Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1911 — Many Modern Social and Family Changes [ARTICLE]

Many Modern Social and Family Changes

By A. WANGEMAN Chicago

As to complaints regarding ungrateful and disobedient children, the fault lies, it seems to me, neither with the average' parents nor with the callous, superficial persons. It is not an individual trouble of individual families, in the main, but rather a result of the present money mad, sensation chasing general public spirit, with its cynical and heartless lack of morality. Nothing else but such tragedies of family life can be reasonably expected when as in Chicago the young folks are forced to fight for jobs without living wages, tempted on all sides and out of touch with the

better thoughts of the times. Parents should realize that the young cannot think of life as the experienced'older ones do. The young must go through practically the same cycle of personal experiences as the old did when they in turn were young and struck out for themselves. •.V _ • • And, again, many a mother’s heart, strong in her maternal instincts, has been broken because not all mothers have the worldly wisdom to change into “comrades” of their grown offspring. It is the natural course that parents should resign themselves, but how hard that is! Those who look deeper into these things realize, furthermore, that we live in an age of deep social changes in all human relations, which, of course, change the conditions of the family life most profoundly. This is. however, not the place to talk “economics” as the key of understanding. .There is no “balm of Gilead” in economics for a mother whose heart cries out in anguish for the children she has borne and brought up in years of never ceasing care and love* children whd then turn away in disdain too often—the young fools! v'- . f •. f '