The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-05
MANY SUBSTITUTES
 USED IN GERMANY. IN PLACE 0F COTTON.
Former Postmaster General BurIeson, In Europe, Dis covers Rather DiScour-
 aging Outlook
Bx Associated Press

Berlin, July 4.-Necessity forced central Europe to get along without its usual supply of cotton goods Ter so long that the public has become accustomed to all sorts of subsu- tutes and the task of getting bacK the European market for American cotton Is an extremely difficult one while the mark remains at its low and wildly fluctuating value.
 what is true of the textile markets in Germany is even more true or those in Austria and other war-torn countries which have unfavoraoie exchange In consequence the buying power of central Europe generally estimated by manufacturers of cot. ton goods to be only 25 per cent or what it was in normal pre-war times.
 Germans have become so nccus- toned to the use of white paper table cloths and napkins that even the best hotels in Berlin no longer feel 1t necessary to provide linen OF cotton cloths for their tables Great rolls of heavy crinkled paper arc kept in all restaurants and no- tels. Walters cut table lengths from these as required. The same system is resorted to In private houses.
 Germany Uses Paper
 oermeny has an abundance or papsr and the price Is low. rex tiles are expensive because or the high price of the imported raw ma terials. Laundry work Is also ex- pensfvs. woven paper cloth has re- placed cotton, woolen and silk fao- rics almost entirely as uphoisterins and drapery material in car TUT nishings. Wherever cloth need not be washed or exposed to moisture paper substitutes are used. woven pauer towels and -tablecloths have been perfected which can even Do washed two or three times.
 Former Postmaster General Albert Sidney Burleson accompanied D! N. c. Schlemmer of Austin, Tex, who have been here investigating the possibilities of marketing American cotton, have been faced by the iore- going discouraging facts.
 Thrifty Germans have devised every possible means of avoiding the purchase of expensive textiles. Tn families which formerly had many changes of clothing and had the washing done only at long inter- vals, the clothing supply has or ne- cessity been greatly curtailed. worn articles are repaired more careiuiiy than before the war.
 No Great Improvement
 Until the value of the mark IS stabilized great improvement cannot be expected In tks cotton consuming power of Germany. according to MT. Burleson. It is the wildly fluctuat- ing value of tho mark in relation 10 the dollar, rather than the low com narrative value, which creates the great uncertainty among cotton spin ners. Under present conditions they cannot make any estimates on costs which will hold good over any con siderable length of time.
 Although American cotton IS or fered to German manufacturers TOT not more than half what it actua'iy costs to produce the cotton, and Tn spite of the fact that long time IS offered, in some cases as much as A year, the manufacturers hesitate to contract beyond the consuming power of their domestic markets. Retai' sales are slow. Consumers are walt ing for lower retial prices. Conse- ouently there Is general stasnation.