standard, the deterioration of home life, and serious loss to
the children of the coming generation. As far as we know, such a
dislocation in the normal development of women's lives never took
place before on any large scale. I am speaking of it here solely in
relation to the sum of the well-being of the whole community. As it
affects the individual girl and woman herself it has been dealt with
under other heads.

The cure which the average man has to propose is pithily summed up in
the phrase: "Girls ought to stay at home." The home as woman's
sole sphere is even regarded as the ultimate solution of the whole
difficulty by many men, who know well that it is utterly impracticable
today. A truer note was struck by John Work, when addressing himself
specially to socialist men:

It would be fatal to our prospects of reaching the women with
the message of socialism if we were to give the millions of
wage-earning women to understand that we did not intend to let
them continue earning their own living, but proposed to compel
them to become dependent upon men. They price what little
independence they have, and they want more of it.

It would be equally fatal to our prospects of reaching the women
with the message of socialism if we were to give the married women
to understand that they must remain dependent upon men. It is one
of the most hopeful signs of the times that they are chafing under
the galling chains of dependence.

* * * * *