per dozen, $5 per dozen; and in addition thereto upon all the abovenamed articles, 30 per cent at valorem." In support of the proposed duty we would urge First. That practically all of the material used in the manufacture of fur hats is subject to duty, furs prepared for hatters' use being subject to 20 per cent. ad valorem, and the duty on other materials ranging upwards to above 60 per cent. on satin trimmings, which is the highest. Since the preparation of the Senate bill, a ruling in the Treasury Department has increased the duty on all silk and satin trimmings from 20 to 50 per cent. under the present law. The proposed law also increases the duty on sweat leathers, and the duty which we have heretofore paid has been increased under the present law 10 per cent. by ruling of the Treasury Department. Second. That the duty of 30 per cent. ad valorem on fur hats, etc., has never been in any sense protective, the business having been retained in this country because American manufacturers have set the styles, and because heretofore foreign manufacturers have not adopted the improved methods used by American manufacturers. But recent developments show that foreign manufacturers have adopted substantially all the improvements of American manufacturers, and, with the aid of American jobbers, are putting hats upon the market of the same styles as American manufacturers; so that the American hat manufacturers must hereafter compete with foreign manufacturers in England and Belgium upon even terms, so far as style and method of manufacture are concerned, and must have, therefore, a duty which shall equalize the difference in cost of production, or the industry must be destroyed. Third. Careful investigation satisfies us that an ad valorem duty of 50 per cent. will not be sufficient to enable the American manufacturer to compete on equal terms with the foreign manufacturer. Even if no undervaluation were probable, it would be insufficient. So far as silk or satin trimmings enter into the value of a hat, it would be less than the duty on such trimmings. It is believed that the specific duty proposed, combined with the ad valorem duty, while it would on some grades of hats be high, would on the average afford just about a fair protection to the hat industry of the United States. Fourth. We wish to impress on this committee, as earnestly as it is possible for us to do so, the fact that the time has come in the history of this business when it must have adequate protection or be destroyed. By way of illustration we submit for the consideration of the committee the following facts and figures : Forty-five and one half per cent. of the entire cost of fur hats, made in an American factory, represents the excess an American manufacturer is obliged to pay for labor, duties on materials, etc., above the foreign manufacturer; therefore, in order to make the foreign made fur hats cost as much as the American made fur hats, a duty of 83 per cent. ad valorem would be required. Labor in this country is 50 to 60 per cent. of the entire cost of a hat, fur is about 20 per cent. of the entire cost, trimmings about 20 per cent. of the entire cost, and boxes and incidentals (largely labor) are about 5 per cent. of the entire cost. Recapitulation: Labor... Fur Trimmings.... Boxes and incidentals. Total. Fer cent. 55 20 20 5 100 We pay two and one-half times as much for our labor as the foreign manufacturer, so 60 per cent. on the cost of American labor represents the labor disadvantage of the American manufacturer. We pay 20 per cent. duty on fur, which represents 163 per cent. disadvantage in the cost of that article; and we pay 50 per cent. duty on trimmings, which is equal to 333 per cent. disadvantage on cost of trimmings. For example: 60 per cent. on 55 per cent. labor...... 33 per cent. on 20 per cent. trimmings.. Total 33 per cent. of whole. The following is an illustration of what the result of the duty asked for would be based on a hat costing in this country $15 per dozen : which is 45 per cent. of $15. From $15, which is the entire American cost per dozen, deduct $6.83, the entire American disadvantage, and we get as which, when deducted from $15, leaves the American manufacturer at a disadvantage of $1.38 per dozen hats, costing in this country $15 per dozen. TURNIP SEEDS. COMMUNICATION FROM C. T. MERWIN. PRESENTED BY SENATOR HAWLEY. MILFORD, CONN., January 10, 1889. DEAR SIR: I take the liberty to address you on the subject of the tariff relating to turnip seeds, on which there is no tariff at present. It has been in former years a very large industry in this town and in many towns in the State. The importation of turnip seed has taken this part of business almost entirely from us. I have formerly raised from 5,000 to 6,000 pounds a year and now do not raise any unless it is some special order for a few hundred pounds, and at prices which we can not afford to do and live decently and bring up a family intelligently. I know your views publicly expressed on the tariff, but wish to call your special attention to turnip seed, which is very important to seed growers. Hundreds of thousands of pounds are being imported that we can raise here, and the cost to those that buy to sow would be but a trifle, 133 TAR if any, more than they pay for imported seed, and our own is more reli able than the imported. If you can do anything to get a tariff on turnip seed I shall feel very grateful, as also will a host of others. Respectfully, yours, Hon. JOSEPH R. HAWLEY. C. T. MERWIN. ALBUMS. STATEMENT OF HENRY ALTEMUS, PUBLISHER AND MANUFACTURER. PHILADELPHIA, January 5, 1889. DEAR SIR: Understanding that you are the chairman of the committee who has charge of revising duties on photograph albums, we wish to give you a brief outline of the difficulties that an American manufacturer of these goods has to contend with in competing with the foreign goods. Foreign goods invoiced at 100 marks ($25), bound in plush, are subject to a duty of 15 per cent.. In this case the paper is considered the chief component value. Plush albums invoiced at over 100 marks per dozen are considered as having plush for chief component value, and are subject to 50 per cent. duty. As the demand calls for albums from $16 to $20 per dozen, 95 per cent. of the albums sold in this country at these prices are of foreign manufacture. We use plush, on which a duty of 50 per cent. has been paid, and it seems rather strange when foreign albums made of the same plush can be brought in at 15 per cent. It seems to us that 35 per cent. duty on all albums would be a more equitable arrangement. DEAR SIR: The discussion of a tariff bill by the Senate now in session is our excuse for again trespassing upon your time by calling attention to the subject of mohair yarns. The bill now under consideration proposes to raise the duty on mohair, with other woolen and worsted yarns, from 35 cents per pound and 40 per cent. ad valorem, which is the present rate, to 40 cents per pound and 40 per cent. ad valorem, while it leaves untouched the duty on manufactured braids and bindings at 30 cents per pound and 50 per cent. 'ad valorem. You will perceive that this would leave us only the very slight protection afforded by the duty paid by the importer on the cost of manufacture abroad. Previous to the tariff act of 1883 the duties on these articles were 50 cents per pound and 35 per cent. ad valorem, and 50 cents per pound and 50 per cent. ad valorem, respectively. Under this protection we were able to compete successfully with foreign labor. The statistics will show that since the change made by that act the importation of braids, etc., has very largely increased, while the domestic production has fallen off correspondingly, and should your bill become a law we could no longer manufacture mohair goods. As we have before stated in writing of this matter, these mohair yarns are purely raw material in this country. England is the only place on the globe where they are successfully spun, dyed, and genapped. France and Germany, the oldest and largest manufacturing centers for mohair braids, import all of their yarus from England. There is not a pound of these yarns spun in either of those countries; and though the attempt has been made here there have been no indications of success in the results. In view of these facts, which can not be questioned, we believe that we are entitled to have the protection of our industry restored to the position previous to 1883. We appreciate the fact that we are under a great disadvantage in having mehair yarns classed with other woolen and worsted goods, which are made in this country and the duties therefor regulated in the interests of a very large industry, but we believe that, being comparatively a small industry with great possibilities under a sufficient protection, give us the more right to fair consideration. We trust that in discussing the schedule bearing upon this matter you may find it possible to protect us without injury to any others. Yours, very respectfully, Hon. W. B. ALLISON, BARNES & PEEL. United States Senate. TIN-PLATES. STATEMENT OF JAMES M. SWANK, GENERAL MANAGER OF THE AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL ASSOCIATION. (Office of the American Iron and Steel Association, No. 261 South Fourth street, Philadelphia.] DECEMBER 10, 1888. DEAR SIR: In behalf of the American Iron and Steel Association the following statement of facts is respectfully submitted concerning the causes which have thus far prevented the establishment of a tinplate industry in the United States. TIN-PLATES DESCRIBED. Tin-plates are thin sheets of iron or steel which have been coated with tin by dipping them in a bath of that metal. Terne-plates are sheets of iron or steel which have been coated in a similar manner with an alloy of tin and lead. From 95 to 98 per cent. of the total weight of a box or bundle of tin-plates is composed of iron or steel. Terne-plates average over 90 per cent of iron or steel. As compared with tin-plates very few terne-plates are manufactured. Both products are popularly known as tin-plates, and in what we shall here say of tin-plates the pop ular use of the word will be observed unless otherwise indicated. The United States is not only, by virtue of its large population, a large consumer of tin-plates for culinary and other domestic purposes, and for the uses of the dairy, but it also makes greater use of tin-plates for roofing and canning purposes than any other country. The thinnest sheets are generally used for cans, and the thicker sheets are used for other purposes. We consume more tin-plates than all the rest of the world. GREAT BRITAIN MONOPOLIZES THE MANUFACTURE OF TIN PLATES. Nearly all the tin-plates of commerce are manufactured in Great Britain, and the greater part of the tin-plates of that country are pro duced in South Wales. The quantity annually manufactured in other countries is so small that it exerts but very little influence on either the total supply or the market price of this commodity. Not one box of tin-plates or terne-plates is made in the United States, all our supply being obtained abroad. The production of tin-plates in Great Britain has rapidly increased in recent years, caused chiefly by the increased demand for them from the United States. In 1865 there were 47 tin-plate works in Great Britain, and in January, 1888, there were 87. The production of tin-plates in Great Britain in 1887 was 424,773 gross tons, of which 354,773 tons were exported and 70,000 tons were retained for home consumption. In round numbers, five-sixths of the whole quantity produced was exported. An English statistician shows that, reducing the tons exported to boxes averaging 128 pounds in weight, there were exported in 1887 a total of 6,207,388 boxes, of which the United States took 4,526,367 boxes, or nearly three-fourths of the whole quantity exported and nearly twothirds of the whole quantity produced in Great Britain in that year. The exports of tin-plates from Great Britain to the United States have increased from 1,931,128 boxes in 1878 to 4,526,367 boxes in 1887a period of ten years. OUR ENORMOUS PAYMENTS TO GREAT BRITAIN FOR TIN PLATES. The following table shows the quantities of tin plates imported into the United States from all countries, in each calendar year, from 1871 to 1887, with their foreign values: The total quantity of tin-plates imported into our country in these seventeen years was 2,663,855 gross tous, and the total foreign vaule of these importations was $242,181,578. In addition to this sum our people paid freights and duties. |