AN OLD WOMAN

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1780, 8 July 1926, Page 7

AN OLD WOMAN

I do not know who it was who first used " old woman" as a term of abuse; hut Sir William Joynson-Hicks is the latest statesman to give the barbarism an official stamp, (writes Robert Lynd in the London Daily News)'. He is very much annoyed by the fact that everybody does not approve his recent proposal to clip off the edges of London parks in order to make room for motor traffic.

" Every old woman in London," he says, " has been writing to the papers criticising me; and, in regard to my further proposals for solving the motor problem at the expense of the parks, he declares contemptuously, "Of, course, all the artistic old women will be up in arms at once." Surely it is time we ceased to use " old man " as a term of endearment and, " old woman " as a term of revilement. A slight attempt to redress the balance of the sexes is apparent, no doubt, in the modern use of the words " old Lady" in a sentimental and affectionate sense. But I, for one, think it extremely unfair that people should address you as an old man when they like you, and speak of you as an old woman when they want to insult you. There is, I maintain, nothing more charming oh earth than a. charming old woman in general behaving in a fashion that deserves the censorious attention of a Home Secretary. Statistics of crime show that old women are on the whole a law-abiding class, comparing very favourably in this respect with young women and more, favourably still with young men. It is not the old, women, but the young women, who have constantly to be censured by bishops for smoking cigarettes and drinking cocktails. All through history we see that half the trouble of the world has been caused by young women, and! that most of the other half has been caused by young, old, and middle-aged men. It is a matter of simple fact that old women have* had scarcely anything to do with it. If it is true that all the old women are now rallying to the defence of the London parks, then, I think, that, instead of sneering at them for this like the Home 'Secretary, 'we should hold a public banquet in their honour. From a Home Secretary's point of view it may seem less important to save the' parks than to solve the motor traffic problem. But the majority of people will agree with the old women that the Home Secretary must use his head to find a solution for the problem that will not diminish the green spaces of central ; Lond!on by so much as a square inch.