WOOL SUBSTITUTES

Evening Star, Issue 21966, 28 February 1935, Page 10

WOOL SUBSTITUTES

GROWING USE IN AMERICA PREDICAMENT OF SHEEP FARMERS NOT MAKING A LIVING WAGE n?EK United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, February 28. Mr Edwin J. Bourke, of Portland, Oregon, a passenger on the Franconia and a wool dealer of long experience, in an interview to-day mentioned that America’s exclusive tariff was to protect American wool growers, whose production was about 350,000.001 b annually. Ho said that, under present conditions, sheep fanners in the States were not making a living wage. In another month the new wool clip would begin to come off, and they would enter the season with an unusually large carryover of old wool, the reason being the lack of demand. Many mills had been using wool substitutes with the idea of producing cheaper garments. Throughout last summer and the autumn there had been an active demand for cheap goods, while the-demand for high-class woollen goods was poor. The States did not use as much wool as formerly, but there was a movement afoot to popularise wool. Producers and manufacturers were co-operating in an effort to make people “ wool conscious.” The uso of “ rayon ” was found to have increased enormously, and the demand for wool had decreased proportionately. South America produced a largo quantity of the coarser wools used in the States, but manufacturers, generally, preferred Australian and New Zealand, and, all things being equal, such as price and other factors, many of the mills would fill their requirements from these two countries.