2d Session

No. 252

EXPENSES OF UNITED STATES FOR INTERNATIONAL FUR TRADE EXHIBITION AND CONGRESS, GERMANY, 1930

JANUARY 17, 1930.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. BROWNE, from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. J. Res. 205]

The Committee on Foreign Affairs, to which was referred House Joint Resolution 205 authorizing the President to accept the invitation of the German Government to participate in and appoint delegates to the international fur trade exhibition and congress to be held in Germany during June, July, August, and September, 1930, and providing for an appropriation of $30,000, or as much thereof as may be necessary for the payment of the expenses of the delegates' participation, transportation, and demonstration of an appropriate exhibition portraying the development of the fur industry in the United States, the production, conservation, and utilization of fur as a natural resource, and demonstrating the importance of forests as natural habitats for fur animals, printing and binding, rent, and such miscellaneous and other expenses as the President shall deem proper, has given careful consideration to the resolution and reports it to the House with an amendment which is as follows:

On page 1, line 7, after 1930, strike out "as set forth in the message of the President of January 13, 1930, printed as House Document No. 253, Seventy-first", and on page-2, line 1, strike out "Congress,

second session."

The committee recommends that the amendment be adopted and the bill be passed.

The text of the resolution is as follows:

JOINT RESOLUTION To provide for the expenses of participation by the United States in the international fur trade exhibition and congress to be held in Germany in 1930

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized and requested to accept the invitation of the German Government to participate in the international fur trade exhibition and congress, to be

held in Leipzig, Germany, during June, July, August, September, 1930, and to appoint delegates to said international fur trade exhibition and congress.

SEC. 2. That the sum of $30,000, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby authorized to be appropriated for the payment of the expenses of the delegates in attending such congress, including the compensation of the employees in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, preparation, transportation, and demonstration of an appropriate exhibit portraying the development of the fur industry in the United States, the production, conservation and utilization of fur as a natural resource, and demonstrating the importance of forests as natural habitats for fur animals, transportation, subsistence or per diem in lieu of subsistence (notwithstanding the provisions of any other act), printing and binding, rent, and such miscellaneous and other expenses as the President shall deem proper.

The President on January 13, 1930, in a message to Congress which is attached to this report, requests that the invitation of the German Government to participate in the international fur trade exhibition and congress to be held in Leipzig, Germany, in 1930, be accepted. The Secretary of State, Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of Agriculture also favor the participation of the United States in this fur-trade exhibition.

FUR-FARMING INDUSTRY

There are at present approximately 5,000 fur farms in the United States. This does not include privately owned muskrat marshes in various sections of the country. Furs of all kinds are being used more every year, and, although the United States produces a large number of fur-bearing animals in their wild state, the number has been constantly growing less, and it will be just a matter of time when the supply of furs from our native fur-bearing animals will be exhausted, unless the stock is replenished and greater conservation exercised. The United States Biological Survey and Forest Service for many years has been doing a splendid work in the conservation of our fur-bearing animals in their wild state, and for a number of years has been experimenting in the propagation of fur-bearing animals held in captivity. It has issued many bulletins upon this subject. As a result of these experiments, and the demand for furs at the high prices paid for furs of various animals, many people all over the United States have established fur farms where foxes, mink, muskrats, beaver, rabbits, and many other fur-bearing animals are raised. The number of pen-raised fur-bearing animals, as compared with the total wild fur-bearing animals, is of course small. The fur farms, however, are increasing rapidly, and, at no very remote time, will undoubtedly be the chief source of the furs produced in the United States. The greatest achievement in fur farming has been in the raising of silver foxes. Many fox farms have been, and are being, established in many States. One family in Wisconsin who began the raising of silver foxes, less than 20 years ago, in a small way upon their farm, have increased their business so that they are the largest producers of silver foxes in the world. During the pelting season of 1928-29, these brothers sold 7,600 silver fox skins, yielding a return of $1,300,000. This is the largest single shipment of silver fox pelts ever offered for sale in any fur market.

is over.

IMPORTANCE OF THE INDUSTRY

The United States is the largest commercial fur-producing and fur-consuming country in the world. The raw-fur harvest is worth to the trappers approximately $65,000,000 each year. A large proportion of the trappers are farmers, who, in a section where furbearing animals abound, can trap when the busy farming season In 1927 we imported furs amounting to $136,000,000, about 90 per cent of which represented raw pelts. Furs ranked sixth in value of commodities imported. The retail value of the furs and fur trimmings consumed in the United States annually is approximately $500,000,000. There are 160 fur-dressing and furdyeing concerns, employing 5,500 workers who are paid annually the sum of approximately $8,400,000. They dress and dye 40,000,000 skins a year, exclusive of rabbit skins. Over 150,000,000 rabbit skins are imported annually, and of this number about one-half is used for fur garments and for fur trimmings, and the remainder in making felt hats.

IMPORTANCE OF FUR TRADE EXHIBITION

Government representatives from England, France, Germany, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Estonia, and Canada; in fact, representatives from all the countries that are interested in furs and fur-bearing animals will attend, and many of these countries will have exhibits at the international fur trade exhibition.

This exhibition will offer a splendid opportunity to exchange ideas and courtesies with these foreign representatives, and to obtain all the knowledge possible in the utilization of fur animals, fur farming, and the importance of forests as natural habitats for many of the fur animals, and the capability of this area to produce more fur animals if intelligent control and restocking methods are applied; to ascertain the methods of breeding, feeding, housing, and management of fur animals in captivity, as well as the treatment of diseases and parasites affecting them. In this interchange of knowledge with the representatives of the various countries which will be represented at this exhibition we have much to give and much to receive which will be of benefit to the fur farmers and fur traders in our country and all over the world. Many of the fur-producing countries are so interested and eager for information, especially in fur farming, that a great many of the bulletins published by the Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture have been obtained and published by these governments in their own language.

[House Document No. 253, Seventy-first Congress, second session]

To the Congress of the United States:

I commend to the favorable consideration of the Congress the inclosed report from the Secretary of State, to the end that legislation may be enacted to authorize an appropriation of not exceeding $30,000 for the expenses of participation by the United States in the international fur trade exhibition and congress to be held in Germany in 1930.

THE WHITE HOUSE, January 13, 1930.

HERBERT HOOVER.

The PRESIDENT:

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, January 11, 1930.

The German Government has extended to the Government of the United States an invitation to take part in the international fur trade exhibition to be held in Leipzig from June to September, 1930. The exhibition will be under the protection of the Reich Government. During the exhibition a congress will take place where a number of questions of international importance concerning the fur trade, fur dyeing, and the business of furruery will be dealt with.

The invitation was also extended by the German Government to the governments of the Philippine and Virgin Islands.

The Philippine Government does not desire to send a delegate to the fur-trade exhibition and the department is informed by the Secretary of the Navy that the Governor of the Virgin Islands would not be interested in sending delegates.

The Secretary of Commerce states that the Department of Commerce is interested in the taking and marketing of fur-seal and fox skins from the Pribilof Islands, Alaska, and that it is thought that participation in the exhibition might be helpful in advertising Alaska fur-seal skins and thus result beneficially to this Government. It is stated that arrangements could be made to send a number of dressed and dyed fur-seal skins to the exhibition for display along with some of the blue fox skins from the Pribilof Islands. It is also believed that certain furriers in the United States would be glad to make up sample coats from Alaska fur-seal skins and send them to the exhibition.

The Secretary of Agriculture has stated that it is the judgment of the Department of Agriculture that the fur industry should be suitably represented at the exhibition and Congress by department officials and members of the fur trade and by a national exhibit. He states that the United States is the largest commercial fur-producing and fur-consuming country in the world; that the raw-fur harvest is worth approximately $65,000,000 each year to the trappers, most of whom are farm boys; that the fur-farming industry in the United States and Alaska represents an investment of between $20,000,000 and $25,000,000.

It is the opinion of the Secretary of Agriculture that an appropriate exhibit would conform in size and general plan to those displayed at the world's poultry congress held in Ottawa in 1927, and at the world's dairy congress held in Syracuse, N. Y., in 1923, and that at the cost of building, transporting, installing, and displaying such an exhibit and its return to the United States, where the material could be used on subsequent occasions, together with the cost of travel and subsistence expenses of members of the department's staff to display and demonstrate the exhibit, including a sufficient number of subject-matter specialists properly to explain its different features and also participate in the meetings of the congress, would not be less than $30,000.

In view of the evident value to American fur trade and industry of participation by the United States in the exhibition at Leipzig, I recommend that the Congress be requested to authorize an appropriation of $30,000 for the expenses of participating in the exhibition and sending an appropriate exhibit. A draft of a resolution designed to carry out this recommendation is attached.

Respectfully submitted.