OCR Text |
Show iLivestoclel AsxK.wii(inmt- ' Those who have made a study of the Western situation agree that it is only a ma'.ter of time until we will have great knitting and weaving plants alont; the Pacific Coast to serve the wool industry. The industry is already started in a small but successful suc-cessful way. That it will finally grow sufficiently to convert the Western wool clip into woolen goods iB only in keeping with the laws of economy and good business. The principle of converting raw material ma-terial into manufactured products at or near the source of supply has long since been recognized as true economy, econ-omy, especially where the raw material materi-al is subject to heavy shrink or waste in shipping and maufacturing; like live stock where the loss by shrink, slaughter and preparation of the product pro-duct is from 25 percent to 33 1-3 percent. per-cent. In recognition of this situation great packing institutions now exist near the source of supply of the live stock. The wool situation seems to offer even great opportunities for saving on account of the big percentage of grease and foreign matter which must be eliminated before the wool can be used for manufacturing purposes-The purposes-The grease and foreign matter rep-resent rep-resent about 40 percent of the gross 1 weight upon which freight charges j are paid. The West and Southwest S produce about 70 percent of the total clip and pull of the United States, amounting to around 200,000,000 pounds .per annum which largely goes to the New England states for cleaning clean-ing and maufacturing of woolen goods and garments. The fair average j freight rate is $1.50 per cwt, repre-I repre-I senting a freight payment of about $3,000,000.00 on the year's clip for movement from the source to the cleaning and maufacturing center. 40 per cent of this amount or $1,200-000.00 $1,200-000.00 is a dead loss and a load stone i around the neck of the industry. After the cleaning, weaving and knitting the finished product is distributed dis-tributed throughout the United States and abroad- Thus our Western wool travels clear across the country and -iie manufactured product comes back to us in the rpvi r.-e direction; about 0,000 miles oi rr.il haul to sup-1 sup-1 y tl-.e Westerner with garments likely made from the fleece of his own or his neighbor's flock- The cleaning and milling of the Western wool crop at our Western and Southwestern seaports would reduce re-duce the rail haul to about one-third of the haul to the New England factories fac-tories and the forward and progressive progres-sive movement of the manufactured product from such Western seaports to practically the entire Uited States and abroad would have several thousand thous-and miles of backward and unproductive unproduc-tive movement with an enormous saying say-ing on freight charges. It should also be remembered that the United States imports almost as much .wool as it produces and that this importation comes largely from Australia and New Zealand, about 2500 miles nearer to the port of Los Angeles than to Boston, offering a further opportunity to economize in the transportation and distribution of our woolen products. The United States exports about 11,000,000 pounds of woolen goods during the year and it is well to read into this statement the fact that two-thirds of the world's population reside on the writers of the Pacific ocean. If our great seaport cities of the West continue to grow the foundation founda-tion for such growth must come from a development of natural resources. Labor must find employment and the extent of our development will pretty much depend upon the ability of labor to find employment. Climate and ideal living and working conditions are a heritage of the great West and Southwest South-west and the weaving and knitting of our wool and the distribution of the finished product is a natural function of this section. |