South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-01-14
Man Less Petty
Than Is Woman,
Chief Fault of Men is Their
Belief in Their Own
Faultlessness.
BY Beatrice Fairfax.

by Beatrice FAIRFAX.
A few days ago we considered the
cardinal feminine weaknesses: hypO-
crisy. prevarication, unreliability and
general pettiness, coupled with too
great a tendency to expect life to
yield things merely because one is a
woman.
A correspondent writes TO ask if 1
have a grudge against my own sex.
and also if / see no faults in the
Lords of Creation" Indeed l see
plenty of faults in men. But mascu-
line saults. like masculine virtues. are
big. constructive things that must be
reached in the individual and that
cannot be blotted out in the sex
Men are seldom petty-the men
who are not manly, and SO cannot be
treated in any general view of their
sex. Men have broader horizons and
larger and more imperSOnal vision
than those Of which women, as a sex,
are capable. Consequently their faults
are not weaknesses which may easily
be conquered by taking thought, but
are actual big failings which must be
worked at 10 be uprooted.
Women accuse men of selfshness,
elf-centredness and actual cruelty,
and women see these failings in men
somewhat because of their own petit
ness.
The one great fault in masculine
human nature is its calm air of su
periority. An old prayer says Lord.
/ thank Thee that Thou has not made
me a woman" Modern man does not
voice this prayer. but he thinks and
feels it and his whole attitude
breathes it. out of this attitude rises
the unfairness man shows in his deal
ings with woman and all his slow
10 nj hn~ in % a r
i'm the scheme Of things With his
vices we are not dealing.
Being a man has always proved
such "A comfortable affair that man
placidly sits back in selfish enjoyment
of his privileges, and doesn't offer
woman u helping hand as she rises
above his Old-time Oriental despOtism
Out of this air Of superiority comes
the calmness with which man ac-
cepts his own moral shortcomings
and quite takes 1t for granted that
he may be "a devil of a fellow" while
the women of his own world must be
spOtless angles. with no one to ad-
more the set of their halOs! Thence.
too. comes his sneering attitude to-
ward women of the half-world and
the under world If he has chival-
rOus impulses toward them. if he
thinks of them as human beings who
have slipped out OF the path on
which their feet were set. he con-
quers these feelings because of the
masculine superiority which permits
his double standard.
Men are too easy with themselves,
too tolerant Of their own failings, too
willing to excuse selishness, thought
lessness and even unkindness on
their own parts They do not give
fairly enough Of their own person
alities. they do not yield easily enough
to the demands of other PERSONAL
ties. They are not sufficiently chiv-
alrous i'm their attitude toward wOm-
anhOod. But all of this is directly
traceable to the masculine air of SUI
periority that expresses itself in the
old prayer, Lord. l thank Thee that
Thou hast not made me a woman"
The business absorption, the over
ambition, the lowered standard of
righteousness and honor of which
men are guilty today are all directly
traceable to this fountain-head of
evil.
What's the matter with the men?
The matter is that they think here
is nothing at all the matter