Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-11-25
YANKEES MAKE GOOD CLOTH.
II AmericansT Think IL Isn't Good,
she English X nOxv Retter.

goods for men begin to come to towi
from the mills in Connecticut and Mas
sachusetis, and are unpaeked ant
displayed on long tables in ih
salesrooms Of the big slores. Mr.
John f. Plummer. who talked to Mr.
Bowen's visitors at Woodstock on tn
Fourth of July about American trad
and commerce, told reporter the othe
day something about the trade il
American-made wooden goods.
Fifteen or twenty years ago, sais
he, "ihere was no demand worth speak
ing about for American goods of tht
finer grades for mems wear. The big
manufacturing tailors, and especially th'
tailors who make clothing for club.men
would not look at American goods
They said our makes would bag at tn,
knees, lose their colors, and in variety
of other ways disappoint their purchas
ers. The customers of the tailors had
always believed that English goods were
the best, and in that the customers
talked by the card, at that time. There
were Anglomaniacs then as now, and
the talk of these Anglomaniacs aboutthe
inferiority of American products finally
aroused the pride of the American man.
ufacturer. We had the wool and the
machinery and the tariff to back us;
why shouldn't we make Just as good
goods as were produced in England?
"There were several good reasons
why this had not been done up to the
time, however. One was that the trade
was conducted in very diffel ent way
then from what it is now. The mill
used to work away on such patterns as
the manager thought would sell well,
and when the goods were made they
would be sent to market and sold. If
the manager happened to hit on taking
patterns the goods went off at
profit. If not, the auctioneer did the
best he could with them, and all the
directors OF the mill voted to pass the
annual dividend. Now goods are made
to order, and the element of uncertainty
as to the sale of goods is eliminated. For
the past two months the mills have been
at work getting up new patterns and
weaving samples. Narrow strips of
cloth woven on a sample loom were sent
on to me, for instance. Each strip has
one ground color, but a very large vari-
ETY. of patterns. A brown will be a
brown throughout, but by varying the
arrangement of the yarns of threads as
they are woven together we have dark,
medium and light browns, stripes wide
and narrow, and quiet and glaring; we
have checks and plaids, and, in fact,
dozens of patterns on little strip OF
cloth foot wide and yard and half
long.
at is the duty of the New York house
the mill to select from these
patterns such as will be likely to meet
the changing taste of the tailors."
''Of the tailors?'
Certainly. The customer may think
his taste rules the market, bu. he buys
what he is told is stylish. The patterns
thus selected are made up in samples
for the trade. Each pattern is displayed
in about half yard of goods, and these
samples are punched together IN sets
of half dozen in such way
that they help each other by
contrast. The mills spend thousands OF
dollars every year in making samples.
The samples for the spring and summer
goods of 1887 have now been made.
August lst is the date for opening them
for the inspection of the trade. The
of clothing and the Gus
tom tailors look over the samples and se-
lect such goods as they want, and give
orders for as many pieces as they can
use. Within two weeks after the sam
pies are opened the mills have booked
Is many orders as they can fill before
the season for winter goods comes on.
Being, therefore, practically sure
If getting their money for all
hey make, the mill men can afford to
work on narrower margins than when
hey made the goods in the hope of get.
ing market for them. In other
words, they can make better goods for
he same price per yard. They used to
Isk how good grade of wool they
,ould afford to put into piece of goods
which they were well assured would sell
It certain price. Now the sole in.
JURY is how to make the best as we'll as
he most attractive pieces of goods.
Make the best goods possible and then
tx the price at reasonable margin of
profit after the cost of production is
lscertained."
"Can they always fix such a price?"
"The mills in this trade divide for
;unes every year, and are driven to their
ull capacity. One company that l rep
resent was going to build an immense
addition last spring, but they were
frightened out by the wave of trouble
that rolled across the bosom of the labor
market They have got to build next
year, however"
'Is it not a fact that custom tailors
talk up British goods as much as they
ever did,"
"Perhaps; but they don't back their
talk in their purchases. Thousands of
pieces of American goods are retailed
every year as British goods. There is
a lot of humbug in the tailor shops.
They lay out lot of goods and say "A
suit off this for $50, this for $65, that
for $75.' Ii you look as if you wanted
cheaper, piece will be found
which the tailor will assure you will
be sin every way as satisfactory as
either of the others, and a suit
will cost only $55.' If some.
thing better is wanted, a piece will
be displayed from which a suit at 500
will be made, and it will be just what
you want. The fact is. that in a major
ity of the custom shops there will not be
fifty cents difference between the cost
per yard of the cloth in the $50 suit and
that in the salt at Sl00, and the work in
each case will be the best the tailor can
do, if he is man who tries to hold his
customers.
American mills have to follow the
foreign in the matter of style or patterns
but the best expert in the country is un.
able to tell whether piece of cloth is
American or British from an examina.
tion of it. The best looms in the
world are made in Massachu.
sets, and the best weavers
ers are employed in the mills, where the
highest wages in the world for the work
are paid. If there is any difference be-
tween the best American product and
the best foreign, it is in favor of the
American, and all the manufacturers are