That we are losing business under the present tariff at a rapid rate. is shown by the fact that during the depression in business in 1908 the. production in the United States has decreased about 25 per cent, while the imports during the same period have increased nearly 30 per cent, thus depriving our workmen of employment.

Mr. UNDERWOOD. What is the total production in the United States?

Mr. MEYERCORD. About $25,000,000.

Mr. UNDERWOOD. And how much do the imports amount to?

Mr. MEYERCORD. About $7,000,000, which after the duty is paid and the cost of marketing, which is very large, makes it run to $11,000,000 or $12,000,000.

Mr. UNDERWOOD. I am talking about the amount of importations. Mr. MEYERCORD. About $7,000,000.

Mr. UNDERWOOD. What do the exports amount to?

Mr. MEYERCORD. I have not those figures, but I do not believe they amount to more than $1,000,000.

Mr. UNDERWOOD. Where do you send the foreign shipments to? Mr. MEYERCORD. Where do we export to?

Mr. UNDERWOOD. Yes, sir.

Mr. MEYERCORD. Largely to Mexico, Canada, and Cuba; just our close markets.

Mr. UNDERWOOD. And you come in competition in those countries with this class of paper made in this country, or is it paper shipped from abroad?

Mr. MEYERCORD. Largely paper shipped from abroad.

The CHAIRMAN. I would suggest, Mr. Underwood, that you permit the witness to finish his statement, as there is a larger number of people to be heard to-day than yesterday.

Mr. UNDERWOOD. Very well; that is entirely satisfactory to me. I thought he had finished his statement.

Mr. MEYERCORD. It is deemed wise to separate decalcomania, and give it a separate schedule entirely. The Hon. J. B. Reynolds, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, suggested this be done; also numerous customs officers deem it necessary. And, in view of the fact that decalcomania is a separate article of commerce, bought and sold, and has a different use than lithographs, and, further, in view of the fact that the industry represents several millions a year in sales, it is important enough to be separately classified. There are a number of factories that manufacture decalcomania in this country.

Decalcomania is a transfer picture printed either on simplex or duplex paper. Duplex is a heavy type of single paper and when stripped it becomes simplex. It is transferred from this paper to furniture, machinery, pottery, glass, and the like, and consists of three distinct types for the purpose of customs classification.

Ceramic prints are all printed on duplex paper, but can be turned into simplex by stripping the tissue from the heavier backing paper, and hence when in tissue-paper form would weigh very little, only 20 to 28 pounds per thousand sheets. Ceramic decalcomania is used for decorating china and glassware, and is composed of metallic colors, which metallic colors are almost entirely imported, and now pay 30 per cent ad valorem tariff. Duplex paper never has been made in this country, and no attempt has been made to make it in this country, and pays 35 per cent ad valorem. It was originally classified

under the Dingley law under paragraph 403 at 25 per cent ad valorem, but advanced to 35 per cent ad valorem, as a result of a court decision, and classified under paragraph 407, as a manufacture of paper.

In view of the fact that the metal leaf used is aluminum leaf, and at 6 cents per hundred leaves, the tariff is equivalent to 70 per cent on the value, and as metal leaf represents a large proportion of the cost of the article, and as it weighs practically nothing, the duty is placed at 70 cents per pound.

The other than ceramic decalcomania transfers prints can not be successfully shipped as tissue stock, hence there is no need of mentioning the word simplex or duplex in connection with same.

The brief is signed by Robert M. Donaldson, Horace Reed, and myself.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you know what the domestic production under paragraph 400 was in 1905, according to the census of that year? Mr. MEYERCORD. About $25,000,000, lithographs of all kinds.

The CHAIRMAN. The importations last year were $3,930,000— about $4,000,000?

Mr. MEYERCORD. I find that I have skipped a number of years, but the importations were $3,968,000 in 1907 and $4,911,000 in 1908. The CHAIRMAN. What proportion of that is used by the manufacturers?

Mr. MEYERCORD. The manufacturers and jobbers consume practically all of it.

The CHAIRMAN. I do not care about the jobbers. I want to find out about the manufacturers, what proportion of this product they

consume.

Mr. MEYERCORD. I venture to say that they consume 90 per cent of it.

The CHAIRMAN. So that the general heavy increase you propose would necessitate a readjustment of the tariff duties to the manufacturers who use the same article, providing they have not any more than a sufficient protection now?

Mr. MEYERCORD. This is a widespread industry. There is a multitude of small consumers; about 350 factories.

The CHAIRMAN. They sell wholesale. Take the crockery people. We have already heard some rumbles from them on what they have to pay now.

Mr. MEYERCORD. Yes, sir. They receive a protection of 30 per cent on color and 35 per cent on paper, and there is a very large differential against us-of nearly 20 per cent. We have to pay a premium to do business in our own country.

The CHAIRMAN. The crockery people receive 60 per cent protection?

Mr. MEYERCORD. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. They say that they do not receive over 30 per cent on an honest valuation?

Mr. MEYERCORD. That is up to them: I am not knocking them. The CHAIRMAN. I am only telling you what they claim. I am not a crockery man. You have not considered the effect on the other industries?

Mr. MEYERCORD. It would be very small, Mr. Chairman; and, furthermore, it is a luxury; and if the manufacturer, for instance, who pays

The CHAIRMAN (interrupting). The manufacture of crockery is hardly a luxury.

Mr. MEYERCORD. That is a different article. I am talking about the lithographic label used for advertising. He can use other means, but if he desires a lithographic label he can adopt it as a matter of pride, as representative of a higher class of stuff that he has put out as an advertisement.

The CHAIRMAN. Where did you get your prices of labor?

Mr. MEYERCORD. From statistics in signed letters from manufacturers abroad, giving the rate they pay.

The CHAIRMAN. Please file them with the committee.

Mr. MEYERCORD. I have some copies and some originals. I will file the originals with the committee.

The CHAIRMAN. We will print the copies in the hearing and have the originals for the use of the committee.

Mr. MEYERCORD. Yes, sir. It is a national industry. For instance, out in Indiana we have a good many manufacturers. We have three or four in Indianapolis. We have some Down East-in New England. St. Louis is very well represented. The State of Missouri has 15 or 20 factories, and there are manufacturers down in Texas, in the Carolinas, in Georgia, and in Louisiana. They are scattered from ocean to ocean.

The CHAIRMAN. The manufacturers have been able to get some profit in the past?

Mr. MEYERCORD. You must understand, Mr. Chairman, that there is a large part of this business that is original orders, quick delivery, duplicates, with only six months' time given. It is the duplicate business, or the staple end of the game, that the importer is now getting the better of the American manufacturer.

The CHAIRMAN. You must get more than that or the amount of the American production would not be so large.

Mr. MEYERCORD. The domestic production has decreased and imports have increased 1,000 per cent under the Dingley law.

The CHAIRMAN. The increase is taken from the figures you have quoted?

Mr. MEYERCORD. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. There is a large increase?

Mr. MEYERCORD. Wages are 41 per cent of the total. We require as a differential to protect us 31 per cent simply on the labor, the difference in the cost of labor. On the material the average duty is about 40 per cent, on the raw product that enters into our product, and as the average duty is about 40 per cent on the material or 50 per cent of the total cost of the product, we are practically required to pay an average of 50 per cent to be on a free-trade basis in our own country.

The CHAIRMAN. Please file a statement of the principal materials you use, the percentage compared with the whole amount used-by dollars, not by quantity.

Mr. MEYERCORD. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. The different classes of material.

Mr. MEYERCORD. We have that all figured out now.

Mr. BOUTELL. How much of this entire production consists of the illuminated postal cards, Christmas cards, Easter cards, etc.? Mr. MEYERCORD. Of the imports, approximately $2,000,000.

Mr. BOUTELL. How much is the domestic production?

Mr. MEYERCORD. Not one-quarter of that.

Mr. BOUTELL. The reason I asked that question was because wherever I see these illuminated postal cards they say, "Made in Munich " or "Made in Nuremberg."

Mr. MEYERCORD. Yes, sir. There is a product that is only paying about 14 per cent. I will illustrate to you how that is arrived at. For instance: The German manufacturer gets the French, American, or English lithograph, and he makes 40 copies as a series of views. He puts the German lettering on there and sells those cards. He gives those plates a slight alteration, and that enables him to take those cards and send a limited quantity outside of the American market. He can make those cards at one-quarter what we have to pay in this country; and that is where the erroneous valuation of import invoices

comes in.

Mr. BOUTELL. What I am trying to get at is, where a man in Munich makes a large series of postal cards-views of Pittsburg, Chicago, and other cities-how does he get his photographs? Do they pay any duty on entering Germany?

Mr. MEYERCORD. No; he can enter them by saying that they are for foreign work.

Mr. BOUTELL. What I want to get at is whether the German can get all the material for making the postal cards into Germany free? Mr. MEYERCORD. Yes, sir; they are admitted for export work free. Mr. BOUTELL. Then they send the postal cards back and we pay the full duty on them?

Mr. MEYERCORD. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. If we can collect here the ad valorem duty on a fair valuation of those goods, would the protection under the present law be somewhere near adequate?

Mr. MEYERCORD. No, sir; absolutely not. There is 11 per cent differential right on the wages in favor of the foreign manufacturer at this moment.

The CHAIRMAN. I say on a fair valuation.

Mr. MEYERCORD. You can really say it is a fair valuation on the cost of printing.

The CHAIRMAN. Suppose the valuation was fixed at the wholesale price in this country?

Mr. MEYERCORD. That is a peculiar situation in the industry. A man can use these plates that he has on stone and print up a job for one-quarter of what they can be made for across the street even in Germany, just because he has already received pay from another customer. The plate is the pattern, and if a man has the pattern he can go ahead and make up the cards for almost nothing, but if he has to make the pattern then he has an awful job before him.

The CHAIRMAN. That is the same with all manufacturers. Mr. MEYERCORD. The plate is what brings the valuation erroneously so very low, and even at the specific duty paid there is only 19 per cent protection under the Dingley law. The hearings on the Dingley law would indicate that this product was to get more than twice that. That was the intent, but the importers were so much better posted that the schedule was made to suit them, and the thing has worked out until the American manufacturer receives only about 19 per cent protection.

The CHAIRMAN. The statistics seem to show, aside from the postalcard business, which you say is about $2,000,000, that you have not been driven entirely out of the market.

Mr. MEYERCORD. But you must understand that there are photograph postals and various other processes. On American lithography, which is far more costly, he gets the same production that the other fellow gets. The consequence is that the postal-card industry, and that class of colored stuff is all German make, the cheaper grades block work. The photo-colored work is probably all done by the other process of manufacture, which produces the pictorial work of this country. The lithographer requires 12 per cent more to protect him or to put him on an equality in his own market.

The CHAIRMAN. Which is used by the manufacturers, the highclass work or the low-class work?

Mr. MEYERCORD. That depends on the taste of the fellow.

The CHAIRMAN. What proportion of high-class work is used by the manufacturers?

Mr. MEYERCORD. They buy the best.

The CHAIRMAN. So that all that is used by the manufacturers is the high-class work?

Mr. MEYERCORD. Usually. It depends on whether the manufacturer is selling high-class goods.

The CHAIRMAN. Practically all?

Mr. MEYERCORD. Yes, sir.

Mr. CRUMPACKER. Is there anything in the quality of the imported article that gives it an advantage over your article?

Mr. MEYERCORD. No, sir. There are manufacturers in this country who make the finest there is in the world.

Mr. CRUMPACKER. There is no superiority in point of work or quality in the imported article?

Mr. MEYERCORD. No, sir; except in the ability of the American salesman to probably induce the manufacturers to buy the foreign article so that he can get in on the deal.

Mr. CRUMPACKER. Are there any manufacturers or consumers in this country who buy the foreign article because it is made abroad? Mr. MEYERCORD. Yes, sir. That is according to the ability of the salesman of the importer to convince him that it is better.

Mr. CRUMPACKER. You want the tariff high enough so as to practically compel them to buy American goods?

Mr. MEYERCORD. Give us free trade in our own home market. That is all we want and we will lick him.

Mr. CRUMPACKER. If you had the increase in the schedule of tariff you ask for it would probably prohibit the importation of any foreign product, would it?

Mr. MEYERCORD. We want free trade in our home market; that is all we want. I am a free trader above the 51 per cent basis.

Mr. CRUMPACKER. You say that the importer of the foreign product in this market has actually the same footing as you under existing conditions?

Mr. MEYERCORD. He has a better footing by 25 per cent.

Mr. CRUMPACKER. And yet, notwithstanding that, you control about 85 per cent of all the product?