The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-06

dency of the older generation very clearly. However, I do believe that it is true that there has been a more drastic departure in the present young CT generation than in many pior to this one. I believe also that much of the fault of this can be credited to the parents and that the commandment quoted in this article is one of the main. causes. If children really re- spect their parents, if. they achieve cer- tain standards and ideas through the example of their parents, words are really unnecessary. This is exactly what they are not getting from their parents today.
 believe very much in parents stay ing young and being companions to their children, but l do not believe in it to the exaggerated degree that is true of the modern parent. As an example, l will quote a remark l. heard made by girl of IS the other day who said quite naturally, and not at all as though it were an extraordinary thing Mamma got rather tight last night at dinner"
 Yet will wager that if that mother saw her child get tight" she would complain bitterly about it and about the delinquencies of the young girl of today.
 Have children any longer, as soon as they are capable of thinking for themselves, any real, deeply founded re- spect for their parents? HasSit not come down to question of their de- ciding whether they like them or not, and discussing quite frankly whether they find them congenial and good A.sportsF l repeat that there is nothing nicer than to see son or daughter who is really companionable with his or her parents, but there is great diff ference between companionship which IS founded on respect and admiration, and companionship which is founded on the familiarity which breeds contempt"
 Parents should and must have some authority over the very young and we all know that authority can only be rightly acquired through respect. A certain sort of authority naturally can be achieved through force, but that au- thority will not hold good while the in- dividual who is the more forceful is with the other person and can have no lasting effect for good on his character or actions.
 Respect can never be achieved by tell
 
 you. l have often heard mothers whose actions inspired anything but respect re- peatedly say to their children when in : an argument: 'I am your mother and ! you should respect me- The children may perforce to certain extent respect their parents authority while they are under their control-a control, it is true, which nowadays seems to be very Slight--but, all the varha1 ,coua m a y1divo, of respect in the world will not in- spire it. The behavior and principles of the parents are the only things that will gain respect for them, even from their children.
 v We are all of us becoming rather matter of fact and tending to depreci- ate anything that might be called senti- mental or old-fashioned.~0 ld-fashioned 1t may be, but I for one refuse to acknowledge that a child's loss of re- spect and admiration for his mother or father can be anything but an influence for bad on the world. ASe son who has grown up seeing his mother in light he instinctively feels is unworthy of her (and remember that children are the hardest judges) will start out in life with a lack of beauty, of tenderness, with something hard in his nature. People can laugh at the so-called senti- mentality of those people who have written on the material influence on men and women in later years. But all their laughing, in my opinion, cannot change the fact that smemories of a mother deeply loved and admired, may very easily control the actions of the adult in later years.