New-York tribune., 1922-08-20

Mother" presents to us her son--ssthis
manly little son Of mine, who has just round
ed our his thirteenth year Of life and stands
confident and opinionated upon the threshold
OF life" With charming frankness she ex-
poses him to our scrutiny and says: Here,
look him over and tell me what Is the matter
with him. / don't know.
Throughout her article there breathes
deep current Of love and sympathy--even Of
understanding. He boy is her all, that is
evident. There have been no secrets of life
that we have not shared THAT boy is for
tunata, indeei:J Ard yet she stands be-
wlldered-she cannot understand the change
that has taken place about her. Even while
SHE admits having been considered extreme
lys and Wild by her own parents
a mere eighteen or twenty years ago
The real topic Of her article is the fapper,
whom she has been studying through her
sons eyes and by noting his and sundry of
his schoolnates' reactions to that most recent
product Of our civilization. The Flapper-
poor thing--is the most discussed, praised
and damned thing to-day, except perhaps
Messrs. Volstead and Sumner. Also, the most
sincere the most natural . the
most fearless and healthiest type of woman
hqod the world has seen in many century
The Flapper is Modern Woman, the female of
Man THAT most imperfect animaD naked and
unashamed She is what countless genera
tions OF her ancestresses would have liked to
be, but never dared. Like the man of the
motto, she looks the world in the face and
tells it to go to hell. And who can deny
her that right?
Mo -
own generation, take pen in hand to present
one frank viewpoint of her dilemma? Con-
slider the fapper and her generation. It's
most salient feature is frankness. Frankness
in dress, in speech, in morals and manners,
and in liberation of human foibles. 1t knows
life and stands fearlessly before it, Fore
warned Is forearmed," and as see it, flap
persm is merely the outward manifestation
of the inner consciousness of the forewarn-
Ing process. 1t is the awakening and recog-
milton of sex. The elder generations shudder
but the younger glories in it.
Let us put the problem frankly. There is
far less secrecy in matters of sex to-day than
there has been in the past and who
would return TO the old days Of hypocritical
denial of knowledge that was thrust upon
one at every street corner and every school
yard? Open any newspaper-and you are con-
fronted with the hard, cold facts Of life on
every page. Here, man kills his wife's
lover; there, woman sues the father of her
illegitimate child; over yonder the paternity
of child of prominent couple is aues-
toned, not emitting a wealth of dates and
hotel registrations. Or open any book
books, mean, of serious, deep thinking writ
ers of our own generation. They can be
had for the asking at any library and
you will find birth and death, and love and
life, discussed and analyzed and dissected
until they stand revealed in all their ugli-
ness and all their beauty. And the
fapper and the topper, who are far from
being fools, read--and mayhap begin to think
about themselves in new light and with
growing understanding
If wisely directed the minds of your sons
and daughters will not suffer thereby-rather
they will be ennobled and fortified against the
inevitable temptations and troubles of the
future. For knowledge kills curiosity; and
curiosity has been the cause of more ruin and
immortality" and heartbreak than frank. ac-
~lmowledged understanding.
While ] do not personally agree with the
feeling that the war has lowered the moral
standard 1t cannot be denied that Flapper-
ism is one of its developments. The war
brought out the best in US and the worst in US.
1t overthrew ancient conventions and EXPOSED
established shanls. Since different tone. q
different outlook, more animalistic and mate
rialistic view of life prevails. Old bars of
maiden prudery and adolescent hypocrisy have
cesii renoved--let us hope forever. Eve are
.hA coming men and women is the cry of the
new adolescence. eve caxry tie seed of future
generations. We want to know what stands
before u.s. The older generation, brought up
IN other traditions, in other aspirations, looks
or and cannot understand
Tin.e was when girls eliminating ambition
was to draw meal ticket, to become wife,
a faithful mother to some ones children and
nothing else For the sake of that goal she
even cloaed her eyes when realizing that friend
husband would come home for his fireside but
went poaching in other preserves for his pleas
ure; and she lost her self-respect thereby
Modern conditions are changing tina. passive
viewpoint. The new generation stands on its
own feet. The girls can go into the business
world and earn their own meal tickets They
look about them at the world and see that it
ls good and want to enjoy it to the fullest the
best of it and the worst of it. And when they
A. A. - =