MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS 



227 



Photograph from American Woolen Company 



A WOOL-COMBING MACHINE IN OPERATION 



Here the fibers are being combed out and placed parallel, ready for the twisting that 



converts wool into yarn. 



Do pure silks cost much in these days 

 of skyrocketing prices? With the raw 

 silk at $12 a pound and the throwing, 

 dyeing, and weaving all done by wage- 

 earners who command the best wages 

 paid in the entire textile industry, it could 

 hardly be otherwise. But the woman who 

 demands the silk as the worm spun it 

 never knows what it is to have silk "cut." 

 She can distinguish the pure from the 

 "loaded" silk by the simple test of putting 

 a match to a tiny piece of it. If it burns 

 quickly and cleanly, leaving a soft, gray- 

 ish-black ash, it is pure silk. If it smoul- 

 ders like punk, leaving a red, gritty ash, 

 it is "loaded" with tin. 



ENOUGH SHOES TO COVER 1,000 ACRES 



The American people would either be a 

 very poorly shod folk or else would have 



to import vast quantities of footwear, if 

 it were not for Massachusetts. Two out 

 of every five Americans one meets are 

 shod with Bay State shoe leather. The 

 men of the nation wear more shoes than 

 the women, and the factories of the Pil- 

 grim Commonwealth produce propor- 

 tionately more shoes for men. If all the 

 shoes manufactured in the Bay State 

 every year were set side by side and end 

 to end, they would cover nearly a thou- 

 sand acres of ground. 



To satisfy the demands for footwear, 

 Massachusetts has to make heavy drafts 

 upon the animal world. The shoe manu- 

 facturers of the State usually carry in 

 stock the skins of more than 135.000 

 kangaroos and wallabies and a third of a 

 million high-grade sheepskins. Nearly 

 3,000,000 goats and kids go to the slaugh- 



