The Washington times., 1937-02-26

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This, at least, is what the young
Sters say.
Their idea, expressed in innum-
cradle letters that I've been re-
ceiving these past few months, is
that a girl who wants not only
love but wifehood and motherhood
has really got to step lively.
CUSTOMS CHANGE
Customs are changing. Competi-
tors are legion. A girl can achieve
marriage only by laying her plans,
sticking cut her chin and becom-
ing a good deal of an aggressor.
Is this true? Or is there a wave
of hysteria in regard to this sub
ject?
I wonder if it won't help the
thousands of girls, and boys too,
who are now facing the first of
their big nfe-problems, if we get
at the actual situation and face
it frankly. And will the rest of
you not only listen in, but FELL us
your own ideas and experiences?
Surely, nobody can have thought
for a moment that love is dying
out, or that it ever will. We might
well despair if the central flame
of our lives were in danger of be-
coming a dusty ash.
But of course, it isn't And for
my own part, I believe that mar
riage, the visible expression of
human love, is in no danger Of
dying out either.
HARD PERIOD
But maybe it is true that the
period we are living through is
especially hard for young lovers.
Many young people believe that
conditions were more favorable in
their mothers day, or their grand
mothers.
Girls tell me:
eve have a whole lot better time
than girls used to have. But get
ting married is another matter.
Boys are certainly limp when it
comes to signing up for life with
a girl, even if they are crazy over
her.
But every girl wants to marry
and, If she's in love with q nice
boy, she feels it's her right to
marry"
True. A couple of generations
ago a girl who permitted a re-
spectful kiss could consider herself
automatically engaged to the
youth who implanted it, and could
look forward to marriage on what
ever date she might herself ap-
point.
But, it goes without saying that
since the petting era began, girls
and boys are considerably less of
mystery to each other than they
used to be, and a display of affec-
ton, like a vocabulary Of affec-
ton, hasn't necessarily any signifi-
canoe whatever.
GIRLS BURDEN
If a boy can fall in love with a
girl, and tell her so without feeling
that marriage is the inevitable
next step, it does seem, I admit,
as if the burden of arranging her
own marriage devolved upon the
girl herself.
And if she is a sweet, passive,
quiet girl, how in the world is she
going to manage this?
But it isn't as if the boys had
no alibi. They have, and they
write me their side Of the story,
too. There has been this matter
of fewer jobs, and sometimes it
has seemed as if there were no
jobs at all; or in any case, as if
the pay envelope wouldn't feed
two.
Or perhaps the girl herself has
had a job and the boy has diSliked
to ask her to give up a certainty
for an uncertainty.
But times are better now, and
that means more courage. Will
it also mean that the marriage
question will solve itself?
Boys and girls will continue to
fall in love. Is there any real rea-
son why their love stories can't
include wedding feasts and snug
little homes and babies and living
happily ever after?
What do you think9 And you?
And you?
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