ntific
spirit, was warned off the field of investigation, and society is
paying the penalty of its own blindness.
In the very field where applied science can most serve human welfare,
scarecrows have been set up most prominently. Not until society avails
itself of those qualities of mind sorely needed in the field of
sanitary science, patient attention to detail, strong, practical sense
directed by a profound interest in the subject, will it begin to show
what height it is capable of scaling.
The intrusting of so many great fortunes to women shows an increasing
confidence in their judgment of social needs. It shows that woman's
education has passed the selfish stage, that it has given a wider
vision of the whole horizon.
It may be said without fear of contradiction that the future
well-being of society is largely in the hands of woman. What will she
do with it? Responsibility is always sobering.
Let her once realize her position and woman will rise to the task.
Instances are not wanting of groups attacking scientific and
administrative problems in the true spirit, without sentimental
charity, to which in the past women have been prone.
If civic authorities felt that women's leagues were informed bodies of
women whose suggestions they would make no error in adopting, more
legislation could be effected. Too often city councils are approached
by those who favor some whim or fad, and so ALL women's demands are
classed together. Much harm has been done to the cause by indiscreet,
pushing women with only a glimmer of knowledge. The question is not
WOMAN, but ability and women. It is better, as a rule, to work out
ideas through existing organizations.
All the problems of environment which we have been considering would
be solved in half the time, yes, in one-quarter, if all housewives
would combine in carrying out the knowledge which some of them have
and which all may have.
Infant mortality is controllable through the training of the mother
and nurse. Unsanitary houses are the results of careless housekeeping,
usually a product of apathetic fatalism. Landlords assume that the
woman will submit. When she has a woman sanitary inspector to appeal
to, matters will take on a different aspect.
Unsanitary alleys exist because the abutters do not complain loudly
enough to the right authorities. Dirty markets have been so long
tolerated because women buyers carried the same fatalism to the
stalls--"what is, has to b
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