The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1912-04-16
COURSE N MANNERS OUGHT
TO Be ADDED TO SCHOOL
STUDIES, SAYS SAvANT
Would Be Fully as Valuable as
Present One in English. Says
DR.. H. A, Miller
is DEEP SOCIAL STUDENT
Rudeness Belongs To Same
Class as Bad Grammar and Re-
quires Serious Thought

OLINET, Mich, April 10
4 earnestly believe that 1t is desirable
and possible TO have school course
IN manners, and give it the same
dignity as a course in EnglishI SAID
DIR. II. A. Miller, OF the sociology
department OF Olivet college In a
lecture on Manners" before one OF
his sociology classes.
DIR. Miller is the most radical
thinker in the olivet faculty in so
Biological matters and his statements
on manners is the result of Ions
study and observation. He says
further:-
For both the individual and So
ciety TO be maintained il is necessary
10 harmonic the two without 'dimin-
ishing the vigor of either. Out OF
this situation arises many of our GUS
toms. and most OF our manners. II is
for this reason that a course in man
mers would be fully as valuable as
Dne I'm English. ...
Language is a purely social insti-
tuition, and has arisen from the need
we have OF expressing ideas which
come i'm social relations. Our man
ners are for the purpose OF expressing
ourselves also. Many OF our man
ners are directly based on custom
Thus IL is good form for a man TO
walk with a lady on the side away
from the street. This was a custom
of the chivalrous age when the street
contained dangers from which the
- fak
man should not walk between two
women for the same reason. Such
forms have outlived their cause but
are OF value in maintaining in men
the feeling Of responsibility TO pro-
tect women.
Speaking of the double standard OF
morals which is receiving so much
attention az the present time rom
writers, Or. Miller said:-a.,s
"The apparently illogical double
standard of morals has an element or
nationality in il. The woman or
mother is the real cUnserver OF the
family unit, and whatever may be-
come of the father. the children will
be safely reared il the mother re-
mains in proper harmony with the
group. -
.Women have been The foremost
nromoters of this double standard be-
cause since they are nearer the re-
sponsibility for the Integrity or the
group. they are the, most intense con
servers of custom. They are the bill
terest and most uncompromising
critics OF an immoral sister. though
the immortality may be far less than
that of her brother. The double
standard OF morals has really come
about through the superiority Of man
and the moral -inferiority OF women.
Eve object to smoking by women,
not because IL is wrong, but because
IL breaks down one of the safeguards
OF sex integrity on which the race
depends. From the point of view OF
logic there is no more reason why
women should not smoke than why
men should not. but all of us feel an
Instructive dislike OF the practice"
DR.. Miller suggested and empha-
sized the question OF dress in relation
10 present social peculiarities. In
part he said:
whenever we are in a social sit
uation we wear our good clothes, not
20 show that we have them, but to
show that we are, while in this social
situation, free. Then We have gone
TO the further extreme of making our
clothes grade up according to best
ness in terms OF impracticability for
any other sort Of activity. This is
carried TO the extreme in women g
dress, and yet IL is good manners for
her to wear such a dress to demon
strate her freedom.
Manners, said DR.. Miller,
should express our personality. Just
as bad English may not indicate bad
thinking, so rudeness may not mean
that the individual is unsocial, but
rudeness belongs in the same class
as bad grammar
The relation which customs and
manners bear to society is that they
keep man from forgetting that he is
q member OF group and thus do not
allow him to revert to his pure in
dividualism. The leading customs
which have a moral value today are
monogamy, anti-slayery and democra-
cy. Progress is a watchword which
we shout bilt do not ,,nda,e,,nl