n going back of
the court to study the home lives, the industrial occupations, and the
amusements which form the characters, for better or for worse, of the
city's children, are approaching the field in which the causes of
social corruption will stand much more clearly revealed than at
present to our intelligence and conscience. It is fundamental work.

But what of the women who are directing that work? What of the women
who are directing the other enterprises I have mentioned? Would they
make good citizens?

They are militant citizens now, _with the rank of noncombatants_.

* * * * *

We crossed the roof's tarred gravel once more, and once more leaned
over the tiled parapet and looked abroad at the city.

"I told you," she said, "that women cannot give their leisure to
useful activity without verging toward citizenship. That is the rule.
There are exceptions, caused by individual temperament. But that
is the rule. Make one group of the women who use their leisure to
_good_ purpose. Make another of the women who use their leisure to
_no_ purpose. You'll find a growing desire for citizenship in the
former. You'll find little such desire in the latter. The conflict
that is going on among women who have any leisure at all is between
the spirit which drives them toward a union with the life of the
world and the spirit which drives them toward complete detachment
and irresponsibility.

"So let's say no more about the suffrage agitation. It's simply a
sequel to women's interest in the world's housekeeping. The broader
question is, 'Will that interest grow?'

"One would think it could hardly help growing. The hosts of women who
are earning their living--they are immersed in the world even as men.
But the women who are at home, with little children about them!
They're abstracted from the world, aren't they? Yes, _physically_,
just as much as ever. But _mentally_ they come closer and closer to
the world all the time.

"Have you read the Home Economics books? The day is coming, you know,
when every girl will have the training those books suggest. It will
make her a home woman, you say. Yes, it will help do that. But it will
help even more to make her something else, too.

"Do you know that the Home Economics literature has more in it about
civic service than any other one general kind of educational
literature you can lay your hands on?

"Does that seem odd to you? I'll tell you the rea