The Washington times., 1911-05-29
WAR DEPARTMENT
E4TTSWOOLEN TRUST
By Substituting Carded Wooens for Worsteds in Army
Uniforms, Government Hopes to Save Thousands of
Dollars and Weaken Power of Alleged Monopoly

I in the Massachusetts Cotton Mills at
| Lowell and the Palmer Mills at Three
| Rivers.
Officers Like Foreign Goods.
Incidentally, it might be stated that
army officers always have had PEN
chant for buying foreign fabrics. and,
as these gentlemen are not restricted in
the choice of their tailors, they still
continue the practice. But the depart
ment has lacked the officers up to a
| certain extent by standardizing the
| cotton cloth permissible for wear as
| uniforms, and the officers are COM
PEELED to buy a cloth conforming to that
officially prescribed for the men. In the
! more expensive fabrics of dark blue, the
officers still patronize foreign makers.
whose products undoubtedly are supe-
, rior.
Capt. ]. R. r. Hannay, an energetic
line officer detailed to duty in the
eral, has been the driving force in the
institution of this rather sensational
army reform. The idea first entered
his mind about three years ago,
when he was astonished to find a diff
erence In price Of 80 cents yard
between two sample fabrics submit
ted, one of wooden and the other of
worsted, to be used for the same pur-
pose. 1t has taken three years to
bring about the revision of the sys-
experimentally, with the worsted men
predicting its failure and the depart
ment confident of its success. The
plan was approved by Major General
Wood, chief Of staff. and, of course, by
Secretary of War Jacob NJ. Dickinson
before 1t was put into operation.
This sudden championship of the
carded wooden versus the worsted
manufacturers comes at a pyschologi-
cal moment. The carded wooden men
have ranawa6 thair hOhf for
vision of the wooden schedule, which
snail assess the duties on raw wool
on an ad valorem instead of a spe-
ctfic basis, thus offsetting the disad-
vantage under which the wooden men
declare they operate through the
great variation in shrinkage. These
men represent only a wing of the
carded wooden interests and, in fact,
1t was contemptuously said of them
by William NJ Wood, president of the
American Wooden Company, at the
last dinner of the National Associa-
ton OF Wool Manufacturers, that the
carded wooden section of his own
mills made more wooden goods than
gether
But these men have succeeded in
making an impression on Congress,
and II yet remains to be seen whether
or not the woolen bill of the House
Democrats will assess the raw wool
duties on the old or the proposed new
basis.
Aiding the Wooden Men.
Moreover, the War Department has
distinctly championed woolens as
against worsteds, and thus aimed TO
give encouragement to the weaker
branch of the industry. In the Congress
sional debates on the wool question. the
worsted men, through their fayorite
Senators, always have replied to the
wooden men that their mills were idle
because the popular fancy preferred
worsteds. The wooden men have re-
torted that this was not wholly true
that the people were wearing worsteds
because the worsted men had a tariff
advantage over the wooden men which
could not be overcome, and a further
advantage in controlling the manufac-
ture and price of noils, which are a
by-product of worsted manufacture
which the wooden men use as a raw
material.
However that may be, the War De-
partment has chosen 10 advertise 10
the people its belief that carded woolens
are cheaper and more serviceable than
worsteds, and the quartermaster gem
erals department is stalking its repu-
tation on the result OF the test which
has Just been authorized