New-York tribune., 1920-02-25
The Ugiiness of Democracy

The Ugliness of Democracy
We have not much patience with
those aristocratc folk who roundly
condemn all democracy, it's art
and its accoutrements, as neces-
sarily ugly. There were ugly
periods in the world long before mod
ern democracy was heard of. Wit
ness the roccco extravagances of the
years centering around 1900. There
has been some ugincss in the wake
of democracy, and some beauty.
Witness, for the latter. The Wool
worth tower, or the Brooklyn Bridge.
or even the Pittsburgh steel district
from train at night.
AS for clothes, we hazard the
guess that women's clothes have sell
dom been as beautiful as they are to-
day. Only few Of the most sue
cessful periods of design can be rated
ahead of the straight-hanging, fig
ure-following frocks OF the presen,
era Of sense conjoined with grace.
But mems clothes There, in
deed, the ugliness of democracy
seems to have coagulated. Lamants
over the stovepipe trouser and the
hard-boiled derby have been pcren-
NAL among artistically exrert Deo-
pie. just how awful tlcv were. how
egregiously they fattoned male hu-
man nature to one dead level Of dull,
drab respectability, was brought
home to many others by the war and
its uniforms. Never did Amer
leans look SO distinguished as in
the indistinguishable garb Of their
regiments. The color of the uniform
was not especially attractive-save
tor the Marines. Yet what sod
awakening for wives and sweet
hearts and friends when the uni
form disappeared and "civies"
frightful as the word itself-reap- D.
peared!
The point was, apparently, that
our uniform, for all its shortcomings.
paid attention to the fundamental
facts of the human figure and sought
to serve its actions, not distort or
conceal them. 1t was, above ALL
workmanlilze and useful. Did the
lesson of the uniform strike in? We
fear not. The only outc~y we have
seen against the trouser resumed is
this lament by jerome K. Jerome
in Common Sense, the London
weekly:
These good early Saxons, return
ing home from their daily toll with
their mattocks and their scythes unon
thelr shoulders, looked self-respect-
ing men. One felt that their chill
ofen could run to meet them without
s"uoaerlng. Labor to-day, bound
homeward, always suggests rather an
army Of animated scarecrows. WHY
should the workers Of the world Tho
moment they were released from,
serfdom, have discarded in eve,v
country their useful, appropriate and
quite beautiful garments and have
dressed themselves like tramps?
why does the Swiss mountaineer Of
to-day neglect his own national cos
tune and send to London for a suit
OF reach-me downs? What satellite
OF Satan has convinced the British
working man that the way to win a
young girls love is to walk out with
her on hot Sunday afternoon in an
iu-httlng suit cf broadcloth and
SHINY black hat in which he resem-
pies nothing so much as a mute at
cheap funeral? Won't somebody
give him looking glass;. Can't
somebody show him picture of what
he looked like in the fourteenth con-
tury; clean-limbed youth in Lin
coin green with gay cocks feather
in his hat-a lad that girl could be
proud Off"
This seems voice crying in a
wilderness Of trousers, alas There
are a few male garments that offer
hint Of hope-the golf suit, for in
stance, that gains in popularity
every season. There is also the DOS