THE CHILDLESS WOMAN AND THE FRIENDLESS CHILD One of the first conclusions forced on a thoughtful unprejudiced observer of society is that the major percentage of its pains and its vices result from a failure to make good connections.

Children pine and even die for fruit in the cities, while a hundred miles away thousands of barrels of apples are rotting on the ground.

Famine devastates one country, while the granaries of another are bursting with food.

Men and women drink themselves into the gutter from sheer loneliness, while other men and women shrivel up in isolated comfort.
One of the most pitiful examples of this failure to connect is that of the childless woman and the friendless, uncared-for child.
There never at any time in any country in the world's history existed so large a group of women with whom responsibility and effort were a matter of choice, as exists to-day in the United States.

While a large number of these free women are devoting themselves whole-heartedly to public service of the most intelligent and ingenious kind, the great majority recognize no obligation to make any substantial return to society for its benefits.