540 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



once secured, a " thought center " is established. Lectures, clubs, 

 and classes will follow; they are a natural sequence. In addition 

 to literary topics, talks on personal purity, physical culture (re- 

 spect for the body as the temple of the soul), and on home ideals 

 (plain living and high thinking) may be given. Good men and 

 women, fitted to speak well on these subjects, will be ready to give 

 their services. Where enthusiasm is once aroused, seed can be 

 sown by such nonsectarian gatherings which fails to take root in 

 the churches. 



We are taught that the highest authority within man is the 

 conscience. Rosenkranz, in his Philosophy of Education, gives this 

 fine definition of conscience : " Conscience is the criticism which 

 the ideal self makes on the realized self." To discover and quicken 

 the ideal self wherever possible is one of the noblest aims of prac- 

 tical philanthropy. 



EMPLOYMENT. A recent report of the United States Labor Com- 

 missioner, Hon. Carroll D. Wright, states that the number of women 

 laborers is increasing, but that women are more generally taking 

 the places of children than of men; that the encroachment of women 

 upon the occupations held by men is so far very slight, and only in 

 conditions where women are better adapted for the particular work 

 in which they are employed. 



" Women," he says, " are considered by many employers to be 

 more reliable, more easily controlled, neater, more rapid, indus- 

 trious, polite and careful, and less liable to strike than men. Wyo- 

 ming and Utah are cited as the only States which have laws ac- 

 cording to men and women equal wages for equal work. There 

 is still much economic injustice as to compensation for women's 

 work, although some progress has been made within the last 

 few years." 



The agitation of the question of " equal pay for equal work," 

 if it has not as yet accomplished much for the woman wage-earner, 

 has at least revealed the fact that women as a class are not as well 

 trained for the work they attempt as men. The number of un- 

 skilled women in all branches of trade presents a problem which 

 may well engage the attention of the philanthropist. The neces- 

 sity of earning to " keep the wolf from the door," the pleasure re- 

 sulting from financial independence, and a desire to add to " pin 

 money " have all tended to increase the number of girls and women 

 who are seeking employment outside the home. The fever has ex- 

 tended to the smaller towns, and even to the farmers' wives and 

 daughters, until the supply greatly exceeds the demand in many 

 localities, and the women really in need are often crowded to the 

 wall in this inadequate race. In the passing of old ideas as to the 



