An increase in the number of non-sectarian bisexual societies, clubs and similar organizations, and a diminution of the number of those limited to men or to women alone is greatly to be desired. It is doubtful whether the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. are, while separated, as useful to society as they might be. Each of them tends to create a celibate community, where the chance for meeting possible mates is practically nil. The men's organization has made, so far as we are aware, little organized attempt to meet this problem. The women's organization in some cities has made the attempt, but apparently with indifferent success. The idea of a merger of the two organizations with reasonable differentiation as well would probably meet with little approval from their directors just now, but is worth considering as an answer to the urgent problem of providing social contacts for young people in large cities.
It is encouraging that thoughtful people in all walks of life are beginning to realize the seriousness of this problem of contacts for the young, and the necessity of finding some solution. The novelist Miss Maria Thompson Davies of Sweetbriar Farm, Madison, Tenn., is quoted in a recent newspaper interview as saying:
"I'm a Wellesley woman, but one reason why I'm dead against women's colleges is because they shut girls up with women, at the most impressionable period of the girls' lives, when they should be meeting members of the opposite sex continually, learning to tolerate their little weaknesses and getting ready to marry them."
"The city should make arrangements to chaperon the meetings of its young citizens. There ought to be municipal gathering places where, under the supervision of tactful, warm-hearted women—themselves successfully married—girls and young men might get introduced to each other and might get acquainted."
If it is thought that the time has not yet come for such municipal action, there is certainly plenty of opportunity for action by the parents, relatives