The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
575 
Wool, Shoddy and Pure Fabric Laws 
What American Wool Growers Demand 
C AUSES FOR DIMINISHED INDUSTRY.— 
With the present condition of the sheep indus¬ 
try. its welfare does not depend primarily for propa¬ 
ganda on the necessity for more sheep, nor the means 
to get them by purchase, breeding or care. There 
have been volumes spoken and written, and fortunes 
spent along these lines, but the sheep dwindled while 
population and demand increased. No propaganda 
has ever begun at the right end. the real cause of the 
trouble, and the few who were inspired by the spe¬ 
cious knowledge to invest, found the industry un¬ 
profitable and dropped it, while the old-timers did 
not increase their flocks. In fact, many parted with 
them. The situation now. the scarcity of wool, and 
the use of substitutes for it, is deplorable, and the 
only way to keep it from getting worse is to begin 
at the right end—the cause. If the stream is im¬ 
pure. it is folly to try to cleanse it along the way. 
Go to the fountain and remove the dead cat there, 
and it will purify itself. 
TAKE A LOOK AT WOOL.—I busked corn last 
Fall in a suit of worsted made in 1907. and after 
might have made a better fiber, but He did not.” 
THE HANDICAP ON WOOL.—On the other hand, 
part of the reason for short labor now is that an 
army of men is busy trying to press and iron re¬ 
spectability into clothing. Their efforts are only 
palliation. It cannot be done. Shoddy will show its 
depravity. “You cannot make a silk purse out of a 
sow's ear.” The startling figures that men have paid 
for their clothing, and children's garments falling 
to pieces, together with the cheap-looking women’s 
dress goods and cloaks, have set the people thinking, 
and they wonder what can be the matter with wool¬ 
ens. At any rate, they know they are stung. Sheep 
men could have made it clear to them. They have 
been using some of their high-priced land, feed and 
labor to grow a little good wool. They have accom¬ 
modated themselves to the situation, and kept a few 
sheep as by-products, while they applied themselves 
to producing a surplus of things with profit. They 
grew a little wool “on the side.” to compete with a 
few dippings from tailor shops, and all the woolen 
rags junkmen could gather. The supply of this stuff 
stitutes for our wool, and stop our good wool asso¬ 
ciating with them, that you will get still less of them 
as the years go by. 
THE DAWN OF HOPE.—I feel kindly towards 
all Americans and will restore their confidence by 
stating that such a disaster will never happen. We 
are all taking the best of care of our flocks this 
Winter, and intend to keep all ewe lambs for repro¬ 
duction purposes. We are a unit for the people's 
welfare. We could continue to keep a few sheep and 
grow any amount of hogs and other things, but we 
have decided to induce and compel the regulation of 
fabrics. We are organized, and beginning at. the 
right end. Not above 5 per cent of the people are 
engaged in the rag business or ragpickers, junkmen 
and rag manufacturers, and we expect the other 95 
per cent with us. Yes, the sheep men are united in 
this determination. Until lately an occasional wool 
grower would get on a platform or into a paper and 
try to start something in shoddy, but it was a frost, 
while now they have the good manufacturers and 
clothiers and many of the proletariat with them. 
The Gentle Sheep and Their Little Shepherd. Fig. 575 
hauling fodder all day with mercury Id above, I 
shed two pairs of overalls in the evening. I notice 
that with the exception of the goods being a little 
shiny and worn where the edges rubbed on my 
shoes and wrists, the suit looks nearly as nice as 
new. This is my thirteenth Winter for my best over¬ 
coat. The tailor has put the third velvet collar on 
it, and it is tit to wear to an assembly of the most 
opulent people. There are garments in the house 
over 40 years old, nice as when they were made, and 
a neighbor has a stylish old suit of his forebears, 
over GO years old. The fiber in all of these is appar¬ 
ently as strong as new. None of these has ever 
been to elothes-presser’s shops, and there is no bag¬ 
giness, fade nor absence of respectability about 
them. If manila binder twine was as old. and had 
been wet as often as the fibers of my overcoat, it 
Would pull apart like rotton tow. Wool is the strong¬ 
est. warmest, most respectable and worthiest fiber 
e\er created. "And God made the beast of the 
earth after his kind, and God saw that it was good." 
Similar to a remark about the strawberry, '“lie 
is greater than all the wool grown in the United 
States, and the people have taken it without pro¬ 
test. 
SCARCITY OF SHEEP.—Sheep are so scarce that 
if the people of the world had to depend on them all 
adults would be half naked, without a shred of wool 
for the children. Try your pencils. With less than 
half a billion sheep on earth, much less, and they 
will progressively become fewer, while shoddy passes 
to the people as virgin wool. The writer lives in the 
watershed of the Ohio River, which comprises part 
of six States and furnishes an empire of land well 
adapted to sheep. They are more plentiful here than 
anywhere, and it is from here that discriminating 
people who know how to select good cloth get the 
fibers for their clothes. This section produces the 
highest-priced wool and the best fitted to carry the 
short slick shoddy fibers. We keep a few sheep, 
well, and make this promise for self and thousands 
of others, that unless the people of this land quit 
buying shoddy for virgin wool, and there are govern¬ 
mental restrictions that will stop the use of sub- 
LEGISLATION ASSURED.—Congress is sure to 
make a law that will let virgin wool sell for wool, 
and shoddy and cotton for substitutes, and the peo¬ 
ple can buy woolens as safely as the housewife buys 
a pound of butter or the farmer a bag of hog feed. 
We cannot possibly get virgin wool for all for some 
time, but watch us speed up. and in the meantime 
(and it will be a mean time) you will know whether 
you are buying our virgin wool or “antique” cloth¬ 
ing. There will be opposition by men that get their 
wealth by the way of rags, but it is hardly fair for 
5 per cent of the people to ask a continuation of a 
languishing sheep industry, and that the whole peo¬ 
ple should wear substitutes for wool. 
OBJECTIONS AND EXCUSES.—No objections 
have developed against our scheme except from in¬ 
terested parties. They look for calamity from the 
following reasons: “A fabric law will not only 
injure our business, but it will operate to the detri¬ 
ment of manufacturers, retailers and consumers.” 
“It will set false and impossible standards which 
cannot be met. because the supply of virgin wool is 
