CARPET manufacture, as already explained in the foregoing pages, comprises a good many different processes and fabrics; and it can be readily understood that the making of Wilton carpets, for instance, may require not only a different plant and staff from those needed for Ingrain or Axminster, but even a different manufacturing and selling policy. From these and other considerations it comes about that, in practice, carpet manufacturers are inclined to specialise in one fabric, and to restrict themselves to making two or three, though this is not to be regarded as by any means an invariable rule. As a result, the interest in any one fabric will be found to be confined to a limited number of manufacturers, and not to be extended over the whole trade; while nearly all manufacturers are interested in more than one fabric. In default of any general association of carpet manufacturers, the tendency in the past has been for the whole or the large majority of manufacturers interested in a fabric to form an Association for the control of qualities and prices in that fabric only. Thus, A, B, C, and D make Axminster carpets and form an Axminster Association; B, C, D, and E are members of a Brussels and Wilton Association; A, C, E, and F of a Tapestry Association, and so on. As a matter of fact, there have been in existence for a good many years a Brussels and Wilton Carpet Manufacturers’ Association, working in close co-operation with an Axminster Association, and a Victorian (Chenille) Association; while the makers of Tapestry carpets have an organisation of their own. Of recent years, another body was added, the Carpet Manufacturers’ Federation, whose special function was the control of the lower qualities of Brussels and Wilton, which the existing Brussels and Wilton Association did not claim to regulate. The organisations enumerated comprise the large majority of the makers of the various carpet fabrics concerned; and they have controlled the prices and terms obtaining in the trade on the whole in a very effective manner, though subject always to the somewhat disturbing influence of the manufacturers remaining outside the Associations. Of these, however, the greater number have habitually followed the standard of prices and selling conditions set by the Associations. On the whole, then, these trade organisations have done good work. Certainly they cannot be accused of greediness in advancing prices too quickly or too much, or of undue stringency in conditions of sale. The value and amount of control exercised by these Associations have been partly conditioned by their mutual relations. Intercommunication between the different bodies and joint meetings has already contributed to the solution of some difficulties common to the trade; but more might be done in this direction. No doubt an ideal organisation would be an Association of the whole industry, with sections for each branch of it.