Japanese Ragbag

Though silk raising is one of the most important industries of Japan, most Japanese wear cotton. The kimonos of the lower classes are cotton, so are their underclothes, socks. In years gone by, when a Japanese wore holes in his socks or damaged his kimono irretrievably, he simply threw it away. Not so now, said a last week's despatch from the U. S. Department of Commerce. In 1923 Japan sent to the U. S. 4,432,000 pounds of discarded kimonos, underclothes, trousers, and so forth, to be reclaimed, and the Japanese ragbag has grown to such colossal proportions that in the first ten months of 1928 U. S. citizens bought 53.230,000 pounds of Japanese cast-off cotton clothing, valued at $1,622,000.

This cotton is used, the Department of Commerce hastily added, for "roofing material" and "wiping rags."