It is by a wise division of labor that great ends are attained, and the blessings of civilization are only possible through the most economical division of effort which assigns to each unit of a community that duty which it is best fitted to perform.
Woman has always borne more than her share of the burdens of life, and her lot has often been ill apportioned. In primitive conditions of society she was considered merely as the bearer of children and the servant of the stronger sex by the same argument that made slaves of conquered foes or weaker neighbors.
In the division of government, if woman is to participate in it, she should serve with unhampered freedom in the departments where mother intuition, mother wisdom and mother skill are needed.
The development of kindergarten and college-settlement work has demonstrated that women are wonderfully efficient in the establishment, management and development of these character-forming institutions, and if they were sufficiently extended so as to begin a Perfect Social Quarantine the sphere of woman's usefulness would almost be unbounded.
If woman has been the means of establishing the value of public free-character institutions, and they should come to be appreciated as the most important function of government, as they must eventually be appreciated, because they are the nurseries of good citizenship, why should not this be recognized as the special sphere of the gentle sex in administration, and why should there not be a Mother Organization to serve in a special Department of Character Schools?
By this apportionment woman would win all the advantage that could be desired and ample field for her usefulness, for a vigorous and thorough administration of the Mother Branch of Government would insure generations of good citizens to whom administration of all executive branches could be entrusted with confidence.
Apropos of the German Lied, some one has said, "Let me select the songs of a people and I care not who makes the laws."
There is also an axiom of similar import in the Catholic Church, "If we have children under our influence until they are seven years of age we do not fear other influences they may be subjected to for the rest of life."
Both of these assumptions are proven to be wise by the wonderful solidarity of the German race and of the Roman Catholic Church.
"Juvenal it was who said, 'The man's character is made at seven; what he then is, he always will be.' This seems a sweeping assertion; but Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Lycurgus, Bacon, Locke, and Lord Brougham, all emphasize the same idea, while leading educators of a modern day are all united upon this point."[7]