that American graphite will be given a reasonable protection, and that the industry will thereby be placed upon a secure footing and take rank among the leading enterprises of the country. We only ask a square deal. We come as applicants for the fostering care of the American policy of protection that has built up so many great and powerful American industries. A reasonable tariff on foreign graphite would yield considerable revenue to the Government, as it can not be hoped that the foreign product can be entirely replaced by American graphite for some time to come. Ultimately, however, America must come into supremacy in this as in so many other fields of endeavor. American graphite men are looking forward to the time when American graphite will be one of the principal commodities to be carried by American ships under the American flag upon every sea and distributed throughout every land on the broad surface of the globe. Respectfully submitted. EDWARD OWINGS TOWNE, Treasurer Anselma Graphite Co. THE IMPERIAL GRAPHITE COMPANY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PA., ASKS PROTECTION FROM COOLY LABOR. Hon. S. E. PAYNE, PHILADELPHIA, PA., December 2, 1908. Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: I am writing you a few pertinent and pointed reasons why the graphite industry in the United States not only should be but must be protected by the imposing of a duty on importations of this product. The words "must be " appear impertinent to you, but it must be if the American miners of graphite continue in business. The imported article is mined altogether by cooly labor in Ceylon and Indian labor in Mexico. There are three or four good fields for mining this material in this country, and there has been $12,000,000 lost by failures in these fields in the last three or four years, and altogether caused by the American producers' inability to compete with cooly labor. I am president of a $1,000,000 corporation, just starting in. We have expended nearly a quarter of a million in mills and mines and we will employ a considerable number of men, but we are finding out the moment we American miners endanger the business of one or two of the large concerns of the country who own mines in Mexico and Ceylon that the market is flooded in our section with the cheaper produced article. The protection asked for by myself for my company and all of the miners of American graphite must be granted for this industry to continue, and if it is granted it means a large increase in the home production. Our company alone is willing to spend an additional $1,000,000, were we assured that our money was not spent in vain. We should be glad to present facts, indisputable facts and figures, to your committee at any time suitable to you. I trust you will appreciate that we are not begging favors, but simply asking justice, for protected we win and unprotected we fail. Yours, respectfully, IMPERIAL GRAPHITE CO., THE CHESTER GRAPHITE COMPANY, OF CHESTER SPRINGS, PA., ASKS PROTECTION FOR GRAPHITE. CHESTER SPRINGS, PA., December 1, 1908. Hon. SERENO E. PAYNE, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: Allow me to call the attention of your committee to the importance to the American graphite industry of an import duty on that mineral. This country has large deposits of graphite, both of the crystalline and the amorphous varieties, which as yet have been only partially developed, owing to the small and uncertain profit attending its mining and refining. Although hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent in the attempt to develop the industry, its various enterprises have in the main been unsuccessful. The reasons for this have been, first, the high cost of production, and, second, the low price received for the product. In the United States the more valuable or crystalline form of graphite occurs associated with much rock matrix or gangue, and the percentage of graphite as a rule does not exceed 5 per cent. This means that a large tonnage of ore must be handled to obtain a relatively small amount of graphite. Furthermore, the methods of washing, concentrating, and refining calls for elaborate and expensive machinery, and also high skill in its operation. Under these conditions the average cost of producing a pound of pure graphite flake varies from 3 to 5 cents. American flake graphite finds its greatest use in the manufacture of crucibles, stove polish, and foundry facings, and for these purposes it comes into competition with Ceylon graphite, which often sells at prices below the cost of production in this country. The Ceylon mines are worked by native laborers, who receive from 10 to 25 cents a day. Their ores are so high in carbon that they only require screening and hand sorting to put them into marketable form. It is quite likely, however, that if the American graphite industry, which is as yet in its infancy, could be given a fair degree of protection, the introduction of modern methods and equipment would soon enable us to produce graphite as cheaply as is now done with the lowpriced labor and primitive methods of the Ceylon miners. But to accomplish this end calls for further experimentation as to the most satisfactory and economical method of separation and the investment of large sums of money for improved labor-saving appliances. If your committee will recall the history of the development of the iron and steel and other metallurgical industries in this country you will find that our eventual ability to compete with the world has become. possible under the protective tariff granted to a struggling industry. On the other hand, there is little hope or encouragement for a satisfactory development of the graphite industry under prevailing competitive conditions. Some 13,000 to 14,000 tons of Ceylon graphite are imported into this country annually, while the United States' production is less than 3,000 tons. The average price received for the home product was 4.2 cents a pound. From this it is apparent that the average selling price is so near the cost of the production that under the best conditions the profit is very small, and under those less favorable nothing. Another cause of grievance is the competition of our home product with the cheaper German, Italian, and Mexican graphites. These sell in our own markets at from 1 to 1.5 cents a pound, and while they do not enter into competition with the coarser flake they do with our different grades of powder, which are invariable products of the milling process and which are now sold at unremunerative prices because of this ruinous competition. We feel that an import duty on all grades of raw and refined graphite of 25 per cent ad valorem would give us the necessary protection, without being .prohibitive of the importation of foreign graphites when necessary. In conclusion we beg leave to call your attention to the fact that Canada, which is a considerable producer of graphite, has that industry protected by a 221 per cent ad valorem import duty. Very respectfully, yours, F. D. CHESTER, Treasurer and General Manager. THE JOSEPH DIXON CRUCIBLE CO., JERSEY CITY, N. J., OPPOSES PLACING DUTY ON CEYLON PLUMBAGO. JERSEY CITY, N. J., January 7, 1909. THE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. GENTLEMEN: In relation to the matter of tariff on graphite, we beg to be allowed to bring to your attention the opinions of those who occupy the peculiar position of both miners and importers of this article. The Joseph Dixon Crucible Company were the original manufacturers of crucibles in the United States, and from that beginning have branched out until at the present time they cover the entire graphite field, both in mining, importing, and manufacturing graphite in all the various forms in which it is used in the arts, so that we feel that we are in a position to give very correct information on the subject at issue. Before going further we desire to correct the statement of one of your petitioners, as it appears in the report of hearings issued December 7, 1908, to the effect that graphite is a metal; graphite being entirely composed of the element carbon is, of course, nonmetallic, and we make this correction, lest the error might lead some to classify this with purely metallurgical industries. A classification of the kinds of graphite, amorphous, flake, and chip, as put forth by another petitioner is not exactly correct. Graphite occurs naturally in two forms, crystalline and noncrystalline or amorphous, and, in addition, the crystalline graphite occurs in various forms of crystallization, the flake or thin laminæ, columnar or needle-like, similar to the crystallization of asbestos, and irregularly prismatic. The production of the amorphous form in the United States is practically nothing, although in the reports of the United States Geological Survey the production of the United States in 1907 is given at 26,000 tons. This refers to such materials as are mined and converted into the low-grade foundry facings, and occupy an intermediate position between coal and graphite. The amorphous graphites such as are found in Mexico and in the central European countries are practically not produced in this country. Graphite as it is found in Ceylon occurs in the different forms of crystals previously mentioned, but the flake and needle-like forms are in such small quantities as to be negligible in use. No attempt is ever made to separate these forms from the much larger portion of the graphite, which takes an approximately granular form on pulverization. Graphite occurs in fissure veins, for the most part very small, but at times swelling out so that masses weighing several hundred pounds have been found. No milling is resorted to in preparing plumbago (the actual trade name for graphite from Ceylon) for the market. Whatever grading there is, is the result of selection by hand picking only. On the other hand, the graphite as it is mined in the United States is what we call a disseminated variety, and is invariably in a thin laminated or flake form. In order to separate this form of graphite from the gangue, or containing material, milling operations are, of course, necessary. In our own mine at Ticonderoga, N. Y., which we have operated for a matter of over twenty years, the graphite is contained in a hard rock similar to granite, and the small flakes of graphite occupy the same relation to the rock as the particles of mica do in ordinary granite. The rock is reduced in size to fine sand and the flakes of graphite are then separated. The ore is lean, in that not more than 5 or 6 per cent of marketable graphite is extracted. In the Chester County fields in Pennsylvania the formation is sometimes the same, but usually the rock is decomposed, so that the separation of the graphite is more simple, as the crushing of the ore is eliminated. As we understand it, the graphite in the Alabama field occurs much in the same way as in our own mine at Ticonderoga, and the process of milling is much the same. In Canada, where mining operations have been carried on in a desultory way for a number of years, the graphite is found both in the disseminated form and in the fissure veins as in Ceylon. The experience there has been that it is not profitable to work the fissure veins, for the reason that they are extremely uncertain as to size and continuity. On the other hand, the veins containing the disseminated graphite, while low in graphite are often very thick and extensive, and furnish a dependable basis for a commercial venture. We have had similar experience. Before opening our present mine we operated another for many years under the name of the American Graphite Company. In this mine the graphite occurred in fissures from a fraction of an inch to 4 or 5 feet in width, the enlargements of the veins being separated by considerable distances, a condition which prevented successful operation. The only way anything could be got out of it was by allowing workmen to work in the mine at their own risk and expense, buying their findings at a specified rate. This is the method largely followed at the present time in Ceylon. Of the total output of crystalline graphite in this country for the past few years this company have produced more than 60 per cent, so that of an annual average of 5,000,000 pounds our own mine has furnished more than 3,000,000 pounds. This 3,000,000 pounds is divided, of course, between the higher and lower grades, about 50 per cent of the total amount being in the form of large flakes, which is the variety almost invariably used for lubricating purposes, and is the form which is referred to by Mr. Chester, Mr. Just, and Mr. Towne in report referred to previously. We wish to say that while we are very large manufacturers of plumbago crucibles that we do not use any of this flake form in our crucibles, as the results of our experiments have satisfied us that this form is not nearly as suitable as the more granular and massive form as it comes from Ceylon. We wish to make clear this point, that while we can produce the flake graphite at prices which are competitive with the average price of the Ceylon graphite, we have found it inadvisable to use it in the manufacture of crucibles. The importation of Ceylon graphité has averaged for the last ten or eleven years about 14,000 or 15,000 tons, and of this amount about 70 per cent is used in the manufacture of crucibles. The average price of all grades of plumbago as imported from Ceylon at the present time is almost 7 cents per pound. The average price of those grades of Ceylon plumbago used in the manufacture of crucibles at the present time is more than 9 cents per pound, and these averages are not far from the averages for the past ten years. Mr. Chester, in his letter, says that the average price received for the home product is 4.2 cents per pound, showing clearly that the average price of Ceylon plumbago is invariably higher than the average price for the American product. At the present time the cost of Ceylon lump plumbago carrying 90 per cent carbon is about 103 cents. We ourselves have had during the past sixty days offers of carload lots of American flake graphite of an equal purity at 7 cents per pound. Basing conclusions in the above statements it does not appear that the production of flake graphite in the United States suffers because of the competition of the Ceylon product. Ted as S Ame tes T poun Another phase of this question we desire to call your attention to. Mr. Towne asks or says that he thinks a duty of 3 cents per pound should be laid. In a crucible having a capacity of 100 pounds of steel there is approximately 21 pounds of plumbago; an increase of 3 cents per pound would make an increase of 63 cents in the actual cost of this crucible to the manufacturer, and, of course, would be more to the consumer. The average production of crucible steel per crucible heat is about 100 pounds, and as five crucibles are necessary for the production of 1 ton of metal, it is evident that an increase in the price |