WOMEN: Foul Rumor

All over the rural U.S., the alarm spread: the gaily printed cotton flour sack, time-tested foundation of the nation's farm fashions, was going out with the white flour. According to the crossroad rumors, the recent dark-flour order (see BUSINESS) had caused U.S. millers to substitute plain muslin, disdainfully stamped EMERGENCY FLOUR, for the gay old bags.

Farm wives blanched at the rumor. For years, the stout, fast-color flour sack, paisley, checked, flowered or striped, had been as important as its contents. Mothers had turned the sacks into housedresses, children's playsuits, shorts, curtains,...

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