Page:Women and the State.djvu/17

15 closely concerned with everything that affects the home. How do political measures affect us? Let us see. A baby is born to us. The law says that the child's birth must be registered within a few weeks, if it be born in wedlock; if born out of wedlock, its birth must be notified within three days. Why? To safeguard the new life, and in the case of the poor little "unwanted" mites, to prevent baby farming and infanticide. A marriage is to take place. There are numerous legal formalities to go through, including three days' notice. Why? To safeguard the happiness of the two who wish to join their lives in one, and to stop the wretched trafficking of the "Marriage Shops." A death takes place. The law says that without the registration of that death burial cannot take place. Why? To ensure to every citizen, as far as possible, the right to live out the full measure of his or her days without foul play cutting them short. We live in reasonable security from violence, and we go to bed at night in the assurance that our lives will be guarded while we sleep. Why? Because the State provides protection from wrongdoers, and the policemen patrol the streets at night as well as by day. Our system of State Government is truly paternal in its operation, for throughout it has for its object the welfare of the homes of the people. The State is really nothing more or less than the sum total of our homes, and it is only through the well-ordered lives of the great majority, and the happy homes of most of us, that the State is able to conduct its affairs at all. Each home is a unit of the State, and as such, the State is intimately concerned in its well-being. Every unhappy home is a menace to the whole State; every ill-assorted