Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/295

 ROOSEVELT

��his wife and children, and that the primary dnty of the woman is 1;o be the helpmate, the house- wife, and mother. The woman should have am- ple educational advantages; but save in excep- tional cases the man must bo, and shc; need not be, and generally ought not to be, trained for a lifelong career as the family breadwinner; and, therefore, after a certain point, the training of the two must normally be different because the duties of the two are normally different. This does not mean inequality of function, but it does mean that normally there must be dissimilarity of function. On the whole, I think the duty of the woman the more important, the more difficult, and the more honorable of the two ; on the whole I respect the woman who does her duty even more than I respect the man who does his.

No ordinary work done by a man is either as hard or as responsible as the work of a woman who is bringing up a family of small children; for upon her time and strength demands are made not only every hour of the day but often every hour of the night. She may have to get up night after night to take care of a sick child, and yet must by day continue to do all her house- hold duties as well ; aud if the family means are scant she must usually enjoy even her rare holi- days taking her whole brood of children with her. The birth pangs make all men th<^ debti)rs of all women. Above all our sympathy and regard art- due i<o the struggling wives among tho«;e whom Abniham Lincuin called the plain ptniple, and 255

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