The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1920. THE DECAY OF MODESTY AND OF COMMON SENSE

New Zealand Tablet, 5 February 1920, Page 25

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1920. THE DECAY OF MODESTY AND OF COMMON SENSE

f\VO recent pronouncements of the Pope call for special attention; the one and the other are complementary. On December 2 he mourned the fact that after the war the high hopes that better things would J<l j&i-ptff prevail and that conditions of living would X 4pp T improve have all been shattered. Instead ' . . * of the Golden Age predicted by politicians there has come upon the world a time of hardship and suffering—a period of lean years that were preceded by no full years in which . provident householders might lay up a store against the evil days. Lack of 7food and clothing continues; innocent children, in particular, are suffering; and, in Central

Europe especially, the hardships of the children are great. From the high prices that rule, it is. clear that the misery in London, Paris, and Dublin slums must be almost as bad as in Berlin or Vienna. Here, then, is one picture: squalor, sickness, starvation, dirt, famine— the results of the war that was to save humanity ! * But there is another side to the picture. While such awful conditions are the common lot of the innocent people who had no hand in making the warand no share in the plunder,—another set "of human beings are living in riotous luxury and indulging in an orgy of useless expenditure that is ruinous to both body and soul. The profiteers, the men and women and boys and girls who in some way or other share the spoils, know no restraint in dress or conduct, and by the way in which they flaunt their prosperity in the eyes of the poor they are sowing the seeds for a terrible reaping. Indecency in dress keeps pace with indecency in morals. While the Divorce Courts are full and bigamy an offence of ordinary occurrence, women and girls have apparently but one standard in dress — put on, as Father Maurice O'Reilly recently said, as little clothes as the police will permit. We have heard more than one disgusted man say that the aim of many modern girls seems to be to imitate in dress a painted and powdered harlot. It is a hard saying, but it is true. One need only open one's eyes in the street to be convinced that it is true. No doubt there is besides the person to whom complexion is more than character many a so-called respectable female whose aim and object are essentially the same as that of her discredited sister. Women as a whole cannot be excused as being too brainless to see the limits which modesty sanctions, and when Christian mothers permit their girls to imitate the "smart" females they are certainly guilty in the sight of God for the provocation and the temptation offered to the passers by through immodest attire. Hear what the Pope says of the matter in another letter: "We feel it our duty to insist in a particular manner on this point, because on the one hand, we know that certain styles of dress which nowadays have become common among women are harmful to the well-being of society, as being provocative of evil; and, on the other, we are filled with amazement at seeing that those who communicate the poison seem not to realise its malignant action and those who set the house on fire seem to ignore the destructive force of the fire. It is only the supposition of such ignorance that can explain the deplorable extension in our days of a fashion so contrary to that modesty which ought to be the choicest ornament of the Christian woman. . . With what satisfaction, therefore, have we learnt that the adherents of the Catholic Women's Union have inscribed in their programme the resolution of showing themselves modest, even in the form of their dress. By so doing they will fulfil the strict duty of not giving scandal, and of not becoming a stumbling-block to others in the path of virtue." Catholic women and girls will do well to take the Holy Father's words to heart. Are they prepared to go on being a scandal and a stumblingblock to others in the path of virtue ? Are they willing to let it be said that the traditional Catholic respect for modesty has no appeal to the women and girls of New Zealand ? *

For the minimum of dress at present the maximum price is paid. Women and girls cheerfully pay four and five times the value for an article of shoddy clothing that they could easily make for themselves. We nave mentioned before that we were told on good we nave meiiLiuneu übiuib tna-o we were iuiu (_m gOOCt authority how a coat costing at most 28s is sold for £7 10s. And this is but one instance in the merry game played by the profiteers and their brainless dupes. Two practical conclusions suggest themselves: all who respect virtue and who believe that modesty is woman's greatest ornament ought to unite, in a. league for the reform of the prevalent indecency and all who have brains and hands ought to make up their own dress as

a protest against the profiteers who have so much money to spend on fads like Prohibition. Indeed the need for economising in every department is so urgent that the women of to-day cannot too soon learn a lesson from their grandmothers and begin to sew and knit and cook and bake what they need for their own use. There are surely many among us whom modern State "education' has not robbed 'of the use of hands and eyes, and it is time that those who have a modicum of intelligence left should organise to protect themselves. More important, however, is it that those who have respect for virtue and who do not want to become stumb-ling-blocks to others, make up their minds that selfrespect, decency, and the well-being of society will be advanced if they begin to dress more like God-fearing women and less like "second-rate souls in first-rate steins " The ladies of New Zealand do not like being told the truth. Let them remember that in this instance the warning comes to them from the Pope. Their grievances on this occasion ought to be directed, not to the Tablet Office, but to the Vatican. And no doubt many of them are in their own estimation quite capable of pointing' out to the Holy Father the error of his ways. It is a pity that they are not equally capable of seeing themselves as others see them.