The Denver Jewish news. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1915-1925, 1921-03-30
DR.. Stephen S. Wise on
the Modern Woman
lie SCORES PRESENT.DAY LIFE,
AND APPEALS TO SERIOUS
YOUNG WOMEN TO EFFECT
CHANGES,

below and comments on Is now running at
me NAV theater. New YORK with MISS
New York-Speaking at the Frea
Synagog yesterday on Daughters of
Nice People,, Rabbi DIR. Stephen S
Wise wholeheartetlly condemned the
present tendency on the part of young
women to Outdo her brothers in brev-
ity and laxity.
In the course of his address, DIR.
Wise said:
II believe much in the present-day
life of women is due to II half-consci-
Gus revolt against stndards. some
women making the terrible blunder not
Of insisting that mans standards
shall be even as their own, but of ac-
quiescing in the lower standards of
men. AS IL women were to say-.YOu
heed not he as clean as we have been,
have been
"The change in the manner of liv-
ing of the daughters of nice people
is due in part to the Europeanization
or continentalizatiOn of our standards,
and is also result of the challenges
and necessities of war emergencies.
But here too the tragedy is that we
have got the worst out of the war, de-
based ourselves to its lowest by-pro-
ducts instead of having achieved its
finest hopes and aims.
LET it not be imagined that the
standards of nice people have broken
down overnight. 1t has not come about
suddenly. 1t is not overmuch smok
ing on the part of the daughters of
nice people, nor indecent drinking.
nor lewd dancing, nor seni-nude dress
ing, nor attendance at all-night par
ties, nor the never -ceasing exhibit OF
The lipstick-it is all of these things
together that constitute sorry, sor-
did little less than tragic. thing. that
make the daughters of nice people
conform in manner and in lack OF
manner to the standards set by women
Of the street.
"It is, to put it temperateiy indeed,
indubious taste to have liquor at ones
tdDle but W VIVA ~ w sos'h-
people as some nice people do may
not be statutory crime. but fs NOR
ally vile and despicable thing.
II have said little of the sons OF
nice people, tho these, too. are hu-
man persons. For these will hardly
he worth saving If the daughters of
nice people continue to be as they
Are becoming"
Rabbi Wise said that rarely, If ever.
did lie preach about play For the
thing is done too often. and it can be
done too cheaply." he said. But Nice
people is startlingly vivid and pow
crful human document which cpito-
mizes in dramatic form the things that
multitudes of men and women teach
ers, within and without the pulpit,
have long been trying to say.
"What are the real causes Of the
things that are happening in the lives
Of the daughters Of Nice People as
shown In that first act? First of all,
the woman's movement toward eman-
cipation or liberation has been griev-
ously misunderstood and in some
senses woefully perverted.
"The notion of women with regard
TO freedom. who think that the only
sure tokens of womans freedom are
to he found in illimitable indulgence
in smoking and drinking. makes one
wonder whether emancipation cam"
centuries too soon or century too
late. To confound disgusting habits
with independence is Il strangely per-
verse attitude of mind.
Back of the things that are sai'l
and done by the daughters of Nice
people' lies II not wholly ineXplicablc
revolt from the social hypocrisy of
other days with its conspiracics of 81
lence and deceit, of vile and strata
gem. But the absence OF high candor
in one generation is no excuse for the
next generation lapsing into that so
called frankness which is little better
than unashamed indecency. and bestial.
ity."
DIR. Wise took issue with the head
of n woman's college who ascribcd
these conditions to "thc spirit of the
times"
",The business of those that lead and
teach and influence the life of the
young, whether in the home or in the
school or in the university or in the
church." he said, "is to challenge the
spirit of the tines to appeal from its