won't get any vicarious "kick" out of them. He won't feel a purely sexual excitement. When the boy asks, "Where do babies come from?" it means that his brain is prepared to accept the answer. Don't lie to him. Don't put him off or you will be sorry. There are several excellent ways of putting this knowledge before a boy in an understandable way. Fire, for example, is fascinating to every boy. In some curious way carbon is being oxidized, releasing heat. The heat warms the room. Heat a tea-kettle of water. As the water boils, hold a pinwheel in front of the spout and the steam will blow the pinwheel around. Tell the boy that is how a locomotive is propelled. other words, impress upon him that we can control heat and put it to work for us. In Now crack open an egg. It may be sterile. All eggs have not been fertilized. When you have found one that has a cloudy little white spot clinging to the yolk you have found the beginning of all life. There is no better illustration. What is that cloudy shred? A little part of the rooster and a little part of the hen. The ovum, it is called. And the ovum does exactly the same thing as fire. It is oxidizing sugar and as a result is creating heat and energy. With that energy the ovum is picking out of the egg the little particles that it needs to make it grow. It will make some of the particles into feathers, some into blood, some into bones. It will do all this in 21 days. At the end of that time a perfect little chicken is formed. It will peck a hole in the shell and break through--a living animal. Now you can say to the boy: "You are a little part of your Daddy and a little part of me. You were once a tiny seed, like the ovum in the egg, except that you grew arms and legs and hair. The human embryo-the little seed-is the most wonderful thing in the world; so wonderful that Nature, to protect it, planted it inside me. My body protected you like the egg shell protected the chicken, only you took nine long months to grow be cause you are larger and have more parts than the chicken. All that time you were gathering from my body the things you needed to make you grow into a little boy. "Nature has given animals and people a way of uniting a fragment of the mother's body with a frag ment of the father's and those two little fragments come together and grow into one little particle. That particle is the little seed from which you grew. Your Daddy grew the same way. So did I. So did your big sis ter. All living things come into the world in this way." With the mere answering of the boy's question the mother has only begun his sex-instruction. She must teach him now how to protect his sex mechanism. It is not generally understood that even at birth the little nerve ends in the erogenous zones can be stimulated. Secret vices are easi ly formed, causing anguish to parents and untold suffering to boys. Scaring a boy to death by telling him such a habit will lead to insanity is as grave a danger as the habit itself. You can't break the habit by scaring him, but he can be scared into a morose frame of mind or into other forms of abnormal behavior through these terrible years. I would say this to such a boy: "That part of your body has a definite function. You were once too little to play out on the street alone. You can do it now. It is the same with that part of your body. It is not old enough, not strong enough; the use of it now will inter fere with its function later on." The present tendency to frankness in the matter of sex is tremendously encouraging. Hushing has never prevented abnormal forms of sex be havior. Science has taught us that a three-year-old child contains more elements than the weather, and is driven by more forces. And yet there are those who still dam up those forces by stupid traditions, bigotry and intolerance. One can only pity the children of such parents. New Ideas for Old Condensed from The Modern World (December, '26) [N order to introduce a new idea When I was a boy there was a popuar trick which not only gave us an pportunity of inflicting a little anoyance upon a companion not in the ecret, but which illustrates a physial, and it seems to me also a psychogogical, principle. It consists in placng a pellet of cork the size of a pea in the mouth of a bottle held on its side, and asking your friend-who was your friend before the experiment had been tried-to blow it in. He, seeing the bottle was quite empty, undertook to blow the pellet in with a puff, but was surprised to find it fly back into his face. The harder he blew the smarter was the blow he received in return. But taking the bottle into your own hands you showed that the bit of cork could be easily got into the bottle by coaxing it with gentle breathing applied at the proper point. The brusque method involved a great waste of breath, besides being unsuccessful. Now it seems to me that the introduction of a new idea into the world involves the same process as the blowing of the cork pellet into the bottle. It meets with an unseen resistance and the more vigorous the blowing the more energetic the reaction. The bottle is not empty, although it seems so, and to get the cork in, an equivalent volume of air must be previously expelled. Samuel Butler, in his Notebook, says that there should be a law against telling people things they do not want to know. Such a law is unnecessary because the instinctive reaction of the mentality of the masses is quite sufficient protection. Even scientific men who are by profession supposed to have an open mind and to welcome eagerly anything new, often turn a deaf ear to unwelcome tidings, or, like Nelson, put the telescope to their blind eye. A new idea comes first in the mind of one man. That means that the new idea starts out in the world with a majority of 1,600,000,000 against it. If any of the innovations in scientific thought were put to a popular referendum they would be voted down by overwhelming majorities for the first 100 years or longer. This instinctive mass reaction against new ideas finds expression in many ways much more immediate and powerful than legislation. It is essentially the same as the common aversion to a foreigner. The foreigner may not come from as far as China or India, but may be from the next village if the mental horizon is limited. The slogan of the English village is: "'E's a stranger. 'Eave 'arf a brick at 'im," and the "stranger" may have merely walked in from the next shire, or he may be a native who has shown himself outlandish in costume or conduct. The education of adults is more difficult than the education of children because the brains of elders are all cluttered up with ideas that have to be cast out or moved about to make room for new notions. We have nowadays loose-leaf ledgers and encyclopedias, and we need loose-leaf brains so that we can keep our mental store of knowledge up to date. Such expandable minds are particularly desirable at the present time when the increase of knowledge through organized research is so rapid and revolutionary. The principle of the opposing reaction to novelty is as noticeable in the most trivial deviations from conventional customs as it is in changes in our fundamental conceptions of the universe. Apuleius came near being condemned to death on the equally grave charges that he had used a dentifrice and had dissected fishes to learn anatomy. At the end of the tenth century, when a high-born Italian lady ventured to use a fork instead of her fingers when eating, all Venice was scandalized, and the chronicler, Dandolo, records that heaven punished her depravity in afflicting her with a loathsome disease. When Coryat returned from Italy to England with a table fork, he was subjected to ridicule. Nowadays Americans strive strictly to follow the injunctions of their arbiter elegantiarum, Ward McAllister, whose dying words are said to have been: "Everything that can be eaten with a fork, must be." Any deviation from the established code of manners, irrational as this may be, is speedily penalized by social displeasure and indeed ostracism, as we may see from the advertisements on etiquette. The uninformed parvenu in refined society who picks up the wrong table utensil or offers the wrong arm to a lady suffers as much from the offence as the unconscious victim of halitosis. The use of coal and the introduction of the locomotive, which have been the chief factors in the development of our modern civilization, would have been prevented at their inception if public opinion had possessed the power to enforce its opposition. In 1306 King Edward I issued a proclamation making the use of coal as fuel in London a capital offence, and one man was actually executed for the crime. The wealth of Pennsylvania has come chiefly from its coal beds, yet the man who first attempted in 1803 to sell a wagonload in Philadelphia was prevented under penalty of the law. In 1825 The Quarterly Review demanded that Parliament limit the speed on all railroads to eight or nine miles an hour. In 1804 the British Admiralty de clared that "the introduction of steam vessels was calculated to strike a blow at the naval supremacy of the Empire." As a matter of fact it tur ed out that the steam vessels, which the Admiralty had the desire but lacked the power to prohibit, have greatly extended the naval supremacy of the British Empire. In 1840 Peter Hele, of Nuremberg. was accused of witchcraft, by his neighbors and his wife, because he had invented a ticking clock. In Indiana, in 1844, Lew Wallace, father of the author of Ben Hur, was defeated for re-election to Congress because he had voted for an appropri ation for a telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore, thus, as his opponent said, "encouraging some crank who has a fool idea he can send messages by lightning." To come down to our own day, the transatlantic liner which recently adopted the Diesel engine as a substi tute for the steam engine was obliged to erect two huge and useless smokestacks in order to resemble the steamers of competing lines, because passengers refused to patronize a vessel which did not have these familiar and visible signs of its engine power. One of these pseudo-smokestacks is used for a ventilator and the other for an elevator. " force ... al. All through the history of science we find that new ideas have their way into the common mind disguise, as though they were bur glars instead of benefactors of the race. To quote John Wesley: lowing that it takes a century to make a discovery, it requires another cen tury to remove prejudice. . The un cultivated mind is more prone to judge than to investigate, to censure than to aid, and indeed, in general, there is not a more certain criterion of ig norance than hasty and inconsiderable judgment." Rumania's Ruthless Jewish Persecutions Condensed from Current History (February, '27) S a result of the acquisition by Rumania of the provinces known as Bessarabia, Transylvania, Banat, Maramuresh and Bukovina, that counry now has a Jewish population of one aillion. Of this million, three-quarers had lived in these provinces before he World War, as citizens with full nd equal rights. No discrimination vas made against them. Some had held high Government positions. The only Rumanian Jews who suffered from persecution lived in the old Kingdom of Rumania, consisting of two principali:ies. In the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1919, Rumania agreed to recognize as Rumanian nationals Jews inhabiting any Rumanian territory, and that all Rumanian nationals should enjoy the same rights without distinction of race, language or religion. The Rumanian Jews were elated. They felt that the supreme sacrifices made by them on the battlefields for the purpose of creating a greater Rumania had not been in vain. But what happened? A strong antiSemitic movement, headed by Professor A. C. Cuza and Professor Zelea Codreanu, of the University of Jassy, soon swept the entire country. The Government gave a free hand to the violent activities of the anti-Semites. The entire Jewish population was and still is held in terror. Jews were driven from schools and universities; Jewish newspaper men were condemned without mercy by the courts; it became unsafe for Jews to walk the streets, to attend theaters, to ride in street cars or to visit public places. Those Jews who attempted to defend themselves received severe sentences from the Magistrates, while anti-Semites who actually killed and murdered were hailed as heroes. The tearing of Jewish beards has become a patriotic act. The Jewish newspapers which dare to denounce anti-Semitic instigations and attacks are called traitors to the country by the Government press, which always minimizes or excuses all anti-Semitic outbreaks. Professor Cuza advocates a policy of annihilation and destruction, openly preaching violence against the Jews, sowing the seed of discord and poisoning the minds of the future generation against Rumanian citizens of the Jewish faith. Upon his recent arrival in Bucharest, Professor Cuza was met by a large number of students who paraded with him through the streets, assaulting Jewish passersby, three of whom were beaten into insensibility. The police made arrests, but the disturbers of the peace were promptly discharged, while the three injured Jews were held overnight. The Government enforces indirectly a percentage restriction with reference to Jewish students. In the city of Czernowitz last Fall, of the 67 Jewish students who presented themselves at the entrance examinations, only 17 were admitted. This resulted in a public protest by the Jewish students against open discrimination which actually ruined their future. The entire group of Jewish students were arrested. During the hearing, one of them named David Falick was shot dead in the court room by an antiSemitic student. The murderer is today hailed as a national hero. Traveling on the Rumanian Government railroads has become a most danVery gerous enterprise for a Jew. frequently Jews are set upon by bands of anti-Semites who either beat them severely or throw them bodily out of the moving train. Only a few months ago a Jewish corporal, who during the War had received decorations for val r, was thrown off a moving train, and it was necessary to amputate one of his legs. The Jewish children find great difficulty in entering the public schools, and those who succeed become veritable martyrs by reason of the treatment they receive from the other children, and very often from the teachers themselves. No percentage restriction affecting the admission of Jews to the universities is legalized, but the same purpose is achieved indirectly. The majority of the Jewish candidates fail to pass the entrance examinations. Many of those who have already entered the universities are obliged to abandon their studies, because life is made intolerable for them. The medical faculty of the University of Jassy recently decided not to admit any Jewish students to the examination of anatomy unless they brought their quota of cadavers for dissection. As Jewish law compels the immediate burial of the dead, it is impossible for Jewish students to comply with this condition. The result is that the number of Jewish students has been reduced by 80 percent. Other students have been refused their diplomas simply because an anti-Semitic professor declined to sign the document. While the anti-Semitic movement grows more intense daily, the Government takes no measures to abate it. The Penal Code provides penalties for those who incite one section of the people against another; but there is not one case on record of a single person brought to justice by reason of such incitement against Jews. These laws, however, are put into operation with excellent effect against the Socialist and the Communist parties. Thousands of pamphlets are distributed charging the Jews with being murderers, or traitors, or that they acted as spies during the War. The official press representing the Government is encouraged to promote this propaganda by the Government itself. The Jews are as far from enjoying the rights of equal citizenship as ever. The Ministry of the Interior is now drafting a new measure forbid ding Jews to live in the capital. The commissions appointed to examine in dividual applications for citizenship have rejected thousands of Jewish applications. What took place during the trial of the anti-Semitic students in Jassy has been described by André Gernien, of Paris, a man enjoying the greatest respect in Western Europe. A certain Manciu was named as Police Prefect of Jassy, and he really went seriously about the task of bringing order to the city. For this "treason to the Fatherland" Manciu was one day mur dered and two policemen wounded in open court, by a man named Codrea nu. The murderer was brought to trial, but the proceedings were re duced to a mockery of justice. The court room was invaded by several hundred anti-Semitic students, who turned the trial into a mass meeting. Professor Cuza delivered a long ad dress calling upon the court to do its "patriotic duty" and give Codreanu his freedom. This was done. But that was not all. Codreanu became a national hero. Several days after the trial he was married, and the wedding was turned into a grand demonstra tion in honor of the "hero" and against the Jews. Approximately 30,000 followers came from all parts of Rumania, parading and bearing presents for the "hero." Codreanu headed the procession carrying a staff of the ancient dukes, as a "symbol of power." In short, the wedding of the murderer became a national holiday. Gernieu asked a Minister: "How can you permit such things?" The Minister replied: "I have no power." Pointing to a detachment of troops which happened to pass by, Gernieu remarked: "There you have the pow er." The Minister smiled. "With this power," he said, "you can fight for eign enemies, but under no circum stances the anti-Semites, for 95 per cent of the army is anti-Semitic." The situation in short, as Gernieu summed it up, is that anti-Semiticism governs Rumania today. こ |