From  whatever  standpoint  we  survey  the
matter,  it  presents  one  unchanging  aspect.  That
women  are  in  industry  to  stay  —  as  a  class  if  not
as  individuals  —  seems  an  established  fact.  And
so  long  as  they  are  in  industry,  they  deserve  as
adequate  training  for  their  tasks  as  men.
Two  other  arguments  for  vocational  training
of  women  (whether  domestic  or  industrial)  force
themselves  upon  our  notice.  As  has  been  said  in
another  connection,  trade  schools  ought  to  secure
a  respectful  attitude  toward  work.  If  more  of
our  young  women  took  some  personal  interest  in

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TRADE  EDUCATION  AND   THE  WOMAN

housework  ;  if  more  of  them  were  trained  to  man-
age a  house  economically  and  even  to  do  the  work
well  and  expeditiously  themselves,  they  would  be
willing  and  able  to  marry  on  less  and  begin  more
simply  than  many  a  young  person  now  thinks  of
doing  in  some  walks  of  life.  Thus  perhaps  some
of  the  justly  deplored  late  marriages,  with  their
correspondingly  decreased  birth  rate,  might  be
avoided.  Our  ethical  concept  has  in  this  case
gone  in  advance  of  the  biological  evolution.  We
must  not  try  to  force  it  too  far  ahead,  or  nature
will  pull  us  up  short  rein  by  some  signal  warning.
The  problem  of  late  marriage  is  bound  up
closely  with  a  still  graver  question  upon  which
trade  education  should  have  an  even  deeper  and
better  influence  —  that  travesty  of  marriage,  pro-
stitution. Prostitution  is  a  survival  of  primitive
polygamy  and  later  concubinage,  monogamy  as
a  type  having  been  slow  of  development,  being
still,  indeed,  far  from  perfectly  developed  in  hu-
man ideals  and  conduct.  And  modern  social  or-
ganization impedes  its  development  in  many
ways ;  nay,  almost  inevitably  prolongs  the  bar-
baric system  amongst  us.
