Evening star., 1924-05-06
MERGERS PREDICTED
IN TEXTILE INDUSTRY
American Woolen Company, Con-
solidated Corporation and Amos
keag Possible Combination.
NAMED IN CURRENT RUMoR
Directors of First-Named Corpora.
tion Deny Report.
BY J. G. ROYLE.
Special Dispa tch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star
NEW YORK. May 6.--The obvious
settlement in the New England tex
tile situation and the differences of
opinion as to its cause have led TO
number of reports that larger merg-
ers and consultations were in pros
pect. The latest OF these is to the
effect that the American Woolen Com
pany, the Consolidated Textile Cor
poration and the Amoskeag Manufac-
turing Company were to be amalga-
mated under the leadership of F. c.
Dumaine, president of the latter con-
Germ
Directors OF the American Woolen
Company, who are also on the board
OF Consolidated Textile, characterized
this rumor today as ridiculous and
utterly without foundation" 1t was
pointed out that relationship between
the American Woolen and Amoskeag
Manufacturing has never been close
None Of the members of the board
OF the one is on the board of the
other.
Identfi ed in Limited Way.
Amoskeag, it was emphasized, while
ono of the great cotton cloth pro
ducars, is identified with the wooden
business only in a limited way. Out
OF 25,7O0 looms operated by the com
pany $4,000 are cotton looms and
100 produce woryteds- The produc-
tion Of American wooden on the other
hand is mainly devoted to Woolens
rather than worsteds.
II is possible that the reports that
William NJ Wood. president of the
board of American Woolen, contem-
plated retirement from active man
agement of that company. may have
helped to stimulate the merger
rumors, but President Wood has
denied emphatically that he had any
such idea and asserted that his health
was such that there was no necessity
for slackening of activities.
Mr.. Wood was made chairman of
the board Of the Consolidated Textile
Corporation about u year ago and the
board of the latter Company also con-
tains the names of some of the direc-
general impression has always pre-
vailed that the election of Wood and
his associates represented simply a
move TO secure the expert counsel of
these textile men who had been sue
cesSfu III in placing American Woolen
, in strong position, in bringing
Consolidated Textile out Of its diff
culteS. Until the present rumor.
! there has been no Impression that a
closer connection between the two
Relatively Strongest Branch.
The wooden industry today is rel
atively the strongest of any of the
textile branches. Perhaps the wish
of some of the cotton manufacturers
to siren CITIZEN their position may have
| been father to the thought of an
AnoSk Gag American wooden com bine
Various interests are still waging
| an active controversy as to whether r
foreign cotton goods importations
are responsible for the inactivity of
the cotton goods market and whether
higher tariff rates would bring relief
Over 90 per cent OF the wooden spin
dies were active, according TO latest
reports. as compared with about 75
per cent of the worSted capacity.
whereas some cotton goods centers
are down to schedules of from 20 to
so per cent of capacity.
Some cotton dealers point out that
much OF the English goods import ed
! this year in competitio with Ameri-
can-made cloths have been sateens
and broadcfoths. and that American
makers have been able to undersell
these goods ~ to cents a yard
They say a change in tariff rates
would not loosen the hold of the
foreign goods on the American buyer,
since price apparently is not the
main consIdera tion.
New England manufacturers, how
ever. assert that such change is es-
sentiai TO prevent the industry here
from being smothered under dump
ing of foreign goods. The southern
cotton growers assert that cotton
constituted about one-ffth of the
American exports last year, and that
English, French and Japanese mills
are still buying heavily in American
raw cotton markets. The foreign
mills thus are able to run at capacity.
| whereas New England mills cannot
take full advantage of quantity pro-
duction, since they have not laid in
enough raw cotton and hesitate to
do so for fear of boosting the price