Omaha daily bee., 1919-11-02
fashion Race
Enemy and
AN Wrong
French Doctor Says Styles
OF Today Are Running
The, Race Attacks
All Glasses and
Countries.
BY DIR, FovEAU DE COUR-
MELLES,

MELLES,
President Of tho French Society Of ny
Paris, Nov. 1.-Unless something
is done to curtaii the utter extrava-
gance of fashions ever-changing
spectacle, the continued existence Of
the Aryan race will shortly find it.
self seriously threatened. ] say. this
in all sincerity and after the most
careful study and reflection. More
over, I can back up my assertion
with documentary proofs. Il i
high time today, with-our race de-
pleted and weakened by the ravages
Of -four years. warfare, the bittsrest
and most destructive recorded in
history, that we turned our thouEhts
and energies to the Augmentation
and improvement of the generations
to come.
Nothing is hastening our descent
this question, upon which depends
the supremacy of the western ma
lions during the next half Of tho
present century, all the signs Of the 4
times indicate that we are rapidly
slipping down the decline which
leads straight to rae suicide.
Nothing is Fastening our dscent
faster than fashion, the tyrant OF
our epoch. For the succession Of
the race is in trust to our women.
and it is precisely over women that
fashion weaves its strongest spell.
Physiologically, fasion is today
forbidding woman the exercise OF
her fundamental function, the bear
ing of children. 1t DEGREES that to
be "chic" she must be thin. She
obeys the decree. What is the re-
suit? Distortion Of her form and
weakening Of her health by ham,
pering corsets, ending, in many
cases, with complete atrophy Of her
reproductive powers.
Forbids Thought Of Health.
But fashion today goes still fur !
ther, II forbids to women sufficient
clothes for the preservation Of
health. Striking on unrgo detected
throat and. chest, piercing through
filfffy corsages and featherweight
undergarments, polar blasts dnd
icy draughts chill her to the bone
20 times q day, attacking every vital
organ and bringing in their wake
bronchitis, grippe, pleurisy, preu-
nionia, tuberculosis, peSitonitis, alb
dominal rheumatism, and host of
other ills which often terminate on
the operating table, where. finally,
all further hope of nativity is lost
forever.
Thelattenuated >garb of the mod
ern woman has reversed the ironical
phrase of Aiphonse Karr: "Womfn
IAN organism which dresses. mess
es, and undresses."
Strictly speaking, the 10th cen
fury woman never dresses. She par
tally dresses. She has adopted at
fashions beck, the tabled habiliment
of ,Kip1ings Vampire" and goes
about in this day and hour, clad In
little more than rag. Add to the
rag" rage the mania for unnatural
s1imness which has developed into
such an obsession that many fash
ionable dressmakers are now pre-
scribing, for their 'reputation's sake,
obesity cures and fat-reducing diets,
and you have all modish womanlind
faithfully depicted by the proverbial
charmer of the rag and bone and
hank of hair"
Physiologically then, fashion IS
doing its best to render the coming
mothers of the race unfit or utterly
unable to bear children,
Economically, fashion threatens
the continued propagation of man
kind. Despite the filminess and in
adequacy of the current styles, they
are exceedingly expensive. Only
the rarest silks, linens, furs and
jewels are Eau fait." And further
more, of what avail to wear, fashion
able and extravagant clothes if one
cannot show. them in fashionable
and extravaagant places? Whence
la double extravaganza involving
FIRST the expenditure of dispropor-
tionate sums for the rich attire of
woman's person, and second the dis
bursting of other disproportionate
sums for the exhibition of madame's
Luxurious wardrobe. Which means.
in the final analysis, the falling OF
the birth rate.
For the propagation of the race.
| after all, is as much question Of
money as of physiology, the bearing
and raising Of children being 4
source of constant expense for the
family. How many, alas, are tho
women who, hypSotized by the.
charms of fashion, renounce all
thought of children in order to fol-
low from season to season the Vary
ing panoramas of the stylesl They
must, in thousands of cases, face the
fatal alternative, for few budgets to.
day can meet, at the same time, thu
demands of fashion and the respon
sibilities of chiid-rearing.
1t is not hard to sympzthize, on
the other hand, with the dilemma in
which women find themselves today
land men, too, for that matter, as
the world has come to lay too much
stress on the superfcialities Of dress
and domestic luxury. Mem and.
women both find that in order to
command respect and considerations