31. Full one-fourth cotton: Cotton with staple about 14 inches long. A high-grade cotton now worth 95 cents per pound.

32. Low-grade cotton: Now worth about 25 cents per pound, and yet not distinguished under terms of the bill from either of the above samples. Under the proposed system of marking this material would be designated in the same way as the $1.50 cotton in sample 30.

Samples of fabric.

100. A fabric of 100 per cent virgin wool, without beauty, warmth, or wearing qualities. Under such a bill as is proposed, this would be stamped on every yard to show that it is made of all new virgin wool. There is in no cotton and no reworked stock, nothing but new wool. To the consumer buying the fabric this marking would have the effect of obscuring the natural and correct judgment that it is a very poor. fabric. Even such a fabric as this would in a measure be put at a premium in competition with intrinsically better fabrics which would have to be classed and marked as being mixed. Compare this fabric with mixed fabrics such as 106, 116, or even the all shoddy fabric No. 125. The bill would put a premium on the production of low grade new wool fabrics and a stigma on fabrics containing reworked wool, no matter how good.

101. A fabric made entirely of new wool, of medium weight, and superior quality: Any system of branding which marks fabric No. 100 by the same brand as would be borne by No. 101 is obviously bound to mislead the buyer as to the value of No. 100. 105. A fabric made of 30 per cent new wool and 70 per cent of reworked wool. This is an attractive, serviceabel cloth and would give the wearer good satisfaction.

105a, is made of 30 per cent low wool and 70 per cent low shoddy and while it carries identically the same label as Exhitit 105, the cloth would be unsatisfactory in every respect. This illustrates how misleading the labeling under this act would be to the purchaser of clothing. Should a customer buy a suit made from Exhibit 105a and find it unsatisfactory, which he surely would, he would not later buy a suit made from Exhibit 105, as he would say that the material, as far as the label indicates, is exactly like the suit he bought before. Thus it would prejudice him against buying perfectly good cloth.

106. New wool and reworked wool: A beautiful and strong fabric containing 65 per cent new, and 35 per cent reworked wool. The mill cost if made entirely of new wool, would be about 35 per cent greater and the wearing properties would not be proportionately increased.

107. A kersey of new and reworked wool: Proportions 32 and 68 per cent, respectively. A fine fabric, the cost of which per yard would be increased by $1.14 if made of all virgin wool.

109. A fancy suiting of 57 per cent new wool and 43 per cent reworked wool: An attractive and serviceable fabric which can be sold at a medium price. Fabrics of this type outlast the fashion in which they are made up. Any added price paid for all new wool would yield no adequate return in serviceable wear.

110. Fabric composed of 25 per cent cotton, 40 per cent reworked wool, and 35 per cent new wool with unusual strength and wearing qualities.

Made of

111. A serviceable fabric, which under the proposed law could not be sold on its merits but must bear the stigma of containing only 50 per cent new wool. all new wool its mill cost would be 50 cents a yard greater.

112. A light-weight fancy fabric made of 35 per cent of wool noils, the remaining 65 per cent being reworked wool and cotton. A strong, warm fabric which is sold at a low price. A particularly good and serviceable fabric for children's clothing. 116. A serviceable fabric which, under this bill, would be obliged to carry the stigma of being 25 per cent cotton. To make it of all virgin wool even at present prices of cotton would increase its cost over 30 cents a yard. Under all normal circumstances a fabric containing cotton can not masquerade. It must sell as a mixed fabric. The proposed law would afford no protection.

120. A fabric composed of 70 per cent reworked wool and 30 per cent cotton. Contains no new wool. This is a good, stout fabric, and at a fair price as guaranteed by open competition, would sell at its real worth, not above.

121. A fabric containing no new wool whatever. It is made of 20 per cent of cotton and 80 per cent of reworked wool. It is sold in large quantities at a low price. For shirting cloth for workingmen.

125. A fabric made entirely of reworked wool. Note the good texture and the manifest strength of the fabric. Compare it with fabric No. 100. And yet this fabric 125 under the proposed law would be marked with as bad a mark as could be given, while fabric No. 100 would bear the same brand as the finest fabric that could be made.

126. A chinchilla overcoating made entirely of reworked wool-at a mill cost of $3.09 per yard. It is estimated that the same fabric made of new wool would cost at least $5.20 per yard to make. Compare with similar fabrics of all virgin wool 126a.

127. An attractive melton overcoating which has a wide sale at a reasonable figure. It is made entirely of reworked wool. Any bill designed to stigmatize such a fabric by calling it by terms which would capitalize an ignorant public prejudice would drive this fabric from the market and put in its place a similar all virgin wool fabric which could not be sold for within $2 or $2.50 per yard of the price for this.

130 and 130a. These two fabrics are similar in all essential respects except for the raw materials from which they are made. They are from the lines regularly carried by a manufacturer. No. 130 is made of all virgin wool. The manufacturer's price for it is $6.60 per yard. No. 130a is made of 10 per cent virgin wool, 10 per cent cotton, and 80 per cent reworked wool. The manufacturer's price for it is $2.65 per yard. To be sure it is not as durable a fabric as 130, but at the price charged for it it is a good money's worth, and does not deserve to be stigmatized in the public mind. Notwithstanding the similarity in appearance, competition would not permit a seller to attempt to substitute 130a for 130, even if he had no moral scruples.

131. This fabric is a regular line carried by a manufacturer. It is constructed of 98 per cent pure new worsted and has in it 2 per cent of cotton twist purely as a "decoration." This fabric is now sold extensively in high class trade. If branded to indicate the presence of cotton, it would be discredited and its marketability impaired.

Some of the difficulties of marking are shown by the lettered samples. Samples A, B, and C are "plaid back" materials which are made up without lining. They would be ruined by stamping. Sample D is a fancy worsted for women's and children's dresses. A stamp on every yard would spoil it. The remaining lettered samples are of white or delicate shades. Stamping would show through these and ruin their salability. Moreover, garments made from them never could be "turned."

Mr. BARKLEY. Will you let me ask you a question outside of your brief, or if somebody else is going to testify to that fact, I will not ask it. I would like to know this: Take the entire quantity of new wool produced in the country in a year. What proportion of it is made up of high-grade wool worth $1.95 a pound and what proportion is made up of kempy wool or card wool? Are you able to answer that?

Mr. CHERINGTON. So far as this fine scoured No. 1-A wool is concerned, that is Australian wool.

Mr. BARKLEY. I am not referring to Australian wool. I am referring to No. 1, the domestic product.

Mr. CHERINGTON. There are no adequate statistics that show the actual percentages available at the mill of all these different qualities. The nearest figures are those in the appendix to this brief, giving the total weights of the principal classes of the fiber and material consumed.

Mr. BARKLEY. So that you do not know, then, taking the average sheep from which the wool is sheared, how much of that particular wool would be made up of this high-grade No. 1 wool?

Mr. CHERINGTON. That could not be answered, Mr. Barkley, because there is no such thing as an average sheep. It would be like taking an average between a cow and an eagle. There are so many different kinds of sheep, there is no such thing as an average sheep. Do you see what I mean?

Mr. BARKLEY. Yes, I see what you mean. I thought if you took all the different sheep together, there might be an average struck. Mr. CHERINGTON. There are some 300 different types of wool. Mr. BARKLEY. We have only been shown about half a dozen. It seems to me there ought to be some information as to how much of the total product of domestic wool is made up of No. 1 high-grade wool.

Mr. CHERINGTON. So far as the general tendency is concerned, the production of the fine wools has steadily decreased for years, and the

fine wools are the territory wools, the coarser wools are from the Mississippi Valley.

Mr. BARKLEY. The answer to that question has an important bearing on the question as to whether there is enough of this good quality virgin wool to supply the demand for any larger quantity of good cloth?

Mr. CHERINGTON. The total wool clip is about 300,000,000 pounds. That is in all the grades. The total consumption in normal years, taking all wool together, is about 600,000,000 pounds. Now, suppose it was all fine wool, 300,000,000 pounds of it would have to make all the clothes you need. But there are unfortunately no figures at all that show anything like an accurate proportion.

Mr. BARKLEY. You would not hazard a guess at it?

Mr. CHERINGTON. No, sir.

Mr. SIMS. Here are samples of goods. Here is sample 130Mr. CHERINGTON (interposing). Mr. Clark is going to show you the samples. If you will let him show you the samples

Mr. SIMS (interposing). I do not have to, I have them right here now. Sample No. 130 is 100 per cent new wool, price $6.60. I suppose that means the price per yard?

Mr. CHERINGTON. $6.60 per yard at the mill.

Mr. SIMS. At the mill?

Mr. CHERINGTON. Yes, sir.

Mr. SIMS. That is the mill price?

Mr. CHERINGTON. Yes, sir.

Mr. SIMS. Now, another sample, No. 130-A, 10 per cent new wool, 10 per cent cotton, 80 per cent reworked wool, price $2.65.

Mr. CHERINGTON. Yes, there is a difference of $3.95 between those two samples. They are both made by the same manufacturer and never sold the cheaper for the better.

Mr. SIMS. Now, does not the price of the one that only contains 80 per cent reworked wool, 10 per cent cotton and 10 per cent new wool, stigmatize it as against the 100 per cent wool?

Mr. CHERINGTON. Not in the least. Mr. Clark will take that up more fully.

Mr. SIMS. But you are an expert

Mr. CHERINGTON (interposing). No, I am not an expert. But I can answer your direct question. It is a splendid fabric for $2.65. Mr. SIMS. Oh, yes; but yet, compared with the 100 per cent article, the price shows it is not all new wool, just as well as if there was a label on it. Is not that true?

Mr. CHERINGTON. No; it shows that it is a splendid fabric, well worth the price of $2.65. It does not show what is in it.

Mr. SIMS. But a layman like myself could not tell anything about the difference simply by inspection or feeling or in any other way? Mr. CHERINGTON. Nor could you if it was stamped all over the back. But you go to an honest tailor and tell him what you want to pay for a suit and he will give you one.

Mr. SIMS. Have you got one on?

Mr. CHERINGTON. Yes, sir; I have had many of them.
The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed, Mr. Clark.

STATEMENT OF MR. FREDERIC S. CLARK-Continued.

Mr. CLARK. Mr. Chairman, I would like very briefly to call your attention to these samples of fabrics. You will find that they are fastened together in little groups. Now, sample No. 101 would be stamped 100 per cent virgin wool, and you will see that there is a very good fabric. Sample No. 100, right under it, would also be stamped 100 per cent virgin wool, but it is a very worthless fabric. At the same time if it was stamped 100 per cent virgin wool, with the attitude of the public toward virgin wool, they would be led to believe that that was a pretty valuable fabric and would be influenced to purchase it as against a fabric that had either 100 per cent shoddy or a lesser percentage of shoddy, with a lesser percentage of virgin wool. Now, compare sample 100 with those that are attached to it, right below. There is No. 105, which has 30 per cent virgin wool and 70 per cent reworked wool. No. 106 has 65 per cent virgin wool and 35 per cent reworked wool. No. 116 has 75 per cent virgin wool and 25 per cent cotton. No. 125 has 100 per cent reworked wool. Now, every single one of these fabrics with percentages of reworked wool, and one of them with a percentage of cotton, is a vastly better and more serviceable fabric than this fabric No. 100 which is stamped 100 per cent virgin wool, and yet the mere stamp, the indication that there was a certain percentage of shoddy or cotton in those fabrics, would influence the consumer against them when he came to examine the fabrics for purchase.

Now, another thing. Compare No. 105 with No. 105-A, which is a single sample right below the others. Those two fabrics would bear precisely the same brand; they are both made of 30 per cent virgin wool and 70 per cent reworked wool, but, as you will see, they are of vastly different quality, not at all alike. Suppose a man bought a suit of 105-A and he observed the stamp on it, 30 per cent new wool and 70 per cent reworked wool, and it gave him very poor satisfaction in wear, as it certainly would. He would fight very shy of any stamp of that character after that, and if he were shown fabric No. 105 subsequently, bearing precisely the same stamp and which is really a valuable and serviceable fabric, as I say, he would fight shy of it because of his former suit, tagged with the same percentages of material.

Mr. BARKLEY. Then, sample No. 105-A does not contain anything except new wool and reworked wool?

Mr. CLARK. No, sir.

Mr. BARKLEY. It looks like it had a good many shades and toothpicks in it, nothing like wool.

Mr. CLARK. What you see there is the kempy wool. The virgin wool in that is the wool that is represented in that kempy wool that I showed you before, in No. 5. The wool in that sample, 30 per cent of it, is No. 5 wool, and that white fiber that you see in it, the hairy white fiber, not all the white fiber, but the hairy white fiber, is the kempy fiber that is in that wool.

Mr. BARKLEY. Now, from what sort of sheep would this white fiber in No. 105-A grow?

Mr. CLARK. You mean the kempy part of it?

Mr. BARKLEY. Yes.

Mr. CLARK. I could not tell you what breed of sheep it came from. Mr. BARKLEY. It looks more like vegetable matter than wool.

Mr. CLARK. On, no; it is wool, but it is dead fiber. That is the reason it looks that way. Sheep are liable to have dead fiber, in which case they are white and they have that hairy appearance. Now, the next lot, if you will please examine it, has on top sample No. 109 and I want to show that collection to you with the statement that they are all good, serviceable fabrics, but they would all be stigmatized in the minds of the public by the stamp that they would have to carry under this bill. No. 109 has 57 per cent new wool and 43 per cent of reworked wool. It is a very good fabric. No. 110 has 35 per cent new wool, 40 per cent reworked wool, and 25 per cent cotton. That would also be a very serviceable fabric, and, if you feel it, you will find it is a good, firm fabric. No. 121 has no virgin wool in it; it has 80 per cent reworked wool and 20 per cent cotton. It is a very serviceable fabric for some purposes.

Mr. SIMS. Why was not the price put on all these samples, so that we could have an idea of it?

Mr. CLARK. I will get you a lot that has the prices on them. Now, No. 131 is a very good fabric indeed. You will see a white spot in it. It has 98 per cent virgin wool and 2 per cent cotton. The white spot in it is cotton, put in there merely for decorative purposes, in order to make that particular style of cloth, but the very fact that there was cotton in it would prejudice the consumer against it.

There is one point that has been brought up here by those in favor of the bill. A statement has been made frequently which is really absolutely not so. They have said that manufacturers are able to make fabrics using reworked wool and get exactly the same price from the public as if the fabric were made from virgin wool. That was taken up in the brief which Mr. Cherington read to you and that is absolutely not so. Competition in the business prevents it from being so. The fabrics are sold on their merits and competition in the trade requires that they should be. It would be an impossibility to make a fabric of reworked wool and get just the same price for it as a fabric that was made of all virgin wool, the qualities being of a similar character.

Mr. SIMS. How would that affect the purchaser of garments at retail?

Mr. CLARK. How would what affect him?

Mr. SIMS. The custom of an ordinary man going into a store and buying a garment?

Mr. CLARK. You mean the stamp on it?

Mr. SIMS. Well, about putting off the real cheaper goods as all wool in the retail trade?

Mr. CLARK. Do you mean if the reati his customers? Is that it?

clothier wanted to cheat

better price?

Mr. SIMS. Yes; or if he wanted to get a Mr. CLARK. I think it would be rather difficult to do that in the times of ordinary business competition. Of course, it is possible that there might be shysters in the trade who would do that sort of thing, but I do not think it is prevalent.

Now, the next lot of samples are interesting. I will give you the compositions and also tell you how much more those fabrics would cost at the mill if they were made of 100 per cent virgin wool. No. 107 contains 32 per cent new wool and 68 per cent of reworked wool.