History of the National Textile Association

1854 to 1953 - A Cotton Manufacturers Association

Following the disruptions in the cotton textile trade due to the War of 1861-1865, the group was reorganized as the New England Cotton Manufacturers' Association on April 20, 1865 with Ezekiel A. Straw as president, a post he held until 1878. While Association president he also served as Governor of New Hampshire (1872-1874). He was succeeded as Association president by Amos D. Lockwood (1878-1880), John Kilburn (1880-1883) and William C. Lovering (1883-1885), who went on to become (1897-1910) United States Reprentative from Massachusetts. There followed in the presidency Richard Garsed (1885-1886), J.S. Ludlam (1886-1888), and Henry Frederick Lippitt (1888-1889), who went on to be U.S. Senator from Rhode Island (1911-1917).

The organization was incorporated in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on December 1, 1894. Although largely an organization of northern mills, the group was from the start engaged with industry in the southern states and in 1895 held its first meeting in the the South, as reported in the New York Times. The Association went to Dixie again in 1919 when the a Semi-Annual Meeting was held in New Orleans. Over the next eight decades only one major meeting, the 123rd Annual Meeting in Key Biscayne, Florida, was held in the South, by which time the Association had undergone two changes of name reflecting changes in the scope of membership.

The New England-based organization became the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers (NACM) in April, 1906. (An organization called the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers and Planters had existed since at least 1868 as evidenced by this report in the New York Times).

The Association has a long history of recognizing the contributions of outstanding leaders in the industry. In 1902 the Association erected in Augusta, Georgia, The Whitney Tablet as a memorial to the inventor of the American cotton gin. On April 26, 1928 the Association erected, at Old Slater Mill, Pawtucket, R.I., a bronze tablet honoring John Thorp, of Providence, on the occassion of the 100th anniversary of the invention of ring spinning. In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the First Successful Cotton Mill in America a bronze tablet (seen in this photo by Dawn Bowen, July 7, 2007) was presented to the Old Slater Mill Association, present owners of this historic building in honor of the textile pioneer whose name they perpetuate, Samuel Slater, father of the American factory system. The tablet was erected 1940 by the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers and the Rhode Island Textile Association.

The Association supports textile scholarship in several ways. Since 1901 the Association has awarded its Bronze Medal to top students at American textile schools and since 1903 has encouraged textile education through the William Firth Scholarship. Since 1902 the Silver Medal has been awarded for outstanding service to the Association or industry. In 1965 a Gold Medal was awarded posthumously to President John F. Kennedy. The Gold Medal has been awarded just two times since then, to William F. Sullivan in 1979 (posthumously) and in 1994 to Gordon Osborne.

1953 to 2002 the Northern Textile Association

The Northern Textile Association was founded April 17, 1953 by the NACM, in time for the 100th Annual Meeting of the Association in 1954. The NACM and NTA held joint meetings from April 17, 1953 to September 27,1956. On December 7, 1956 the NACM filed the legal change of name to NTA. (On October 30, 1991, the legal name was changed to Northern Textile Association, Inc.) The expansion from the original base of cotton manufacturers to its present broadly-based membership, representing virtually every aspect of textile production was largely the work of then Association President William F. Sullivan. He is remembered through the endowment of the William F. Sullivan Memorial Scholarship for textile students at UMass - Dartmouth.

The 1950s to 1990s saw the erection of "councils" or industry-specific groups within NTA

1. The Wool Manufacturers Council formed September 26, 1956.
2. The Felt Manufacturers Council was formed June 2, 1961.
3. In 1970 the Elastic Fabric Manufacturers Institute dissolved and its members formed, in January 1970, the Elastic Fabric Manufacturers Council of the Northern Textile Association. Out of this group would emerge NTA's Warp Knit Division.
4. Also active in the 1980s and 1990s was NTA's Narrow Elastic Manufacturers Association.
5. Around this time NTA members who produced textiles, but who didn't fit into any of the other councils, came to be grouped in the NTA Cotton and Synthetic Group.
6. The American Flock Association was formed as a part of the Northern Textile Association in 1985. AFA has continued the Association's commitment–going back to at least 1903–to textile education through the establishment of the Dick Bourdon Flock Fund.
7. The Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute, founded in Boston in 1984, is separately incorporated in the State of New York and operates from the NTA office in Boston.
8. September 22, 1999 the NTA Finishers Group formed.

Following World War II the push toward greater liberalization of international trade threatened the traditional tariff protection that the American textile industry had enjoyed since the founding of the Republic. Perhaps the most important program for managing the orderly development of trade was th Multifiber Arrangement (MFA) which governed the world trade in textiles, apparel, and textile products garments from 1974 through 2004. Under the MFA developed nations could impose quantitative quotas on imports from developing nations on a nation-by-nation and category-by-category basis.

America's first free trade agreement, the U.S.-Israel FTA, took effect in 1985 and was based on a weak value-added rule of origin, a rule that was replicated in 2001 in the U.S.-Jordan FTA. Neither of those near Eastern nations is a major producer of textiles or apparel. It was the U.S-Canada FTA of 1989, and, even more so, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of 1994 that first exposed the U.S. textile industry to duty-free, quota-free competition. Although the yarn forward rule of origin in NAFTA was, at the time, lauded by some in the textile industry, the agreement had many loopholes and the results have been mixed at best for the U.S. textile industry. NAFTA promised an integration of the North American economy and was one of the considerations in NTA admitting Canadia mills to the Wool Manufacturers Council and the Narrow Elastic Manufacturers Association. Indeed, NTA had been looking north for some time, as the 130th Annual Meeting in 1984 was held in Montreal and the 119th in 1973 had been in Quebec City. Prior to that the Association had met in Canada but once, in 1899 for a Semi-Annual Meeting in Montreal.

Through the political battles over the MFA quotas, the preservation texile and apparel tariffs, and the proposals for free trade agreeements NTA was fortunate to have political and industry leaders with the intelligence, fortitude, and integrity to fight on behalf of American industry and her workers.

From his election as U.S. Senator for South Carolina in 1966 until his retirement in 2005, Ernest "Fritz" Hollings has been a strong supporter of the textile industry in South Carolina and the rest of the U.S. His efforts on behalf of the industry included his bill to exempt textiles from the Tokyo round of world trade talks and numerous 1980s fights over the Uruguay Round. In October 1995 the Wall Street Journal characterized him as the Senator from Textiles. On June 12, 1979 the NTA awarded Senator Hollings the Silver Medal at the 125th Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

Another distinguished South Carolinian and champion of the domestic U.S. textile industry is Roger Milliken. In 1989 NTA presented him with the Association Silver Medal for untiring efforts on behalf of the textile industry and its employees. We again honored him in 1999 with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 145th Annual Meeting held on the Isle of Palms, South Carolina, our first Southern meeting in over twenty years, and the beginning of a new pattern of alternating a Southern location in the odd numbered years with the North in the even numbered.

2002 to Present - The National Textile Association

In 2002, by a vote of the KTA in August and the NTA in September, the Knitted Textile Association and the Northern Textile Association merged to form the NATIONAL TEXTILE ASSOCIATION. (The name changed was filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on October 7, 2002.) Bay State Governor Jane Swift proclaimed September 23, 2002, National Textile Association Day in Massachusetts.

Merging this two large, active, and effective organizations required the dedication and perseverance of several indiduals. In each organization a committee was formed to facilitate the work.

Knitted Textiles Association Merger Committee	Northern Textile Association Merger Committee
Marty Sohn Regina Conroy-Keller Earl Kramer Marvin Moster and Skip Gehring	Karl Spilhaus Henry A. Truslow III Jonathan Stevens Jonathan Hurstfield-Meyer

Beginning with the 2002 Annual Meeting, the first for the new National Textile Association that resulted from the merger of the Northern Textile Association and the Knitted Textile Association (KTA), the Finishers Group was blended with the Warp Knit Division and members of the former KTA to form the Knitters and Finishers Group.

At the time of the merger the U.S. was partner to three free trade agreements with four nations and the textile and apparel quotas were still in place and would be for over two years. By 2006 there were nine U.S. free trade agreements with 15 nations and others "in the works." The MFA quotas had been eliminated, although, in the case of China a bilateral agreement, first publically announced at the NTA 151st Annual Meeting in 2005, some imports from China would continue to be controlled through 2008. NTA responded to the changed international trade environment by broading our services to members beyond our historic role as trade lobbyist, to promotion of members and their products and the to government regulatory affairs.

By the turn of the millenium the industry council structure, based on the kinds of fibers or processes employed by a company, no longer reflected, for many members, the state of the industry and its needs. Some of the councils, in particular, the Wool Manufacturers Council (1956), the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute (1984), and the American Flock Association (1985) continue as effective advocates for those industry sectors. For the rest of the membership the NTA of today focuses more on promotion of members' interest in various end markets.

This shift in organization away from process to to customer led to the creation of NTA committees organized around the major markets for members.

• On April 22, 2004, the NTA Upholstery Fabrics Committee was formed and has been particularly active in regulatory matters such as flammability standards and industry "green" standards.
• August 5, 2004 saw the launch of our Textile Bedding Commmittee which has also been active in comsumer product regulations regarding such issues as flammability and thread count marketing claims.
• By 2005, after several months of effort, NTA launched its Government Textiles Committee with activities related, but not limited, to the "Berry Amendment" requirements for U.S.-origin textile and clothing products for Department of Defense procurement.

In September 2004, NTA celebrated our 150th Anniversary in Cooperstown, New York. On that occassion we honored Henry A. Truslow III with the Associaiton Silver Medal for Leadership, Vision, and Dedication. Mr. Truslow has served in NTA leadership positions since 1988, including as as Chairman (1994-1996) and Treasurer (1996-present).

Since September 2005, NTA and ATMA, the American Textile Machinery Association (founded 1933) have offered a discounted dual membership offering: join both organizations at a dues discount of 25% off the annual dues in each organization. That's a quarter off ATMAŽ dues and a quarter off NTA dues!

Additional Materials.

Historical records of interest