WOMAN'S DRESS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 18, 26 February 1914, Page 4

WOMAN'S DRESS.

NO MAN'S CONCERN. Women and the churches in Georgia are divided over the style of women's dress. Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Episcopal denominations have appointed a joint commission to discourage the new styles and the n6w dances.* But the Women's Christian Temperance Association has refused to | endorse this commission; .In addition, Mrs M. L. M'Lendon, president of the I Georgia Women 's Suffrage Association, has asserted "it is a piece of impertinence for business men, or ecclesiastical men, or any other sort of men, to say how women shall dress.'' Her interview is the sharpest word spoken in the controversy. Dr C. B. WjJmer a member of the commission, insisted men are much concerned in women's dress when styles become objectionable. "SOME DRESS INDECENTLY." "Some women in Atlanta and in other cities in Georgia dress indecently," he said, "and dress that way intentionally. . Others innocently dress in an objectionable way. Every sane man knows that. And what the Church purposed in appointing a commission was merely to create a counteracting influence. We will make no effort to lay «lown rules." At the recent State Conventions of the four Protestant denominations, Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians condemned the new styles and the new dances as immoral, and Episcopalians deplored the unfortunate tendencies of the times. All united on the commission idea.

"NO MAN'S CONCERN." "But it is no man's concern how women- shall dress," objected Mrs M'Lendon, president of the Suffrage Association. '' And it "doesn't matter whether he is an ecclesiastical man or a business man. I don't like the styles that women now affect. But, they can manage their own reforms without aid from the men. "Is all that man does right? Is- he so perfect himself he can forget his own faults and take to deprecating the width of women's skirts? Anyway, all these fashions so much condemned by men were designed by men. And in wearing them women really- are the victims of men. ''l'don't want to wear narrow skirts. But if I buy clothes designed /by men and sold by men, what else can i get? If a woman isn't clever enough to make her own apparel she must take the hobbles designed by masculine dressmakers in Paris and then be railed at by masculine critics here. • ' ? * "The chief trouble is that women don't assert themselves. Most of us are opposed to extreme styles. But we are so much in the habit of accepting things that we keep silent and take what is given to us. And yet, when we begin to be assertive and speak our minds on what we know about and need to talk about, you hear men regretting the old-fashioned woman and her womanly ways!" DEFENDER OF WOMEN 70 YEARS OLD. Mrs M'Lendon is 70 years old. "But the time is sure to come," she said emphatically, "when women will * be outspoken upon matters of importance to women, and will regulate their own affairs without the help of men.

Right now the matter .of dress is one that ought to be left to "woman and no one but woman. 5 ■ "I will say this, however, for .men, they have chosen their own • style of dress better than women have chosen or been chosen for. I like your trousers a good deal better than I do bur'tight skirts. It's easy to about in them. They are nice looking and sensible. • "A man certainly has less trouble with his clothes than any woman, and he looks nice. But all the same, a woman's needs are different from a man 's, and I think he has .enough .to iook after as it is without saying, how she shall dress. ■•"J&TS. SENSIBLE.WOMEN., "Just leave that to women. They'll solve the problem well enough. There are' lots of sensible women in the. world, and I think there are few who are not modest and, good. Talk as much as you please of old-fashioned reserve and gentleness, women are women everywhere and at all times. "Hooped skirts weren't any more an emblem of modesty than tight skirts are. 'Women are just as jealous of. their good name to-day when they put - a yard and a-half of cloth into their skirts, and a slcimpy y?*~l and a'-half at that, as they were when they bought dresses by the bolt* Besides, cloth costs more now."