LABOR AND WAGES. The following table shows the wages per day paid employees in the borax industry in the United States and in Asia Minor: [Extract from report of Consul Madden, August 26, 1896.] The wages of laborers, carpenters, and tinsmiths are four and onehalf times, of blacksmiths four times, of engineers two and one-fourth times, of bookkeepers three and one-fourth times, and of foremen nearly five times greater in the United States (California and Nevada) than in Turkey in Asia. (The information in regard to wages in the United States is taken from the report of the United States Geological Survey, Mineral Resources of the United States, 1889-90, page 494, while the statements concerning Turkey in Asia are taken from the Special Consular Report on Money and Prices in Foreign Countries, Volume XIII, Part I, page 208, State Department, Washington, D. C., 1896.) In further contrast with the foregoing we have in the report of C. G. Wornford Lock on pandermite (1880) a new boracic mineral, which is part of the record of the Senate, Fiftieth Congress, first session, Report No. 2332, part 2, testimony taken by the subcommittee on the tariff of the Senate Committee on Finance, in connection with the bill H. R. 9051, 1888, as follows: Labor is very cheap (in Asia Minor) and abundant, Turks, Circassian, Tartars, Armenians, Greeks, and Italians being obtainable from the neighboring villages. The Ottoman Government has granted a comprehensive concession to a party of British residents who are setting to work to develop the property, and the district enjoys the great advantage of being under British protection. SOURCES OF SUPPLY IN THE UNITED STATES. The sources of supply are ample for the indefinite future, as the deposits are greatly diversified in area and character, some of these having the power of reproduction from the saline lake waters charged with the essential agent, namely, boracic acid. This agency, being in the underlying waters, renews the surface deposits to a very great extent. There are many thousands of acres of these saline deposits throughout the State of Nevada, on the Mojave Desert, and in Death Valley, California. The deposits at Borax Lake, known as Searles Borax Marsh, San Bernardino County, Cal., have been worked for twenty-three years with an average output of 500 tons per year, which property has no plant yet adequate to test its producing capacity.1 'See United States Geological Survey, Mineral Resources of the United States, 1889-90, 1893-94. The great underground ledge formation in the Calico District, San Bernardino County, Cal., is capable of sustaining its present output for many years, and is of very high-grade material, the borate of lime containing from 28 per cent to 44 per cent of boracic acid. The Saline Valley deposits of Inyo County, Cal., a marsh of borate of soda, has a fertile area of 2,000 acres. These deposits are owned and operated by the following: List of borax companies in California and Nevada. CALIFORNIA. 1. Pacific Coast Borax Company, in operation. 2. San Bernardino Borax Mining Company, suspended since act of 1894. 3. Saline Valley Borax Company, suspended since act of 1894. 4. Morrow, deposit near Mojave, suspended since act of 1894. 5. Salt Marsh Borax Company, suspended since act of 1894. NEVADA. 1. Reno Borax Company, in operation. 2. Berne Borax Company, in operation. 3. Nevada Sal and Borax Company, suspended since act of 1894. 4. Columbus Borax and Boracic Acid Company, in operation. 5. State Line Borax Company, suspended since act of 1894. 6. Amadee Borax Company, suspended since act of 1894. 7. R. Neuschwander, suspended since act of 1894. Of the foregoing 12 operators only 4 are now working. There are great natural resources for future supply in Death Valley which are untouched, owing to distance from rail transportation, which will become available in the near future when a railroad connecting Salt Lake, Utah, with Los Angles, Cal., already surveyed, is constructed. There is also a deposit of small area in Curry County, Oreg. PRODUCTION. The growth of the industry and the effect of its development and expansion is best shown by the figures in the following table: Production of borax in the United States from 1864 to 1896, inclusive. COST OF MANUFACTURE. By reference to the letter of Delafield, McGovern & Co., New York, it will be seen that they place the cost of manufacture of commercial borax by the Reno Borax Company, of Reno, Nev., and the Berne Borax Company, of Lovelocks, Nev., at about 4 cents a pound at railroad, and the freight rate at 873 cents per 100 pounds, making the cost in the Eastern market about 43 cents. The selling price is now 5 cents per pound in New York, allowing nothing for insurance, storage, drayage, and interest on investment. COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS: NEW YORK, December 26, 1896. As the representatives of the Reno Borax Company, of Reno, Nev., and the Berne Borax Company, of Lovelocks, Nev., we beg leave to ask the consideration of your committee to the imposition of a tariff on importations of borax that will enable the American producers and manufacturers of this article to meet foreign competition. The total importations of borate of lime and crude borax under the McKinley bill amounted to 1,167,465 pounds. Under the Wilson-Gorman bill imports to December 1 of the current year were 10,147,254 pounds. Borate of lime is imported in calcined form and runs very high in anhydrous boracic acid, which is the base of borax of commerce. Commercial borax produces about 36 per cent of anhydrous boracic acid, while borate of lime will average 54 to 55 per cent. It is apparent, therefore, that for every pound imported there is sufficient material to produce 14 pounds of borax, and the total quantity imported under the Wilson-Gorman bill is sufficient to make about 7,500 tons of borax, or about a year's supply. Borate of lime pays 14 cents per pound duty, equivalent, say, to 1 cent per boraxmaking pound. Our producers, owing to the high price of labor and the long team hauls across the desert to a railroad, can not deliver borax at the railroad station for much less than 4 cents a pound. Railroad freight to Eastern points is 874 cents per 100 pounds. The present New York price for concentrated borax is 44 cents per pound. In consequence of these conditions our people are compelled to stop the production, and they advised us quite recently that they can not afford to continue to ship borax to be sold at the present market prices. There is sufficient borax material on the Pacific Coast to supply the entire trade of the United States at a reasonable price for many years to come, and we appeal to you that these producers, working as they do under great disadvantages, should be encouraged. As a question of revenue, the total duty paid on imported material under the present tariff is only about $150,000. With an increase in this duty of about 14 cents a pound there would doubtless be a heavy falling off in the importations, but there would probably still be sufficient imported to maintain the revenue from this source, at the present figure at least. We think the duty on high-grade material of this kind should be at least 3 cents per pound. Respectfully submitting the foregoing, we beg to remain, yours, very truly, The value of the material in the mine or deposit is represented by no more than its due pro rata of interest and taxes on the total investment, so that until touched by labor the first cost is nominal, as compared with the manufactured product laid down in the Eastern market. As this industry includes both mining and manufacturing, and has all the disadvantages of remoteness and scarcity of near-by laborers, there are more constant fixed charges (mostly labor) than attach to any other American manufacture. So that if the output falls below a certain quantity the expense account is relatively greater and the cost per pound higher than at full working capacity. A larger share of our home market is therefore indispensable to its existence. These fixed expenses are: Superintendence, clerks, skilled and common laborers familiar with the working of variable characteristics of the raw borates to be treated, animals for wagon transportation, etc., which must be retained at nearly all times, and cost as much whether the output be large or small. The surrender, therefore, of the market to this foreign, partially manufactured article means that the American must sell his goods at less than cost (which is the present case) and ultimately go out of the business bankrupt, when, in turn, the foreign borax syndicate and importer recoup themselves by advancing prices to any limit after having destroyed domestic competition. CONSUMPTION OF BORAX AND BORACIC ACID. The present annual consumption of borax is about 11,000 tons, of which amount upward of 3,300 tons, or 30 per cent, is now supplied by importations of Turkish borate of lime, artificially prepared with express design of evading duties. There has been a marked increase in the consumption of borax in this country, as well as an increase in home production, but competition with the specified imports has reduced prices below profit and narrowed the competitive warfare to three home companies and the foreign importers. Adequate protection would enable the smaller producers to start up again, for if present conditions were to continue, their property would be finally absorbed by the larger concerns, thus destroying all domestic competition. Of boracic acid the annual consumption is about 1,150 tons. Of this amount the importers who use the Turkish borate of lime for making boric acid sell about 600 tons. There is also sold about 250 tons of Tuscany boracic acid, which is not further refined and is used in direct form, thus leaving only about 300 tons of this more valuable product to the American producers. The method of refining borax was originally possessed as a great secret by the Venetians and Dutch. Later it became a British monopoly. The Pacific Coast production has rescued our people from extortionate prices, as shown. Between the years 1873 and 1883 a large portion of the American product was exported to Europe, for want of a home market. The demand now keeps pace and is regulated by the pros perity of our home manufactures. The tariff act of 1883 gave the first impulse to domestic consumption, though still a small industry, as represented in volume and money value, compared with the many industries that owe their existence to this American product. For borax and boracic acid are not only useful and valuable, but have become, in fact, indispensable in the industrial arts and manufactures of our country, inasmuch as they stand at the very basis of some of our most important home industries and manufactures, such as enameled ironware, porcelain ironware, pottery and glass, edged tools, for fluxing and forge use, preservatives, starch, fish curing, meat packing, etc., and without this essential agent some of these industries would have no existence. ADVERSE INTERESTS. There are but few self-interested parties hostile to the imposition of protective duties on these manufactured products-importers, who are the natural enemies of all domestic manufactures, and a few potteries that manufacture artistic and decorated wares which command fancy prices, and to whom the cost of boracic acid or borax is a minor expense. They are accustomed to foreign goods and will not use the American article under any conditions. Their wares are strictly a luxury. The trade generally, but actual consumers who use the bulk of our product particularly, are favorable to higher duties, being willing to allow us, under our American policy, what they ask for themselves. Also, being under the necessity of securing large supplies, which must come to them around the Horn in American vessels, they prefer stable prices to the fluctuating and speculative prices of imported goods. They likewise, from experience, know that under a former tariff of 5 cents a pound on refined borax and pure boracic acid, and 3 cents on borate of lime and crude borax, that concentrated (prismatic) borax, the grade used by them was sold at less than 5 cents per pound, caused by domestic competition. (See testimony of Mr. J. W. Mather before Senate Finance Committee, Report No. 2332, part 2, pp. 205–213.) Experimental chemistry has done but little for this great industry of the desert lands of California and Nevada. Cheaper methods of extraction and better developments of properties looking to permanence are the outgrowth of practical experience which is at first attended by heavy losses in all new fields of enterprise. We need the assurance of the Congress that such enterprise will not be crushed out for want of a home market. WHAT BORAX IS, WHERE IT COMES FROM, AND SOME OF ITS USES. Borax of soda, common borax, is a neutral salt formed by the combination of boracic acid with soda (chemistry). It is biborate of soda, manufactured by combining native boracic acid and soda (Worcester's Dictionary). Crude boracic acid from Italy (and from Turkey in Asia Minor) is principally sent to England and the United States, where a large proportion of it is manufactured into borax by artificial combination with carbonate of soda. The ordinary prismatic borax of commerce, principally used in the United States, is manufactured from the native borates of California and Nevada and is of first-class quality and chemically pure (Professor Hank's Third Annual Report to California State Mining Bureau (1883), pp. 10-26). Borax and boracic acid have great antiseptic properties and also perform an important part of economic value in the industrial arts. Borax is useful in the arts, manufactures, and mines. Borax is a germicide used in antiseptic surgery and to arrest decay in animal. food. Borax is a flux for all metals-iron, gold, silver, etc., enabling them to melt at a lower temperature. Borax is a glaze used in potteries, glass factories, and by enamelers for making a brilliant polish. Borax is an emollient valuable for the toilet; it softens and whitens the face and hands. Borax is uninflammable and prevents fire, can be employed for rendering muslin fireproof. Borax is a medicine and now enters into many pharmaceutical preparations. Borax is a bleach and is used in laundries for preventing clothes from turning yellow. Borax is used to enamel porcelain-coated iron, known as "granite ware," "agate ware," etc. Borax in solution, mixed with linseed oil, may be used for cheap painting. Borax is used as a mordant in calico printing and in dyeing. and as a substitute for soap. Borax is extensively used in starch making and gives a fine gloss. Respectfully submitted. 99.66 H. KREBS, Jr., Representing the Borate and Borax Miners and Producers |