518 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



following figures show this, which I have from a manufacturer and 

 merchant of clothing of the highest prominence in Boston. 



"The cost of the cloth in 1919 for a suit of clothes of a particular grade 

 is $13.67. The corresponding cost in 1914 was $4.58, showing an increase 

 in the cost of cloth of $9.09. The 1919 cost of making this suit ir $14.47. 

 The corresponding cost in 1914 was $4.98, showing an increase in the 

 cost of making of $9.49. 



"These figures show that cloth contributes slightly less than labor and 

 other materials to the increased cost of clothing. Therefore, to your 

 question why prices of clothing continue so high thru-out the country, the 

 reply is because the cost of labor and cloth and other materials that go 

 into clothing continue so high." 



After pointing out that there is a shortage of cloth and clothing in the 

 markets of the world, which "always means high prices," and that 

 "almost every material and every process involved in the manufacture of 

 clothing" has to pay a heavy tax, both state and federal, Mr. Wood 

 continued: 



"In a measure during the war, and to a greater extent since, there 

 has developed a curiously insistent demand for cloth made from the finer 

 and more expensive wools. People will no longer buy cloth made of 

 the coarser and consequently cheaper grades, although clothing made 

 from these wools is both servicable and sound. 



Before the war, the demand for these finer grades of cloth was chiefly 

 — indeed almost exclusively — from the mori fastidious in taste, but now 

 everybody demands the finer cloths and nobody will take anything else. 



"We recently made up a sample of cloth in which coarse wool was used 

 in the warp only. The appearance of the sample was but slightly different 

 from that made of finer wools. It had in a marked degree, the smooth, 

 soft texture of fine wool. 



"Its cost was considerably less than the fabric made of the finer 

 grades. As a cloth it was good, strong and serviceable. Before the 

 war it would have sold readily, but we were absolutely unable to put it 

 on the market. Our selling agencies told us that there was no demand 

 for it; people would not buy it; that customers insisted on fine, smooth, 

 soft fabrics and that, accordingly, the manufacturers of clothing would 

 not buy this cloth it we made it up in quantity, because they could 

 not sell clothes made from it. 



"To our suggestion that when people were complaining of so high 

 prices this cloth that would make a difference of $5 in the cost of a 

 suit, ought to sell readily, the reply was that . $5 in the cost of the 

 cloth for a suit of clothes, did not count at all these days; that the people 

 demand the best and would put up with no other. 



"Nor is this all. While during the war the supply of coarse wools 

 has remained about stationary, there is now a shortage in the world's 

 supply of finer wools of about 200,000,000 pounds. 



The action of our government has still further contributed to keep 

 prices up. "During the war, ag*>nts of our government purchased from 

 the British Government some 100,000,000 pounds of Australian wool. 

 When the armistice came they released or transferred two-thirds of this 

 wool back to the British Government. The one-third which our govern- 



