8 CIRCULAR NO. 123, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



used. Improvements in machinery have made it ])Ossible to spin 

 shorter and shorter fibers, but the resulting fabrics are weaker and less 

 durable. From a general economic standpoint a large part of the 

 labor expended in producing inferior cotton and manufacturing 

 inferior fabrics appears to be wasted, to say nothing of the loss 

 imposed on the consuming public. 



In \dew of the groat amount of attention that the problem of the 

 increased cost of living is now receiving in all quarters it does not 

 seem reasonable to believe that the immense economic waste involved 

 in the production and manufacture of inferior cotton wnR be left out 

 of consideration much longer. Some of the States have laws to 

 protect the public against textile adulterations as well as against 

 adulterations of food, and the various suggestions for pure-clothes 

 laws are rapidly taking more defuiite form. There is even more 

 reason why the public should protect itself against inferior fiber in 

 cotton fabrics than against cotton mixed with wool or silk, where the 

 deception is much more easily detected. 



\^^lile there are many legitimate uses for short, inferior fiber, there 

 are also many illegitimate uses, that is, uses not to the advantage of 

 the consuming public, however profitable they may be to the manu- 

 facturer and dealer. In the presence of productive, early-maturing 

 long-staple varieties there is no longer any valid agricultural reason 

 for this wasteful substitution of inferior short staples for industrial 

 purposes that would be better served by the use of long staples. But 

 the mechanical and commercial reasons i-emain, and these will con- 

 tinue effective as long as profits can be made from the manufacture 

 and sale of weak, short-lived fabrics to an undiscriminating public. 



"VVlien the importance of these factors is once appreciated, remedial 

 measures are not likely to be delayed very long. A large measure of 

 protection would be obtained by a simple requirement that the public 

 be informed regarding the length of the fiber used in textile articles. 

 A regulation of this kind woukl be easy of enforcement, for the length 

 of cotton fibers is readily determined with unproved appliances that 

 are now available. Even though no standard of strength were 

 prescribed, the danger of deception on this side would be relatively 

 small, for manufacturers would hardly find it worth while to make a 

 specialty of collecting supplies of weak long-staple fiber, which would 

 also be more difficult to spin and weave into fine, weU-finishod fabrics. 



With any ap])roximation to e(|uality in the cost of production the 

 long staples can compete readily with the short staples. The short 

 staples have been used because there seemed to be no prospect of 

 secm-ing adequate and regular supplies of long staples and in spite 

 of the well-known inferiority of the short staples. But now the 

 question is to change back toward the use of long stai)les. The 



I (Mr. 12:5] 



