Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-19
PURE CLOTHES
DURE clothes would seem quite as desir

able, in their way, as pure foods; yet,
because there are no laws fOrbldd1ng the
adulteration of textile fabrics, frauds in such
products are widespread. Indeed, where
things to wear are concerned, there are few
entirely honest goods on the market.
No standards for textiles exist, and neither
manufacturer nor dealer can be punished
for cheating the buyer. Foods and drinks
mast not be falsely marked. under the regu
'Iations now so rigidly enforced; but there
is no penalty for mislabehng drygoods.
At the present time the most successful
manufacturer of textiles is not always he
who makes the best goods; but sometimes
. he who can make the cheapest goods that
look we'll. Clever tricks to cheaper cost
and give to poor fabrics the appearance of
desirable materials have multiplied and de-
veloped astonishingly within the last few
years The law does not forbid them, and
public opinion does not seem to condemn
them very severely. In a textile school a
student was heard to say, @Our teacher is
so clever! He can spin cotton and wool to-
gether so they can never be detected"
At the bottom of the whole mischief seems
to be the insistence of people, especially wo-
men, upon getting goods cheap. This de-
inland obliges manufacturers to adulterate
the fabrics they produce. Such fabrics do
not wear well, of course, and buyers COM
plain; but they continue to insist upon
cheapness, and so the mischief goes on.
According to the census, over eight hum
bred million dollars is spent annually in this
country for textile goods, about eighty-hve
per cent of the entire quantity being bought
by women. This represents something like
fifteen per cent. of the total expenditure of
the average family. 1t is surely most desir-
able, then, that the women should know
what they are buying; but as matter OF
fact, they have little or no knowledge on
which to base judgment of the quality of
the materials they purchase. Nearly always
they are obliged to rely upon the statements
IF clerks, who themselves are usually igno-
rant An assurance that piece of goods is
"all WOOL" or "all silk, is accepted.
THE bargain counter, about which women
L flock so greedily. is heaped with textile
falsifcations of one kind or another. This
piece of wooden goods for example, though
attractive enough to the eye and possessing
satisfactory "feel,' was never even woven.
Its basis is sort of mosquito net of cotton,
against which, from both sides, waste wool
fiber has been thrown by means of a strong
air-blast, causing it to felt together and pro-
ducing the appearance OF cloth.
A woman finds nearby some handker-
chiefs that are reduced in price. They are
this is the trade term for linen fabric that is
cotton one way; that is to say, of linen
warp and cotton welt. The handkerchiefs
would be labeled "all linen," if they cor
responded to that description.
Another woman picks up on the bargain
counter piece of silk that she thinks will do
nicely for skirt. Before she has worn it
half dozen times she will discover that
hundreds of tiny "pinholes" have made their
appearance all over the fabric. They are at
tributable to the fact that the stuff, Incl
dentally to its manufacture, has been
weighted" with acetate of tin. Small par
ticles of the metal adhere to the threads of
the silk, and when the latter rub together
they are cut and broken by the tin.
Silk, being the most expensive kind of raw
fiber. is more likely than any other to be
adulterated. 1t costs four dollars and fifty
cents pound. Accordingly, the aim of the
manufacturer is to make it 60 as far as pos
sible in the production of fabrics. When he
sends the raw stuff to dyer, an order goes
with it to weight" it up to certain per-
centage. This may be as high as seventy
per cent; so the material comes back to
him weighing nearly twice as much as when
# left his hands Tins DreDared If males