822
THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
erative agency which has helped to hold the world to high standards. Undoubtedly, the home and the privacy of domestic life is the chosen sphere of every woman. There is only one here and there who would prefer any other career than that of the happy wife and mother, but alas for my sex, there is, unfortunately, not a home for each woman to preside over; most men are unable to maintain one. That is where the great difficulty occurs, and not in the objection of women to occupying them. If we consider it an unwritten law that it is the duty of the husband and father to maintain his wife and children, then we must face the fact that the majority of men must be failures, for they are certainly today unable to accomplish this result with any comfort to themselves or families.
I do not speak of the comparatively few men who are conspicuous exceptions to this statement, but of the rank and file, the unnoticed men, men occupying small clerkships, the second and lower grades of mechanics, factory operatives, etc., whose labor must generally be supplemented by that of their wives, and too often that of their children, to maintain their homes.
We have heard for years of the incompetent wife and mother, but it occurs to me that we have heard singularly little of the incompetent husband and father. It would seem to be the fact that comparatively few marriages could occur if women were not able to assist in maintaining the home, and we constantly see girls, trained to self- support, marry and continue their avocations as a matter of course. The filling up of the factories, shops, schools, offices, and every avenue of fairly paid employment with women, does not, therefore, result from a revolution on their part against their role as wives and mothers. Those who theorize about a possible changed relation between the sexes because of the so-called emancipation of women, and fear that the world will no longer be replenished and that the peoples will fade away from the earth, have only superficially studied or understood the facts under their eyes. The fact that women are self-supporting, or educated, does not greatly change the result of the old, old love story, and the man who has objected to the competition of women in the industries, seems to accept the situation philosophically when the time arrives for his own marriage. Women prove to be no less sweet because they are strong, no less companionable because their opinions are based upon knowledge rather than prejudice, no less attractive and fascinating because they have given up superficial accomplishments for the practical knowledge that makes them true helpmates and burden-sharers. There is no science which teaches them that human love and helpfulness are not the highest ideals, and lead to the best service that can be rendered to humanity.
Should men discover at any time in the future that they are capable of assuming the entire maintenance of the home, women can undoubtedly be persuaded to give up the tedious and wearing grind of the factory, the shop and the office, to turn to higher service.. Until that fortunate moment arrives the wise course would seem to be the acceptance of facts as they exist. We are not able to see how far-reaching may be the result of this period of change and experiment. We feel urgently impelled to follow the highest law known to us, that of evolution and progress. We must abandon ourselves blindly to the instinct which teaches us that individuals have the right to the fullest development of their faculties, and the exercise of their highest attributes. We reassure ourselves with the thought that there can certainly be no great harm in doubling the intelligence and the mental and moral forces of the community.
It would seem that the only way to assist in the rapid solution of the problem is to put within the reach of women technical training and the education which is necessary to promote their ends, and to hope that the unreasonable conditions which force them to work, yet condemn them for doing so, and withhold from them proper training as well as just compensation for their labor, may be swept away. We hope that no woman may henceforth be forced to conceal her sex in order to obtain justice for her work.
We expect to demonstrate by means of the statistics which we are now collecting