A MATTER OF TASTE

Last week Representative Branch of Liberty introduced a resolution into the Florida House of Legislature that reference to any woman as a "flapper" would be considered an offense against the dignity of the State. The resolution was laid on the table, relegated to the calendar, and eventually deposited in the waste basket! It was felt that Representative Branch was not being as serious as he might be. Actually he was being a little too serious, for the abomination of the word "flapper" scarcely merits a state action.

The whole matter simmers down to a question of taste. Doubtless the Representative from Florida has been carried away by his feeling for aesthetic nicety, or else he might have regarded the abuse more philosophically. But, hasty or not, he has probed a very common complaint.

True slang is born of sudden inspiration, or actual need for a specifying word. It strengthens the language until that time arrives when its meaning has been so twisted and broadened that it becomes no longer respectable. Either it will escape this calamity and become a real word, or like the term "flapper", which originally was an apt expression, it will sink to the level of drab profanity.

Words like "flapper", "vamp", "necker" and what not insult countless ears besides those of Representative Branch of Florida until they come to be completely disregarded and overlooked. Thus, a nourished, they at last die out, but such protests as this suggested bill in Florida will only glorify and strengthen them. There are always people to cry for the right of the citizen to express himself in his own choice way.