Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-12-23
WHAT WE WEAR.
III-COTTON AND LINEN.
By Frederic J. Haskin.

In the colonial days of New England
the teacher of a dame school was CEN
sured for extravaganza when she paid
five shillings yard for a cotton dress.
The dress was coarse cotton print
showing design of large pink roses
such as could be sold today for cents
a yard. The little colonial schoolmarm.
however, wore it with all the pleasure a
woman of today would derive from an
imported gown, for at that time cotton
had to be brought into America from
Europe and was a far greater luxury
than is silk today. In those days people
divided their clothing between linen and
wooden apparel, both being of home man
ufacture. Linen was regarded a
necessity and each farmers wife made
her own supply Now cotton is the
plebeian fabric, and linen is the badge of
ease and affluence. :.
Linen production in the United States
has been very small during the past half
century until within the last few years
Flax has been raised in large quantities
for the oil used by painters, but the
conditions in America have been such as
to make the production Of linen. after the
European method. absolutely prohibitive.
While a small amount of linen in the
lean looms. most of the thread or fibers
have been imported. so that the linen in
dustry of this country was small indeed.
During the past few years, however,
there has been a great change in this re-
spect According to the bureau of sta
,tistics, the linen manufacturers in the
United States during ten years increased
from three establishments representing
ssos.395 capital in 1880 to eighteen n. en- es-
1900. Since 1900 the industry has still
further increased.
To a large degree this increase in the
linen manufacture of America has been
due to the pro-
Machinery Lessons duction of ma
the Cost of Labor. material materially lessons
the cost of labor. A process has been
invented for Transforming flax straw into
linen fiber by machinery. thus doing away
with the tedious process Of "rottins'
still in vogue in Europe. Over 4,OOoVW
acres of land are devoted to flax culture
in the United States. and they produce
about $2OOOO,OOO worth of seed. The
flax straw, which is the material from
which the Russian peasant produces the
bulk Of the fax fiber of the worlo, mas
generally been burned in the United
the fax, but this new process utinzes
all the flax seed and at the same time
provides for the manufacturing OF Ine
fiber with much less waste than In Eu-
rope. where the fiber is the only produc ,
ton secured from the plant. The Eu-
ropean process yields ITO pounds OF max
fiber hom each thousand pounds or max
straw, but the new American process VIII
produce $50 pounds from each thousaho.
Several new mills have been, erected IN
Massac husetts for manufacturing linen
by this new process, by means OF "hlcn
II is believed that ultimately linen can
be produced in american almost as
cheaply as cotton
Even though the supply OF linen snoulu
become abundant in the distant future,
there is no doubt that cotton sun
will be the king of clothing materials
for the next century. and America PlO
duces the bulk Of the world cottoh crop.
Cotton has been grown in ind1a ana OF.
Of history, and it's production In Egypt
dates back to the sixth century before
Christ 1t has been grown for seVerai
centuries in China and is also nauVe 10
certain parts of Africa: and yet all tne
other countries producing cotton could
fill only a fraction of the demand. for at
least three fourths of the worlds cotton
supply is now raised in the United states.
In its enormous cotton production Ameri-
ca has the power to preserve the peace
Of the world, as by cutting off the cot
ton supply of Europe this nation COULD
II it desired, secure complete dominance.
The, annual cotton crop Of the United
States varies between ten and thirteen
million bales,
Half Of Cotton Crop of which more
Exported to Europe. xp orted to