hly sum up these
conclusions or determinations to be these:--

It is not necessary or endurable that children grow up starved and
overworked, that boys and girls be submitted to vicious surroundings,
that talent be crushed, that young men and young women be devoured by
crime and greed. Youth, its nurturing and developing, has become the
passion of the day. This is the meaning of our bureaus of Child Labor,
of our Children's Courts, our Houses of Correction, our Fresh-Air
Funds and Vacation Homes, our laws regulating hours and conditions,
our Social Settlements.

At its very best, however, legislation, organization, work in groups,
only indirectly reach the base of the trouble. These homeless babes
and children, these neglected boys and girls, these reckless shop and
factory girls, are generally the pain and menace that they are because
they have not had, as individuals, that guidance and affection of
women to which each has a natural right. No collective work, however
good it may be, can protect or guide these children properly.
Rightfully they should be the charge of that body of women who are
unhampered, "free." These women have more, or less, intelligence,
time, and means. They owe society a return for their freedom, their
means, and their education. Nature has made them the guardians of
childhood. Can they decently shirk the obligation any more than a man
can decently shirk his duty as a citizen? Indeed, the case of the
woman unresponsive to her duty toward youth is parallel to that of the
man unresponsive to his duty toward public affairs. One is as
profitless and parasitical as the other.

The man who has no notion of what is doing politically in his own
ward, who does not sense the malign influences which may be working in
his neighborhood, in his very street, perhaps in the next house, who
has not his eye on the unscrupulous small politician who leads the
ward by the nose, who knows nothing of the records of the local
candidates, never goes to the primaries,--this man is one of the most
dangerous citizens we have. It is he who makes the machine possible.
If he did his work, the governmental machine, which starts there with
him, would be sound. It would be begun by honest men interested in
serving the country to the best of their ability, and on such a
foundation no future solidarity of corruption would be possible.

The individual woman's obligation toward the children and young people
in her neighborhood i