The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-09
=. Finance, Real Estate and Insurance =.
UNITED STATES IS PLANNING
 A GREAT NEW INDUSTRY

The high prices of linen and of the
 flax fiber from which linen is made
 has centered attention on the neces-
 sity of establishing a real linen indus
 try in this country, the greatest con-
 sumer of linen in the world. There
 seem to be, two big problems which must be solved before success is as sured. One is to find some artificial method of preparing the flax straw for the spinner, thus relieving the flax grower of this task, and the other is to convince the American public that American-made linen is as good as any other. There are a number of
 minor problems, and they are all dis
 cussed in a report by w. A. Graham Clark just published by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, De- partment of Commerce.
 The only country in which the pro- duction of flax fiber has increased, consistently in recent years is Russia, the report states. In the British Isles and in France the production has de- creased in spite of al efforts to keep the industry growing, and in Austria Hungary, Belgium, and the Neither lands the industry has not been able to hold its own. The American pro- duction has never been of importance. Thanks to liberal government aid and Ito cheap labor the Russians had grad ually been getting a monopoly of the business up to the time the war broke out
 NIn the Unied States flax has been
 raised almost entirely for the seed, which is used to make the well-known linseed oil so necessary for the pro- duction of good paints and varnishes. Of some 3,000,000 acres of flax raised in this country in 1915, the Depart ment of Agriculture estimates that only 2,000 acres were devoted to flax for fiber The bulk of the straw from the seedbearing plants is burned and used for fertilizer. It should be borne in mind, however, that flax growing for seed and flax growing for fiber are separate and distinct industries. Some flax is grown for both seed and fiber, but la decision must be made as to which is to be the more important product just as the sheep raiser must
 decide whether mutton or wool is to be the primary consideration.
 In Europe the farmer not only raises the flax, but prepares the fiber | for the spinner. This preparation re- quires several processes, one of which, known as "retting," requires consid- | erable cheap labor and much time | and is in addition a most disagreeable process for the workmen. The prob | lem in this country is to find some | chemical process of retting that can be carried out at factory and thus allow the farmer to confine his at- tention to the agricultural end of the | industry This is the only condition on | which the American farmer will take to growing flax for the fiber. MT. Clark thinks. Some progress is al- l ready being made in chemical ret ting and at least two concerns are now buying flax stalks from the grow CTS for further treatment. Chemical proce sses have been tried before with out much success, but one of the new l concerns is now selling chemically | retted fiber to Europe and the other | is making coarse li1ens for use in | clothing and for curtains.
 Even if a good all-American linen
 is produced in this country, however.
 there still remains the great problem | of finding a market for it. That means | that time and effort. will be required | to persuade the consumer to buy the domestic product instead of the inn l ported. Many people invariably
 choose the imported article when it lis displayed alongside of domestic products, almost regardless of quality. 1 The president of a mill now making | dyed and bleached dress linens from 1 American flax has found that, small
 las is his product, there is difficulty
 in getting the jobbers and department | stores to handle it. The tendency is | to assume that, even though it is ap- parently of excellent quality, it can not equal the old established linens
 from abroad. There will never be | a better time than the present to popularize the domestic product, for the imported article is scarce and
 high. In normal times our imports of l linen goods vary from 25 to 30 mill
 lion dollars and the demand had been
 steadily increasing up to the time of | the war
 | The Bureaus report is entitled De | velopment of an American Linen In- | dustry," Special Agents Series No. 122. and may be obtained for the nominal
 price of 5 cents from the Superinten- dent of Documents, Washington, D. 1 C., or from the nearest district office | of the Bureau of Foreign and De- I