An Elevator Etiquette Debate

“Is a woman less a woman in these days of business efficiency than in the old times, when her chief duty was to sit on a cushion and ‘sew a seam’ or be a mere toy for some man?” he asked. In other words, is the feminine invasion of the business world causing men to lose the proper amount of respect for women? — What the well-dressed men of the 1920’s were wearing. – Image source, Pinterest

How Men “Should Act?”

Should men remove their when women enter an elevator?

The editorial writer started it…

Several days ago he wrote and published a few hundred pointed words under the heading - “Hats Off, Gentlemen.”

Forty-eight hours had scarcely passed before a number of letters were received from men and women who had read what he had written.

In one of these letters a woman stated very plainly what she thought of men who failed to remove their hats when she entered an elevator,

ASKS MANDATORY LAW

She finished with a knock-out punch in these somewhat determined words: “And if something isn't done about it soon I intend asking the city council to pass an ordinance compelling men to show the proper amount of respect to women under all conditions.”

For her sake “something” is going to be done.

It has been decided that an unofficial referendum shall be conducted by one who shall be known as the “Elevator Etiquette Editor,” so that this small but important question of the doffing of a hat is now open for discussion in a free-for-all fashion.

When the editorial writer spoke in a proving manner in his “Hats Off” article he called attention to another question conjunctively interesting.

WOMEN AND WORK

“Is a woman less a woman in these days of business efficiency than in the old times, when her chief duty was to sit on a cushion and ‘sew a seam’ or be a mere toy for some man?” he asked.

In other words, is the feminine invasion of the business world causing men to lose the proper amount of respect for women?

Thousands upon thousands of men and women travel in the elevators of the city daily. As the “Elevator Etiquette Editor” was told, each should have something to say on the question of the removal of hats. Some indifferent persons may say that it is a small thing after all, but as the polished Earl of Chesterfield remarked, “It is the small things that count.”

ELEVATORS SOMETHING ELSE 

It might be added, however, in a sense of fairness, that skyscrapers and elevators were unknown in the days when Chesterfield swaggered in the English court, spending his idle moments in addressing letters of advice to his son.

Then, too, there arises this question: Providing men should remove their hats when women enter an elevator should the women acknowledge in any way the mark of respect that is paid them?

There are any number of interesting angles to the proposition if one devotes a little thought to it.

The editorial writer started it and the “Elevator Etiquette Editor” is ready to finish it, so sharpen up the old pencil, oil up the trusty type-writer and get busy.

Address your letters to “The Elevator Etiquette Editor” of The Evening Herald, 1920

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