APPENDIX. SCHEDULE J.-FLAX, HEMP, AND JUTE, AND MANU FACTURES OF. BURLAP. J. ROSS COLLINS, IMPORTER, ADVOCATES A SPECIFIC DUTY OF ONE CENT PER POUND ON, BURLAP. NEW YORK, December 11, 1908. SECRETARY TARIFF REVISION COMMITTEE, Washington, D. C. SIR: I have been an importer of burlap and a manufacturer of bags for the past twenty-one years. I beg to submit that if there is any change in the schedule on burlap, holding to a duty, and not making the goods free, that the duty be made uniform at the rate of, say, 1 cent per pound, instead of at five-eighths of a cent per pound, and 15 per cent ad valorem, and I respectfully inclose letters from two Dundee exporters that this would be simple and uniform. Such a rate of duty would also do away completely with the vexatious problem of value of the goods at the time of export, which causes at times considerable loss to the innocent importer, for the reason that when an importer of burlap in this country buys goods at, let us say, 2 pence per yard in Calcutta, perhaps two or four months in advance of the date of shipment, making his contract for monthly shipments and basing his duty cost for his entire purchase (which he may have sold to a consumer here) upon the value at the time of the purchase, and the market advances, the ad valorem rate causes hin a loss of the difference between his purchase price and the market price at the time the goods happen to be forwarded. On the other hand, if the market declines, the importer still has to pay his ad valorem duty upon his purchase price. I do not believe that the Government means to be as "one-sided and unfair" in the collection of duties as this, and that such a state of affairs merely requires the attention of an unprejudiced committee like yourselves to be rectified. The simplest way of rectifying it is to collect duty by the pound. The bales are weighed here on the dock, verifying the weights of the goods as stated on the outside of each bale, which weights are again stated on the consular invoices, and this would entirely do away with the ad valorem unfairness. Personally, and as a bag manufacturer, the writer is in favor of free trade on burlap and a duty on manufactured bags. The great bulk of burlap now comes from India, where labor is worth on an average about 20 cents per day. The wider and finer grades are made in Dundee, where average mill labor is about 70 cents per day. No jute is grown in America, and it is quite impossible for labor conditions in this country at present to get down to a basis where they can compete with such wages. If the duty upon manufactured bags is kept where it is at present, or is put to a uniform price of, say, 2 cents per pound, while burlap is put on the free list, without wearying your board with statistics, I can state that the cost of flour to every consumer in the country could be reduced one one-hundredand-twentieth of a cent a pound, and the farming community would be greatly benefited, because all the bags that move produce throughout the country would be cheaper; fertilizer bags would be cheaperburlap used in wrapping furniture would be cheaper and no American industry would be hurt, because we do not make burlap in this country. In fact, on the contrary, it has been my invariable experience that the cheaper an article is the more it is consumed, and if bags were cheaper through burlap being free, more people would be employed in this country making them, provided that the duty upon new bags and second-hand bags imported to this country is sufficient to keep them out. Millions and millions of second-hand bags are brought back to this country now, employing thousands of people in Europe, gathering, repairing, baling, and shipping them back here. They should not come here. We should be making those new bags in this country and paying those wages here. There would be more benefit in the payment of the wages and in the employment of the people than in the collection of the duty, and if the revenues of the country will stand it, in my opinion, burlap is one of the items that should be restored to the free list, as it was at the time. of the Cleveland administration, always provided, however, that the new and second hand bags are made dutiable. And I am not a *Democrat. Permit me to add one more fact: Porto Rico, now one of ourselves, and Cuba, with a reciprocal duty in our favor (and which will very likely become one of ourselves), use between them about 10,000,000 of very fine large heavy sacks for exporting sugar. India gets all that trade, and yet Cuba and Porto Rico are at our doors. Those bags are made by hand, and thousands of people are employed making them every year. The collection of a duty upon bags in this country and Porto Rico, and the enforcement of the present duty in Cuba, with the reciprocity clause favoring us here in Cuba, and the admission to this country of those goods made in India just the same, but brought here free, would probably start a bag factory in Porto Rico and one or two in Cuba with American money, or, if not there, would start several bag factories in this country making this one kind of bag in particular for the West Indies trade. J. Ross COLLINS, Importer. Respectfully, EXHIBIT A. Mr. J. Ross COLLINS, New York. DUNDEE, November 27, 1908. DEAR SIR: We are very glad to hear that there is a probability of making the rate on burlaps 1 cent per pound, doing away with the ad valorem duty. This certainly would be great saving of details and ought to facilitate business considerably. We sincerely hope the proposal will go through. Yours, very truly, J. MOLLISON KIDD & Co. EXHIBIT B. JAMES ROSS COLLINS, Esq., New York. DUNDEE, November 24, 1908. DEAR SIR: Your favors of 16th with acceptance, for which we are obliged. We presume it is not the consular invoice which you desire in triplicate, but our trade "Statement," and we send you two more copies of the last. The customs have to do only with the consulatedinvoice. We certainly agree with you as to the simplicity and advantages generally of a uniform duty of 1 cent per pound on burlaps and no ad valorem duty. Some importers who are in the lower class end, such as Calcutta burlaps and cheap baggings, might be placed at a disadvantage as against dealers in finer sorts. For instance, you can get 104-ounce/40 burlaps ordinary at about 2 pence, whereas fine quality might run to 4 pence per yard. Both would pay the same duty under the method you propose. We have added 1,000 yards to your order, as desired. Yours, truly, W. G. IRVING & Co. EXHIBIT C. [Duplicate.] DUNDEE, November 18, 1908. Jas. Ross Collins, esq., New York, to W. G. Irving & Co. Forwarded per Anchor Line S. S. California to New York. Freight paid. Terms, as usual. B No. 810, 1 bale, 14 pcs. 40" No. 7660C canvas, 2870 at 4. d. £51 11 5 Great Britain. No. 811, 1 bale, 14 pcs. 24" 2 per cent discount.. Consul, 10/4; stamp, 1/-; collecting, 6/4.. No. 810. No. 811... do 2893 2.13 d. 33 18 1 83 15 4 17 8 84 13 O Meast. 48/2′′ 27/4" E. & O. E. EXHIBIT D. DUNDEE, November 18, 1908. Jas. Ross Collins, esq., New York, to W. G. Irving & Co. B C Forwarded per Anchor Line S. S. California to New York. Freight paid. Terms as usual. No. 810, 1 bale, 14 pcs. 40 No. 7660 C Canvas, 2870, at 4. d. £51 11 5 Great Britain. No. 811, 1 bale, 14 pcs. 24" No. 7660 (C) Canvas, 2893, at 2.d.. 2 per cent discount....... Consul 10/4; stamp 1/-; collecting 6/4. No. 810.. No. 811. Meast. 48/2" 16 lbs. 27/4" E. & O. E. LACES. I. A. LAHEY & SONS, NEW YORK CITY, RECOMMEND A REDUCTION OF DUTY ON LACES. NEW YORK, December 18, 1908. Hon. S. E. PAYNE, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: We beg to offer a few suggestions for compiling the tariff, and trust that they will receive favorable notice. We consider the duty of 60 per cent on laces enormous and trust that the duty will be reduced considerably. The most feasible way, if ad valorem duties are to continue, would be to reduce the duty, perhaps, 5 per cent semiannually. By such methods the holders of stocks here would not sustain such heavy losses. We trust that duties on hand-made laces may be reduced at once and believe that if the goods were admitted at a duty of 20 per cent the revenue derived from these goods would far exceed what the Government has received for years, as it is conceded that the bulk of these goods are smuggled, 60 per cent duty being a great incentive. Real laces, or what are known as "hand-made" laces on cushions, etc.-great values of these can be put in a very small space. Our Mr. I. A. Lahey has been in the lace trade since 1854. Respectfully, yours, I. A. LAHEY & SONS. LACES AND EMBROIDERIES. AMERICAN MANUFACTURERS OF WOMEN'S WEAR ASK FOR REDUCTION OF DUTIES ON ARTICLES USED. NEW YORK, December 18, 1908. Hon. SERENO E. PAYNE, Chairman Ways and Means Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: Inclosed please find a petition of manufacturers of women's, misses', children's, and infants' underwear, waists, dresses, corsets, hats, caps, aprons, etc., of the United States of America, in behalf of a reduced tariff on laces and embroideries, which is respectfully submitted for the valued consideration of the honorable Committee on Ways and Means. Very truly, yours, NEWMARK BROS. & SALZMAN, DECEMBER 18, 1908. COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, Washington, D. C. GENTLEMEN: The petition of the undersigned manufacturers of the United States, engaged in the manufacture of women's, misses', children's, and infants' underwear, dresses, waists, corsets, hats, caps, aprons, etc., employing many thousands of skilled operators, respectfully present to the honorable Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives as follows: The manufacturers of such underwear, waists, dresses, corsets, hats, aprons, etc., throughout the United States, in connection with the manufacture thereof, use large quantities of trimmings, such as laces and embroideries, the character, pattern, and shape of which constitute them as an essential and important portion of the raw material used in the manufacture of these garments. One of the principal features of this manufacture is the application of such trimmings to the garments, necessitating the employment of skilled labor. A very large proportion of such labor in these industries is engaged in the application of these trimmings to the garments. We therefore submit to the consideration of the honorable committee the fact that the larger the quantity of trimmings used in such application in the manufacture of such garments, the larger must necessarily be the number of skilled employees engaged in such production. In the opinion of the undersigned, the present excessive high tariff so enhances the cost of laces and embroideries that as a result it materially restricts their use in the manufacture of such garments, and as a consequence the number of skilled hands employed in the manufacture of the aforesaid garments is greatly reduced. In the many years during which the manufacture of laces and embroideries in this country has been protected by a high tariff the production of such laces and embroideries used in the manufacture of the aforesaid garments has been negligible in quantity and largely of a very inferior quality. |