Acrylic acid has been grafted to rayon filaments using both the high energy radiation and ceric ion methods. By using preirradiation and a pretreatment of the cellulose with the ceric salt, homopolymer was reduced to acceptable amounts. A number of properties have been measured on the treated controls without monomer and on the grafted samples. These included tenacities, elongations, initial modulii and work to rupture. The moisture regains and water retention values were also determined. Considering the tensile properties, the pretreatments resulted in a drop in the values except for the initial modulii. Ceric ion initiation produced more degradation than the preirradiation treatment. This was attributed to the additional acidic and oxidative effects in the case of the former method. Grafting with both methods of initiation led to an initial improvement of properties over the treated control values. As the degree of grafting increased, however, the values decreased. In all cases ceric ion gave somewhat lower properties compared with preirradiation. The moisture regains and water retention values showed some rather minor differences between the two types of grafting. Explanations of the various behavior patterns are presented.