_It is the right of every girl_ to be shielded from the moral danger and
physical strain of labor for her daily bread, at least until she shall
reach the age of sixteen. Yet every year sees a long procession of girls
from eight to sixteen entering into the economic struggle who cannot
claim their rights.

_It is the right of every girl_ to have a good time, to play under
conditions that are morally safe, and to enjoy amusements that leave no
stain. Hundreds of girls live in communities where this is absolutely
impossible. What has religion to offer to a girl denied an education
which will fit her for the life she must live, compelled to enter into a
fierce struggle for daily bread while still a child, surrounded by every
sort of cheap, exotic amusement behind which temptation lurks? Has it
anything to offer in compensation, if it permits conditions to go on
unchanged?

_It is the right of every girl_ to enjoy companionship and friends.
Thousands of girls toil through the day in shops, factories, offices and
kitchens and at night sit friendless and alone until the loneliness
becomes unendurable and they seek companionship of the unfit and the
refuge of the street. Has religion anything to do with lonely girlhood?

_It is the right of every girl_ to receive such instruction regarding
her own physical life and development as shall serve to protect her from
the pitfalls laid for the thoughtless and ignorant, and shall fit her to
understand, and when the time comes accept the privileges and
responsibilities of motherhood. Every year sees thousands of girls enter
the teens whose only knowledge of self and motherhood is gained through
the half truths revealed by companions, the suggestions of patent
medicine and kindred advertisements, or the falsehoods of those who seek