South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-02-17
BY Woods Hutchinson. VI. ID.

The Worlds Foremost Writer on
Medical Subjects.
The things which We all take for
granted are often those which are
least supported by evidence. And
the longer we have taken them for
granted the less likely they are to
be true. Old as the everlasting hills,
hoary as gray old ocean, fixed and
immutable as the granite ribs Of
earth is the universal belief, which
approaches the dignity Of an drti-
Gle of faith, that women are inner
emily and unchangeably frail, de-
fenseless, timid. incapable Of facing
danger or enduring ha:dship, help
less without the protecting shield
and arm of the sterner sex. The
sturdy oak and clinging vine bust
ness was regarded as absolutely de-
scribing and fixing the relations Of
the sexes.
When once this immutable law
possible was done to make il come
true and suppress and discourage all
exceptions From the time they
left the cradle the lettering steps
of girl babies were hedged and pail
saded upon the right hand and upon
the left with a cheveaux de frise of
precepts and injunctiOns and con-
ventions, sternly forbidding and re-
pressing every act and thought
which showed the slightest faint of
that deadly sin, boyishness or man
nishness.
SO rigidly and senselessly have
these taboos and restrictions been
enforced that il has often been diff
cult for girls TO be healthy and hu-
man and natural. and real marvel
that so many of them succeeded in
growing up. on no account must
they run or jump or scramble over
fences or climb trees or scufhe or
whistle or throw stones or shout,
because all these things fall under
that last and most damning ban of
accommodation "uniadylike."
Then after a girl has been hOobled
and blind-folded and straitjacketed
and sissyfied and sat upon, day and
night for 20 long years, society
turns a disparagins but condescend
ingly approving eye upon the prod
uct which il has itself created and
says: There, that is a typical WON
an''-soft muscled, dependent, emo
tional physically and mentally
afraid, lacking in initiative. a slave
to convention; so she was born, so
she must ever be, world without
end, Amen!
Once Rude TO be Healthy.
In the days of our grandmoth-
ers it was actually considered indeli-
cate and unwomanly for a girl 20
possess rude health and round, red
cheeks, and an audible voice and
square shoulders and visible feet and
to swing her arms about as if they
had real muscles in them, and TO
walk as if she intended 10 get some
where. Everything must be die
away and Observation-Disclosures
complexion, languishing eyes, long
neck, sloping shoulders, wasp waist,
mincing gait and an unlimited capa-
city for giggling or bursting into
tears a la that mushy little idiot.
sweet Alice, Ben Bolt" and for
promptly and gracefully fainting
away upon I'll appropriate occasions.
Really it is a wonder that the
women of our self-styled better
classes had a spoonful of brains or
an ounce of real muscle left. But
their descendants have been gradu-
ally freeing themselves, throwing of
a strap here, q bandase there and
a hobDle somewhere else until now
they are boldly challenging the
whole sacred tenet and declaring
there is no inherent and inevitable
mental difference between the sexes.
That women are Just as brave. just
as competent. Just as enterprising,
JUS; as active and vigorous, just as
capable of facing danger and en-
during hardships as men are if they
are only given a mans chance and a
mans training.
COnquering in All Fields.
In one field after another they
are competing with and even super
seding men. even in that supposedly
masculine specialty-war. War with
all its terrors is the great hammer
that suasheS ancient letters NAL