The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-02-20
NEWSPAPER COMMENT,
Washington Post on the Opening of
the Mothers Congress
(From the washington Post)

~
The national congress of mothers will
open its first session-the first convention
of mothers ever called in any country-in
this city today This new movement is
peculiarly fortunate in the time place
and social conditions of its inception.
me time IS cOinc1dent with session of
the national legislative body when intel
hgent mothers from every state in the
union are at the Capital. The place is
the natural headquarters for all national
movements, and especially such as relate
to the family the unit of the nations A
visit to Washington is an Inspiration to
evitabIy be promotive of patriotic Feeling
minds of children at the mothers knee.
The social conditions are such as not
only point to the proprie+y of, but seem
to demonstrate the necessity for closer
union of mothers of the land. The past
almost unexampled social agitation, one
OF the many results of which has been a
activities. Women are now engaged in
nearly all of the occupations in which
serted on the one hand that this change
has 1nJuriously affected the home-the
domain Of the mother. With equal posi-
tIveneSs 1t is asserted, on the other side,
that the home life is purer and brighter
today than 1t ever was at any previous
no harm-it may do good-for representa-
tives of the fourteen or fifteen millions Of
American mothers to look this question
squarely in the face. 1t is a fact that
there are fewer marriages in proportion
to population now than there were when
the movement for woman's advancement
began. This. too. is a subject to Thicb
the congress of mothers might well give
consideration: Then there is the steadily
qecreia 9Sa blrthrate in native American
eaifle 9naa Is that Wen or IL? 1t is
land may well give it some thought
The Hartford Courant. always apprecia-
and always interested in sociological cues.
tons. gives this congress its hearty en-
thinks of mothers as at home prirnariIV
not on the platform, yet
The notion Of a congress for the
of the young, in the light of modern
science and education, is a good one
and should prove fruitful. Espe.
cially is it commendabie in empha-
sizing what is now a cardinal point
In the creed of latter-day educa-
uon1StS; that mothers have the kew
OF education in their hands The
mother mother is the first and natural
necessary as it is. is but a secondary
help to the home training and in
ter are right and wholesome correc-
tive when Gas. alas, in SO many thou
SANDS of casesD the home fails of its
high privilege and duty With the
home upbringing of the right sort.
the school will do its work and the
nation be what every patriot wishes
Man, Many prominent women and some we'll
HdaIHI men will take part in the pro
idea. is to discuss the problems having to
DO with the interests of children. physical,
literature and dietetics, school and home
ttraIhlng and heredity are among the sub
Jects on the programme"
II VIII be easily practicable at this first
meeting OF American mothers to Law the
ttouhdatlonS for a systematic, great and
penehclaI work. The home is the most
sacred OF all human Institutions but no
one can doubt that it can be Improved
ihere are too many homes-those of the
n nisn as IS vel as those of the lowIy-in
Whlch children are neglected, left to grow
up without the care of a good mofher
ffhere are too many mothers who mani,
t teSt gIarlng unftness for the RESPONSE
changed in year a decade, or a genera
tlon; but something may be done toward
raising the standard of the home: and
the united action of thousands of good
ana wise women in all the states viii he
| form. Ae-