The Washington herald., 1921-09-28
men and WOMEN
LONG ON PASSING
BUCK, She THINKS
Writer Believes Parents
Dodge Their Respons-
Utilities.
By DOROTHY DIX.

people Is passing the buck. which
means letting George do II. duck
ing your own responsibility. put
ing up TO somebody else the dis
agreeable thing you are too lazy
and too cowardly to do yourself.
everybody does IL, men as well
as women. but Ii is a vice to which
women are especially addicted.
the chief reason why women get
married is because they want some
Doay to whom they have q legal
rlsht to pass the buck, and they
work the privilege for all It Is
worth. As long as things are go
ing nicely and smoothly, and break
ing as she wants them to happen,
woman takes no more account
OF her husbands authority as head
OF the house than she does of the
ukases of the Emperor of Timbuck-
700. and she is just about as much
afraid of him as she is of her pet
Pomeranian.
Until the Worm Turns.
she knows him for a meek,
downtrodden, hen-pecked creature,
whe wipes his feet on the doormat
Oetore he comes into the house, and
whose only official function in the
nome is signing checks on the
dotted line. Nevertheless. when the
need comes wife turns him into the
great and puissant receiver Of the
buck.
Ask any woman TO do anything
she doesn't want to do, and she
pulls a virtuous face, and says that
ner husband will not permit her to
10 IL. Ask a woman to contribute
10 charity or lend you money, and
she Will COO and gurgIe over you.
ana tell you how she would just
love to do 1t, but that she will have
70 ask her husband about IL. Mrs.
Jones assures you that she simply
pines 10 take an active part in some
great movement, but that her hus-
oand forbids ii. Mrs. Smith tells
You how she would love to have
poor old Aunt Susie live with her.
even II she is so grabbed and hard
TO get along with, but her husband
simply won't hear of il. Mrs. Thom-
son doesn't feel IT right for her to
spend her summers in the noun
tains and her winters in Florida,
but her husband insists upon IL.
And you smile at the adroitness
Of the gentle buck passers. and re-
fleet how strange it is that hus-
bands authority never interferes
with the things women desire to
do.
Out-HerOdInE Herod.
1t is because women pass the
buck first to their husbands. and
then to school teachers that the
land is filled with children that
make one feel that Herod has never
gotten just appreciation from
history.
1t is a common thing nowadays to
hear women complain that their
IA. or Is. or 16-year-old children
are entirely beyond their control.
Fhe boys are hoodlums The girls
are painted-up little Jezebels who
roam the streets and go with COM
not approve. and they come and go
It what hours they like.
It's because mothers pass the
buck. When Maud and Johnny
were tiny tots and howled for what
ever they wanted until they got It,
instead of turning them across her
knee. and lifting them up to the
higher life by means of an old
slipper. or a bed slat, or anything
that was handy. mother threatened
that she would tell father and have
him discipline them when he got
home.
It's An Ill Wind.
But by the time father got home
she had forgotten the offense. or
father was tired and didn't want to
and the result was that Maud and
Johnny went scot-free. and were
in their opinion that the
way to get what you want is to
yell for IL.
II takes n lot of strength and
nerve to wrestle with head-strong,
hiGh-strung children. and to teach
them self-control, and obedience,
and respect for the rights of others.
and the great majority Of women
are too weak. and trifiing, and self
indulCent themselves to do this.
The leave the disaEreeable task
to somebody else, and in so doing
.hev commit the unpardonabic sin.
for nothing can alter a mothers S
responsibility to her children. They
are in her hands in their plastic
youth when she can mold them into
an shape she desires. and whether
t,iev go right or wrong in life she
determines.
Takes Rap At Father.
In an enormous number of cases
,,tbars also pass the buck as re-
Ids the rearing of the children.
Trrv put il up to the school
teachers, and expect strangers to
do for their children what they have
nm TOO careless and too indiffer-
a,t 70 do. Any school teacher will
taIr YOU that IL would amaze you
N know how many. children come
on, Of respectable homes who have
49, been taught even the common
us,rss of decent society. They have
the manners of rufIians. They do
,ot even know how to hold their
Lpives and forks at the table. They
80 no consideration for others,
No conception OF even playing fair
1v and squarely.
Tbrn are selfish, self-opinionated.
-,oi1ed. ill-mannered and ill-tem-
narcd. and yet the parents expect
r. teachers to make worthwhile
-, and women out OF this poor
,,,orIaI. Sometimes the mirac:e
-, he accomplished. Generally the
= a+tempt is a failure, because the
,oocbcrs get the children too late,
IA