ts of the new movement are the automobile and the
moving picture show. The mechanic's daughter, the store-keeper's
daughter, the farmer's daughter like to go to the movies. It may be at
first the mother, or father, took care to find out who the daughter was
going with and how. A girl friend and her brother. How are they going?
In the friend's automobile. Another time the father runs the daughter
over to the friend's house in the Ford car. Another time the daughter
runs herself over to the friend's house in the Ford car. It is only a
short way. Or again, it is the friend's brother who stops for her, on
his way to get the sister. After a while, this going to the movies has
become such a frequent occurrence, that it is accepted as a matter of
course, without bother or comment. If perchance the daughter comes home,
some night, later than usual and the mother feels uneasy, the
explanation is very simple. Instead of going to the nearby theatre, the
daughter and her friend went over to a neighboring town where a more
interesting picture was showing. In the end the daughter goes off about
when she pleases and comes back in the same way.

Very often the stories she sees on the screen are largely seasoned with
material that stirs the imagination and emotions in a hectic sexual way.
If the girl and a young man get into a Ford car together to go home by
moonlight, is it to be wondered at that the car comes to a stop on the
lonely road and they forget old-fashioned proprieties?

The extent to which this sort of thing has been going on in many of the
small town communities, according to the information I have received, is
far too serious to be glossed over with easy optimism. In one relatively
small and primitive district I happened to know of, more than one-half
of the families with marriageable daughters have within the last three
years had to bear the shame of illegitimate off-spring.

In the cities and larger towns, the same tendency appears to be in full
swing among the shop-girls, stenographers, and daughters in the humbler
walks of life.

III

REASON AND EXPERIENCE

In any case, from the examples and indications which we have cited and
countless others of a similar kind which come within the experience of
almost every one, nowadays, there can be little room for doubt that the
new principle of conduct is very much in evidence throughout the length
and breadth of our land. Consciously or unconsciously, it is affect