Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-03-27

! ing about their wives, say, Where are
| the girls?' and amazed when they hear
stately matrons refer to their nus
bands as the boys
Childish About Laws.
Contemplate our infantile attitude
toward law obedience. There IS no
better way to encourage the average
child to do something than to forbid
him to do it.
There are few things more tortur-
ing to a child's pride and self-respect
than to be different from other cnil-
dren. Originality and Individuality
are taboo among children. Ii woman
is out of fashion. she is miserable. IL
man wears straw nat aAter sep
TENDER Is he is hooted.
"Our personal achievements and &C
complishments evoke a similarly child
ish RESPONSE. We are loud in our sell
praise and laudation. So are children.
Il got the best mark and l am the
cleyerest of ALL echoes through our
masterful lives.
"Our inpulsiveness. our super-gen'
crosby, our lavishness. our remark
able hospitality, our love of bigness'
size, quantity, volume, are all hang-
overs from childhood.
"And SO. too, is our mania for fads.
We have had more 'crazes' ana fads
In our country in the last 5O years,
from roller skates to ASK Me Announcer
than any other country can BOAST OF
in twice that time.
"Children are dogmatic and tenaci-
Gus of their opinions. 1t takes years
of experience or hard knocks and
sound thinking to reach the conclu-
sion that there is good in the worst or
us and bad in the best. Tolerance is
a mark of maturity. And yet in Amer
lea a thing or a person is always one
extreme or the other-good or pad
hateful or wonderful, terrible or navel
GUS. There is no temperate ground IN
our judgments, and all this is only 100
obviously childish"
Sees No Other Cause.
And you think that because we
are a nation OF people whose emotlons
are childish that this explains our dl-
vorce, orgies, our crime fgures, our
superficiality? >,
II can see no other explanation, ="
said DR.. Collins "If the individual is
all right emotionally, mentally ana
physically there would be very little
crime. divorce or superficiality.
lit is adult .infantilism that is at
the bottom Of divorce in America.
More divorces spring from adult In
fantilism than from adultery. Wnen
a man realizes that his wife is doll,
with the reactions of child In the
body of a woman, he quickly curls him.
self up into cocoon or neglect or
seeks the companionship of some one
else more stimulating.
"It Is the same with a woman who
has had it brought home to her that
her husband is a stuffed shirt who
whistles tunelessly while shaving.
blows soap bubbles while bathing and
won't play unless he can be the center
Of attraction. jealousy, cruelty. al
cohoIism are as naught as compared
with adult infantilism as a wrecker
of marriage. 1t is the adult-infant
woman who shirks her home response
bilities. turns her children over TO
nursemaids and lays down on the job
in the home"
And you explain our student sui
cides in terms of wrong emotions?
/ queried.
why not" answered DIR. Collins.
"a person with right emotions is not
morbid enough to commit suicide. On
the other hand, boys with fine intel
iects like a Loeb or Leopold may
commit murder.
but il you are inquiring whether
I think there is an epidemic Of stud.
emit suicides, I say that there Is no
epidemic. Like sin and taxes we have
always had youthful suicides. for we
have always had insanity.
1900 Suicides of Youths.
Occasionally sane man commits
suicide, practically never sane
youth. Every year in this country
sns1 81
youths
why there are so many college
students among the number who kill
themselves is readily explained. More
boys go to college than 10 years ago,
and, moreover, they are a different
kind of boys, different racially, spirit
ually, religiously. Their environ
ment has been different, their &C.
quired ideals are different. Today we
hear a lot of piffie about faith in life.
What is needed is faith in God. There
is no substitute for it for the rank
and file.
Now and then we encounter an in
dividual who can get on without faith
in God. but he is usually Mutt or a
Nietzsche. We should wed the Nicene
creed and the creed of beauty. and
then weld them. This idea that you
tiful and the ugly. thrill with the for.
mer and shiver at the latter and at
the same time believe there is a nap.
by hunting ground in the hereafter
is plain bunk
But, of course, the whole thing
comes down TO the fact that we have
been negiecting the emotions in the
training of our boys and girls. We
should begin to $examine students
psychologically SO as to probe their
emotions. We should arrange courses
especially TO develop emotions Of hope
faith. courage, persistence, fortitude,
optimism. 1t can be done If we will
only tackle the problem instead on
ignoring it as we have done up to
date. The new education is the .'tlu-
cation of the emotions. and as l re.
peat again, sound mind and a sound
! body are wasted-even viciously de-
structlve~-f they are not accom-.
panied by sound emotions"
Downright. 1927