New York, Jan. 23
"Women of the United States bought more silk stockings in 1937 than ever before, according to manufacturers here, and the proposed boycott of Japanese silk did not have any notable effect in the United States market.
The consumption of silk in the hosiery industry has risen 28 per cent. in three years. This, say the hosiery manufacturers, is partly because fashion has decreed that the well-dressed feminine leg be encased in four-strand chiffon weave compared to the less beautiful, but warmer, seven-strand article preferred by U.S. grandmothers.
Those who want to boycott the Japanese may find comfort in that imports of Japanese silk have been falling off steadily for the last six years. Total silk imports, of which all but a small fraction are of Japanese origin, dropped from 509,000 bales in 1931-1932 to 493,000 bales in 1936-1937, or a decrease of nearly twelve per cent. This is because, though consumption in the hosiery industry has increased, the weav-/ ing industry has taken to using increasing quantities of rayon. The! hosiery manufacturers now take 75 per cent, of all the silk consumed in the United States. i Of far more significance to the United States silk industry than the ar in the Far East were recent labour disturbances on the Pacific coast, which hastened the trend towards utilization of Japanese ships for the shipment of silk across the Pacific since they were not subject to tie-ups when they touched the Pacifc coast ports. The Japanese now have the fastest and mos of freighters shipment that exists, and have the bulk of the silk trade in their hands.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.