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Show THERE'S A NEW ALL-WOOL BLANKET IN YOURJtAG BAG (Advertisement inserted by Job F. Hall of the Quality C.othin:; Shop.) The above advertisement appears each month in Good Housekeeping Magazine. The Old North State Mills, who advertise in several of the leading home magazines, is one among many blanket factories, who comes out with the plain facts as to what goes into their woolen blankets. Blankets are not the only product of the eastern manufacturers manufac-turers that are made up of a big per cent of shoddy, if not all. Shoddy is the great mystery of the textile industry. Few people not connected with that industry even suspect the old diTty, filthy rags gathered up from the slums and congested districts of the cities by the rag man, are to come back to them labeled: "Pure Wool, All Wool and Satisfaction Guaranteed." Guaran-teed." More Shoddy Used in U. S. During 1929 Than Wool Produced There was more shoddy wool used us-ed in the United States last year than there was wool produced. The consumers are happy because they don't know any better and what they don't know won't hurt them. The rag-pickers and shippers are happy, and the manufacturer are also happy because they can buy shoddy at a very reasonable price. .Very pften the rag man can get Dad's old dirty suit out of the gurage by giving the kiddies a few pennies for it. The sheep man is not so happy as he is holclin? his wool for a high price and paying pay-ing interest on borrowed money. mon-ey. He also adds further to his misery by going to the chain stores to buy his blankets and sweaters and thus paying his money to the very man who is keeping down prices of his wool by selling to his customer nothing else but shoddy, all wool goods. The world produces about three billion pounds of wool annually, I which is enough (according to I Prsskicst Samuel Dale, the Card-; Card-; cd W-;'.iui rnuracturerj if it was ! all used, to make 14 ounces cf jv.'oclcn cloth per capita. That ' much cloth would not r.i.-.ke a good sized brlixhclcth, 1st alone a suit cf clclhLs cr a woolen blanket. The National Wool Growers Association Asso-ciation reports thai it was necessary neces-sary to hold over a large portion of last year's wool clip because cf price. From these figures you can see that biilicns of pounds of shoddy was used last year. It would appear then, that in order to supply sup-ply the demand for woolen goods, that some shoddy is necessary. The best plan to protect the consuming con-suming public would be to identify iden-tify the substitutes for virgin wool and let the people buy shoddy at shoddy prices and with a full knowledge of the facts. The producer pro-ducer of wool would be protected, protect-ed, not only by a wool tariff, but by a law compelling the manufacturers manufac-turers and the outlets of the channels chan-nels of trade, to label their merchandise mer-chandise as to its true character. charac-ter. In 1920, the "truth in fabric bill" was introduced in the house of representatives by Congressman French of Idaho and in the senate sen-ate by Senator Capper of Kansas and has repeatedly been before congress supported by the National Nation-al Wool Growers Association and the farm organizations. It has never yet become a law due to the lobbying influence of the National Na-tional Association of Retail Clothiers Clo-thiers and Furnishers, who have brought e'very influence and pbw-'' er at their command to bear to prevent the enactment of a law that would compel them to de-vulge de-vulge the true contents of their merchandise, as the interests who deal in shoddy can better operate in secret. Wyoming enacted the first "truth in fabric" law in 1921 and in 1923 a similar law was up for consideration. After four years of controversy these Wyoming laws were . found constitutional. j We have a Pure Foods lav.' , - hich protects the people on what they eat and safeguards the health cf the American public. Why net hive a law that will protect the public from the unfair methods and unidentified shcdc!;.s that are j dumped cnto the consuming pub- ' lie and scld for new, all wool materials? j Virgin wool is wool that has j never been used in any other article ar-ticle other than the one it is in. There is just as much difference in virgin wool and shoddy wool as there is in an automobile that is new and one that has been driven IGO.OOO miles. It would be impossible for a dealer in automobiles to take a car cut of the junk yard and paint it a nice red color and sell it for new because the running parts of the car are worn out and have gone about as far as they can go without replacement. However, it isn't impossible to take wool rags out of the junk yard and dye them a nice color, card them, spin them and weave them into a blanket and sell it for a new, all-wool blanket. blan-ket. This is being done every day and the town merchant who would like to build a fence around the town, who makes a plea to trade at home, is asking for the support of the very people he is furnishing money to fight "the truth in fabric law," and to keep them deceived as to what goes into the merchandise he sells them. It is an old saying that you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. And you can't malje a new blanket out of a dirty, worn out rag. There may be a new all-wool all-wool blanket in your rag bag, but there's not a rag bag in Jack Frost blankets. |