CORRESPONDENCE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18791, 28 May 1923, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE.

A LOW MORAL EBB. (To the Editor). Sir, —The Cooper case, which has received so much prominence, resulting in Cooper being found guilty and condemned to death, is a sad reflection upon present day conditions of morality. Tile incident might never have required recording but for the low stage of morality reached by a section of the community at large. Scarcely a week passes but there is recorded, in some part of the Dominion, a case of abortion or attempted abortion, implicating sev eral parties. This, apart from the large number of cases which do not come to light through the court records. It is saying a great deal, but probably never in the history of the Dominion have conditions of liv ing in relation to the sexes reached such a low level. The general con duet of a large section of our young people gives rise to much anxiety. What has brought this about? The conversation of young lads and girls seems to reach its highest level in discussion of sexual matters, and this conversation seems simply to be leading to the lowest estimate of the individual sexes in the community. All this can lead to is a state of existence which probably primeval man would not have tolerated. The one great aim of real man in years that are past was the elevation of womanhood to a pedestal of being worthy of the highest respect. One wonders if woman is not tending in these days to deliberately throw away all she has gained from the past, throwing herself away as pearls before swine. It is of course unpleasant to state that, for there ane many “obstacles" about. They raise their eyebrows and comment “Why worry.” Then, again, the stigma attaching to certain happenings outside of lawful wedlock "appears to have gone into the limbo of past things. If this policy of drift is to be carried much further some drastic happenings will surely come upon us, for nature herself will not tolerate it. A people adopting a low moral ideal must steadily fall. What is the reason for this steady ebb? Some have traced it to war conditions, to the affluence of young lads ind boys, while our men were away at the front. Others trace it to the eye-openers” which came in the way of many experiences of our boys in foreign parts. These are doubtless contributing causes, but there is probably something else which is making the conditions for breakaway from the chains of morality. Morality is scorned by men and women «in great numbers to-day, and both old and young alike. Infanticide is condoned in places where one leeast looks for it. The great influence for morality has been the church and home life. To-day these influences ; seem of little avail. Will there be a sudden return to Puritanism or will the blotting out of the moral influences abroad to-day be achieved, even as were the cities of the plain, i Certain it is that side by side with the deffusion of knowledge upon matters of sex, must go hand in hand a campaign for holding in control those who break bounds morally. Those who are implicated in cases of abortion, as well as the sinister type of “professional” person who profits on their profligacy, should alike suffer penalties at the hand of the law. There is no reason why these should go scot free. The time has come for re-forging the links in that chain which holds mankind back from a stage which is worse than animaldom. If humanity is to be suffered to continue along the lines many folk are choosing to go to-day, it were better that humanity for its own sake should be blotted out. Are we living in the “last days,” so strikingly spoken of in the New Testament—l am. etc.. — WATCHMAN. Wanganui, May 26th, 1923.