TEXTILE SLUMP.

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17606, 10 January 1929, Page 5

TEXTILE SLUMP.

IN THE UNITED STATES. GREAT EFFORTS TO STEM IT. (From a Correspondent^ NEW YORK, November 12. When Senator Smoot, who drafted the tariff plank in the Republican platform, said that the United States textile industry required more protection, he was not speaking without facts to go on. The industry is in a thoroughly bad way, with 28,000 hands on strike in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and with the prospect of 35,000 more in ! Fall River following their example; I The mill hands of Fall River have ; already accepted a 10 per cent cut in i wages, although not without bitter | protest. | While the Southern mills are cutting | the throats of their Northern compe- ‘ titors they themselves aro not with- 1 out their troubles. The Southerners arc engaging in disastrous compel!-1 lion among themselves and are threat-; ened with labour troubles owing to I charges of exploitation by some mills. | The cotton industry is one of the j most protected in the country, and j there are some who look to other j causes than foreign competition for j the present disastrous condition of j business. i Women's Scanty Clothes. j

Women are blamed for their scantiness of clothes, but' this criticism fails to remember that sheets and tablecloths have not changed in fashion. Over-development in war and postwar days is regarded as the chief reason for the present trade slump. Many New England mills have been dismantled, and others arc being reorganised in a frantic effort to halt the flood of idleness. Millowners are being warned to improve their business or prepare to hand them over to the banks. . . „ The latest available import figures show that England sent goods, chiefly' of fine quality, to the value of over £4,000,000 in 192 G, and with her own Far Eastern trade challenged by Japan, United States producers declare that England is seeking to enter fields previously usurped by the United States.