father, "and I am ashamed of my- self. If I could waken him I would go to him and ask him to forgive me. Sarah, bring Robbie here." "He is asleep," was the reply. "Never mind; bring him anyhow." The girl lifted the sleeping boy and carried him to his father's arms. The child's face was flushed and teai:-stained ; his little fists were clenched and the long drawn, sobbing breath showed with what a perturbed spirit he had entered into sleep. "Poor little chap," said the father, penitently, as he kissed the cheek moist with weeping, ' ' can you forgive your father, my boy ? ' ' The child did not waken ; but his hands gently unclosed, his whole body relaxed, and, nestling his head more closely against his father's breast, he raised one chubby hand and patted the father's cheek. It was as if the loving voice had penetrated through the en- , casing flesh to the child's spirit, and he had answered ' love with love ; and they will always answer love with love. XVIII GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS JOHN LOCKE (Note that this most modern extract was written in the Seventeenth Century.) jUE care being had to keep the body in strength and vigor, so that it may be able to obey and execute the orders of the mind ; the next and principal business is, to set the mind right, that on all occasions it may be disposed to consent to nothing but what maj' be suitable to the f dignity and excellency of a rational creature. If what I have before said be true, as I do not doubt but it is, viz. — that the difference to be found in the manners and abi lities of me n is owing more to their education than to anything else,' we' have reason to conclude, that great care is to be had of the form- ing children 's minds, and giving them that seasoning early, which shall inHuence their lives always after; for when they do well or ill, the praise and blame will be laid there ; and when anything is done awkwardly, the common saying will pass upon them, that it is suitable to their breeding. As the strength of the body lies chiefly in being able to endure hardships, so also does that of the mind. And the great principle and foundation of all virtue and worth is placed in this : That a man ;: is able to deny himself his om'u desires, cross his own jl' inclinations, and purely follow what reason directs as best, though the appetite lean the other way. 164 GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS 165 The great mistake I have observed in p -ople 's Jl^i^^^ breeding their children, has been, that this hi'S not been taken care enough of in its due season ; that the mind has not been made obedient to discii line, and pliant to reason, when at first it was most tender, most easy to be bowed. Parents being wisely or- dained by nature to love their children, are very apt, if reason watch not that natural affection very warily, are apt, I say, to let it run into fondness. They love their little ones and it is their duty ; but they often, with them, cherish their faults, too. They must not be crossed, forsooth; they must be permitted to have their wills in all things; and they being in their infancies not capable of great vices, their parents think they may safe enough indulge their irregulari- ties, and make themselves sport with that pretty perverseness which they think well enough becomes that innocent age. But to a fond parent, that would not have his child corrected for a perverse trick, but excused it, saying it was a small matter, Solon very ^;?''well replied. Aye but custom is a great one. The fondling must be taught to strike and call names, must have what he cries for, and do what he pleases. Thus parents, by humoring and cockering them when little, corrupt the principles ^f nature in their children, and w^onder afterwards to taste the bitter waters, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain. For when their children are grown up, and these ill habits with them ; when they are now too big to be dandled, and their parents can no longer make use of them as playthings, then they complain that the brats are untoward and perverse ; then they are offended to see them wilful, and are troubled with those ill humors which they themselves infused and fomented in them ; and then, perhaps too late, would 166 GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS be glac to get out those weeds which their own hands have T,lanted, and which now have taken too deep root o be easily extirpated. For he that hath been used to have his will in everything, as long as he was in coats, why should we think it strange, that he should desire it, and contend for it still, when he is in breeches? Indeed, as he grows more towards a man, age shows his faults the more; so that there be few parents then so blind as not to see them, few so insensible as not to feel the ill effects of their own indulgence. He had the will of his maid before he could speak or go ; he had the mastery of his parents ever since he could prattle; and why, now he is grown up, is stronger and wiser than he was then, why now of a sudden must he be restrained and curbed? "Why must he at seven, fourteen, or twenty years old, lose the privilege which the parents' indulgence 'till then so largely allowed him? Try it in a dog or a horse or any other creature, and see whether the ill and resty tricks they have learned when young are easily to be mended when they are knit; and yet none of those creatures are half so wilful and proud, or half so desirous to be masters of themselves and others, as man. We are generally wise enough to begin with them when they are very young, and discipline betimes those other creatures we would make useful and good for somewhat. They are only our own offspring, that we neglect in this point ; and having made them ill children, we foolishly expect they should be good men. For if the child must have grapes or sugar plums when he has a mind to them, rather than make the poor baby cry or be out of humor, why, when he is grown up, must he not be satisfied too, if his desires carry him to wine or women? They GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS 167 are objects as suitable to the longing of one of more years, as what he cried for when little was to the inclinations of a child. The having desires accommodated to the apprehensions and relish of ^ those several ages is not the fault ; but the not hav- |ing them subject to the rules and restraints of rea- ^ son: The difference lies not in having or not having appetities, but in the power to govern, and deny our- selves in them. He that is not used to submit his will to the reason of others when he is young will scare hearken to submit to his own reason when he is of an age to make use of it. And what kind of a man such a one is like to prove, is easy to fore- see. These are oversights usually committed by those who seem to take the greatest care of their chil- dren's education. But if we look into the common management of children, we shall have reason to wonder, in the great dissoluteness of manners which the world complains of, that there are any footsteps at all left of virtue. ' I desire to know what vice can be named, which parents, and those about children, do not season them with, and drop into them the seeds of as soon as they are capable to receive them? I do not mean by the examples they give and the patterns they set before them, which is encourage- ment; but that which I would take notice of here is, the downright teaching them vice, and actually put- ting them out of the way of virtue. Before they go, they principle them with violence, revenge, and cruelty. Give me a blow, that I may beat him, is a •lesson which most children every day hear; and it is thought nothing, because their hands have not strength to do any mischief. But I ask, does not this corrupt their mind ? Is not this the way of force and 168 GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS Pride In clothes *s izcesses in ating and ir inking violence, that they are set in ? And if they have been taught when little, to strike and hurt others by proxy, and encouraged to rejoice in the harm they have brought upon them, and see them suffer, are they not prepared to do it when they are strong enough to be felt themselves, and can strike to some purpose? The coverings of our bodies which are for modesty, warmth and defense, are by the folly or vice of parents, recommended to their children for other uses. They are made matters of vanity and emula- tion. A child is set alonging after a new suit, for the finery of it; and when the little girl is tricked up in her new gown and commode, how can her mother do less than teach her to admire herself, by calling her her little queen and her princess? Thus the little ones are taught to be proud of their clothes before they can put them on, and why should they not continue to value themselves for their outside fashionableness of the tailor or tirewoman's making, when their parents have so early instructed them to do so? Lying and equivocations, and excuses little dif- ferent from lying, are put into the mouths of young people, and commended in apprentices and children, whilst they are for their master's or parent's ad- vantage. And can it be thought, that he that finds the straining of truth dispensed with, and encouraged, whilst it is for his godly master's turn, will not make use of that privilege for himself, when it may be for his own profit? Those of the meaner sort are hindered, by the straitness of their fortunes, from encouraging in- temperance in their children by the temptation of their diet, or invitations to eat or drink more than enough ; but their own ill examples, whenever plenty GENERAL INFORIMATION FOR PARENTS 169 conies in their way, show that it is not the dislike of drunkenness or gluttony, that keeps them from excess, but want of materials. But if we look into the houses of those who are a little warmer in their fortunes, their eating and drinking are made so much the great business and happiness of life, that children are thought neglected, if they have not their share of it. Sauces and ragouts, and food disguised by all the arts of cookery, must tempt their palates, when their bellies are full ; and then, for fear the stomach should be overcharged, a pretense is found for another glass of wine to help disgestion, though it only serve to increase the surfeit. Is my young master a little out of order, the first question is, what will my dear eat? What shall I get for thee? Eating and drinking are instantly pressed ; and everybody 's invention is set on work to find out something luscious and delicate enough to prevail over that want of appetite, which nature has wisely ordered in the beginning of distempers, as defense against their increase ; that being freed from the ordinary labor of digesting any new load in the stomach, she may be at leisure to correct and master the peccant humors. And where children are so happy in the care of their parents, as by their prudence to be kept from the excess of their tables, to the sobriety of a plain and simple diet, there, too, they are scarce to be pre- served from the contagion that poisons the mind; though, by a discreet management whilst they are under tuition, their healths, perhaps, may be pretty well secure, yet their desires must needs yield to the lessons which everywhere will be read to them upon this part of epicurism. The commendation that eat- ing well as everywhere, cannot fail to be a success- 170 GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS ful incentive to natural appetites, and bring them quickly to the liking and expense of a fashionable table. This shall have from everyone, even the re- provers of vice, the title of living well. And what shall sullen reason dare to say against the public testimony ? Or can he hope to be heard, if it should call that luxury, which is so much owned and uni- versally practiced by those of the best quality? This is now so grown a vice, and has so great supports, that I know not whether it do not put in for the name of virtue; and whether it will not be thought folly, or want of knowledge of the world, to open one's mouth against it? And truly I should suspect, that what I have here said of it, might be censured as a little satire out of my way, did I not mention it with this view, that it might awaken the care and watchfulness of parents in the education of their children, when they see how they are beset on every side, not only with temptations, but in- structors to vice, and that, perhaps, in those they thought places of security. I shall not dwell any longer on this subject, much less run over all the particulars that would show what pains are used to corrupt children, and instill principles of vice into them : but I desire parents soberly to consider, what irregularity or vice there is which children are not visibly taught, and whether it be not their duty and wisdom to provide them other instructions. No reward i^ seems plain to me, that the principle of all virtue and excellency lies in a power of denying our- . spIvpr tVi p satisfact ion of our own desires, where rea- son does not authorize them. This power is to be got and improved by custom, made easy and familiar by an early practice. If therefore I might be heard, GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS 171 I would advise, that, contrary to the ordinary way, children should be used to submit their desires, and go without their longings, even from their very I cradles. The first thing they should learn to know, should be, that they were not to have anything be- ' cause it pleased them, but because it was thought fit for them. If things suitable to their wants were supplied to them, so that they were never suffered to have what they once cried for, they would learn to be content without it, would never, with bawling and peevishness, contend for mastery, nor be half so uneasy to themselves and others as they are, because from the first beginning they are not thus handled. If they were never suffered to obtain their desire by the impatience they express for it, they would no more cry for another thing, than they do for the moon. This being laid down in general, as the course that ought to be taken, 'tis fit we now come to consider the parts of the discipline to be used, a little more particularly. I have spoken so much of carry- ing a strict hand over children, that perhaps I shall be suspected of not considering enough, what is due to their te nder age and constitutio n^But that Opinion will vanish, when you have heard me a little farther : for I am very apt to think, that great severity of ^ punishment does but very little good, nay, great harm ^ in education; and I believe it will be found that, coeteris paribus, those children who have been most chastised, seldom make the best men. All that I have hitherto contended for, is, thnt._wbfltpnpver rigor is eeessary, it is more to be used the younger children ^are; and having by a due application wrought its effect, it is to be relaxed, and changed into a milder sort of government. 172 GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS /A compliance and suppleness of their wills, being by a steady hand introduced by parents, before chil- y dren have memories to retain the beginnings of it, / will seem natural to them, and work afterwards in them as if it were so, preventing all occasions of struggling or repining. The only care is, that it be /begun early, and ''^^PT^^V Irftp^ /"^ ^^^^ awe and re- spect be grown familiar, and there appears not the least reluctancy in the submissio n, and ready obe- dience of their mind. When this reverence is thus once established, (which it must be early, or else / it will cost pains and blows to recover it, and the more the longer it is deferred), 'tis by it, still mixed with as much indulgence as they make not an ill use of, and not by beating, chiding, or other servile pun- ishments, they are for the future to be governed as they grow up to more understanding. That this is so, will be easily allowed, when it is but considered, what is to be aimed at in an ingen- uous education ; and upon what it terms. He that has not a mastery over his inclinations, he that knows not how to resist the importunity of . present pleasure or pain, for the sake of what reason ' I tells him is fit to be done, wants the true principle ' of virtue and industry, and is in danger never to be good for anything. This temper, therefore, so con- trary to unguided nature, is to be got betimes; and this habit, as the true foundation of future ability and happiness, is to be wrought into the mind as early as may be, even from the first dawnings of knowledge or apprehension in children, and so to be confirmed in them, by all the care and ways imagin- able, by those who have the oversight of their educa- tion. On the other side, if the mind be curbed and GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS 173 (humbled too much in children; if their spirits be abased and broken much, by too strict a hand over ithem, they lose all the vigor and industry, and are in a worse state than the former. For extravagant young fellows, that have liveliness and spirit, come sometimes to be set right, and so make able and great men; but dejected minds, timorous and tame, and low spirits, are hardly ever to be raised, and very seldom attain to anything. To avoid the danger that is on either hand, is the great art; and he that has found a way how to keep up a child's spirit easy, active, and free, and yet at the same time to restrain him from many things he has a mind to, and to draw him to things that are uneasy to him; he I say, that knows how to reconcile the seeming contradictions, has, in my opinion, got the true secret of education. The usual lazy and short way by chastisement and pu^s^hment the rod, is the most unfit of any to be used in educa- tion, because it tends to both these mischiefs ; which, as we have shown, are the Scylla and Charybdis, which, on the one hand or the other, ruin all that miscarry. This kind of punishment contributes not at all to the mastery of our natural propensity to indulge corporal and present pleasure, and to avoid pain at any rate, but rather encourages it, and thereby strengthens that in us, which is the root from whence spring all vicious actions, and the irregularities of life. For what other motive, but of sensual pleasure and pain, does a child act by, who drudges at his book against his inclination, or abstains from eating unwholesome fruit, that he takes pleasure in, only out of fear of whipping? He in this only prefers the greater corporal pleasure, or avoids the greater corporal sin. And what is it, to govern his actions, Vol. 1 — 12 174 GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS and direct his conduct by such motives as these? What is it, I say, but to cherish that principle in him, which it is our business to root out and destroy ? And therefore I cannot think any correction useful to a child, where the shame of suffering for having done amiss, does not work more upon him than the pain. This sort of correction naturally breeds an aver- sion to that which it is the tutor's business to create a liking to. How obvious is it to observe, that chil- dren come to hate things which were at first ac- ceptable to them, when they find themselves whipped, and chid, and teased about them? And it is not to be wondered at in them, when grown men would not be able to be reconciled to anything by such ways. Who is there that would not be disgusted with any innocent recreation, in itself indifferent to him, if he should with blows or ill language be haled to it, when he had no mind? Or be constantly so treated, for some circumstances in his application to it ? This is natural to be so. Oft'ensive circumstances or- dinarily infect innocent things which they are joined with ; and the very sight of a cup wherein any one uses to take nauseous physic turns his stomach, so that nothing will relish well out of it, though the cup be never so clean and well shaped, and of the richest materials. Such a sort of slavish discipline makes a slavish temper. The child submits, and dissembles obedience, whilst the fear of the rod hangs over him; but when that is removed, and by being out of sight, he can promise himself immunity, he gives the greater scope to his natural inclination ; which by this way is not at all altered, but, on the contrary, heightened and increased in him ; and after such restraint, breaks out GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS 175 usually with, the more violence; or, if severity- carried to the highest pitch does prevail, and works a cure upon the present unruly dis- temper, it often brings in the room of it a worse and more dangerous disease, by breaking the mind; and then, in the place of a disorderly young fellow, you have a low spirited moped creature, who, however with his unnatural sobriety he may please silly people, who commend tame, unactive children, because they make no noise, nor give them any trouble; yet at last, will probably prove as uncomfortable a thing to his friends, as he will be all his life an useless thing to himself and others. Beating them, and all other sorts of slavish and corporal punishments, are not the discipline fit to be used in the education of those we would have wise, good, and ingenuous men ; and therefore very rare to be applied, and that only in great occasions, and cases of extremity. On the other side, to flatter chil- dren by rewards of things that are pleasant to them, is as careful to be avoided. He that will give to his sou apples or sugar plums, or what else of this kind he is most delighted with, to make him learn his book, does but authorize his love of pleasure, and cocker up that dangerous propensity, which he ought by all means to subdue and stifle in him. You can never hope to teach him to master it, whilst you compound for the check you gave his inclination in one place, by the satisfaction you propose to it in another. To make a good, a wise, and a virtuous man, 'tis fit that he should learn to cross his appe- tite and deny his inclination to riches, finery, or pleasing his palate, etc., whenever his reason advises the contrary, and his duty requires. But when you draw him to do anything that is fit by the offer of 176 GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS money, or reward the pains of learning his book by the pleasure of a luscious morsel; when you promise him a lace cravat or a fine new suit, upon per- formance of some of his little task; what do you by proposing these as rewards, but allow them to be the good things he should aim at, and thereby encourage his longing for them, and accustom him to place his happiness in them; thus people, to prevail with chil- dren to be industrious about their grammar, danc- ing, or some other such matter, of no great moment to the happiness or usefulness of their lives, by mis- applied rewards and punishments, sacrifice their vir- tue, invert tlie order of their education, and teach them luxury, pride or covetousness, etc. For in this way, flattering those wrong inclinations which they should restrain and suppress, they lay the^ foundations of those future vices, which cannot be avoided but by curbing our desires and accustoming them early to submit to reason. I say not this, that I would have children kept from the conveniences or pleasures of life, that are not injurious to their health or virtue. On the con- trary, I would have their lives made as pleasant and as agreeable to them as may be, in a plentiful enjoyment of whatsoever might innocently delight them; provided it be with this caution, that they have these enjoyments, only as the consequences of the state of esteem and acceptation they are in with their parents and governors ; but they should never be offered or bestowed on them, as the rewards of this or that particular performance, that they show an aver- sion to or to which they would not have applied themselves without that temptation. Bewardi and But if you take away the rod on one hand, and punishments thesc little encouragcmcnts which they are taJken GENERAL INEORMATION FOR PARENTS 177 with, on the other, how then (will you say) shall I children be governed? Remove hope and fear, and 1 there is an end of all discipline. I grant that good j and evil, reward and punishment, are the only mo- I tives to a rational creature : these are the spur and reins whereby all mankind are set on work, and guided, and therefore they are to be made use of to children, too. For I advise their parents and gov- ernors always to carry this in their minds, that children are to be treated as rational creatures. Rewards, I grant, and punishments must be pro- posed to children, if we intend to work upon them. The mistake I imagine is, that those that are gen- erally made use of, are ill chosen. The pains and I I pleasures of the body are, I think, of ill consequence, j I when made the rewards and punishments whereby ' men would prevail on their children; for as I said before, they serve but to increase and strengthen those inclinations, which it is our business to sub due and master. "What principle of virtue do you lay in a child, if you will redeem his desires of one pleasure, by the proposal of another? This is but to enlarge his appetite, and instruct it to wander. If a child cries for an unwholesome and dangerous fruit, you purchase his quiet by giving him a less hurtful sweetmeat. This, perhaps, may preserve his health, but spoils his mind, and sets that farther out of order. For here you only change the object, but flatter still his appetite, and allow that must be sat- isfied, wherein, as I have showed, lies the root of the mischief; and till you bring him to be able to bear a denial of that satisfaction, the child may at present be quiet and orderly, but the disease is not cured. I By this way of proceeding, you foment and cherish in him that which is the spring from whence all the V 178 GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS evil flows, which, will be sure on the next occasion to break out again with more violence, give him stronger longings, and you more trouble. The rewards and punishments then, whereby we should keep children in order, are quite of another kind, and of that force, that when we can get them once to work, the business, I think, is done, and the difficulty is over. Esteem and disgrace are, of all / / others, the most powerful incentives to the mind, / / when once it is brought to relish them. If you can once get into children a love of credit, and an ap- prehension of shame and disgrace, you have put into them the true principle, which wi ll constan tly work ' and incline them to the right. But it will be asked, how shall this be done? I confess it does not at first appearance want some difficulty ; but yet I think it worth our while to seek the ways (and practice them when found) to attain this, which I look on as the great secret of edu- cation. ?r»iBe and First, children (earlier perhaps, than we think) are very sensible of praise and commendation. They find a pleasure in being esteemed and valued, es- pecially by their parents and those whom they de- pend on. If therefore the father caress and commend them when they be well, show a cold and neglectful countenance to them upon doing ill, and this accom- panied by a like carriage of the mother and all others that are about them, it will, in a little time, make them sensible of the difference ; and this, if constantly observed, I doubt not but will of itself work more than threats or blows, which lose their force when once grown common, and are of no use when shame does not attend them ; and therefore are to be for- borne, and never to be used, but in the case herein- after mentioned, when it is brought to extremity. GENERAL INFORI^IATION FOR PARENTS 179 But secondly, to make the sense of esteem or dis- grace sink the deeper, and be of the more weight, other agreeable or disagreeable things should con- stantly accompany these different states; not as par- ticular rewards and punishments of this or that par- ticular action, but as necessarily belonging to, and constantly attending one who, by his carriage, has brought himself into a state of disgrace or commenda- tion. By which way of treating them, children may as much as possible be brought to conceive, that those that are commended, and in esteem for doing well, .will necessarily be beloved and cherished by every- body, and have all other good things as a conse- quence of it; and on the other side, when anyone by miscarriage falls into disesteem, and cares not to preserve his credit, he will unavoidably fall under ] neg lect and _c optem pt; and in that state, the want ' of whatever might satisfy or delight him will fol- low. In this way the objects of their desires are made assisting to virtue, when a settled experience from the beginning teaches children that the things they delight in, belong to, and are to be enjoyed by those only wtio are in a state of reputation. If by these means you can come once to shame them out of their faults, (for besides that, I would willingly have no punishment) and make them in love with the pleasure of being well thought of, you may turn them as you please, and they will be in love with all the ways of virtue. ( The great difficulty here is, I imagine, from the I folly and perverseness of servants, who are hardly to be hindered from crossing herein the design of the father and mother. Children discountenanced I by their parents for any fault, find usually a refuge I and relief in the caresses of these foolish flatterers, 180 GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS who thereby undo whatever the parents endeavor to establish. When the father or mother looks sowre on the child, everybody else should put on the same cold- . ness to him, and nobody give him countenance, till ' forgiveness is asked, and a reformation of his fault has set him right again, and restored him to his former credit. If this were constantly observed, I guess there would be little need of blows or chiding; their own ease and satisfaction would quickly teach chil- dren to court commendation, and avoid doing that which they found everybody condemned and they were sure to suffer for, without being chid or beaten. This would teach them modesty and shame ; and they would quickly come to have a natural abhorrence for that which they found made them slighted and neglected by everybody. But how this inconvenience from servants is to be remedied, I must leave to parents' care and consideration. Only I think it of great importance ; and that they are very happy who can get discreet people about their children. / Frequent beating or chiding is therefore carefully to be avoided: because this sort of correction never / produces any good, farther than it serves to raise shame and abhorrence of the miscarriage that brought it on them. And if the greatest part of the trouble be not the sense that they have done amiss, and the apprehension that they have drawn on themselves the just displeasure of their friends, the pain of whipping will work but an imperfect cure. It only ( patches up for the present, and skins it over, but '/reaches not to the bottom of the sore; ingenuous , shame, an d the ap prehensions of displeasure, a re the )nly tr ue restraint. These *alone ought to hold the reins, and keep the child in order. But corporal punishments must necessarily lose that effect, and GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS 181 wear out the sense of shame, where they frequently return. Shame in children has the same place that modesty has in women, which cannot be kept and often transgressed against. And as to the apprehension of displeasure in the parents, that will come to be very insignificant, if the marks of that displeasure quickly cease, and a few blows fully expiate. Parents should well consider what faults in their children are weighty enough to deserve the declaration of their anger: but when their pleasure is once declared to a degree that carries any punishment with it, they ought not presently to lay by the severity of their brows, but to restore their children to their former grace with some difficulty, and delay a full recon- ciliation till their conformity and more than ordinary merit, make good their amendment. If this not be so ordered, punishment will, by familiarity, become a mere thing of course, and lose all its influence; offending, being chastised, and then forgiven will be thought as natural and necessary, as noon, night and morning following one another. Concerning reputation, I shall only remark this one thing more of it, that though it be not the true principle and measure of virtue, (for that is the knowledge of a man's duty, and the satisfaction it is to obey his Maker, in following the dictates of that light God has given him, with the hopes of ac- ceptation and reward), yet it is that which comes nearest to it: and being the testimony and applause that other people's reason, as it were by a com- mon consent, gives to virtuous and well ordered ac- tions, it is the proper guide and encouragement of children, till they grow able to judge for themselves, and to find what is right by their own reason. 182 GENERAL INFORIVIATION FOR PARENTS 'imes for ebuke and lommendation 'onsideration nd respect )r children ; / This consideration may direct parents how to manage themselves in reproving and commending their children. The rebukes and chiding, which their faults will sometimes make hardly to be avoided, should not only be in sober, grave, and unpassionate words, but also alone and in private: but the com- mendations children deserve, they should receive be- fore others. This doubles the reward, by spreading their praise ; but the backwardness parents show in divulging their faults, will make them set a greater value on their credit themselves, and teach them to be the more careful to preserve the good opinion of others, whilst they think they have it : but when being exposed to shame, by publishing their miscarriages, they give it up for lost, that check upon them is taken off, and they will be the less careful to pre- serve others' good thought of them, the more they suspect that their reputation with them is already blemished. Having under consideration how great the in- fluence of company is, and how prone we are all, es- pecially children, to imitation ; I must here take the liberty to mind parents of this one thing, viz., that he that will have his son have a respect for him and his orders, must himself have a great re"^erence for his son. Maxima dchefur pueris reverentia. You must do nothing before him, which you would not have him imitate. If anything escape you, which you would have pass for a fault in him, he will be sure to shelter himself under your example, and shelter himself so as that it will not be easy to come at him, to correct it in him the right way. If you punish him for what he sees you practice yourself, he will not think that severity to proceed from kindness in you, careful to amend a fault in him ; but will be GENERAL INFORI^IATION FOR PARENTS 183 apt to interpret it the peevishness and arbitrary imperiousness of a father, who, without any ground for it, would deny his son the liberty and pleasures he takes himself. Or if you assume to yourself the liberty you have taken, as a privilege belonging to riper years, to which a child must not aspire, you do but add new force to your example, and recom- mend the action the more powerfully to him. For you must always remember, that children affect to be men earlier than is thought ; and they love breeches, not for their cut or ease, but because the having them is a mark or step towards manhood. What I say of the father's carriage before his children, must extend itself to all those who have any authority over them, or for whom he would have them have any respect. But of all the ways whereby children are to be instructed and their manners formed, the plainest, easiest and most efficacious, is to set before their eyes the examples of those things you would have them do or avoid; which, when they are pointed out to them, in the practice of persons within their knowl- edge, with some reflections on their beauty and un- becomingness, are of more force to draw or deter their imitation, than any discourses which can be made to them. Virtues and vices can by no words be so plainly set before their understandings as the actions of other men will show them, when you direct their observations, and bid them view this or that good or bad quality in their practice. And the beauty or uncomeliness of many things, in good and ill breeding, will be better learnt, and make deeper im- pressions on them, in the examples of others, than from any rules or instructions can be given about them. 184 GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARENTS This is a method to be used, not only whilst they are young, but to be continued even as long as they shall be under another's tuition or conduct; nay, I know not whether it be not the best way to be used by a father, as long as he shall think fit, on any occasion to reform anything he wishes mended in his son; nothing sinking so gently, and so deep, into men's minds, as example. And what ill they either overlook or indulge in themselves, they cannot but dislike and be ashamed of, when it is set before them in another. XIX WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD FATHER JOHN LOCKE, 1693 HOUGH I have mentioned the severity of the father's brow, and the awe settled there- by in the mind of children when young, as one main instrument whereby their educa- tion is to be managed; yet I am far from being of an opinion that it should be continued all along to them, whilst they are under the discipline and gov- ernment of pupilage ; I think it should be relaxed, as fast as their age, discretion and good behavior will allow it; even to that degree, that a father will do well, as his son grows up, and is capable of it, to talk familiarly with him; nay, ask his advice, and consult with him about those things wherein he has any knowledge or understanding. By this, the father will gain two things, both of great moment. The one is, that it will put serious consideration into his son's thoughts, better than any rules or advice he can give him. The sooner you treat him as a man, the sooner he will begin to be one : and if you admit him into serious discourses sometimes with you, you will insensibl}^ raise his mind above the usual amusements of youth, and those trifling occupations which it is commonly wasted in. For it is easy to observe, that many young men continue longer in the thought and conversation of school boys than otherwise they would, because their parents keep them at that distance, and in that low rank, by all their carriage to them. Another thing of greater consequence, which you will obtain by such a way of treating him, will be ;85 Advantages of companioo. ship between father and son Father should advise as a friend 186 WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD FATHER his friendship. Many fathers, though they propor- tion to their sons liberal allowances, according to their age and condition, yet they keep the knowledge of their estates and concerns from them, with as much reservedness as if they were guarding a secret of state from a spy or an enemy. This, if it looks not like jealousy, yet it wants those marks of kindness and intimacy which a father should show his son, and no doubt often hinders or abates that cheerfulness and satisfaction wherewith a son should address himself to, and rely upon his father. And I cannot but often wonder to see fathers who love their sons very well yet so order the matter by a constant stiffness and a mien of authority and distance to them all their lives, as if they were never to enjoy, or have any comfort from those they love best in the world, till they had lost them by being removed into another. Nothing cements and establishes friendship and good will so much as confident communication of con- cernment and affairs. Other kindnesses, without this, leave still some doubts : but when your son sees you open your mind to him, when he finds that you in- terest him in your affairs, as things you are willing should in their turn come into his hands, he will be concerned for them as for his owti, wait his season with patience, and love you in the meantime, who keep him not at the distance of a stranger. This will also make him see, that the enjoyment you have, is not without care; which the more he is sensible of, the less will he envy you the possession, and the more think himself happy under the management of so favorable a friend and so careful a father. There is scarce any young man of so little thought, or so void of sense, that would not be glad of a sure friend, that he might have recourse to and freely consult on occasion. The reservedness and distance that fathers WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD FATHER 187 keep, often deprive their sons of that refuge which would be of more advantage to them than a hundred rebukes and chidings. Would your son engage in some frolic, or take a vagary, were it not much better he should do it with, than without your knowl- edge? For since allowances for such things must be made to young men, the more you know of his in- trigues and designs, the better will you be able to prevent great mischiefs; and by letting him see what is like to folly, take the right way of prevailing with him to avoid less inconveniences. Would you have him open his heart to you and ask your advice "you must begin to do so with him first, and by your carriage beget that confidence." But whatever he consults you about, unless it lead to some fatal and irremediable mischief, be sure you advise only as a friend of more experience ; but with your advice mingle nothing of command or authority, no more than you would to your equal or a stranger. That would be to drive him forever from any farther demanding, or receiving advantage from your coun- sel. You must consider that he is a young man, and has pleasures and fancies which you are past. |You must not expect his inclination should be just las vours, not that at twentv he should have the same (thoughts you have at fifty. All that you can wish, is that since youth must have some liberty, some /^outleaps, they might be with the ingenuity of a son, /and under the eye of a father, and then no very great harm can come of it. The way to obtain this, as I said before, is (according as you find him capable) to talk with him about your affairs, propose matters to him familiarly, and ask his advice; and when he ever lights on the right, follow it as his; and if it succeed well, let him hav^ the commendation. This will not at all lessen your authority, but increase pnpil 188 WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD FATHER his love and esteem of you. "Whilst you keep your estate, the staff will still be in your own hands; and your authority the surer, the more it is strength- ened with confidence and kindness. For you have not that power you ought to have over him, till he comes to he more afraid of offending so good a friend than of losing some part of his future expecta- tion, disco^fo of Familiarity of discourse, if it can become a father tutor and to his SOU, may much more be condescended to by a tutor to his pupil. All their time together should not be spent in reading of lectures, and magisterially dictating to him what he is to observe and follow. Hearing him in his turn, and using him to reason about what is proposed, will make the rules go down the easier and sink the deeper, and will give him a liking to study and instruction : and he will then be- gin to value knowledge, when he sees that it enables him to discourse, and he finds the pleasure and credit of bearing a part in the conversation and of having his reason sometimes approved and hearkened to; particularly in morality, prudence, and breeding, cases should be put to him, and his judgment asked. This opens the understanding better than maxims, how well soever explained, and settles the rules bet- ter in memory for practice. This way lets things into the mind, which stick there, and retain their evidence with them ; whereas words at best are faint repre- sentations, being not so much as the true shadows of things, and are much sooner forgotten. He will bet- ter comprehend the foundations and measures of decency and justice, and have livelier, and more last- ing impressions of what he ought to do, by giving his opinion on cases proposed, and reasoning with his tutor on fit instances, than by giving a silent, negli- gent, sleepy audience to his tutor's lectures; and m D D z > o ■0 O o m a> CO O ft o -0 — a r+ — ai 3 n "< 3 ^ o = -* w > 3 Z2. n> to ■<3: o ■ -J O z H I m > < > > z H < o r WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD FATHER 189 much more than by captious logical disputes, or set declamations of his own, upon any question. This one sets the thoughts upon wit and false colors, and not upon truth ; the other teaches fallacy, wran- gling, and opiniatry; and they are both of them things that spoil the judgment, and put a man out of the way of right and fair reasoning; and there- fore carefully to be avoided by one who would im- prove himself, and be acceptable to others. I "When by making your son sensible that he de- pends on you, and is in your power, you have estab- lished your authority ; and by being inflexibly severe in your carriage to him when obstinately persisting in any ill-natured trick which you have forbidden, es- pecially lying, you have imprinted on his mind that I awe which is necessary ; and, on the other side, when I (by permitting him th e full liberty due to his age, and laying no restraint in your presence to those childish actions and gaiety of carriage, which, whilst he is very young, is as necessary to him as meat or sleep) you have reconciled him to your company, and made him sensible of your care and love of him, by indulgence and tenderness, especially caressing him on all occasions wherein he does anything well, and being kind to him after a thousand fashions, suit- able to his age, which nature teaches parents better than I can : when, I say, by these ways of tenderness and affection, which parents never want for their children, you have also planted in him a particular affection for you; he is then in the state you could desire, and you have formed in his mind that true reverence which is always afterwards carefully to be continued, and maintained in both parts of it, love and fear, as the great principles whereby you will always have hold upon him, to turn his mind to the ways of virtue and honor. Vol. 1 — 13 WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD FATHER Matnal obligations of fathers ajii mothers Character- istlCB of a good father SARA.H K. JOHNSON, 1911 T is because I so firmly believe that if we can hope to develop the hig hest possibilit ies of the child, we must have the full co- operation of both parents, that'l amTasked to write this paper.'"" "We hear addresses upon addresses ; we weary of reading books and papers on the duty of the mother to her child, but while we fully believe that "it is the I hand that rocks the cradle that rules the world, ' ' we know that the father's hand can, and often does, rock ^ gently and firmly as that of the mother. We must not (unconsciously though it may be) overlook the fact that husbands and wives must mu- tually bear each others' burdens as well as pleas- ures; that side by side they must stand, strong in their happy union of love. > Every woman must respect the true, manly man, made in the i mage of his C reator, endowed with all the faculties that make for'TruTKT'fidelity, honesty and integrity, crowned withal, with that patient gentleness that never fails to conquer. Can any mother ever so wise, judicious, loving and affectionate, tak e the pla ce o f such a fath er ! Should she be expected to do more than a mother's loving duty? It may be said the i deal is too h igh. Can our ideal be too high, or can we feel our responsibility too great in attempting to mould the tender, trust- ful, helpless little child that we welcome as the great- est blessing to the home?J 190 / WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD FATHER 191 This little blossom of faith must learn by the father's life and example, to respect and love his father, as he must his mother by the example of her Hfe. Let us then endeavor to throw out those strong tendrils, during the formative period, to which the child may cling after the time of authority is passed. That father who finds it is restful pleasure to spend at least a half hour each day with his child will reap the reward of seeing him grow more and more companionable as he grows in years. Do we fully realize that in entering into the holy bond of matrimony, the happiness of that future home may depend upon the self-control of the father equally with that of the mother, and thai we must strive to educate each other as fellow Christians, if we wish to develop the characters necessary to pre- pare us for the sacred duty of parenthood? We know full well that the too strenuous business strenuous >4ife of today demands the earnest attention of our obstacle men, and that they frequently return after a weary day too much spent to enjoy the blessed privilege of the home. Their loved ones, those nearest and dearest to their hearts, must only get the fag end of the day, and in the privacy of the home it is easy to expect sympathetic counsel of the wife and mother ; but should not this faithful companion who has pa- tiently met the perplexing duties of her station re- ceive her share of sympathy? W^hat can be more restful and reassuring to a wife and mother than to realize that her children are sure of the joyful frolic with their father upon his return, which is always so delightfully refreshing to an overtaxed business man. That father who manages to find time to know his 192 WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD FATHER child, goes to his business each day just that much better fortified to meet the perplexing questions that await him in the office. We know that it is possible for splendid business men to enjoy the first and last hour of the day in close companionship with their little ones, at the expense of carpets and furniture, or it may be the grass, and gardens ; this play to him is sacred. To that mother who, when her firstborn lay on her lap, offered up prayers for strength to so mould and guide that b aby bo y's character that he might grow up to be a blessing to" some good wife, and /a wise and happy father to his children, it is a crowning blessing for her to realize this son fulfiU- 1 ing the ardent desire of her heart in making a happy / home for a loving wife, and a wise and patient father to their happy little family, and to know that this young father realizes the necessity of dealing pa- tiently but firmly with his boys, and if necessary will take time from the early business hour to discipline his child. " *We cannot begin too early to establish confidence , and sympathy between ourselves and our children; they crave sympathy and we must ever be on the alert to respond to these yearnings of the heart.^ ^In order to prepare our young men for the duties of husband and father we must begin with our boys and educate them, just as much as we need to teach our girls, if we wish to better the conditions, and to create ideal surroundings in the home^ ^kVhen we graduate men and women Tmly equipped to enter upon the sacred duty of matrimony, we shall not hear of the fathers who have not time to know their children ; or of the child who asked his mother on Monday morning, ''where that man was WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD FATHER 193 who comes here on Sunday," or again, of the father who, upon losing his temper with his disobedient little boy, hastily carried him upstairs and sat him on a chair, none too gently, closing the door, hurried down to his interrupted reading in the library, quite forgetting his little prisoner until a gentle little voice (called down, ' ' Dada, dada, well, have you gotten over your temper yet, is it safe for me to come down ? ' ' What a precious lesson these little ones teach us. J^^d'^"'' We surely learn more than we teach as we turn over from day to day and study the pages of their unfold- ing lives. In this child s tu dy the mother needs, perhaps, more than anything else, the sympathetic co-operation of her husband, and until this need is fully met, mothers must be emphatically burden bearers in the home. Mother love must walk hand in hand with anxiety and care. Mrs. Felton has truly said ''the companionship between mother love and apprehension begins at the cradle and lingers at the grave of the offspring, al- ways solicitous and anxious." It is, then, because of this (it may be over anxiety) that a mother needs the strong, firm, noble influence, which the father acquires from his ex- perience with the outside world. Thus together they must live with their children, not only for the sake of the child, but perhaps more for their owti sakes, because parents cannot live with the child without becoming like a little child. Therefore we may live nearer to heaven, and the relationship thus estab- lished between parent and child is apt to become in time the relationship between the soul and its iGod. Can we not then pause in our onward rush in the great hustle and bustle of the hard cut business 194 WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD FATHER \ and social life into which, we have allowed ourselves i to drift, and try to reorganize the home life, by I seeking in the quiet hour at the family altar to know that ''I am God!" Together in His name may we be able to study our children, and in those delightful walks in nature's garden, among the flowers and trees, while we listen to the sweet melody of the birds, we may be able to lead our little ones from nature to nature's God. Bread- I have tried in this short paper to emphasize the winning not r- x- x- the whole x ffact that the father has a higher and holier mission 'in the family than that of merely a breadwinner, or duty that of t he fina ncier, but that he should know of the joy, the sweet relaxation from business, which he must derive from this close intimacy with his chil- dren, besides realizing he is maintaining his rightful place in their affection as they grow from infancy to manhood and w^omanhood. Then let those parents give thanks morning and evening whose creative work of parenthood has been accomplished in an atmosphere of sustaining sym- pathy. XX WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD MOTHER MARY H. WEEKS HERE is no caste in motherhood. "Wealth, Motherhood power or color do not do away with the old bond time decree ' ' In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children." It does not substitute any dif- fering plans for the rich or poor, white or black. There is but one and that formed by the Creator from the beginning. The name of "mother" represents a common suffering, a common bond of sympathy, a common love, between all who bear the name. Yet this act of maternity w^hich makes all women kin is the very least part of true motherhood. Some one has said "It takes three generations to make a gentleman, but the world has yet to learn how long it takes to make a true mother." Comparatively few mothers realize that the mere animal love with which heavenly kindness floods the mother's heart at that first cry, is not sufficiently intelligent to guide the most inexperienced woman in training a soul for its life work. As a matter of fact, the animal love which is roused at birth is given for the physical protection of the child. Some mothers never get be- yond it, and they fight for their children, right or wrong, failing to realize that they are interfering with the best interests of the hoys and girls. This sort of mother is the pest of the neighborhood and of the school, and so are her children, because they have not learned the lesson that — to live the best life 195 196 WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD MOTHER and get the most out of it, you must consider the rights of others equally with your own. True mother fpj^g ^j.^g mother love comes from the long care of the helpless body entrusted to her hands, the long study of the little mind growing from day to day under her eyes, the trials which its peculiarities offer to her own ingenuity; and teaches her that in this world of give and take, his share of the taking of hard knocks is a part of his character building. The child comes to the mother more helpless than (^the newly born of any other creature. Upon her depends the development of his powers for good, and /the dwarfing of those which tend toward evil. He has a body which she must develop to its utmost, a mind to be directed to its best uses, and a moral ^)6iature which she must train to mastery of self. It IS generally agreed that the little one learns more in wthe first two years than in any five succeeding ones. Yet many people believe that his mental development begins on his first school day, or perhaps at his first spoken word. In point of fact, the little mind begins at once to store up mental impressions which knock at the gates of speech long before that portal opens. In the first few months of life, the child gains about all its essential knowledge of the material world, and an appalling amount as to the moral world around ♦ him. As it is in the first years that the mother has » the child with her always, and upon her he is almost ' entirely dependent for the conditions in which he learns these lessons, it is quite important to know what constitutes the good mother and to learn how to be one. iSeUigent 7 ^^ would wish for this good mother that she mother r might be highly educated. Usually she is not, but if a woman has not had even a fair education, she may WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD MOTHER 197 still make of herself an intelligent mother, and this goes much farther than mere schooling, desirable as that is. Helps towards good motherhood are on every hand, and the mother who wishes for help has only to ask. Experts are writing, experienced mothers are talking; everywhere are movements looking toward the more sensible rearing of children. There is no excuse for not trying to do our mothering in a more I rational w^ay. The good mother is the thinking mother, always on the lookout for suggestions to better her methods; learning from everything she reads in papers and books, and from the schools and the life about her what to do and what not to do with her children. Were one to ask what one thing is most necessary The patient to the good mother, the majority answer would prob- I ably be ''patience." And perhaps this is correct. Not all sorts of patience; not patience with all sorts of things, for there is a noble impatience with wrong doing which accomplishes more than the all-enduring, all-suifering mother can ever bring about. But this is only for use in crises. For every-day work, the mother needs a large stock of patience with the con- stant trials which the inexperience, foolishness, and general youthfulness of children offer to her busy nerves. She needs to put herself in their place con- tinually, to try to understand their feelings, to re- member her own childhood, and to realize that the child is not fully born till adolescence closes, and that he must not be judged by the rules which apply to people fully grown. Much of the annoyance they cause us is not real badness. They are just trying themselves and the new powers they are daily get- ting. If they do not try them, how are the powers to grow? The good mother thinks this all out and has a 198 WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD MOTHER lot of patience with the merely trying actions, while she holds a firm hand on the things that are really good or bad. The s^w- The good mother is the self-respecting mother who mother demands from her children a respect for her mother- hood and a consideration for herself. She knows that she represents authority in the home just as the teacher represents it in the school, and the officials of the state and union represent it in those provinces of life. If the mother has not taught the child to respect her authority in the home, he goes to school hampered by an exaggerated idea of his own im- portance, wastes his own and the teacher's time, and goes out into the world to waste his citizenship in constant rebellion against the restrictions that com- munity life requires. Mrs. Robt. Middlebrook said at our mothers' union that the mother who could raise a family of children, all obedient to the powers that be, deserves a monument, and has done her duty in life. I quite agree "wdth her. No mother can be a good one who does not understand the value, the highest importance .to her children, of training them from birth to be obedient. Obedient to those in charge of them in /home, school, state and nation. It is absolutely neces- sary to a successful life, and no true citizenship can exist without it. A bright young fellow, meant to be a power for good in the world, found himself on the way to the penitentiary, and was led to consider what brought him to such a pass. He said bitterly, "If my mother had taught me to be obedient, instead of letting me have my own way and pampering me in disobedience to my teachers, I would not now be on the way to jail." When I tell this story to mothers, I look around to see their expressions. It is always WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD MOTHER 199 sorrow for the lad and indignation for the mother. But that is not the thought I wish to awaken. "Am I doing the same thing with my boy and girl? Am I forgetting that they are forming character noicf Am I allowing them to form habits of disobedience to curse them and the world, under the mistaken im- pulse of my selfish love ? Sparing myself some small pangs of sympathy now, and laying up pangs of re- gret for the future?" These are the things we must ask ourselves. I would like to talk of the different ways of se- curing obedience, but that is a subject of itself. "We may, however, say that no good mother expects to J hold the respect of her family by continual cuffings / and scoldings. These are only signs that she is a failure, and no one knows this better than the chil- ' dren. She wins respect by making just judgments, by not losing her temper, by acting the truth, by showing the child the right, and if she must use punishment, she uses it, not frequently, but at the right time, in the right place, and in the right way, so that the children look upon her as a just and up- right judge. She must be what she wishes her chil- dren to be. ' No mother ever secures useful obedience by beat- raaures ^ ing. She may get the child's body to do what she wants, because she is bigger and stronger, and in doing it she may make his mind so rebellious that he hates, and thinks of the time when he will be too big and strong to be beaten by her. The p;ond /mother punishes ,^ becaus e the child is bad, not be- cause she is angry, or bigger or stronger; and she makes t|]e chilH fppi ihat |ia Vi^gprntfPTi his just de- serts. . She makes him nbprlip^. hpnansp it is right for him. She trains his mind to be obedient to the clean-minded' nesB 200 WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD MOTHER right. Then when he goes out into the world, he is not like a boat without a steering gear, because he is i « away from her stick. He has a stick in his mind, and An can do his o"«ti guiding. honesty^°n"' "^^^ S^od mother sends her children into the world, not only with habits of respect for authority, and obedience to it, but truthful and honest, and clean minded. Now truthfulness and honesty cannot be taught by precept, or by going to church or Sunday school. Children learn truth, honesty and clean mindedness from the conduct of the people about them, that is — from the home folks. If the child, knowing the facts in the case, hears us telling a big story for the sake of its effect on a visitor, he con- cludes that the truth is not the best thing, as we have told him, and naturally tells us a lie when next he thinks it will serve. We then punish him, when we should ask some one to punish us. The child is made older than he is to get him into school, and younger than he is to get him a ride free on the cars, and what is gained by it? Bitter tears when he de- ceives us and mortification when he deceives his employer and loses his position. The good mother keeps her children clean minded,, by being clean minded and clean tongued herself, and by keeping unclean talk from her home. She builds a clean soul in a clean body, not by telling the child all the secrets of life, but only the things within its understanding, and lets both boy and girl know the dangers which departures from clean conduct entail upon themselves and which are visited upon the chil- dren to the third and fourth generation. There are many helps upon this work which we cannot now dis- cuss. Children must be kept off the streets and out of bad company, to start them right. If we could WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD MOTHER 201 only have kindergartens for the children from three to six, enough to care for all the children whose mothers must work away from home, how many more could be started right! The good mother teaches honesty as she does Honest truthfulness, by being honest herself. She does not lead the boy to the gi^ocery, only to see her take a cracker here, a grape there, an apple for the child, nor does she allow him to do it, for she knows that not thus can she teach him the difference between mine and thine. She makes him understand that not until the apple is paid for, is it hers or his. She sees that the child does not come home from school with more in its pocket than it took away, without full explanation and restitution if necessary. She does not smile at his sharpness in getting something for noth- ing, but teaches him that this does not pay in the end. If she reads the daily papers she has abundant examples to prove it. As day by day, justice gets nearer to the "higherups," we see that it is more comfortable to have an honest living, than a dis- honest show of wealth. The good mother knows that she cannot teach these things, unless she lives modestly and within her means, and makes her children understand that it is not important to have and to do as others have and do, but that it is important to be independent of others by having what one can afford. Only this gives peacs of mind. When all parents are good parents, all children will be respectful of authority, obedient to the right, truthful, clean minded, honest, and then there will be no bitter regrets for our wrongdoing shown in our children. 202 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EDUCATION BIBLIOGRAPHY Heredity in Relation to Eugenics . . Charles B. Davenport (An account of transmission of traits and a summaiy of what is knoAvn of the inheritance of a large num- ber of them and the incorrectness of popular notions about them.) Parenthood and Race Culture Charles W. Saleeby (Covers the entire field of Eugenics; while extensive, it is not too technical. Chapters IX, X, XI, useful for parents.) IVIethods of Race Regeneration Charles "W. Saleeby (A small book with workable suggestions for parents and reformers.) Woman and "Womanhood Charles W. Saleeby (A book which every one should read. It covers the questions simply from the standpoint of eugenics and the good of children and the state.) The Art of Right Living Ellen Richards (A small book easily digested.) Womanhood and Its Development Luella Z. Rummel (One of the sanest and most unobjectionable books on the reproductive system.) A Study of Child Nature Elizabeth Harrison (Covers method. Not an extensive guide but necessary for every parent.) Children's Rights Kate Douglas Wiggin (A small book full of suggestion.) The Training of Parents Ernest H. Abbott (Delightful in style, and full of suggestion on cliild training.) BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PARENTHOOD 203 The Comixg Generation William B. Forbush (A nsable pojDular presentation of forces at work for the betterment of American young people, with sug- gestions for effort in home, school, church and state; good book lists.) Boy Training John W. Alexander (A small book replete with simple practical helps on the family boy problem. Sections on adolescent boy- hood and school, social and church life especially good.) The Boy Problem "William B. Forbush (Religious work with young boys. Practical experience with boys' clubs. The boys' Judge, Lindsay says he has had the most helpful suggestions from Forbush.) Farm Boys and Girls William McKeever (Very simple and practical, with special book lists. Useful not only for rural parents but for those in- terested in rural improvement.) Adolescence G. Stanley Hall (Exhaustive and extensive. Useful for research work.) The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets, Jane Addams (For eveiy parent seeking to understand the youth of his own children and that of other people's children. No one can realize adolescent needs who has not imbibed the spirit of this small book.) Religious Education Religious Education Society (Volume V, Nos. 1, 2 and 6, are full of suggestions for parents, and for workers for child welfare and the home.) CHHiD Welfare Magazine (Covers every phase of what is being done to secure an enlightened parenthood.) FOUNDING THE HOME Vol. 1 — 14 QUOTATIONS "The greatest social privilege woman can have is to be the chief agent in the improvement of the race, and through it the regeneration of society itself. . . . Being pos- sible mothers, it is necessary, if the race and society are to be improved, that women shall acquire the highest physical, intellectual and moral education of which they are capable, and if they require the same qualities in their husbands, their problem is solved.''— Holbrook. "Whatever man has attained, whatever achievements he has made, whatever heights he has reached, it has been not so much on account of his feeling going out to woman as because of his craving for her feeling to come to him. He feels in his very soul that she loves him, and that for this love he must do the highest, the noblest, the purest— because of that love which she bestows on him through her child, he must do his best and truest." —Paidology. "His house she enters there to be a light Shining within when all without is night. A guardian angel, o'er his life presiding, Doubling his joys and all his cares dividing." "Frederick was a vicious man before I married him, yet his father never warned me. He has told me he kept silence because he hoped marriage would be his son's salvation. My own father, my own beloved father, he didn't ask as many questions about Frederick as he would have asked about buying a horse. It need not have been, and it drives me wild to think of it. "I dread not to have children, because without them my life is without its whole fulfillment. I lack work to occupy my mind espandingly, my heart lacks nourishment, and my old age will be cold. I dread not having children because I can accomplish so little for the world in any other way, and so much in this way, because married life is a pauper's life without its natural enrichment, because without this natural and beautiful outlet the purpose of life returns upon itself, and whole regions of life lie wantonly barren." — Marion Sprague. 207 XXI THE ATMOSPHERE OF HOME MRS. DAVID O. MEARS Vice-President of the National Congress of Mothers HE unit of society is the home. It is the most sacred spot known to the human heart. Even the beauty of Eden was not perfected until there was a home in it. It is a place of rest, joy and inspiration. It offers a sphere for the employment of the best talent of man or woman. It is the germ of the state. Its functions are so vital as to call from our chief executive the expression that the standard of a nation's greatness is set in its homes. The ideal home has in it the wisdom of age, the strength of mature life, the inspiration of youth, and the beauty of childhood. ^When two people give their love and their lives to each other, ' ' till death them do part, ' ' a new home is thus formed, which should be the shrine of love, and unselfish devotion, dedicated to all that is noble, inspiring and pure. In the passing of the years : "A precious gift God gave when he smiled, And sent into the home-nest a beautiful child." Love, deep, tender, sacred, possesses the parental hearts at the coming of the new treasure. An earnest desire is awakened that in this home a noble, useful life may be nurtured and developed. Soon a con- sciousness of things about him dawns upon the little one; much earlier than we realize, it perceives an indefinable something in its surroundings. He knows in time whether the parents seek wisdom from above ; 209 210 THE ATMOSPHERE OF HOME whether the motive in life is for self or for others; whether obedience is demanded, or whether by eoax- • ing or teasing his own will is finally obtained ; whether punishment is administered in love, and for his truest good, or whether given in anger, and under the im- pulse of the moment; he knows whether fault-finding or unkind words about neighbors and friends are al- ' lowed; whether the Sabbath Day and the Lord of the Sabbath receive due reverence — in fine, he per- W ceives the atmosphere — the spirit of the home. A child is sensitive to every influence surrounding him, '^ and the home atmosphere de termines his de velop- me nt and grow th, as truly as the degrees of moisture and ..te mperatur e^ _determin e_t he growth or lack of growth in different plants. This intangible some- thing which we call the atmospher e of the h ome, is stiU so real that its character is evident at once, even to a stranger. Upon some happy homes the spirit of love and peace rests to such a degree that who- ever crosses the thresholds feels the warmth as from the beaming of the sun's rays. In other households, .the lack of sympathy, of mutual helpfulness and thoughtful consideration for the rights and com- forts of each, seems like a * ' bitter biting of the North wind's breath." One feels sure that here the tender plants of child life will be dwarfed, failing of their highest development. A mother may put geraniums jin the sun, but frown on her baby. \ Every child has a God-given right to a happy home, which shall furnish the best conditions for normal, helpful growth. It has been well said that "criminals come out of homes that are, in many respects, real homes, but have in them certain condi- tions which aid in releasing the evil that is in the child's nature, and in suffocating or starving the THE ATMOSPHERE OF HOME 211 good. It is one thing to teach positive virtues and the avoidance of vices; it is quite another thing to provide a fostering atmosphere which shall rein- force the teaching." The moral and religious atmos- phere in which the child lives, has more to do with his training than any direct precepts. This most J important influence of the young life should be of a • character suited to the develo pment of a great soul: fitted to bring to its highest fruition the best in the child's nature. Every home has a controlling in- fluence, a center about which everything revolves, and the training depends upon what that center is. Home shapes character and decides destiny. What the boy is in the home, the man will doubtless be in the state. In the crises arising in every life, the momentous decision will depend upon the habits formed under the parental roof-tree. Sons and daughters go forth to college and business life, meet- ing many temptations from which they have been shielded in the home. When temptation assails, when currents beat against the eager life, then, if the train- ing has been in the direction of truth and nobility and right and "goodness made to seem the natural way of living, ' ' the youth will stand, anchored by the thoughts of home and parental love. In that family life, exerting so great an influence at a critical time, there must have been love, sym- pathy and confidence. Our children need more of the parents' interest and co-operation in their little J plans, pleasures and aims. We endeavor to surround ( them with every physical comfort possible, yet there is the need of the heart, a craving for more com- panionship of father or mother. It is not what we do for our children that makes them love us, but it is what we do with them. Every bit of co-operation, 212 THE ATMOSPHERE OF HOME whether in work or in play, is a tie that binds. A young man once said to his grandfather, "You have been a very successful man, have you not?" "Yes, as the world counts success," was the reply, "but my life seems a failure, because I did not give enough of myself to my children. Your Uncle James, lack- ing this comradeship at a time when he was longing for it, ruined his life and his father has never ceased to mourn." XXII THE HIGHEST AMBITION DELOS F. WILCOX OUNG people, full of the enthusiasm of self- culture and free association, are sometimes led to overestimate their possibilities of self- realization within the span of their own lives, and also to overestimate the hindrances to self- realization which are necessarily attendant upon par- enthood. He is indeed a boldly optimistic man who can seriously believe himself capable of reaching the / acme of perfection in his own lifetime. To most of those who have a high ideal of individual human life, the possibility of prolonging the process of im- provement through an indefinite number of genera- tions, must form a welcome and altogether needful opportunity of self-realization. Self-culture, if sought too eagerly and too individually is like the mirage of the desert. The means of self-culture are social, and the experience of mankind as well as the instinct of the heart indicate that participation in home- making and the rearing of children is one of the most potent means of character building. * * * One can hardly conceive of any work that would stir the as- pirations and satisfy the longings of the high minded, noble hearted men and women so thoroughly as the culture of humanity in themselves, and the transmis- sion to the future of their highest individuality through reproduction and the training of children to take their places. 213 214 THE HIGHEST AliffilTION Some may fancy that they can best transmit their good qualities to society by their writings, inventions, or other notable works during their own lifetime. This may be true in a few cases where individuals of high genius are so absorbed in creative tasks that they have no time for family life. But men are more important than books; splendid women are more important than charitable foundations; healthy chil- ' dren are more important than ingenious playthings; progress in individual self-control is more important ' than forwardness in the conquest of nature; health is more important than luxury. And for these more significant contributions to the welfare of the future, for these deepest impressions upon the character of the race, for these most direct transmissions of cul- tured individuality, procreation and family life are by far the most generally efficient means. Whether interpreted in terms of social obligation or of in- dividual self-fulfillment, marriage is an opportunity and a duty for those who are fitted for it. XXIII THE RIGHT OF THE CHILD TO BE WELL BORN* GEORGE E. DAWSON, Ph. D. Hartford School of Religious Pedagogy |NE cf the outstanding characteristics of the phuantiiropi present generation is its scientific and phil- iSe^day °^ anthropic interest in children. I use the terms "scientific" and "philanthropic" re- strictively, for there is another kind of interest, namely, parental interest, concerning which there is some reason for doubt. But as to scientific and philanthropic interest in children, surely we who live in these days, are witnessing new things in the history of the world. With the increasing number of aca- demic institutions, as normal schools, colleges and uni- versities, that are applying the human sciences to the study of children ; with the establishment, under both scientific and benevolent auspices, of numerous branches of research into children's physical and mental traits, health, amusements, occupations, care and training; and with the enactment of laws for the protection and betterment of children, and the inauguration of all kinds of activities for the im- provement of children's conditions in the home, the school, the church, and industrial life — there is abun- dant evidence that in scientific and philanthropic circles, the child has become an object of critical and anxious concern. *Read before the Religious Education Association, 1911. 215 216 WELL BORN pweiShood "^^^ y^^' it is a curious fact that this truly epoch- making movement in the direction of a better child- hood, is being promoted by a generation of men and women in which there are distinct signs of a decaying J parenthood. At a time when, in the most intelligent and prosperous communities of the United States, men and women are vying with one another in study- ing children, working with children, and writing and speaking in behalf of children — the number of men and women, in these same communities, who actually ' become the parents of children is apparently on the • decrease. To begin with, such men and women are not marrying as commonly as they did a generation ago. It is estimated that forty years ago the average f annual number of marriages per 10,000 of the popu- lation of the United States was ninety-eight. Accord- . ing to the census returns for 1900, it was ninety. In the North Atlantic states, which are undoubtedly the leaders in all movements relating to children's wel- fare, the marriage rates per 10,000 of the population •were eighty-four in 1890, and eighty-two in 1900. But not only do fewer men and women marry in this generation, those who do marry are more fre- quently dissatisfied with their marriage obligations. Each successive five year period since 1867 has wit- /nessed a marked increase in the number of divorces. Thus we have in 1902, the following ratios of divorces to marriages in the eight states reporting definite statistics: In Massachusetts, 1 to 16; in Michigan, 1 to 11 ; in Vermont, 1 to 10 ; in Ohio, 1 to 8.8 ; in Indiana, 1 to 7.6 ; and in Maine, 1 to 6. On an average, therefore, there is in these states one mar- riage in every nine that is followed by a divorce, and this is believed to be a fair representation for the United States as a whole. WELL BORN 217 Nor are these the only symptoms of a decreasing inclination towards parenthood. More significant still is the fact that fewer children are being born each J succeeding decade. For a number of decades the birth rate has fallen off about one per cent, each, until in 1900 there were only three-fourths as many living children to each 1,000 potential mothers as in . 1860. In a bulletin issued by the Massachusetts 1 bureau of statistics and labor in 1905, the results of detailed studies of the birth rates in four cities and three towns in Massachusetts were summarized so as I to show the contrast between the present generation and the preceding one. The 19,478 native born women included in these studies were shown to have borne, ' on an average, 2.8 children; whereas the mothers of /these women bore, on an average, 6.5 children. As to the causes of this decrease in birth rate, Dr. John S. Billings, formerly of the United States Army Med- ical Museum, and now in the New York Public Li- brary, has this to say : " It is probable that the most important factor in change of birth rate is the de- liberate and voluntary avoidance or prevention of ^ child bearing on the part of a steadily increasing lumber of married people." Not susceptible of statistical summary, but no less suggestive to the observant mind, are the ten- dencies in art, literature, and the drama, as well as in many of our popular manners and customs. This I is not a generation that idealizes fatherhood and / motherhood. Perhaps, no generation ever did ideal- ize fatherhood, unless it were the generations of the / Hebrew Patriarchs. But the idealization of mother- I hood has been common throughout human history. Such is not the case at the present time, at least in the more cultured circles of American society. 218 WELL BORN / "Woman as mother is not impressed upon the imagina- tion of our young people. It is a woman as aca- demician — excellent in scholarship, taking degrees, traveling in Europe in pursuit of some specialty, and finally entering upon a career of her own — that be- comes the ideal of thousands of our brightest young / women in the colleges and universities. It is woman in public life — as a club woman, author, actress, social reformer, or political agitator — that bulks up most conspicuously in the popular imagination. It is the detached woman whom one sees everywhere, and who is influencing profoundly the ideals of girls and young ' women in our day. ioiogicja'**"* -'■ ^^^^ submitted this psychological and social Biedity paradox of a generation keenly interested in chil- dren from the scientific and philanthropic points of view, and yet apathetic or decadent in its desire ^ for parenthood, as a setting for the following prop- ositions : 1. All the scientific and philanthropic activities at the present time, in behalf of children, have their logical culmination in the creation of conditions such as will insure the propagation of a better human :^stock. The farther one advances in any scientific study of children 's physical and mental traits, whether it be as medical specialist, criminologist, psychiatrist, educator or moralist, the more does he find his facts and conclusions emphasizing the necessity of a re- generated biological heredity. In the words of Dr. S. Herbert, in his recent book, "The First Principles ^of Heredity": "Procreation being the foundation of all life, the science of heredity forms the basis of the science ^f J.ife, and its principles must therefore be considered the fundamentals of all social science." The same is true of the philanthropic worker with WELL BORN 219 children who looks beneath the surface of his tasks I and tries to build the foundations of a better racial ' life. What do all our efforts at education, reforma- tion, and social improvement in children amount to, if they do not affect the quality of human parent - 'hood so that better types of children may be born into the world ? Says Karl Pearson : " No degenerate and feeble stock will ever be converted into healthy and sound stock by the accumulated effects of educa- tion, good laws, and sanitary surroundings. Such means may render the individual members of the stock passable if not strong members of society ; but the same process will have to be gone through again and again with their offspring, and this in ever wid- ening circles, if the stock, owing to the conditions in which society has placed it, is able to increase in numbers. ' ' 2. The apparent atrophy and decay of the desire Eecognition „ - ^, . . . T , of children's tor parenthood m our generation can be arrested and rights corrected only as men and women are brought to a more adequate recognition of children's right to be well born, and their own inescapable obligations in this matter. The interest in children as objects of scientific and philanthropic concern, must be trans- I muted into an interest in becoming the parents of / children. It is indeed probable that the psychological paradox of a generation devoted to children as stu- dents and benefactors, while becoming less devoted /to them as parents, is no paradox at all in the light of a more searching analysis. It is a law of the human mind that instincts and feelings thwarted and de- feated in one direction are sure to assert themselves in another. Much of the scientific and philanthropic > interest in children may thus be a result of defeated , parenthood. "While such an interest is not an ab- f: 220 WELL BORN normal manifestation, nevertheless its proper object will not be realized, nor the normal balance in the ^procreative functions of civilization be restored, until it brings back to men and women the desire for off- spring. ?ar^nthoSd °' What, then, are the conditions that will make the child's right to be well born a practically realizable ideal? I should mention as the first of these an in- ^telligent, conscious desire on the part of men and women to be parents. That is to say, the very thing that the present generation appears to be avoiding, must be made the starting point in any really effec- y tive scheme of racial improvement. Desire is not only the mainspring of the every-day conduct of men, it is also the mainspring of biological evolution. Chil- dren will never be well born until they are desired by the men and women who are potential parents. A generation that does not desire children will be as weak in its power to propagate fit children as would a generation that did not desire culture or wealth, in the power to become educated or prosperous. No occult influence of adverse mental states upon the procreation of healthy offspring is here implied. The situation is bad enough if we limit ourselves to the tangible physiological condition and agencies that may result from an apathetic or hostile attitude towards the bearing of children. Dr. W. A. Chandler, a physician of over thirty years' standing, gives it as I his opinion that more than one-half of the human \ race die before birth, and that three-fourths of all these are deliberately killed. Says Dr. George J. Englemann, in an article on "The Decreasing Fecun- dity of Women," "The avoidance or prevention of conception, if possible, the premature termination of pregnancy, if need be, are factors far more potent WELL BORN 221 in the causation of decreasing fecundity than is the progress of gynetic science for the contrary." The significance of such extremes of atrophied parental desires is only too evident. "What must be the effects upon the physical and psychical life of a child that runs the gauntlet of drugs and other de- structive agencies throughout its embryonic existence ? Education in the home, the school and the church should make such things impossible. Young men and women should be taught, from early adolescence on, intelligent and reverent ideals of parenthood. Young children themselves should be brought up in an atmosphere of precept and example to think of parenthood as the only fully adequate realization of /individual and social welfare. Dr. Englemann says: "There is no question as to the baneful sentiment which is gradually developing among young people Jl^that bearing children belongs to low life, and is de- grading, which now^ and then becomes evident in as- •persions cast upon those with large families, imply- ing that their life is vulgar and sensual." Similar sentiments are being scattered broadcast in novels, magazine articles, and public addresses at the present time, mostly, it is strange to say, by women. Thus a woman of large celebrity in the more aggressive circles of new womanhood, writing in the New York I Independent a few years ago, tells us plainly that in- sistence on the duties of motherhood is an impertinent interference with private rights. Such sentiments should be offset by intelligent, yet idealistic, inter- pretations of the privileges and duties of parenthood, and the holding before the imaginations of children and young people of everything in art, literature, religion, and every-day life that can inspire a deep and lasting desire to be parents. Vol. 1—15 \ 222 WELL BORN Next in importance to a normal desire for parent- hood is fitness for it. This order is suggested be- cause of a conviction that if parental desire be suffi- ciently strong and have intelligent direction, it will naturally work towards parental fitness. Fitness for parenthood involves essentially three things: y. (1) Biological fitness, including the fundamen- tal, physical, and psychical constitution and capaci- ties of the individual, with their heredity implica- tions; (2) Moral fitness, including ideals, habit, and ^ conditions resulting from a moral regimen of life; and (3) Educational fitness, including knowledge and training more particularly for the functions of parent- hood, and for affording the offspring adequate pro- tection and support. Such parental fitness is the product of numerous biological and social forces and involves problems much too complex for this paper. It must suffice to indicate the more popular and practical aspects of the subject. To begin with, biological fitness for parenthood, being essentially a matter of congenital and heredity constitution, falls naturally within the sphere of legal control. Here the physician, the alienist, the crimin- ologist, or other expert in the diagnosis of human de- generacy must determine a man's or a woman's fitness to bear offspring. There is no question that here are vast social problems and social duties that will more and more force themselves upon men as in- telligence increases, and a scientific imagination and conscience become active in shaping the welfare of mankind. But the individuals affected by these more crucial standards of biological fitness, are fortunately not in a majority, and must, as society advances, be progressively eliminated. For the great majority of individuals, other agencies will determine the qualities ; WELL BORN 223 and degrees of parental fitness. Such agencies are the home, the school, the church and other social in- stitutions that have to do with the nurture and train- ing of children. All these agencies should be progres- sively modified in the direction of providing a more adequate training for parenthood. In general through- out these agencies that affect the fitness of men and women to be parents, a more definite standard of parental training must prevail. The biological truth . that the principal objective point of human develop- ' ment is parenthood, should be placed at the basis of all the care and training of children and young people. Their physical and mental growth and train- ing should be shaped with this end constantly in view. Anything in the home, school, or elsewhere, that /sacrifices parenthood upon any altar of individual or ' social idolatry whatsoever, is a crime against society, no less than ultimately against the individual man or woman. A girl's development in the direction of a Kvell endowed maternity is vastly more important in 'the public school or college than any possible intel- lectual attainment. What shall it profit a woman if she gain the whole world of academic distinction, and / lose the power of healthy, efficient motherhood? In addition to this general parental ideal in the Educauon for home and school, children and young people should be definitely educated for parenthood. Fifty years ago, Herbert Spencer framed an indictment against educational systems that unfortunately still holds true of most of our high schools and colleges. " If , " says he, *'by some strange chance not a vestige of us descended to the remote future save a pile of our school books or some college examination papers, we may imagine how puzzled an antiquary of the period would be on finding in them no indication that the parenthood 224 WELL BORN learners were ever likely to be parents. 'This must Jbe the curriculum for their celibates,' we may fancy him concluding. 'I perceive here an elaborate preparation for many things : especially for reading [the books of extinct nations and of co-existing nations '(from which indeed it seems clear that these people have very little worth reading in their own tongue) ; but I find no reference whatever to the bringing up of children. They could not have been so absurd as to omit all training for this gravest of responsibili- ties. Evidently, then, this must have been the school course of one of their monastic orders. ' ' ' How much longer will our high schools and colleges, especially those in which girls and young women are educated, exclude all knowledge relating to the functions of parenthood ? Mness Again, moral fitness for parenthood ought to re- /ceive greater emphasis in the training of young people. Or ganic appetites should be curbed and educated in the i nterests of posteri ty ,'^s well as in the interest of the individual. The supreme tempta- tions of the sexual life would be easier to meet if the young men and women had the proper ideals of a / parental significance of sexual functions. No more powerful inhibiting impulse could be evoked than that associated with the pride of virile fatherhood and fertile motherhood. Similar conditions hold true of other moral temptations. What youth, man or woman, would practice any vice, whether of drunkenness, / licentiousness, or any other, if they regarded their own lives as primarily the media of transmission in racial development, and saw in every violation of the moral law, the possible disease or death of that por- tion of the human race dependent upon them? WELL BORN 225 Finally, as a third condition favoring the right of \ f^^^^ the child to be well born, I would emphasize the adaptation of parents to one another. Passing over the biological, moral, and educational adjustments of hjusband and wife, whose necessity has been implied in what has already been said, I submit, as the very culmination of parental fitness, romantic or ideal love between the mother and the father of the child. No child can be well born that is the product of a love- / less marriage. A clearer view of the biological im- plications of romantic love will sometimes indicate the poetic sentiment of the ages. In our own dem- ocratic society, where the freedom of sexual choice I has had so many signal vindications in happy mar- j riages, and in the splendid homes and families founded thereon, there is little need of enlarging upon this topic. And yet there are cynics in our midst, and there are those who believe that such a science as eugenics is incompatible with romantic love. I be- lieve the contrary. I regard the love of the sexes as an integral part of biological evolution, found at every stage of human development, in a gradually ascending scale of influence, becoming stronger and more compelling with the advance of civilization, and destined in a more enlightened and more ethical fu- ture to control all sexual relations. Only where this conjugal love exists, can there be that complete reciprocity of life which makes parenthood the crown- ing joy of conscious human experience, as it is the supreme end of those mighty forces that drive the race of men forward towards their unknown future. In the drama called "The Lion's Whelp," there is a dialogue between an old man and a youth. Says the old man: ''The next century will be the century of the child, just as this century has been the woman 's 226 WELL BORN century. When the child gets his rights, morality will be perfected. Then every man will know that he is bound to the life which he has produced, with other bonds than those imposed by society and the laws. You understand that a man cannot be released from his duty as father even if he travels around the world ; a kingdom can be given and taken away, but not fatherhood." Says the youth : " I know this. ' ' Says the old man once more: ''But in this, all righteousness is not fulfilled — in man's carefully pre- serving the life which he has called into existence. No man can early enough think over the other ques- tion, whether and when he has the right to call life into existence at all. ' ' XXIV FITNESS FOR MARRIAGE MARY HARMON WEEKS E must forget Greek and Roman civiliza- tions ; study our present-day life in the light of evolutionary science ; achieve full social consciousness; and proceed to build that which has never been constructed before — 'a social body for the soul of God.' " But the social body is based upon the social unit, the family, therefore we must begin to build up this unit in ways hereto- fore unused because never fully recognized. * ' "Woman 's natural work as a female is that of Health the mother ; man 's natural work as a male is that of tb^^eoci^ unit a father, their mutual relation to this end being a source of joy and well being when rightly held." It is, however, a mutual relation, and the part of the father in this relation has never been rightly em- phasized. The family to be a social unit of great value must be strong, healthy, vital, with wrong tendencies reduced to the minimum, with right ten- dencies at their maximum. How can this be brought about if in the education for family life and parent- hood, if in the choice of mates only the female side of this mutual relation is considered as a dutv, and the requirements made of the male, even those over which he might have had full control, are practically negligible ? "When one really faces the question of the demands actually made of the two units who are to combine and reproduce the family unit, they are 227 228 FITNESS FOR I^IARRIAGE Bequirements from man and woman unequal and not sufficient The husband's qnalities found to be on the one hand chastity, on the other, providing power. Are these the only characteristics necessary to the performance of the one great pur- pose of man and woman? Are these the basis of the social unit? The man expects to find in a woman a good home- maker and a good mother, but does he take any in- telligent means of discovering that she will be. What right has he to provide for his children a mother whose potentialities as a breeder of children sound and healthy in body and mind are wholly unknown to him? What right has he to form a union with one who may furnish germ plasm which increases the weakness of his own instead of minimizing it, and, produces for the third arc of the family circle progeny which is to be less efficient than that from which it sprang ? Does any one ask what qualities the man brings to this union, which fit him for his share in the mak- ing of a true home? Has he acquired the self- control that leads to the denials of sex-self required by true parenthood, and lacking which, no true home- making is possible? Has he formed any ideals as to ^what constitutes a true home? And has he resolved •to do his part in making it? Has he given evidence of that consideration for others which is essential to ' agreeable companionship ? Has he the basic qualities for the friendship which is the ultimate outcome and lasting quality of right marriage ? Has his record been searched for those homely, every-day habits and qualities, which sound so un- romantic, but which nevertheless, when sex attraction has somewhat palled, serve to make life together still ' lovely ? Has he been trained to unselfishness, care- I fulness, reasonable thrift, desirable personal habits ? •' FITNESS FOR MARRIAGE 229 Has he developed no peculiarities likely to grow into unpleasant obsessions as years pass? In other words, does he come to the mutual rela- tion of husband and wife, of father and mother with the qualities capable of making that relation ' ' a source of joy and well being"? If so, the problem of true home-making is solved for these mates and the social unit is formed by those "who have good health, a sense of human obligation, and a belief in their own fitness for parenthood." It is evident even from the brief consideration of ?/i^t??°°*" 01 health Eugenics which our space allows, that the good health of parents, while it cannot affect the character of the traits transmitted to children, does very materially affect the vigor and ability with which they are exer- cised. "Good mothers must have a certain sort of hardihood which comes from the wise care of the body — a life in the open, the right kind of nourishing food, occupation which gives bodily exercise without undue overdraft of vitality." This must be equally true for fathers. To have strong and vigorous children, I a strong and vigorous physique is necessary, for in such a physique, nutrition is at its highest, and nutri- tion does affect the transmitting germs and so vitally concerns the welfare and happiness of children-to-be. Every boy and girl should be taught that physical perfection is a desirable ideal. A cardinal point in a boy's education is that duty to all his future rela- tions as husband, father, breadwinner, citizen and man, requires him to furnish the best possible ap- paratus — a sound mind in a sound body. Sir James Paget says: ""We want more ambition for health. I should like to see a personal ambition for health as keen as that for bravery, for beauty, or for success in athletic games or field sports. I wish there was 230 FITNESS FOR I^IARRIAGE I an ambition for the most perfect national health as I there is for national renown in war, in art, or in commerce. ' ' Why should not a young man pride him- self as fully on a well developed, well nourished body / as fitting for a good husband, a good father, good home-maker, as he does on its fitting him for a good runner or batter or oarsman? All the kindness, all the generosity of a father can never make amends for physical or mental disabilities produced in chil- Xdren as the results of an unregulated premarital life. Only selfish desire leads the man or woman who can- not produce normal, healthy children to give life to others. Is it impossible to create a conscious respon- sibility as to such matters in young men seeking mates ? A man who, through all his youth and young manhood, has disregarded the ordinary rules of health in food, exercise, sleep and personal habits, is little likely to be a good husband or father, and certainly not an agreeable companion. With inherited traits which he has made no attempt to minimize by right habits of thought and action, he may lack the self- control which is absolutely necessary in one who as- sumes the responsibility of training children and of making a home where good comradeship is essential to success. Yet a good physical condition makes self- control easy, while disordered digestion notoriously makes it difficult. Children learn physical habits largely by example. It is then necessary that physical habits essential to self-control should be demanded in the man who seeks to be a parent. II. G. Wells says it is our duty to "secure an ideal environment for children in as many cases as pos- sible." A father with good health, right habits, and correct ideals should be a part of this environment, FITNESS FOR MARRIAGE 231 \ and, next to the mother whom he selects for those children, the most important part. Certainly the en- vironment of the child should be good health and all the virtues which accompany it. The fact of parenthood should carry with it th^ protection of a good home through all the formative period of child life. The supplying of this protec- tion is the parental sacrifice made to love of offspring and the need of home. But the man without physical health and mental vigor cannot assure to his family this protection through all the needed years. He suc- cumbs more readily to physical diseases and mental defects than does the vigorous man, and the family may be left at its most critical period without the shielding arm of its natural protector. The young man may, however, in the years before marriage, build up a physical condition based on correct bodily habits, that with reasonable care would insure to his family the life upon which it is so dependent. "^ Herbert Spencer says, "On observing what ener- gies are expended by father and mother to attain worldly success and social ambition, we are reminded how comparatively small is the space occupied by their ambition to make their descendants physically, morally and intellectually superior. Yet this is the ambition which will replace those they now so eagerly pursue, and which, instead of perpetual disappoint- ments, will bring permanent satisfaction." That certain diseases, due to vicious sex habits, affect even the seemingly almost effect-proof germ plasm through which the father gives his share in the life of his child, is proved beyond a doubt. It is the verdict of all students of the laws of reproduc- tion. In regard to this awful fact, the world seems to be in the condition of the people of whom Ruskin Parenthood should suppl; a good home The true ambition for parenthood 232 FITNESS FOR MARRIAGE says "they have looked on grass but have never seen it." The law is heard but not known. Surely if it could once impress itself upon the world's conscious- ness, young people would be taught a deeper sense of responsibility to the coming generation. Woman would require a clean bill of health from the father of her children, and men would exercise such self- control as would make them fit for the performance of the one first purpose of their being, hiaith* "Man and woman should be so full of health as to be comparatively indifferent to the external con- ditions of life, and to make ready self-adjustment to all its changes. He should not be deemed thoroughly healthy who is made better or worse, more or less fit, by every change of weather or food, or who is bound to observe exact rules of living. It is good to observe rules, and to some they are absolutely necessary, but it is better to need none but those of moderation, and observing these, to be willing to live and work hard in the widest variations of food, air, climate, bathing and other sustenances of life." XXV THE WRONG KIND OF VOCATIONS FOR A FATHER WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH PHASE of minor eugenics which is begin- ning to assume importance in the character development of children, is the moral in- fluence of the parent's vocation upon his child. It may seem a far cry to a young man that his calling in life, and with that calling his place of residence, the circumistances of his future occupation and home life, and even his future associates in busi- ness, should all depend directly upon the contingency that he may sometime become the parent of children. And yet so important are all these things in relation to the sensitiveness of a child and so difficult is it for a man to extricate himself from a calling to which he has been specifically trained, even though the in- fluences of that calling should prove detrimental to his offspring, that it would seem to be a matter of prudential common sense to consider the implications of any vocation as to future domestic and parental relations. There are vocations which are detrimental to Je°rimentai t children because they are immoral or anti-social in children themselves. Most thoughtful youths would acknowl- edge that keeping a saloon is a business of this type. The man who has elastic moral notions upon the social value of the saloon would find himself becoming more stringent when he imagined himself as seen in the 233 234 THE FATHER'S VOCATION mpensations good cations for thers business from his own growing child's standpoint. The number of socially doubtful occupations is in- creasing as the national conscience is growing more sensitive. Not long ago a man withdrew from the bucketshop business because he did not want his children to have to tell by what means their father got his money. The direct curse of anti-social voca- tions upon the children of those who pursue them seems well nigh unavoidable. The 'WTiter saw the other day a moving picture film concerning a physi- cian who, in order to set his extravagant son up hand- somely, invented and dispensed a concoction which fastened upon its victims the drug habit. The film showed with horrible realism and naturalness how the son himself was ruined by his father's diabolical product. There is hardly an undesirable business that does not, directly or indirectly, affect the ideals, the habits or the reputation of the next generation. Even could these results be avoided, what man can anticipate with equanimity leaving to his sons or daughters wealth that has been ill gotten or that has ruined the bodies or souls of its operatives, or whose influence upon the body politic is to do evil? It is surely not a too heroic choice during the years of decision to take a pathway along which shall bloom glory and not shame to one's descendants. On the other hand one of the most attractive al- lurements to some callings in which the financial re- ward is not great is that they involve a stainless or even an inspiring influence. A few weeks ago a group of the professors of a small but noble middle western college were assembled to recognize the thirtieth an- niversary of the acquirement of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by one of the oldest members of the faculty. The informal speeches dwelt naturally upon THE FATHER'S VOCATION 235 the hardships which had been undergone by the others in attaining their own degrees and upon the reasons for their early choices of the arduous profession of teaching. The confession was made unanimously and cheerfully that the monetary sacrifices both in secur- ing an education and in doing their quiet but in- fluential work were more than swallowed up by the consciousness of good influences exerted upon the com- ing generation, among whom several enumerated their own children. Another set of vocations is detrimental to children because they involve unfavorable surroundings and companions. An adult easily neglects these influences as regards himself, but he can hardly do so as related to his own children. A j^outh who intends to marry may well hesitate, for example, to become a hotelkeeper since this involves the most artificial and unwhole- some domestic atmosphere in which to rear a child. An employer of labor in Rochester, N. Y., noticed a while ago an unusually expert new w^orkman at a bench. He engaged him in conversation, and ventured to ask why he had been willing to come to Rochester to work for the moderate wage which this especial plant could afford to pay. The workman told him that he had come up from the south for the sole benefit of his children because he had heard that Rochester had such good schools, which were also open evenings for the social welfare of all the people. He expressed sur- prise that his employer should regard his action as unusual. "Anj^ of us would move to Colorado for the sake of the health of a sick child. How much more important are schooling and morals!" That such a sentiment is growing may be seen in the increasing number of new families that are settling in college centers like Oberlin, Ohio, and who knows how many Vocations In relation to children's environment 236 THE FATHER'S VOCATION parents have been attracted to the metropolis of Michigan by its motto, ' ' In Detroit Life Is Worth Liv- ing. ' ' fathT/*and ° Perhaps even a more important factor in the choice chudren q£ ^ vocation is the question as to the relation of that calling to the presence of both parents in the home. The writer once lived in a seafaring town, where the skippers went forth on three year voyages in tramp steamers around the world. He remembers one in- stance in which a father departed, leaving in charge of their mother two adolescent sons who grew during his absence so that he did not recognize them upon his return. This surely meant not alone an unfair share of burden for the wife, but the actual robbery of these children of their rights of a father during the years when sons need a father most. It seems a singular coincidence that on this very day when these lines are being written, the writer should have been talking with a 3''0ung man who stated, as a mat- ter of course, that he had recently sacrificed a thou- sand dollars a year of his income in order to curtail his travels so that his absences from his child should be less frequent. A thoughtful man was seriously questioning recently whether foreign missionaries, who send their children to America to be brought up in missionary homes, can possibly do enough good in heathen lands to make up for the irreparable loss which these children suffer, deprived of natural parental influences. Social philanthropists are al- ready awake to the peril of the driving forth, through economic stress, to daily toil of mothers, hundreds of thousands of whom, in America, are assisting in- efficient or indolent husbands, to the serious destruc- tion of home influence and the multiplication to their children of moral hazards. It may not be out of place THE FATHER'S VOCATION 237 even here to suggest that the practical homelessness in wealthy homes where either parent, and especially the mother, is busy in society or in saving the world through some pet philanthropy or reform, means just as serious a deprivation to her children. Children brought up by governesses and butlers do not turn out any better than those brought up in the street. It is a question, too, whether the dumping of the child problem, in England or America, upon the private school is much better. The private school is a make- shift; it is, after all, a kind of orphanage. One fact which is stimulating the countryward movement is the realization that a strap-hanging father is too tired when he reaches his suburban home at night to take his share in the nurture of his children. The farm is about the only place where a real partnership be- tween parents and children is still possible. But, after all, the best way to emphasize the un- wisdom of unnecessary widowhood on the part of wives and needless orphanhood of children is to pic- ture in an inspiring way the richness and glory of the heritage of children for whom their future fathers and mothers made foreseeing preparation of a noble vocation, wholesome surroundings and the possibility of intimate companionship. XXVI WHAT IS A SUCCESSFUL WIFE ? DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS Y marriage is here meant not merely going through, the marriage ceremony, to lead im- mediately afterward a more or less hideous life of quarreling, of privation ashamedly concealed ; nor does it mean drawing precarious ali- mony or going back home to live with papa and mama, without alimony. The word is here used in the sense of real marriage — embarking in an enter- prise that gives reasonable promise of permanence. Marriage is a business that actually concerns man as much as it concerns woman. But man refuses to see it that way ; and, as he holds the pursestrings, ''what he says goes." He, being shallow after the average human fashion, sees only the surfaces of things. He sees in marriage a means of satisfying a certain side of his nature which — for lack of a better /•descriptive term — may be called the domestic side. He selects a woman — often his third or fourth choice, rarely the woman he would have chosen if he had been free to pick and choose at wall. He selects her on trial. All he can judge as to her, in the incon- clusive investigations of acquaintance and court- ship, is that she promises well — chiefly from the sentimental side, the one he concentrates on because it is the only one he is permitted to investigate. She promises well. If she ' ' makes good, ' ' then all will be pleasant. If she doesn't, so much the worse for her. 238 WHAT IS A SUCCESSFUL WIFE? 239 He ought to realize, and if he were intelligent, were properly educated, he would realize that he has just as much at stake as she. He would insist on thorough knowledge of the girl's suitableness to matrimony in general and to married life with him. But he isn't a superior intelligence, and he fancies a matrimonial smash will damage only her. So he lets his passions blind him and idealize her, and is indifferent as to the awakening. Unfortunately his wrong notion can affect him, in the event of disaster, only on the spiritual side. But if the girl makes the same blunder, it will affect her life throughout. That is why, in practice as distinguished from The plain theory, marriage is vastly more important to the woman than to the man. And as life deals never with the ought-to-be, but always with the is, woman must accept th? fact that, if she wishes a successful marriage, one that will give her security and a fair quality of human happiness, she has got to please the man — not only before marriage, but also afterward. No doubt our social system ought to be organized differently. No doubt it is a patchwork of makeshifts, stupidities and cruelties. But, dear lady, the social system Avill not change abruptly and such changes as are making are not to your liking. If you are going to lead a conv:ntional life, you have got to ac- cept the rules of the game. You have got to please the man. If you don 't, you may make him uncomfortable, but 5^ou will make yourself wretched. So, if you wish to be a person, you have got to educate yourself to be worth while, and you have got to educate your husband — if he needs it — to like the sort of person you are, and to like the sort of develop- ment you are capable of. If you rule him through the 240 WHAT IS A SUCCESSFUL WIFE? sex charm, you will weaten him as a force in the world of action. You will cut down his, therefore your, income ; you will cut off your opportunities for development. And the chances are that your attempt to rule him in that crude, lazy way will soon end in humiliation to yourself. If he is a growing man, he will shake you off. If he becomes the sort you have tried to make him, he will grow tired of you and will spend his money on other women. Have you happened to notice what poor marriages are made, as a rule, by the ' ' raving, tearing beauties, ' ' the women whose sole reliance before marriage — and therefore presumably afterward — was the sex charm? Did they marry poor specimens of men ? or, did they make their men poor specimens? No matter which. Either way, the sex charm as a matrimonial mainstay stands convicted of worthlessness and worse. Husband means tv/o things to a woman — ^lover and protector, that is, provider. And if she is an in- telligent woman or a woman with children, unless he means protector, he means nothing. "Why then should woman object to men 's finding two elements in wife — mistress, to use a latterly too often degraded word in its fine old sense, and home-maker? Or why should woman become irritated if man reads into the word "home-maker" a great deal of significance? Why should she be angry if he, idealizing her as mistress, idealizes her also as home-maker and expects of her far more than mere indolent and inexpert superinten- dence of servants? As we are honestly trying to get at the truth about a matter of supreme importance to the happiness and to the progress of the race, let us put aside all the vanity-tickling lies and hypocrisies. For example, let us dismiss the poppycock talk wherewith vain women WHAT IS A SUCCESSFUL WIFE? 241 exaggerate themselves and timid women hearten themselves — the talk about every woman having no end of chances to marry well. What is the plain truth? It is easy for a man with any sort of an in- come to find a promising woman willing to be his wife. It is difficult for a woman — with or without an in- come — to find a promising man willing to marry her — not merely a man, mind you, but a worth-while man, even a prospectively worth-while man. These being the facts of our present social system, is it not a waste of time to grow angry because conditions are unjust instead of just? And is it not obvious that conditions being as they are, while man so long as he can pay the bills may neglect education in what con- stitutes a successful husband, a woman may not neg- lect any and all information leading to knowledge of what constitutes a successful wife? And, further, is not the hardship more apparent Being a than real? Whether the husband deserves the sue- human cessful wife or not is a side issue. The woman who ^"^ learns how to be a successful wife learns how to be a successful human being — and is not that the very climax of possible achievement? The French, who seem to have thought of every- thing, have thought out a recipe for the successful wife. She, they say, is the woman who continually renews herself. That is, she is an intelligent, alert, progressive human being. She takes advantage of the new opportunities of each new day to be a new person — a cleverer, wiser, more interesting, more alluring person. Married people become dolefully monotonous to each other. The man thinks he can afford to, because he pays the bills. But would he begin to become monotonous if the woman did not start it? The woman, emerging from a girlhood of 242 WHAT IS A SUCCESSFUL WIFE? alarm lest she should never be able to achieve the married estate and finding herself actually a ' ' Mrs., ' ' feels that she has completed her life-work. She fancies she need do nothing more. She begins to relax, to wane, to go to seed mentally and physi- cally — to go to seed none the less though she conceal mental deterioration under the cheap and lazy "cul- ture" clap-trap, and physical deterioration under paint, powder and dress-makers' devices for "faking- up " a decently appearing bod3^ Now, whether or not her husband is wise or right in letting himself become monotonous to her, is his so doing any excuse for her? Does she owe nothing to herself? Is it not a reflection upon her, and a serious reflection, that she has lost her grip upon his attention and upon his interest? You often hear women say, ' ' Oh, a man soon growls tired of what he has." But would he, if what he had wasn't itself tiresome? If it weren't refusing to make the effort required in becoming something different each day — something new, something developed by twenty-four hours more in charm and in intelligence? hi^^i ctuai About the matter of intelligence. There is un- wife ending silly talk about the divorce of intelligence and heart. If intelligence meant the wearisome acquiring of moldy culture stuff for conversational showing-off, there might be something in it. But intelligence is no such thing. Why do men fly from so-called intel- lectual women as tiresome, cold and insincere — as unwomanly ? Because they are not only unwomanly, but unhuman. A man of any sort, least of all a man of the live sort, docs not wish to hear commonplaces or sheer twaddle about art, science, literature and so on. What intellectuality is there in such remarks as "I think Keats is more spiritual than Browning, don't WHAT IS A SUCCESSFUL WIFEI 243 you?" or "Doesn't Corot give you more sense of the poetry of things than Rousseau ? ' ' Great artists, great writers, great scientists, don 't talk that dull nonsense. Why should a "business man" be condemned be- cause he yawns at it and flies from, the home where it poisons everything? Intellectuality means intelligence — aliveness — say- ing and thinking something new, something personal, therefore original, about whatever comes up. There are women who know how to entertain their hus- bands with accounts of the household and the ser- vants. Those women are intellectual, though they never mention Ibsen or Maeterlinck or whoever may be the butt of the culture vapidity of the hour. There are women who bore their husbands with cook talk and maid squabble. They are just as unintellectual as the women who weary with curtain lectures fuU of commonplaces about science, art, and novels. True intellectuality — an alive, interested, interest- ing mind — is every bit as attractive as sex charm. No woman need be afraid to be truly intellectual. It will not make her less attractive. It ^vill not make her cold. Intellectuality can be trusted to have more heart than ignorant impulsiveness. But as between the dreary poseuse and the shal- low woman, wath nothing but sex charm and no pre- tense to anything else, why any man not himself a faker ^\^ll choose without hesitation the shallow woman. Few women give thought to the science and art of loving. They think in a crude way of the surface sex charms and use them in attracting men, though rarely with any great skill. But of love they think not at all. They think chiefly — after marriage — of being loved. But is there not something more im- 244 WHAT IS A SUCCESSFUL WIFE? proving, less time-wasting, than sitting round watch- ing the play of light and shade upon the priceless jewel, your love, and wondering on whom you will bestow it ? That priceless jewel is not love. It is paste — it is self-love. The woman who is thinking of it isn't thinking of loving somebody, but of giving somebody the inestimable privilege of loving her. Now, it may be a wonderful privilege to be al- lowed to love a woman. Certainly enough poets and romancers and professional male love-makers have said so. But the woman who marries a real-life man and wishes to hold on to him and his income will do well to forget all about that and to fix her mind on loving the man. Nagging at him isn't loving him — nor yet is sitting in his lap when he wants to read the paper — nor j^et is spending all his money for beautiful clothes ''to make other men envy you, dear." Nor yet is any other of the tactless or ex- travagant or vain things which pass for loving with people who don't have to endure them. But loving is consideration and thoughtfulness, is spending his money as if it were your own, not as if it were the proceeds of a lucky lottery ticket. Make yourself Before deciding that he is not good enough for goca enovLgii " o o for him you, try to love him. Try to make him good enough for you by making yourself good enough for him. Don't bother so much about whether you are appre- ciated or not ; try to make yourself worth appreciat- ing. "Who among the older and more experienced people has not been amused and disgusted and sad- dened by the spectacle of a young woman with noth- ing to recommend her but a little rather mediocre sex charm, gravely speculating as to whether this or that man "understands" her? "Understands"? Nonsense! What is there to "understand" about the WHAT IS A SUCCESSFUL WIFE? 245 average young person, therefore about the average young girl? She has no knowledge of life, no ex- perience, only a commonplace and defective educa- tion, an exceedingly limited capacity for appreciat- ing any of the realities. She is precisely like her brother of the same age — a possibility and a promise. Her sex charm invests her for men with a certain purely fictitious mystery. A man marries her; the mystery vanishes — for him. But she fatuously de- ludes herself, or, rather, lets 'her vanity delude her, that this mystery was and is real. And, if she is physically attractive, the man who is not married to her will encourage her in this delusion. He will encourage her until he, too, finds out just what she is in herself, unaided by his ardent fancy. Now, the only sensible thing for the young girl, the young wife, to do is to develop the possibility there is in her, and to redeem the promise which that possibility has uttered. How? Certainly not by the lazy ways of "culture." For "culture" is to true mental capacity precisely what finery, paint, false hair and penciled eyes are to true physical charm. The real thing calls for thought and work ; but it also produces results. If the spectacle of the plutocracy's wives and daughters could be removed from our women of the middle class, if the foolish novels of "high life," so grotesquely idealizing and caricaturing the common- place, rather vulgar people who compose aristocra- cies, could be taken from their libraries, a good be- ginning toward successful wives and women might be made. Then there is the awful dread that haunts most girls of the middle class — the dread lest no man they can accept will ask them. That ought to be got rid of, too. 246 WHAT IS A SUCCESSFUL WIFE? That dread is about the saddest thing in our middle class social system. A man has wide choice of ways and means to a career. A woman — propos- ing to give her life to being a wife and mother — has no choice but to sit and wait in fear and trembling for some man to give her the chance to become a somebody. What wonder that girls make the fearful blunder of hastening to idealize the first likely man who proposes — that is, they hasten to sugar-coat the pill that they may be able to swallow it. What won- der that, once securely ' ' Mrs. ' ' they begin to be them- selves and to regret and to look longingly about or sink down in apathy, and in either event to do noth- ing to fit themselves for wifehood and motherhood! How can we expect fortunate marriages when girls are driven into marriage by fear? i^medy '^^^ independence of the middle class girl — ^her economic independence. Not by means of the dowry or of the divorce with alimony ; for the dowered or alimoniously divorced woman only fancies she is in- dependent. But real independence — ability to do things practical, useful, to perform salable services — that sort of education will make her fit to marry, and worth marrying. The theory of parents has been that if they can work the girls off on the strength of their sex charm masquerading as ''spirituality" or "innocent purity," the whole of parental duty has been done. This will not do nowadays. We have learned a thing or two. We have learned — and how stupid it is of us not to have realized it long ago ! — that just marrying off the girl by a trick isn't enovigh — ■ that we've got to produce a girl worth marrying. There is a growing shyness among middle class men as to marriage ; there is a growing tendency WHAT IS A SUCCESSFUL WIFE? 247 to divorce; there is a growing reluctance to pay ali- mony. The girl may not get a man to feed, clothe and shelter her, or, if she does, she is liable to come back on her parents' hands or to be stranded. It is beside the mark to denounce men as groTvdng coarser, as fickle in refusing to continue excited about the girls they so excitedly married. The plutocracy can take its badly brought up daughters abroad and trade them off there with the aid of a cash bonus. But the middle class can't. So it will have to bring up its daughters to suit the home market. It will have to consider the tastes of the men — the men who don't want culture-slush, nor ability to spend money as freely and foolishly as any plutocrat's daughter, nor absolute ignorance of all the arts of life. We need men who are trained to be successful hus- bands. But, as our social system is put together, it behooves the girls not to wait till that creed comes to market. If they wash to be loved and protected, would they not be wnser if they busied themselves at learning the science and art of the successful wife ? A good example from them might work wonders with the men. And how would setting such an ex- ample do them harm? — The Delineator. XXVII MODEL HUSBANDS ERHAPS most married women suppose that they possess a model husband, and we should be sorry to say anything that might be the means of dispelling the delusion. We feel sure no two women weigh mankind in exactly the same scales. What one woman may regard as virtues another woman may regard as faults. A model husband in our opinion is not a man who alone brings wealth to his home, nor one who endows his wife with a fine social position, but the one who gives to his wife the best of himself ; who appreciates her virtues. A model husband may be a day laborer who re- turns to his home at night with a hard earned dollar clasped in his honest hand, and adds it to the family fund to be used to provide necessary comforts for the family. He shares faithfully with his wife what- ever he may earn by trade or profession. When busi- ness matters perplex he does not go home with a woe- ful tale of his hardships and turn the bright side of his character to his associates, but he comes into his home with a cheerful face that inspires his wife with new courage after a day of perplexing duties which women alone have to meet, and in their monotony be- come distasteful to the most patient of them. A model husband does not hang up his fiddle at the door, to be taken up as he goes out to entertain outsiders, and come into his home as devoid of any suggestion of music as is the face of a monk. 248 MODEL HUSBANDS 249 A model husband is one who will share every hard- ship or sorrow life may bring to his wife, and sweetens suffering with his words of love and sympathy, and when age and infirmities rob her of her personal charms and wrinkles take the place of dimples, his love is like the holly that blossoms in the winter of adversity. The model husband does not allow his selfish nature to accord to himself all the blessings which come with a well kept home, and permit his faithful wife to bear all the burdens; he does not fret and fume if a sick child disturbs his peaceful slumbers, declaring urgent business duties on the morrow will demand his attention and he cannot lose sleep, yet can spend several nights at the club or lodge each week and never complain of heavy eyelids. — Taney County Republican. XXVIII Divorce in the United States Object of the family not happiness THE CHRISTIAN IDEALS OF IVIARRIAGE REV. LYMAN ABBOTT, D. D. Read before the Religious Education Association N the twenty years ending 1906, there were nearly one million divorces granted in the United States. That means one tJiousand every week, or one hundred and fifty every working day in the year. It would seem as though those figures were sufficiently significant. But the causes for which these divorces are granted are quite as significant. They are granted for every kind of cause from adultery to incompatibility of temper. Love, binding together in essential, vital, funda- mental unity in diversity, man and woman, creates the family. It is not made by contract. It is not a bargain. It has no relation to partnership. It is the one fundamental law of life. Deeper even than hu- manity, this combination of the sexes runs down into the animal race, yes ! do^'nl into the vegetable king- dom. It is the universal law of all God's creation. The family is the foundation on which not merely the commonwealth, not merely the church, but the whole of life itself, rests. Whatever undermines it under- mines the very foundation of life, and, if it succeeded, would bring all life dowTi in one gi'eat, irretrievable, hopeless chaos. And the object of this family is not the happiness of the man and the woman. That is not the end of it. 250 THE CHRISTIAN IDEALS OF MARRIAGE 251 If it fails to accomplish that, it has not failed of its purpose. It is true that thtre is an immeasurable joy in the married life. But that is not the end. This husband and this wife have not come, if they be true man and woman, seeking for joy. This man has come seeking new responsibilities, new burdens, new tasks, a larger duty; and this woman has come — I wonder at her courage every time she does — seeking for new pains and anguishes, it may be death itself; that these two may join with their Creator in giving new life to the world. The escape from unhappiness that sometimes comes in marriage is not divorce. Fleeing from trouble is the first escape of the coward. Fleeing from trouble is the last escape of the hero. I do not say that there are not times w^hen a wife may leave her husband. I do not even say that there may not, perhaps, come times when a husband may leave his wife. But I do say this: They do not occur one hundred and fifty times a day. The shame of it ! The cowardice of it ! "Whenever life becomes burdensome lay it do^^^l. Shall Abraham Lincoln lay do\vn his presidency because it means carrying the nation as a burden on his shoulders for four j'ears? Shall George AVash- ington lay down his task because it means the cavils and corruption of a Congress plotting against him? Shall William of Orange lay down his task because it means mental anguish, while he struggles wath the parties that are professing to support him, and are really working against him? Shall Jesus Christ lay down His work because He would escape the mental anguish of Gethsemane and the crucifixion? "We shall not get rid of this blot that breaks up New pubuc our families by mere changes m laws — by new mar- neceseary 252 THE CHRISTIAN IDEALS OF MARRIAGE riage laws, divorce laws, whether federal laws or state laws. We must go deeper than that. The church has a duty in this matter: To bring home upon its congregations the truth that happiness is not the end of life, and no life is worth living that has not in it service and self-sacrifice. The schools have a duty in this matter. In the eighteenth century girls were prepared for marriage. Now it is not considered proper to suggest to a girl that, perhaps, she is going to be married. She just f tumbles into it by accident. We need to bring to bear a new public sentiment upon our schools and our colleges, in regard to the whole structure of society and the harmony of life. For I hold that above the name of president, or king, or bishop, or pope, is this name of Home-builder. And, in our homes, we fathers and mothers have a duty to perform — to teach our boys and girls the mystery of life and of its beginnings, and not let them tumble into the knowledge through prurient curiosity and evil counsellors. It is a great work the future generation has be- fore it — to drive out from America this paganism that is rooted in individual selfishness and bring in the Christian ideal of marriage — a permanent social organism, the foundation of society, built on the law of God, revealing the love of God, carrying out the life of God, and doing the creative work of God. indi^duaiism **The modern woman's individualism is small and ana aiTorce selfish. Her sense of responsibility is shallow, emo- tional and ignorant. One outcome of the constantly, increasing spirit of individualism is the rapid in- crease of divorce. **I admit that it is frequently better that two CO CO UJ o z < D o Ll O UJ o I ill I H a n oi o THE CHRISTIAN IDEALS OF MARRIAGE 253 persons who have married each other should live apart, sometimes for one reason, sometimes for an- other. It is even true that some women when leav- ing their husbands do so from a sense of duty. They feel that it would not be right for them to stay with them. ' ' But in such cases a separation is all that is neces- sary, and I think that it is all that is justifiable. I am afraid that we cannot close our eyes to the un- welcome truth that the majority of divorces are ob- tained with the prospect in view of a subsequent union with another person who it is presumed will be more congenial. The question of personal happiness enters in. But the individualist asks, 'Why shouldn't I be happy?' ' ' No one has a right to be happy at the expense of society. These persons make a mistake in assuming that the object of marriage is happiness. Happiness may be an incident of marriage, but the purpose of marriage is to insure the permanence of the family. Divorce threatens the permanence of the family, there- fore it is preferable that the happiness of individuals should be sacrificed rather than that divorce should come to be looked upon as the natural panacea for all matrimonial woes. Duty is a higher word than happiness. ' ' I am sorry to be obliged to say that women seem to grasp at this solution of their troubles much more frequently than do men. Men seem to be more prone to play the game, to abide by the contract even if it hasn't turned out just as well as they hoped it would." — Mrs. Margaret Deland, Vol. 1—17 XXIX THE HOUSE AS A HOME* CHARLES FRANCIS OSBORNE Difference between house and home MORE general and determined movement toward house ownership would be made by; people of moderate means if the distinc- tion involved in the two words ''house" and "home" were more generally felt. Doubtless it is the desire of all normal men and women to own the house in which, in due time, are to be developed their own lives toward maturity, and those of their children from earliest infancy. But no such development can be regarded as wholly adequate which is not sustained by the endearing memories of home. Yet when you read of "Homes for $2,500.00," or "Buying a Home for the Price of Rent," re- member that the words do not bear the meaning they appear to have. A house is a commercial product, but a home is not. Home is the house plus family life. That home to which one looks back with the most sacred and tender memories in after years was a compound of both. Every nook and corner of it is vividly asso- ciated with some personality or event, and we feel it to have been almost alive and sentient, so harmo- nious do these relations often seem. We all know how hard it was to leave such a house, and how doubly bitter was the trial when we saw it pass into other and unsympathetic hands, which tore down, rear- *Froni "The Family Home," by permission of the Penn Pub- lishing Co. 254 THE HOUSE AS A HOME 255 ranged, and "improved" those features which we think of as an absolutely essential part of our earthl;^ existence. Family life, then, being regarded as the essential basis of the home, we may reasonably demand of the house that it shall be adapted to the fundamental characteristics of a definite family. It is only under such conditions that correct development of family character can occur. A house which is so badly arranged or is so deficient in the essentials of orderly living that the natural and proper requirements of the particular family cannot be met, leads to irrita- tion on the part of individual members and the for- mation of habits of life which fall below the ideal of conduct, and results in an unnatural and unde- veloped existence of the family as a whole. A friend of the author, who was separated from his second wife, shortly after their marriage, said that his domestic troubles were mainly due to the faulty arrangements of his house. Circumstances other than financial compelled him to live in a country town where there was little opportunity of choice offered to tenants. Every effort should therefore be made, where one 's prospects of employment permit, to build or purchase a house rather than rent one. Salaried people in large cities, while they may never be assured of security in any particular position, are usually war- ranted in assuming that the field of their future work will be somewhere within the city limits; and this fixity of the field of employment justifies house own- ership. For such, it is sometimes regarded as a wiser financial policy to leave a substantial part of the purchase money in the form of a mortgage, as the property is thus acquired more easily and with less The Lome and family life Ownerailp versus rent 256 THE HOUSE AS A HOME risk, and, in an emergency, may be the more easily disposed of. Theory and experience alike declare that it is economically unsafe for any one of limited means to expend more than one-fifth of his income for rent, or its equivalent. If this ratio is exceeded, some essential of life is necessarily forced below its normal supply, and health, material or moral, suffers. When income declines to the point where only the barest existence is possible, the ratio must necessarily be even lower than one-fifth ; though in congested quar- ters of the city where the worker must live near his work, it is difficult to maintain the safe ratio. Yet, by some means or other it must be done, or disaster in the future is inevitable. Tb« building If one dcsircs to purchase a house, it can be done in several ways; but to put any of them into opera- tion it is essential that some cash reserve shall have been accumulated to begin with. If a cash payment can be made of part of the purchase price, the prop- erty can usually be mortgaged to an amount sufficient to cover the balance, the interest on the mortgage being about equivalent in amount to a fair rental value of the property. If one is so fortunate as to live within a territory covered by the operations of a local "building and loan society," he will find that no more satisfactory method of house purchasing for the man of limited means has ever been devised. The way in which such a society operates can be best illustrated by a concrete example. Let us sup- pose B wishes to purchase a house that is offered for sale at three thousand dollars. Some cash in hand is required by the society as an evidence of good faith and responsibility. Assuming that B has six hundred dollars to apply on his purchase, there is a THE HOUSE AS A HOME 257 balance of twenty-four hundred dollars to be bor- rowed. This amount the society will lend him, after having assured itself, through its officers, of B 's good character, his prospects of a steady income, and of the adequate value of the property on which the loan is desired. To repay this loan, B purchases (say) twelve "shares" in the society on which he pays "dues" of one dollar per month per share; and he pays in addition one dollar per month interest ; this latter being computed at six per cent. This makes a total payment of twenty-four dollars per month, or two hundred and eighty-eight dollars per year. These payments continue until each "share" has, through the profits of the society, acquired a value of two hundred dollars. "When this occurs, the shares are regarded as having matured. Since the average profits of such societies when well conducted are about eight per cent, per year, it usually takes about eleven and one half years for such shares to mature. It will be seen, then, that B has paid, for his original loan of twenty-four hundred dollars, the sum of thirty-three hundred and twelve dollars; but having had eleven and one half years in which to pay it, he has felt no more burdened than if he had paid rent during that time, and at the end of the period the house is his own. Many hundreds of house owners have become such through the operation of the bene- ficial societies, which are purely mutual in their method of operation, and when carefully conducted have shown an exceedingly small percentage of loss. One word of caution seems advisable. Contrary to the operation of the general laws which apply to mercantile corporations, those building and loan associations are most secure which are limited in their scope by being purely local in their organization 258 THE HOUSE AS A HOME and field of operations. This is becaiise the real estate field in which they operate is well known to the officers of the society; and with the character and prospects of those applying for shares they are equally well acquainted. The house But whether one buys or rents, every effort should famuy be made to the end that the house, in its variable factors, conforms as closely as possible to one's ideals and habits of life. A house is something more than walls and roof; windows and doors; floors and ceil- ings. There is position, or site ; interior arrange- ment, or plan; there are questions of the materials of which it is built, of neighborhood ; of accessibility, or rental and cost of maintenance, and kindred others. These require careful and intelligent con- sideration; and the following chapters deal specific- ally with such, in order that the renter or purchaser may secure from the field of competition between the real estate operators the best advantages which his means can secure. But bargaining in this field inures to the buyer's advantage in exact proportion to his acquaintance with the elements of value in the trans- action. There is always, therefore, some choice for the renter as to neighborhood; some preference to be exercised on sanitary grounds; some balancing of advantages, from his own point of view, of the rela- tive merits of two otherwise equally available houses. If the plan of the house be found in some details unsuitable, it may often be mitigated and improved wholly or partially with the landlord's co-operation, especially if the house be taken on long lease. Colors on the walls and of fabrics for the hangings may be selected at will, and the furniture gradually, if not immediately, be brought into some sort of har- THE HOUSE AS A HOME 259 mony with one 's ideas of suitability and comfort. So that even about a rented house there may be created by intelligent effort some atmosphere and sentiment of home, even though the exterior be preposterous or ugly, or the plan in minor respects absurd. It is especially unfortunate that the vast majority of rentable houses have been "built for the market," and built, too — one cannot say designed — by men whose temperament and previous habits of life unfit them for a comprehension of the point of view of refined and discriminating tenants of limited means. At no more expense such houses could have been made a^eeable and comfortable instead of inade- quate and absurd. But of this, more in detail in another chapter. The poor man may console himself that the larger The rich houses of the rich are a severe burden from an troubles administrative point of view. One very rich man has recently incorporated his house, thereby placing its complex administration on an exact, stable, and impersonal commercial basis. Another, recently deceased, closed his really magnificent house in the suburbs of a large city and took rooms for himself and his wife — his children were all married and scat- tered — in a by no means commodious apartment house in the heart of the city. His response to the openly expressed surprise of his less experienced friends throws a flood of light on the domestic bur- dens of the rich. He said, "I am tired of keeping a negro hotel." His large staff of house servants were all colored, and the disproportion between the troublesome detail of their maintenance and that of himself and his wife had finally struck him as ridiculous and further unendurable. Home life cannot, obviously, be developed in a 260 THE HOUSE AS A HOME rented apartment house, still less in a hotel, as a recent notable and pathetic case has illustrated, and as for the homeless rich of the newer type, whose domestic troubles are becoming a public scandal, there can be little doubt that the disintegration of family life, which afflicts and characterizes them as a class, is as largely due to the impossibility for them of home life, under the exactions of modern fashion- able society, as to any one other single cause. Some mitigation of the disadvantages of life in an apartment has been brought about in New York, where it is now possible to purchase single apart- ments. This scheme has been devised as a com- promise between the rented apartment and the subur- ban home, since physical conditions in New York make house ownership increasingly difficult, even for people of relatively comfortable income. Buy _ There is a fundamental rule to which strict atten- tion should be paid in every step connected with the development of the home. By so doing not only will satisfaction be produced in all that relates to utility and economy, but it will also have another most agreeable result, and that is that the home which develops under such conditions will bear the unmis- takable impress of the owner's individuality. For men of moderate means, who may feel warranted in the expense of building a house, attention must of course, be paid to the commercial side of the ques- tion. That is to say, to the possible necessity of, at some time in the future, disposing of the property without too much, if any, financial sacrifice. If the site of the house has been judiciously selected, the house it- self honestly built of sound materials rather than for the purpose of superficial display, the value of such a house property should continually, even though carefully THE HOUSE AS A HOME 261 slowly, increase; but in developing the principle of individualism as applied to houses one must be care- ful to keep the commercial aspect of the case care- fully in mind. For while a man of ample means would be entirely justified in proceeding to any extreme in departure from commonly accepted prece- dent in the arrangement or decoration of his home, those less fortunately situated must be cautious not to carry this so far that the house will not appeal to any one else. Much difficulty might be encoun- tered in its sale or rental should this ever be neces- sary. Yet it is entirely possible, within the limits set by average demand, to give every house such a degree of distinction, individuality, and refinement, as would instantly appeal to inquiring tenants or purchasers. In this way houses would possess a real charm which would markedly enhance their market value. The ■WTiter was invited not long ago, while about individuality to start out for a walk in the country, to inspect a friend's house then nearing completion and almost ready for occupancy. The locality was an unfamiliar one and the exterior of the house, so far as its type was concerned, was one to be met with pretty gener- ally. On reaching the indicated place three or four houses in about the same advanced stage of comple- tion were found and it seemed for a moment as if there might be some difficulty in determining just which house was the object of the search. In walk- ing by the new houses, however, one attracted instant attention because it showed even on casual examina- tion, certain fine qualities related rather to delicacy of detail and careful study of proportions than to distinction of type. This made it absolutely certain that the house showing these qualities was the one 262 THE HOUSE AS A HOME sought for because they were qualities which distin- guished the man for whom the house was built. Subsequently it appeared that the correct house had been picked out. It ought to give the highest degree of satisfaction to every house owner that his char- acter and taste are very visibly expressed even in the exterior of his dwelling place. The house referred to above was a small one and inexpensive, — but its characteristics were unmistakable. Look for There is one principle related to the subject con V ciUBuCOf not size matter of this chapter which is so fundamental in its character that it is necessary to call the reader's attention to it at the outset of his study of the entire problem. From every point of view it will always be found far more satisfactory to bend all one's efforts towards securing a smaller but well equipped and conveniently arranged house rather than one which, though larger in its accommodation is but meager in its appointments. The family will derive much satisfaction from a house, even though its plan may necessitate some slight crowding, if it contain all of the essential conveniences of a larger house, while, on the other hand, if these be lacking, no amount of mere floor space can compensate for the many irritations which will hourly arise when the house lacks its proper equipment. The fault of most small houses is that they ape the plan arrangement of the large house when every consideration of economy makes it impossible to use such a plan in the way that the large house implies. Small houses have, or should have, characteristic plans of their own. Small drafty halls, for example, with a travesty of a fireplace, are absurd; but if there be a few large rooms, each of which has a distinct use, from every point of view, they will THE HOUSE AS A HOME 263 afford greater satisfaction than will a greater num- ber of smaller rooms, the distinction between which, is purely artificial and not justified by the actual social habits of the family occupying the small house. If the occupants of small modem houses would face the real facts of existence and determine to so build or rearrange them as to meet those facts, the whole problem would be solved and the caution just given would be unnecessary. But tradition is so powerful, that nine men out of ten will "go along" and wonder why the house is so uncomfortable. All of the problems connected with the building and the use of a house would be properly solved, if we always made it a fixed rule to first determine frankly and accurately what particular need has to be met, and then meet it with equal frankness. One should, however, always make sure, before a final decision is reached, that every side of the problem has been considered. In a word — sincerity of purpose throughout the entire problem, not only in planning but in construc- tion and decoration as well, is the key to success. Proceeding in any other direction will result in dis- satisfaction or even actual disaster. XXX WHERE SHALL THE HOUSE BE ?* CHARLES FRANCIS OSBORNE I HERE the wage earner or salaried man may live will always be largely determined by local and often accidental circumstances, and freedom of choice in this matter vnll vary directly with the ratio of excess of receipts over expenditures. For the city worker, when any choice can be exercised, the question whether he may occupy an urban or a suburban home will usually be answered on the ground of individual preference. If the latter choice is made, there are sure to be half a dozen suburban towns, widely separated from each other and offering very diverse attractions, yet in equal relation as to time and cost of transportation to the office. The certainty of congenial social sur- roundings; some aspect of rural life especially appealing to the individual taste; possibly even the relatively greater convenience of one terminal station over another or the relative frequency of suburban train service — on some such ground the choice is usually made. Yet with these more or less senti- mental considerations we are not wholly concerned. It is rather the question of "site" in its technical, restricted, and physical sense that occupies us. ^^® In considering the site of a suburban house the following points which affect residential values should be given the most careful attention : *From "The Family Home," by permission of the Penn Pub- lishing Co. 264 WHERE SHALL THE HOUSE BE? 2G5 1. Transportation facilities between the district in which the proposed house is situated and the office. 2. Relation of the house itself to the railway station or trolley lines. 3. General character of the neighborhood in which the house is situated, and the general relation of this to the nearest manufacturing district, if any. 4. Character of the traffic on railway and trolley lines, if near by. 5. Condition of the street or highway on which the home is located. 6. Physical condition of the lot on which the house is built ; noting also that of adjoining lots. Forty-five minutes from the house to the office g5fm work is the extremest limit to which the suburban com- muter can afford to stretch the daily tax upon his time and physical energy, so far as the transportation question is concerned. Thirty minutes is far more reasonable, and should be regarded as the allowable mean. Only exceptional advantages of a compen- sating nature should induce him to exceed it. Some distinction may indeed be made in favor of com- fortable and wholesome transportation in a suburban steam or electric train of clean cars and ample train capacity as against the crowded, dirty and ill-venti- lated cars of the usual type of urban trolley service. Porty minutes in the former \sdll be far less fatiguing as a daily experience than half that time spent in the latter, with the added safeguard from exposure to contagious disease to which every rider in the urban car is constantly subjected. Yet, forty-five minutes between the house and the office diminishes the avail- able time for rest and recreation at home which, under modern business conditions, is being constantly reduced below what must be regarded as safe limits. 266 WHERE SHALL THE HOUSE BE? Frequently there will be some choice of transporta- tion service to town, and the relative merits of these and their several relations to any house under con- sideration should not be overlooked. Tbe The facilities of netting easily and quickly from transportation ,, , , , . , , . ^ ,, • problem the house to the point where the tram or trolley is taken is important. The trip to and fro will be made twice daily for every working day in the year and under all possible conditions of weather. "What may seem, with reference to a single trip, some minor advantage of sheltered walk, or slightly lessened distance, becomes of much importance when the year's journeys are taken into account. Even a short walk along a bleak highway exposed to the full sweep of the winter's gale or the hottest downpour of the mid-summer sun, becomes justly magnified into a serious fault in its relation to some otherwise desirable house. If there are children in the family, their walks to and from school must also enter into the problem. As between houses at differing distances from, town there is not only to be considered the relative difference in the cost of transportation, but also the fact that the seating capacity of suburban trolley service is not always carefully estimated for the nearer residential districts, and the further out one lives the more certainty there is of always getting a comfortable seat into town in the morning, and for most of the distance out in the evening. As between different suburban districts, consideration should be given to the relative records of the several trans- portation companies for keeping their lines open in winter storms, or regularity of service at all times of the year, and, of course, as to convenient hours of service. WHERE SHALL THE HOUSE BE? 267 In determining the ayailability of any house Neighborhood under consideration, the general character of the neighborhood would be justly regarded of the first importance. This is easily determined by inspection, and well kept groimds and houses, however modest in scale, and well kept streets, should be deemed an indispensable accompaniment of the new home. One must not forget, though, that these very desirable accompaniments may, and often do, mean that the neighborhood is a grooving one. This is most cer- tainly indicated by any unusual number of new houses going up, and new streets being laid out. The disadvantage of this state of affairs is that rents are certain to rise year by year, and such a locality, however charming, is a better place to buy or build in than to rent in. But the availability of any resi- dential neighborhood is not finally determined by its immediate surroundings. Some other neighborhood, seemingly remote, may, under certain conditions (of weather, for example) be brought into an immediate and very detrimental relation to an otherwise seem- ingly desirable part of the town. Manufacturing establishments, even at some little distance, may, under certain conditions of wind or temperature, overwhelm the residential quarter of the district with soot laden smoke, noxious and ill smelling fumes, or even the noise of their operations — especially if night shifts are working. Detrimental elements of this nature can only be certainly determined by repeated inspection of the property under consideration at various times of the day, days of the week, or states of the weather. Such a minute examination is not alwa%^ possible. One must depend on the testimony of former occupants of the house if available, or of actual residence ; these latter, being anxious to 268 WHERE SHALL THE HOUSE BE? dispose of their property, will probably try to evade direct answers to awkward questions. One of the most significant indications is the display of an unusual number of "to rent" or "for sale" signs on the houses in any residential neighborhood. It is usually an unfailing indication of some change of character in the neighborhood, impending or accom- plished, which makes the inhabitants anxious to get away. Neighbors, Then as to the character of the traffic on nearby noise^aad railway or trolley lines. In one or two cases which have come under the author's observation, an other- wise attractive residential neighborhood has been rendered quite undesirable by the presence of noisy and even seriously disorderly crowds of excursionists returning late at night and on Sundays from a park or outdoor resort of the cheaper class at some little distance further out the line. Such people will straggle along the road in front of the house on foot, or go by with loud shouts on bicycles, or on the trolley ears. The entire neighborhood is sure to be dis- turbed by the disgraceful conduct of these disorderly classes until late at night. This detrimental element is much more serious than might be imagined by those who have never undergone the experience, and is sufficient to absolutely exclude any property sub- ject to the annoyance from further consideration. On railway lines such conduct would not of course be tolerated, but these may still be the source of a se- rious annoyance of quite another character. Railway freight is, so far as possible, run at night while the lines are relatively clear from passenger traffic. This in itself is not a source of serious annoyance, except on those roads where skillful and efficient methods of management have not developed, and where the WHERE SHALL THE HOUSE BE1 269 shrill whistle of the freight engine seems an indis- pensable accompaniment of every movement. In certain stages of the wind, especially of the moisture laden southerly and easterly winds, this incessant whistling may cause annoyance at considerable dis- tances from its point of origin. If the house is near busy railway lines much discomfort may also be caused by clouds of smoke, in which most roads still waste an appreciable amount of their fuel expendi- tures. The greasy soot from this smoke will not only pervade the house indoors, but will spread a percep- tible pall over lawn and garden, dimming the colors of the flowers, distinctly lowering the vitality of all forms of vegetation, and rendering that form of rural relaxation known as "sitting on the grass" quite out of the question. Where an all night service on a single trolley track is maintained, it is a distinct disadvantage to have a passing point or switch in front of one's house. Such places are always noisy. The physical condition of the street or highway what sort of whatever kind that lies in front of the house is of °^ * street? importance as an element of value. It should be paved as to its sidewalks, if it have any, or be at least macadamized if a simple country road. If it be the latter, and especially if it be a convenient line of communication between important towns, it is likely to be extensively used by motor cars. In this case it should be treated with tarvia, terracoleo, or some other of the asphaltum compounds to make it dust proof. Otherwise, the garden and the house will be enveloped in clouds of dust all day long during dry weather. An unpaved country road which may look exceedingly attractive in fine weather will, unless of sandy soil, become little better than a morass in wet weather, both in summer and winter. Vol. 1 — 18 270 WHERE SHALL THE HOUSE BE1 On such a road, the daily journeys to and from the station, or for the children going and coming from school, become in the highest degree vexatious. It might be well, too, to make sure that the high- way in front of the house is not a portion of a traffic route between a stone quarry, brick yard, or other similar busy place, whose products must be hauled daily and continuously to a market; clouds of dust in dry weather, deep ruts in wet, and incessant noise and clamor will be attendant elements of discomfort. Tte lot Turning our attention finally to the lot itself, upon which the house is built, the following points should be carefully considered. Is it lower than the high- way or the adjoining lots? This has reference not only to the certainty of washing upon the lot in heavy rain storms from surrounding properties, but to the fact that a relatively low level is an indication of possible underground streams which may dampen or even overflow the cellar during the winter and spring. The washing of surface soil from adjoining lots will often seriously interfere with the garden arrange- ments and is always difficult to deal with. During the spring thaws, too, and in heavy rain storms, puddles will form on the lot in the most inconvenient places, and the paths may be kept in a well nigh impassable condition. Therefore, no matter how attractive the lot may look during fine weather, avoid it if its general grade is below its neighbors. The condition of the fences or other physical boundaries of the lot should receive attention, and the owner required to put them in good order. The walks and paths, both front and rear, should be reviewed for similar treatment, if necessary. If any choice is offered between lots of larger and smaller size, the larger should be chosen if the labor of keeping it WHERE SHALL THE HOUSE BE? 271 in order will not prove too burdensome either on person or purse. The larger lot gives freer and more abundant air and sunshine about the house, and less obtrusive neighbors, but it must not be forgotten that country "yards" require more attention, rela- tively, than do those in the city; and this is because more must be attempted in the way of ornamental gardening in the country than is required in the city, if the house is to look as though it belonged to its surroundings. The general question of the garden will be dealt with in another chapter. Residential districts which, as a whole, are rela- tively low lying, are less agreeable and healthful than those occupying higher ground. They are hotter in summer, though perhaps less bleak in winter, but are sure to be damp at all times of the year. Sites in valleys are sometimes cool on summer nights, owing to the prevalence in many such localities of a night downdraught of air flowing from the hillsides to the valley bottom. This is especially likely to be the case if there be a river or lake in the valley. Houses on or near hilltops are not to be recommended as winter residences on account of their excessive exposure but, if well shaded, they will be cooler in summer, spring, and fall, than lower lying sites, especially after sundown. If lying part way up a hillside slope, care must be taken to see that the property does not include wet or swampy places, due to out- croppings of impervious strata. These may take place at the surface, or worse still, against a cellar wall below grade, where the outflow of water cannot be adequately dealt with except at a very consider- able expense. Every one who knows his countryside is familiar with these hillside swamps and springs. Sites for houses in the city are subject to more 272 WHERE SHALL THE HOUSE BE? limited consideration from our present point of view. So far as the points bearing on the value of rural sites have application, they are of equal force in the urban districts; but few of them are applicable, owing to the physical restrictions of city sites. Aside from the more sentimental considerations which affect site values in the city, the chief elements of value are mainly determined on purely sanitary grounds. Perhaps the most important element is the following: Vital statistics in New York indicate (what might have been expected on theoretical grounds) that houses on the north side of east-west streets are more healthful than those on the south side; that north-south streets, taken as a class, report fewer cases of sickness than those on east-west streets; and that houses near street corners show a better health record than those occupying the middle of the block. In spite of these facts houses on one side of the street often find takers as easily as those on the other, though this should not be the case. Town or With regard to the general question of ' * town, or county ^.o^^^J.y^" (including in the latter term the less crowded suburban districts) it may be said in con- clusion that the determination as to which presents the greater advantage, is, in its last analysis, largely one of individual taste and temperament. In resi- dential country districts, such as are usually possible for the city worker, we are likely to find, in common with the city, paved and lighted streets, good water, gas or electric lighting for the house, and often both. As compared with town, we have purer air, larger yards, with the possibility of an ornamental flower garden, or even of a kitchen garden if one be so inclined ; freedom from city noise ; and readier access to the purely rural districts for outdoor recreation. WHERE SHALL THE HOUSE BE? 273 In addition to this, if suburban transportation be properly developed we are no further away from the office, in point of time, with more comfortable service. On the other hand, though rents are lower in the country, food and fuel are usually somewhat higher, with the local markets more restricted both in scope and capacity. Much must be bought in town and some of the purchases "'personally conducted" to the home. Schools for the children are apt to be less satisfactory in the country and will be certainly less easy of access. Town amusements are only attain- able at the sacrifice of much time and patience. Society is more restricted in its scope, though less formal in its requirements. Church going and get- ting about generally in the country are difficult at times, unless one has some sort of conveyance. Taxes are lower in the country, but one has less adequate protection to person and property — a condition fre- quently giving rise to a good deal of justifiable anxiety. In stormy weather, especially in winter, every member of the family is more restricted in outdoor movement, and the question of exposure be- comes, especially for the less robust and for the children, one of serious concern. Medical attendance is often quite as good in the country, but less quickly available. The servant question is more acute in the country, and is almost certain to be a source of continual vexation. For the business man himself "the country" means little more than "catching trains," and he really sees little of it except on Sun- days and holidays. As to the general question of the relative health- fulness of town and country for the city worker, it is doubtful if the countryside, taking all things into consideration, really presents any marked advantage over the city. 274 WHERE SHALL THE HOUSE BE? advantages ^^ wliich Side lies the moral advantage seems to the writer also a debatable question. For the younger children, country up-bringing is perhaps more wholesome, but as they grow older it is very doubtful if such a conclusion is warranted. Rural simplicity and innocence are largely a product of the imagination of those who only know the countryside in its superficial aspects as summer visitors. Oppor- tunity for the viciously disposed is, in one form or another, ready to hand in either environment, and the trend of the thought of the younger set among the country bred is, so far as the writer's observation serves, less wholesome and broadening than among similar people in the city. It is certain that for those accustomed to the city's ways since early childhood, there is far greater poise and stability of character when exposed to the opportunity of going wrong, since they have continually been so since they began to observe for themselves. There is no swifter descent than that of young men who are easily thrown off their moral balance by the wholly false glamour of the city's temptations when suddenly exposed to them ; while those who are city bred have long since learned to estimate such things as they really are. Nevertheless, the attrac- tion of the countryside will prove irresistible to many discriminating men and women, and their response to such i. nil can after all only be regarded as the sign of a who. some nature. There are undeniable rural attractions, and if one adopts the proper attitude toward country life, taking it for what it is and striving to understand it and get the best out of it, by resisting its narrowing tendencies, perhaps no one is justified in saying that, for this or that individual or family, life in the city is preferable to life in the country. XXXI WHAT DO WE BREATHE ? MARY HARMON WEEKS Vice-President of the National Congress of Mothers "There are two ways of improving the quality of human beings: one by giving better heredity — starting them in life with a stronger heart, better digestion, steadier nerves; the other, by so combining the factors of daily life that even a weak heart may grow strong, a poor digestion become good, frayed nerves gain steadiness. The science of right living has not yet been worked out in all its details. Never- theless, certain rules of practice are so well established that only obstinate or idiotic men have any excuse for denying them. History teaches the universality of the rule that the art is developed long before the science." — Ellen Richards. ''Life does not develop to the fullest when hindered at every step by outside forces, or when cut otf from some of the supplies most necessary to its existence."— Bertha June Richardson. TEACHER in the Lathrop school of Kansas Air and scliool TTOrk City had a pupil who showed ability but who came to school listless, was inattentive in study and «lass, and seemed to be in bad physical condition. Being an intelligent woman in- terested in her charges, she made an investigation into home conditions before pronouncing him a bad boy. She found that he was sleeping with six grown people in a room whose windows and doors were never open. The mother was informed in a friendly way of the fact that her boy's poor work at school was probably due to this lack of fresh 275 276 WHAT DO WE BREATHE? air in his sleeping room. She, for the first time perhaps, realized the connection between fresh air and school work, and as "love can find out the wav" contrived, though very poor, to better conditions for her boy. His health immediately improved. He came to school alert and active, could control his attention, and master his work. Mi and That IS the whole story of pure air, in a nutshell, is it not ? Food, water and air are the three requis- ites of human life. Water to liquefy the blood, food to give it nutrition. But of what avail are these toward producing a vigorous body and alert mind if the blood is denied fresh air to remove the poisons which food produce, and to give to it the life-creat- ing, energj'-building element, without which body and brain are encompassed by a deadly torpor, and existence is but a half life? The principle and method of this give and take between the blood and the air is so simple and so commonly employed in every household, that it is difficult to realize that the great majority of "civil- ized" people are living the half life because of impure air. When we build the coal fire in the morning do we shut off all the drafts, and cut off the current of air from our would be fire? On the contrary, we open wide the drafts and create a strong suction of air so that as much of the oxygen as possible can mingle with the coal and make it "bum." Because of this burning di-aft, the disagreeable coal gas which results goes up the chimney. But if we have not arranged matters well, if we have too small a draft, or cut it off before the coal has had its full amount of oxygen, we soon have a very apparent odor of this same gas. If after supplying our fire with the oxygen from the air in the house and filling the WHAT DO WE BREATHE? 277 remaining air with this gas, we fail to supply fresh free air from our ventilating apparatus, — ventilator, fresh air duct, doors or windows or whatever other method we use, — a person entering from the outer air, smells not only the gas from the coal but the dead odor of living. Our blood and our breathing apparatus work on the same principle. Action, which is burning, is going on in our bodies day and night through volun- tary and involuntary motion, using up the oxygen in the blood continually and throwing into the life stream what corresponds to the coal gas. But our drafts, the lungs, not being left to our own volition for their action, keep drawing in air to their ampli- fied surface where the blood can take up the needed oxygen and pour into the air now being thrown out by our body chimneys, the gas of living which so pollutes the air of audience chambers, that Henry Ward Beecher said he always felt, in such rooms, that he was getting something from every body. Since this process is going on all the time, it is extremely important not only that all should breathe deeply and stronglj^ but that plenty of fresh air, not breathed air, should be provided. Without these two essentials, the blood soon becomes clogged with poisonous as well as useless material. It does not have enough of life giving oxygen, moves slowly and furnishes insufficient energ;y" to muscles and brain, with the result that both body and mind are but ''half alive." To many people, these seem matters so well known as hardly to need repetition. But are they really well known? Are they not frequently heard but never realized? If we saw some one giving our children spoonsful of a known poison or of any 278 WHAT DO WE BREATHE? unknown substance, we should instantly interfere to prevent. Yet day after day, we giv-e our children equally as poisonous matter to breathe in homes, schools, churches, factories, etc., in all of which we could easily remedy conditions. For the better part of six hours of each school day many of our own children live in air that comes through a cold air duct. Have we ever examined the entrance to that duct? Throat and In her valuable series of articles on * ' Clean School troubles Houscs, " which appeared in the Child Welfare Mag- azine in 1911, Dr. Helen Putnam gives advice which applies equally well to the family house. She says: "The irritating and poisonous particles drawn in through the nose or mouth irritate and poison the delicate mucous membrane lining of nose, throat and bronchial tubes, causing much catarrhal trouble. Physicians whose specialty is nose and throat diseases look for many more cases of 'cold in the head,' 'sore throat' and bronchitis after wind storms; chronic catarrh is aggravated in dusty weather. Adenoids and adenoid conditions, tonsilitis, tubercu- losis and some other germ diseases that affect the respiratory passages develop more easily in this catarrhal tissue and their cure is more difficult. Autopsies show that city dwellers' lungs, instead of a healthy pink, are more often a dirty dark color, like the lungs of those working in coal mines and other dusty occupations, with fibrous thickenings and nodules where more or less inflammatory changes have taken place, inflammations that are not enough perhaps to always make people ill in bed, but that lessen vitality and predispose to disease. This is one of the reasons why country life, other things being equal, is healthier than city life, where fifteen hun- WHAT DO WE BREATHE? 279 dred times as many dust particles float in the air we breathe. We have already spoken of the very high death rate from tuberculosis among teachers, and the very large amount of tuberculosis, much of it latent, among children, that increases through school years, except among 'open air school' children. This street dust, tracked and blowTi in from streets that can and should be cleaner, is an important part of such ill health, although not the whole cause. < i I The cold air box and the air it brings in is The cold air another problem, quite as important as care of the air vent air after it is in. There are cold air boxes drawing their supply from the level of sidewalks and streets, and the pipe of the passing smoker is distinctly smelled in the house ; if tobacco smoke, then, of course, dust and effluvia from passersby is drawn in. To be sure there may not be disease germs in this air, but is there health in it — all there should be in children's air supply? Sometimes the air is drawn in from alleys where garbage or other rubbish is kept. WTien cloth for sifting the air is placed over intakes it quickly becomes heavy with a blackish deposit. When air is washed by showers of water in certain systems the washings make a muddy stream whose "mud" might have gone into the child's lungs instead. This brings us again to the cleanliness of streets and byways around the school. How are they around the buildings your club is interested in? "Or it may be that the school yard itself is at fault. Does the outlet for bad air empty in the play- ground? Is it a muddy yard, or in any way not fit for children's use, besides giving them low ideals of what the surroundings of the place they live in should be? If so, mothers' clubs can prove their value by putting it in good condition, and encour- 280 WHAT DO WE BREATHE? aging the children to do a part themselves. It is not always money so much as brains that is needed, and working on it helps arouse interest in the need of larger, much larger plots of land around schools. "Another not uncommon outside cause of school house dirtiness is soft coal smoke, perhaps from a factor^' near by, or from one in the direction of the prevailing winds that bring the black cloud to the school, and increase labor and expense of keeping windows and rooms clean; or, which is more usual, they are not kept clean, and health suffers — a greater expense in the end. Some such factories also send out injurious gases and disagreeable odors. There are methods of preventing all these defilements of the air we live in — or die in. In a few places there are laws requiring these methods to be used, but the law is rarely well enforced. Just as city fathers allow saloons, houses of ill fame and the evils always crop- ping out in their neighborhoods to educate some chil- dren more hours in the year than do our schools, so they allow dirty streets and business establishments to injure physical health in the ways our two years' study has shown." Tear of Charles Doran says in the Child Welfare Maga- zine : ' ' The fear of a draft and the precautions taken to guard against it often lead the mother into the grave error of keeping her baby in an overheated room, in which the fresh ozone so necessary to the growth and healthfulness of the child is debarred an entrance. The room is kept closed lest the free access of air might cause a draft and the child contract a cold. The thought that it is impure air, air allowed to remain for hours at a time instead of the fresh, cool and bracing air, never enters the heads of many young mothers; the result is the total exclu- draftB WHAT DO WE BREATHE? 281 sion of pure air and the preservation of the foul air in the room. The young child, like the virgin plant, needs plenty of pure air and will wither, as the plant does, without it. Many a child today has weak lungs, suffers from catarrhal and throat trou- bles due to 'too much care' upon the part of its parents; it is rendered weak by being prohibited from having at the time it most needs it the fresh air, the very life and gro'^'th to the young. A mother will tremble at the thought of her child's being exposed to the draft, and yet place the little life in greater danger by allowing it to sleep in a room whose atmosphere is laden with impurities as the result of hours in which every exit for the going out of the foul air and the entrance of the fresh air is closed up tight. A child should never be allowed to sleep in a room whose windows have been closed a longer period than three hours, and not permitted to remain where the air has been left unchanged a longer time than four hours. It is not the abundance of fresh air, but the scarcity of fresh air that is to be feared for the child. Too often the old belief, 'No air without some draughts,' prevails, and a child is kept for hours, perhaps even for days at a time, if the weather is bad, within walls where the air is so impure that, were it possible to gather up a handful of it, it would be found to contain enough poisonous matter to kill a regiment or disease a whole army. "There is, then, a wisdom in the French saying, *Too much care kills,' and it is this too much care to exclude from the child's life what is most essential to its gro\vth and strength that is responsible for so many pale faces, contracted chests and listless eyes in the little ones we love so, and would all of us wish 282 WHAT DO WE BREATHE? to see as the most of them, yea the far greater part of them, have an inherent right to be — rosy cheeked, full chested, sparkling eyed children. Prudence is a wise master to serve, but how often do we really know how to serve him best. Surely, is not our pre- caution frequently as dangerous as lack of precaution when good common sense is sacrificed to foolish fears and dreads?" toe^a*da^r* ^^ ^^® country, there is little trouble about get- «°* ting fresh air. The question for the farm house is quite different. As Helen Dodd says, "In wooden houses, too much air is the fear throughout the winter. More air than we realize comes through the walls of the house and around the windows and doors, so that the farm house problem is how to get the bad air out." What is needed is circulation and this must be provided by outlets. The simplest way is to open a window at the top, whereas we usually open it at the bottom alone. Small openings at both places are best, unless you have a passion for pure air and prefer the window sash out. A board across either or both openings, slanting inward from its bottom, will throw the air up instead of across the room, and avoid drafts. A fireplace makes an ideal conductor for dirty air, even when no fire is going. An outlet in the roof opposite the direction of the prevailing wind, if covered with a hinged top, will be extremely useful in keeping the air of the whole house clean. In rooms used for living and for cooking there must be some means of creating a stronger cross current of outward bound air without any down draft, and this can be accomplished in a primitive and inex- pensive way by either a transom to the outer air, the movable part hinged at the bottom, or by opening a WHAT DO WE BREATHE? 283 window at the top. A window open at the bottom on the opposite side of the room will give sufficient cross current to drive out rapidly accumulating unclean air, and drafts may be prevented by using the boards tilted in at the top edge, across the openings. A good housewife should be able to gauge the needed amount of opening to keep the room livable, and prevent the odors of cooking and living from reach- ing the rest of the house. We hear a bit about the waste of fuel in open win- dows, but experience proves that clean fresh air keeps the body much warmer at a lower temperature than does dirty air. Every effort should be made to have windows Tresh air must come slide easily and stop at the right places. Women easuy have no time to fuss over such things and men and children will not. As Isaac Roberts says in "The Farmstead," "If the health and the general well being of the boys and girls, as well as of the parents, are worth anything at all, attend religiously to these small and inexpensive conveniences. The wise farmer will find the secret of getting along with his own household and of rearing a strong healthy family to lie in the strict attention he gives to just such small matters as these. The things that overstrain the physique, that try the temper and patience, must especially be looked after and something of a better nature substituted for them." Fresh air must come easily. "Time and money spent in providing good ventilation will be well invested, for every member of the family will feel an increase in vigor, comfort and cheerfulness." It vnll be a long time before every house will be so built that a tiny fluttering flag will tell us at a glance whether we are getting our quota of fresh air, but we should certainly put in 284 WHAT DO WE BREATHED our vvindows with, a view to proper ventilation of our sleeping rooms, and even where w^e have not con- trolled their installation, we can still so control the currents of air that it wall be possible to "sleep out doors inside," without the inconveniences and expo- sure of open sleeping porches. The renewed vigor, the restfulness and the good appetite which wait on such sleeping will amply repay the morning shiver. Our outdoor sleeping enthusiasts follow with their word. We believe in their cult when such sleeping does not make a greater drain on the vitality, for the extra heat expended, and the extra burden of clothes borne, than is returned by the exposure to all the winds that blow. THE BOY WITH A SWORD After the Painting by Edouard Manet. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. XXXII THE EESTFUL HOME MRS. A. R. MERRELL 5 HE discussion of restfulness in the home is of wide scope, since there is a diversity of ideas as to what constitutes a restful home. The circumstances, education and tempera- ment of the homemaker influences these opinions. Our Mother Eve, as she walked about the Garden of Eden, so free from thought of sewing, housework and social duties, knew only restfulness. Our Pur- itan ancestors, who lived simply and dressed plainly, had leisure time to rest and to create a restful home atmosphere. In these days of more complex living the problem of homemaking is more difficult. The social and religious demands of the day often require an outlay of time and strength which the housekeeper can ill afford to give. The ever-changing fashions necessitate much planning and sewing if one is to dress both well and economically. Even the so-called labor-saving devices are the more utensils to clean and to care for, even though they may be really useful in accomplishing work. The housewife is often at a loss as to what to do first or when to find time to do all which seems to be her duty. In order to maintain a restful home, the home- keeper herself must be rested. How can this condi- tion be obtained ? By being careful not to confound housekeeping with home-keeping, striving vainly to make the former do duty for the latter. Simplify the work by planning each day's duties and pleasures methodically. Gauge the time and the task and see Vol. 1—19 285 286 THE RESTFUL HOME how much can be accomplished. Hold to the idea "I have time to do my work," but eliminate all hurry and bustle. "Work is made for life, not life for work ; and the greatest work is always done with apparent ease." Woman must keep a high mood and remain undis- turbed by the petty happenings of every-day. She who gives free rein to her nerves brings unrest upon all around her. To quote an article in a recent mag- azine: "Only a spendthrift would sacrifice a serene mood in order to fume over an ill-fitting garment or an undelivered parcel or a smear of mud in the hall or the buzz of flies in the pantry. And yet there are women who fret their spirit to tatters by chafing over these insignificant happenings. Order in the house is important, but order in the spirit is more important. Cleanliness drops from its high place at the right hand of godliness, when it calls out dis- turbance of the high mood. Household thrift sinks lower than household waste when a woman saves her carpets by constant friction over dust, and her furni- ture by constant carping over scratches." The mother who leaves her housekeeping and the care of her children to a maid while she does public work outside her home, cannot expect a restful atmosphere awaiting her return. The w^oman who devotes herself to outside work and neglects her home for the sake of such work, is as much to be censured as the man who will not exert himself to earn ade- quate support for his family. The duty of a hus- band is to earn a livelihood; the duty of a wife is to maintain a proper home. Every home-keeper needs, and should take time for recreation. But it should be that which will rest rather than weary, so that she may return to her home cares with renewed vigor and refreshed spirit. THE RESTFUL HOME 287 In order to make a restful home, one should refrain from engaging in too many laborious obligations out- side the home, but should enter into those which relax the strain and strengthen one for the duties which are one's real work. Although the restfulness of the home depends largely upon the wife's temperament and point of view, there are a few essentials which lie outside her personality. The rooms of the house, whether ele- gant or inexpensive, should be simply furnished. Such colors should be chosen for decoration as will soothe rather than irritate tired nerves. Plain furni- ture and a few tasteful ornaments are more pleasing to the eye than over-crowded rooms. Wallpaper of bright color and large pattern is less restful than the more subdued shades and designs. The husband and children may do their share toward promoting restfulness in the home by being considerate and orderly, for order is especially neces- sary to restfulness. Children not properly trained may be a very disturbing element. It is well to encourage a child in sensible conversation, but he should also be taught that many times "children should be seen, not heard." Disrespect to elders as well as disobedience and lack of promptness on the part of children will produce discord in the best of homes. The problem of a restful home is one which belongs to every member of the family since it is only by united effort that such a home can be main- tained. A gentleman was once asked to give his favorite quotation and he gave this: "He who can- not find true happiness on his own hearthstone, will seek in vain for it elsewhere." This was as fine a compliment as he could pay to his home and the home-keeper. XXXIII ABOUT THE HOUSE MONEY MARY HARMON WEEKS "Poverty need not exist, for ten thousand poverties united form wealth."— M. de Byke. "Misery is non -adjustment due to a lack of harmony between effort and result. That many people regard life as a burden cannot be doubted, but the state of mind is due to a misuse of goods, not to a lack of theTn." —Patten. "Let your needs rule you; pamper them; you will see them multiply like insects in the sun. The more you give them the more they demand." —Wagner's "The Simple Life." "The misablest people I ever saw was them that killed all their wants by over-feedin' em."— Peter Bines in "The Spenders." "The economy of right use depends largely upon the home-maker."- Ely and Wicker. "No one but a woman knows the motives, the plans, the hopes, which actuate a woman in the spending of all she has. Time is generally spent lavishly ; effort is seldom given grudg- ingly. If women see results ahead, they hold nothing back ; the hard lessons come when the results prove unworthy of the time, money and effort spent."— Bertlta June Bichardson, "How can a child learn the use of money if she never has any to use V "Mama," said the five-year-old on a weekly allowance of five cents, "how easy five cents goes when you break it!" 288 ABOUT THE HOUSE MONEY 289 I S a matter of personal happiness, domestic suc- cess and wifely responsibility, perhaps no other domestic arrangement counts for more than the method adopted by the husband for giving his wife the house money. The vital question with him is how to secure the money; to the house- hold it is how the money is expended. Few men un- derstand fully that how it is given makes a great difference to the homekeeper. A household allowance is a very comfortable thing for the wife, where the more generous method described by Dr. Caniield is not adopted. A definite sum given weekly or monthly enables the wife to plan her expenditures with certainty, and avoids the wasteful haphazard housekeeping which naturally results when money is doled out to the wife in hap- hazard amounts at haphazard times. No true- hearted man will want the mother of his children to hang on his bounty as if she were a mendicant. But this is her necessary attitude when she must ask for what she needs. Even though the husband gives willingly, it is often not pleasant for her to be obliged to ask, and if she has been a self-supporting woman before marriage, it is very hard for her to have no money which she really manages for herself. With an allowance, she is independent and truly self respecting, as every wife should be. If she would avoid a rock on which domestic happiness is often wrecked, she will wdsely insist on a safe agreement being made during the happy days of courtship. The wife should bring to the home a knowledge of business methods that she may finance her house- keeping to the best advantage, and do her part in "transforming the family income into comfort-, health, pleasure and protection for the future." The honsebold aUowa.nce Knowledge of buBinees method! essential to wise expenditure 290 ABOUT THE HOUSE MONEY Commissioner Driscol of New York says ' ' The house- wife has no more right to misuse household funds than the bank president has to misuse those of depos- itors." Her preparation for family life should include a study of economic household management. The man she marries is expected to know how to provide the money, and people look askance at him if he does not. The equal obligation of knowing how to produce adequate results with it, lies on the wife. Before children come to complete the family circle, the wise parents will have formulated a plan for teaching them the right use of money. If ways are provided by which they may earn their spending money so much the better, since earning gives a measure of value ; but its value may be rightly learned through spending, and each child may well be allowed to expend his little allowance, under the advice, but the not too dogmatic direction, of his parents. Household Tjie question of keeping accounts should be settled early in the history of the family. Accurate class- ified accounts are a burden to the housekeeper and no others are of much use. Half kept lists of expen- ditures are a nuisance, a constant reminder of duty undone, and furnish no basis for regulation of expenses. But in the first years both husband and wife should make time for accounts and in these years can learn by actual experience, business-like ways of conducting family expenditures, which will make domestic accounting easy for the busier times later. Housekeepers might consider the keeping of accounts a social service to the world at large, as a series of well kept records of household expenditures extending over the last twenty-five years, would now ABOUT THE HOUSE MONEY 291 be of great value in investigations into the high cost of living, and economic possibilities in the home. From an analysis of such records, the housekeeper can readily see where she has expended money that counts for little in results and where she has failed to make results count for much. To depend upon memory for such information means half knowledge in all directions. How can one "compare what she needs to spend for a given item and what she really does spend unless she keeps strict account?" The running of a house, however simply, is a complicated matter, and requires the same business methods as a store, factory, school system or any other business. That the American home is the most wasteful sphere of American life is generally admitted. But with growing knowledge of the social duty of the home, the increased attention to the study of domestic economy and the marked tendency to recognize the home as a legitimate sphere for the exercise of all the business methods developed in store and factory, we may expect to see a decided change in the handling of the material of home life. When women clearly recognize that arrest of tJttM^* ** waste, the use of by-products, the demand for honest measures and honest supplies means more value in terms of living, they will show themselves capable of running their household finances on an economic financial basis. That they have not done so sooner, is largely due to the fact that woman's work in the home has not been looked upon as an economic factor in the work of the world. It will be recalled that the last census enumerators were instructed to WTite "occupation none" opposite the names of women who were keeping house for their owti families alone. Yet the dictionary says ' ' An occupation is that which results 292 ABOUT THE HOUSE MONEY is the principal business of one's life; that which engages one's time and attention." It is safe to predict that this obsession will never again affect the census bureau, and that housekeep- ing will hereafter figure in census reports as a money making occupation upon whose results a money value can be placed. A full realization that it is so, would bring self respect to many a discouraged, unappre- ciated housewife, who may find new life in the thought that she is a productive agent in the home as truly as her husband is in his shop. She can easily compute her money value to the family, by learning the local wage value in the different sorts of industries in which she engages. Domestic serv- ice, sewing, nursing, teaching, executive management, all have a specific value in each community, and all can be secured for wages. With a ridiculous sentimentality, we have refused to recognize this service of women as an economic department of domestic economy, and have insisted that it must be estimated in terms of love. A more reasonable judgment would be that for the sake of love, woman gives up the opportunity to receive the wage of any one of these services, and performs them all in return for the love of the man who divides his income for the sake of a family. XXXIV MAKING HOME ATTRACTIVE TO YOUNG PEOPLE MRS. W. F. WYMAN ijOME and Mother," have been called the sweetest words in the English language, and one has not to think twice to understand why they are so closely linked together. Either word calls to mind the other, and as woman always has been, so she always must be, above all other demands upon her, a home-maker. But in these days, when the horizon of woman's life is so rapidly widening and changing, when new avenues of usefulness are being constantly opened up to her, is there not some danger of her losing her ideals in the w^ork God has so unquestionably given into her hands as wife and mother? So much has been said and WTitten on home-life Routine and its far-reaching influence that the subject seems great problem almost threadbare, and yet there is always danger lest in the inevitable drudgery and routine work we lose sight of the grand problem, the solution of which is being worked day by day in our hands — the devel- opment of the child. Phillips Brooks once said, "He who helps a child, helps humanity." He also added that it is a help which in character and distinctness ~-\ f differs from any other help given to human creatures at any other stage of human life. The most of this help that is of such vital import- ance to childhood must come from the parents and the home, though the public schools are good aid in 293 294 MAKING HOME ATTRACTIVE What the home must do for the chUd The children's friends their way, especially in the case of boys, teaching them by hard rubs how to get along with all the classes of people they will meet later in life, and if home influence has been what it should be, we are often astonished at the keen, discriminating selection of associates our children make. A little girl who once lived with me and had permission to invite a school friend to come home with her to dine every Friday, surprised me by the sound reasons she had for liking and disliking her mates, and in almost every case I found her judgment correct. But it is in the home life that the child finds the truest and best aid, and on the mother falls the sacred responsibility of the physical and mental training of her children, and just as surely as she must provide wholesome food to nourish the body, just so surely must she see to it, that the will be trained, the emotions awakened, the moral sense established, good habits formed, good manner bred, and the whole of each child harmoniously developed. Very seldom can any of this stupendous undertaking be delegated to another, and can it ever be done suc- cessfully except at the cost of self-sacrifice? Loving and continuous self-sacrifice, which is after all the crowning glory of motherhood, and in the end is not without great compensations. There are two ways of aiding the development 'of the child, and it is just here that my real topic , begins, for the right way makes home attractive, not only to the happy children within it, but to all their friends. It is not at all strange or unaccountable that so many children want to spend more time in other homes than their own. Most children are highly susceptible to the home atmosphere, and of course they love best to congregate where they per- MAKING HOME ATTRACTIVE 295 ceive that the home is for the children, and in it a great mother heart, that feels an active interest in other children as well as her own. I am afraid it is true that some of these little ones receive more real help and comfort in the homes of their friends than in their own. Mrs. Mosher says in her little book on ''C hild Culture "; "In many parents' eyes the child is a puppet, which is not to move unless they pull the string. He has hands which are to touch noth- ing, eyes which may see, but must not desire, feet that may not go, and silent tongue. Instead of bringing up a child for its own sake it exists for the parents' sakes." We have all seen the children of such a home, and we cannot wonder, that out of it a boy is glad to go to even the most severe military training or to college without any predisposition to study, and the girl of the family looks back upon her childhood with feelings of deepest gratitude that it . can never return. The parents of such children live I their own selfish, independent lives without the least recognition of the rights of the young lives given to their care. They may "make clean the outside of the cup and platter" by spending money lavishly ' upon the clothing of their children, and upon their household furnishings and decorations. They may even have a very orderly and systematic household, but one entirely lacking in the home atmosphere and the spirit that can make the humblest cottage attrac- tive. It is most unpleasant to contemplate such homes where selfish lives are lived and children mis- understood and deprived of their unalienable rights to be children before they are men. The principles underlying the kindergarten (but just as applicable at home) are happily bringing a great influence to I bear on the training of the child's natural instincts, 296 MAKING HOME ATTRACTIVE Unattractive parents and homes Daughter's room /and the practice of them is no less valuable to the mother than the teacher. To make home attractive to children then, there must be first and foremost, an unselfish, devoted mother, ready to lay down her very life upon the altar of childhood. She does not give her children the lofty association from a high pedestal against I which condescension they will naturally rebel, but she breaks down all such barriers and becomes a sister and companion as well as mother. She is an inspiration not only to her own boys and girls but to their friends and their friend's friends. She does not indulge much in lofty theorizing, but enters with iher whole heart into the lives of her children and understands all the cravings of their natures, and believing the instinct for diversion is as natural as any other instinct, she gives the proper value to / play, and provides plenty of home amusements for them. To such a home girls are attracted first by the ready sympathy and aid they are sure to receive in carrying out plans that are dear to them, as well as sweet companionship, and second, by the careful consideration that has been used in making the home subservient to the end of living. In such a home, if there is money, the mother will look to it that all the accessories and settings are such as will instruct the artistic taste and poetic understanding of her children. In this home the daughter's room will be so /dainty, restful and elevated that the girl will never be careless in her habits or have any but the highest standards of external life. And if there is but little money, providing the same mother love is there, some way will be found to give the daughter's room the ' same air of bright, cheerful cleanliness and dainti- room MAKING HOME ATTRACTIVE 297 ness. A pretty dressing table can be constructed out of an old stand or box covered and frilled with muslin, the same inexpensive material that makes the pretty ruffled window curtains. A corner seat can as easily be made and covered with chintz, and boxes for shirt-waists, shoes and other things can be arranged with small expense and much pains. There may be hanging book-shelves, and the penny prints, copies of the old masters, and if the coloring is kept strictly harmonious, the room will be a joy to its occupant and all her friends. A boy's room, his own sanctum, needs the same son^a careful thought. Some provision must be made for the treasures dear to his heart, and if there is no cabinet or set of drawers for his great variety of specimens, there must at least be a shelf for them. His favorite books and pictures must have a fitting # place, and above everything else it must be a room / where he can invite his boy friends. Happy is that "/ home where there is no frown on the mother's face, as the boy and his friends tramp up and down stairs. All the boys in the neighborhood know that in such a home on a rainy day, they can have a circus, or games in the attic, and when the mother fears the chandelier may fall, she simply serves them sand- wiches and glasses of milk and has a pleasant tale to tell them. . It requires more patience and self-denial to make ^ an attractive home for boys than it does for girls, since there are more outside attractions for them; but when the mother gets in return the boy's entire confidence and feels sure she knows his heart, she counts the sacrifice small. The self-denial is not so onesided as it would seem. Children are quick to follow example and do not often fail to appreciate 298 ENCOURAGING A LOVE OF HOME what is done for them. Out of the generous im- pulses of their hearts they will try to do many things that they discover are pleasant for their parents. Another compensation for making oneself a sister to her children, and her home a sort of young people's club, is that the mother really finds herself enjoying what they enjoy, and by keeping in touch with youth she feels young. Best of all is the happiness that comes to the mother's heart, when she sends out from the home, to take their places in the world, manly men and womanly women, who bless her for all she has done for them. With what gladness comes the thought, that at whatever cost, she became one with her chil- \ dren and in forgetting self, gave them all the joy and happiness of an unhampered childhood. Then to her comes rest and peace and she can say with Browning, "Grow old along with me, The best is yet to be. The last of life, for which the first was made— Our times are in His hand Who saith a whole I planned ; Youth shares but half ; Trust God, see all nor be afraid." ENCOURAGING A LOVE OF HOME HANNAH K. SCHOFF President National Congress of Mothers HE encouragement of a love of home is greatly needed, for the outside attractions have be- come so numerous that many who have seen the effects realize that the time has come to develop and strengthen home ties rather than weaken and disrupt them, as is the case when children look for all their social life to outside sources. ENCOURAGING A LOVE OF HOME 299 A woman who had for many years been active in girls' clubs said that she found they had a ten- dency to make the girls dissatisfied to be at home, and to share with their mothers the home duties which are the best preparation girls can have for home life as wives and mothers. They craved ex- citement every evening beyond that the homes could supply, and in the making of friends who were un- known to their parents were frequently subjected to grave dangers. The same result has been observed by thoughtful men and women in connection with work designed to be of benefit but which nightly induces both parents and children to seek pleasures outside of the home circle. If these centers were open but one evening a week this objection probably would not apply. There are many schemes for civic and social betterment, which, on the surface, seem valuable. The only way to judge of their efficiency is to study the results and carefully weigh them. No scheme for social betterment that ignores the home as the natural center of attraction can be of permanent value. Parents need to realize that part of their duty as home-makers is to make the home attractive to the children, not only in childhood, but as they grow into young manhood and womanhood. Immersed in business and often laden with many cares, fathers and mothers fail in this important part of their duty. However small the house may be, this is possible, but in many cases the parents must be shown how to interest their children and imbue them with a love of home. A woman's club could do much to promote the sentiment of responsibility and show how to do it by a series of meetings, in different sections of the city, to which parents would be invited. 300 WHY CHILDREN SEEK THE STREETS WHY CHILDREN GO OUT ON THE STREETS LOUISE DE KOVEN BOWEN President Chicago Juvenile Probation Association I HE majority of the children go out on the streets because their homes are unattractive. The boy goes because he craves action and wants excitement, the girl because there is no room in which she can see her company. She is ashamed to ask her boy friends to a room which is too often filled with the family washing. This drying of clothes in the living room is un- fortunately a necessity, and it has occurred to me that if public laundries could be established in our cities where women could take their clothes and wash and dry them, taking them home to be ironed, it would obviate this unpleasant drying of clothes at home. Such a laundry could be undertaken by a woman 's club. It would, of course, have to be advertised among the people who are in need of it and be made popular in some way. A small charge might be made for its use, and in many ways it would tend toward making the home more attractive. Of course the whole question of the house goes back to the erecting of such buildings as are fit for the housing of human beings, and I believe that a woman's club could do no better work than try to secure legislation which would provide for the erection of such tenements as have recently been built in Germany. Here the buildings are a pleasure to the eye; there are courts where the children may play; balconies where the tenants may walk, and all the light and air and sunshine which are the work- WHY CHILDREN SEEK THE STREETS 301 ingman's right and which are so necessary for the well being of his family. In such tenements the boy has space for play and opportunity for exercise, and the girl takes a pride in her home and is eager to ask her friends to share its hospitality. HOUSES SHOULD BE MADE FOR CHILDREN AS WELL AS FOR GROWNUPS CAROLINE BARTLETT CRANE Founder Kalamazoo Civic League; Civic Expert NE essential with most children is a ready wel- come for their friends into a home — or some part of a home — adapted to the taste and needs of children. Our homes are made for grownups. They are made before the children come, and they seem to be made over but slightly and grudgingly when the little ones arrive. The child does not find his normal habitat amid the staid and easily upset surroundings and people in the living room, and children's playrooms are few and far between; and barns — ^how I remember our delightful barn — are distinctly on the wane. One might as safely romp around the sacred contents of a garage as in the purlieus of a grand piano. I have in mind a singularly charming home where the two little boys live all over the house, and there is not a jerkable tablespread or a joggly vase or piece of bric-a-brac anywhere within reach. The dog brings in some little dirt, but his antics with the children bring in also, much hilarity. These boys have in friends they want; not "suitable com- panions," prescribed, like medicine, because sup- Vol. 1 — 20 302 HOUSES FOR CHILDREN posed to be "good for tliem." The parents rightly think that nothing very much amiss will happen without their knowledge so long as the children are at home. A carpenter bench and turn-pole in a light, dry basement, popcorn facilities in the kitchen, and stories of adventure read aloud to a lot of little human quadrupeds around the family fireplace — these charm even the dread leader of "the gang" into a nice, peaceable child. A place to "^^^ thing that quickest drives a boy away to the let ofif ,^i(j and "the gang" is lack of really congenial spirits and of freedom to "let off steam." Oh, to think of the countless hosts of fathers and mothers slotting in comfortable chairs on the safety valves and bewailing the waywardness of youth ! The parents in this family I speak of literally "live with the children," as Froebel exhorted; I play with them, talk with them about the great and / little things of the da}^ and all the moral and spiritual I questions which children invariably bring to intel- ligent and sympathetic parents. There is no prob- lem about keeping these children at home. We want them to see some of the good shows and street pageants, do we not? Of course a part of our work must be to make the street an extension of the home, and a relatively safe place for the boys and girls. [The last three divisions of this chapter are from The Survey.] XXXV HOW THE FARMER'S WIFE MAY LIVE A FULL LIFE HARRIET M. SHEPARD Ex- President of the Missouri State Federation of Women's Clubs I HE right kind of a farmer's wife, on the right kind of a farm, may have almost unlimited facilities for ''trying out" some of the great experiments or problems of the day. She may cause to be cultivated, in her own preserve, such a variety of products as to make her kitchen garden an epitome of horticultural possibilities, and from the abundance of foodstuffs at her command she may evolve the scientific diet that will keep her family well nourished. In the planning of household work she may establish such a division of labor among her associates and dependents as shall create efficiency and skill among the workers. She may study sani- tary problems and find in the increased comfort and health of her family a rich reward for all thought and time expended. She may teach her children thrift in business and desirable traits of character in having their own possessions, living or otherwise, to care for. She can promote ingenuity and design in al- lowing the girls to experiment in dressmaking and millinery as well as in cooking, or in encouraging the boys in such original schemes as that of making the nearby spring provide the power for some of the more arduous tasks of the home. She may find constant joy in the pure air and peace of the coun- try, where she may live close to nature in the songs 303 304 THE FARMER'S WIFE of the birds and the verdure of the forests, while rearing her children in an environment secure from the temptations and pitfalls of city life. She may have the satisfaction of inspiring her sons to reach out for the scientific training of the agricultural school, from which they will return to put new life into the old farm by improved methods of cultiva- tion. She may teach the daughters that home-making is a profession ranking higher than any other for women, and by the application of the true prin- ciples of home economics prepare them for the time when, in homes of their own, they may work out their own ideas of right living. She may encourage the particular bent of each child, whether it be for music, art, poetry, horticulture, or any of the many occupations and diversions that attract the young, until the home becomes the center of interest for every one of the family. She may help establish the woman's department of the Farmer's Institute, and so open new avenues of interest and companionship among those of like occupations. She can make time in which t become interested in the neighborhood school; and in cultivating the acquaintance of "teacher," she may establish a real partnership with the one who, next to herself, is, in all probability, destined to have the strongest moulding influence on her children's characters. She may find increasing comfort in the adoption of mechanical appliances for lightening household labor, and in planning co- operation among neighbors for mutual benefit. She may have the telephone, rural free delivery, and even the automobile, which, with the aid of good roads, can so annihilate time and space as to give to the rural dweller many of the advantages of the nearby towns. She may have books from our state THE FARMER'S WIFE 305 library commission; or even find time to organize a woman's club, and so enjoy the pleasure of planning, with other public-spirited women, altruistic move- ments for the improvement of ma,ay features of country life. Surely no woman need find the country devoid of opportunity. Can you think of any greater service to the State than the development of its rural home life, with all the accessories that elevate it to a plane of dignity and influence? Can there be any more hopeful attraction to the cramped and poverty- stricken toiler of the town than the change to an en- vironment where material prosperity may be com- mensurate with the effort and judgment put forth, or where the success of the individual contributes more conspicuously to the sum total of the general welfare ? It is emigration away from her own untoward conditions that the country needs — an exodus from the crowded places into the free life of the open, where sturdy manhood and womanhood may grow up to replenish the human force worn out by too in- tensive living, and where hosts of courageous, re- sourceful, broad-minded men and women, working for imperishable results, become the patriots whose every-day lives make for the upbuilding of a greater State. XXXVI The best way to fulfill our social obligations LIFE'S LARGE RELATIONSHIPS* GRAHAM TAYLOR HERE is no better way to study and fulfill our social obligations and opportunities than to get a clear idea of the function and sphere of the family relationship, of neigh- borship, of industrial conditions and relations, of the humanitarian responsibility and service incum- bent upon any group of people constituting a town- ship, a village, a county, a city, a state, a nation. To find out just what is to be done and just how to do it in each one of these spheres of life and work, of their rights and duties, there is no better way than to group the actual or possible agencies that are, or may be, available to help each one of us, or everj^ group of us, to fill our parts in and through the home, as parents and children, as husbands and wives, as brothers and sisters; in and through the neighbor- hood, as neighbors to those neighboring us; in and through our business partnerships and our industrial fellowships, as those who are partners with our Father God and are parts of His very Providence whereby He feeds and clothes, shelters, nourishes all his chil- dren, and "opens His hand to supply the wants of every living thing"; in and through the town and city, as citizens charged with the tremendous re- sponsibilities of building and maintaining the frame- work within which every one in each community is bom, grows up, lives and works, meets death and destiny ; in and through the church, as members com- *Froin "The Religion of Human Relationships." Copyrighted, 1912. 306 LIFE'S LARGE RELATIONSHIPS 307 missioned to reveal and apply the ideals of religion to ourselves and to all others in every one of these life-spheres in which we live, or which is within the reach of our individual and collective influence throughout all the world. "What then is the function of the family relation- ship as expressed and fulfilled through the institu- tion of marriage and the home? Is it not the pro- pagation of the race, the nurture of child life, the culture of the whole life, the rest and recuperation, character-building and satisfaction, of every human being? Is it not to set the type and inspire the spirit which should characterize and dominate human be- ings in all their other relationships — neighborly, in- dustrial, civic, and ecclesiastical? If this ideal of what a family is for is borne in upon us, will it impel us to seek and create every agency that will help us and others to make the most of and do the best by our own homes and others ? Will not our effort thus to group around the family those agencies which are most tributary to it, or to which it may be most tributary, help us the better to define, organize, relate, and utilize these agencies? If we realized that most of us depend upon neigh- borship for our human fellowships, our recreations, philanthropy, and social progress, would it not mean more to us to be neighbors and to have neighbors, and to rescue and restore, fulfill and enjoy those neighborly relationships which are well-nigh lost in the readjustments and transitions of modern life? If "business" and the "office force" and the "shop's crew," the labor union and the employers' association should come to be recognized as the means and agencies through which the very Providence of God is providing for the preservation, sustenance, the material comfort, convenience, equipment, and rnnction of family relationships Neighborship Industrial relationships 308 LIFE'S LARGE RELATIONSHIPS Citizenship Relationships of religion progress of life, will it not most surely and swiftly- free each one of us, and also the world, of that sordid- ness and selfishness, that fratricidal strife and work- a-day atheism which lay the heaviest curse upon the human race ? Is there any other way of turning busi- ness into brotherhood and human brotherhood into business? Is there a steadier, more equitable, more effective way of making "life more than meat and the body than raiment," of making the physical and material serve the spiritual and not dominate and destroy it, of making the way of earning a living also "the way of life" and not the way to moral destruc- tion and spiritual death? If politics were invested with no less a function than the protection of life and property, the repres- sion of vice and crime, the promotion of virtue, the realization of the highest ideals of each individual life and of every family and of each community and of the whole social order, would we talk of "dirty politics"? Would we not consider citizenship as serious as religion and a part of it, would not a city and town be like a sanctuary, and a ward and a pre- cinct be a holy place, and the voting booth and ballot box a holy of holies? If all life were invested with such sanctity and every sphere of it were sacred, religion would be no less reverenced and its sanctuaries would be all the more places of privilege and power. For then the supreme function of religion would be recognized as essential to all life. And the unique and pre-eminent prerogatives of the church would identify it with all that is both divine and human. For to the church the world would look for the revelation of the divine ideal of life, individual and collective; for the in- spiration to aspire to it ; and for the power to realize it in personal experience and all social relationships. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FOUNDING THE HOME 309 BIBLIOGRAPHY The Family Home Charles Francis Osborne (Every chapter in this little book should be read by those who are selecting a location and a building for a home. See two chapters in this volume.) The Healthful Farm House Helen Dodd (A brief book covering all the essentials of sanitation iu a farm home.) Farmers' Bulletins Obtained Free on Application to THE U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington_, D. C. (Numbers 126, 185, 270 and 463 cover construction of various farm buildings and improvement of gi'ounds.) Farm Water Supply Cornell Reading Courses Elementary Principles of Economics. . . .Ely and Wicker (A text book simple enough for family use.) The Woman Who Spends Bertha June Richardson (A little ethical guide for housemothers.) Housekeeping Notes Mabel Hyde Kittredge (An inexpensive but helpful book for inexperienced housekeepers, giving lists and costs of various furni- ture and utensils, and covering briefly all the processes of cooking and cleaning.) The Home Made Kindergarten Nora A. Smith (A small but extremely helpful book full of practical suggestions.) Home, School and Vacation Annie Winsor Allen (Gives in brief what parents may reasonably expect the child to acquire at different ages, with ease and safety, and the gist of the true meaning and method of education.) 310 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FOUNDING THE HOME Education for Efficiency Eugene Davenport (Helpful in determining ends and methods.) Every Day Problems in Teaching M. V. O'Shea (Wliile addressed to teachers, it is free from school technicalities, and full of helpful suggestion to parents on every day problems of both home and school.) Child "Welfare Magazine. . .National Congress of Mothers Test Book for Mothers Sophie L. Dickenson University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. 1 ism .,.1 / m «°^™^"^ REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY J*- AA 000 428 044 2 3 1158 00 91 4109 'pHiiii