158 Transactions of the American Institute. 



This exliibition of American woolens is the first instance of any 

 attempt, in our conntr}-, to bring before the public eye, in one great 

 collection, the characteristic products of a single industry. We can, 

 I trust, honestly say that it is prompted by a higher motive than that 

 of ambitious display. In no other way can the progress, the extent, 

 and the value of such an industry be so effectually shown. No state- 

 ments or statistics can be so impressive and convincing as the visible 

 evidence which is furnished by an exhibition like that now before you. 

 It is the next best thing to actually visiting the manufactories from 

 which these fabrics come. Could you pass throngh the great estab- 

 lishments so -honorably represented here, and look on their busy 

 wheels and cards, and spindles, and looms — their myriads of thrifty, 

 happy working men and women, the huge masses of raw material 

 which they work up, and the countless car-loads of finished fabrics 

 which daily leave the mills, you would need no argument to assure 

 you that the woolen industry of the country is second to no other, 

 whether individually or nationally considered. 



The annual value of our wool manufactures, and of those manufac- 

 tures in which wool is a component j^art, is not less than $175,000,000. 

 Of these goods more than four-fifths are made from Ameri- 

 can wools. The coarse carpet-wools, which are not grown here at 

 all, the worsted combing wools, and the fine clothing wools, which 

 are grown by us only in limited quantities, go to make up the rest. 



In relation to the articles now brought out under the direction of 

 the ]S[ational Association, it is only proper to state that none of them 

 were made specially for this occasion, or appear as candidates for 

 prize awards. They are the usual products of the mills, such as are 

 got up for the general market, and they are here, not for individual 

 gain or glorification, but rather to show the quality and the variety of 

 our wool fabrics, and the extent to which they supply, or can supj^ly, 

 the wants of the American people. The fine quality and the beau- 

 tiful finish of many articles in this collection cannot fail to arrest 

 attention. Yet the real significance of the display is to be seen, not 

 so much in this as in the wide range and diversified character of the 

 fabrics, in their soundness and their fitness for the uses intended, 

 and in the low prices at which they can be furnished. For instance, 

 in no market of the world can better cassimeres be found than some 

 of those which are here exhil)ited. 



These meet the demands of one class in the community, while the 

 wants of another and far more numerous class are met by cloths 



