STATEMENT OF MR. A. L. FAULKNER, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, REPRESENTING THE NATIONAL GLASS WORKERS. The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed, Mr. Faulkner. Mr. FAULKNER. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I want to say in the beginning that I am not a manufacturer and not a jobber. I am simply trying to represent the workingmen, the window-glass workers. And I should like to say, before submitting this brief, that I will be as concise as possible, take up very little of your time, and that I should like to present a supplemental brief later on, for the reason that the matter came up so suddenly that we were not able to secure the data necessary to make a proper statement as to figures before this committee. I simply want to show you what our people need, why they need it, and why they believe that they have a right to ask for and receive it. In appearing before the House Ways and Means Committee I do so representing the interests of all window-glass workers of this country, their families and their dependents. The Republican platform pledges a revision of the tariff. Mr. Taft in his preelection speeches pledged himself to a speedy and honest revision of the tariff. We believe the pledges will be redeemed and the President-elect will keep his pledge. Believing that revision does not necessarily mean a reduction of the present schedule, but that the term may be aptly applied as meaning an increase as well where necessary, that the labor interests as well as the business interests of this country may be thoroughly and honestly protected. I herewith submit a conden-ed statement concerning the condition of the window-glass industry as viewed from the worker's standpoint: There are 6,700 skilled window-glass workers in this country, all of whom are members of organized labor, capable of producing annually 11,000,000 50-foot boxes of the sizes and qualities required by American consumers. By the above I mean to demonstrate the fact that if all the skilled American window-glass workers were employed at their respective trades in the making of window glass a sufficient number of boxes to supply the entire consumption of the country could be made in six months, thus compelling the forced idleness of the workmen during the remainder of the year. During a trip through Europe last summer I had the opportunity of studying labor conditions affecting the glass industry and was particularly impressed with the fact that the low rate of wages paid the employees, together with the low cost of glass-producing materials, was a great menace to the American window-glass industry, the only safeguard against which is the tariff. The comparative wages of American and foreign workmen I will submit as follows: American workmen: Blowers, $120.50 per month; gatherers, $90.25 per month; cutters, $124 per month; flatteners, $130 per month. Foreign workmen (I use the phrase "foreign" as referring particularly to the Belgian workers, our greatest competitors): Skilled workmen-Blowers, $60 to $80 per place. Mr. COCKRAN. Sixty dollars to $80 per what? Mr. FAULKNER. Sixty dollars to $80 per place. I will explain that later. Mr. COCKRAN. All right. Mr. FAULKNER. Gatherers, $40 to $50 per place; cutters, $28 to $38 each; flatteners, $40 to $60 each. In the case of a part of the more unskilled labor, the following were the wages shown by the figures that I was able to obtain: Lehr tenders, $48 to $60 per month; shove boys, $18 to $60 per month; roller boys, $18 per month. Foreign unskilled labor: Lehr tenders, girls, $15 to $18 per month; shove girls-that is, in place of the boys used in this country-$15 to $18 per month; roller carriers, girls, $18 per month. In addition, we might add to the American unskilled or perhaps semiskilled workmen what we know as the snapper, one to each place, who receives an average of $48 per month. In Europe they dispense with the services of a snapper. The price of American skilled labor is determined monthly by the selling price for the current month, while the price of foreign skilled labor is fixed annually. To better understand the above figures, it is necessary to bear in mind the fact that the American blower and gatherer work singly, or one to each place, while the foreign blower and gatherer work double, or two to each place. In fact, I sometimes saw three in a place. The latter condition is due to a surplus of workers. The American blower works one hundred and sixty hours per month and produces 360 rollers (you might know them better as cylinders), or 200 boxes of window glass, single strength. The foreign blower works one hundred and eighty hours per month, producing 550 cylinders, or 312 boxes of glass. The average number of 50-feet boxes of common window glass imported annually for the last twenty-four years is 854,324, aggregating 20,503,776 boxes. A box consists of 50 square feet. I am free to say that a lowering of the duty on common window glass would mean an increased importation of that article, comparative with the amount of the said reduction, and would work a corresponding injury to the window-glass workers and manufacturers alike of this country. Therefore, I would earnestly urge that the House Ways and Means Committee report against any reduction in the tariff rate as provided for in Schedule B, glass and glassware, No. 101, of the tariff act of 1897, and I would most earnestly recommend that the rates be increased in the above-mentioned schedule upon common window glass, up to and including sizes 16 by 24 inches square, for the reason that the bulk of glass imported into this country is contained in the various brackets or sizes from 6 by 8, up to and including 16 by 24 inches square. An increase in the rates on the above-named sizes would mean decreased importation, thereby creating a greater market for domestic product, thus adding to the earnings of the worker. Simply the keeping out of this country annually of perhaps one-half million or more 50-feet boxes which are now being made abroad, and which could and should be produced in America, would greatly benefit not only the window-glass workers of this country but also all other labor required for the preparing and handling of the materials that would necessarily enter into the production of the glass required to supply the increased market for domestic glass, as all materials used in the manufacture of window glass are produced in America. Mr. COCKRAN. Mr. Faulkner, did I understand you correctly to say that if these workers were all employed they would produce in six months the entire output? Mr. FAULKNER. Yes, sir. Mr. COCKRAN. Then they are only employed half the time, according to that? Mr. FAULKNER. Yes, sir. Mr. COCKRAN. Then when you speak of them as obtaining these rates of wages, they only obtain them for half the time? Mr. FAULKNER. Yes, sir. Mr. COCKRAN. So that the discrepancy between the European laborer and the American laborer must be reduced by one-half, according to that? Mr. FAULKNER. Do you mean the total earnings? Mr. COCKRAN. Yes. Mr. FAULKNER. Yes. Mr. COCKRAN. When you speak of the American blower as earning $120 a month, that means for six months of the year? Mr. FAULKNER. Exactly. Mr. COCKRAN. So that he is earning $720 a year? Mr. FAULKNER. Exactly. Mr. COCKRAN. The foreign blower gets $60 per place, you say. What do you mean by "per place?" Mr. FAULKNER. I mean that there are two in a place. They receive from $60 to $80 for the work performed in that place, or from $30 to $40 each. Mr. COCKRAN. That is, a month? Mr. FAULKNER. A month. Mr. COCKRAN. The monthly pay-this amount-is divided between two; that is what you mean? Mr. FAULKNER. Yes, sir. Mr. COCKRAN. Is that so in every instance? Mr. FAULKNER. Almost. Mr. COCKRAN. If one man fills the place he gets the full pay, does he not? Mr. FAULKNER. Yes; but they do not. Mr. COCKRAN. Do you say it never occurs? Mr. FAULKNER. Very seldom. Mr. COCKRAN. It sometimes occurs, however? Mr. FAULKNER (continuing). For the reason that there are so many workmen over there that they have to be taken care of. Mr. COCKRAN. Yes. Then you have twice too many here, also? Mr. FAULKNER. Yes, sir. Mr. COCKRAN. So that the excess is not peculiar to this country. In the case of the foreign blower who fills one of these places, he gets from $60 to $80 a month, does he not? Mr. FAULKNER. If he fills it alone; yes, sir. Mr. COCKRAN. And he would get nearly a thousand dollars a year working the full time? Mr. FAULKNER. Yes, sir. Mr. COCKRAN. So that he would be really better paid than the American workman? Mr. FAULKNER. Yes, sir. Mr. COCKRAN. What has become of all this duty that has been levied for the benefit of the American workman in the past? Have you any idea? Mr. FAULKNER. That is a question I will leave you folks to answer. Mr. COCKRAN. I know where it has gone, according to my notion; the employer has "bagged " it. Is that your notion of it? Mr. FAULKNER. I am not speaking for the employer. The point I want to make Mr. COCKRAN. Oh, no; I am not asking you to speak for the employer. I am asking you where a specific sum has gone. According to you, the rates paid to the foreign laborer are about as high as those paid the American laborer. There has been a very high duty levied, presumably for the benefit of the laborer-is not that so?during all these years, when you find that the conditions are practically the same both here and abroad. Mr. DALZELL. I did not understand this witness to say that the foreign labor was paid as high as our own labor. Mr. COCKRAN. I am reasoning it out. I am asking him question by question, and he is answering. Mr. DALZELL. I understood you to put the question to him assuming that he had said so. Mr. COCKRAN. I did not do anything of the kind; I asked him a question, and he answered it. Mr. DALZELL. Then I misunderstood you. Mr. COCKRAN. Lest there might be some misapprehension, I will ask him again. I think everybody else understands it; but let us get it perfectly clear. I understood you to begin your statement by alleging that there are 6,700 skilled workers, all organized; that if they were employed all the time they could produce the total output in this country in six months. Am I right about that? Mr. FAULKNER. That was my statement; yes, sir. Mr. COCKRAN. That was your statement. If such a person is paid at the rate of $120 a month and he is employed for six months of the year, he gets $720 a year. That is about the amount of his compensation, is it not? Mr. FAULKNER. Are you figuring that there are two in a place? Mr. COCKRAN. You said the American workman was employed about half the time. Mr. FAULKNER. About half the time; yes, sir. Mr. COCKRAN. Very good. If he is only employed half the time and gets $120 a month while he is working, his actual earnings are $720 a year, are they not? Mr. FAULKNER. Yes. Suppose he were working all of the year? Mr. COCKRAN. But he is not, according to you. Mr. FAULKNER. But what I am after is to get more employment for that man. Mr. COCKRAN. Oh, well, I am coming to that, of course. Mr. FAULKNER. That is the point. Mr. COCKRAN. But in order to reach how that should be done, we had better investigate how similar attempts have worked out in the past. Your suggestion is to increase the duty. I want to see what effect the duty has had before I consider giving it in a larger degree. I understand, now, that we are agreed that the American workman, the blower, gets $720 a year in cash. He works about half the time, and is paid $120 a month. Am I correct about that? Mr. FAULKNER. No, sir; you are not, for the simple reason that when you are putting it in that way you are speaking only for onehalf of the American window-glass manufacturers, or else each man is working only half the time. Mr. COCKRAN. That is what I say. Mr. FAULKNER. Some of them work nine months, and some work three. Mr. COCKRAN. I understand that; but the average is six months? Mr. FAULKNER. The average is six months. Mr. COCKRAN. Very good. Then the average pay is $720 a year? Mr. FAULKNER. Yes, sir; and you have another man now that does not receive anything. Mr. COCKRAN. I understand that. Mr. FAULKNER. Because there is no place for him to work. Mr. COCKRAN. Oh, of course, I understand that some men probably work the whole year round, and some do not work at all; some work three months and some work nine months, as you have said. But that means that the average, as you have fixed it, is six months for each man. That is the average employment, the average time? Mr. FAULKNER. The average employment; yes, sir. Mr. COCKRAN. The average employment is six months; and he gets $120 a month? Mr. FAULKNER. Yes, sir. Mr. COCKRAN. So that the average pay is $720 a year? Mr. FAULKNER. In that way; yes. Mr. COCKRAN. There is no other way of calculating it, is there? Mr. FAULKNER. If they were all employed. Mr. COCKRAN. That is it. The foreigner, according to you, is paid from $60 to $80 per place. Is not that right? Mr. FAULKNER. That is right. Mr. COCKRAN. But by "place," you mean that so much is allowed to that particular place. If one man can fill it, he gets it all. If two men are required to fill it, they divide the money between them? Mr. FAULKNER. Exactly. Mr. COCKRAN. In proportion to the amount of work they do, I suppose? Mr. FAULKNER. Exactly. Mr. COCKRAN. I suppose the real fact is that at any one place for part of the time there would be two men working and part of the time one man would be doing it. That is about the truth, is it not? Mr. FAULKNER. I think my statement was that nearly all of them were doubled up-in nearly every instance, so far as my observation went. Mr. COCKRAN. How much is your observation? How long did it last? Mr. FAULKNER. I was over there quite a while. Mr. COCKRAN. About how long? Mr. FAULKNER. I was in very close touch with the officials of the Belgian organization, and a great deal of my information I received |