Shoddy

originally a Yorkshire factory word applied to the fluff of wool shed in spinning. The term is now applied to inferior woolen cloth made by felting or weaving; but, in either case, from old woolen cloth shredded into its original woolen fibers. Naturally it is quite rotten. During our Civil War the price of wool rose, and the American government had much reason to complain on account of the shoddy furnished the soldiers by unscrupulous contractors. Shoddy is intermixed frequently with new wool to cheapen the cost of a garment. The manufacture of shoddy is on the increase in the United States. There are ninety-seven shoddy establishments distributed chiefly from Ohio to Rhode Island. They have a capital of over $5,000,000. They consume over 70,000,000 pounds of woolen rags annually. About one-fifth of the woolen material used in making cloth in this country is shoddy, so that a very large proportion of our woolen manufactures are made in part of wool that has been used more than once. The wholesale value of the American shoddy produced in 1905 was $8,400,000. The term "shoddy" aristocracy is applied to those who become rich without culture, and who aspire to a social position to which merit does not entitle them. See Wool

There is, perhaps, no article produced in manufacture, no article used in manufacture, and no article in common use, that bears a reputation more undeserved than does shoddy. Its very name is a synonym for pretense and fraud. To the popular mind goods containing shoddy are not merely destitute of wearing quality, but are suggestive of the unwholesome second-hand clothing shop, and inspire one with apprehension lest the fabric should communicate loathsome disease to the wearer of apparel in which there is this substance of ill repute. All this is unwarranted by the facts, as all are aware who understand the shoddy process, the method of making use of shoddy, and the benefits which the use of it confers upon the user. It is not the case, as is too commonly supposed, that a garment--or the cloth which is made into a garment--is or can be composed wholly of shoddy. New wool or animal hair is always the basis of the yarn and a certain amount of shoddy is mixed with it on the card. The fiber is too short to be carded and spun alone. Then, too, the process of making shoddy is one which insures absolute cleanness and the destruction of all active germs, whether innocuous or pathogenic. And when the combination with wool has been completed the cloth into which the yarn is woven, although not so, durable as the cloth made from new wool, is by no means so lacking in wearing quality as is commonly supposed, but is quite as warm and quite as comfortable as if it were made wholly of wool never before used, and the price at which garments containing shoddy can be produced make them a boon to the poor people who could not afford to buy clothing made of new wool.--U. S. Census Bulletin, 1905.