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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (June 11, 1922)
THE fc OEEGON SUNDAY TOTTKnAI - PORTLAND, SUNDAY MORNING, ' JUNE 11, . 192 if ( - ' yyftA ,,,-3 ' V! Sensational Suzanne Lenglen, the Spectacular French Tennis Cham pion Whose Nervous Collapse Was Attributed to "Too Much Strenuousness JUST as American girls are taking to strenuous cportiK with all the Tim of Uielr. brothers on diamond and gridiron, the .warning is flashed from. England, "Pull upF You are heading for -. sex extinction!. -y . j Just as American, educators are en- ' couraging athletics In girls' schools m en thnsiastically as In. boys', British blot ogists explode' this bombshell. "Stop! You are breeding a neuter sex, neither mats nor female; you are destroying mothers when yon make champions!" Heads. clinch institutions as Vassar, Smith, Werfesley, Barnard and a thousand lesser institutions throughout the United States are frankly flabbergasted. Their 4 i -Is . Neck and Neck Over the Hurdles. mary Hall, Winning? the 60 C "i Interstate Meet for pet theories are beligwisted topsy-turry. they may hare to rerolutionlxe tnelr entire scheme of physical education. AH of them boast gymnasiums. AH In sist on exercise for their students. Most of them hare basketball, track and, hockey teams. Many have introduced football and tasebaal for girls. The new girl sthlete is the type of the hour. Ererywhera girls are being converted to boys' games. Th.- themselves are "crazy" about sports. They ride, fence, row, swim, golf; they yell for their teams; they enter lnter-school con tests; they break records; they strive fox .muscular development.' In the face of this universal movement glish educators and men of science: "Unless- there are speedy and ftxnda mental dhanges In the prevailing system f. physical education ior the modern girl, the female sex will' tecome extinct as such. In a generation or so. it will not exist, and Instead we will have a sort of j "man-woman ' a distinct third sex." These . are the words of George Chal mers, secretary of .the committee formed in London by the British. Medical Associa tion, the Royal! College of Surgeons and Physicians, and the British Medical Wom en's Association, for the avowed purpose of combating strenuous sports tor girls. -The committee- sent out questionalres to leading: medical authorities, heads of girls" ' - schools and; heads of hospitals, asking for their observations on the training- of girls, Nine-tenths of the renliea denotraeMf SDorts for women as football, nrimmtnv 4 Upwing and lacrosse. t Doctors declared that such games Im pair the functions of motherhood and cause incalculable suffering to women In later; years. ""Eminent biologists . asserted , that women athletes spend all their "capi tal" and consequently are producing "an emasculated , racs of xnenM. . Champion And Here, Some (fliil922 sts' Declare Are ions Miss Florence Baston, (Centre) of - Yard Event at the Mamaroneck Girls College Athletes. women athletes are often' sterile, they said; moreover, women athletes take on masculine traits to. the point where the feminine in them is all but crushed out! "Biologists have long recognized tba tfx istence of the third sex as a' social factor to h reckoned with, wrote Dr. Tonaxd Williams, distinguished biolortaV asso- f elated with Professor Julian Haxley In his lnYesacattons. "They hare long? riewed with alarm the Increase In tha. ranks 'of these "human deviations created by our modern ideas about the Dhrsical ednca- tlon of girls." ; Dr. Williams went on to explain why athletics bri&s about a "third sex.' Nature, 9 w m mmm O) ' ' ' A - .V. . --. mT i ' y- x ' x-y -ry.- -'- : . j I - , . r , fA- ;r.y -c-. - . . . -y A,.-, yyvy-y y.y.- f , ' y. K v - y:- ; i v 1 - - -y--y. - t - T 'i 'i 'i niiiiitT -1 iiiniiiiiir i t"iihii"-i j"-- ti " i"' 'imi-'r T i ..-: ' vm) - - " y " r ' , "'" ' . ' """" .TT" ' '.I ' 1 1 11 "" ' "' i-iwr in iiiiiimiiim' ..i ii.li ' i i - . . .- - , , i , . j r -t i ,y f . - i ' i ' , r- l --" ' ' ' CopyrtfS lSZSt by Xateraattossl yaatoa Servioe 1 finat SrlUls lslUa JervsAV: . i s. i - , . . ' ; - i - - , t ' y s - v - - '.. - - -'v- - - - - : I - , , . .. " . ' . - .. . .. . ! .57 ii i mpn. i ---j---'--M-r f r nf----1 y-, in----'iititfPS:lftffiiiTt s:" Rose - ; be "said, apportions to each hun)ar being .only a certain amount - of energy; At the ago of adolescence this energy is distributed to the various organs - accoroing to of the body according to sex and the dlf- : ?equirements or the sexes. Until this age jrreached sex Is neuter. Boys and girls under the age? of adolescence are, scien tifically speaking, neither male nor fa. male, but slmnly children without sex dis tinction. "When a girl reaches the age of ado- b - r r ii m i m lnMliiii- -jf r 1 j - Playing football Like This Has Bieen 'Classed . a "Dangerous Abnormality.' The Photo Shows Miss Mary Corcoran of the British Association Team Making a -Try for Goal. s. - 1 1 xnP'-fi 1 I ) ' . .V i milt airjium Soma Biolegista Declare Foot Rac ing for Girls Should Be For bidden. The Photo Shows Miss Edith Van Nor-den- Winning the BO.Yard Dh at Mamaroneck. ' - , . . - y.v ' Miss Catherine McCuIlouh, Champion High Jumper at WeUesfey, Illustrating One of the Very Strenuous Feats Against Which the Outcry Has Been Raised. lescence," continued Dr. WHUams, t yow iidiunuiy mio a state or inactivity, for the simple reason .that nature is diverting most of her energy to the creative organism. ' What pre- ' cisely happens when we thrust girls into a whirl of exhaustive games like football and hockey, Js that their, energy Is unnaturally diverted from , the natural channel ; and spent in sport. The result. inevitAhtv i . sterile . woman developing all the miln characteristics In her composition: or. at nest, a woman producing weedy, sickly childreu." y -'v.'". .7 J ' Another description ' of the '"third " sex" is given ny Miss M. Bennell. a dlstln- guts&ed - British- .educator, who - savs th "man-woman" isphysically like a Gren adier in petticoats; she is a dangerous sb normality. For several years- we have . watched the rapid development of this enhappy and curious creature. We classy fied the type as men-women, and disv" missed them ,from our minds as the un lovely specimens of a 5 misapplied physical training!- - The biologists, however, have wakened us to the gravity of this new en- tu. w wilc iM 4U4b ,aJ.nJgcTarsfl, 0 jT' -Mrs.: Us Schnltze Believe in Standing I en Her Head Al- I thongh 'AH Such Ex- i.- . ercises as This Art f .-.!." Being Denounced as. "Too Vieleat lot V 'Women' and substantiated by their' scientific in vestigations, what we had merely sus pected, : that, we are actually producing men-women women in whom the male element is oTer-dereloped.' Girls, declares Miss Bennell, do not nat urally desire strenuous games. They are shy and dreamy at that age. But they are "shamed into sports:" Many become . teachers and train other "grenadiers In petticoats." . , - :' - Miss Bennell, Dr. Williams and their as sociates on the Committee for the Prohl- ' bition of Girls Games are proceeding 1 on the assumption that there is a funda mental difference In the physical makeup of man and woman--hat girls can be taught to be healthy without blindly imi tating the games of men and boys. They do not ban all sports, only those which 'divert energy from the creative organs to 'the muscles. . ; ., Their campaign has not been all smooth sailing. number of prominent English women have taken up the cudgels for the other side One of these Dr. Letitla Falrchlld, who was woman -medical di rector of the Royal Air -Force during the war, disagrees with the" biologists. ' -? tveusjpoofs!"s she cries. -fnot un- : substantial statements, it "is ridiculous to say that child-birth Is often rendered dif ficult for women who hare played games. Every doctor knows that certain muscles - ere involved when a baby is born that are , " strengthened, not weakened. by games. So many factors, are responsible for i sterility that it is impossible to at tribute that to, games. s "Women haTe" ridden horse back for centuries, and their children have not been af fected. You have only . to look at the middle-class, middle-aged woman who has played similar games, and Compare her to a woman of similar age belonging to the working' class, and you will see how , games have bene fitted her." ' : Women athletes theav selves , h it greeted the ' Games .Prohibitionists wita snorts ef Indignation and dis dain. At the Teeent Women's " Olympiad at Monte Carlo, competed in by champions from a score -of coun tries, resolutions were, adopted deploring the out cry against -women's ' sports. . . - " . ! y " - Training for sports will make you feel fit," declared . Miss Mary Lines, win ner of the 259 metre flat . race and the long jump. "It .is nonsense to say swimming. Isn't good for girls why. it made mi healthy when I was puny !V asserted Miss Doris Hart, winker ef the 200 metres breast stroke. "It certainly makes women stronger,! agreed Mrs. Lucy KIttmer Har- iana. L-sswimmmg - aeveiopea me into v ne, heaitbsT woman," was the testimony of Mrs. , Olfve Matthews (nee Olive Car- son), fend I have a strong, healthy boy tnree and a Hair years old!' she added. That American scientists, physicians and , educators, already keenly : Interested,-will be drawn actively Into the "third sex" con. troversy. Is indicated by the -London com mittee, which : proposes to extend its re searches to this country.,-" What a survey of girl athletes In the United States will show remains to be seen. In the meantime, college authori ties in many, cities are debating the sub ject, "Do sports for women do harm or goodT will they develop strong, healthy mothers. erwlll they lead to a third ss& ' w ; -, ' . r)ffmrninrMi -