REARING SILKWORMS. 123 



department, which hitherto had been carried on 

 in the Agricultural Department in Washington, 

 should be at once closed. 



All through those years, while the Woman's 

 Association was laboring to establish this great 

 textile industry for the good of the whole country, 

 the silk manufacturers were as faithfully working 

 to keep it out, lest the price of the raw material 

 be raised. They opposed every measure that 

 pointed to the possibility of a supply of silk being 

 produced from our free soil, and chose rather to 

 trust to the supply from European and Asiatic 

 markets. By importing silk that was twenty-five 

 to thirty-five per cent manufactured, as raw mate- 

 rial, they saved to themselves about eight million 

 dollars annually. But, let it be known that this 

 large sum belonged to the government, and should 

 have been paid as other import duties were, and 

 are. 



Another very potent reason why Congress at 

 that time refused to aid this industry was, that 

 the managers of the silk bureau at Washington 

 had for some years been asking a very large 

 appropriation to keep open a special silk bureau 

 in the Agricultural Department. At last they 

 came before Congress with a request for an annual 

 appropriation of one hundred and fifty thousand 

 dollars. They presented to Congress the neces- 



