TEXTILES AND CLOTHING 
89 
in Japan; manufacturers of mercerized cottons must watch the 
price relations between cotton and artificial silk at home and of 
flax abroad. 
Substitution, therefore, is the keyword in the supply situation. 
One fiber may be substituted for another, in certain fabrics, and 
mixtures of various fibers constantly complicate the situation. 
Substitution invariably increases when an important fiber moves 
to a level of relatively high prices, as shown by the following 
trade 1 notes: 
High prices for raw silk have been responsible for the introduction of 
all kinds of substitutes in the manufacture of hosiery. Hardly a week 
goes by without some new combination being introduced on the market. 
The latest of these innovations is an artificial silk twisted around a 
merino yarn, the latter containing about 10 per cent wool and the balance 
cotton. With this yarn a men’s half hose has been put on the market as 
a fifty-cent retailer that has all the possibilities of a market clean-up. 
The yarn was first offered at $2.35 per pound, but was recently boosted 
to $2.75. One selling agent has already booked a big business on half 
hose made of this yarn. 
The price situation has been responsible for a large amount of trashy 
merchandise finding its way on to the market. Where manufacturers 
were short on raw materials and had to meet competition, substitution 
was resorted to. Several hosiery buyers have confessed that they could 
not tell whether a stocking offered to them as pure thread silk was a high 
or low grade of silk, or even a mixture of silk and artificial; whether 
it was ten or twelve strand yarn; whether it was thirty-nine or forty-two 
gauge; whether it was pure dye or loaded; whether it was ingrain or dip- 
dyed. 
One merchant points out in the cotton goods trade that there are now 
myriads of substitutes that consumers can and do use in place of the 
staple and standard cotton goods. Many fine yarn goods requiring com 
paratively little cotton have come into daily use. Crepes of many sorts 
take the place of many other goods. Their relative values are not well 
understood and retailers can get full prices for them without much 
haggling. 
Artificial silk, or rayon, which was at first manufactured as a 
substitute for natural silk, now has a recognized place among 
1 Association of Hosiery and Underwear Manufacturers, News Letter, June 
2I > 1923, and March 1, 1923; and Journal of Commerce, April 4, 1924.