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Show MMGimM Just .it present, many novelties are being- made of leather in an effort to broaden the market. Truck and travel- ; ing bag manufacturers are develop- ! ing a greater market for leather nov- elty goods through the use of bright colors and they have also taken a les- j son from the automobile manufactur- , ers, in that they are producing new styles and new designs each year, so that the fastidious traveler must buy new luggage more often to be in style. Perhaps this program may aid in developing a greater outlet for leather. Then, too, the draft horse j associations are now putting on a well directed campaign to again popular-ize popular-ize the use of horses and mules on farms. Possibly, the leather people may be able to regain part of the lost harness goods market through aiding in such a campaign. Many leaders in the trade feel that a higher tariff on foreign hides, leath- . er and substitutes will help to solve t(he problem. To this end, the cattlemen's cattle-men's organizations, hide tanners and I others are putting their cases before j Congress. Much of the present depression in , the cattle market undoubtedly is due j to the fact that hides have dropped to almost the lowest level in a great many years. Hide prices now are not much higher than they were in the serious depression which followed the world war and it is not over-production of leather or the fact that there is a larger number of hides available than usual. As a matter of fact, leather lea-ther and hide stocks are less than normal nor-mal and still the market continues to decline. Hides in Los Angeles are now quoted at practically one-half the value a year ago. Competition from substitutes is the reason given for the present serious condition. Last year, for instance, manufacturers of composition soles took away from the leather tanners an amount of business equivalent to the product of 750,000 hides. Composition Compo-sition soles, according to the shoe manufactures, are less dressy and less comfortable than leather but can be made much cheaper. Despite the fact that American shoe manufacturers made 3,000,000 more shoes in 1928 than in 1927, the amount of sole leather leath-er used was 15 per cent less. Foreign competition is also hitting American leather manufacturers more so than in many years, due to cheap foreign labor and what many in the trades deem totally inadequate tariff protection. An authority in t,he Los Angeles trade declares that the reduction in hide values during recent months is equivalent to 75c to $1.00 per cwt. loss to the packer on every steer he buys. While many other packinghouse packing-house by-products from cattle are enjoying en-joying a good market, particularly livers and hearts, the amount of money mon-ey involved is not sufficient to by any means offset) the lessened value of hides . Thus, the meat packer must consider the lessened value of hides and force the beef to carry practically the full load when the meat is passed on to the consumer. The pressing problem at thi3 time seems to be some means of making leather more popular. As long as hides are virtually a drug on the market, mar-ket, the packer is up against a very serious problem. The hide makes up about 6 per cent of the totpl weight of the steer, fo that it may easily be realized that t)he cattleman is virtually vir-tually interested in this problem. The automobile industry, once a ?reat user of leather, is new rsins substi'utes almost entirely. Wide use of tractors and trucks, both on the farm and in the city, has taken away another huge outlet for leather, for these mechanical horses do not use harnesses. |