The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 30, 1897, Page 5

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1897 o NTAL TRAINING Uneventful Day Session at the Women's Congress. | one thing t! ACONSTANTLY GROWING ATTENDANCE. Brahmacharin Bedhabhikshu Has | the Bell Rung on Him. ANOTHER BEAUIY APPEARS ON THE SCZNT, Mrs. Helen Gardener Reads Her Cele- brated Pap:r Entitled “Heredity.” ¥’s was quite the most nnevent- ns of the Woman’s Con- far tuis season. There liant papers. Each address, the writer was wed that ar with the subject dealt r paper, and, moreover, faculty of expressing concisely. Many , but, unfortu- conc us reached. There aphorism, no brilliant epigram sate the long papers that had as new 10 propose. 10 discussions. Each speak- s quietly accapted, witn now ice of praise raised in its | nately, no were no to punct acharin was present and was | ho rose to a Lis mite of | m to the session. There seems to be tiable desire on the part of the nces at these congr o hear the ned voice of the Hindoo n the.stage is with applause and his r to with rapt attention. This e to become the ido | tbat frivolous young person nown as the matinee girl, but the more 1ate congress women. inspired speaker. his subject to an eloguent ce trembles, his long lithe | right hand points | nine. | their bandkerchiefs, an implacabls justice. Once started the Brahmacharin loses all idea of the rapid flight of time, and yesterday, lost in the flowery depths of his oratory had the bell rung on nim to nd nim that his tted mi Each succeeding session finds the hall | more and more crowded. It seems a case of those who have been before bringing their fiiends and those friends in turn bringing their relatives. Yesterday, to accommodate the crowd, chairs were ranged to the very front of the yet the walls were lined with a fringe of Women—young and pretty, old and hand- some and otherwise. It wasa most con- siderate audience. When Mrs. Swift, the president of the Women’s Asssciation, came to the front and asked the ladies to remove their hats there was not = festher- tipped head in all the vastassembiage two minutes after her reques: had been made. However, it was a singularly impassive audience. 'But in spite of lhe reser there was a tinge of expectancy 1n the air. Every one was repressing a!l emotions, saving all their enthus: ing, when Helen Gardener should read ber widely celebrated paper, ‘‘Heredity.” The only emotion aliowed to ruffle that even calm was when Miss Margaret Sweeney appeared. Miss Sweeney is & remarkably handsome girl, and if there is s congress of women ad- mires it is a pretly creature—sex femi- There will probably have to be an aftermath to this congress, in which the women will have to be tauzht not to lose their feather boas and their purses. There are several of these articles awaiting owners at the sec- retary’s table. T S THURSDAY’S SESSION. Interesting Papers on Mental Traln- Ing Read at the Woman’s Congress. Mental training was the subject of all the papers read yesterday at the Woman’s Congress. All the papers wers remark- ably well written, and were followed with close attention by the large audience as- sembled. Professor C. B. Bradley was the first apesker of the afterncon. His paper wa s practical view of “‘ihe study of history as a development of the heart and im- | agination.’” Professor Bradley’s paper was in part as follows: Two distinct things may be proposed as ends in the study of history. Oue is ethical—a @ cipline of the heart and imsgination—the oiheris inteliectual and seientific. The eud of one discipline is wisdom and characte: end of the other is knowledge and sk may be 100 much tosay that these two ends can ued together. The ecientific end is possidle only for students of a certain maturity of mind. Its cher sweep is aitained oniy now and thea some greal maste But the other needs no special ey no special training. Itis within the reach of all who bring to the study com- ou intelligence encu Tecord and the common interest we ail feel in human strugzgle and achievement.’ As for maturity, it would seem thet there is sometning in the very constit d and youth which speci ive these lessons of | disposes them 10 calch the contagion of nuble coaracter and heroic sction. Heroes there doubtless are all about us, and no gemerous soul ever lived or needed to live ut iis hero-worsnips. ~But the impressiveness of the vision is everything in this case. History has cre its apecial opportunity and advantage. Nowhere do heroes stand on such pedesials, nowhere do they 1o0m up With such imposing power as wnen seen through the mists of ages &t the end of & long vists of history. ALl must sgree with me in Tecogniziug the power which history has 0 uplift the heart and the mind of men. There is no worthy living outside of the grest precept, “Whaisoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report, if thers be any virtue, and if there be auy praise, think on these things.”” Mrs. Emma Payne Erskine followed ofessor Bradley with a paper on “The Deadline of Civilization.”” Among other things Mrs. Erskine said: The old world moves on no longer with the | staiely mejestic sweep of the ages. It moves with & rash and & whirl, onward, onward and ever faster and faster, mever resting, neve: waiting, never pausing to think. Poor humanity! Hurrying ourselves on through our short span ol earthly existence, looking forward lo something unat- | end, when we nave it, casting it be- lis 0’ gresp at something still beyond, we are launched into eternity with & moment for reckoning the whence, ither or for what. iand on the verge of & mew entry and on stauds beside us. We look back- the wh tage, and | <m for the even- | ward down the years and see the barriers he bas set up—the walls he has bulli—and he is here now to d the “‘aeadline of civiliza- tion’ at our very feet. | What cares he for human law? He strides | over it and it becomes nuli and void. | What shall we ao with this great question of the age? Whatsnall we do with Turkey, with Cuba, Africs, Russia, Asia? Wnat with all the crueities of ‘the day? What shall we do with the demon who allows all these things to con- tinue—who has drawn before every civiiiza- tion of the past the deadline? There is but one force that can overcome him—ibe law that shall be dispelled in the wonaerful dawning of the light of the perfect Miss Adeline Knapp's paper, ‘“Just Mere Literature,” was one of the best el- | forts of the afternoon. The lady’s paper | in part was as follows: Education’s vaiue of the individual les not not so much in what it fits him to enjoy as in what it enables bim 10 be to his feliows. Its end is not to qualify a man to make a living. but to help him to live. We are apt to think of culture as something that distinguishes & men and sets him apart from his brothers; but if culture muke a tuiler life it must cer- 11y manifest in fuller fellowship, in greater paciiy for love and usefulness. Liberal sympathy, broad inleres, ciear insignt, as well as wide outlook, are as real paris of cui- ire 83 mere schiolastic attaiaments can pos- sibiy be. Itis possible that some of our economic problems have arisen because in our anxiety ior material prosperity we have lost sight of humanity’s hoves and fears, joys and sor- rows, beilefs snd disbeliefs wrought into our universal literature. The caild whose taste receives an early bent toward the true in literary art will Dot be likely to care much for the waste of printed commonp.ace that we cali juvenile literature. Thereare a few modern ‘writers who have given us good books for young people, but if neary the whole of the so-called children’s books of to-day could be swept from existence cnildhood would be immeasureebly beter off. Margaret Sweeney brought the afternoon session to a close with her paper on “Engiish in Secondary Echools.” | Miss Sweeney made an ardent plea for the | dy of grammar and English in the| public schools. She urged the teachers in the schools to give more attention to com- the higher education may be attained. Mauy a man or woman has attained by tne home fireside and in the world’s school a higher education than many col- lege graduates have acquired under the more favorabie conditions of the best uui- versities, Though our systems of higher educa- tion but imperfectly attain the ends they aim for, though opinions differ as to the best subject matter and methods, we must ever be mindful that our higher institu. tions of learning have ever in view the welfare of humanity through the:r influ ence on the individual, and tnat such a they are they represent the conservators of the highest ideals of our age and na- tion, and in their permanence and pro- gressivedevelopm ntl e the highest hopes for the fature prosperity of humanity.’ Mrs, Helen Gardener was then intro- duced, and was enthusiastically received. MBS GARDENER'S PAPER. It has always been thought a charmin; 1n woman 1l she thinks and beiieves anything that her father, brother, lover or husband thinks and believes, or wants her to suppose that he does. And itis not until woman comes out from under cover of couventional usage and says “Idon’t want to do this” and “I don’t believe in that” of her own volition and thought. not until then wili she be fitor strong enough to create and mold charecters that sha.l grow into free men—men who *hall be the victims of meither their enemies nor of themselves because of their feeble or their vicious inheri- tance. I am far more accustomed o tslk upon the topic Sclentific bodies o 1o practical stadenta of beredity, anthropology, biology and kindred subjects’ and_therefore I may possibly say thiigs that will sound dogmatic from the point of view of those who have not made a special study of the subject. 1shall not mean anything [ may say 1o scem either dogmatic or harsh, only earnest, and perhaps a short cut 10 facis we are 10 ft 1fear I shall strike a less pleasant note than has been struck by those who have preceded me, who have <o generally dealt with ideals or who heve sung the praise sideof the song. theme 1s scientific. It deals with demon- strable facts, and it goes back of even the kin- aergarten. thereiore, I should say some things th seem harsh or cruel, remember that the sur- geon’s knife cuts because it hopes to strike the root of the aisorder. Remember that sci- entific facts are notalways plea: t, but for all that I hold that it is wise for us to face and understand them. There have been 4 good many kinds of con- gressesof women in the past iew years, since it has been granted that women have & right to meet and discuss sny topics whatever, and since it has been recognized that woman has the capacity to think for berself and the dignity and the poise to express her thought in pub- lic, withou: finding it necessary either to take refuge behind her male relativesor to become masculine hersell in the process. But in all of these congresses, previous to the one held recently in Washingion, a con- gress of and for mothers had mnever been thought necessary. racial congress ever heid, and it was the munificence of & Celifornia woman that made thatcongress possible. It has been freely ac mitted by mec and women a.ike that there is still much for women t0 learn from each other through mutual effort and consuitation upon any and all subj So faras1have been able to discover, 1t has been taken for granted that women have known enough to bs mo:hers, and that 1t was, therefore, wholly superfluov for the mothers of the race 10 conveue, as such, and confer with eaca oither about tbos topics which are of the first and most vital im- portance Lo humanity—that is to bout her functions, duties end moral responaibil- ities as both the creator and the cradie of mankind. Nelther dense ignorance, deform- ity of body ur mind, iil health nor criminality could disqualify Ler for the one “sphere’ which all men joined in asserting was hers by d vine rigat and in calling holy and lofiy. Thiok ot the absurdity of the proposition! Think of the sacrilegel Think of the uncon- scious indiguity traft |~ Poets, statesmen. novelists and artists have | positions, and noted that the day when a | composition meant an extract irom an en- cyclopedia had passed. Sue called atten- tion to the fact that correct speech could not be learned in one dey, any more than composition, and hoped those studies would receive the attention that they de- served at the hands of our educators. R e SPOKE ON HEREDITY. | Evening Sesslon of the Congress Crowded to Hear Helen Gar- dener Speak. Last night was banner night at the Woman's Congress. Long before the hour of op-ning the street was crowded with an impatiert throng anxious to se- cure the best possible seats. At 8 o'clock it was impossible to get near the doors. Helen Gardener’s famous paper on **Heredity’’ was to be read by the author- ess, hence the crowds. The first paper was Professor J. M. Stillman’s “The Essential Character and Purpose of Higher Education.” He said: ““Were it possible for to trace the idea educational systems of the iong line of civilizations which have risen and passed away during the life of our globe we should certainly be in possession of most valu- | | for ages untold siriven to eclipse each other in the eulozies of motherhood. On tne stage nothing is €0 sure of rapturous applause as is some toucniug it of sacrifice which reasched iis climax in a mothers wherein she has yielded all to shield, to pro- tect or to beiter tue condition of husband or cniid. From the crude, sentimental songs which adviss the son to “stick to your mother when her hair turns gray,” through the various phases of maternal love and devo- tion or sacrifice in the “tamille” tvpe of thought, on and up to the loftiest touches in art and literature, there is alike the effort to celebrace the puwer, the potentiality and the beauty of motherhood, and to stimulate the sentiments of gratitudé and love and admira- tion for and emulatiou of the ideal depicted. But through it all, in the buliding and matar- iog of thisideal, there runs ever and always the one thread ot thought, that sell-sacrifie, self-abuegation and seli-cflacement are ine grandest attributes of maiernity; that in order to be a perfect, an ideal wife and mother the woman must be sunk, the idi- vidual immolated, the ego subjecied. To u degree and ' in & sense that is, of course, true, for the willingness to go down to the ates of death, 1o face its possibiliiies for long, weary months, 10 know that suffering and 1o T that death siands as a sure and inevitable Aostat the end of & long journey—to know thisand to be willing to_face it for the sake of others is a heroism, & bravery, a self.abnega- tion so infinitely above and beyona the smalil | heroism of camp or batile-field that compari. that have been dominant In the | able clews to the causes that conspire to | produce their greatness and to thos which contributed to their decay. For in the educational system of any civilization are emphasized and developed the ide; and ideals which the leading minds of the time and of the races consider the most ential 10 the development of the indi- vidual and most important to the service of the needs of the State and of its future strenctn and permanence. ‘The higher education is the effort to fit most perfectly for the highest responsi- bilities of life. It must attempt, there- fore, 1o develop to its highest capacity the Iatent powers of thought and action in the individual, and to teach him to utilize these powers to the utmost in the direction of good influence and useful ser- vice. “*Mere knowledge is not power; the anil- ity to use knowledge rationally is power, but even then but latent power. T e wish | make that latent power actual. Given knowledge, the ability and the will to use it and the desire to use it in the dest in- terests of mankind, and we have the ideal result of the higher education. “It is not alonein the universities that and the will to use it are necessary to | | ject | which woman | bravery, | Bnancially s0a is almost 1 sacrilege. The condemned man upon whom the death has been set, who cannot hope for ex- clemency,’ who is helpless in the hands of absolute power, still knows that although death mav be sure physicsl suffering is unlikely, or, at the worst, wiil be but brie: but_he alone stands in the position 10 know, even 1o a degree, the nervous strain, the | mental anguish, the unthinking but uncon- troliable panics of flesh and biood and nerve ces a: the behests of love and maternity and—alas that it can be truel—at the behests of sex power and financial de- pendence. Bu: when we study anthropology and her- edity we come to reslize the indisputable facts that her love, her physical heroism, and her linked with her political and subject s'atus, Ave cast & blight, & moral sasdow an threai upon the worid Then we cease 1o clap quite so vigorously at the theater, and our iears or smil are mingled with mental reservations, and a sigh 1or & lottier ideal for the meaning and the pur- physical & mental | pose of matarnity than the merely physical | one that has been depicted as material sacri- fice to the cuild and seif-abnegation and seli- subjection. We begin to wonder if mach of the vice, the crime, the wrong, the insanity, the disease, the incompetence and the woe of the world is not the direct lineal descendant of ‘tnis very self-debasement of indiyidual character of women in ma- ternity. We begin to wonder fx an unwilling, a forced, or a supinely yleld- ing (and thereiore not seli-controlied) & sub- motherhood, in short, is not respon. sible 10 the race for the weak, the de- formed, the depraved. the donble-deal- ing, pretense-sosxed natures which curse the’ world with failures, with disea she so easily “conforms,” that | that has been allotted to me before | And that was the first | J since the beginning of the world all | the | with war, with insanity and with crime. We begin 10 wonder if the &wful power with which nature clothes maternity in heredity | does uot strike blindly back st the race ot the artific.ai requirements at the handsof the producers of that race. We begn to wonder | it mothers do not owe & higher duty to their | offspring than that oi mere nurse. (Ve bezin 10 wonder if the mother has the moral right to give her children the inheritance that accident | a.d subserviency stamp upon body and mind. We begin to wonder how she dares face ter child and know that she did not fit herseli by seli-development and by direct, sincere, fitm and thorough gqualifications for | maternity before she dared to assume its | | responsibilities. We begin to wonder that | | man has been 50 siow in learning to read the | message that nature has telegraphed to him in | letters of fire and photographed with terrible persistency upon the distorted, diseased bod- ies and minds of his children, and upon the | moral imbeciies she has set before nim asan | answer 1o his message of sex dom.nation. Do | you know that there is an army of 700,000 | dependent defectives in this country alone? Don’t you know that this means something to every mother in tiis world? Seven hundred | thousand fo.ced into lite without their birth- | | right! Seven hundred thoussnd imbecile, | insane, deaf, dumb, biind and criminal vie tims of maternal and paternal ignorance. Stop and think of it. Our standiag army is | only about 25,000 men—ihese for our protec- | tion; our detective army—700,000—these for | | our destruction | Think of it in another way. | There are bu: three clties—possibly four now— | |in America which have a popuiation of | | 700,000. 1f every man, woman and child in your city were helpless or criminal still less than half of our defective population wouid be represented thereby. Self - abuegation, subserviency to man, whether he be ‘atlier, lover or husband, is the | most dangerous tneory that can be taught to { or forced upon her whose character shail mold | the next generation. She hss no right to | transmit a nature aud a character that is sub- servient, subject, ineflicient, undeveloped—in | short, s siavish character, which is either | blindly obedient or blindly rebellious, and is, | | therefore, in either case, set s in a timelock | 1o prey of to be preyed upon by socieiy in the uture. 1f woman is not brave enough personally to demand and to obtain absolute personal lib- erty ol action, equa.ity of status and entire contzol of her great and race-eadowiag unc: | tion of maternity she has no right to dare to stamp upon a child. and 1o curse a race, with the descendants of such a servile, s dwaried, & time-and-master serving nature We have been taught that it is an awful thing to commit murder, to take & human life, | and 50 of course ftis. There is no a.flerence of opinion on that subject. Butdo you know | that there are students of anthropology and | | heredity who=think that it may beevena | more awful thing to thrust, unasked, upon & human beiog & life that is handicapped before he gets it? That it may be a more solemp re= | #ponsibility 1o give than to takes human life? In (he one case the murderer invades parsonal liberty and putss stop to an existence more or less vaiatle and nappy, but at leas:ail pain is over for that invaded personalit, the other c in giving life, you inv: 1 liberty of iufinite oblivion and thrustintoan | inhospitable world another human entity to struggie, to sink, 1o swim, to suffer, or to en- oy. Whether the one or the other no mortal knows, but he surely knows it must contend | zot only with its environment, but with its | heredity—witn itseir. For we ail follow the | line of least resistance. Did you ever think seriously of thai? No man is bad simply from cnolce, “1f you are good and true and loity it s because, ail tnings considered, that is, to you, he line of least resistance. Tne parents of «he race must make it easy to be good, easy 1o be | true, hard to be ignobie or criminal, not by rewards or punishments—those methods have been weighed and found wenting—but by the very blood pulsations that are transmitted froia both parents 1o the chiidren to whom | they take the tremendous respomsibility of | giving life, It is the {fashion to repest, “The hand that | rocks the cradle ruies tue world.” Every one knows that this is not true in the sense in which it bas always beeu used. It is trus, n.as! | in a sease never dreamed of by poliucian or | publican. it is true that the subject status of maternity has ruled and does rule the world, in that it | has been—and is to-day—the most potent power to keep the race from lofty achieve- ment. Subject mothers never did and subjsct mothers never wili produce & race of free, well-poised, liberty-loving, justice-practicing children. Msternity is an awful power. It blindly strikes back at injustice with s force thatis a fearful menace 10 mankind. Aud the race which is bora of mothers who are harassed, builied, subordinated, or made the victims of blind passion or power, or of mothers who are simply too pretty and seif-debased to feel their subject status, cannot iail to continue to | give the horrible spectacles we have always | nad of war, of crime, of vice, of trickery, of double-dealing, of preiense, of lying, of arro- gance, of subservience, of brutality, of incom- petence, anad and aisease added to & fearful and an ghnecessary moriality Not long sgo a great man, who is successful | beyond most human uaits, who is wealthy, socially to be envied, who enjoys almost ideal family relations, wnois in ail regardss man of broad Intel.ect, of iarge heart, who is be- loved, successful, powerful, & famous lawyer, & magn of internationa: renown, /ong ago this man said to me, while taiking of life and its chances, its joys and iis burdens and wrongs: *‘Well, the more I think of it ail, the more I kuow, the more [ delve into philosophy and scie.ce. the more I understand life as 1t is and &s it must be for long years to come, if not for- ever, the more I wonder at the sturdy bravers of those who are less fortunate thanl. D.es it pay me to live? Wouid 1 choose to be born again? Were I to-day unvorn, coutd I be asked for my vote, knowing 11 1 do of life, would I | vote 10 come into this worid? | daugerous lesson to our growing girls.” | tary ‘taints tnat aj | doing right there. | incompeto: “Taking life at its best estate, are we not as- suming a tremenaous risk o thrust it unasked those who are at lesst safe trom its pit- 1 asked myself thess questiors yery be said. “And tnen he guded, hesiiai- ingiy, “Isometimes think it pays after all. Of course, since ] am here I am bound to make the best of it, but for all that I am not_dead sure how I would vote on my birth if I hed the chance to try it—not quite sure.” “If you are so impressed with life yourself —you who are & fortunate, healthy, wealihy, hagpily married, successful, famous aud hon- said 1, “don’t you think it i4 & preity serious thing 10 assume the right to cast that vote recklessly for another human pawn, who could hardly conceivably stand your chances in the worid?"" “Serious,” he exclaimed, “serious! With the worid's conditions what they ars to-d with the physical, moral and mental chances io run, vith woman—inbe character-forming pro- ducer of the race—a hali-educated subordinats to masculine domination, it is littie short of madness; it i3 not far from crime. Itisa crime unless the mother is & physically healthy, a mentally developed and comprehending, mor- ally clear, strong, vigorous eutity who knows her personal respousibility in maternity, and, knowing, dsres maintain it.” That was his verdiet. Ye: it has been the fashion (0 hold | that the mothers of mankind should not be | the thinkers of the race. Iuceed, in comment- ing upon the congress of representative women in Chicago at the World's Fair, the most widely read newspaper on this conti- nent said, editorially: “There is to be a great series of women's congresses held at Chicago during the fair. The purpose is to illustrate and celebrate the T progress of women. Accordingly there will be | sessionsto discuss the sctievements of women | ia art, suthorship, business, science, histrionic | endeavor, Iaw, medicine, sna & variety of | otber activiti | :But, 0 far ay the published programmes | enable us to judge, not one teing is to be done 0 show the progress of women as women [ There will be no showing made of an increased capacity on their part to make homes happier, | to make their husbands stronger for their | work in the world, to encourage bigh endeay- ors, to maintain the best standards of hovor | and duty, to stimuiate, encourage, upliit, | which from the beginning of civilization bas | Dbean the supreme teminine function. Nothing, | , 18 10 b2 done at the congresses to | show that a higher education and a larger | intellectual advancement have enabledwomen | 10 bear healthier children or to bring tnem up in & manner more surely tending to make this a better world 1o live in—the noblest of all work that can be done by woman. “We need no congress to show u% that | women are more thoroughly educated than onca they were, or that they can success:u! do things once forbidden them. But have wider culture and wider opportunities made them better wives and mothers? A congress which should show that wou:d make il men | edyocates of still larger endeavors for woman’s advancement. A congress. on the other hand, which assumes tnat the only thing (o be cele- Drated is an increased capaciiy to win fame or money, wiil teach a disastrously false and This fatal blunder as to the value of woman's development, as woman—quite aside from her home relations—has retaracd the real civiliza- tion and caused to be transmitted (unnecese sarily trausmitted) the characteristics which have gone far o make iusanity, disease and deformity of mind ana bods the herliage of well-nigh every family in tne land. A great medical expert said to me not long ago: “There s not more thau one family fn ten who can show a clean bill of health, mental and physical and morai—irom heredi- erious in threat and ai- taln of development in one form or Maternty, its duties, needs and responsibili- Ties, has been exp.oited in sll ages sand climes, iu ail phases and spheres, from one point of view only—tne point of view of the male owner. Ifyou thiok that this statement 1s ex- | treme I beg of you to read “The Evo ution of Marringe,” by Letourneau. Resd it Read | it with care. " It is the production of & man of profouna learning and research—a man who sees the light of the future dawniug, although even he sometmes lapses from a universal languege of huwanity into hereditary forms of speech, nedged in by sex bias. It has been the fashion in the recent past to select the ablest girls in the family to send to college or 1o develop for a careeror & proles- | sion.” O the others it was said, “‘Well, Ju.ia and Maud do not seem 10 cate tolearn much. They will, no doubt, marry and make good motbers, vut the otner girls will have a ca- reer.” Think of the1nsuii (0 mothernood this accepted theory is,and it is well nigh uni- versal. Think of how siight a grasp upon the ealities of lile such theories show. A woman caunot muke s god doctor, s £00d lawyer, & good journaisi, & good preacher, & good novelist, a good artist, or & great musician uniess she kunows and can weigh in a rational manner the meanings ot life ; uniess behind her science, her ari, her iabor or her philosophy there is & comprehen- s:00 born of a solid grasp upon the reai mean- iugs of life, 118 reiations, its proportions. Knowledge is indeed power, and ignorance is ever and always the twin brother of vice. Therefore, no matter what profession alls to the lot of or is chosen by & woman, the first, the most important, the absolutely vital need for her is & broad, solid, true and comprehen- sive grasp on the facts of life, as iife is to-day nd 28 1t has been in the past. This alons will enable her to lay & firm foundation for the future. Ithink this statement will be accepted as almust & truism when it is applied to whatare | generaliy called the professions. But, strange 1o say, there is one proiession for which itis always claimed that s true aud firm and com- | prehensive scnse of the proportions in life is Dot at all necessary to fit the applicant fora diploma—the proiession of motherhood. And yet it 1s true—and it is easy of proof if one has ever a slight_knowledge of biology or —that thereis no occupation, noart, no protession on the earth in which ighorance of the true relaiions of things can and does work such lasting snd such terrible disaster | 10 the race us has been done and is constantly | Ignorant and undeveloped motherbood has | been and is a terrible curse to mankind. An artistis merely s pathotic fs ure. A superficial woman lawyer simply goe clientless, A trivial wowan doctor may get a chance to kil. one or (wo patients, but her career of harm wi.l be brief. A shallow or lazy woman journslist will be crowded out and back by the bright and industrious fel- lows who are har competitors. Bul & superfi cial, shallow, incompetent or trivial mother has left a heritege to the world which can and does poison tae stream of life as it flows on and on in an eternally widening circle of in- competence, or pain, or disease, or insanity, or crime. In every other profession which woman hes entered she has been better fitied for her work before she took her degree than for the one which is held to be her espccial province, Why ? Simpiy because up to the present time it has been mamntained that & pretty and childish ignorance of the real and true values and reiations of life, combined with a fine pair of eyes and a compliant mauner entitled | any woman to a diploma in her “sphere” of | maternity, while” if \she undertook 1o ft her- | self for any other dareer she has to messure her lifegnot with s pajuted-toy mentality, but with ufe logicaily trained intellect whicn | must compele with her brothers, the estab- | lished workers of the world, or else she must | £0 10 the wall where her incompetency thrusis | ber. | 1t would be well for the sake of the race if | she could be subjeet to sucn competition 1n | maternity. And did it ever occur to you that | her chilaren are subject to ii? and that e vast spread of incompetence in the world, | the universality of incom petence to cope witis conditions, bas a perfectly legitimate basis? | No woman is it to bring up the administra- torsof & republic who is not herself familiar | with the fundamental principles upon which | that republic is based. For it is a well-known fact—exceptions sud geniuses being allowed for—that the trend, the bias, the color of the mentality of & man is fixed upon him in nis earliest years, in the years when his mother is his near and most influential teacher. H!s sense of fairness and of justice is warped or developed then. His possibilities are born of her capacity, and his development depends largely upon her training. What prefession in the worid, then, needs so wide an outlook, so_perfect a poise, <0 fine an individual development,. such breadth and scope, such depth of comprehension. such fuli- | ness of philosophy, as does the iightly consid- ered profession of motherhood ? Ligntly con. sidered I mean in the semse that it has been and is heid by so many that it does no es; cial harm to have the mothers of the race dis tinetly lower {u development, in mentaiity, in individuality, in poise, in grasp, in educsifon, than any other class of men or women. And 86, a3 1 have said before, when I was told not iong 6go at & public meeting that T was expecied 1o speak on “Woman in the Pro- fessions” I thought I wouid make & departura and taik mos: fully, in the few minutes I was to have, of the need of her higher education for and because of the one profession whicn not thought of at sll in its vast necessi- ties, not on.y in the development of a higher | | broad enough to wise wemanhood but for the race which is to have the solving of the tremendous problems of the future. I thought I would suggest the needs of those voiceless ones rather than spesk much of or for those exceptional women who have ap- peared and are 1a everincreasing numbers, gaining firm and established footholds in the other professions, because of which they are being irained cr are training themselves for what they all recognize to be & sharp and severe competition where capacity and wills ingness to do well wha i 1s uudertaken is the 1mevitable price of the position itself, and I shall take the liberty to repeat here what I said then. It was this: “It is getting to be pretty generally looked upon as the special proviuce of the less highly endowed or the leas thoroughiy trained re- sidium to become the progenitors of the com- iug generations. If you havs a daughter who is 100 silly or weak-minded or unambitious to become & unitin the march of progress and civiliza:fon; if she is incompetent Lo be sent through a solid iraining of school or coilege y | and 10 fit herself for some possible or probabls carcer as minister, doctor, designer, lawyer, journalist or what not, marry her 1o some- body aud let him carry the load of her unas- piring presence whiie he lives, and let the race boar the burden of her infirmities and ignorance unto the third and fourth genera- tions of them thatloved her. That is, boldiy statea, the theors. ““But the fact is, as over against that tneory, | that if you have a daughter who is finer and truer, more capable and noble, more intellect- ueland able than the rest, she is the one whose education and development as an indi- vidual should be carried to 1is highest reach, not simply Lecause she is 1o be a writer or speaker or teacher, for which she may be primarily fitting herself as her trend may be, but because in the ultimate analysis it may 8lso be her plessure and province to be the | wife aud motner in the t ue and inspiring home-life, where her ever new and stimniating comradeship for husband aud children makes of her mind a beacon-light, and of her poised and self-discipiined disposition a guide and n inspiradon; where she will be ioved and revered, notonly because she is loving and £00d, but because she is aiso wise and able and lead, instead of being blind to the very pitfalls in the pathway of ber sons and dadghters. “When our Republic kas sucn mothers as that the question of woman in the other pro- fessions will have adjusied itsel. Wnen woman is developed and ‘ree to choose, capac- ity wiil find its level and its outlet.” Igior- ance will cease 10 be looked upon as besutifal in either sex,snd men and women will for the first time clasp hands and try conclusions with a frankness and & generosity and com- radeship which will be a real inspiration and jow to both. if you have a brilliant girl. one who hss fine poiss, splendid endowments, great promise, it1s sae who should be developed to the fuil with knowledge that while she has doue her bes: in all things, she is still only able to be s tolerably good mother; she lacks still much of wisdom, much of all the judgment, tenderness and scope that shall enal her to be an ideal mother of ideal chiidren, who shall be hea'thy in body and in mind, houest, earnest, truth- loving and justice-practicing human beings, & credit to her aud 10 the race as it shall one day ve. Butsolong as motherhood is kept ignor- ant, dependent and subject in status, just that long wil beredity aveuge the outrages upon | her womanhood, upon Ler personality, upon her right to a dignifiod personal equal human status by striking telling blows back upon the ace. It seems to me that in discussing no other question in life is there so littie logical re: soning and so muca arbitrary dogmatism | in the questions which are usualiy embraced under “womau's sphere.” 1In the first place, it is assumed that because women are mothers they are nothing eise; that becsuse this is her sphere, she can have, should have, no other. Now, men are fathers. That is their sphere; therefore they should not be menially devel opea, legally aud politically emancipated,soci- ally 'civilized or economically independent. | This would - appear to most men asa some- what absurd proposition. 1t appears so to me, but it is not one whit less absurd when ap- ied to women. Yel this is constantly done. lecause women are mothers is the very reason why they should be developed mentally and physicaliy to their hignest possible capacity. The old theory that a teacher was guod enoug! T a primary class if she knew the “ABC's” and a litile eise has long since been exploded. A high degree of intellectual ca- pecity and & broxd mental grasp are more im- portant in those who have the tralning and molding of small children thau if the chii- dren were older. The younger the mind the less capable is it to guide itseli intelligentiy, and therefore the more important it is that the guide be both wise and wel-informed. With little children the one who has them in charge most closely must beall this and more. Sne must understand the proportion and relations of things and wherciu_they touch the bearing and trend of mental and physical phenomeus. She must furnish se.f- poise to the nervous child and stimuius to the phlegmatic ones. She musi be able to rerd signs and to interpret indications in the men- tal and morai, as well as in the physical being of those within her care. All this she must bs &bl> to do readily and with apparent uncon- sciousness if she is best fitted to dea! witn and develop small enildren. More than this, she must not ouly be able to detect wants, but heve the wisdom to guide, to siimulate, to re- strain, to develop the piasiic creature in her keepitg. If she had the wisdom of the fabled gods ai:d the seli-poise of the Milo she would not be too well equipped for bearing and edu- cating ths race within her keeping. But more than this the ideal mother should know and be. She must have love, too loyal, and sense of obligation wo profound, to reck: ¥ bring into the world children she can. not properiy endow or care for. Every me) tally, worally or phy y defective child has and of its mother now she dared equip him 5o badly for the life into which she has taken the liberty to bring him, to demand of ner now she dared to equip herself 5o i1l for her seli-{mposed task of creator of & humsa sou Tp to the present time woman’s moral re- sponsibility in heredity hss been below the point of zero, for the simpie resson that she has bad no voice in her own control nor in that of her children. But with the present knowledgs of heredity, with woman’s enlarged opportunity and broadened education, she who permits herseif to become & mother without having demanded and obtained first her own freedom from sex domination, and second, fair and free condi- tions of deveiopment for herself and child, will commit acrime against hersel, against her child and aguinst mankind. Mothers, you bave it in your power to make it true in a lofty scnse tkat *‘the hand that Tocks the cradie shall rule the worid.” Itis | for you tosay whetner itshall be ruled for good or for ill in the days tha: are to come. A spirited discussion followed, Mrs. Gardener and Dr. Beecher faking opposite si Miss Beecher declaring that he- redity could be overcome. Mrs. Gardener retorted that Dr. Beecher was a living example of heredity. ‘Look at her,” she said, “‘why, she couldn’t help looking like the Beecher family to save her life.” The Brahmacharin made a short speech. A few remarks by Mrs. Carr closed the session. Mrs. Gardener will delivera lecture next Friday evening. An effort is being made to secure Golden Gate Hall for that even- ing. The Emporium WE SHRLL REVOLUTIONIZE RETAIL TRADE WITH OUR PURGHASE OF DORNE & HENSHELW0ODS DRY GOODS STOGH AT 31¢ ONPHE DOLLAR AND AN ERSTERN MANUFAGPURERS $30,000 CLOTHING STOCH . .