ENGLISH WOOL LETTER

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 161, 27 March 1918, Page 10

ENGLISH WOOL LETTER

WOOL TEXTILE TOPICS

(From Our Special Correspondents.) Bradford, January 31. various matters of interest to readors of this issue are at present being discussed by those owning machinery and who have the wool textile industry at heart. Evcry- | body expects war to bring about unlookodi for contingoncieE, but State control has produced very onerouß conditions, and no man can look upon his mill and machinery as his own. To thoso iwth -strong feelings of _ independence, the whole business of being controlled is to them gall and wormi wood, but they are trying; to carry on. Colossal difficulties are. having to be grapplod with, and however simple a plan or a scheme may >bo to those at a distance, it is when a man looks upon machinery that ought to bo busy working up wool, and with a few hundreds of workpeople behind him, that ho feelß the present stato of affairs to bo almost intolerable. Many spinners to-day are confront--1 c<t with a shortage of tops, and they hardly know.what to do for the best. Everybody with any knowledge at all of the inside workings of the trade knows that before wcil can be spun it must be scoured and combed, the resultant tops being souri into yarn. It is now an admitted fact that the quantity of raw material set apart for military purposes is. not all being consumed, and the spinning representatives on the Board of Control aro .making a big effort to have any unconsumod balance of wo.pl transferred to civilian account. The trade is entitled to this under the fonndation principles of the Board of Control, and therefore it is contended that tops not wanted for military purposes should bo available for civilian needs. Of course,' without tops there can bo no yarnß or pieces, and all that spinners want is their rights. It iB common knowledge in the trade that the Department has had under consideration the advisability of reducing the output of tops, but for what purposo it is difficult to say. Thore are those who assert that it is for the sole purpose of combing out more men for the Army, but thore are very few men of A Class left in the factories, and where they are to bo found they are filling very responsible positions. There is talk'of stopping certain mills knd centralising all work, but the workpeople are totally opposed to that proceeding, and, therefore, there is little expectation of this coming about. We fail to see any advantage to be gained by a further reduction in the output of toos, because the present limited combing facilities are only capable of turning out the tops wanted by British spinners and those of our Allies.

Tops for Canada and Italy. We are divulging no secret in saying that ft fair quantity of tops, well over one million pounds are going to Canada and Italy, these comprising both merinos and crcssbreds.., The reader -will, therefore, see that stocks are by no means exhausted in this country, for judging by the remarks of well-known commission woolcombers they are still carrying big stocks, and moro could be allocated to the civilian trade, without the reserve stocks being materially affected. There are a good few combs standinr in Bradford already, and to furl her reduce the number working will he a mistake.

Standard Overcoating cloth, In addition to having standard cloth for civilian wear, standard worsted serges, blankets and flannels, comes the announcement that standard overcoatings are to be made, presumably for the winter of 1918-19. Nobody can reasonably object to thiß, and tho history is quite'easy to trace. We are told that tho standard overcoating is to bo 240z5., 55-56 inches wide. Of course it will be all woollen, and while one authority says it is to be made from Scotch black-faced, we doubt if it will be the only wool in the cloth. Black-faced and deep English lustre wools seem to be about tho only qualities of domestic produce.which all along have Deen a source of trouble to the Department in finding an outlet. A good deal of Scotch black-faced was used in the production of Itussian overcoating cloths, and evidently the servicos of those firms are now to bo requisitioned for producing these for home wear. Everybody knows they are somewhat rough in appearance, and are 'bound to bo when such low coarse kempy wool is U6ed. However, blended with course crossbred it will still be somewhat finer than Scotch blackfaced, and the foundation of the cloth will be rendered more compact, and if these jvercoatings are made in nice grey mixture shades, in plain and ht'riingbone twills, as is suggested, there is nothing to prevent a good commercial overcoating fabric being produced. Such a standard cloth will wear well, and when milled will be comfortable and warm, but it will not appeal to everyone, particularly to the commercial class. However, we think the authorities are making tho right move, for thero is a big variety of coarse fribs and shirlings which cannot be used for other or better purposes than the production of these woollen cloths, both for ordinary use as well as overcoatings, and by making o, Btart now thero should be a big quantity available for. tho rank and filo for next winter. .. ,

' Woo! Distribution Sale, Some men have very little knowledgo of the inner workings of the trade, particularly those v who make it their chief business to write up tho doings of the industry from a purely journalistic standpoint. If such scribes woulcT only deal with what they know and leavo the technicalities of ,the trade to practical men, they would not mako such a hash of things as they frequently do. In one quarter criticism has been levelled at tho last distribution sale in London on tho ground that woollen manufacturers cannot deal with bulk sorts of shabby wools, such as were largely catalogued iu London lasUmonth. We very much doubt if tho journalist could explain what he himself means by a bulk sort. Of course these men who have never been to a Londonjjsale know most aboui it! Ono leading London buying broker has rightly diagnosed the cause of tho failure. When nearly 9000 bales are catalogued and only 1800 bales sold, neither tho offering of "bulk" sorts or anything else is tho causo of the fiasco. It was duo entirely to the trade not having buying orders, for if manufacturers could have had the privilege of buying, every bale would easily have been absorbed, After 25 years' experience in Coleman Street, we have hundreds of times seen a catalogue such asw&s Bet hefore buyers three weeks ago, nuite easily absorbed by woollen maufacturers, because it is their custom, as well as dealers, to buy shabby, burry clothing wools, put them in a blend, and then have them carbonised either at their own mill or on commission in Bradford or elsewhere. Had merchants whose business has been taken from them been granted the privilege of buying recently, in London, every bale would have been absorbed with great avidity, but the Department rightly or wrongly not allowing wool merchants to buy. and manufacturers having such small allocations, tho wool failed completely to find buyers.

Wool for Military Requirements. There is no secret about the. estimate of the wool wanted monthly for military pur-' poses, this being repeatedly stated in ca). culations which have been made public, the official figures centre around 25 million pounds of'clean scoured wool monthly, but it is well known in the.best manufacturing quarters that 21 million pounds is nearer what is being actually consumed. It one multiplies that by twelve it will give the weight wanted annually, and if we take the standard clean yield at 56J per cent, as applying both to crossbred? and merinos, an ordinary multiplication sum will give tbs quantity of'clean wool actually wanteil for military purnoses. No matter what is wanted for military purposes, special caro is being taken* to reservo this, and it is some satisfaction to know that stocks of wool in this country are still adequate to meet most requirements, although no one will talk of any surplus. It is a fact, nevertheless, that! more wool arrived in this country last year -then was expected, thanliß to our bravo sapors. What wool will arrive this year no one can say, but everyone is determined to do their best in order to maVo suro of the textile machinery of Great Eritain being kept running.