But we have already seen that if there is one thing more than another the home fails in, it is just this. If there is one duty more than another the woman fails in, it is just this. Our homes are not planned nor managed in the interests of little children; and the isolated home-bound mother is in no way adequate to their proper rearing. This is not disputable on any side. The death rate of little children during the years they are wholly in the home and mother's care proves it beyond question. The wailing of little children who live--or before they die--wailing from bodily discomfort, nervous irritation, mental distress, punishment--a miserable sound, so common, so expected, that it affects the price of real estate, tenants not wishing to live near little children on account of their cries--this sound of world-wide anguish does not seem to prove much for the happiness of these helpless inmates of the home.
Such few data as we have of babies and young children in properly managed day nurseries, give a far higher record of health and happiness. Not the sick baby in the pauper hospital, not the lonely baby in the orphan asylum; but the baby who has _not_ lost his mother, but who adds to mother's love, calm, wise, experienced professional care.
The best instance of this, as known to me, is that of M. Godin's _phalanstère_ in Guise, France. An account of it can be found in the _Harper's Monthly_, November, 1885; or in M. Godin's own book, "Social Solutions," translated by Marie Howland, now out of print. This wise and successful undertaking had been going on for over twenty years when the above article was written. Among its features was a beautifully planned nursery for babies and little children, and the results to child and parent, to home and state were wholly good. Better health, greater peace and contentment, a swift, regular, easy development these children enjoyed; and when, in later years, they met the examinations of the public schools, they stood higher than the children of any other district in France.
A newborn baby leads a far happier, healthier, more peaceful existence in the hands of the good trained nurse, than it does when those skilled hands are gone, and it is left on the trembling knees of the young, untrained mother.