Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-07-07
SILK LORE.
Eleventh Weekly Report Of the Expert
mental Silk Station.

To the Editor Of the Eagle.
The present Paris Exposition is th
greatest and grandest exhibition of te1
tile machinery and fabrics ever made
: and silk is its leading feature. A
, Lyons, the acknowledged silk center Q
the world, representing over 10000
looms and employing 1S5,000 people i
the mills and half million in Franc
growing and Keeling the silk which
consumed there, to produce its 100000,
900 worth of product. The chamber O
! commerce recently made an appropria
. ton of 100000 francs for expenses il
i making superior exhibit at Paris
} jealous of the rapid strides of advance
ment made by ST. Etienne and Basic
Lyons has recently undertaken thu
manufacture of ribbons, trade hereto
fore enjoyed in France by the other TIVE
cities named. st. Etienne commenced
to manufacture ribbons in 1900 and il
1914 silver, gold and figured ribbon.
were made. In 1860 the Zurich loon
was introduced which wove sever
al pieces at once. The king
gave a gratuity of seventy francs
to any one putting up a loom. From
this time forth the manufacture of rib
bons became one of the principal factors
in the prosperity of the city, They are
now dividing their water power to utii
ize every drop to meet the requirements
of new looms. Here the Arkansas runs
to waste waiting to be utilized.
During the disasters of the late Ger
man war France lost many Of her most
valuable and skilled workmen, and Ger
many by her liberal appropriations for
technical schools gained many. Crefeld
in Germany spent 81 900, 600 IN its pri-
mary schools and quarter more on a
special weaving school, which more than
doubled its population and quadrupled
Its trade.
Throughout the world the manufac-
ture and consumption of silk is on the
increase. AT Lyons last year it was 1853
per cent; at st. Etinne, 26.47; at Crefeld,
24.29; at Elberfeld, 14.54; at Milan, iS.4S;
at Zurich, IA. 81; at Basic, 1880.
Russia and Spain are also increasing
their interests. England, of late, has
caught the spirit. The lists for subscrip-
lions to the incorporation of the spun
| silk mills of Lister & Co., were opened
in London in one day for 81, 033, 900 at a
| premium OF 10 per cent, and before the
| banks closed the amount of stock ap-
| piled for from near eleven thousand APP
plicants was over eS,000,Q00. The aver
age profits of these mills in the last five
years was e196, 494 per annum: on an
average Of the last three years, e19S, 697;
for the last year, GOO, 1913.
The present business was commenced
in 1860, and originated by Mr.. Samuel
Lister, by making use of silk waste and
converting it into velvets, pushes and
seals, principally. Just think of it, out
of comparatively nothing, in an unfavor-
able climate by an indefatigable will an
immense and profitable business is built
up. What can we do? With the patron
age of England they might have been
more prosperous. Bradford ought to
have been what Lyons is today, but free
trade prevented it-would have shut up
their mills if they were not founded on
priceless waste silk. An effort is now
being made to throw protection around
them, as waste silk is being more utilized
in France and America and its price adj
vancing. No country can be SO short
sighted as to fail to protect its industries.
The world moves on. We can lead in
the procession or get left.
Lady Egerton has voluntarily under
taken to enlist the interest of English
ladies in favor of homemade silks and
the Qneen in favor of London exhibit
ton Of homemade silk next year.
The ladies of Wichita and vicinity are
doing their part for our silk interests
and we are bound to succeed.
In ten years England will grow her
own silk in her colonies.
There is another greater drawback in
Englands progress: they make gold a
protected currency, as we do the manu-
facture of silk, but depreciate silver
as we do the growing of raw silk. when
silver and cocoons are part of
the same and should be preserved to-
gether. AS well might the body say to
the hand L have no need of thee, when
each is dependent on the other. There
is some 80 per cent difference in Eu-
ropean and Asiatic quotations of silk,
which can only be accounted for in the
appreciation of gold in Europe and de
probation Of silver in Asia.
The counteraction is coming by the
introduction of power looms in the silk
growing sections of the east where cheap
labor and cheap currency goes at par.
Then Europe will be compelled to pro-
tect her manufactures, and America
grow her own raw silk and sell it in a
manufactured state at home.
In view of the increased manufacture
Of silk, in the shortage of last years
crop of raw silk and the shortage this
year announced, raw silk must advance
Fortunately for American manufactur-
ers, which are constantly increasing,
they have just discovered in Kansas that
superior silk can be grown from Usage
hedges and they will soon be able to
supply America with her raw silk
have just discovered that it requires
500 1-2 pounds of mulberry leaves to
grow ten thousand silk worms, pro-
ducing twenty-seven pounds Of silk,
and only 252 3-S pounds of Usage to
grow 10000, producing 80 1-2 pounds of
silk. And allowing 81 100 pounds for
gathering the leaves, 81 for feeding the
same and so cents pound for the silk,
the profit on the mulberry silk would be
S531, while the Usage silk wcaid be
So 40. But the Usage silk is superior to
ing the mulberry greater, because the
Usage will produce twice the weight of
leaves and reproduce them all summer.
The mulberry is the most susceptible of |
all trees to pruning, while the Usage is
the least.
This is emphatically the silken age,
though we in Kansas hardly know and |
much less realize the great Importance |
of silk culture and the vast benefits |
which would certainly arise from it to us
if we were extensively engaged in grow
ing, Keeling and wearing silk. Still the |