It is the right of every girl to receive, through the educational work of the community, training which shall fit her for clean, honest and efficient living.  Yet every year sees hundreds of girls turned out into the world wholly unequipped for life, their special talents undiscovered, their energies undirected, their purposes unformed, their ambitions unawakened.

It is the right of every girl to be shielded from the moral danger and physical strain of labor for her daily bread, at least until she shall reach the age of sixteen.  Yet every year sees a long procession of girls from eight to sixteen entering into the economic struggle who cannot claim their rights.

It is the right of every girl to have a good time, to play under conditions that are morally safe, and to enjoy amusements that leave no stain.  Hundreds of girls live in communities where this is absolutely impossible.  What has religion to offer to a girl denied an education which will fit her for the life she must live, compelled to enter into a fierce struggle for daily bread while still a child, surrounded by every sort of cheap, exotic amusement behind which temptation lurks?  Has it anything to offer in compensation, if it permits conditions to go on unchanged?

It is the right of every girl to enjoy companionship and friends.  Thousands of girls toil through the day in shops, factories, offices and kitchens and at night sit friendless and alone until the loneliness becomes unendurable and they seek companionship of the unfit and the refuge of the street.  Has religion anything to do with lonely girlhood?

It is the right of every girl to receive such instruction regarding her own physical life and development as shall serve to protect her from the pitfalls laid for the thoughtless and ignorant, and shall fit her to understand, and when the time comes accept the privileges and responsibilities of motherhood.  Every year sees thousands of girls enter the teens whose only knowledge of self and motherhood is gained through the half truths revealed by companions, the suggestions of patent medicine and kindred advertisements, or the falsehoods of those who seek to corrupt.  What has a girl’s religion to do with these simple undeniable facts?

It is the right of every girl to receive the protection of wise parental authority.  The guidance of parents who earnestly, wisely and with the highest motives require obedience from those too young to choose for themselves is the right of every girl.  Yet thousands of girls every year are left to decide life’s most important questions, while parents, weak, indifferent or careless sleep until it is too late.  Has religion anything to offer to girls whose parents have laid down their task and neglected their duty?

It is the right of every girl to receive such moral and religious instruction as shall develop and strengthen her higher nature, fortify her against temptation and lead her in the spirit of the Author of the Golden Rule into service for her fellows.  Yet thousands of girls are without definite moral and religious instruction and unconscious of the fact that it is their right, and thousands more receive moral and religious training in haphazard fashion and from sources inadequate to the task.