taste, we fear that without increased protection our business, particularly in manufactured articles, will be entirely lost. This industry is deserving of every possible protection. Invented and developed in this country after years of experimenting and losses, it has grown into a business employing directly $10,000,000 of capital and 3,000 to 3,500 employees, and indirectly, through the hundreds of manufacturers who purchase their material from us and work it up into articles of use and ornament, it furnishes employment to still further millions of capital and thousands of employees. Immediately the business was made an established success through our efforts, companies sprang up in England, France, and Germany, who, taking advantage of our experience and expenditures of money, have copied our processes and plant. Our foreign competitors have now all the markets of the world. except this, and they are using every effort to establish a foothold here at prices that would render the market unprofitable to us. We have practically no foreign trade at all and are confined to this market. Should any increasing amount of material or goods be imported, it would only result in the loss of a corresponding amount to us, as the market for our goods is limited; the goods are in no sense a necessity, but rather a luxury, and the demand for them can not be increased at will. Higher protection does not mean higher prices; the prices in this country have been in the past and are at present governed by competition between the domestic companies, prices having been constantly reduced since the organization of the business. 99.66 Large amounts of " compounds of pyroxylin " and of articles made therefrom are now being imported from Europe. It is impossible for us to state the amount, as they are largely imported under different classifications, such as "brushes," "glass" (mirrors), “smokers' articles,' toys," etc. In a "comparison based upon tariff bill H. R. 379, prepared by the Bureau of Statistics for the Committee on Finance, Washington, 1897," it was stated (par. 16) that the imports for the previous year were 23,458 pounds, "rolled or in sheets," and $330,104.47 of "finished or partly finished articles," and they have increased greatly since that time. We would respect fully request of your committee that paragraph 17 should be rewritten to better express its meaning and to avoid the constant protests by domestic manufacturers and foreign importers and the consequent confusion and litigation. "Pyroxylin," to compounds of which the paragraph is at present limited, is a "nitro-cellulose." During the twelve years which have elapsed since the present tariff was adopted other forms of cellulose compounds have been experimented with and placed upon the market; such compounds are similar to and are intended to be used as substitutes for "compounds of pyroxylin" and, being unenumerated or properly classified in the present tariff, we respectfully ask the adoption of a definite generic term which will clearly define and embrace them, and would suggest the following: Collodion and all compounds of pyroxylin or of other cellulose esters, whether known as celluloid or by any other name. In order to more clearly define what is intended by the second classification of the paragraph, a subject that has been several times before the Board of Appraisers, we would suggest the following amendment: If in blocks, sheets, rods, tubes, or similar forms, unpolished or unfinished as to surface and not made up into finished or partly finished articles. And finally that we may enjoy that measure of protection which it was clearly the intent of Congress that we should possess, and that any article of which the component material of chief value was a compound of pyroxylin" should pay the rate of duty provided there for in the said paragraph 17, and that such articles should not be imported under the rule classifying them under various paragraphs claiming that they were thus more specifically described, we would respectfully request that the concluding portion of the paragraph should be amended to read: If polished or finished as to surface or in finished or partly finished articles and articles in which collodion or any compound of pyroxylin or of other cellulose enters is the component material of chief value, whether such article is specifically described by name under some other classification or not. The complete paragraph as amended, with the additional protection on finished and partly finished articles asked for, would then read: 17. Collodion and all compounds of pyroxylin, or of other cellulose esters, whether known as celluloid or by any other name, fifty cents per pound: if in blocks, sheets, rods, tubes or similar forms, unpolished, or unfinished as to surface and not made up into finished or partly finished articles, sixty cents per pound; if polished or finished as to surface or in finished or partly finished articles of which collodion of any compound of pyroxylin or of other cellulose esters is the component material of chief value, whether such article is specifically described by name under some other classification or not, sixty-five cents per pound and thirty-five percentum ad valorem. We respectfully request your favorable consideration of the foregoing, which has been carefully considered and in which we have asked nothing which is not imperatively needed under present circumstances to preserve a large and important industry. Very respectfully, MARSHALL C. LEFFERTS, Vice-President, The Arlington Company, of Arlington, N. J. EDMUND J. LEVINE, President, The Fiberloid Company, of Indian Orchard, Mass. THE CELLULOID CO,, NEWARK, N. J., SUBMITS INFORMATION Hon. SERENO E. PAYNE, NEW YORK, December 1, 1908. Chairman Committee on Ways and Means, Washington, D. C. SIR: In the brief of the manufacturers of "compounds of pyroxylin," mailed to you on the 30th ultimo by The Celluloid Company, The Arlington Company, and The Fiberloid Company, reference is made 75941-H. Doc. 1505, 60-2-vol 1—11 on page 2 to information obtained through the Department of Commerce and Labor as to new "celluloid" plants being established in Japan. I think it would be desirable for the sake of easy reference to have the text of this information, as printed in the Daily Consular and Trade Report for November 4 and 16, 1908, attached to our brief, and append same with the request that it be added as an appendix to the said brief. CELLULOID IN JAPAN-ESTABLISHMENT OF A NEW PLANT WITH EUROPEAN MACHINERY. The following information concerning a new company organized for the purpose of establishing a celluloid factory in Japan is furnished by Consul John H. Snodgrass, of Kobe: The factory, with a capital of $500,000, will be erected upon the banks of the Yamato River, near Sakai, and will be the largest concern of the kind in Japan. The machinery and plant, which have been ordered from Europe, are expected to arrive by the end of this year. The superintendent engineer of the company has been engaged in the United States, and the plans of the factory are now being prepared. Upon completion of the plans the construction of the factory will be commenced without delay, and the company expects to begin the manufacture of celluloid in April next. In this connection it may be stated there is considerable interest exhibited in the possibilities of celluloid products in Japan. It is reported that another company has been formed for the manufacture of celluloid at Abashi, in the province of Harima, capitalized at $600,000. JAPANESE NOTES. The construction of the celluloid factories at Aboshi, near Himeji, is progressIng. A Swiss engineer has been engaged as superintendent. The machinery is understood to be of German pattern, though ordered from a French firm, which has supplied similar machinery and plant to a German celluloid company on the Rhine. The construction of the Mitsui celluloid factory on the Yamato River at Sakai, near Osaka, is also being pushed on. The machinery and plant have been ordered and as superintendent and engineer the chief engineer of a New Jersey celluloid company in America has been engaged. Yours, respectfully, M. C. LEFFERTS, President Celluloid Co., of Newark, N. J. MOVING PICTURES. [Paragraph 17.] AMERICAN MANUFACTURERS ASK FOR A SPECIFIC ENUMERATION OF THESE ARTICLES. WASHINGTON, D. C., December 12, 1908. COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, Washington, D. C. GENTLEMEN: We, the undersigned, manufacturers of moving pictures, address the committee on behalf of the moving-picture manufacturing industry of this country. At Moving pictures are of comparatively recent origin, and at the date of the tariff act in 1897 they were known only to a very limited extent and not considered an important article of commerce. that time the pictures were usually viewed directly in a coin-operated machine, whereas at the present time they are projected upon screens so as to be simultaneously viewed by hundreds of persons. It is true that to a very limited extent projecting machines were in use in this country in 1897, but such use was practically limited to a few foreign exhibitors and it has not been until very recent years that the industry has developed to an extensive size, although, as is well known, the art was first developed in this country by Mr. Edison a number of years before. Because of these facts, moving pictures were not specifically provided for in the act of 1897, either as to the machines, which, like the magic lantern, project the pictures on a screen, or as to the pictures themselves, comprising very long strips of celluloid from 1 to 2,000 feet in length, and containing an enormous number of photographs of moving objects. METHOD OF PRODUCTION. The production of moving pictures is essentially an artistic work, the scenes being acted by trained performers before a moving-picture camera containing sensitized negative film and in large studios having most of the accessories of a theater, and it was not unnatural, therefore, that the business should have found its first great development in France. In recent years, however, the American manufacturers have very materially improved the quality of their output, so that the domestic pictures compare favorably with the best foreign productions. Having obtained a suitable negative film in the studio, as explained, as many copies or positives are printed therefrom as may be necessary, and these copies or positives are sold by the manufacturers to various rental exchanges, by whom they are rented out from day to day to the many thousand 5-cent theaters or nickelodeons. IMPORTANCE OF INDUSTRY. At the present time, the business in this country, so far as manufacturing is concerned, is conducted by the following companies: American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, whose studio is located in New York City, and whose printing and developing plant is located in Hoboken, N. J.; Edison Manufacturing Company, of Orange, N. J., whose studio is located near the Bronx Park, New York, N. Y., and whose developing and manufacturing plant is located at Orange, N. J.; Essanay Company, with a studio and printing and developing plant at Chicago, Ill.; Kalem Company, with a studio and printing and developing plant in New York City; S. Lubin, with a studio and printing and developing plant in Philadelphia; George Melies Company, whose studio is in Montreuil, France, and whose printing and developing plant is in New York City; Pathé Freres, whose studios are located at Paris, Vincennes, and Montreuil, France, and whose printing and developing plant is located at Bound Brook, N. J.; Selig Polyscope Company, whose studio and plant are located at Chicago, Ill.; and The Vitagraph Company of America, whose studio and plant are located near Brooklyn, N. Y. These concerns comprise practically the entire manufacturing industry in this country, and turn out probably 99 per cent of the moving pictures of American make. All of these concerns, with the exception of Pathé Freres and the George Melies Company, perform all of their manufacturing operations in this country, their studios being located here and the negative pictures being manufactured at very great expense. In the case of Pathé Freres and the George Melies Company the negatives are made in France and are exported into this country and positive prints manufactured from them here, but it is interesting to note that the celluloid films for both negatives and positives made by these companies are the products of the Eastman Kodak Company, of Rochester, N. Y., which supplies a very large part of the films used by foreign manufacturers for their own home consumption and for exportation to the United States. Up to the past year considerably more than half of the moving pictures used in the United States were imported, but with the removal of the Pathé plant to this country in the summer of 1908 the large importations of films by them were stopped and an equivalent amount added to American manufacture, so that at the present time probably upward of 80 per cent of the moving pictures used in this country are manufactured here. The value of the actual investment at the present time in manufacturing plants in this country, excluding patents, trade-marks, and good will, is over $2,000,000, and between 1,000 and 2,000 employees are actually engaged in making the pictures, but the industry is developing rapidly and will, no doubt, in the future be very much larger. COST OF AMERICAN MANUFACTURE. At the present time the cost of moving pictures to the American manufacturers is not far from 6 cents per foot, the raw material purchased from the Eastman Kodak Company costing 3 cents per foot, the cost of printing and developing and fixed charges amounting to about 1 cent per foot, the remaining 2 cents being taken up in the cost of manufacturing the negative. Of course, the cost of making the negative depends very largely upon the subject-matter and, in the case of an outdoor scene, the cost may be very low, and, besides this, the negative cost per foot depends, of course, upon the number of positive prints actually sold, but it is a fair statement to make that the average cost of the negative film per foot is not far from 2 cents. The films which thus cost the American manufacturers about 6 cents per foot are sold in this country for prices ranging from 10 cents per foot down to 5 cents per foot, depending upon the age of the film, the deterioration in value when a film is not sold promptly being such that the manufacturers are compelled, in order to get rid of them, to sell them below cost. In other words, the moving-picture manufacturers are compelled to sacrifice their product when it is no longer current, in just the same way that a magazine publisher is unable to obtain the ordinary price for an out-of-date copy of his publication. THE PRESENT DUTY AND ITS UNCERTAINTY. When moving pictures were first imported into this country, they were classified by the customs authorities under section 17 of the act as "articles of which collodion or any compound of pyroxylin is the |