The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-09-15
IAN APPEAL TO
 AMERICAN WOMEN
(Ida M. Tarben in The Wo-
 mans Companion.)

 Continent of Europe has committed itself, be it short or long, opens to American women patriotic service of unique and inesttmable value It is a, service the more binding because it is a long-tgnored duty.
 What in this crisis is the highest obligation of these United States of America aside? It Is to see that no man is idle. no wheel stops Whatever the uncertainties, patriotism demands that our factor les and mines and mills be kept open and busy. We owe it to the world that when. this mad and barbaric en- terprtse is over there shall be one great country, among those who boast Themselves as civilized, carrying on the pursuits of peace.
 Whatever, the war has stripped from uSs that we must learn to sup ply; whatever industry it has check ed or stopped, we must set in mo- tfon- It is for us not only to care fully for ourselves but to aid those smaller neutral nations of the world whose activities, like ours, have been dealt a staggering blow.
 The crisis has brought us face to face with what we have not,-ahips for instance-with what we can not do for ourselves. What woman is there among us who loves to encour- age taste and elegance that has not been forced to realize how dependent she Is to-day for what she wants, not on her own country but on Europe? Would that with this realization there could go the reflection that this is so because she has never given her coun- try intelligent, continuous support in l it's effort to produce the things she de- mands-
 what Is the label on which we l American women pride ourselves? Do | we boast that. the silk in our gowns came from Massachusetts, the cloth 1 in our coats from Rhode Island, that our hat was designed in Chicago and 1 our housefurnishings in Grand. Rap ids? Not wei There is scarcely a woman of us between the Atlantic and the Pacific that does not love the feel of the word .1rnported'' on her tongue What were the frantic, be- draggled, money1ess American women | who fled from Europe in early August hugging to their breasts Paris hats and Belgian laces, French silks and Swiss. e1nbroideries, V1ennese gowns and German hosiery. Of all the tens of thousands of merican women who 1 crowded Europe when war seized her, there was scarcely one that was not planning to bring home all her income allowed of hnery.
 l It is so every year. And what sums they leave behind! And, more 1 important, what stimulus to art and 1 ingenuity they leave behind, though 1 it is only by money we can measure it. I 1 and see. I have examined scores of | them which called for from five to thirty thousand dollars in duties. And this did not include what was not de- I c1ared = diamonds. in the heel of a slipper, lace in a doub1e-wal1ed trunk, I lingerie in a laundry bag!
 I These personal importations are I but a. mere bagatelle, beside those of merchants which in many lines run I into the tens of rniLIions annually fS ard InY 0fz nd a l flowers come into this country to the tune of at least $2O, 100000 a year; l jewelry between $40, 100000 and $5O,- I 0O0,0OO: silks made up4 and in the piece, nearly $10O,000,000. And so 1 one might go on, through the bewil- dering assortment of articles which make for our elegance
 l Why do we do it? Because, e,''-any l woman of taste and knowledge will I tell you this-ssI can get in European products more beauty of design, more | snap in style, more cunning in de- tails, more durability in material 2
 And Why?
 Are American manufacturers and designers incapable of this superior craftsmanship and art? No, the truth is that American women have never given them fair opportunity to
 prove what they can do Consider
 for a. moment what it would mean to
 our manufacturers and designers if l rooms were visited by hundreds of fwomen examining their stock, sug- gesting designs, encouraging experi- ,ments, giving liberal orders It is ! to Europe we give this stimulus.
 Moreover, if these women had the
 opportunity to choose between two
 equally good pieces of work. domes-
 tic and foreign, they would every
 time take the foreign. That is the | fact of the relation of the woman of l he TTT7Tf fad Gf1f0 i70H 1 these things, to her country's indus
 try. She has little sense of respon-
 sibility, little loyalty, tor pride in this
 matter.
 And what are the results to Indus
 try? Can our manufacturers do any
 thing else than become makers of
 cheap goods? Would they do other
 wise if they could?
 It has been my business to go much
 in the last few years among American
 man ufacturers. One of the things
 which has impressed me deepest has
 been the men who wanted to make
 good things; who apologized for
 cheap wares.
 rem e1nber Massachusetts woolen
 manufactures showing me three diff
 ferent pieces of exquisite1y woven
 stuffs. They were oases in cords of
 cotton worsteds.
 '.I make these,' he told me, "for
 the pleasure of making a good thing:
 Bradford can do nothing better; but there isn't an American woman alive
 who wouldn't prefer to say that
 Bradford made the cloth in her suit,
 rather than MassachGsetts.'' have had spread before me as beautiful designs foc summer cot tons as were ever made. and heard the manufacturer say. with longing in his voice: ''If we could put these into fine,
 soft fabrics! but the American wo-
 man will not buy expensive domestic 2 goods She demands the foreign l mark
 As pliable, durable, and beautiful
 ly finished silks as there are in the
 world can be made here in quantities
 But where is the American woman