A Non-Creasing Cotton Fabric.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20623, 12 August 1932, Page 10

A Non-Creasing Cotton Fabric.

The discovery of a method of producing non-creasing cotton fabrics, reported in the cable news this morning, should do something to disperse the gloom that hangs over Lancashire. Of the many British industries which have declined since the War, none is in a worse plight than the cotton industry. In 1929, before the depression began, cotton exports were only 60 per cent. of their pre-war volume. In the first year of depression, exports were only 05.5 per cent, of the 1929 figure and in 1931 only 46.8 per cent. The main causes of the shrinkage, according to the millers, are high production costs and unsettled conditions in the Far East. Exports to India, taking the 1929 total as 100, were 56.6 per cent.

in 1930 and 25.4 per cent, in 1931. Moreover, the Japanese and Indian cotton industries, with their low labour costs, are steadily diminishing Lancashire's share of the Eastern markets. Though to some extent this loss of trade was inevitable, the industry itself has not been blameless. At the International Cotton Congress held in Paris lest year M. Andre Siegfried, the French economist, noted three weaknesses in the British system of cotton manufacturing: unreasonable and out-of-date trade union restrictions, the use of obsolete machinery, &nd the failure of the owners to agree upon any scheme of rationalisation. He might also have mentioned the heavy overcapitalisation which took place during the post-War boom. Trade union organisation is particularly strong in the cotton industry and the efforts of the owners to introduce labour-saving maclnnery and reduce wages have led to a disastrous series of strikes and lockouts. It is gradually being realised, however, that the effort to cut production costs sufficiently to enable Lancashire goods to undersell the Indian and Japanese products is doomed to failure. Even if Lancashire succeeded in producing more cheaply than Eastern competitors, the advantage would be nullified by tariffs. The main hope of recovery lies, therefore, in an increase, in the use of cotton materials in England and Europe and it is for this reason that the discovery of a means of producing a non-creasing fabric is so important. If the process is as effective as its inventors claim, cotton may displace silk for a large number of pin-poses. The manufacturers have shown an intelligent appreciation of its possibilities by deciding to use it first in connexion with neckties. Even with gentle and skilful handling, the life of a neck-tie is deplorably short; and one good battle, particularly with a dress tie, is enough to reduce it to a bedraggled wreck.