Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-12-15
THE BOOM IN SHODDY.
IT IS DUE TO THE DOMINATION
OF THE MKINLEY BILL.

Evidence Is coming thick and fast
from all quarters that the shoddy in
dustry is experiencing an unprecedented
boom. Readers of The American Wool
and Cotton Reporter cannot but have
noticed the notes on new shoddy mills,
additions to old ones, etc. Here is one
from that journal of Oct. 10, 1892:
"James Bowers Sons, Chester, Pa,
manufacturers Of all wool shoddies, re.
port business with them Gs very good.
They have been obliged to run some de-
partments up to o'clock evenings to
keep up with their orders. The firm
have now in process of erection new
addition to meet the growing demands
Of their trade. This building will be 80
by so feet"
Here is another under date of Oct. 81;
"Messrs. T. H. Gray g. Co., manufac.
turers of and dealers in wool shoddies,
factory located at Hyde Park, Mass,
have completed a large addition, the di.
mensions Of which are rs by 45 feet, and
are now running with increased facili-
ties for extracting, dyeing and manufac-
turing all grades of wool shoddies and
extracts. This is in addition to the reg
ular shoddy business which they have
carried on for the past twenty years."
This same journal, in speaking of the
importations, says:
"In cloths there has been notable in
crease over last year, while the amount
of rags, shoddy, wastes, etc., has nearly
doubled, the total amount of this kind
Of stuff brought in for the eight months
being over 2O9,771 pounds, against only
11S, 1855 pounds last year, an increase of
nearly 100 per cent"
The shoddy column in this journal
testifies, as it has done for more than a
year, to the brisk demand for shoddies,
wooden rags, new clips, extracts, wool
waste, cotton waste, etc. Advertise
ments of twenty-seven different shoddy
manufacturers and dealers appear on
this page. On another page is descrip-
hon of an exhibit of woods, hairs, shod-
dies, etc., at the mechanics fair in Bos-
ton. Here are two extracts from it:
"In the corner of the building where
this exhibit is rallied off are fifty-seven
different samples of cotton and wool,
each of which is different in some mate
rial aspect from every other. Here is
shown nearly every kind of feece-the
cheap and much used shoddy and the
hair of the COW and the goat, which are
all used in the weaving of fabrics for
human wear.
"There is camel hair from Russia and
quantities of goat hair and cow hair sc
treated that it does not look like the
original article, but it is all in state of
preparation on the way to manufacture.
It has some sort of fiber, some length
which enabled it to be woven in with
wool, and SO it helps to add body to the
fabric. But the shoddy is the most sug-
gestive. Here is something of which it
is said truly that it is all WOOL but it
has no fiber at all. 1t is old white
blankets and white wool fabrics of other
sorts all picked to pieces till it is per-
fectly comminuted, and it lies up light
and fluffy, ready to be mixed with the
fiber of wool and so woven into cloth.
There are collections of these wool ex.
tracts, as they are called, each of which
is true to the test of being all wool, but
none of which has any fiber to enable it
to hold together of itself. Such is the
stuff which is largely used in some OF
the mills, even to the extent of 40 per
cent, as the agent of ,one of the promi-
nent mills has said"
A short time ago this same journal,
which, by the way, is protectionist pa
per, said on the subject of adulteration
Of goods:
"There is some complaint made by
clothiers that the quality of the goods
now being made by the domestic mills
is not up to the old standard. The COM
plant is not alone with the manufacture
ing clothier, but is made also by the re-
tail dealer; even some of the well kaown
standard makes are put down as falling
short of their old standard. No doubt
some of the trade will remember that
one of the leading clothiers in this city
came out with letter some two years
ago in which it was stated that as a re-
suit of the Mckinley bill prices would
either be higher or else the product of
the mills protected would deteriorate.
Almost Immediately following the pas
sage of the bill prices were advanced,
but in many cases they did not hold, as
public sentiment was strongly against a
wholesale advance.
"When many of the prices returned to
their old figures and business became
more settled, manufacturers commenced
to make poorer fabric, yet claim it was
the same thing, and held to the old price.
This practice must have proved profit
able, at least for the time being, as it
was continued and carried further, so
that today the trade complains. To the
eye many of the cloths appear fully up
to the standard, and it is only after they
are doing service for the consumer that
the deception is discovered"
The New York Times of Oct. 80 says
editorially:
Governor Russell, of Massachusetts,
has supplied some striking facts with
special reference to the substitutes for
wool. Every one knows that the dura-
bility of woolen cloth is due to the pecu-
liar fiber of wool, fiber that is not only
very strong to resist strain, but which
by curious arrangement of minute
barbs will so lock and combine as to
make cloth that will, if well woven of
good wool, last almost indefinitely. Now
the Mckinley tariff having put very
heavy tax on wool, the manufacturer, in
order to keep down the prices of his prod
uct, uses. great variety of adulterants
or substitutes, chiefly the former in
clothing and the latter in carpets. The
adulterants are generally in the nature
Of "shoddy," or old woolen cloth ground
up, or "noils," which are the short fibers
left by the carling out of the long fibers.
y 4 L - II