The political reformer was sincerely shocked by the narrowness of her views, and took her down in a long description of our villainously mismanaged government. “Much good mere physical health would do against our insane tolerance of such political ineptness and corruption!” he ended. “What we need is an awakening to the importance of government as every man’s personal business.” Mrs. Maynard, the tragic-faced, eloquent Scotch expert on birth-control, now said in that low, bitter voice of hers which always makes every one stop to listen, “I would be obliged if you would point out to me how either physical health or the very best of municipal governments should alleviate in the slightest, the hideous ulcers of our so-called respectable married homes. When the very foundation of every-day human life is cemented in such unthinkable cruelty and suffering to defenseless women, I don’t see how human beings with hearts in their bosoms can stop for an instant to consider such puerile non-essentials as athletics and party politics!” The two or three happily married women in the group, startled by her fierce acrimony, were silent, feeling abashed by the grossly comfortable way we had managed to escape even a knowledge of the horrors which she so urgently assured us were universal. But Mr. Sharpless, the efficiency engineer, shook his head pityingly. “No, no, my dear lady, you can’t cure anything by going at it with the hammer and tongs of direct action. The economic key is the only one that fits all locks, opens all doors. The women of what we call the ‘upper classes’ do not suffer as you describe. You know they don’t. Now why do we _call_ them the ‘upper classes’? Because they have money. You know it! Hence, if everybody had money ...! I tell you the thing to do is to reorganize our wretched old producing machinery till ever so much more is produced, ever so much more easily; and then invent distributing machinery that will ensure everybody’s getting his share. You may not think home life is much affected by the chemist in his laboratory, devising a way to get nitrogen chiefly from the air, or by the engineer struggling with the problem of free power out of the tides or the sun. But it is. Just once put _all_ women in the comfortable upper classes....” He was interrupted here by a number of protesting voices, all speaking at once, the loudest of which, Professor Oleny’s finally drowned out the others, “... money without intelligence is the most fatal combination conceivable to man! Economic prosperity would spell speedy destruction without an overhauling of education.” He spun like a pinwheel for a moment, in a sparkling, devastating characterization of American schools, and of their deadening effect on the brains which passed through them, and began on a description of what schools should be.