Truth in Fabric

TRUTH IN FABRIC

THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 1938

UNITED STATES SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE COMMERCE,

Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:30 a. m., in committee room 224 in the Senate Office Building, Senator H. H. Schwartz (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Senator Schwartz (chairman of the subcommittee).
Senator SCHWARTZ. The subcommittee will come to order.

A brief preliminary statement will be helpful. On April 19, 1937, Senator Capper introduced S. 2190, a bill to protect producers, manufacturers, and consumers from the unrevealed presence of substitutes and mixtures in woven or knitted fabrics, and in garments or articles of apparel made therefrom, and for other purposes.

The bill was referred to the present subcommittee, and the chairman of the Interstate Commerce Committee has authorized this subcommittee to conduct this hearing on S. 3502 introduced by me in the Senate on January 5 (calendar day, February 21), this year.

Hearing on the Capper bill were held on June 9 and 70, last year, and the record printed. On August 16, 1937, Chairman Wheeler reported the bill with an amendment. The amendment was in the nature of a substitute.

At the previous hearing there appeared and testified representatives of wool producers, manufacturers, and wholesalers and retailers of products defined in the title of the bill. The substitute proposed to S. 2190, the Capper bill, sought to retain the purpose of that bill and also to compose the different views of those interested in the subject; and at the time seemed satisfactory to that end.

Later some of the more prominent manufacturers of woolen fabrics, who were not present at the hearings, suggested various amendments which they deemed vital; and still later the wool producers joined in these requests for further changes in the proposed legislation.

It has been represented to the committee that consumer organizations also joined in asking that amendments desired by these manufacturers of woolen products be incorporated in the bill.

After consulting with Senator Capper I introduced S. 3502; and that is the present bill intended to express the views of those who were somewhat in disagreement. I think the fundamental distinction between the two bills is that S. 3502 makes a specification of virgin wool as virgin wool, and that was not included in the previous bills.

S. 2190 is printed in the record of the previous hearing. It and the proposed substitute amendment may be found in Committee Report 1216 (Calendar No. 1266) reported by Chairman Wheeler on August 16, 1937, and later recommitted to the Interstate Commerce Committee.

S. 3502, to which this hearing is more particularly directed, will be inserted in the record at this point.

(S. 3502 is as follows!)

[S. 3502, 75th Cong., 3d sess.]

A BILL To protect producers, manufacturers, and consumers from the unrevealed presence of substitutes and mixtures in spun, woven, or knitted or felted fabrics and in garments or articles of apparel or other articles made therefrom, and for other purposes

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Labeling Act for wool and part-wool products".

DEFINITIONS

SEC. 2. As used in this Act

(a) The term "person" means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, or any other form of business enterprise, plural or singular as the case demands.

(b) The term "wool" means the fiber from the fleece of the sheep or lamb or hair of the Angora or Cashmere goat and may include the so-called specialty fibers, namely the hair of the camel, alpaca, llama, vicuna, rabbit, and other similar animal fibers.

(c) The term “virgin wool" means wool that has never been spun or woven or knitted or felted nor used for any other purpose.

(d) The term "reclaimed wool" means wool which has been reconverted into a loose fibrous state, after having been spun, woven, knitted, felted, or otherwise made into a wool product.

(e) The term "wool product" means any yarn or woven or knitted or felted fabric which purports to contain or is in any way represented as being wool, before it is made into a converted wool product as defined in the following paragraph (f) of this section.

(f) The term "converted wool product" means a product which has been converted by a garment manufacturer or any other converter into a garment or any other article out of a wool product as defined in paragraph (c) of this section.

(g) The term "Commission" means the Federal Trade Commission.

(h) The term "Federal Trade Commission Act" means the Act of Congress entitled "An Act to create a Federal Trade Commission, to define its powers and duties, and for other purposes," approved September 26, 1914, as amended (U. S. C., title 15, secs. 41-77).

(i) The term "interstate or foreign commerce" means commerce between any State, Territory, or possession, or the District of Columbia, and any place outside thereof, or commerce between points within the same State, Territory, or possession, or the District of Columbia, and any place outside thereof, or commerce between points within the same State, Territory, or possession, or the District of Columbia, through any place outside thereof; or commerce within any Territory, or possession, or the District of Columbia.

(j) The term "State" means any State of the United States.

(k) The term "Territory or possession" means the District of Alaska and the insular possessions of the United States.

MISBRANDING DECLARED UNLAWFUL

SEC. 3. The introduction into interstate or foreign commerce of any wool product or converted wool product which is misbranded within the meaning of this Act, or the rules and regulations hereunder, is unlawful and shall constitute, per se, an unfair method of competition in commerce under the Federal Trade Commission Act; and any person who shall ship or deliver for shipment or sell or offer for sale, in interstate or foreign commerce, or who shall receive from or through interstate or foreign commerce and having so

received shall deliver for pay or otherwise, or offer to deliver to any other person, any such wool product or converted wool product which is misbranded within the meaning of this Act and the rules and regulations hereunder is guilty of an unfair method of competition in commerce within the meaning of the Federal Trade Commission Act and shall be subject to the penalties and entitled to the privileges therein provided as if the same were incorporated into and made part of this Act, and such person shall also be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not exceeding $5,000 or be imprisoned not exceeding one year, or both, in the discretion of the court.

This section shall not apply

(a) to any common carrier in respect to any article shipped or delivered for shipment in the ordinary course of its business as a common carrier; nor (b) to any person in respect of any article delivered for shipment, shipped, or sold for exportation from the United States to any foreign country if such article is branded in accordance with the specifications of the purchaser and in accordance with the laws of such country.

MISBRANDED GOODS

SEO. 4. For the purpose of this Act any wool product shall be deemed to be misbranded unless stamped, tagged, labeled, or otherwise identified, in accordance with the following provisions of this section, and such rules and regu lations hereunder and pursuant hereto as the Commission may prescribe: (a) Each stamp, tag, label, or other means of identification shall show

(1) The minimum percentage by weight in proportion to the total fiber content of the wool product of (a) virgin wool fiber; (b) reclaimed wool fiber; and (c) other fibers: Provided, That in the case of fiber other than wool, used exclusively for ornamentation, a statement excepting the percentage by weight of such fiber in proportion to the total fiber content of the wool product shall be sufficient: Provided further, That the Commission shall, under proper regulations for various classes of wool products, permit fiber other than wool used exclusively for ornamentation, not exceeding 5 per centum of the total fiber content, to be computed as part of the wool-fiber content of a woolproduct; and shall similarly permit a tolerance, not exceeding 5 per centum of the total fiber content, in the statement of fiber-content percentages, for unavoidable variations in manufacture.

(2) The maximum percentage by weight in proportion to the total weight of the wool product, of any matter other than fiber contained therein, if the percentage by weight of all such matter amounts to 5 per centum or more of the total weight of such wool product.

(b) No trade name, pictorial representation, term, or descriptive name suggesting or implying the presence of wool shall be used in connection with any wool product unless such wool product contains at least 51 per centum by weight of wool in proportion to the total fiber content: Provided, That where the term "wool" or any trade name, pictorial representation, term, or descriptive name suggesting or implying the presence of wool is used in connection with any wool product, the percentage by weight of wool content thereof must be shown in words and figures equally conspicuous.

(c) No trade name, pictorial representation, term, or descriptive name suggesting or implying that a wool product is made entirely of virgin wool shall be used in connection with any wool product unless such wool product contains 100 per centum virgin wool.

(d) This Act shall not be construed as requiring any information in respect to linings, interlinings, paddings, stiffening, trimmings, or facings, except that if any lining or interliing is represented as containg wool the the terms of this section shall be applicable thereto.

AFFIXING OF STAMP, TAG, LABEL, OR OTHER IDENTIFICATION

SEC. 5. (a) Such stamp, tag, label, or other means of identification shall be affixed to the wool product by the manufacturer thereof, in the case of wool products of domestic manufacture, and by the importer thereof, in the case of wool products of foreign manufacture.

(b) In the case of wool products which are sold directly or indirectly to converters, garment manufacturers, or other manufacturers to be made by