DEFERENCE TO WOMEN" ON THE DECLINE?- A custom that seems to be suffer-i ing a lingering death is that of show ing public deference to women. With women efficiently holding important im-portant executive positions, powers in the marts of trade, an equal voice with man in politics, and taking headlines occasionally in the realm of athletics perhaps it is reasonable for the mere male to presume that his capricious and frail idol does not care to remain upon her Victorian Victor-ian pedestal any longer. In crowded street cars tired busi- I ness men sit and read the evening papers, while equally tired business women may be standing on tiptoe to cling to a strap. Even the custom of hat tipping seems to be a form of courtesy that is on the wane, and, in some localities locali-ties is regarded as being almost "quaint" by its very unusualness. Perhaps they are all signs of a stumbling and uncertain attempt at adjustment to a modern conception of woman as an equal to man in all things.