The Washington times., 1923-04-21
DANCE CRAZE IS
. FOOLISH, SAYS
PARKHURST
Young People Are Ambitious to
Do Grotesque Things,
Asserts TheoIogian.
BY VIOLA BROTHERS SHORE,
Cosmopolitan News Service.

III NE w IOINLAy APP Al AAAN $500
stop dancing craze sweeping the
country is but one manifestation OF
the wild and disordered condition
of the minds of our young people"
DR.. Charles H. Parkhurst, eminent
theologian and welfare worker. who
has just passed his elghty.Llrst
birthday, hale and hearty, said to-
day.
you can't say it is wicked-this
epidemic of dancing-but it is con-
foundedly stupid" he said There
is no nationality, no intelligence be-
hind it. 1t is simply symptom OF
the recklessness and Stiffness of our
young people today.
This seems to be the time when
there is an ambition to do the most
unnatural thing, the most grotesque
thing that can be thought OF. They
TRY to outvie one another in sheer,
reckless foolishness. If q couple
dances fifty hours, another tries to
dance sixty hours. Their only ap-
parent concern is to do something
spectacular.
Home Life Degenerated.
1.-The trouble with our young
folks is directly traceable to the de-
generation of home life. Home life
is a diminishing quantity in this
country today. OF course, there are
exceptions. but broadly speaking,
there is no home life.
when / was boy I was at
home unless there was some reason
for me to be out. Now boy is
out unless there is some reason
for being at home. The girls are
as bad as the boys
1t was DIR. Parkhurst, who
generation ago forced the famous
Lexow investigation into vice ana
graft conditions in New York city
Il domestic life is undermined, he
explained. "In the old days a man
Il and his wife and two or three chill
/ dren formed healthy and delight
i full unit. / think apartment houses
/ are largely responsible for the
brea king up of the old private
| home Iife..
] Home used to be a place where
| the younger elements of the FAMILY
l were held under a certain degree
! of control Nowadays young men
| and women run wild.
1 1.-THE mother. for example. rea-
sons: I would like to keep my
| daughter within certain restraint.
/ But If do, she breaks with her
/ companions and is left to. Lead
! lonely and desolate life. So | have
] to give in to her
/ There is just as much family
government as there used to be-
/ Only the seat of government has
been shifted. 1t is now the children
/ who govern the parents.
New Kind of ViciOusness.
1.-THE situation in New York now
! is very different from what ii was
when I was engaged in my fight.
But in some respects it, is just as
bad. The particular kind of Vici-
/ BUSINESS that existed then has been
! broken up. But other kinds have
come in.
4 I'VE need some one to come for
ward and deal with the present gen.
1 eration-a man fearless, strong,
who would dare to go into the
| fight for better conditions, social
and political.
There should be some attempt to
reconstruct society along the old
lines. The gravity of the situation
| is recognized by the press. 1t is
| recognized bye the pulpit. by all
| pCOpIC, IlSh anu
! But most of the people, who deplore
1t. do nothing to check it.
! -"Of course, things go in waves.
And when they have become pretty
| bad. their very badness produces
reaction. 1t may be that this law
lessness may be realized by the bet.
| ter part of our young men and
women as being absurd, ridiculous
and bad. The very badness of it all
may operate to turn them around.
| But of course, you can't count on
that.
"Forty-fve years ago New York
was comfortable little town. People
were respectable. The streets were
safe. Men and women could walk
out by day or night without fear
of being run down or heldup. People
were not afraid of being kidnapped
| and assassinated. People weren't
continually in danger Of being killed
| by accident.
Marriage an Experiment.
"And there were few divorces.
People married with the expectation
of remaining married. Now they
experiment with the first one, and
| if they don't like it, they try again.
| There is a good deal of animalism
about the whole thing. People marry
because two sexes are involved and
without stopping to consider that
marriage is a significant thing.
Then they get divorced. And the
second time they may enter into it
more deliberately.
1.-The papers cause a great deal
of harm. Everything is put in
black and white and spread before
the public. Every time d murder
is committed every detail is pub
lished. Those things are contagious.
This whole wave of bank thefts
may be put down to the suggestion
induced. by published accounts of
the first few. And this holding up
of boys carrying money for pay
rolls. A common occurrence now
adays. But totally unknown some
years ago.
Crime spreads, just as disease
spreads. / am very sorry that the
newspapers publish everything they
do publish about crimes and. di-
vorces, for publication of such de-.
tails propagate more divorces"