As to tariff duties, we have never seen that foreign lace yarns are in any way in competition with domestic spinning. We know of no spinner in the United States who can or will produce a yarn which can be used as a brass-bobbin yarn in fine machines. The experiment has been tried in this country, and we some time ago purchased yarn to be used in brass bobbins, and it was so much inferior to the imported that we discontinued its use. We feel that a duty on foreign lace yarns should be for revenue only, as a high tariff will in no way protect domestic spinners of cotton yarn. (Levers-lace Manufacturer No. 1.)

It is practically impossible to obtain gassed prepared yarns in this country; in fact, there is no domestic supply of the so-called lace yarns, meaning gassed prepared yarn with an extra amount of twist.

The finer counts from 140/2 up are not produced in this country at all and the tariff thereon protects no industry, as there is none. We consider that we are penalized by the tariff on these fine numbers in competition with laces imported from France and England in that there is no domestic industry in these yarns from which we can stimulate competition with the English manufacturers.

The Levers lace business in the United States has not been a success to date, as the differential in duty between the raw material and the finished product is not sufficient to allow us to compete favorably with the goods imported from France and England, and we believe that removal of the tariff on these fine numbers would help us,considerably and would certainly do no harm, as there is no fine yarn of this description manufactured in the United States. (Levers-lace Manufacturer No. 2.)

In these fine-count yarns it is necessary to have them gassed and prepared in order to work well in the lace machines, and it is absolutely necessary to purchase them in foreign countries, as up to the present time none of the spinners in this country have, as we know, any plant for gassing and preparing yarn.

Previous to the war the domestic lace industry had been laboring under great difficulties in endeavoring to compete with goods imported from foreign countries and also to a large extent due to the insufficient rate of duty imposed upon manufactured laces imported into this country. (Levers-lace Manufacturer No. 3.)

BOBBINET YARNS.

The manufacture of machine-made laces, using the word "laces" in its larger generic sense, may be divided into the three classes of Levers fancy laces, lace curtains, and plain net, each of which is made on a special machine.

Plain net may be either bobbinet (also spelled "bobbinette" and "bobbin net") or square-mesh mosquito netting. Bobbinet is made on a band circular machine which may be either "double locker" or "rolling locker" according to whether one or two rows of bobbins are employed. The two rows of combs or grooved bars in which the chariots slide are moveable so that each chariot with its bobbin thread is, as it continues to swing back and forth and intertwist with the warp threads, gradually shifted from one end of the machine to the other and then back again. Machines for making square tulle or mosquito net are a variation of such machines, as the combs are stationary; there is only one set of bobbins.

It should be noted that the lace-curtain industry makes a large amount of net curtains and that during the war it has made for the Government a large amount of mosquito netting. Square-mesh mosquito netting can not be made on the lace-curtain machines, but under the stress of the war emergency the lace-curtain mills found that they could make a very acceptable substitute by employing the triangular curtain mesh to which the industry was accustomed, and using 18 warp and 10 bobbin threads to the square inch. This matter is referred to here because this substitute mosquito netting, as well as the regular square-mesh mosquito netting, is sometimes incorrectly referred to as "bobbinet," whereas true bobbinet is made with the hexagonal mesh only.

The bobbinet industry in the United States is very small, there being only two main manufacturers and a total in 1918 of only 39 machines. The bobbinet produced is used for veils and other wearing apparel. The total yarn requirements of this industry are not large and are supplied locally; there are only occasional small imports of yarns for special purposes. So far as recorded on available invoices imports of bobbinet yarns in 1914 and 1918 were as follows:

All of the above imports were combed yarns, gassed and prepared, used for bobbin work.

Having seen the foregoing, the leading bobbinet manufacturer writes:

In reply to your inquiry as to why the imports of fine yarns have been discontinued, we beg to say that the domestic industry can not compete on laces or bobbin nets made with fine yarns and for this reason is compelled to make only goods for which coarse yarns are used.

VOILE WEAVING YARNS.

Voile yarns are extra hard twisted and the two-fold is twisted in the same direction as are the single yarns of which it is composed. This is known in the trade as "Ton T" or twist on twist. The effect of the second twist in increasing the single twist is to make a smooth, hard, wiry yarn with special elastic properties. The finished or twofold twist on imported voile yarns is usually 38 to 40 turns per inch for Nos. 96/2 to 100/2 and about 47 turns for No. 140/2.

Voile yarns cost considerably more to produce than ordinary ply yarns of the same counts, largely because the extra twist not only reduces the production but the one-way twisting creates such a tendency to snarl that every inch of the yarn must be kept under excessive tension during the spinning, doubling, clearing, gassing, and winding. At the twisting frame a roller, wet with a good conditioning solution, helps to render the fibers supple and to fix the twist until the yarn can be woven.

The import of voile yarns is confined to a few counts. In 1914 the import was 30,439 pounds of 96/2, 17,819 pounds of 100/2, and 105 pounds of 180/2, a total of 48,363 pounds. In 1918 this was increased to a total of 278,532 pounds, of which 156,868 were 96/2, 34,051 were 98/2, and 87,613 were 140/2. These yarns were entirely gray combed, and almost entirely gassed Egyptian.

There is a fairly large import, in normal times, of voile cloths for women's dresses and for use in the manufacture of "novelty" curtains. Voiles are made in this country from single yarns ("single voiles"), or from two-ply yarns ("two-ply voiles"), or from a combination of single warp and two-ply filling. The two-ply is the original true voile and the others are cheaper substitutes. Imports are confined almost entirely to the higher grade of two-ply voile cloths and such voiles encounter strong competition here only from cloths woven from imported yarns. Any increase in the import of these voile yarns, such as occurred between 1914 and 1918, implies stronger domestic competition with imports of voile cloths.

The imported voile yarns are used in the manufacture of 40-inch voile cloths averaging around 10 yards to the pound. The 140/2 is mainly for use as both warp and filling in 64 by 64 pick goods; the 96/2 to 100/2 are mainly used as both warp and filling in making 62 by 56 pick goods, though some of them are for filling in combination with 50/1 domestic warp to make a cheaper grade. It is admitted by most of the importers of voile cloths that the domestic goods made from imported yarns are not only better woven, but that they are usually cheaper than the imported.

The following statement from an American firm that imports 2-ply voile yarns and weaves here is significant of the necessity for the importation of such yarns and of the results attained thereby:

We import about two-thirds of the voile yarns from abroad which are woven into fabric in the United States. Regarding tariff and the rates of duty, I would say that it is not a question of protecting the weaver, as the weaving of this fabric is handled better in the United States than in foreign countries, but it is for the protection of the spinner, as we can not produce the fine yarns which are required. Therefore, if a duty was to be put upon yarns to be the same ratio as the duty levied on the cloth made from these yarns, we would still import yarns and not cloth. There are no domestic yarns to compete with imported voile yarns; therefore we select the best imported yarns and make them into cloth. I find that the English are better spinners

and the Americans better weavers. The domestic voile made from imported gray yarns and woven in the United States is the best combination to be had. The English produce a better finish on the cloth than the American finishes. Nine-tenths of the voile business, however, is done in fabrics of simple finishes, which the United States can produce, and as we make a superior cloth I believe that in the future it will be hard for foreign manufacturers to compete.

Another manufacturing importer stated:

In nearly all of the cotton voiles made by our mills very hard twisted single yarns were used, the twist being as high as seven or eight times the square root of the number. There is a limit, however, to the count or number of yarn which can be woven in the single; and the goods made from such yarns are not quite so handsome as goods made of a 2-ply yarn. Single yarns can not well be gassed; therefore the 2-ply gassed yarn was imported to make a special grade of goods. There is no difficulty in making these ply yarns in this country, but when the yarn is required for a special purpose, and only in moderate quantity, it is not always to the advantage of the spinner to make it. Then, again, the low rate of duty imposed upon cotton yarns by the present tariff act has militated against the manufacture of yarns of this character in our country, because they could be imported at a less price than they could be made here with profit.

Voile cloths, whether the plain voile ground extends all over or is broken by fancy stripes or cords, are dependent on fashion, so that imports of the fabric, and of yarns therefor, fluctuate somewhat widely from year to year; but the American manufacturer controls the market for single voiles and with the aid of imported voile yarns is getting an increased control over the trade in fine 2-ply voile cloths. The voile yarns imported in 1914 were invoiced from Manchester and Bolton, whereas those imported in 1918 were invoiced from Nottingham, Bolton, and Manchester in the order named. These special yarns were produced almost entirely by four British doublers; most of them were imported by one cotton mill and the remainder chiefly by one yarn importer. Those for use as filling were imported mostly on through-tube cops which were sometimes listed as pirns or bobbins; those for warp were imported mostly on tubes, sometimes listed as cheeses. It is to be noted that in 1918, 96/2 voile yarn invoiced at 31d. to 41d. per pound higher when put up on pirns than when put up on tubes.

CRÊPE WEAVING YARNS.

Imports of crêpe yarns are so small that they would not be stated separately from other weaving yarns were it not for the fact that they are a specialty. Crêpe yarns employed as filling in weaving crêpe fabrics are excessively hard twisted, in fact made with about double the amount of twist inserted in ordinary warp yarns. When woven into a fabric the contraction exercised by this excessive twist gives the fabric the characteristic crêpe effect.

Of the 1914 imports, amounting to only 14,921 pounds, the main items were 7,230 pounds of 30/2, 4,892 pounds of 48/1, and 1,243

pounds of 180/2. Total imports in 1918 amounted to only 1,633 pounds, and included four counts-8/1, 150/2, 160/2, and 180/2. Part of the 1914 imports were dyed, but all of the 1918 imports were in the gray. The lower counts were partly carded and partly combed; the higher counts were combed. Some were made with reverse twist. Egyptian cotton was used most largely, though part of the coarser counts were made of American cotton; sea-island was used for the finest.

Contrasting 1914 and 1918 we find that No. 180/2 was apparently the only count imported in both years. This yarn, invoiced as "2/180 gassed S. I. crêpe 75 turns combed gray on tubes," was listed at 94d. in 1914, and at 165d. in 1918, though the amounts are so small that such a price contrast is only an indication. In 1914 the 30/2 crêpe yarn from France invoiced at 6 francs a kilogram, or 57 cents a pound, while the 48/1 and 50/1 invoiced at 81 francs a kilogram, or 75 cents a pound.

Of the 1914 imports 11,581 pounds were from Lyons, 2,061 pounds from Rorschach, and 1,279 pounds from Nottingham. Of the 1918 imports Manchester supplied 1,500 pounds and Nottingham 133 pounds.

TURKEY-RED YARN FOR TOWELS.

The domestic market for cotton towels is controlled by American manufacturers, but in order to maintain their hold they have had to import the Turkey-red yarns that are required for border stripes and for monogram and name work. They have never been able to obtain fast red yarns in this country.

There are two European localities famed for the excellence of their Turkey-red dyeing, namely, the Wupper Valley in Rhenish Prussia, of which Barmen is the export center, and the district around Glasgow in Scotland. Before the war American towel manufacturers depended for their red yarns almost entirely on Barmen; in 1918 imports originated almost entirely at Glasgow, but owing to war disturbances a normal supply could not be obtained.

Imports of Turkey-red yarns for towel work are all coarse counts, of 20s and under, partly of 2-ply yarns and partly of single yarns. interchangeable therewith; for instance, a towel manufacturer may substitute No. 10/1 for the more expensive No. 20/2. These coarse yarns are made of American cotton and are carded only; they are not imported because of either price or yarn quality, but solely because of their fast color.

Imports of Turkey-red yarns amounted to 202,879 pounds in 1914 and to 63,950 pounds in 1918. Of the 1914 imports the main count was 6/1, with 67,455 pounds, followed by 20/2 with 36,657 pounds,

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