In Spain official exhibits were held in many cities to stimulate a home industry to take the place of the imports from Germany.

In Canada the department of trade and commerce arranged for a toy fair in 1916, at which both manufacturers and wholesalers were represented. The Government paid the expenses of the exhibit.

NO BOTTOM TO GERMAN PRICE.

XV. Present conditions.-Up to this point we have held strictly to statements which refer to normal conditions. We wish to add an example of the character of the competition with which the American manufacturers are brought face to face to-day. A New York jobber is offering to the retail trade a German steel toy pistol out of stock at $9 per gross. This pistol is considerably larger than one made by a member of our association but an exact duplicate in design and finish. The price of the American toy pistol to the same trade is $13,75 a gross. The difference is not in price alone but also in size.

A further commentary on German toy competition is the report on conditions in England from Vice Consul Edward C. Cipriani, Leeds, England, dated September 28, 1920:

"Dealers are stocking them for the Christmas season. It is in toys, fancy goods, and cheap clocks that the resumption of German trade has been most apparent. There are now in Leeds warehouses and retail stores large quantities of German toys of almost every conceivable kind."

DUMPING.

XVI. According to statements by Mr. D. B. Tattershall, of the British Toy Association:

"The Germans are doing their dumping very cleverly. They introduce attractive lines at prices much below cost as a beginning, and then bring out other things. One famous German firm has 30 different lines of dolls; 3 of these lines are being offered in England at less than it costs to make them even in Germany. That is to prepare the way for other orders."

As an indication of the conditions in Europe, we quote the following from a special report from Consul Haynes, Berne, Switzerland, dated November 10, 1920:

"Prior to the war Germany controlled the toy trade in this district. Only during the past few years (from 1915 on) have domestic manufacturers been able to compete in this line. Since 1915 practically the entire domestic demand has been covered by local or Swiss manufacturers.

"War imports prohibition were abolished by most countries during the summer of 1919. This gave Swiss manufacturers an opportunity of submitting samples of their products abroad, but it was soon evident that some of these manufacturers would not be able to stand after war competition."

The following are abstracts from a special report from Consul Lewis W. Haskell, Geneva, Switzerland, dated October 7, 1920:

66

According to local papers the German authority has just forbidden imports of modeling sheets, picture sheets, picture books, paint books for water colors of Swiss origin under the pretense of shielding German editors from foreign competition, but the worst of it is that commercial travelers tried to market this kind of goods in Switzerland at the very same time. Thanks to the exchange, prices quoted are so ridiculously low that they do not even equal the wholesale price of the paper or cardboard employed by Swiss producers for the manufacture of these toys. Such deplorable conditions have caused numerous attempts to develop the toy industry in this district to result in nothing.'

THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT.

XVII. What will happen in America. The last sentence will be true of the toy industry of America if tariff protection is not granted. Unless the present rate of duty is promptly changed to 60 per cent, one year from now we will be saying, "German competition has caused the attempts to develop a real toy industry in the United States to result in nothing."

When we stop to realize that 85 per cent of the total prewar imports of toys come from that country the effect of stopping German trade is too obvious to require com

ment.

In closing we ask you to put aside the volume of production, the invested capital, the number of employees, and turn to the real reason for protecting American toystheir place in American homes, and their effect during the impressionable years on growing children.

Toys are more than gifts for Christmas and birthdays. Childhood is impossible without play. Under modern conditions toys have become the means for play to most children. American toys must stay in American homes. There they will teach American ideals from the earliest years.

Respectfully submitted.

CHARLES E. GRAHAM,

President.

BRIEF OF THE DOLL AND STUFFED TOY MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION, NEW YORK, CITY, REPRESENTING AMERICAN DOLL MANUFACTURERS.

GENTLEMEN: Whereas the present duty on dolls is specified in Schedule N, paragraph 342, reading in part as follows: "Dolls and parts of dolls, doll heads, 35 per cent ad valorem.' We respectfully request that it read as follows: "Dolls, parts of dolls, doll heads, 60 per cent ad valorem."

What we ask is a change in rate of duty from 35 per cent to 60 per cent ad valorem.

REASONS FOR SUCH CHANGE.

We present here two principal reasons, as follows:

First. Under the present 35 per cent tariff before the war there was no American doll industry to speak of. During the war a large and prosperous industry was created through the absence of foreign competitive goods. Now that foreign goods are again available, a 60 per cent tariff is necessary to preserve this industry.

In 1914 there were only about 14 firms manufacturing dolls in America, doing business of about $1,000,000 a year. These firms had to confine their effrots to the manufacture of what was known as rag dolls, and depended upon originality of design to secure sales. Their product was in every sense a novelty that had only one or at the most two Christmas-seasons sale and then had to be followed up by new ideas. This business was practically noncompetitive, since the designs were protected by American copyright.

Reference to the table of statistics below will show the rate of growth of the industry during the war, indicating that the volume of business has increased to at least ten times its farmer size. This increase during the period of the war is due to the fact that the American manufacturer entered the field with a product comparable with the dolls that were previously made in Germany. The American industry was built up to its present size with a product which could not be made in the presence of the foreign competitive market which existed prior to 1914.

It is officially reported in the organ of the German toy industry (Deutsche Spielwaaren Zeitung Nurenberg) that the German Government has appropriated the sum of 2,000,000,000 marks for advertising German toys in foreign countries. This is a direct subsidy. A movement is also on foot to exclude the exportation of doll heads and parts of dolls, so as to force foreign buyers to buy completed dolls.

With prewar conditions now upon us and without an increase in tariff it is a certainty that this new American doll industry must revert to its former humble position and again confine itself to a seasonal novelty business.

American factory conditions, with sanitary regulations strictly enforced, prohibition of child labor, sweat shop, tenement house or home work, will not permit of unprotected competition with labor performed in the homes and hovels of Europe and Japan on the scale of living existing in those countries.

The most important exporters of dolls to this country are Germany and Japan. The German dolls come almost entirely from one section of the country where the thousands of skilled workers ply their trade in their own homes, and where each and every member of the usually large families is trained in making some part of the doll. A doll is a very complex manufacturing proposition, an immense variety of materials and skilled labor is needed to produce the fully dressed article, and to supply all this the entire population of this section of Germany is engaged. In each home, generation after generation, the family pursued some one of the various branches of the industry, taking its products to the factory where the parts are assembled.

Any record of the wages paid these people is, of course, not available, but a whole family at work from snnrise to sunset, from the smallest child to the oldest grandparent, under their own roof barely makes enough to serve meat once a week and black bread at other times.

In Japan the oriental idea of imitation has duplicated, as nearly as possible, the German methods of manufacture; the home is the factory, wages are very low, and the manufacturer's establishment is merely the base of supplies and the shipping

point. The statements given above are from the observation of an eyewitness who pretents this petition.

Contrast these conditions under which the imported doll is made with our modern American factory, where eight hours constitutes a day, where our State labor laws regulate conditions of sanitation, where child labor and home work on any part of a doll are prohibited by statute. (New York State labor law, art. 7, sec. 104.) These things cost money, but as a Nation, we believe they are worth what they cost, and that they make cleaner, better men of our workers, and produce a cleaner, more sanitary product. The American manufacturer should be held to these standards of employment and at the same time he must be protected with a higher tariff.

In brief, the fact is established that the American doll industry can not survive with a 35 per cent tariff, and it is our opinion, based on the best available data of comparison, that 60 per cent is the minimum rate of tariff that will enable the American manufacturer to continue in the doll business.

IMPORTANCE OF THE AMERICAN DOLL INDUSTRY.

Table 2 is presented herewith to give the Ways and Means Committee an idea of the growth of the business from 1914 to date. Of the 48 firms in business in 1920 only 10 were in existence before the war.

During 1914 the doll business of those firms amounted to slightly over $1,000,000. The following year it increased 50 per cent, and by 1920 the annual shipments amounted to over $9,000,000. We see the number of people employed increase from 450 to 2,000 in the seven years during and after the war and notice that the rate of wages are almost doubled during the same period. Of the $9,000,000 gross receipts $3,000,000 was paid out in wages to 2,000 people. A simple calculation will show that these employees, men and women, averaged $29 per week for 1920, which is excellent pay for the class of labor that is used in doll making. (Note.-The average weekly earnings for all industries in New York State was $28.93 in October, 1920, being the highest of any month in the year.) It will also be noted that 35 per cent of the total volume of the business is paid out to the employees as wages and salaries, thus indicating that, compared to the amount of business done, a large number of people is concerned. Besides the 48 firms whose figures are included in this summary, there are approximately 100 other manufacturers of dolls in this country.

Growth of the doll manufacturing business, 1914 to 1920.

NOTE. The 10 firms in business in 1914 grew to 48 in 1920. The amount of business done by each firm increased from $109,000 annually to $195,000 and the average weekly wage increased from $16.50 in 1915 to $29 in 1920.

EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF DOLLS.

American industry, under war conditions, has provided for American children a doll the equal of the imported product and typically American. The war practically stopped the foreign supply of dolls and opened larger opportunities for the enterprise of the American manufacturers, who wrought a new era in doll making. They introduced the durable, and in many cases actually unbreakable, hard-body doll, which has come as a boon to the great mass of American children.

The great influence of dolls on the lives of young children has always been recognized. Their dolls should breathe the spirit of American character, expression, and dress. These dolls can be produced better by our own American manufacturers.

Dolls are the oldest of all playthings, and have always been characteristic of the country of origin. They have been found in the tombs of ancient Egypt, the catacombs of Rome, and in the Indian mounds and cliff dwellings of the earliest inhabitants of America. They mold the infant minds of future mothers, and should be national rather than alien in design.

We believe, aside from all commercial considerations, that the doll mothered by the American child should be American in every respect-in features, form, cóstume, and spirit.

The early ideals of the little woman citizen should be directed and influenced by the handiwork of American artisans.

BRIEF OF J. L. AMBERG, PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN DOLL and Stuffed TOYS ASSOCIATION, NEW YORK CITY.

Having just returned to the United States from a three months' business trip to Europe, I wish to lay before the Ways and Means Committee certain information that I have acquired as to conditions abroad which may be of value to the members of the committee in the making of rates in the new tariff bill. I have been a frequent visitor to Europe on business trips, so that I am in a position to judge conditions as compared to those formerly existing, and have gained an acquaintance which permits me to ascertain what is the real truth of the situation.

In all industries Germany is without question the busiest country in Europe. There is less unemployment there than on the Continent or in the British Isles, where it has reached more or less appalling figures, as you can easily judge from statements daily in the press. As a matter of fact, it is frequently stated that there is actually a lack of labor in many industries in Germany. That there is likewise an insufficiency of housing there is no doubt, and this is evidenced by the fact that any German with spare room is compelled by regulation to take in boarders whether the station of the owner be high or low.

In toys particularly, where the industry during the war was much curtailed because of lack of export, the Germans have come back exceedingly strong. With one or two exceptions they seem to have ample raw materials, and although coal seems at times, according to their statements, to be lacking, there seems a great doubt regarding this for the reason that offices and hotels are so warm that at times it seems unbearable. In fact, various big plants and organizations have fixed their quotas for export for 1921, and these large factories we have been shown will easily be able to take care of a very great volume. It is true that they are substituting in a number of cases, such as using sheet metal instead of tin, but on the whole even though not up to prewar standards their merchandise is creditable. On cheaper lines, with a tremendous variation in exchange, which is about 1.400 per cent lower than prewar exchange, there is absolutely no chance for any nation on earth, irrespective of tariff or duty or regulation, outside of clear embargo, to possibly sell normal staple lines in competition.

With the exception at the moment of one quality of mohair plush, they are absolutely self-sufficient in manufacturing or turning out raw material. The German method of dumping or stitling competition was in evidence in Great Britain by the operations of a concern known as Bing Bros., of Nuremburg, a combination of about 20 toy and doll factories-known in Great Britain as the "German octupus." These people, when they found that alone in plush animals they could not compete decided that the way to break the market was to take over the managing director of one of the best known concerns-Farnell's-and put him into business for them in London. The very first plush toy they offered was a small size set of dog, cat, and rabbit— very staple items in sale at prices about 33 per cent below the cost of production. This very staple line generally sold from 12 shillings to 13 shillings 6 pence per dozen. This they immediately cut to 75 shillings per gross, or 6 shillings 3 pence per dozen. The writer was assured by one of the most stable manufacturers that this very competitive line cost, without the faintest question, any manufacturer in Great Britain roughly not less than 10 shillings a dozen to make. The plush cost alone was higher than the selling price of this German animal.

In other words, the Germans, knowing that German toys could pretty well drive out most makers in cheap or ordinary toys, decided that the only game to play was to take a line that every store everywhere would have to sell at about 14 shillings, and have the same sold for about half, or 9 pence.

My examples will show clearly how German competition right up to the moment was affecting Britishers, for the reason that I could see it as I traveled through Great Britain. The identical result I know others can show is accruing in the United States. Take, for example now, the toy train business. Germany has always made a great many of these and in models that were exact replicas of British or American railways. During the war two British concerns turned out very creditable lines. It is an open secret that of these two the Whitely Tanzley Co. (Liverpool) decided last month they could not possibly withstand German quotations, and decided it was cheaper to quit toy trains and tin mechanical toys. The other concern, British Metal & Toy Manufacturers (London), is at the moment seriously considering doing the same thing. I happen to know these people well, and for two weeks, with hundreds of buyers about, they sold nothing.

Take the case of rubber balls. Austrian and German goods have absolutely displaced such British articles because, as was shown us by Pickles & Co. (Glasgow), the British balls at to-day's exchange, even delivered at Glasgow, cost just double. There are other lines of toys being sent very freely from Germany to every place in the world, such as composition toys, celluloid goods, and the like. But one of the most interesting of these cases is dolls. We can say as a fact that American dolls to the extent of thirteen to fifteen million dollars (wholesale selling price) were produced in the United States last year. Roughly $10,000,000 worth were produced by about 50 makers, and the hundred other small manufacturers made from three to five million more. Among these, exactly as in Great Britain, are complete lines of fully jointed hard body dolls, as well as kid dolls. I venture to say that the bronze dies and molds, with presses producing these, last fall in the United States cost various manufacturers many hundreds of thousands of dollars. And at the present moment these represent only a very nice mass of metal which might be offered for sale at a very low price unless industrial conditions are changed. The fact is that I saw dolls delivered in Newcastle-on-Tyne of the fully jointed type 24 inches with bisque head at a cost to the British wholesalers of 8 shillings each, or roughly at today's exchange under $1.60. I have just discovered that various American makers quote as lowest jobbing prices the following:

None.

Bisque head (like German), $6.50.
None.

(a) Composition head, $5 each. Bisque head (like German), $6.25. (f) Composition head, $3.75 each. (h) Composition head, $5 each. (b) Composition head, $3.34 each. (c) Composition head, $5.75 each. And these prices are f. o. b. factory in as in England. The American prices for not nearly so good as the German.

Bisque head (like German), $5.75. United States of America and not delivered, 24-inch dolls cover various qualities, some

And the British doll manufacturers in a very few months, unless the proposed legislation goes through in Parliament, can be searched for unsuccessfully with a microscope. A few notable ones are still making heroic efforts to manufacture and compete, but there is not the slightest doubt but that this is definitely impossible. Germany is just 14 hours from British port across the North Sea, and manufacturers galore come right over by the hundreds and quote their wares. It was amusing if not heartbreaking to the writer, as well as to a number of natives of Glasgow, to note what happened at the end of January in the Glasgow City Hall. A German manufacturer of dolls by the name of Hachmeister was showing his wares, and by his room all day was streaming the city unemployed coming to collect their pittance. A sad commentary upon conditions. Some of these good people seeking sufficient to buy bread might not have been out of work were it not for German ruinous competition

at the moment.

In kid and imitation kid dolls, like in the fully jointed dolls, Germany again has become predominant. Against them there is no opportunity for similar English and American kids to compete. This is due to their low manufacturing cost as well as the depreciation of the mark.

In Great Britain, as was pointed out by Mr. H. O. Roberts, of Roberts Bros., game manufacturers, at Gloucester, England, the importation of German toys for the first six months of 1920 was 120 per cent over the same period of 1914. The figures were dissected for a period of months and it was shown that 1,173,400 dolls had been imported into Great Britain for that period. If that continued at the same rate for the remainder of the year, there were sufficient German dolls imported for every eligible British child to have one. All other games and toys were so largely imported that, just as with American factories, orders were canceled, goods were left on the shelves, and considerable reduction accrued in the staff of business concerns.

As to expenses and cost of production in Germany, I submit the following: As is well known, a mark in the United States or Great Britain to-day is worth about