The evening world. Newspaper, June 6, 1919, Page 24

FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 1919 “Readjustment of Marriage Laws Next Step in Women’s Awakening — BUT, SAYS DR. KATHARINE B. DAVIS No Danger Yet That Marriage Will Be Legally Abolished” All Throughout Europe Demand Is Heard for a Mar- riage Yoke That Is Easier to Wear, With More Freedom to Choose a Proper Mate and Partici- pate in Political and Professional Life, but Most Women Still Want to to Be—“ Wives.” By Zoe Be—and Will Always Want Beckley Copyright, 1919, by The Press Publishing Co. (The New York Rvening World). HAT will be the marriage o' W to » new pattern, and Herr much-hetalded spi: to operate, will not They will, Dr, Davis agrees. But she declines to European frontiers form the feminine ‘sphere.’ kind, including marriage jews. The; Rew ‘social morality’—a “The world has been has not yet shaken down. ft the future? After the fountain-pen of peace has done its work, and Europe has been ripped and cut H———n has been disposed of where he will not impair the landscape too seriously, and the rit of the new democracy has begun the stuffy and moth-eaten laws touch- ing the highest relationship of man and woman have to be shaken out in the air and renovated a bit? make her just-completed six months’ trip over fifteen the basis for definite prophecy. ‘aken up,” says she, “but it No one can say just what programme will take. But we know * that women will never again stay shut up in any one They will not be bound by unjust and antiquated Jaws of any y will demand and help formulate a rearrange- ment of moral standards. And I use |®utomatically to the children of in- Dr. Davia, bead of the Bureau of Bocia! Hygiene, No. 61 Broadway, with they can in programming its future. Apd she got them. There is a good deal less of the Commissioner of Corrections food of Germany, which was one of the ten countries visited. She says) *Bocause,” says who, “there is no deMnite dectaration among the wom- ternational marriages. “So that if an American doughboy finds his life mate in some French province where he fought, afd takes his bride back home with him, such children as may come must belong to their mother’s country, serve in its army, and swear full allegiance, no matter whether they are both in America or not, This is of .course| fanatical, and I should imagine abn | } have small chance of success. “Im England things are whizeing! All sorts of feminist activities are rife. Many voices are heard. One of them % that of tho ‘Abolitionists,’ followers of Josephine Butler, who believe that the so-called social vice Problem cannot be worked out by state control. They say ‘You cannot legislate vice.’ And that all attempts to do so hitherto Have resulted in opening the way to blackmail and other crimes, And that such laws Place al! the burden upon women and pone upon men. i “Tho divorce laws of England are N. Y. Woman ‘‘Summer Salamanders’’ SWADDLED IN SWEATERS, CAPES AND FURS THEY STAGE THE ‘“‘ FOLLIES OF NINETY IN THE SHADE’’ SSS SS SX In summer, quite the Their capes and furs —With apologies to Robert Louis Stevenson, HE New York woman has been a chicken, if certain, implore By Marguerite Mooers Marshall Cipyright, 1919, by The Prem Publishing Co, (The New York Rvening World). In winter, when the streets are white, They go in silk and muslin light; siren, a bird of fine feathers, and various other fauna and flora. But this summer she has effected still another of her chameleon-like transformations, She has become a salamander, which, the dictionary tells us, is “one of the genii fabled to live in fire, hence any person who can stand great heat.” Nobodg but a salamander could endure these first torrid days of early summer wearing the clothes of the fash- jonable New York woman—and a happy smile! South Sea Islander, @ native of India, brought to our allegedly “temperate” clime and arrayed in the purple. assumed by her siste! ~ Se VEILS other way— they wear each day. likened to an American Beauty rose, A of Fifth Avenue, would, I am! the nearest bystander to take her! coming under harsh vivisection, ‘Ana | back home and deposit her in a nice, roomy oven or on a funeral pyre | opinions are current that sweeping reforms must be made. “I heard no voices anywhere cry- ing for the doing away of marriage, but many demanding that the yoke ‘be made easier to wear, and some demanding that no stigma be tached to those who refuse the yoke. ep of any country—as yet, Things are chaotic, But there are ‘voices,’ One hears of proposed ‘readjust- ments if not downright revolution- ary measures. “In Italy, for instance, since the! war there has developed an organi- | gation of women who have just held their. third congress at Turin to dis- | marriage and divorce, a state of motherhood, provision for the efucation and maintenance of all g@hidren, and many other questions in which they feel women must have avolce, ~ “This group is the one sometimes q@moted as favoring trial marriage, a term I distike to use, since they do mot themselves make use of it. Against them, of course, is opposed the voice of all conservatives, relig- icatets, &c. It remains to be seen who has eventually the stronger in- Myence, But in the inevitable awak- emment of all women, much Itberali- gation of laws concerning them must be counted open. "In France there has been a definite bam placed upon birth control. This would at first blush seem reaction- ary. But there are, on the other and, certain welfare laws being drafted, touching women and chil- dren, @esigned to offset all old con- servative standards. "To show how active, yet how un- settled, feminist affairs are at pres- ent im France: There is one group of ‘women there who maintain that na- Uonality should be ‘raced only through the mother. They would @iso have French citizenship attach A BIT BEHIND. HE otriko was on, and walk- ing home was “the only way.” When Johnson ar- rived at his subur- ban home in the far north in the small hours of the morning, he sent a Office to-day, Am ence is given to the ‘nationalization of women.’ The woman of the future ‘wants more freedom to choose her Proper mate, And more freedom to Participate in political and profes: sional life, Most women will always | Want to marry, But they want to do other things too—and unquestionably they are gulag to do them!” ‘Even in the oft excoriated Enemy Coustry which Dr. Davis visited twice on her recent trip, women are mak- ing demands for more elastic matri- monial laws, And in the midst of governmental upheavals and Bolshe- vist convulsions frauleins are raising the ery: “We want to be called ‘Frau,’ whether wedded or not!" In Scandinavia, Dr. Davis says, @ Toyal commission with a woman member from Norway, Sweden and Denark has deen sitting for years in the careful study of laws relating ‘© marriage and the provision for “ALL” children, This commission {s about to make a full report. And it looks as though there might be some interesting results, Whether Europe is to furnish us with a satisfactory marriage model or whether we shall, in the language of the bard, “beat them to It," is a ques- tion that not even Dr, Davis and her sister-searchers for a new social morality can foresee, But that “something is going to be different’? seems to be the consensus of all the “voices” she heard, and there is the Far East and South America still to hear from. Delegates from both will Join those from Europe and America in the September Convention. So far ag I could see, no serious cred WiM it be “trial marriage” in new guise? Or “leasehold marriage?" Or the “free marriage” wherein either John or Mary may “give notice | the end of any month? Or “marriage by contract” with minute specitica- tion to me fulfilled or “agreement au- tomatically violated and annulled? at Will it be compulsory marriage? Polygamous marriage, on which G, B. Shaw has sugh interesting views? Or will marriage become ob- solete tke hoopskirts ‘and slavery? It is only three months to Beptem- ber the feminine chans will ‘Then we shall see—what we Ve tat! Bh eh etiet ARNG ema. arranged for suttee. Death by those be so much quicker! ‘The RBAL follies of the feminine dress of 1919 have been ignored by tho agitated gentlemen whose favorite Sunday sport is the denunciation of fashionable ball gowns. After all, #0 few women, proportionally, wear ball gowns of any sort, and the wearers @pend so few of their clothed—or pos- sidly the clerics would say sami- clothed—hours in the ballroom. Per- haps the dancing frock has been obey- ing too faithfully the law of gravity. But it may be left, I think, to the operation of another law—<hat fash- ions go by contraries. Another sea- son it la likely no vertebrae at all will ve worn. What is appalling about the sum- mer faslions is what women are wearing rather than what they are not wearing. The only thing as silly as the way in which many New York women are bundling themselves up, during the days when the thermo- meter acts like an Altied drive on the Hindenburg Line, is the way they unbundle thenwelves in coldest Feb- ruary, With furs, heavy capes, woolen slip-on sweaters, long #leoves, ear- muffs of hair and other atrocities women daily rivk gunstroke, apo- plexy, prickly heat and numerous other physiological reactions from overheatecness, The only time I ever suspect a woman may not be in- teligent enough to exercise the fran- chise is when I see her wearing a heavy collar of tur with the tempera- ture at ninety degrees. Then I think about the Congressman elected by male suffrage and cheer up. Never- theless, furs in summer are almost an advertisement of feeble-minded- ness on the part of the wearer. ‘There is excellent medical authority Making Use: of Tomato Seeds and Skins, OMATOES are used in enormous ae quantities in the United 6tates for food purposes and as a con- diment, and the industry of canning tomatoes and that of making catsups or soups of them has developed to considerable importance, In the mak- ing of soups and catsups, says Popular Science Monthly, only the pulp of the tomatoes is used and therefore the skins and seeds were discarded as useless, Recently economic chemistry has called attention to the possibility of wulizing both the skins and the seeds of tho tomatoes. From the seeds 17.3 ‘small aaa *4 AeA primitive methods of cooking would | for the belief that all women wouta| be healthier if fur coats were left on the little animals to whom Na- ture gave them. The coddied, fur- tended weak throat grows weaker in- stead of stronger. However, beauti- ful furs in winter adorn a beautiful woman, and if she is healthy she Probably can withstand their debill- tating influence. In spring even horses and dogs shed their thickest hair. Yet spring and early summer have been chosen by our women, this year and last, to display new pelts, capes, collars of the anomaly known as “summer fur.” It ts about as useful, com- fortable and attractive as a set of chain armor. But it does not stop with furs, this season's tendency to put on cloth- ing in thick layers when the tem- perature and the humidity combine to make @ string of scarlet berries and a grass girdle an ideal, if not & conventionally correct, costume. In the Plaza tea-room yesterday I saw & most attractive young woman, with Irisjue eyes and @ mouth the color of @ ross-haw, She wore a purple dress of heavy satin, coming well above the collar-bone and end- ing in purple fringe over the satin foundation, which reached to her ankles, Over the dress—remember, it was 92 degrees in the street outside— she wore a purple cape of some woolen material, its full folds reach- ing to the point where the fringe trimming began. Now and then she hitched the left shoulder to pull up still further the wrap, which was hung on one side like a military cape. On such @ day the only endurable head covering was tho lightest of straws, or of laces on a skeleton-tine framework. Yet the purple lady had @ caloric value equal to that of oli oil, When treated with dryers it nc. quires good drying propertics, and 1 also useful in soup mutking, ‘Nhe seeds from whioh the oll has been removed and the sins of the tomatoes can be pressed into cakes which have consid- erable value for feeding cattle. Or the mixed mass may be spread for fer- tilizing purposes. Ite manurial value was found to’compare favorably with barnyard manure in potash, phos. Phoric acid and nitrogen, Considerable work has already been dono in Italy and ovher foreign coun- tries toward utilizing tomato refuso, and in the Italian province ot Farms about 13 tons of skins and | @ Mttle round hat of orchid satin, pulled so closely over her head that its back almost touched the nape of her neck, and her dark hair was hid- den save for two curving scallops in front of the ears. (At least, I suppose she had ears; they, too, were out of sight under the hood-like hat), She also wore a figured veil arranged before the hat was put on, and there- fore rubbing her face everywhere. Tho sleoves of her dress of course reached to the base of the thumb, She had been motoring, undoubtedly yot, even so, her clothes were as absurdly heavy as they were beaut!- ful in color and line—and as thoy were expensive From scallops of hair plastered flat against cheeks many girls this sum- mer have evolved ear muffs—small mounds of hair sticking out on either side of their faces, You remember the rats women wore ten years ago under pompadours, Have they been revived and cut in two, and are they being worn on the ears? The mode 1s neither graceful nor be- coming, and it must be most un- comfortable in warm weather, Paris tried to give us back the elbow-length sleeve early this spring, but few women have been sensible enough to adopt this delightfully cool and clean summer mode, Yet we all know one of the quickest ways of cooling off 1s to hold the wrists un- der running water, When they are covered by a tight sleeve our dis- \comfort in hot weather naturally ts |Increased. The girs downtown oling to their suits away into the summer, as one nay see any hot night in the home- ward procession carrying coats over arms, Yet, even if they have to be Jearoful about laundry bills, it is easy to wear a separate lightweight dark skint and a cool blouse—and keep the suit fresh for the first cool days of autumn, Also, why should June in the city find any girl lad in @ heavy cape, or, in lieu of ores. Into of and iM ing the much-denounced silk stock- ingy and V-necks, afthough many of the new blouses have high collars. Ig it were not for such alleviations they could not endure their self- imposed sartorial tortures. Men, who used to swelter in vests and heavy suits, have stolen a march on women this year and are infinite- ly more comfortable in their light Panamas, Palm Beach suits, sport shirts and sleeves which--in their of- flees, at any rate—they keep well rolled up. FRIDAY, JUNE 6 |____ FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 1919 Where Can I Live he 4 Ae P) ' A Question That All the World Is Asking The Housing Problem , Operation of Plan. L land which did not exceed a value of for a period of from five to twenty In Belgium and Germany Belgian Government First to Lend Money at Low Interest for Construction of Workmen’s Houses, but Rising Land Values Checked Continued Similar Plan in Germany Had Sale Provision Which Kept Government in Control of Communities Built With Its Funds. THIRD ARTICLE OF A SERIES Written Especially for The Evening World. By Charles Harris Whitaker Editor of the Journal of the American institute of Architects Coprright, 1919, by The Press Publishing Co, (The New York Brening World). ORD SHAFTESBURY, in Englarfll, in 1851, suggested that money should be lent by the Government at low rates of interest, so that workmen might get decent houses for themselves, But his aug- gestion waa looked upon as quite too far advanced for # country which had so long believed that workmen would grow and continue to grow, no matter where they were planted. Thus Belgium must be given the oredit of first putting Lord Shaftesbury’s principles into practice. In 1889, the funds in the possession of the General Savings Bank and the Pension Pund were made available for building houses for workmen. ‘The money, for the most part, was not lent to the worker direstty, but was handed over to a fotm of co-operative society which Oullt the houses, and either sold them or rented them to the workmen. At first, the imtarest. charged on these funds was only 24%, but jater it was raised to 814%. A workman could, if he wished, borrow up to $1,000 on a house end $1,100, and hé could have the monéy years. Up to 1913, some $30,000,000 of the money in the General Savings Bank had been lent for the purpose of housing, and nearly 60,000 dwellings had been constructed. In order to secure the workman's wife and family against the loss of the property purchased under this system, or the impairment of the equity therein on the death of the husband or father, an ingenious sys- tem of insurance was devised. The workman, on making his loan from the Government funds, took out a life insurance policy the value of which would pay the balance left due on his home. ‘The General Savings Bank carried the life insurance policy at the lowest rate consistent with the mortality tables, But it must not be thought that Behgium had solved the housing prob- lem up to the time of the German invasion. Her workers were among the most badly housed in the world, for Belgium had not been able to reckon with rising lamd values any better than the other countries had. Wherever her Government funds were used for improving conditions the surrounding land vaiues immediately rose, and thus the same improvements could not be repeated. At the present time Belgium has a great opportunity to geoure a standard of good housing for ber workers, for her industrial sections have been in lange measure destroyed, and a now etart can be made. ‘The lawe already passed to govern ‘the rebuilding of her devas- tated areas indicate that the Govern- ment will endeavor to check the dis- asters that always follow on the heels of Jand speculation and rising prices, Germany stood at the head of all the old nations of the world, eo far as intelligent treatment of the hous- ing problem is concerned. Gomething like $100,000,000 of Government funds had been used in Germany, up to 1913, for the building of good houses, The work had been done through some: thing more than a thousand different TWO | MINUTES OF OPTIMISM By Herman J. Stich Copyright, 1919, by The Press Publishing Co, (The New York Evening World). The Divine Spark Enthusiasm is the fuel eG Enthusiasm blazes new trails, HE difference between a stagnant pool and Niagara is enthusiasm. that feeds the human dynamo, gen- erating ideas, industry, invention—advancement, charts unmapped seas, pushes on- ward and upward, promotes progress and keeps the ball of accom- plishment rolling. Without enthusiasm homan beings are meat—with it they are virile men and women, fountains of thought, source of force, springs of achievement. Enthusiasm quadruples effort, rekindles ambition, energizes weary mind and muscle, recharges exhausted brain and body batteries, whets your wits, infuses your undertaking with hope, spirit, dash, Enthusiasm is human electricity eating into difficulties, consuming opposition, demolishing resistance. Enthusiasm steals marches on Progress, sees and seizes opportuni- ties in the embryo, makes short shrift of the “impossible,” turns toll to pleasure and pleasure to treasure, makes man superman, Enthosiasm makes for warmth, for cordiality, for heartiness. It lights the torch of cheer. It heightens the flame of fervor. It makes you chipper as @ lark, animated as a beo, frisky as @ squirrel En- thusiasm forces you forward, eager, strenuous, resolute, irresistible, Enthusiasm scorns the bit of tradition, daily apsets established theories and sets up new ones, builds skyscrapers out of Cathay’s castles, polishes and brightens the mutes promise into performance. Enthusiasm moves the world. the human fuse, that explodes the silver lining on dark clouds, trans- Tt tg the divine spark that lights bomb of mechanical, industrial and intellectual attainment and leadership, & blouse, @ soratchy woollen slip-on Enthusiasm mothers venture, m Hii LOM: HC! ART AGRON: PAO MI ce ny Gan a fathers success, furthers the evolu- ERLE SY GN a, AS ‘ SEALE societies, mostly co-operative in,na- ture, and the German garden gities and suburban communities were everywhere considered to be of the highest type. That at the famod munitions work of the Krupps, at Essen, was renowned all over the world, We know now that good housing was a part of the Germaw plan for making war, but it would be folly to close our eyes to the prog- ress that Germany has made. Her experience with land speculn- tion, as a result of her first efforts at lending Government money tor hous+ ing, soon brought her to realize timt No progress could be made in this: di- rection unless the rise in land value, due to the improvements the Govern- ment financed with its own money, could be checked. In many of the municipalities where houses were bulit by the town, the deed conveying the property to the workman also Provides that the house can be pur- chased dy the Government. Such a Provision operates to prevent specula- tion and gives the Government the control of the communities built with ite funds. ‘Then, too, the German mumictpal- {ties began to see the wisdom of buying up the vacant land within their ‘oundaries. If land values were gving to rise as the result of epending the Government's money to build good houses and bring about @ higher standard of Uving, why should Ind owners be allowed to sit idly by and rifle the pockets ef the workman, the Government end of the producing class in general? And Germany answered the question in the only way by which it can bo answered, in most cases, Her towns and cities began buying the unim~ Proved land. At first there was erent opposition, but just as goon as ex! perience showed that the towns could do this without imposing. any ‘ourden whatever on the taxpayers, the ‘opposition subsided. ‘The in- creased value in land reverted ta! the town, and paki the cost of all carrying charges, while leaving the town the master of the sttuation, But, again, this was only a begin~ ning. Large mumbers of German workmen were very badly housed: The scheme had not been fully de- veloped to @ national scale, tut cer~ tain dessons are very clearty to bo read from the German experience, The principal one is that Govern ment funds, at low rates of interest, will not alone produce a permanent improvement in all housing. They: will effect an improvement in cers tain areas, but if these improvements are allowed to ‘be capitalized into higher prices for the unimproved land that surrounds them, the soheme soon falls to the ground. ‘Therefore, in lending Government money, whether from the Federal, the State or the Municipal treasury, it is necessary to accompany {ie legislation with some provision for controlling the value of building sites, ‘The Government loan may Produce a temporary improvement, and may have to be employed in cases where the housing situation is v0 acute that ft has become a dangen to life and property, but in the bong run this form of help runs up against the same obstacles that have blocke® private capital, The lessons af tha experience in Belgium and in Gera