American Textile Manufacturers

In further recognition of Industry responsibilities, efforts were made through the American Textile Manufacturers Institute to develop a set of work practices for industry-wide application to diminish the exposure of individual employees to cotton dust hazards. The comprehensive and stringent series of work practices developed were consolidated into a printed booklet in 19730). This publication was distributed widely through the industry. In addition, an industry delegation called on the Secretary of Labor, urging that the recommended practices be established immediately as a mandatory OSHA standardO). This was not done. 

Safety and Health Committee "Work Practices Standard for Raw Cotton Dust" American Textile Manufacturers Institute Charlotte,... 

ATMI American Textile Manufacturers Insti- Bhn Brinell hardness number... 

American textile manufacturers were clearly aware of the impact of war on both the supply of unprocessed fibres and the type of textiles required. Wickliffe Rose of the American Viscose Corporation made a speech to the 1944 American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC) convention in which he identified three aspects of this process substitution of man-made for natural fibres, modification of industrial practice as a result of shortages of natural fibres and intense research into new fibres to satisfy military requirements, which had the effect of restricting supplies available for the civilian market. What was available was of poorer qualify. A 1944 survey undertaken by the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics showed how essential fabrics were downgraded during the war . ... 

The recent implication of microorganisms as causatives may be derived from statements made by individuals closely involved with the byssinosis problem, e.g., John Tritsch of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, who described the past uncertainty prevalent among investigators concerning the specific component in cotton dust that causes byssinosis. He wrote "It is unfortunate but true that... 

American Academy of Industrial Hygiene (AAIH), 14 203. See also United States entries U.S. entries American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), 10 847, 848 American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC), 9 227, 237 American Boiler Manufacturers ... 

Association of American Steel Manufacturers American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists... 

McDonald AD, Fry JS, Woolley AJ, et al. 1982. Dust exposure and mortality in an American factory using chrysotile, amosite, and crocidolite in mainly textile manufacture. Br J Ind Med 39 368-374. 

In the meantime, the Department of State contacted the Textile Alliance to serve as a central importing and distribution agency for reparations dyes. The Textile Alliance had been organized early in 1914 to combat fraud in the textile industry but, with the advent of war, became involved in wartime commerce with Britain. Led by textile manufacturer Albert M. Patterson, who spent the spring of 1919 in Paris as an economic advisor to the American mission, the Textile Alliance managed the shipments of reparation and Herty Option dyes from Germany for distribution in the United States. ... 

When complete, indanthrene blue GCD formed a paste, which BASF packaged and prepared to ship to textile manufacturers around the world. Dyes destined for the United States traveled north by railway to Rotterdam, The Netherlands, the port from which dyes were loaded onto ships bound for New York City. Indigo and many other blue dyes would be on their way to China, where blue was the most-used color. In 1913 alone, Germany exported 73 million pounds of indigo worldwide, of which 47 million went to China. Americans also consumed large quantities of blue dyes, although blacks sold in larger quantities. In 1913, the United States imported 478,980 pounds of indanthrene blue GCD, more than any other indanthrene dye, which more typically sold 2,000 or 12,000... 

Leaders in the textile industry publicly maintained that they found the quality of American dyes satisfactory, but privately expressed disappointment and frustration in many instances very inferior to the old imported dyes, uniformity not quite as good, or satisfactory in sulphur black but no other color. By 1918, textile manufacturers expected some categories of simpler dyes to be made well, but not the more complex dyes. 

Second, the American textile industry wanted to have the dyes. Through the war, the textile industrialists had become relatively staunch supporters of a domestic dyes industry and maintained that policy at the armistice. However, the textile industrialists increasingly agitated for a supply of vat dyes and other high quality specialty dyes the American manufacturers could not produce. Like the American manufacturers of dyes, they worried about competition from other textile producing countries that had access to inexpensive reparations specialty dyes. 

On the other hand, several textile manufacturers opposed a licensing provision, which resembled the system conducted under the War Trade Board. Although some textile producers viewed the War Trade Board licenses as a minor, tolerable, and worthy inconvenience, others resented the system as an unnecessary encroachment on their business. First, the system created delays in receiving dyes. If approved immediately, as were 90 percent of the cases, the consumer s application for an import license required up to a week to process. If the War Trade Board administrators believed an American company manufactured the desired dye, the consumer needed to contact the company and receive a negative reply before the War Trade Board would issue a license. Occasionally, the consumer found the American dye a technically inadequate substitute for the requested foreign dye and the burden of... 

Address of Mr. H. Gardner McKerrow, 4-5 in Official Report of Convention of American Dyestuff Manufacturers, ADR 2 (February 4, 1918) 4-8 also, A Proposed National Association of Chemical Industries, ADR 1 (October 29, 1917) 8-9 Haynes, American Chemical Industry, 3 253 Dyestuff Industry Organizes, DCM 4 (January 23, 1918) 5-6. On Hemingway, see Haynes, American Chemical Industry, 3 118, 253. Sherwin-Williams purchased Frank Hemingway, Inc., in 1920. Blaszczyk has noted that the end users of dyes— those in the fashion industry—also pursued standardization of colors through the Textile Color Card Association to aid buyers. Blaszczyk, The Color Revolution, 77-93. 

Communities of Competitors Open Price Associations and the American State, 1911-1929. For an account of an open-price society among textile manufacturers, see Galambos, Competition and Cooperation The Emergence of a National Trade Association, 78-83. The ADI s open-price procedure was fully publicized Dye Manufacturers Plan Active Control, DCM 4 (March 20, 1918) 5-6 Robert C. Jeffcott testimony in Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Hearings, Alleged Dye Monopoly (1922), 452, 491, 496. 

Such practices made many pre-Revolutionary Americans dubious (10) about manufacturing. Alter independence there were a number of unsuccessful attempts to establish textile factories. Americans needed access to the British industrial innovations, but England had passed laws forbidding the export of machinery or the emigration of those who... 

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