Squeeze

Caught between an irresistible force and an immovable object, the American Woolen Co. has long had a squeezed feeling. Irresistible force: the demand of consumers, retailers and clothing manufacturers for lower prices. Immovable object: the sky-high postwar price of Australian fleece, up some 120% since 1939 (TIME, Feb. 14).

As American Woolen’s profits tumbled 19.8% in 1949’s first quarter, President Moses Pendleton bravely tried to prod waiting buyers into action by boosting prices. Last week, conceding that his bluff had been called, Pendleton trimmed an average 9% off the price of fabrics for men’s & women’s clothes. That meant, the trade estimated, that men’s suits next spring would be $2.50 to $5 cheaper.

Some textile men, who know how thin American Woolen’s profit margin has been, doubted if the new prices would do much more than let the company break even. But Pendleton hoped to get some relief from bigger volume. In any case, it would cost American Woolen less to keep its mills in operation than to shut down for lack of orders while maintenance costs run on.

Meanwhile American Woolen and other weavers had a new kind of squeeze to worry about—the synthetics, which had already grabbed off big chunks of wool’s summer suit market. Now rayon was getting ready to compete in winter wear as well. Mooresville Mills announced that it had developed a winter-weight rayon that looked and felt like wool, had the advantage of being mothproof, washable and only about one-third the price of wool.