New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-16
To Project Public
Against Misuse of
Trade Mark Labels
peiticoat Concern Charges
That Goods of Inferior
Quality Are Sold Under
Name of 'Heatherbloom'

The Waters eismann Company pur-
poses to ''clean up the petticoat trade,
Z both retail and wholesale, so far as the
misrepresentation of the name Heath
erbloom," which this company owns, is
concerned.
The company has taken up cudgels
to conduct the fight which almost
every owner of trademark or copy
right IN the commercial world has had
TO face, because, of the tendency of un-
scrupulous manufacturers and retailers
to use trademark labels on goods of
. inferior quality.
THE idea back of every trademark
] quality said Nelson H. Waters, sec
Rotary and treasurer of the firm, yes
terday. "a trademark cannot survive
once the quality for which it stands is
lowered. Therefore, when a trade
mark label is fraudulently applied to
an article of inferior merit, the holder
of the trademark suffers. More than
that, the public suffers, for it has been
led to believe through adve rtising that
the trademark in question represents a
certain quality. If the holder of the
trademark does not take steps to pro-
tect that trademark it soon loses its
value, for the public buys merchandise
. of inferior quality bearing his label
that he has lowered his standard"
Value in the Finish
The Waters-W eismann Company is
primarily petticoat manufacturing
concern. Early this year it bought all
rights. titles, ETC., to the name Heath
erbloom" applied to certain kind Of
cotton cloth which is used for making
petticoats. from the former owners, A.
G. Hyde & Sons. According to Mr..
Waters, the chief value o. the "Heath-
erbloom" cloth lies in its finish OBJ
tained through an expensive process.
finished cotton CLOTH" he said,
less than 40 cents a yard. Now, it
takes two yards or more to make a
-.petticoat. How. then, can any retailer
3 legitimately offer genuine Heather
bloom petticoat at such a ridiculous
have?"
. But in the majority of cases it is
, not the retailer who is at fault, but
the manufacturer. l think this applies
+ in most cases to misused trade marked
labels. The inferior goods are pur-
chased by the retailer in good faith,
. for they contain the trade marked la
: bel. He does not know how the man
ufacturer is misusing the label.
Much Cunning Is Used
. = Some of the cases our Investigations
have revealed are marvels of cunning.
Each petticoat manufacturer who buys
sHeatherblom' cloth is supplied with a
dozen labels for each 271s yards of
materials. That is sufficient for his
: needs. We have found manufacturers
who would put labels in the first lot
OF .petticoats sent to a retailer and
withhold them from succeeding lots.
tAlf the goods parafn1lU
espected the omission of labels is not
detected. The manufacturer then has
eextrae labels on hand to put in pettfz'
coats which are made of some other
cloth than 'Heatherbloom.' Again we
have found manufacturers who would
use only part OF the label doubled up,
and in one case the manufacturer went
so far as to SO cut his labels as to get
three small ones out of the ordinary
label. The retailer and ultimate pur-
chaser see the part of label and con-
clude that the remainder was tucked
in somewhere through carelessness in
sewing the label TO the garment. There
are other ways in which manufacturers
give the impression that they are using
'Heatherbloom' cloth when they are
not.
Will Prosecute Violators
at is the intention of our company
once and for all the clean the market
of this unfair competition and mis-
representation. We will prosecute
every yiolator Of our trademark we
can apprehend. We already have called
several manufacturers to time and
have in our files their letters in which
they acknowledge that they have used
our labels fraudulently, and promise
to discontinue the practice.
However, it is not our intention to
go around with the proverbial chip on
our shoulder. We simply want to pro-
tect ourselves and the honest manu-
facturers and retailers who deal in
our products. In no case have we
permitted any individual or concern
whom we have prosecuted to pay any
costs or damages. We don't want to
make cent out of any infringements
81 our trademark, but we are going
TO insist upon strict and absolute
observance of our rights. If any one
uses our trademark he must do il