And so on, with added arguments for either side.

In all these discussions of birth control the fathers or the husbands who desire not to be fathers are usually left in the background.  As a matter of fact, however, men as well as women desire luxury and freedom from the care of a family.  It is a general sign of the times, not a characteristic of one sex alone.  Men as well as women fear for their ability to care for and educate large families.  With the demands of our present complex existence bearing heavily upon them, one can scarcely wonder at the hesitation of either man or woman to add again and again to their already pressing cares.  There is but one remedy—­not to cut off education for women, as some suggest, but to learn the joys of a simpler life which will afford people time and strength and means to bear and rear their young.  To this end let us teach our girls and our boys something of the essentials of a useful and a happy life, and teach them how to eliminate the non-essentials which waste their time and spirit.

Who can best instruct the girl in what we may call the ethics of marriage?  Her mother?  Usually the mother’s viewpoint is too personal.  Her teacher?  Most of her teachers are unmarried and know little more about the subject than she does herself.  A specially selected married teacher?  Perhaps, but only if she is a deep student of human nature and of marriage from a scientific standpoint.

An ideal course for every girl somewhere before her education can be considered complete would cover “woman’s life” as (1) industrial worker, (2) wife, (3) mother, (4) citizen, (5) civic force.

Here, without undue “dangling of the wedding ring,” girls might study marriage as an important phase of woman’s life.  Such a course, simplified or elaborated to suit the circumstances of the girls who participate, might well be given in all girls’ schools and colleges, in continuation schools, in settlement-house clubs and classes, in rural clubs and neighborhood centers.  For, reduced to its simplest terms, marriage in the tenement rests upon the same principles as marriage in the mansion.

Happily married, or happy unmarried, with her life work stretching before her, the girl enters upon her heritage of work.  We have trained her to be a homemaker, but we need feel no regret in regard to her training if she finds her life work in an office or a schoolroom or a hospital.  She may never “keep house,” although we hope that she will some time help to make a home.  But, whether she becomes a homemaker or not, a true understanding and appreciation of the value of the home and a knowledge of the principles underlying its maintenance will make her a broader woman and a better worker than she could otherwise be.  In the home, or wherever she may be, she cannot fail to show the girls who are growing up about her what home means to her and what it means to the race.  And in her hands we may safely leave the future of the home.