Wherever a great light appears to enrich literature, or art, or science, or philanthropy, or invention, or discovery, or whatever branch of usefulness it may bless with its potential energy, it is easy to trace much of the excellence acquired to the teachings of a mother. To the mother impulses and instincts we owe much that is good in our treasury of thought, but opportunity for the best mother influence has been, and still is, a matter of chance, with few good models available for the parents of those poor and oppressed innocents, "The Hopelessly Submerged Ten Per Cent" of ignorant and cruel tradition.
The "Mutter Werk" of the kindergarten, pursued anywhere, upon the common, by the wayside, in a wood-shed, or in a shabby but tidy room in the midst of a city slum, carries the opportunity of profitable lessons in life to all, and fulfills the mandate of the Christ in the spirit, as well as in the letter, of His command.
QUARANTINE AGAINST MALADMINISTRATION
"What shall we do for these children? Good people everywhere should combine to care for them and to teach them. Churches should make it an important part of their work to look after them. The law of self-preservation, if no higher law, demands that they should be looked after. How shall they be looked after? By establishing free kindergartens in every destitute part of large cities."—Sarah B. Cooper, before the National Conference of Charities and Correction.
QUARANTINE AGAINST MALADMINISTRATION;
OR,
PLACE FOR A MOTHER DEPARTMENT IN GOVERNMENT
There was a time when woman had no voice in government, when she could not hold property in her name, and when she was regarded as very much the intellectual inferior of man.
Within a century there has been a growing tendency to admit women to all the civic privileges enjoyed by men, even to vote in political contests. In some advanced communities women now vote for officers of the school department and serve with distinction in school boards.
Women now enjoy complete equality in four, and partial political suffrage in twenty-three of the United (?) States of America.
Since it is recognized that woman has some place in politics, it is well to consider what is her especial sphere within politics.