school boards, whose concern it is that children are educated, that they are supplied with kindergartens, and are given a decent place in which to play. The very multifariousness and complexity of a city government demand the help of minds accustomed to detail and variety of work, to a sense of obligation for the health and welfare of young children, and to a responsibility for the cleanliness and comfort of other people.

Because all these things have traditionally been in the hands of women, if they take no part in them now they are not only missing the education which the natural participation in civic life would bring to them, but they are losing what they have always had. From the beginning of tribal life, they have been held responsible for the health of the community, a function which is now represented by the health department. From the days of the cave dwellers, so far as the home was clean and wholesome, it was due to their efforts, which are now represented by the Bureau of tenement house inspection. From the period of the primitive village, the only public sweeping which was performed was what they undertook in their divers dooryards, that which is now represented by the Bureau of street cleaning. Most of the departments in a modern city can be traced to woman's traditional activity; but, in spite of this, so soon as these old affairs were turned over to the city they slipped from woman's hands, apparently because they then became matters for collective action and implied the use of the franchise-because the franchise had in the first instance been given to the man who could fight, because in the beginning he alone could vote who could carry a weapon, it was considered an improper thing for a woman to possess it.

Is it quite public spirited for woman to say, "We will take care of these affairs so long as they stay in our own houses, but if they go outside and concern so many people that they cannot be carried on without the mechanism of the vote, we will drop them; it is true that these activities which women have always had are not at present being carried on very well by the men in most of the great American cities,

but, because we do not consider it 'lady-like' to vote, we will let them alone?"

Women In The House.

Susan W. FitzGerald.

We are forever being told that the place of woman is in the home. Well, so be it. But what do we expect of her in the home? Merely to stay in the home is not enough. She is a failure unless she does certain things for the home. She must make the home minister, as far as her means allow, to the health and welfare, moral as well as physical, of her family, and especially of her children. She, more than anyone else, is held responsible for what they become.

She is responsible for the cleanliness of her house. She is responsible for the wholesomeness of the food. She is responsible for the children's, health.

She, above all, is responsible for their morals, for their sense of truth, of honesty and of decency, for what they turn out to be.

How Far Can the Mother Control These Things?

She can clean her own rooms, but if the neighbors are allowed to live in filth, she cannot keep her rooms from being filled with bad airs and smells, or from being infested by vermin.

She can cook her food well, but if dealers are permitted to sell poor food, unclean milk or stale eggs, she cannot make the food wholesome for her children.

She can care for her own plumbing and her refuse, but if the plumbing in the rest of the house is unsanitary, if garbage accumulates and the halls and stairs are left dirty, she cannot protect her children from the sickness and infection that these conditions bring.

She can take every care to avoid fire, but if the house has been badly built, if the fire-escapes are insufficient or

not fire-proof, she cannot guard her children from the horrors of being maimed or killed by fire.

She can open her windows to give her children the air that we are told is so necessary, but if the air is laden with infection, with tuberculosis and other contagious diseases, she cannot protect her children from this danger.

She can send her children out for air and exercise, but if the conditions that surround them on the streets are immoral and degrading, she cannot protect them from these dangers.

Alone, she cannot make these things right. Who or what can?

The city can do it, the city government that is elected by the people, to take care of the interests of the people. And who decides what the city government shall do? First, the officials of that government; and,

Second, those who elect them.

Do the women elect them? No, the men do. So it is the men and not the women that are really responsible for the

Unclean houses,

Unwholesome food,

Bad plumbing,

Danger of fire,

Risk of tuberculosis and other diseases,

Immoral influences of the street.

In fact, men are responsible for the conditions under which the children live, but we hold women responsible for the results of those conditions. If we hold women responsible for the results, must we not, in simple justice, let them have something to say as to what these conditions shall be? There is one simple way of doing this. Give them the same means that men have, let them vote.

Women are by nature and training, housekeepers. Let them have a hand in the city's housekeeping, even if they introduce an occasional house-cleaning.

Do Teachers Need the Ballot?

Alice S. Blackwell.

It is the general testimony of educators, from President Eliot of Harvard down, that the amount of money appropriated for schools is not nearly as large as it ought to be. Both pupils and teachers suffer from overcrowding, and from the necessity of giving each teacher too many pupils for the best educational results.

What is the reason for this lack of money for the schools? One reason is that the mothers and the teachers have no votes. Money can be found for purposes in which voters are interested. Hon. Frederic C. Howe says: "We spend millions for business purposes, for the promotion of industry. And yet, when any organization goes to the city hall for thousands for school purposes, it is met with the response that the city is too poor. We can spend millions for docks, but not thousands for playgrounds." In New York, it is estimated that there are 80,000 fewer seats in the public schools than there are children of school age. Many children cannot go to school at all, and thousands of others have to be put on "half time." This is an injustice both to the children and to the teacher. The children get only half the time in school to which they are entitled, and the teacher has her strength worn out by having to teach two relays of children daily.

In Philadelphia, the Superintendent of schools lately called attention to the fact that there were 20,000 fewer seats in the schools than there were children applying for admission; thousands could not get in, and for those who did get in, the accommodations were so poor that children were sitting on broken benches, on boards stretched across the aisles, on window sills and even on the floor. All this was for lack of money. Yet just at this time the city fathers voted $50,000 of public money to entertain the "Elks," and $10,000 more to entertain the Order of patriotic sons of America. This $60,000 came largely from women's taxes, but the women had no vote as to how it should be spent.

Almost everywhere, the schools are pinched for money; but in the equal suffrage states this is not the case. The Colorado State Superintendent of public instruction said to me, "Some people in Colorado grumble about the size of the school tax, but our schools have money enough." Gen. Irving Hale of Denver says: "The extension of suffrage to women has made it easier to secure liberal appropriations for education." Colorado appropriates more money per capita for education than any of the eastern states, which are so much older and richer.

Of the inadequate amount of money provided for school purposes, the women teachers do not get their fair share. In Massachusetts, the average pay of a woman teacher in the public schools is about one-third that of a man. In New York, the richest city in America, the women teachers are paid so poorly that there are hundreds of vacancies in the public schools for which no teachers can be found. The women teachers of New York have for years been using their "indirect influence" to the utmost to secure equal pay for equal work, but without avail. In Wyoming, where women vote, the law provides that women teachers shall receive the same pay as men, when the work done is the same. (Revised Statutes of Wyoming, Section 614.)

The news that Utah had granted women the ballot was quickly followed by the announcement that the Legislature had passed a bill to give women teachers the same pay as men when they held certificates of the same grade. (Revised Statutes of Utah, Section 1853.) The Colorado State Superintendent of public instruction says, "There is no difference made in teachers' salaries on account of sex."

President Thomas of Bryn Mawr College says: “Experience proves that women as well as men need the ballot to protect them in their special interests and in their power to gain a livelihood. In Philadelphia no woman teacher receives the same salary as men teachers for the same work, and no women, however successful, are appointed to the best-paid and most influential positions in the schools. What is true of Philadelphia is true in the main, of the public