The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-04-09
Hosiery Is Only Women's Wear Item That Is Critically Short
By s. BURTON HEATH And DOUGLAS LARSEN NEA Stan Correspondents


 Washington, April 7-The chances are that you have heard at least one woman remark, of late: How can go out? haven't thing to wear, and there isn't anything in the stores"
 Faint so, generally. Produc- ton of women's woolen suits was up last year to double the pre- war normal. Production of wom- ems rayon underwear is above nor nal. There are relatively plenty of dresses in the stores-at a price Of a kind.
 The difficulty is that both de- mand and prices are up. Where the price of particular style and grade is not inflated, the less ex- pensive grades aren't available and the housewife is forced to step out of her class. The only item of women's wear that is extremely tight is hosiery, where production is only two-thirds of normal Don't shoot in this direction-we're merely re- porting what we've heard-but there are those who claim that women don't actually suffer for lack of stockings. They can get enough, say these hard-hearts. TOT genuine need, though sometimes not enough to satisfy vanity.
 The Office of Civilian Require ments hopes, through the WIPE program, to produce about 30 per cent of the normal supply of un- der-$20 cotton and rayon dresses. CAN'T MEET DEMAND
 There is no reasonable chance that there can be enough womens or children's clothing produced to satisfy current demand, however, because women want from 20 to 70 per cent more of various items than were available even before war production got top priority.
 Almost any mother will tell you that children's clothing is almost unobtainable. Cotton knit under wear and sleeping garments are scarce. Also diapers. Store shelves appear to support this complaint. Yet the records show that produc- tion of underwear and sleeping garments is up third, and of diaper cloth up to double the pre- war figures.
 The number of babies taking 0 to 2 sizes has increased 31 per cent since 1887, and the under wear for such infants is up 42 per cent. There are no more chil- dren in the to F size range, yet production of underwear for them is up 25 per cent. Doubled pro- duction of diaper cloth still lags 20 per cent behind prosperity de- mand for such material.
 Surveys indicate that overall supply of children's clothing is tagging about 50 per cent behind stimulated demand. If the aver age mother will buy what she needs when she needs it, and not squirrel away lot of things through fear of coming short age, the OCR thinks that about 80 per cent of demand can be satisfied.
 In spite of the serious shortage of cotton yarn, 130 million yards of woven cotton has been allo- cated, during the first quarter of this year. to play suits, under wear, boys shirts, pajamas, etc.. to take up some of the lag. Manu- lecturers hope to improve even the existing record output of dia- per cloth.
 The entire situation regarding clothing, as discussed up to this point, is current and historical, and when Government agencies discuss what they will try to do they are talking on the only safe assumption, which is that the war in Europe will go on forever.
 One reason for existing short ages in many lines. including