Statement of customs duties imposed by certain foreign countries on imports of various grades of sugar-Continued. 50 per cent or less (import duty). More than 50 per cent (import duty) For distillation, for each degree of saccharine richness (import duty).. Florins. 20.75 $4.004 Sugars, other... RUSSIA. Not exceeding 76° of polarization.. Sirup and molasses.. Unrefined (excise duty): Of a saccharine richness of 98 per cent or higher. Of a saccharine richness of less then 98 per cent for every percentage of quality. Melada, molasses, sirups, and other saccharine fluids (excise duty). (When the degree of purity of these fluids exceeds 68, the excise shall be raised by 36 cents ($0. 144) for every unit above 68.) Refined (excise duty): Loaf and lump and all sugars not specially mentioned... Sugar yielding more than 94 per cent of refined sugar Molasses, raw, for the manufacture of blacking, of coloring extracts, etc., (sub- Cane molasses, for the manufacture of coffee substitutes (under control) Sugar, glucose, liquid caramel, and other analogous products.. Containing more than 50 per cent of crystallizable sugar.. 18.40 4.379 Exceeding 81° and not exceeding 82°. Exceeding 85° and not exceeding 86°. .634 Molasses and invert sugar and all other sugar and extracts from sugar which can not be completely tested by the polariscope and on which duty is not otherwise charged: If containing 70 per cent or more of sweetening matter... If containing not more than 50 per cent of sweetening matter.. If containing less than 70 per cent and more than 50 per cent of sweetening matter a But not less than 18 florins ($7.236) per 100 kilos. NOTE. One hundred kilos equals 220.46 pounds, 1 pood equals 36.112 pounds, 1 hundredweight equals 112 pounds. CONFECTIONERY. THE NATIONAL CONFECTIONERS' ASSOCIATION, ST. LOUIS, MO., WISHES PRESENT DUTIES UNDISTURBED. Hon. SERENO E. PAYNE, ST. LOUIS, December 12, 1908. Chairman Ways and Means Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: I submit this brief in the name of the National Confectioners' Association of the United States. The membership of said association comprises 335 manufacturing confectioners located throughout the various States of the United States and 187 allied industries. That your honorable committee might know the views and wishes not of individual manufacturers, but of an industry, I solicited of each member of the National Confectioners' Association his views on the subject of the tariff on confectionery and the tariff on the materials of which same is made. The great majority are in favor of making no change in the existing tariff conditions governing confectionery, the present regulation. being as set forth in Schedule E, paragraph 212, in act of July 24, 1897, as follows: 212. Sugar candy and all confectionery not specially provided for in this act, valued at fifteen cents per pound or less, and on sugars after being refined, when tinctured, colored, or in any way adulterated, four cents per pound and fifteen per centum ad valorem; valued at more than fifteen cents per pound, fifty per centum ad valorem. The weight and the value of the immediate coverings, other than the outer packing case or other covering, shall be included in the dutiable weight and the value of the merchandise. The provision, however, is made that if your honorable committee decides to recommend reductions of consequence in the tariff on materials of which confectionery is made, that corresponding reductions in the tariff on confectionery will be acceptable to the majority of the manufacturers of confectionery in the United States. The principal ingredients of which confectionery is made are, in respect to their importance, as follows-the numbers opposite each name indicating the paragraph number in the present existing tariff on imports into the United States: 209, sugar; 281-282, chocolate and cocoa butter; 210, glucose or corn sirup; 269-272, nuts; 262-268, fruits; 263, fruits (preserved, etc.); 285, starch; 29, licorice; 23, gelatin; 41, peppermint oil; 210, maple sugar and sirup: 3, essential oils. Having carefully reviewed the hearings before your honorable committee on the subject of the tariff on the above-stated articles and items, I feel we can add little of value to the information submitted. by the manufacturers of same. So far as the present duty on confectionery is concerned, it offers no advantage to the manufacturers of the United States by which their profits may be made abnormal. The average net profit of the average large manufacturing confectioner is from 21 to 5 per cent. 61318-TARIFF-No. 42-08-4 As the government records of imports show, confectionery, to some extent, is now being imported into the United States. The cost of labor in this country is considerably more than the cost of labor in producing confectionery in foreign countries. The cheapest wages paid in the United States vary from $3.50 per week to $6 per week, against $1.50 per week to $2.50 per week in England. The average wages paid in the United States vary from $10 per week to $15 per week, against $5 per week to $10 per week in England. So far as the mechanical equipment of confectionery factories is concerned, the United States is on a parity with foreign countries. In establishing a tariff on confectionery, there should also be taken into consideration the possibilities of competition with Canada, which country, so far as its cost of production is concerned, is able to compete on a lower cost basis with the United States, allowing the same basis of costs for raw materials. Respectfully submitted. NATIONAL CONFECTIONERS' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SUGAR. HON. JESSE OVERSTREET, M. C., SUBMITS PETITION FOR FREE SUGAR FROM THE W. W. BACON COMPANY, WHOLESALE GROCERS, INDIANAPOLIS, IND. To the honorable HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, DECEMBER 10, 1908. Washington, D. C. The undersigned respectfully ask for the removal of the duty from raw and refined sugars, in the interest both of the 80,000,000 consumers of the country and the manufacturing industries in which it is an important material. This tax amounts to 2 cents per pound on refined sugar. We would submit that such an exorbitant tax is not justified by the conditions relating to the production or refining of sugar in this country. Leading sugar refiners have testified that they need no tariff protection against foreign refiners, and that the abolition of the duty on sugar would so greatly increase consumption that their industry would be directly benefited. The production of sugar in this country is very small in comparison with the annual consumption, and there is no good reason why all the people should be heavily taxed in the interest of one industry. The relatively high price of sugar operates to prevent its more general use in the manufacture of preserved fruits of all kinds, and by adding to the cost of these articles limits their consumption. While this is the greatest fruit-growing country in the world, our exports of jams, jellies, etc., are comparatively small, as we can not compete in neutral markets with countries like Great Britain, which have the advantage of cheap sugar. We believe that this is a matter which should be decided by Congress in favor of the policy which will benefit the greater number of the people, and that the interests of the consumers should receive the consideration to which they are entitled. The tax on sugar is paid wholly by the consumers, and is an unnecessary burden on one of their principal articles of food. The repeal of this tax would therefore be an unquestioned advantage to the people of the entire country. THE W. W. BACON CO. A similar petition was received from Kuhn & Bro. Company, Pittsburg, Pa. SCHEDULE F.-TOBACCO AND MANUFACTURES OF. CIGARS. HON. EDWIN DENBY, M. C., FILES LETTER OF JOHN C. SULLIVAN, DETROIT, MICH., URGING INCREASE IN DUTY ON CIGARS. Hon. EDWIN DENBY, DETROIT, MICH., November 27, 1908. House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR FRIEND DENBY: Inclosed you will please find in condensed form the result of protection for the last forty-six years. Representative Morrill, of Maine, brought in the first real protection bill before the American Congress. It was brought in as a war measure, but it proved the most beneficial measure for the American people that ever was enacted. McKinley, of blessed memory, improved on that, tin and all, not a sheet of tin being then produced in America. The Democratic party said that we could not make it. To-day I understand-and from those who ought to know-that there are 50,000 people working in tin works. The Coates thread is another object lesson of protection. I might go on and number 50 different industries that have been created by protection. There is not any necessity of me pointing those things out to you, but I wish to recall the days preceding the war of the rebellion. A laboring man worked for 50 and 75 cents a day; to-day a laboring man gets $1.50 to $2.50; the wages of the skilled mechanic have increased in like proportion. In those good old Democratic days your small merchant was comfortably housed if he had a nice rag carpet on his floor; to-day a laborer is not satisfied, nor should he be, unless his house is nicely furnished, with a carpet of superior quality. In those days the pictures on the wall of a laboring man or a mechanic were cheap paper affairs; to-day steel engravings of the latest and most approved style only satisfy them. I contend that there is nothing too good for the workingman, but good things are only secured by high wages, and high wages are only secured by protection against 40 cents a day in foreign factories, twelve and fif teen hours' labor in foreign factories, when we ourselves are working mainly on the eight-hour system. In the good Democratic day a laboring man's shanty was hardly ever painted; now he helps the painter every three or four years. The musical instruments, pianos, etc., were confined only to those who were deemed rich in those days; the mechanic and the laboring man had to be satisfied with a jew'sharp and a mouth harp; to-day, under the system of protection, any washer or scrub woman, if she is provident, can have a piano, pianola, or house organ, and they are entitled to it. When I was a boy German cigars came free into this country, millions of them every month. |