Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-11-22
Ida Harper Says That Women
Bring Ridicule Upon Selves
by Their Clothing.
INJURY TO WHOLE CLASS
Fobble and Sheath Skirts Declared
10 Be Indecent as Well
as Useless.

has discovered the reason why New
York women haven't the right to vote.
Nothing has done so much harm TO
suffrage in the last so years as the
way women have dressed themselves
/ in the last year or two" she told a
feminine audience at the Waldorf
You have aroused general contempt
and criticism and have made men say
everywhere that you have neither
| sense nor Judgment and so are not fit
TO be trusted with the ballot. Your
hats especially have made you objects
of ridicule and burlesque from one end
Of the country to the other"
Today Mrs. Harper's indignation had
| not cooled
NO woman who enters a great
movement can allow herself the same
freedom she enjoyed before" she de-
| clared she is no longer responsible
merely as an individual. She is the
| embodiment of the cause she repre-
/ sents.
CHARGED TO WHOLE CLASS.
! ''If she is q suffragist whatever silly
thing she does is charged up to suf-
frage by the men. Therefore, | am
convinced that no one thing has hurt
the suffrage cause so much as the way
women have dressed or undreSSed In
/ the last few years.
Their hBts sioAs E8ve made them
/ the lauGning stock of the country
/ These ridiculous objects are without
excuse in either shape or trimming,
/ and they are made worse by the wear
| ing of long hatpins, which have been
such a menace to others that legal re-
| lief has been sought all over the land.
The most influential women have
" orn dresses on the street and in pub
/ lie places in which a woman of the
demi-mOnde would not have appeared
/ few years ago. They have exposed
/ figures, arms. bOsOms and ankles in so
shameless a way that one is forced TO
| suspect that if they have appeared
modest in the past il was only because
| custom demanded it and from no in
nate refinement.
1T is impossible to go on the street
without seeing the contempt men feel
: for these women and hearing the
sneers and obscene remarks directed
toward them. And as a result men say
women have shown themselves unfit
for suffrage or anything but dress and
bridge and the most frivolous amuse-
ments."
RADICAL STYLES EVERYWHERE.
But are such women seen on the
streets outside of New York;" she was
asked.
They are everywhere" she said.
Almost every little town has would-be
, smart women who parade the streets
in all the latest indecent eccentricities
of fashion.
'Of course these women really form
the smallest proportion compared with
the working women, the mother of
families, and the woman doing splen-
did service in churches and other or
ganizations. But, like the froth and
foam they are. they come to the top
They show themselves in public and
assume a much larger place than they
really occupy. If they only injured
themselves it would not be so bad, but
they iniure every good thing other
women try to do and go long way TO
counteract the magnificent work wom-
en- have actually accomplished
Another great evil is the way these
society butterflies are initiated by
working girls and women. Their false
estimate of the necessity Of dress
elaborate beyond their means often
leads them to absolute crime"
OPPOSES SHEATH AND HOBBLE.
What are the features of modern
dress to which you particularly OBJ
ject?" /
Well" answered Mrs. Marper, "I
was never so discouraged over the
problems Of women as when they
adopted the tight fitting skirt, various
iy known as the Sheath 'hobble or
me tube II seemed 10 me then that
our case was hopeless. 7 can 20 down
into the slums and see all the poverty I
and misery there and not feel SO dis I
Couraged over the outlook.
"The law would not allow women 20
be nearer naked than many Of them
are now at evening fun ctions, with
their dresses cut down to The waist .
line IN the back and nearly there in .
the front
IF women only wore these clothes .
at private functions it would not be 50
Teprehensi5le. But when they appear
In the dining rooms Of public cafes .
exposing themselves 70 the gaze Of
men Of every class and description IT
makes you wonder where their sense .
Of shame has gone II makes one
heartsIck 10 see women In Offices
dressed as hey would be al an after
loon tea, either with necks and arms
entirely exposed or 50 thinly covered
as 10 be even more suggestive"
Motorists on Good Roads.