These homeless babes and children, these neglected boys and girls, these reckless shop and factory girls, are generally the pain and menace that they are because they have not had, as individuals, that guidance and affection of women to which each has a natural right.

No collective work, however good it may be, can protect or guide these children properly.
Rightfully they should be the charge of that body of women who are unhampered, "free." These women have more, or less, intelligence, time, and means.

They owe society a return for their freedom, their means, and their education.

Nature has made them the guardians of childhood.

Can they decently shirk the obligation any more than a man can decently shirk his duty as a citizen?
Indeed, the case of the woman unresponsive to her duty toward youth is parallel to that of the man unresponsive to his duty toward public affairs.