East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1914-12-04
PROTECTION NEEDED
AGAINST ''SHODDY"
DECLARES SPEAKER
CHARLES CoOPEY, OF PORT
LAND, ADVOCATES PURE
FABRIC LAW"
"Let the Label Tell the Buyer What
lie is Getting" Says Speaker Be-
fore Annual Convention OF Wool
men IIero-Strong Plea is Made
For New Legislation.

Declaring that the sheepmen OF this
country do not need protection against
Australian and other foreign wool
half as much as they need II against
the crop OF old rags gathered from
the ash heaps OF the world and re-
manufactured into shoddies and mum
goes and labeled "all WOOL" Charles
Coopey. of the firm OF Charles Coopey
& Son. manufacturers OF clothing in
Portland. yesterday afternoon con-
tended vehemently before the wool
growers at the convention here that
they should bend their energies tow
ard securing the passage OF a pure
fabric law.
Let the label tell the buyer what
he is getting" he said 81 am not
fighting shoddy clothing. All want
Is that shoddy shall be labeled shod-
dy and wool garments snail be label
ed wool garments so that the public
shall know for what II is spending
its money. Now in this country.
aside from our blankets and robes
there are scarcely any textile pro-
ducts that are woolens and yet how
often do we see garments labeled
Oregon WOOL or some other wool.
1T has been said that competition
Is the life OF business That means,
of course. legitimate or healthy com
petition. II can also be said that
competition is the death OF business
when II is illegltimate or unhealthy.
Let us see which OF these two COM
petitions the wool industry Is con-
fronted with We find that the
worlds crop OF virgin or fleese wool
represents about % per cent OF what
Is sold In its various forms. the world
over. as wool. This means that the
woolgrower has about % per cent OF
legitimate or healthy competition
from wool and about 73 per cent Of
unhealthy competition from substi-
tutes In all their various forms.
The United states congress has at
different times attempted to levy inn
port duties on foreign woods so as TO
protect the American woolgrowsr
against the uneven conditions in the
different wool growing countries. The
last attempt was the Dingley or Nc
Kinley bill. This bill provided that q
specific duty OF eleven cents per
pound be levied on imported woods
and, on the manufactured article a |
specific duty OF four times that am
cunt OF. - cents per pound and 55 |
per cent ad-valorum so that the Am !
erican woolgrower was amply pro-
tected against all foreign virgin woods |
shearod from the sleeps back but not |
one word was said about the wool |
grower being protected against the |
people that gather all kinds OF wool
rags from any and all kinds of places;
lhese old rags to be sold from two
cents up. and to be torn up and made
into shoddies and mungoes and to be
sold as oregon and other woods. q
would like TO say that they have re-
'ently taken n new, or more respect
lble. name for these substitutes. To-
lay they are often called wool ex-
racts) Under this tariff you were
protected eleven cents per pound on
'irgln wool but YOU had no protec-
ion against wool made from old
ags The government supplied a po-
.ceman 10 protect YOU against the
mall deputable man, but you must
,rotect yourself against the big un-
one. I
I'VE note that some OF our news I
apers are asking that Chinese eggs
hall be branded TO protect the Ore
on poultry industry / quite agree I
18th them ! want to see them brand /
a, but the same newspaper does not I
ly a word about branding wooden
lgs from China or anywhere else y
n