The Coconino sun., 1920-07-02
WHAT SHODDY IS DOING
 TO THE WOOL INTERESTS

CHICAGO.-Half billion pounds of shoddy were thrown on the Amer ican clothing market in 1919, while a billion pounds of unmanufactured, vir- gin wool were accomplishing in the storehouses. Shoddy is made of'wool en rags, re-spun perhaps as often as eight times. 1t is usually woven with a small percentage of virgin wool to stock the broken flores together. Of the 620,00O,000 yards of "all wooP cloth produced by the nations mills, the amount of shoddy used would have produced 3S0,000, ,000 yards, if straight shoddy clothing had been turned out. Mixed with little new wool, it enter ed into the composition of vastly greater yardage. In the same period, the amount of new wool used would have produced 240,000,000 yards of virgin wool cloth, if it had not been adulterated with shoddy.
 These statistics were made public by the Chicago headquarters of the National Sheep and Wool Bureau of America, which is' organizing the sheep, farm and business interests of the country behind the French Capper Truth in Fabric bill. This bill was left in the hands of the interstate com merce committees of both houses of congress at adjournment. It is de- signed to compel manufacturers to stamp their cloth with the percentages of virgin wool and of shoddy it con tains. Howard E. Green, secretary of the bureau, said:
 "Last year, as never before, the shoddy interests succeeded in foisting their goods on the public. Only 600,- 000,000 lbs. of wool in it's natural state or 300,000,000 lbs. of cleaned wool, were converted into cloth. Most of this amount was mixed with shoddy to make it stick together. If the en- tire 300, 1000 ,000 lbs. had been made in to pure virgin wool cloth, it would have provided only 240,000,000 wards, as against 3S0, ,00O, ,000 yards of shoddy goods.
 ''It would have taken 1850, 100000 lbs. of virgin wool to have made the entire 620,000,000 yards of all wool cloth turned out by our mills. But the entire amount need not have been made of virgin wool. There should have been virgin wool cloth for those who could afford it and shoddy for thinner purses. That would have pro- vided for fair competition between virgin wool cloth and shoddy and for a fair range of prices. Instead, through the lack of stamping, shod- dies were sold as 'all wool and the public, accepting 'all wool to mean virgin wool, was denied the right of choice and the benefit of a range of prices
 "Today, the stores are filled with shoddy clothing and the storehouses, with billion pounds of virgin wool The shoddy interests have become so thoroughly intrenched through the right of their product to masquerade as new wool under the popular term, 'all wool", that they have been able to create in their own behalf an arti- ficial over-supply of virgin wool.
 "In spite of this billion pounds of virgin wool in the storehouses, the world produces annually third less wool than it needs and the demand for new wool is as great as ever. The shoddy manufacturers have simply thrown themselves between the pub lie with it's demand for virgin wool cloth and the sheep men with their supply of virgin wool.
 "As a result, the wool-growers are being forced into insolvency. To save those of the west from immediate ruin, the federal reserve board has authorized the San Francisco federal reserve bank to advance money to help them carry their unsold clips. However, this aid affords only tempor-