Thou givest man bread. Let my aim be to give man himself.—Froebel.

THERE was a time when women, like statesmen, were economically free. They spun and wove, manufactured, planted, harvested, cooked. Land was cheap and needs were few. The women gave a part of their time to the state in rearing citizens, but they did not give all. They were self-supporting, in great measure; therefore, self-respecting and capable.

But women lost their economic independence when industries were taken from the home.

Farming, dairying, spinning, weaving, tailoring, laundering, baking, dressmaking, millinery, building, carpentering, are all done on a big scale, outside of the home, where the women, because they were mothers, could not follow their industries.

Women are left with the dependent occupations of working for the state and working for their husbands, for neither of which can they collect money.

Husbands’ policy is: Where the treasury is, there will the wives’ hearts be also.

The welfare of the women who give their time—twenty-four hours of the day, and for twenty-five or thirty years of their lives, their prime—for the development of citizens has been left to chance.

The state has made no provision whereby potential citizens shall be assured of the proper care.

The mother’s time has been considered of no value, that is, her service is not paid for in money.

If, in her youth, a woman married a man who was able to make money, she might be assured of food, clothing and shelter for her children unless or until Fortune frowned and the property was lost.

Any woman, whose husband dies, gives her time to the care of her children, no matter how poorly equipped she may be to earn a living for them in the world. She tries to do her own work, and besides that, what her husband did—maintain the family.

The state has made no provision for the care of potential citizens whose father has died, thereby cutting off the income which was once theirs.

We say that the purpose of the home is to develop children, that the home is established for children.

The purpose of the school is to supplement the teaching of the home, and this is to be re-enforced by the influence of the church. The office of the state is to wisely protect the home and safeguard the interests of its citizens. The government is the mentor of the citizens.

The theory is admitted that the business world is organized and operated for the one purpose of maintaining the home and its adjuncts—school, church and government. But the fact is, that, except for the taxes which great business institutions pay, there are very few children taken care of directly by big businesses.

The very rich have one, possibly two, rarely three children, and these, instead of being developed for working citizens, often evolve into ornaments, and sometimes become a nuisance and an expense to the state.

The mothers who give their time to the care of large families have no regular incomes. Their husbands are poor, and contribute to the development of citizens what they can, or will.

The people who are doing the most important work for the state, for whom all business is operated (as tradition sayeth), have no capital, and are carrying on their more or less great work by donations, given at the discretion of the donor. They can not receive more than their husband’s income, and never have that amount.

No matter how efficient these women may be as mothers, there is no recognition of this excellence, except by a few friends of the family.

Nothing has been done to make a large family popular. The trend of the whole course of civilization has been and is to do anything but evolve citizens.

Of course, women are supposed to be too spiritually minded to want compensation in money for work done for love.

However, is any great work done that is not done for love of the work? No one writes, paints, plays, builds, prints, binds books, models in leather or clay, raises cattle, fruits, grains, but him who loves his work. There is little response in any part of life, other than to love.All workers accept the world’s custom of using money as a medium of exchange for their time and energy—all except mothers and wives. So much service is given for so much money, and so much money for so much service.

Women are human beings, no more and no less than are men. They are just as human as men. They love freedom, independence and justice.

There is no natural reason why they should not have public recognition for work and development.

The custom of the world is to use money as a medium of exchange or as a representation of wealth. Wealth is an accumulation of energy held in reserve. People should be very careful to use this reserve advantageously. They are very jealous of expending time and energy unless it counts in wealth.

All people but mothers do this. This is why motherhood has become unpopular and a burden. The mother is in economics a pauper, a dependent, at the mercy or bounty of one man.

The first use of a home was to care for children, to protect them. Women built the first houses and for this one purpose.

Modern houses are made for adults more than for children. They are places of luxury. The thought of a nursery is seldom in the minds of the makers of houses. The architect does not have for his recurring theme, “How will this add to the development of citizens?”

Women are human beings. They are very much like men. They need recognition.

Self-preservation is the first law. And women, like men, are selfish. They often stifle the instincts of Nature in one direction that they may live in the world as it is today.

Rapid travel, the opportunity to see and know what there is to be seen and known, lures women just the same as it does men. Independence is just as dear to women as it is to men.