The San Francisco call., 1913-10-07
Too Much Freedom for
Young Folk, Ayers Mrs.
Macdonald

What San Francisco Needs Most
is more care of young girls. believes
Mrs J. S A Macdonald, president of
the Dorian club and recording secre-
tary of the California club.
Il do not think il very suitable for
women who have had no experience
in municipal affairs to express their
opinions too decidedly or offer their
criticism too freely of the way in
which the city is conducted. l think
that we should elect men who are
fitted to the tasks and then abide to
a great extent by their judgment of
matters.
Looking at the needs of San Fran
cisco from the standpoint from which
l think 1 am qualified to judge, it
seems to me that better care Of the
young girls is one of the most de-
cided needs that we have.
TOO MUCH FREEDOM HERE
THAT applies to all American citieE
of course, but more particularly 1
think TO San Francisco. I mean bet
ter care among the girls that we
know. Look at the high school girls
whose mothers know next to nothing
of their associates. their plans, their
interests and all too often of their
whereabouts. The way that young
girls are permitted to go out to the
Iheaters without chaperons is ter
rible, I think.
The mothers are too Indifferent or
have too easy a faith in their own
daughters. / believe.
There could never be the freedom
permitted them in other cities that
they have here. You see girls out
continually one place or another with
men entirely unchaperoned. You can
easily realize the danger of that even
for the incest girls.
- 1T is permitting entirely too much
responsibility for her conduct to rest
upon the girl.
LITTLE THINGS LEAD TO DISASTER
she is so young she has not yet
learned to decide things imperson-
ally and as wisely as would an older
head All too often she does some
silly thing. just as any girl may do.
1t is misunderstood or puts her in a
false position for the moment and
she is placed in grave danger of one
kind or another through no real fault.
If she had her mother or some older
--on9an with her she would be saved
from what might in many cases mean
her first wrong step.
Then. too, the mothers do not seek
TO enter into the real interests and
desires of their daughters, as they
should. Let the mother gain her
child's confidence and then see that
she does nothing to lose it, cross
word, or worst Of all, ridicule, at the
time when little sympathy or toler-
lion was the absolute need of the
moment, has frequently turned the
daughter away and made an impress
sion on her from which she never
RECEIVERS.
MORE CHAPERONs NEEDED
Let the training begin when the
girls are young, before they begin tc
get ideas that they must have their
own way and their own freedom.
Let the little girls of s and IL
realize that they must not go out to
nfckelodeons alone. You see them al
such places constantly in little groups
with no older person with them. That
is all wrong. Let them go to the
moving pictures, of course. but let
them be taken by some one who is
fitted TO take care of them.
IF the mothers Of San Francisco
would only awaken to the fact thai
they must not give their daughters Sc
much freedom nor demand so little
confidence from them, it would be the
greatest blessing that could come tc
the city, -s---..--