The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-05-02
MOTHERHOOD AND DEVELOP
MENT.

Mrs Helen H. Gardener, one of the
brightest women in public life in this
country, at the Woman's Congress in
San Francisco ON Thursday delivered
fervid address upon Motherhood and
Heredity," in the course of which she
said:
Now, men are fathers. That is their
sphere: therefore, they should not be
mentally developed, legally and politi-
cally emancipated, socially civilized or
economically independent. This would
appear to most men doubtless as some
what absurd proposition. 1t appears SO
to me, but it is not one whit less alb
surd when applied to women. Yet TINS
is constantly done. Because women are
mothers is the very reason why they
should be developed mentally and ply
sically to their greatest possible capac-
fly.
We beg leave to take issue with Mrs
Gardener. This is not being constantly
done" We know of no one, no infiu-
ence, no system demanding that women
should not be developed, mentally, ply
sically and to their greatest possible
capacity. But there is distinct separa-
ton among thinkers as to what are the
best methods to these desirable ends.
To develop woman to her fullest ca
pacity is precisely what the system of
education that has largest measure of
public approval calls for, and is in
l. i ,0o,fxNo
tionists, however, at least as we read
them, insist that the development is not
reached except through methods that
we are bold enough to think unsex Wo
man, push her away from the home and
into atmospheres not favorable to the
development of beings fit to be the
mothers of men upon whom the hopes of
civilization may be pinned. We concede
that Mrs Gardener is correct when she
says:
It has been the fashion in the recent
past to select the ablest girls in the fam
lily to send to college or to develop for
career or a profession. OF the others it
was said, well, Julia and Maud do not
no doubt marry and make good mothers,
but the other girls Will have career. ..
Think of the insult to motherhood this
accepted theory is! And it is well-nigh
universal. Think of how slight grasp
upon the realities of life such theories
show
But because some parents thus fool
ishly express themselves proves only the
need for the broader education Of par
ents. But we do not agree that the
theory" she assails is well-nigh uni
versal. On the contrary, very distinct
and strong is the current that is carry
ing with it the best thought of the age.
that women need the broadcast, best and
completest Quitting by education,
physical, mental and other development,
for the solemn and lofty obligations and
duties of motherhood.
Mrs. Gardener is right when she says:
Ignorant and undeveloped motherhood
has been and is a terrible curse to man
kind. An incompetent artist is merely
pathetic failure. A superficial woman
3 ,
woman doctor may get a chance to kill
one or two patients, but her career of
harm will be brief A shallow or lazy
woman journalist will be crowded out
and back by the bright and Industrious
fellows who are her competitors. But a
trivial mother has left a heritage to the
world which can and does poison the
stream of life as it flows on and on in an
eternalIy widening circle of incompe
tence or pain, or disease, or insanity, or
crime.
Every word of that expression is CHS
eled truth and ought to be written be-
Pile 1t is because of our belief that it is
true, that the Record Union" has in
sistently for years kept before it's read
ers the thought that the very worst pos
sible use to which woman can be put
is to raise her up to business life, and
thus wean her away from the walk she
was intended to tread, and for which
she is by nature fitted before all others.
1t is because what Mrs. Gardener says
| is cold, implacable truth, that the Rec
ord-Union" has contended. and it is vain
enough to think has proved, that the
most serious obstacle in the way of the
proper development of mothers of the
race is the displacement of the natural
bread winners by women and their toll
ing in commercial ranks and the un-
congeniaI atmosphere of shops.