This duty ought to be doubled, for, as a rule, the most money that the sawmill makes is on the waste. A duty of 50 cents per 1,000 pieces would not be out of proportion to the other lumber duties, and would not average up to the duties in other schedules. When this duty was established the price of laths was about $1.50 per 1,000. Two years ago it held for the entire year from $3.90 to $4. During the last year laths delivered by vessel in New York have brought from $2.75 to $3.50. The ad valorem equivalent of the duty at present is only 7.2 per cent, but when enacted it was 16.6 per cent. If it is doubled now it will not be equal to what it was then. Mr. James W. Parker, president of the companies that I represent, informs me that "at times ten to twenty-five millions of laths from the Provinces arrive in New York in a fleet of vessels in one day." The magnitude of this by-product business, therefore, is sufficient to merit attention. The duty of 30 cents per 1,000 on shingles is moderately protective and should either be continued or increased. There are large quantities of cedar in northern Maine and in the Canadian Provinces, and shingles made from cedar in both places compete sharply in our market. Mr. HILL. Have you any idea that the people in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, the manufacturers there, would consider for a moment the increase of duties to any such basis as you are considering there? Mr. CLARKE. The only increase that is asked is on laths, and that would not make it equal in the ad valorem equivalent to what it was when the duty was in both. (Thereupon, at 11.25 p. m., a recess was taken until to-morrow, Saturday, November 21, at 9.30 o'clock a. m.) APPENDIX. Hon. S. E. PAYNE, WHITE PINE. SAGINAW, MICH., November 16, 1908. Chairman Ways and Means Committee, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: This week I believe you are to consider the lumber schedule, and so as briefly as possible I wish to suggest the advisability of removing the duty from white pine lumber imported in the rough. It is now $2 per thousand. My reason for this is this: For many years I was at the head of W. B. Mershon & Co., of Saginaw, later changed to Mershon, Schuette, Parker & Co., the largest manipulators and handlers of white-pine lumber in Michigan, and producing more manufactured products of white-pine lumber than probably any other firm in the country. This concern has employed as high as 1,200 men, but the business is lessened now, and greatly lessened, so probably not over one-third that number is at present employed. I am also vice-president and one-quarter owner of Mershon-Bacon Company, at Bay City, Mich., owning a planing mill and box factory. In the early days the Saginaw River produced all of the lumber required, but with the cutting of our Michigan timber we were compelled to go farther for raw material, and did obtain it for a few years from ports along the south shore of Lake Superior, going as far as Duluth, but many of these mills have become dismantled, for the pine has been cut and the supply found at Duluth is very meager. We then looked to the Georgian Bay district of Canada for our raw material and obtained it in satisfactory quantity, but not of the best quality, for a number of years. For the last few years is has been very difficult to get a supply, because Canada has been prospering, using a pile of lumber itself, and Canadian buyers are sharp competitors of ours when we are trying to obtain a supply of lumber from one of the sawmills in the Georgian Bay district. Again, the Canadians have built up a big export trade by reason of their ability to use unsuitable parts of this log-run white pine (and in speaking of lumber I always mean white pine) in their local trade. When we enter into competition with these Canadian buyers we are handicapped by having to pay our own Government $2 per thousand for the privilege of bringing raw material to the Saginaw Valley to manufacture, to keep our plant and capital employed and to give employment to American labor. The result is that many lots of lumber, if we were not thus handicapped, would be obtained by us, and not only our factories kept busy, but our busines increased the same way theirs 1020 has. If the rate of growth and prosperity keeps on in Canada, in a few years all of that Canadian lumber will be demanded at home, and kept there unless we can get it without paying a tax to our own Government. A large number of the mills, in fact nearly all of them that are doing business and owning timber limits in Canada in the Georgian Bay district, are owned or controlled by Americans, so that on an even basis of price we might have the preference in buying over the Canadian competitor. Our freight rate from Georgian Bay mills to the Saginaw Valley runs from $1.50 to $1.75 per thousand on rough lumber and our freight rate to New York seaboard in the shipment of the manufactured product by rail is just about the same per thousand feet as that of the western Ontario district. In fact, Toronto manufacturers can ship via Montreal or via St. Johns, New Brunswick, at a lower freight rate for export than we can from here. The establishment of a bonded lumber yard is not practicable for us. We have tried it, and it is a failure, for the percentage of log-run lumber that is suitable for export is so small. The rebate or drawback on the manufactured article worked fairly well, but we never got as much back as we paid out for duty on the exported manufactured article, owing to the red tape employed by the department and the method of figuring waste, etc., which is always against the American manufacturer and the length of time it takes to collect the drawback, the expense of hiring lawyers or agents to get it for us and all that makes it not worth the powder. Mershon, Schuette, Parker & Co. are large manufacturers of packing boxes, and these necessarily must be cheap and low priced, for they are used but once and destroyed. The increased cost of white pine, when you figure it must be obtained in Canada, and then our Government must be paid $2 per thousand for the privilege of bringing it here and making it into boxes to be consumed by manufacturers in our own country, is rapidly destroying that industry. So here is a case where the duty can be removed from raw material without affecting in any way the price of white-pine lumber at home, but it would be the means of increasing the supply of raw material that is available for the employment of American capital and American labor. We ought to be in a position where we can get this lumber to use here in the United States and keep it away from the Canadian manufacturer. Put us on an even basis in our competition in buying, and for many years yet we will be able to prevent the Canadian manufacturer from expanding and increasing his business at our expense. Speaking of "manufacturing lumber," please understand it relates to taking the rough-sawn boards and manufacturing into flooring, siding, molding, window frames, doors, mantels, and a thousand and one other articles of manufacture, and is not to be confused with the manufacture of logs into lumber. That is the work of the saw mill in Canada and ours is the work of the planing mill, box factory, etc., in the United States. Yours, truly, W. B. MERSHON. Hon. SERENO E. PAYNE, Esq., RED CEDAR. RICHMOND, VA., November 16, 1908. Chairman Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: We beg to call your attention to the fact that tariff act of July 24, 1897, contains no clause applicable to red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), which is commonly known in this country as pencil cedar, the clauses Nos. 198 and 700 clearly referring to cigar-box cedar or Spanish cedar (Cedrella odorata). Up to the time of this act, there had been no red cedar imported into this country, and we are anxious to get this timber in the new act. Up to the present time the pencil manufacturers of the world have found the red cedar of the States better suited for their purpose than any cedar known, but owing to the fact that the life of the cedar in the United States will only last a very few years, the pencil manufacturers will be forced soon to go to foreign countries for this timber. We understand that all logs brought into this country, whether round or hewed, are free of duty. To this class on the free list, we would like to have added red cedar, sided or squared. The fact of siding or squaring in no way enhances its value in this country over hewn logs, but owing to the difficulty of getting good hewers in foreign countries, we might find it to our advantage to bring this timber in sided or squared. All of this red cedar would be worked up into very small boards for lead pencils, or cut into tongued and grooved boards for cedar closets. None of this timber would be used in the original shape in which it is brought in. If your committee sees fit, we would like to have entered on the free list the following clause: Red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) timber, hewn, sided, squared, or round. It will be perfectly agreeable to us should you wish to add to this: provided it is not used in the original shape in which it is brought in. Very respectfully, GULF RED CEDAR COMPANY, LAUREL OR BRIER WOOD. HACKETTSTOWN, N. J., November 17, 1908. House Ways and Means Committee, Washington, D. C. GENTLEMEN: I wish to call the attention of your honorable committee to the fact that there is now no tariff upon laurel wood, commercially known as "brier" wood, for pipes. There ought to be a tariff on it of at least 50 per cent, because there are millions of tons of it in this country; but on account of the high price of labor in this country and of the cheap labor in Italy we can not compete with the product of that country. At present this wood comes into this country sawed in shape for manufacture into pipes, and therefore it is not " raw material," and that industry here ought to be protected to at least the extent above referred to. There is now imported into this country about $500,000 worth of this wood annually, whereas this money should be kept in this country. The average cost of blocks sawed in shape is about $2.50 per gross. The business here is practically nothing on account of the lack of protection against the foreign product. The manufactured product (pipes) now has a duty of 60 per cent, which is a reasonable protection to the industry. I wish, therefore, to appeal to your honorable committee to see to it that the above request is granted. Very respectfully, COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, LEWIS T. LA BAR. NEW YORK, November 18, 1908. House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. GENTLEMEN: Being manufacturers and importers of pipes and smokers' articles, we take the liberty of addressing you in reference to tariff revision on these articles. Established in 1863, we imported all our goods, and when a higher protective tariff of 75 per cent ad valorem and $1.50 per gross specific duty came into existence we were encouraged to commence manufacturing here.. When a revision of the tariff took place we used our efforts to have the Committee on Ways and Means reduce the rates on smokers' articles to 75 per cent ad valorem, to take off the specific duty, and to place raw materials, such as French brier-wood blocks, on the free list, as we had been considerably hampered owing to duty on this material. This French brier wood is the only wood in existence. which is practical for a useful pipe, and nothing has been found in this country which could be applied as a substitute. The very last revision of the tariff reduced the rate to 60 per cent. Foreign manufacturers were then very much encouraged and made special efforts, and so did the importers here who had no interest in the American factories, and the result was larger importations, whereby the American industry here had to suffer. This, luckily, was overcome later on, as the price of labor in Europe increased with larger importations. We have an experience of about forty-five years, have the largest plant in this country or Europe, with the best equipment; have, of course, never been able to do any exporting to Europe, but we are still importing such goods on which the cost of labor is the predominant part of the total value. The enormous difference between the cost of skilled labor in America and that of Europe (the puchasing power of 40 cents there being equal to that of $1 here) is the item we have to contend with. The importations in smokers' articles, at invoice price, including duty (which means our cost price) as per custom-house records, for the fiscal year of 1907, amounted to a little over $1,600,000. This country produced in pipes and smokers' articles, figuring the manufacturer's cost, during the same period the sum of about $3,500,000. 61318-TARIFF--No. 10-08- -5 |