The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-12-07
WOMAN'S DRESS
LIMITED BY Law
ses9
Only Way Husband Can be Protected
So He Can Save Up
His Tax
Money.
IS OLD TIME CUSTOM
TWO Hundred Years Ago, the Wives
# Geneva Were Limited
as to Ex-
pcnse.
by Henry Wood, Rome correspond
ent of the United Press.l

ent of the United Press.]
ROME. Dec. ca campaign 20 limit
by law If necessary the amount of
money which woman may spend on
dressing, is one of the very prob
able outcomes of the present reaction
airy movement in Italy against fem
lnism. In certain way, the sugges-
ton is really that of Pope Plus. In
sanctioning recently the project for
an international federation Of the
Catholic Womens league of the var
ious countries, he expressed his great
concern for the serious menace he
believes the women's modern fash
ions hold for society. Entirely aside
i from the moral phase of the question
he declared his belief that it was fast
becoming the economic ruin of count
less families. and he asked the league
to begin campaign against it.
i While the league is in no way as
sociated with either the feminist or
the antifeminist movement in Italy,
it happened that the pope's idea
struck a very responsive chord in the
hearts Of the ants and little prop
Uganda all of their own is under way
In italy, which has centuries Of ira
dition for everything that can pos
.sibly affect society, nothing is ever
received favorably unless it has be
hind it presidents of the far past
ton DT1,n
thing that would make women equa
with men, realize that there are liable
to be defections in their own ranks
If they "go too strong" in requiring
them to give up some of those fixing:
and furbelows of dress 50 dear tx
the feminine heart.
In the suggestion, however, that i
necessary law be dem> AIDED from
parliament that will put some llmi
on woman's present desire for luXur.
!. in dressing, the supporters of tn
movement have been fortunate
Beatrice Maincri, prominent Italia
writer, who was delegated to delv
i into the subject, has just discovere
: that at times in the past, 1t was cor
t sidered a very important thing TO
/ government in Italy to see to it tina
/ women did not spend so much o
8 dressing that their husbands coul
J. not pay the taxes necessary for tn
g support of the state.
The most conspicuous exampl
Trtr NToin nri
5 of the Genovese republic in the eigl
,eenth century. She found that
100, the first step to prevent til
:, ruination of the state through the e
:. travagance in women's dress wa
taken when 4 law was passed prohi
~ ting the wearing of dresses made {
Is colored silk, or of any other matters
! trimmed in either gold CIR silver, {
A covered with lace or semi-trans arel
" yelling.
10 A little later the fathers Of the r
le public, or their serene highnesses
sr us they were known, discovered TIL
z, even this was not sufficient TO sa'
IL tile tax-paying husbands, and cons
ouentlv the state. The women havil
is sought to offset the loss to the
III beauty by the prohibition of color
er silks and gold and silver trimmed N
he terial, took to the fine laces OF En-
ce land and France A second law W
SIS therefore necessary. 1t prohibit
IN the use of any laces except those ma
at Geneva.
Still little later. the INTRODUCED
of gold and silver watches, which
- became the fashion for women to we
- las ornaments, threatened the financ
~ life of the republic and they we
- put under the ban, women not bel
:, allowed to wear them in public.
To the above laws as well as othe
that were made, certain eXceptic
were made for newly married Bird
IL They were permitted to wear dress
or. of either wool or silk in the colt
which were adopted in the manuf
No ture of damask aud velvet. and tt
were allowed to have trimmings