The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1919-07-29
1890 CLOTHES GAY;
BUT NOT WEARERS
FOR LATTER WILL HAVE TO
PAY 100 PER CENT. MORE
THAN A YEAR AGO.

some persons might not consider that
so bright. 1t is with the cost of food
mounting daily and coal likely to be
more valuable than diamonds next
winter, it really won't matter to the
masses if, as Chairman Harry ST.
mons of the style show, now in ses-
sion at the Hotel Martinique, proph-
estes, the suit a man could get for
$25 last May will tax him $50 in
May, 1920, says the New York Sun.
Because the majority will probably
starve or freeze to death and be far
beyond the need of clothes next
spring.
But for those who survive the win
ter the problem of getting any new
rags, glad or sad or bad, will be a
big one. Just why the country has
fallen suddenly into state of ina
bility to produce as much as people
need is a puzzle no one explains very
completely, but Chairman Simons
made a stab at it while his fellow
members of the American Designers
Association, along with some broth
ers from Canada, discussed possible
plans for reducing labor on custom
made clothes.
"There's at least 25 per cent. less
labor in the clothing trades now than
before the war;" said Mr.. Simons. |
''And there is no new labor coming !
in. The unions won't allow appren-
tees, so the young can't learn the |
trade, and then there's a great emf |
grafton of Italians going back home,
and so per cent. of the labor in mems
garments is Italian. Many of our
people left the clothing factories at
the beginning of the war to go into
more lucrative employments, and
they don't want to return, and Meth
er do the demobilized soldiers who
once made clothes want to go back
to making clothes.
Prices Keep Shooting Up.
''That is one reason for the way
prices of coats and pants and so on
are shooting up, and another reason
is the change from piece work to
pay by the week. This means decreas-
ed efficiency, because if the worker
knows so much is waiting for him
Saturday night in his pay envelope
he isn't going to hustle himself. A
third reason is the high cost of mate
rails. Manufacturers of materials
suffer, of course, from the same diff ,
ficulties that hamper the men who ,
make up cloth into garments-the
great lack of people to man their
factories I
Elwood S. McNabb, president of t
the association, and J. c. Mcdonald,
a Boston designer and the vice pres /
ident, led opposing sides of the dis /
cussion over the necessity of simpler v
STYLES for men. Mr.. McNabb held |
that by eliminating every seam not I
absolutely indispensable, and doing {
away with braid binding for peck
cts and all such do-dads, work on I
mems suits could be lessened appre- '
ciably. Mr.. Mcdonald held that there
were flappers among the men as I
among the women, and that the num- g
Der who yearned for the type of s
clothing called ''jazz" was larger |
than most persons dreamed. !
Innings Will Be Gay.
Bv way of making up for this, lin
ings will probably be gay, and the
futuristic youth who wants to sport
around in a coat with a lining of
purple flowers on an orange back
ground will not have far to seek. The
manufacturers are perfectly willing
to give the public any gayety that
doesn't mean extra stitches. Ana
even at the cost of extra stitches
they will probably send out some
coats with waistlines. I,
Nobody can guess, according to
Mr.. Simons, what the demand Tor
mems clothes is going to be. Sales
are good now, for the returning sol
diers are all fastening forth the min
ute they doff their khaki to get a
new civilian suit. But will they ever
buy another? That is what is worry
ing the clothing men. With life grow
ing harder day by day and the boil
sheviki and all sorts of things in the
offing, may it not be that the suits
they're buying now will have to do
most of the world war veterans the
rest of their lives?
Women's Wear Ditto.
The style show at the Martinique
isn't considering women's wear, but
the leaders there said the same con-
ditions govern both, and if mems
clothing costs 100 per cent. more
next spring this will doubtless be
true of women's buds. In fact, Mr..
Simons said that many makers were
refusing to show fall styles in wo-
mems dresses, ETC., because they want
to wait for the higher prices which
they say are sure to come soon. But
Better 4 IAN II