The great assemblage had ears for her.  The idea of an extension of motherhood, an organized, scientific supervision of children, made an appeal such as nothing else could.  For, after all, persistently—­almost irritatingly, at times—­this great federation, which was supposed to concern itself with many fine abstractions, swung back to that concrete and essentially womanly idea of the care of children.  Women who had brought to it high messages of art and education had known what it was to be exasperated into speechlessness by what they were pleased to denominate the maternal obsession.

Kate swung them back to it now, by means of impersonal rather than personal arguments.  She did not idealize paternity.  She was bitterly well aware by this time that parents were no better than other folk, and that only a small proportion of those to whom the blessing came were qualified or willing to bear its responsibilities.  She touched on eugenics—­its advantages and its limitations; she referred to the inadequacy of present laws and protective measures.  Then she went on to describe what a Bureau of Children might be.

“The business of this bureau,” she said, “will be the removal of handicaps.

“Is the child blind, deaf, lame, tubercular, or possessed of any sorry inheritance?  The Bureau of Children will devise some method of easing its way; some plan to save it from further degeneration.  Is the child talented, and in need of special training?  Has it genius, and should it, for the glory of the commonwealth and the enrichment of life, be given the right of way?  Then the Bureau of Children will see to it that such provision is made.  It will not be the idea merely to aid the deficient and protect the vicious.  Nor shall its highest aspiration be to serve the average child, born of average parents.  It would delight to reward successful and devoted parents by giving especial opportunity to their carefully trained and highly developed children.  As the Bureau of Agriculture labors to propagate the best species of trees, fruit, and flowers, so we would labor to propagate the best examples of humanity—­the finest, most sturdily reared, best intelligenced boys and girls.

“We would endeavor to prevent illness and loss of life among babies and children.  Our circulars would be distributed in all languages among all of our citizens.  We would employ specialists to direct the feeding, clothing, and general rearing of the children of all conditions.  We would advocate the protection of children until they reached the age of sixteen; and would endeavor to assist in the supervision of these children until they were of legal age.  My idea would be to have all young people under twenty-one remain in a sense the wards of schools.  If they have had, at any early age, to leave school and take the burdens of bread-winning upon their young shoulders and their untried hearts, then I would advise an extension of school authority.  The schools should be provided with assistant superintendents whose business it would be to help these young bread-winners find positions in keeping with their tastes and abilities, thus aiding them in the most practical and beneficent way, to hold their places in this struggling, modern world.