"SHODDY” TRADE

Evening Star, Issue 22070, 2 July 1935, Page 11

"SHODDY” TRADE

WORLD’S RAGS TO ONE CENTRE. Centre of one of the world's strangest occupations, a poor relation Of the great wool industry, is Dewsbury, Yorkshire. From all parts of the world woollen rags converge oil Dewsbury, which knows all there is to know about rags. The wool-classer, an expert himself, would be almost shamed in the presence of the sorter, who can" classify over 500 Varieties of woollen rag. Bundles of these discards of all nations are sold in big auction rooms. The rags are broken up and the wool recovered, to be used again. \ This shoddy ” exists in some percentage in almost all woollen clothing materials. A process of destroying the cotton and leaving the stool it so malodorous that these factories are far removed from other buildings. Rags from Australia are among the most liighly classed in the trade. There are dozens of strange callings in the trade, mysterious names, such as “ williel 1 ” and “plecener” being recorded in the local marriage registers: Dewsbury is the clearing house tot shoddy, yet produces at the same time some of the world’s best textiles.

Its slum problem exceed# that of London, “ two-roomed back-to-back ” houses being built, without space ground of any kind, in row upon row. with only one bathroom to several houses.