OUTLINES OF A POLICY OF REFORM 297 



VII 



It is rather fashionable to speak pessimistically of 

 the great problem of maternal education. Every- 

 body recognizes the need for such education of the 

 mothers, but there is very little faith shown in any 

 comprehensive programme aiming to provide the 

 education. As an abstract proposition, every one 

 agrees with the statement that mothers need educa- 

 tion, but it is relatively difhcult to get up any interest 

 or enthusiasm when practical measures are proposed. 

 Nevertheless, in outlining these suggestions for a pro- 

 gramme of reform, I desire to lay special emphasis 

 upon this aspect of our problem. Given the purest 

 possible milk supply, and the most efficient system 

 in the world, if the mothers do not know how to take 

 care of the milk, a great deal of the social effort and 

 care will be utterly wasted and lost. 



It is not merely among the much patronized "poor" 

 of our cities, who have come somehow to be regarded 

 as rather less than human, that there is maternal 

 ignorance. The evil is by no means confined to that 

 class for whose benefit social settlements and similar 

 institutions are established. In the course of an 

 address to the members of a fashionable church not 

 long ago, I remarked that in many of the essentials 

 of motherhood they could learn from the poorest, 

 and that it might not be a bad idea for some of the 



