The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-02-18

along for use in printing or for the flock dot work. Bombed lawns are being used to certain extent for, printing up In oriental patterns. Tussahs for quick delivery are wanted also for printing purposes.
 The lead In naming prices on 'ging- hams for fall was taken by the larg- est southern manufacturer of these goods. Prices were named at a basis that was on a par with what was expected. Practically all of the other southern manufacturers of ginghams have already followed suite.
 In several instances the under standing is that orders previously taken lat value" have been suffi- cient to take care of the product available at several of the large mills. In one particular instance, the, statement was made that orders would have to be cut 40 per cent. There has, been more than little interest In the fact that the. south- ern mills were the first to name prices on ginghams, inasmuch as 1t has been customary for eastern .man- ufacturers to take the lead. The trade Is now watching with interest to see whether the eastern manufacturers will follow immediately or wait un- til the middle of March. as some had anticipated. Announcement by one of the largo printers that they had sold all of the percales planned and had withdrawn their low prices, thus placing the market on q higher level. was of great importance. Buyers were some- what puzzled by the fact that this large concern continued offering its goods at the lower prices, and there was wonder as to the exact signifi- canoe of this action. It Is considered now that the large printer in ques- ton. in the interest of insuring prices as low as possible to the con- sumer, decided to sell what he had to offer and then withdraw, instead of advancing prices.
 Undoubtedly the news in percales had the effect of strengthening the market in printed goods generally, as well as in bleached goods.
 Denims continue in demand with the large sellers, unable to offer any goods except in the way of shorts or seconds. Some say that they are not even offering shorts or seconds, inasmuch as these are applied on order to the regular customers.
 The Philadelphia cotton yarn mar ket opened the week with quotations apparently unchanged This was to have been expected, with the New York cotton exchange closed for the holiday. although yarn rates have lately been moving independently of- cotton quotations. In some quarters here surprise was expressed that short coverings in cotton in advance of the holiday resulted in such a small advance, in spite of the length of the holiday layoff, this being taken as indicating that the short interest is becoming more confident of it's position.
 Yarn buying continues of the same desultory sort as last week. A very few sellers report a satisfactory vol tune of sales. Some dealers describe inquiry as holding up well.'' A good many of the spinners tell the same story In the opinion of some, both spinners and dealers seem to labor under the misapprehension that this inquiry indicates imminence of re- newed. demand for yarns on a sub stantial scale.
 .F o o O
 Inquiries Received.
 According to this view, when southern spinner receives a large batch of inquiries, it means, under present conditions, simply thft there is desire to know whether this spinner has begun to weaken in his quotations.
 The same thing is said to apply to majority of the inquiries received by yarn dealers. That consider able volume of inquiry does not necessarily imply the placing of or ders commensurate in the aggregate with this inquiry. is declared to have been demonstrated conclusively dur ing the last few weeks by the scat tered character of the buying. It is emphasi that heavy and concerted yarn buying, such as that of last