, 1923-08-02

plain statement OF fact and the
customer should know whether his
high price clothing Is made Of cost
ly virgin wool or cheap shoddy.
Now as to whether new wool can
be distinguished from shoddy and
their relative proportion determined
fair minded scientific men have said
that it can be done. An article In
the Scientific American Of December
1922 demonstrated just how 1t
could be done with the microscope.
The unaided human eye could pick
out new ropes from old ones and
tell how many of each kind had
been placed In the article. The
microscope makes a wool fabric
with all its complicated scale strnc-
ture look as large as a rope. Why
couldn't one tell the new from the
old?
The voice of the Cardet Wooden
Association goes on:
"Thc value OF u wool fabric, that
Is, Its durability, attractivcncss and
protection against the clements, de
ponds on three things:
"tA). Length, strength and
quality of the wool.
"(B). Structure OF the fabric,
that Is, the weight per yard, number
OF warp and filling threads per in
CHI, size of the yarn, weave and pro
cess OF finishing.
"(C) Workmanship In the man
ufacturc OF the GOODS
First, shoddy Is reworkef wool
and 1t is reworked or recovered
sometimes as many as eight times.
each time 1t is recovered the indi-
! ,y,I,nl Ghnra hncn,,n -h,r,,r nrl
weaker and each time the quality
deteriorates. What a wonder of
fiber must be to stand such abuse
strength and quality the virgin wool
and still be s~erviceable. In these
three elements that go to make the
value n n wool fabric the elements
"a, OBJ and CO. are plainly dis
cernible to the careful buyer. The
buyer can see wool flbers. can tell
whether the fabric Is heavy enough
to suit him, whether it suits him as
to weave and finish and II the work
manship is good. bad or indifferent,
but when 1t m to the question
of new or second hand wool he Is
helpless without the powerful mic
roscope. He has a right to know
this one simple fact Is the wool
new or second hand? For the first
wear In wool as in other things is
the best and he should pay less for
shoddy than for virgin wool because
shoddy is a very cheap clothing ma
terial when compared to virgin
wool.
The author also says that under
the Capper wool goods labelling
legislation which defines new wool
as virgin wool that has not been
previously spun or woven into cloth
and all other wool fibers as shoddy.
"Such II law would class as 'vir-
gin WOO an immense quantity of
h shortest, dirtic>t II in Every
way poorest wool fbcrs used in the
manufacture OF wool goods, such as
shcarlings, card strips, dung locks,
burr waste and noils. And it would
also class as 'shoddy' an immense
quantity of recovered wool fibers
that are greatly superior in length,
strength and quality, not only to
the Cappcr virgin wool just named
hut also TO much OF the new wool
rs il is shcarcd from the sheep.
From these facts ii is plain that
II the value of wool fabrics depend
ed solely upon whether they ere
made of Cappcr virgin wool or
Cappcr 'shoddy' the proposed wool
goods labelling bill would deceive
and dcfraud the by plac-
ing its mark of superiority, virgin
WOOL on wool fabrics made of very
poor wool. and its mark of inferior
ity, 'shoddy' on wool fabrics made
OF very good wool"
No ucaunot deceive anyone by a
plain statement of fact and wool in
clothing is either new or old and
the should know which
he is buying. The immense guam
titles of very poor virgin woods list
ed above do not compete with the
good virgin woods as clothing ma
t~erials. They do not make attrac-
tive cloth. The consumer needs no
protection from them for fabrics
made from these nbcrs are fully as