Dominion Textile and its wares 1910

American Textiles Workers 1914, perhaps in South. From TRiver “American 1910″ set on Flicrk. Some rights reserved.

Products of Dominion Textile Co. (Ltd.)

The Dominion Textile Co. is foremost in imitating and displacing American cottons, and on ordinary prints, for instance, now has the great bulk of the trade up to the 15-cent retail class. At 15 cents and above they meet strong English competition.

All Canadian prints are made at their Magog Print Works. They now have six classes of shirting prints, which are marked, respectivelj’, “L.X. ” “3,” “C,” “D.C.” “T.B.,” and “G.C.” The “L.X.” are narrow 26/27 inch subcount prints that are sold by the mill at 6 cents a yard less 12 per cent. The 12 per cent, is the trade discount assigned to the jobber as his margin and he has to sell the retailer at the ‘-’list” or restricted price of 6 cents. Some of these 26/27 inch prints actually measure only 255 inches, but the demand for such narrow prints in Canada is small, anyhow.

The “3″ prints are 29/30 inches wide, come in indigo, aniline, regatta, blouse, plates, reds, cardinals browns, omish, pinks, lilacs, and chambray, and are sold by the mill at 8 cents a yard less 15 per cent.

In assorted lots the same price is charged for all kinds, but if indigos only are specified a higher price is charged.

The “C” prints are 31/32 inches wide and seem to be more largely sold than those of any other class. They come in regatta, blouse, pinks, cardinals, solid colors, borders, omish, two-tone stripes,aniline, etc., and are sold by the mill at 10 cents a j’ard less 15 per cent.

The “D.C.” prints are 31/32 inches wide and sold assorted in indigo, navy and gold, navy and white, and Copenhagen at 10 cents a yard less 15 per cent, with increased price for indigos alone. The “T.B.” German prints, guaranteed pure
indigo dyed, are 29/30 inches wide and sold at 11 cents a yard less 17^ per cent.

They are heavy prints with large designs and used especially by the Doukhobors and Mennonites of Western Canada.

The “G.C. indigo” prints are 30/31 inches wide and are sold by the mill at 13^ cents a yard less 15 per cent.

The Dominion in addition makes printed delaines, challies, foulards, crepes, dress ducks, drapery cloths, tickings, etc.

The Dominion makes gray sheetings from 25 to 40 inches wide, its “Bengal” and “Bombay” brands being mainly 33 to 36 inches and the “Mount Royal wide grays” 40 inches wide. The gray drills are mainly of the 29-inch width, with some up to 34 inches, and gray twills of the 36-inch width. The Dominion makes three grades of ordinary gray ducks: “Savannah,” of which the 6-ounce invoices from the mill at IH cents and the 12-ounce at 21 1 cents a yard; “Trident,” 12 J- and 22^ cents for the 6 and 12 ounces., respectively;and “Eagle,” 14 cents for the 6-ounce on up to 26 cents for the 12-ounce. Its gray cantons run from 25 to 31 inches and the bleached cantons from 22 to 29.’ inches. The wide gray and I)leached sheetings are made in 6 to 11 quarter widths.

The Dominion bleached shirtings, cambrics, and longcloths are mainly 35/36 inches wide; bleached interlinings 36/37 inches. The white summer suitings
are 36/37 inches; white duck suitings, 26/27 inches; and bleached drills, 30/31 inches. The circular pillow cottons are 40 to 50 inches wide and pillow siijis, 40, 42, 44, and 46 inches. The Dominion quilts run 60 bv 80, 72 by 70,
71 by 81, 70 by 90, and 72 by 90, with mill prices of 75 cents to $1.10 each. The gray huck and honey comb towels run from 52j to 90 cents a dozen at the mill, with bleached towels in fancies up to as high as $1.42 a dozen. The 32-inch butter
cloths sell at the mill for 2f to 4 cents a yard.

The Dominion makes two classes of cotton blankets, the “Dragon,” which sells in the 10/4 width at 82 cents and in the 11/4 width at $1, and the “Ibex,” which sells in the 10/4 width at 87^ cents, in the 11/4 width at $1.05, and in the 12 4 width at .$1.25 at the mill. The Dominion blankets are made entirely by the Montmorency mill near Quebec, which turns out about 7,500 pairs a week, and which has an up-to-date equipment with 14 German-made napping machines. The Montmorency mill has a complete waste-spinning plant with 17 sets of triple cards for making waste yarns on the German woolen principle.

The mill buys cotton waste from the United States, as well as from other mills, and makes many blends for sale to hosiery mills and to mills needing colored waste filling for flannelettes, cottonades, etc. The most popular yarn blend made for underwear purposes is produced by running 1 brown lap to 12 white.

The Child Labour Problem.

Flora Nicholson of Flo in the City, my work in progress about a girl coming of age in the pivotal 1910 era based on the letters of http://www.tighsolas.ca/ A middle class girl… Here she is babysitting, most probably.

Well, I am reading the 1910 era archives of the Montreal Gazette, looking for articles on the child-labour issue and YES, child-labour, was a huge issue and especially with respect to girls.

I knew this from previous articles I’d read, but these first-hand accounts remind me that for all the Nicholson family money problems, the Nicholsons had it easy… and Flo especially easy. She was protected, even pampered.

And, there’s my challenge, to make her ‘problems’ seem real, and still show the context.

One of the articles I found was about a recently published book by a British lady who crossed Canada in 1911 and published a book about her experiences in 1912. (Even today, the Canadian media loves to report on American reviews of things Canadian, especially if they are praiseworthy. It’s a national trait.)

Well, this lady, who wrote this book called From Halifax to Vancouver, generally praised Canada but she had harsh criticism for the industrial conditions of Montreal. She quotes a woman on the Juvenile court as saying that the factory owners would hire monkeys to work if they could get away with it and that nowhere in the world, even New York, are there so many young women leading immoral lives. De Bullion Street!

A factory owner says he is appalled to learn that under-age girls are working in his factory. He does not sanction it: why would he? He wants the most efficient labourers to work for him so that he can compete internationally.

In another article about Montreal’s girl labour in factories, it is claimed that although the official legal age for working is 14 -if literate- and 16 -if illiterate-, the reporter found girls working in factories who were so young, they didn’t know their age. (Of course, this might be that they were told by their parents NOT to tell their age.)According to the article, “one little girl did not know the meaning of the word ‘holiday.’”

Another article claims that women immigrants should only be allowed to enter Canada to work as domestics and not as factory workers. Domestic work is good work, they say. The President of the Montreal Suffrage Organization, a Mrs. Bullock, disagrees. She thinks that girls should be trained for trades, like boys, since only then can the young women support themselves and have their nights to themselves. (She writes this in an open letter to the Royal Commission. I intend to write a scene in my story where Flo takes on Mr. Robertson, in a public argument, when he visits Macdonald College in 1911.)

And there’s one really prescient man quoted in another article: (Remember, these are all between 1908-1913) It is an Member of Parliament, a Mr. Henry Vivien. He wants suburbs designed and put up outside of cities, where houses are 20 feet apart. (He doesn’t want suburbs evolving randomly, as overflow of cities.) He wants roads joining the suburb to the city. It’s only 1910, but he says the automobile will take over from the horse, in 50 years time.

This is very prescient, as most people,then, thought the automobile was a ‘toy’…a fascinating and desirable toy, but still a toy, and even in the Montreal Gazette, that same year, in the opening paragraph in the article about the Horse Show, it is written that the auto will never replace the horse in man’s affections.

Many people quoted who were advocating change, more laws to protect women and children, often brought up examples from the US, which suggests the US was ahead of Canada, and Montreal. And yet they had their child labour horrors too.