mportant. Then,
why--?

If anybody gets that far with the average modern woman, he has done very
well. She usually shrugs her shoulders, tells you not to be silly and
parries with some feeling remarks about husbands and fathers. What do
they do? And how do they do it? And who's really to blame?

If you ask a modern man the same question, and no women are present, he
may express himself confidentially, that most women, nowadays, are so
fed up on civic committees, or recreation centers--bridge parties or
pink teas--uplift movements or school boards--golf, tennis,
automobiling--that they don't know what's going on in their own homes.
They have advanced ideas about everything--principally themselves. When
it comes to the children, their advanced ideas result, pretty much, in
letting them get along without any home training at all.

The women, when left to themselves, usually have little trouble in
convincing themselves that if men had the proper kind of love for their
wives and showed them the consideration and devotion which every
feminine heart craves and is entitled to, there would be no trouble at
all about the home. Every true woman would be found to respond
magnificently. In nearly every case, the fault begins with the man--in
his neglect and selfishness--and then man-fashion, he turns around and
tries to lay it at the door of the woman. And so forth and so on.

But again, no one attempts to suggest, or explain, why it is that the
modern husband, who is better educated and more enlightened than
husbands ever were before, should be behaving so badly. It is enough to
agree and expatiate on the fact, without countless examples, that that
is how it is.

And the average mother, to-day, will be found expressing the fervent
hope that her son will not grow up to be as self-centered and neglectful
of his wife, as most husbands are.

The effect of such talk, naturally, is to becloud the point at issue and
confuse the mind. The point is that even in the minds of the women, the
unseemly behavior of young people of both sexes is due to a lack of
proper training in childhood. No enlightened woman believes, or claims,
that two wrongs make a right. She does not believe that a man could, or
should, take the place of a mother in dealing with children. She does
not believe that he should become soft and effeminate, for the tender
training of infants, but on the contrary, should be energetic and manly,
for the battle of success.