The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-14
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATHON BUREAU
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN, Director,
Washington, D. c.
THE DWfNDLING AND VANISHING
SKIRT.


necessity has reduced it to half its
former size. Flounces, ruffles and
pleats, so dear to the hearts OF our
erandmothers, are not permitted by
the war fabric censors- And now, IN
dustrial safety forbids the skirt
A large American accident insur-
ance company recently issued warn
ing to women employed in factories
not to wear skirts and frllls. These,
it assured the women, Were the best
answer to the question, why are
women victims OF so many more in
dustrial accidents than men?''
Just consider the difference in
dress between the male and female
worker" suggested a representative of
the company. Men wear the snugly-
fitting overall and jumper which
reduces to a minimum the chance OF
injury due to clothing being caught
in moving machinery. Women, on the
other hand, usually wear full Skirts
and befrilled shirt waists, and in addi-
ton they often wear their hair so that
strands of it fly about"
Changes in Dress and Women.
At least this was true of the million
or more women employed in manu-
featuring industries in this country up
to the time of the war But the war
has changed this. 1t has changed wo-
men. They have become more serious
minded. more Independent. In Eu-
rope thousands of women have left
lives of frivolous inactivity to enter
munitions factories and turn the
wheels of war. And in doing so, they
have also left their skirts. The war
was about one month old when the
women of Europe went into trousers.
1t was about one year old when
American women factory workers
started discarding their skirts in favor
of overalls. Some employers insisted
11nOn If a fafU T0P9 Sl1re. and en-
countered a storm of shocked Opposi-
ton. Others were petitioned to per,
NIT the change. In most cases, new
employees, encouraged by the pictures
movies and Sunday supplements, wore
trousers or overalls as a matter OF
course.
Since the United States has entered
the war, a tremendous number of
women have taken the place of men
in dangerous occupations. Women are
now manufa curing explosives and
shells: they are forging tools, and are
operating drill presses. Among the
employees of the Pennsylvania railroad
there are women SignalerS, locomotive
dispatchers, pump attendants block
operators, machine hands, watchwo-
men and draw-bridge tenders. For
these women, doing mems work, skirts
are a distinct handicap.
The Passing of the Skirt
Much, of course, is to be said in de-
Tense of the skirt. skirt as a rule,
is a more beautiful garment than a
pair of trousers. By concealinS
women. as it does, it adds to the mys-
terry of their sex. ''Deliciously fem
mime" it has been called by several
masculine poets. What so coquettish
as the skirt?" inquiries a famous
novelist The skirt, indeed, embodies
the ideals of that romantic period of
our history, known as the Middle
| Ages, when the eternal feminine lived
and flourished.
But the eternal feminine has not
been able to keep up with economic
conditions Coyness in the factory is
out of place.
The passing of the skirt, however,
cannot be laid entirely at the door
of war. Before the war women were
| beginning to feel its limitations 1t
was all very well for home use, but
| a frightful nuisance when doing any
thing strenuous; and women started
| being strenuous at the beginning OF
| the twentieth century. The first re-
| form-the divided riding skirt-was
not introduced without a storm OF
protest. Denunciations from the pull
| pit were vociferous; attempts were
| made to pass laws preventing its APP
pearance, and moralists fought it like
| a plague. But the divided skirt re-
| NAMED, parity uue u the QulOt US-
termination of its wearers and partly
to thu influence of medical men, who
deplored che sidesaddle.
The Divided Skirt, First Wedge.
That. of course, was some years ago.
Today the divided skirt has given way
| to riding breeches of the most maScu-
| line cut, and trousers have become
the standard apparel for women's
| sports At the beaches, where the To-
cal authorities permit, the skirt has
dwindled and disappeared. Wherever
women have taken up the pursuits
of men they have taken up their
| clothes. Thus the law of expediency
makes and remakes custom.
| That custom and not a sense OF
modesty molds the clothing of the
| human race is now recognized by all
students of history A Mohammedan
woman's costume is considered suffi-
| cient If it covers only her face; a Chi
deformed feet; and in some of the
island tribes a women will experience
deep shame when she is discovered
without a plug in her lips. In Japan
| nude mixed bathing is the custom
but it is considered improper to por-
tray the nude figure in art. while in
the United States nude figures are
permissible in art, but nowhere else
except in the bathtub.
Here. too, customs differ. It /.
considered perfectly proper for womer
to wear evening dresses exposing
large portion of their shoulders and
back. but the same dress would b.
considered immodest for the street.
Why Clothing Was Invented.
| What primitive man was like car
best be determined by a study of thu
primitive tribes which now populat'
the earth. From such a study, anC
from the evidence CLEANED from an
cient records, it is apparent that tn
first clothing was not invented from
any sense of innate modesty in man
popular opinion to the contrary not
outstanding. Clothing was inventet
for two reasons; as a means of pro
! lection against the climate and as
means of attraction between tn
sexes And in tracing its direct orr
gin, the first reason was less impor
tant than the last
A -.