The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-05
The Question of Height.

June 4, 1901. Editors The Advertiser:
 In your editorial column today, writ ing on the question, Are Women Growing Taller" having quoted Gip- son to prove the affirmative, you con- clude:
 After all. however, if MT. Gibson in- sists that his theory is true can he not devise a plan by which the men will also grow upward, so as to keep up a fair average? A nation of giants and giantesses will not be a bad thing, provided the two sexes keep up with each other so that neither would have a great advantage over the other. Gipson must extend his theory.
 A seconds thought, halted awhile in its expression by the feminine nervous ness that shies at cold print, makes me ask: Gan either the men or wo- men of one generation gain any ad- vantage which in the next and sue ceediIg generations is not handed down to both?" should answer, No" Does not science foretell this truth, and does not history record it's dem- onstrations? That neither men nor women can be guilcy of injustice 70 each other without transmitting to their descendants the tendency to in- justice and to- the deep resulting re- sentiments is sufftcien: reason that each should sin no more in this respect. Could brains and hearts be analysed perfectly, there is no doubt we would make the discovery that muck of the disregard of that law of nature and revelation en1oinins honor to parents arises from the ineffaceable parental impressions of a just indignation to- wards lords of creation who dishonor themselves in petty tyrannies to wives. Huxley said more than he was con- scious of saying in his discussion on the inequality of the feminine part of the human race in his remarks: 'It is mans duty to see that to the ln- equality be not added injustice"-words dictated, perhaps, by chivalry. and yet for men who obey them fraugnt with that protection which ever companions self-respect and due regard for others
 The cynic may rejoin that If re- spect for his wife be dictated by de- sire that his son inherit her respect for the father, then the motive alters chivalry to selfishness. The reply IS that the cynic's way Is the way that leads to annihilation, and that to inn mortal men and women the uncon- scious operations of high, pure souls bring the beneficence that results rom such conformity and alliance with the Divine Spirit as makes obedience to the Decalogue and gospel become mere than principles and precepts obeyed and rise into processes as natural as the functions of respiration and sight or of any of the organs of the mortal body.
 By thinking, we may not add one crbit to our stature-Sut by doing we can! Especially can we add to the physical. mental and neral measure ments of .he manhood of Alabama Ly giving her girls as we'll as boys. every opportunity under heaven for develop ing body. brain and soul.
 Was 1t not Caesar who says, accoro- ing to the God-like Shakespeare:
 "Of all the wonders that I vet nave
 heard
 If seems to me most strange that men
 should fear?"
 May a woman today say. "1t seems to me most strange that men shouio mt eliminate fear by strengthenins inc courage and confid ance of that por' of the human race which rom sener, at,on to generation natures it's youth .Tt seems to me most strange to nope that linen will grow upward, If women are bent downward in the course oi life. N' "