. It is this
service which has made the family the most important element in our past
civilization. Were the family of the future to fail morally, it would be
hard to imagine how its existence could be justified. Without doubt
this moral function of the family has centered about the children. The
conditions of modern urban life, however, tend to make the moral
training of the child by the home increasingly difficult. The city
dwelling does not offer the child a normal opportunity for his play. The
school and other institutions have to take over service formerly
rendered the child in the home. In a large number of cases the urban
home regards the child as merely a burden and therefore in such homes
every effort is made to have no children born. This prevents the home
from attempting the moral service for which it exists. Instead, the
futile attempt is made to build up an enduring, satisfying home life
upon the basis of the mere personal pleasure of husband and wife. In the
country we find the home, for the most part, attempting to carry out its
former function as an educational and moral institution.

The most serious difficulty in our present family appears to be
internal. Economic changes have brought women, to a very great degree,
into industry as wage earners. Women are at present earning a livelihood
in almost every form of occupation. New ethical and political ideas, in
addition to this great economic change in woman's life, have influenced
her status. She no longer has to marry in order to obtain the
necessities of life. She can become a wage earner. If she marries, she
brings into her new state of living the sense of independence that has
come to her from her experiences as a wage earner. In many cases, after
marriage she continues to work away from the home for wages. Marriage,
as it used to be, made no provision for the new status of woman. It
assumed a dependence, a subordination, and a limitation to which in
these days many women refuse to assent. This internal change in the
conditions of home life brings about a host of difficulties that require
satisfactory adjustment if the living together of the husband and wife
is to be a happy one.

In the country the demand for this new adjustment is less serious, for
there, to a greater degree than in the city, there are women who have
not claimed their new status.

The rural home with reference to its equipment, function, and internal
adjustment appears superior t