No one would claim that fathers, if loyal and worthy, are less anxious than mothers for the trailing of their children toward successful living.

The fact, however, that most mothers stand nearest to the lives of the children make them most often the necessary purveyors of educational opportunities from the public provision to private use.
=The Social Value of Parental Affection.=--Below and within all other gifts to humanity which have come by the way of motherhood's devotion to child-life is that selective and partial affection which secures to each child one adult person at least to whom he or she is supreme in interest.

Most normal women feel when they hear the cry of their own new-born that all of life is justly tributary to that one priceless creature who has come at their call out of the mystery of being to travel the difficult road of the generations of mankind.

Nor is this inherited tendency toward partial affection a sign of undeveloped or selfish quality in the woman of to-day.

It is a provision of nature still supremely useful in helping each tiny atom of the social whole to find and keep its own place in a world of struggle and hardship.
The fear of defeat handicaps many a purpose before it is put to the test.