The Washington herald., 1913-11-17
A PLEA FOR THE
YOUNGER FOLK
English Author of 'The Blindness of
Virtue" Scores Parents for Their
Inattention to Duty.
BY COsAIo HAMILTON.

intentions OF God. We have arrived at
that pitch OF civilization when the way
toward which We are thoughtlessly trav-
, cling leads down the other side of the
hill. We devote brains, energy, and
money to the perfection of every sort of
mechanical appliance, but we let the
human boy and girl, the father and
mother of the future race, go into the
main stream unhumanized.
What Is the present attitude between
parents and children? 1t must be, and
it is one OF armed neutrality. For this
obvious reason. home life is no longer the
fashion. These people who have plenty
OF money cannot be bothered with serv-
ant troubles and the irritations OF domes-
ticIty. They live in hotels. Hotels are
no place for children. They are packed
of to school at the earliest possible mo-
ment. Even those people who have
houses-for choice. a much bigger and
more pretentious place than any OF their
neighbors-can find in them no place for
children. School-that is the place for
them. They will be kept out OF mischief,
and II they cry or are laid up with some
childish ailment there will be nice,
capable matron to look after them. and
1t is better that her nights rest be dis
turbed than theirs.
They can devote as many hours day
as they like-if women-to dressmaking.
the massage person, the mantcurist, the
bridge club, and the affinity, the kinky-
haired, long-eyed-lashed. lazy cad who
follows Byron rather than Plato. and-if
men-to the hunt for the Elusive dollar,
the carefully chosen dinner, the theatsr.
and the little adventures. What bless
ing to have no children about the house
to hear the squabbles, to catch the eX-
travagance, the carelessness, the lack OF
self-restraint. There are the holidays.
though. What a nuisance they are. II
the parents go to Europe, there is the
expense of sending the children under
the charge OF a capable woman, to the
sea coast. II they cannot afford TO go
to Europe, they have to be bothered with
them in the country. 1t comes to this
then. Children grow very quickly to
regard their parents as an unavoidable
nuisance. and parents from the very first
welcome their children as regretable ac-
cidents
Born Wrongly.
Born into the world wrongly, inasmuch
as not u single thought was given by
their parents TO the specific and supreme
purpose for which marriage was de-
signed. the children of yesterday, today.
and tomorrow have very little chance
either of taking their places eventually
as clean. intellectual and hygienic citi-
Zens, or of being Of use and credit to the
nation to which they belong. The beau
tiful and indispensable influence of home
has not been theirs. They have passed
from school to school and finally into COL
leges as mere units-mere paying units
of an altogether hide-bound. mechanical
uninspired system Of education.
So far as schola stician goes they are
turned out masters Of superficiality,
race of young people all pounded into
the same inefficient mold, all book
stuffed and theoretical. like geese ready
for the market. They are turned loose
into hard and practical world without
an accurate knowledge of anything ex-
cept college cries, seIf-conscious without
self-confidence. ready TO lay down the
law without having any knowledge of
It's tenets, and anxious to begin where
their fathers have left on
Has faith been included in their over
whelming list of studies? No; that il not
of date. Has any single master or pro-
fessor, doctor or clergyman, ever said
one word to one boy or girl on the vital |
and all important question OF sex
hygiene? No. thousand times no. 1t |
is considered rather childish and old |
womanish to bring IN children in the |
knowledge and love OF the Divinity. but |
IT is indecent and almost criminal to tell !
them anything of the sex question, of !
human reproduction, of the great and /
beautiful gift that belongs in trust to |
rvery boy and girl born into the world.
No wonder that among the men and |
of these selfish and insincere !
times there are those who are almost .
on the subject of the future of /
the races. No wonder that the able and 4
distinguished members of the American |
Federation for Sex Hygiene, earnest !
of women's guilds in America /
and Canada, and men such as DR.. FL
lot, president emeritus of Harvard Col
lege; the editor of the Ladies' Home /
Journal, who has conducted an invalu-
able crusade on the question of truth in
the hcme, look forward into the future
With grave eyes. We may spend our
mercy and our enthusiasm in a vain and
ibortive attempt to improve the condi-
ton OF the younger generation II the
mothers and fathers OF the day refuse
% listen to us. Let these people take
however, il is as certain as
leath that IL they continue to hide be-
hind the shibboleths of ignorance and
,alse modesty. carelessness, and inatten-
ion to duty. as they refuse to take seri-
,usly the mission OF creation that has
been given 10 them by God and keep from
heir children for one false reason or an
ions of sex, the wonderful miracle of
and birth, first one thing and
hen another will happen. Degeneracy
Will mark the large cities of the world
Ike sores upon a beautiful face, in
disease will undermine human
ife and then, aghast, scared. and horri-
led, governments Will rush in and pass
he most drastic laws as to marriage MT
less, school management, and the weed
ng out of the unfit in the hour of birth.
The health OF mind and body Of the !
Younger generation, the usefulness and
lonesty of children who will soon be the '
Ictive citizens of this and other coun- 1
ries lies in the hands of parents and {
eachers. The parents are engaged in
me of two occupations: The men are 1
hrowing themselves heart and soul into I
he search of the dollar. The women are I
pending the money thus come by on I
heir backs and faces.
Our One Hope.
Our one hope lies in the teachers, then, ,
he men and women following what might 1
'e one OF the noblest of the vocations. ,
Ind what of them? They stand in coco :
arentis to these more or less parentless :
hildren only in the sense of their oeing I
s useless, inert, and mentally blind ana /
eaf and thoughtless as the parents q
themselves. Well may one make plea v
or the younger generation. Well may Il
ne pass through the quickly recurring I
nd never-to-be-lived-again days ana :
'atch the effects of so-called civilization ,
pom these young things that will soon be