Omaha daily bee., April 13, 1913, PART TWO EDITORIAL, SOCIETY, Image 21

About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922

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TheO
maha Sunday Bee Magazine Page
Copyright 1(13, bjr tha Star Company, Great Drttaln ntRhta ReaerreO.
m
"WOMEN Will Rule the Air '
s f
No. 1 The Skeleton of
the Bat., IlIun(ra(lnK the
QBadrupedil or "All
F"otiru" roaltlon of Firing.
The Primitive Tendency of
of Woman Ttmnrd That
Poaltlon Glrea Her One Ail
rnntnge Over Man In Ilun
nlng? the Aeroplane.
No. 2 The Skeleton of a
Knntcnrno. The Gigantic
I.eapN of Thla Animal Are
Made Poaalhle Largely by
Ita Combination of Up
right nnd All Foura Attl
tude a Poaltlon Into
Which Woman S t n k a
Naturally When Piloting
on Aeroplane.
No. 3 The Skeleton of a
Snnkr. The llrptllr, Al
though It Orliclnally
Sprung: from the Same An
ceator aa the Iilrd, Una a
Compactneaa of Skeletal
Strnoture Which Man
Bharea In a Leaatr Deirree
T hat Abanlutely For
bid It from Flylngr.
'No. 4 The Skeleton of
a lllrd. in I.lshtnraa of
Frame nnd Structure It
' More Cloaely Ilearmlilra
the Skeletal Formation
of Women, Whoan Spc
clflc Gravity, the Sclen
.tlata flay, la Leas Than
. Mau'a.
No. ft The Skeleton of
n Man. The Jlonra Aro
Heavier and More Com
pact Than That of
Woman. The Cheat la
Larger, Showing the
Need for More Air a
Matter of Importance In
Itartfled Atmoaphtrea,
No. 8 The Skeleton
of a Woman. The
8 1 1 g a t Differences
Between It and That
of the Man Glvea
Her an Eaormoua
Advantage and Pota
Her More on a Level
rrlth the Creaturea
That Fly Naturally,
Better Than Men for Flying Because They Are More Primitive, Not So High
Strung, Feel Pain Less, See More, HavelSJo Concentration, Sneeze Less
Heavily and Are Closer to the QuadrupedsClaims the French Government,
Making
Its Foremost
Woman
Aviator a
Chevalier
to Encourage
Others
Vlllo. Dutrieu, the Daring French
Woman Aviator, Who Has Been
Made a Chevalier pf the Legion of
Honor hy the French Government.
MLLH. HBLENB DUTRIEU, the "Hawk
Girl of Franco," has just been made
a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor
as a reward for her skill as an aviator. Mile.
Dutrieu Is one of few women to receive this
decoration.
France has g,lven it to her because the Bu
reau of War has become convinced that
women make better aviators than men, and
so, In Its struggle to perfect Its aeroplane
Bervlce, wishes to encourage women to enter
that field of action!
The great ambition of the French Is to keep
far ahead of all other nations In aviation.
The belief that the victories of the future
will 'belong to those who aro strongest In
the air has becomo firmly Ingrained in the
national mind. Therefore, France Is spend
ing more than any other nation on this
branch of service and is making extended
and varied researches into the problems and
possibilities of aviation. In the course of
these experiments, not long ago, a series of
tests were made to determine the effects of
altitude and speed on tho human body and to
test the reactions under the conditions of
flvlnit Both men and women were used in
the experiments, and when the results were
tallied It was found that the woman had far
outstripped the men on all Points'
Other experiments were made and the ex
perts in charge, as a result, have come to
the surprising conclusion that woman make
n much better aeroplane drivers than do
men that In the future she will literally rule
thThelr'report of the scientists to the -Var
Department, as cabled from Paris, gives eight
controlling factors for this supremacy:
First Because woman is more primitive
than man. , .
Second Her nerves are not so delicate,
and so she is less nervous.
Third she feels pain less than man does.
Fourth She needs less oxygen In her
br?fth The arc of her sight Is nearly double
that of man. . - A .
Sixth She has tho faculty of "diffused at
tention," which man ordinarily lacks.
Seventh That her specific gravity Is less
than man's and that the slight differences
in her skeletel structure givo her an enor
mous advantage in the air over her heavier,
more compact mate.
Eighth That her sneeze is less violent.
Tho perfect aviator, says tho report, am
plifying these points, needs not nerve, but
comparative nervolcssnoss. The possession
of what is called "nerve" implies a psycho
logical conflict In which courage is continu
ally overcoming fear. The truly courageous
man is ho who fears something mightily, but
who goos on and fights in spite of his fear.
The man who "never knew what fear Is" Is
not truly courageous, In tho higher sense,
because It does not requlro courage to fight
something of which wo nro not afraid. -
The "hlghor courage" is positively detri
mental to tho aviator, tho experimenters say,
because the psychological conflict between
"nerve" and fear uses up energy and koops
the aviator at a tension which does not al
low tho highest efficiency as a flier. Conse
quently, the typo that makes the perfect avi
ator is the one that is nerveless, who has no
conception of fear and faces tho perils of the
air courageously because ho does not recog
nize that there are any perils.
Woman, it was found, has this quality to
a surprising degree. She has It because she
Is still the primitive sex, has doveloped less
than man, not only physlologlqally, but psy
chologically. Back In a far distant age man and
woman were almost equally nerveless. But
man's activities caused him to acquire finer
and more delicate nerves. Ho has steadily
become more nervous and more sensitive to
pain. This incapacitates him for tho con
quest of the air, while woman's lack in these
respects fits her for it.
The comparative Insensibility to pain is
important because many an aviator has
dropped to death because tho stinging cold
of the upper altitudes has caused him, mo
mentarily, to lose control of his machine.
Again, in driving an aeroplane, the avi
ator's position is more nearly quadrupedal
than in any other form of locomotion. The
aviator almost literally flies on all fours. Ho
does this because ho can attain the best
balance in this position. Here the same
prlmltlveness which gives woman the lead
in nervelcssness also comes to her aid. Sho
is of structure more nearly the quadruped
than-1b man. It is more natural and easier
for her to drop on all fours and she can get
about more freely In that posture than man
A Photograph of
the Late Harriet
Quimby, the
Queen of Amer
ican Flying
Women and One
of the Very Few
Women to Lose
Their Lives in
Aviation. She Is
Shown Climbing
Into Her Aero
plane.
airship pilot than the breast of tho Missis
sippi is to the steamboat pilot and Mark
Twain has told of their complexities. The
peripheral sensitiveness of woman enables
her to see these signs whero man's concen-
can. Dr. Havelock Ellis makes the assertion . trated sight misses them
that the realization that woman "is still an
atomically a quadruped Is the greatest sur
gical triumph of the nineteenth century." In
this connection he defended woman's use of
the corset, saying that it !s needed to keep
organs designed by nature for a horizontal
position, In a vertical one.
Man having learned what woman haB only
Imperfectly learned, to stand upright, needs
no corset. This quadrupedal tendency, to
gether with the fact that her bones aro
lighter and she has less specific gravity than
man, aids her In flying, as It does in swim
ming. When timidity does not restrain them
women are much better Bwlmmers than men.
The field of woman's sight is larger than
man's. The report states it thus: "The arc
of a woman's vision is nearly twice that of
man." In other words, while man, trained
to concentrate his sight upon one object, sees
with only a limited part, tho centre, of the
retina of his eye, woman, through centuries of
slde-glanclng habits, of looking, so to speak,
out of the tall of her eye, hw kept the faculty
of sight throughout tho periphery of her re
tina. While looking straight ahead she can
see what la happening at either side of her
and for a short distance behind her. This
power she shares with the savage and most
of the lower animals the rabbit and she be
ing about equal in this respect.
The faculty Is enormously valuable In tho
air. Graham-White, among others, has Bald
that it is of the utmost Importance to the
aviator to be able to see every change in the
skies above him and the land about him.
Trees moving in a breeze far to the left may
be a danger signal, which will mean disaster
to the airman it not heeded. So of changes
in clouds. The country under and the air
about are filled with more slcns to the perfect
In tho same way what the late great
psychologist, William James, called her,
"dispersed attention," helps her. Man's ad
vancement has developed in him a tremen
dous power of concentration. This his primi
tive spouse, or sister, lacks. Man concen
trates his attention. Woman scatters hers.
Man thinks of one thing at a time. Woman
tries to think of many things nt the samo
moment and succeeds. Tho span of conscious
ness Is wider in woman even if it Is .shallower.
Consuming less oxygen than man she 1b a
shallower breather she Is loss affecod by
the thin air of high altitudes.
For theao and other reasons cited In tho
remarkable statement by tho distinguished
New York, physician, Dr. A. Monao Lesser,
former chief surgeon of the lied Ctobh In tho
United States, and leader of tho Eed CroBS
forces in Cuba during the war with Spain,
tho French Army Department has ddtermlned
to recruit as many women as possible In Us
flying corps. A spoclal law will hava
to bo passed making them eligible to
army service.
Tho French aro tho most gallant ot
nations. But thoy repudiate the sug
gestion that they aro crowning women
queenB of the nlr to make up for tho
slight put upon them by art, which
never carved or painted a woman an
gel. Their course Is a sternly practical
one, thoy Bay, and Mile. Dutrleu's ele
vation to the ranks of a Chevalier la only
part of a practical campaign.
Dr. Lessor's statement follows:
Why HOME-LOVING Woman is the Best Air Woman
By Dr. A. Monae Lesser.
(Former Chief Surgeon of the Ped Cross
of America.)
THERE is truth in the contention that
woman because of her primitive
qualities may yet rule the air. But
tho type of woman who will do so is the
quiet, stay-at-home woman tho housekeeper,
housewife and mother.
That it should be she, the woman of the
hearth, Instead of the woman ot public ac
tion, is capable of Bclontlflc proof. Since
the dim ages of the world, when men and
women were of equal prlmltlveness, man
has developed far, and a penalty ot his
mighty concentration has been an acute ten
sion of the nervous system and a correspond
ing seusltiveneBs to pain.
If men were called upon to bear the pain
that i'j visited upon women, especially in
maternity, they would suffer doubly, and
many of them would die. Even lesser pains
ordinarily borne by women would send
them running about the house screaming.
They could not enduro what women bear
because women have a greater capacity for
suffering. All this is due to their: greater
nerve tension, which has come with their
greater advanco from prlmltlveness.
Tho greater nerve tension haB produced
a different kind of nerves. Scattered
through the membranes of their bodies are
nerves of a finer, more delicate order. Men
sneeze more violently than women because
in the membrane lining of the noao are a
finer grade of nerves, more delicate, moro
sensitive to intruding dust or to changes of
temperature.
The woman who has developed along
lines of domesticity has little or no such
nervous sensitiveness. Her sensibilities are
coarser, because they have never been de
veloped to the knlfo-llko edge of man's. It
is not, according to some aeronauts Claude
Graham White, I bellevo among them not
nerve, but lack of nervousness, that makes
great aeronauts, Nervousness during an
ascent Is fatal. That state which we term
"nervelessness," tho absence of finely attuned
nerves, is better than courage In an emer
gency. Imperturbability Is a safeguard, and the
woman of low order ot nervousness 1b im
purturbable. '
One type of woman should be barred from
the air, and she, unfortunately, la the kind
that would rush Into it. That 1b the worn at.
who Is the opposite of the primitive the
advanced woman.
In the last hundred years a minority of
women has developed enormously in men
tality, and In tho ncuteness of nervous or
ganization that accompanies a high order of
mentality.
This minority of their sex has developed
with men, equally with them, and their
nerves have attenuated to the fineness I
have described. These are sterile women,
women who aro childless, and who have de
veloped almost abnormally their minds
Such as these, laboring under all the disa
bilities of men by the fineness of their
nervous organism, should never be permit
ted to make an ascent.
Take a woman from the nursery, from tho
Ironing table or from beside tho kitchen
range, but not a woman from tho desk or
studio, to make the conquest of the alrl
In such a woman as I first described the
primitive qualities have remained the
"peripheral visual attention" which William
James cites, the "dispersed attention." the
lack of necessity of the violent sneeze. The
other sort is too highly developed, too man
like, too highly strung for successful aer'V
feats,
Mr.. Gavin, an EnglUk Worn,
an 'Aviator to Whom EncIanJ
Will Givo Victoria Crow.