The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-05-29
Customs Haze
Changed; Haze
Morals, Also?
BY CARL C. MAGE,
In the Oklahoma News.

CUNDAY listened to discus
~ sion of whether the present
generation of young people is worse
morally than the last. No conclu-
sion was reached. The facts upon
which to base a decision, that is,
anything more than a guess, are
not available.
1t would require detailed knowl-
edge of the overt moral acts of both
generations and the mental status
which accompanied those acts. OF
course these cannot be had. In
diligently to assert the situation
to be either way is impossible.
That customs have changed rad
-ically among large groups OF our
young people is beyond question.
Their frankness regarding things
never mentioned in mixed company
when was boy, takes my breath
away.
But I am unable to conclude from
TINS fact that our present day young
people are any worse than we we're.
There was more hypocrisy then;
more concealment of mental states.
WHETHER the present frank
w ness omens a worse moral
situation is problematical. Most of
us have believed all our lives that
the barrier Of silence on sex sub
jects was necessary.
We have thought that liberty Of
speech on these forbidden subjects
would lead to liberty of conduct,
with consequent immortality.
don't know whether this is true
or not. My impulse is to believe it
would be safer to keep the barrier
up. Yet hypocrisy is a poor weapon
with which to promote morality.
And the self-reliant way in which
young women protect themselves to-
day without show of anger or
shame, but with finality, would in
dictate that ignorance and virtue are
not one and the same thing.
Many girls know, and frankly re-
veal the fact that they know. Know
ing, they calmly choose where they
will draw the line beyond which no
one can treSpasS. That line is so far
over to the side of open franknesS
that it puzzles me. But it is there,
One hardly will say that evil i'm
pulses are any more inherent in the
present generation than in the last. |
We are dealing with the same hui
man nature in both instances. /
Whether the present franker situa-
ton lends itself to added tempta-
ton is the question.
If with greater freedom has come
more intelligent powers of resist
ance, the moral equilibrium may be
undiSturbed.
FRANKLY, I do not believe that
H the generation of young men
to which I belonged was so ALFRED
pure. The conventions made us ap-
pear so on the surface. But the
mind Of the young fellow of yester-
day was as much a battle-ground be-
tween good impulses and bad tend
encies as it is today.
We thought things then much
worse than the frankest young man
of today would say. His thoughts
are probably about like ours were.
One generation hardly could make
substantial difference either way.
I was brought up to believe that
woman hardly could think a bad
thought. My chivalry still attributes
to the individual women of my ac-
quaintance that quality of purity. !
Yet, in the abstract, my experience
and judgment tell me that so one
sided a situation hardly could exist. !
1t seems a reasonable assumption
that women in general have their
own line of moral battle, just as
men have. Never having been a
woman, cannot be sure about this.
In any event, we safely may infer
that human nature, good or bad, in
both sexes is about what it has been
for a good many generations. It
seems quite obvious that many of
the barriers of other days are being
broken down, deplore it though we
may.
Perhaps those barriers were a
less important deterrent than we
thought, and still think. Perhaps the
instinct for self-preservation and
community respect and self-respect
was the real protection then and
still is today.
Perhaps modified customs do not
invoke inhibition quite so quickly as
of old, but Just as effectively as ever.