The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-04-30
RABBI STEPHEN S. WISE CON-
DENNIS THE MANNERS AND
MORAL STANDARDS OF THE
DAUGHTERS OF "NICE PEOPLE,"

Smoking by women, drinking by
young people, lewd dancing immodest
dressing, attendance at all-night par
ties and the lip-stick habit were con-
demned last week by Rabbi Stephen
s. Wise, preaching before the congre-
York City, on Daughters of Nice Peo-
ple,'" in Carnegie Hall. -
81 believe much in the present-day
life of women is due to half-con-
scious revolt against standards, some
women making the terrible bi:lnder
not of insisting that mans standards
shall be even as their own, but of
acquiescing in the lower standards of
men," said Dr. Wise. CAS- if women
were to say-'You need not be as
clean as we have been, but we shall
be as unclean as you 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 stand
ards, and is also result of the chal-
lenges and necessities of war emer-
gencies. But here, too, the tragedy
is that we have got the worst out of
the war, debased ourselves to it's low
est by-products instead of having
achieved its finest hopes and aims.
Let it not be imagined that the
standards of nice people have bro
ken down overnight. 1t has not come
about suddenly. 1t is not overmuch
smoking on the part of the daughters
of nice people, nor indecent drink
ing, nor lewd dancing, nor semi-nude
dressing, nor attendance at all-night
parties, nor the never-ceasing exhibit
of the lip-stick-it is all of these
things together that constitute sor-
ry, sordid, 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.
Il have said little of the sons of
nice people, though these, too, are
human persons. For these will hard
ly be worth saving if the daughters
of nice people continue to be as they
are becoming"
Rabbi Wise said that rarely, if
ever, did he preach about play. For
the thing is done too often, and it
can be done too cheaply," he said.
But Nice People is a startlingly
vivid and powerful human document
which epitomizes in dramatic form
the things that mrltitudes of men
and women teachers within and with
out the pulpit have long been trying
to say.
What are the real causes of the
things that are happening in and to
the lives of the daughters of nice
peeple,a-as shown in that first act?
First of all, the woman's movement
toward emancipation or liberation has
been grievously 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 be found in illimitable indulgence
in smoking and drinking, makes one
wonder whether emancipation came
centuries too soon or century too
late. To confound disgusting habits
with independence is a strangely per-
verse attitude of mind.
Back of the things that are said
and done by the daughters of nice
people lies a not wholly inexplicable
revolt from the social hypocrisy of
other days with it's conspiracies of
silence and deceit, of vile and strata
gem. But the absence of high can
dor in one generation is no excuse for
the next generation lapsing into that
so-called frankness which is little bet
ter than unashamed indecency and
bestiality.'
DIR. Wise took issue with the head
of a woman's college who ascribed
these conditions to "the 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, lis to challenge the
spirit of the times, to appeal from
it's decisions that decide nothing, and
to call upon the spirit of the best in
the finest of our youth and maidens
to lift up new standards for them
selves and all the youth of our gen.
Grafton"
DR.. Wise concluded with an appeal
to young women of leisure and edu-
cation, and more particularly to young
college and university women, favored
by opportunity, to be mindful of the
dignity of their calling and the mean
ing of their enfranchised womanhood.
y q