Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-07-23
|HE SILK INDUSTRY
Some Interesting Facts and Fig
ures Given Out by the Cen.
sus Bureau.
Manufacture of Silk in the
United States Has Remarka.
bic Development.
Secretary Wilson Encouraging
the Culture of Silk Worms
Statistics.

Washington. July 23.-secretary
Wilson has secured an appropriation of
$4,000 from congress for the purpose of
making experiments in the rasin. of
sillSwornls and the production of raw
silk. We are now importing about SIS
100000 worth of raw silk annually. and
Mr.. Wilson thinks that ii is possible for
us to raise n good deal of the supply in
our own country. if the wives and
daughters of the farmers and people
who live in the villages will take up the
industry 1t is particularly suitable for
women and children, and the wives
and daughters on the farms and in the
villages. by spending a little time every
day. might earn a liberal supply of pin
money without interfering With their
household duties or their education or
their pleasure. In France not less than
10000 families are engaged in the cul-
tivation of silk without interference
With their other duties. In Italy nearly
as many of the peasants are engaged in
the same industry. In that Way the
girls earn and save money for their
marriage dowries. Silk raising is sim
pie enough for anyone of ordinary i'm
telligence to carry on. 1t is no more
difficult than keeping chickens or bees.
and the profits are Very much larger.
There have been many attempts.
however. to introduce silk culture into
the United States. but they have al
ways failed because other crops have
paid better and it has never been
necessary for the women and children
of our farm population to earn their
own living They have always been
supported by their fathers on brothers.
There is no question as to the ability
to raise silk wherever the mulberry tree
will grow, and it will thrive anywhere
between the gulf and the great lakes.
and the Atlantic ocean and the arid
plains. But the worms require n great
deal of attention and detailed work
which the American people are not ac-
customed to perform. In Japan. China,
France, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey and
other countries children are expected to
look after the silllworns. under the di-
lection of their mothers. In those coun-
tries even the littlest ones are always
expected to pay their share OF the
household expenses and carry their
share of the load. The children of
America have not yet been reduced to
that necessity, altho no doubt 1t would
be a good thing for them.
Secretary Wilson thinks that silk
raising ought to be introduced into the
south because the climate is eSpeI tally
adapted for it and the colored women
and children could earn Il good deal of
that way.
The census has disclosed some very
and surprising information
the manufacture of 81 in
the United States. and shows that we
are second to France only in the annual
value of our silk production. Only a
few years ago we We're dependent en-
tirely upon France and Italy, but dur
ing the last ten years every weave, ev-
lDmamngsCdd-a Eft
cry article and quality known to silk
has been produced in
this country, as we'll and generally bet
ter than i'm Europe, and we now fur
nish practically everything except a
few specialties and novelties in the way
of fancy dress goods, velvets and rib
bons. which still come from France.
During the year 1900 20 per cent of
the silk dress goods Worn in the Unit
ed States We're manufactured here and
So per cent of the ribbons. In 1900 we
produced $107,256,25S worth of silk
goods and imported only $26,S03,549.
There are now in operation in the
United States two and e-half times
as many looms as there We're ten
wears ago. Some of our mills turn
out a hundred thousand pieces of six
ty yards to the piece every year. More
raw silk is sold annually in New York
than is consumed in France. which is
the largest silk consuming country in
Europe. and the United States now
ranks second to France among the silk
nations in the value of silk
goods produced Connecticut takes the
lead, Massachusetts is second and New
Jersey third.
There is no longer any competition
from abroad in machine twist, sewing
silk and other threads. The manu-
features of the United States surpass
the world in that particular. They
took the highest awards at the Paris
and their goods bring bet
ter prices than those of amy other
country in Paris, London. Berlin and
other great commercial centers. There
is a shop in Berlin where nothing else
is sold but American machine silk,
but it is purchased only by the wealthy
classes the expensive milliners and
and the manufacturers
of high grade gloves, clothing and 9th
er articles, for which silk is used. Con-
necticut takes the lead IN sewing silks,
and produces AZ per cent of the total
product of the United States.