I drew the resolution and my staff happened to do some of the legwork, but we introduced it together. So it was a joint effort and the people of this State must not be under any misapprehension because you are entitled to just exactly as much credit on that as anyone else. We were coauthors and that's exactly the situation. Senator THURMOND. You did more than anyone else on it, though. Senator COTTON. All I did was this: You are a good executive. You have a happy faculty of shifting a little of the detailed work to somebody else once in a while. Senator THURMOND. I want to ask Mr. Robert Jackson, the executive director of the American Cotton Manufacturers' Institute, to stand and be recognized over here. Mr. JACKSON. Thank you, sir. Senator THURMOND. And Mr. Dan Henderson, who is with him. with the same organization in this State. Mr. HENDERSON. Thank you, Senator. Senator THURMOND. And Mr. Harry Snyder. We are delighted to have these gentlemen down here. I want to express my appreciation to them. They have been most helpful to us up in New England, and also down South here, too. Tomorrow the subcommittee will meet in the Federal court room, 401 West Trade Street, Charlotte, N. C., at 10 a. m. The subcommittee now will stand adjourned until that time. (Whereupon, at 5: 18 p. m., the subcommittee adjourned, to reconvene at 10 a. m., September 30, 1958, in the Federal Courthouse in Charlotte, N. C.) PROBLEMS OF THE DOMESTIC TEXTILE INDUSTRY TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1958 UNITED STATES SENATE, INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE COMMITTEE, Charlotte, N. C. The subcommittee met at 9:30 a. m., Senator J. Strom Thurmond presiding. Senator THURMOND. Ladies and gentlemen, the hour has arrived to open the textile hearing. I might say that this is the fifth hearing that we have held in this series of field hearings. The original resolution was sponsored by Senator Cotton, of New Hampshire, sitting to my right, and a number of other Senators who joined him as cosponsors. I was pleased to be among those. The purpose of these hearings was to study the problems of the textile industry, and to make recommendations as to what can be done to remedy the situation. We all know that the textile industry today throughout the entire Nation, not any one section, is a sick industry. Since World War II, 717 mills have closed, 305,000 jobs have been lost, and in some areas it is very critical. We know that in some sections mills that manufactured certain categories or items have closed completely. Others are running on part time. We are hopeful that this committee can come up with some recommendations that will be helpful in solving the problem before us. We are delighted to have with us today on this committee, Senator Norris Cotton, of New Hampshire, one of the ablest, finest, and most distinguished Members of the United States Senate. We are pleased to have him in the South. Three Senators have been or are in campaigns this fall, and are unable to be here. Senator Payne, of Maine, has been in a campaign. Senator Pastore, of Rhode Island, and Senator Purtell, of Connecticut, are now in campaigns. So the other two members of the committee are here. The only remaining member of the committee is Senator Bible, of Nevada. He has been unable to attend the hearings. We are pleased to be in Charlotte. This is a great textile State, and next to South Carolina it is the greatest textile State, according to spindles and in other ways. We have with us today a distinguished citizen of your own State who is an able member of the United States Senate. At this time I would like to invite him to be our first witness if he cares to testify. And if he doesn't care to testify to come up and sit with the committee and join us during these hearings. I refer to your fine citizen, Senator Everett Jordan, the junior United States Senator from North Carolina. Senator JORDAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator THURMOND. We are delighted to have you with us. I want to say to the people who are here today that you have shown an unusual interest in the textile industry. You, probably more than any Senator in the United States Senate, are familiar with the problems of the textile industry. You probably have a keener insight into the problems confronting the textile industry than any other Senator, and I am sure that your counsel and advice with the subcommittee will be very helpful. Senator JORDAN. Mr. Chairman, I just want to say I am delighted to be here, and I am delighted to welcome Norris Cotton and you, Senator Thurmond, to North Carolina, and to Charlotte. I believe it was you who asked me where we wanted to hold this hearing, and I said have it in Charlotte because it is central in North Carolina, and I am delighted to be here with you. I don't care to testify because we have some very able textile men out here who have prepared statements. I prefer to listen to them and just be present. Senator THURMOND. We are glad to have you sit with us. We hope you can stay with us all day if you can. If not, as long as you can.. Senator JORDAN. Thank you. Senator THURMOND. I want to say to the witnesses today, if you have prepared statements you can read those or you can just put those statements in the record, and then speak off the cuff if you wish to give a brief résumé of your testimony rather than read the entire statement. However, we are going to leave that entirely to you. We hope to hear every witness who wants to testify on this important question. The first witness this morning is Mr. L. H. Hance, president of the Institute of Textile Technology, Charlottesville, Va. Mr. Hance, will you come around. Before we start I think it would be appropriate if we introduced our staff. Sitting to my left is Dr. Miernyk, professor of economics at Northeastern University at Boston, Mass. Dr. Miernyk is our chief of staff on these textile hearings, and we are very pleased to have him with us. To my right at the end of this table is the chief counsel of the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, Mr. Baynton, formerly of Nevada. He is a former Assistant Attorney General of the United States, and one of his fine redeeming qualities, he married a young lady from my hometown of Aiken, S. C. We have Mr. Kohler here from our committee, sitting back here, and Mrs. Torre. We are also pleased to have them down South, too. Mr. Hance, you may now proceed. STATEMENT OF LACONLA H. HANCE, PRESIDENT, INSTITUTE OF TEXTILE TECHNOLOGY Mr. HANCE. Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of this committee from the Senate, please let me express my appreciation to you for the privilege of being here, speaking in behalf of my institution, its trustees, its member companies, and our staff. I am Laconla H. Hance, president of the Institute of Textile Technology in Charlottesville, Va. I also come as a representative from the National Council for Textile Education, of which I am assistant treasurer and former vice president and president. The institution that I represent is a nonprofit, private research and educational institution, owned, financed, and operated by member textile companies operating on the cotton system. I should like to enter my statement into the record, and then speak very briefly on some of the major points. Senator THURMOND. That will be fine. We can just turn a copy of the statement over to the stenographer. (The statement of Mr. Laconla H. Hance, president, Institute of Textile Technology, is as follows:) Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of this committee of the Senate, please let me express my appreciation to you on behalf of the Institute of Textile Technology, its trustees, member companies, and staff for the privilege of appearing before you as you are conducting an inquiry concerning the problems confronting one of the Nation's most basic industries and one which is responsible for the origin and development of the institution I represent. I am Laconla H. Hance of Charlottesville, Va., president of the Institute of Textile Technology, a private nonprofit research and educational institution owned, financed, and operated by member textile companies of the United States who are spinners and weavers employing equipment suitable for cotton processing and other fibers which may be processed on similar equipment. I should also explain that the Institute of Textile Technology has a membership of textile companies representing approximately 3,500,000 spindles. I should also qualify the comments and opinions I shall express today. Currently, I am assistant treasurer of the National Council for Textile Education, having recently served as vice president and president of that organization, which represents the administrative functions of all of the textile colleges in the United States. In these capacities and as president of the Institute of Textile Technology for the past 5 years, I have had the opportunity of visiting every textile college and most of the major research groups dealing with textile problems in the United States. A recent publication of the American Cotton Manufacturers Institute, a copy of which is attached, lists 17 major research organizations interested in textile problems. In your hearings conducted in Washington on July 8, 9, and 10, 1958, mention was made by Mr. Cleveland Adams, of Alabama Polytechnic Institute, of the work being done by private research groups in this country. Specifically, the Institute of Textile Technology was cited, along with others. Since Mr. Adams was unable to answer many of the committee's questions with exact details, I have requested permission to speak before the committee in order that you may know of one example of what textile manufacturing companies have done for themselves, in the fields of research and education. We believe the history of the Institute of Textile Technology, its objectives, and its accomplishments will serve as an indication that some textile spinners and weavers have been working diligently to improve themselves through research undertakings. The Institute of Textile Technology was chartered by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1944 for scientific, literary, and educational purposes with the following principal objectives: 1. To conduct research on textile materials and processes; 2. To maintain a library and information service to keep member mills abreast of scientific and technical developments in the textile industry throughout the world; and, 3. To train men at the graduate level in the fundamental sciences and in textile technology. This undertaking was prompted by 23 textile executives who were impressed with the success of other industries in scientific endeavors and who felt that an organization similar to the Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton, Wis., would be beneficial to the textile industry. Membership in this organization was limited to spinners and weavers employing the cotton system, i. e., textile fiber processors excluding wool. |