"WAKE UP, SISTERS"

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 109, 4 November 1926, Page 7

"WAKE UP, SISTERS"

INFLUENCES INJURIOUS TO YOUTH.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

INVEECAKGILL, 3rd November. At to-day's W.C.T.U. Convention in Invercargill, a letter was read from the lady editor of the "White Eibbon," the official W.C.T.U. organ, as follows:— "We often hear the frivilous and pleas-ure-loving spirit of our girlhood deplored. Is the blame wholly theirs? Must we not shoulder our share of it? What kind of atmosphere is created by the daily papers that come into our homes? Is it elevating? Take the beauty competitions. Every woman entering for them has to send her photograph, taken in bathing suit, so that her physical perfections may be discussed by judges, most of whom are males. Take the ' photographs of film stars, of divorcees, of athletes. These are good in their way, but are not of the best. Is it not natural that a girl reared in the atmosphere created by these papers, and reading nothing to act as an antidote, should think that all women of 'to-day are exhibiting their physical perfections either before the camera or on the stage? Can we wonder at the scantily clad figures to be seen in our streets and in our places of amusement?" The letter also included the following statement: —"Surely this Licensing Bill should act as a clarion call to every ! white xibboner. In it we see all that the heroism of the past won for us now in danger. New licenses may be granted and increased facilities for drinking. The sanctity of the King Country is to be threatened. Wake up, sisters, ere it be too late." The president remarked that she hoped that all present had taken the message to heart. The problem of young people was one of the most difficult the W.C.T.IT. had to face.