The Sentinel=record., 1914-06-11
FEDERATION WOMAN TAKES EN- PHATIC STAND IN MATTER OF
 EVIL OF EXTREMES.
CRAZE ID BE IN FASHION
Says the Noble Women Are as Wrens Compared to Cockatoos With the Women of Underworld When the Matter of Dress is Considered.

Chicago, June l0-The subject of dress came before the women gath cred here today for the biennial con vention of the General Federation of Womens Clubs.
 Mrs. Robert J. Burdett of Pasadena, Cal, discussed it in it's relations to morals, while the assemblage itself, by great majority, exemplified the beauties of dress simplicity.
 Mrs. Burdett spoke to an expert and appreciative audience.
 "With forbidden Knowledge" said the speaker, came self-consciousnes and with self-consciousness came the sense of shame and the protective garment and thus did the transgres- sions of our first parents cover all future generations with a blanket mortgage of clothes which We are paying off with heavy interest.
 "Whether clothes were first worn as an ornamental covering or for pro lection matters little, for we seem even to this day to consider the first of prime importance. No matter if the neck be exposed nearly to the waist line and the limbs nearly half way to the knees, if only the style be followed, health and suggestiyeness are lost sight of in the craze to be in fashion.
 Miss Grace Hutchins, costume de- siguer of Columbia University, says the morals of a woman are read in her gowns, and that slovenly dress indicates her mental traits; that the woman who is addicted to extreme styles is sure to be an extremist in everything else. But she adds she does not believe that every woman who wears immoral clothes is neces- sarily immoral She rather believes a large percent of them recklessly and relentlessly follow prevailing fashions without knowing why.
 "As the fashions are today a wo- man would have to design nearly ev- erything for herself if she would not wear immoral clothes. The reason is plain enough:
 Fashions, especially French fash ions, are not designed for good wo- men. They will not spend cough money to suit the merchants. That is the reason That every new fashion is designed originally for the demi- monde of Paris"
 The speaker, herself clad in unos- tentatious white, asserted that Ameri- can women are clothes-mad, and that nowhere else is seen the same elabO- rate over-dressing save among the declasse women abroad.
 "Throughout Europe" she contin- ued, the women of high nobility and social position are like wrens com pared with the cockatoos of the half world It is an unpleasant thought that it is the latter who set the stand ard which our fashionable women fol low with naive avidity"
 The speaker gave especial em- phasis to this statement:
 "The following of fashion dictation causes foolish women to eat their hearts out With longings they cannot afford to gratify; leads to unhappi- ness; the ruination of homes and the barterng of virtue itself"
 Mrs. Burdette said that women should determine for themselves what style of dress most becomes them and then stick to that style. American women are too independ- ent, too individual, she admitted, to be content with a national costume.
 No one thing today in a woman's life more saps her strength, time. means and nervous vitality than the triple-headed lion that guards every event of daily life in the form of the question, Which hat shall l wear?' How shall 1t be nader and How shall it be paid for?'"