STANDARD SIZES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 30, 5 February 1927, Page 20

STANDARD SIZES

INTO PATTERN

Once upon a time a young man of modest .means, told his- landlady that he""-would . sbori be giving up his lodgings, because he wag going. to be married. ) "I hope the lady is stock size, sir, " Was "the prompt and only comment; , It-was a practical and a kindly wish for! married 'happiness in the last century. . la the near future we may expect to see engagements broken 'oft because either,the lady or the gen- ■ tlemah. is-foiind,. on measurement,, to be not stock size (says "The dimes''). So we judge from the speech which the Minister for Overseas Trade delivered' to the Bradford Textile Society. Standardisation, as it is oalled in the trade, is'to be more and more strictly practised than ever before. Outfitters will insist on.'restricting the sizes of men's underwear, and will use. measurements ;to , which;, all .producers must conform. Eyeh . women's shoes,. which but' re-, oeatly .offered the . allurement of sizes" almost' as various as: their materials an* stylesfiare to; be -limited" to a :few fixed. lengths' ?aid-breadths. It' is not' surprisin'g^hat Procrustes has been at his old tricks with:beds. In America, said Mr. Samuel, thoy have now only four sizes in widths and only one standard length for bedsteads. If.-the bed will not.fit the sleeper then the. sleeper must;|Bfr;th'e?bed; and it will; be, harder than v"eyer; for single gentlemen to sleep ;'s|s> double gentlemen. But few people see'a San in bed. It is,much' more trying :"to go about in public wearing- a- standard hat -when one happensa standard head; to take a, .walk,in':a. standard shoe when orie's ; feet: are vnot stock size. And there is; 11,0 contemplating^without fear or 'unkind mirths the^etfeet of standard collars on some of t&a"..necks, with which each of us is acquainted. . '

More, fortunate than .over before, therefore, will be those who have standard heads, necks, limbs, and feet, and those -:-Syr Ho !.are wealthy enough. to have their'hats and clothes and boots made..to fit .such members as they possess;;-'. :On. .those who either by .wealth^tir. by.poyerty stan£ outside the 'standards'will fall the duty of preserving such remnants of variety in dress as are left in a world already mainly standarflised—a world from which all the old distinctive costumes of profession and trade have long been polished away, and in.'whiah idiosyncrasy already dares but a timid expression. In future nearly- every one will look like nearly, every,one else;-but we. are so accustomed;,to that. thjit little diffe?-: ence will, be.noticsable. Standardisation of. clothing* will doubtless make , trade-much easier and more profitable; and it will:rob the eye of only a small remnant of delight. But standardisation does not always stop at clothing. There are said to be countries in which opinions, alsci;-are standardised, so that he who \ thinks .;differently from his neighbour: is suspect. Different nations .'v^luej; different kinds of liberty, la one country; it is saM, you may do iwhat you.' like so. long as you profess to think like . every one else;.. in another ybu; ix&y think what you please, "but must strictly conform in conduct. .Unless the rEnglishv have changed their nature.-of late, they insist more than any other people upori both kinds of libert^-the liberty to think and to say what you pleaße, 'and the. libertyv;to; do what, they please, within -the law-^ but as near^ the edge of it;'as:-they,'c^,n contrive to; go. Standardisation, whiish' is the'inevitable result of mass prpducy. tion, has -made 'it "convenient for.'; the: Englishman ;,tp surrender a- good '-"ideal" of his-- Vexieinai' individuality--ea - ch marifs ,"faney, : ;for instance, '.for the, clothes that: he himself likes, no mat-? I ter what the fashion.' It is very im-' probable"that-any amount of external - Lindardisation will rob him "of his

;;-.rdy" independent -impulse to think , 'iid behave 'as he., personally, pleases. That impujse'has'been, and,:still is, the occasion, of incalculable; mischief..-It; is also the'.;cause of a strength which can be acquired by-no amount of stan-1 dardisatian, no Procrustean violence in forcing Nature into pattern.