PARAGRAPH 212-OSIER OR WILLOW. for the Italian markets than before, when we were forced to divide that field with the Austrians. With these facts before you, I feel confident you will be willing to use your utmost endeavors to cause the duty to be removed from lemons, for I believe you must agree with us that it is a gross injustice to the people of these United States to oblige them to pay tribute to the lemon growers of California in this way, when it is not required to protect" their industry, and at the same time kill this industry in the State of Maine altogether. Hoping for your aid and support to bring us the desired relief, I remain, Most respectfully, yours, PARAGRAPH 212. ALLEN HACKETT. Chair cane or reeds wrought or manufactured from rattans or reeds, ten per centum ad valorem; osier or willow, including chip of and split willow, prepared for basket makers' use, twenty-five per centum ad valorem; manufactures of osier or willow and willow furniture, forty-five per centum ad valorem. OSIER OR WILLOW. TESTIMONY OF CHARLES MENKE, NEW YORK, N. Y. Mr. Menke was duly sworn by the chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Menke, will you give your name and address to the stenographer? Mr. MENKE. Charles Menke, 67 Avenue B, New York City. The CHAIRMAN. What paragraph do you appear in reference to? Mr. MENKE. The raw material used in basket manufacture. I am a basket manufacturer. Mr. KITCHIN. Veneers of wood? Mr. MENKE. No, willow. Chairman Underwood called Representative Harrison to the chair. Mr. HARRISON. You refer to paragraph 212, "Osier or willow, including chip of and split willow, prepared for basket makers' use"? Mr. MENKE. Yes, sir. The tariff on raw material is 25 per cent, and on manufactured goods 35 per cent and 40 per cent. I am 40 years in the business, and have to work hard myself every day to make it, and have to. Some workmen earn $10 and $11 a week, and millions of dollars' worth of baskets come over here from the old country, from Austria and Germany and France and Belgium, where children and women work on the baskets. We can not get along with a lower tariff. It is not possible. This is the second time I have been here. I have told about it. I have had experience. I start as a wee boy and been at it all the time, and I yet at it. With 25 per cent on raw material and 35 per cent and 40 per cent for the manufactured goods-that is very little for manufactured goods. We would like for you to let us have a little bit more. We don't get enough. We can't get along Mr. HAMMOND. Under what paragraph of the tariff act of 1909 is willow imported? Mr. MENKE. I don't have any book; I don't know; I can't tell you; I just know we can't hardly make it as it is now, and we would like to have a little more The CLERK. It is under paragraphs 212 and 214. Mr. HAMMOND. Free raw material is now subject to a duty of 25 per cent 78959°-VOL 3-13- 5 PARAGRAPH 212-OSIER OR WILLOW. Mr. MENKE. Yes, sir. Mr. HAMMOND. And your finished product has a duty of 35 per cent, and if stained, dyed, painted, printed, polished, grained, or creosoted it has a 40 per cent duty? Mr. MENKE. Well, in our line, we manufacture it raw, you know and the baskets when made have 35 per cent, and now we say you ought to give us a little more to protect us on the baskets. It is not possible to manufacture at 10 per cent in this country. A good many thousands of people in this country could have work if the duty was a little higher, because in the old country women and children and all work, and, as I suppose you all know, wages there are low. In one factory in Germany they employ over 4,000 men, women, and children making baskets, and they Mr. KITCHIN. What do you want? Do you want an increase or a decrease, or to let the tariff remain as it now is? Mr. MENKE. We would like for you to give us about 60 per cent on manufactured goods. If you don't take the duty off willow we are satisfied, but of course there is not much willow growing in this country. I am well acquainted around Baltimore and Harrisburg, where I get my willows from. Mr. KITCHIN. You want an increase in the tariff duty, and not a decrease? Mr. MENKE. Yes, sir. Mr. KITCHIN. And a decrease in raw material, did you say? Mr. MENKE. Well, I wouldn't touch raw material so much, although not one-eighth don't grow in this country that we use; but of course the labor in this country is too high, and they can't live at less, and the farmers don't peel any. I have three or four places where I get willows-Harrisburg, Cumberland, Baltimore, Buckstown. Mr. KITCHIN. What is the American output in your product? Mr. KITCHIN. Well, what is the amount of the product of the character of goods that you make? Mr. MENKE. What we make? Mr. KITCHIN. How much in dollars and cents would it amount to in this country per year? Mr. MENKE. By basket makers? Mr. KITCHIN. Yes. Mr. MENKE. Well, I can't say exactly. I have one place, and I have to work, too; and I don't know; can't say. Mr. KITCHIN. How many are imported? Mr. MENKE. Oh, more than a million dollars. Mr. MENKE. Yes, sir. Mr. KITCHIN. Willow baskets alone? Mr. MENKE. Yes, sir; and that is the reason we can not get along in this country on the 10 per cent more for manufactured product than for raw material-with the 25 per cent for raw material and 35 per cent for manufactured goods. Mr. KITCHIN. From what country do these imports come? Mr. KITCHIN. From where ? PARAGRAPH 212-OSIER OR WILLOW. Mr. MENKE. From Austria and Belgium. Mr. KITCHIN. And you say we import more than a million dollars' worth of manufactured goods and you have no idea what the American production is a year? Mr. MENKE. The American production? Mr. KITCHIN. Yes. Mr. MENKE. Well, I didn't study that very well, because I am just one Mr. KITCHIN (interposing). Suppose you sometime to-day find that out, about the amount of the American production, and let the clerk put it in your remarks. Mr. MENKE. You see, there is so much brought in here Mr. KITCHIN (interposing). You say it is a good deal more than the imports? Mr. MENKE. I don't know how much it is. But you see they can't get along, the workingmen, on $10 or $11 or $12 a week; they can't get along in this country any more. Mr. KITCHIN. So we are really importing more of these willow baskets than we are making in this country? Mr. MENKE. Oh, I think three times as much. Shiploads come over, and baskets by the thousands of dozens. They sell a basket in New York for 25 or 35 cents, and when I get the same basket made by my workingmen I have to give them 40 and 50 cents just for their labor. They import baskets cheaper than I pay for my labor. I can show it to you in black and white. Mr. KITCHIN. You find out from the Department of Commerce and Labor down here and put in your remarks how many dollars' worth of baskets are really imported; give it to us for the last three years. Mr. MENKE. I will. Mr. KITCHIN. Under paragraph 214, under which baskets are imported, porch and window blinds, baskets, curtains, shades, or screens of bamboo, wood, straw, or compositions of wood, the total amount of such articles imported last year was $917,195. Mr. MENKE. That is not in our line. Mr. KITCHIN. What, baskets? Mr. MENKE. What you read off there. Mr. KITCHIN. Well, baskets are in your line? Mr. MENKE. Yes. Mr. KITCHIN. This includes baskets, curtains, shades, and so on, and therefore the importation of baskets alone could not have been more than a million dollars, as you claim. Mr. MENKE. There are four importing basket houses in New York that supply the market Mr. KITCHIN. Do you reckon they get their baskets in without paying the duty? Mr. MENKE. I don't know about that. I hadn't been in New York, about 15 years ago, three hours when Mr. KITCHIN (interposing). You say you have stood there and seen boatloads of baskets come in? Mr. MENKE. Yes, sir. [Picking up a waste basket.] You see this is the outside, and then you can see inside here. They make baskets out of classes one and two, and they work this part into wood. I am PARAGRAPH 212-OSIER OR WILLOW. a basket maker since I was 4 years old, and am a basket maker to-day, and know what willow is, and know what I am talking about. Mr. KITCHIN. Under sections 212 and 214 combined the imports are less than a million dollars, which includes baskets and window blinds, shades, and other such manufactures. You must be mistaken about over a million dollars in baskets alone coming into this country each year? Mr. MENKE. Well, there are four big importers in New York that do not import anything but baskets, and how they can make expenses if they don't import that much I don't know. I know what I have to do, and I work myself. Mr. KITCHIN. I am telling you what the customhouse figures show. Mr. MENKE. Well, I believe them. Mr. KITCHIN. You believe that the difference between the customhouse figures and the figures which you give are represented by baskets that get in without paying duty, smuggled in? Mr. Menke makes no response? Mr. KITCHIN. You have seen boatloads come in? Mr. MENKE. Thousands of dozens. Mr. KITCHIN. I notice that all of the manufacturers say imports come in by the boatload, but the statistics of the Treasury Department do not show such to be the case, so I take it the large amount of goods must be smuggled in. Mr. MENKE. I could not say so; I daresent say so. Mr. KITCHIN. You say more than a million dollars' worth of baskets are imported each year? Mr. MENKE. Yes, sir; roughly estimated. And that is considering four big importers. Mr. KITCHIN. You are right unless you are mistaken, you mean to say? Mr. MENKE. I am a manufacturer, and I know what I am speaking about for myself; that we can't get along on 25 per cent on raw material and only 35 per cent for manufactured goods. Mr. KITCHIN. You know this, that you can not make as much money as your industry wants to make unless we give you more protection on what you make, and a little bit less tariff on what you have to buy? If we change the tariff accordingly you can get along pretty tolerably well, can't you? Mr. MENKE. Yes, sir; we would be glad if you would give us more protection on our baskets. You can see for yourself that with only a difference of 10 per cent we can't do it. The men can only make about $10 or $11, and some few $12 a week, and with what it costs to live you see what it means to them; and even then they work 1 hours a day, not 8. Mr. KITCHIN. You can not give your labor more than $10 or $12 a week, and have to work them 10 hours a day? Mr. MENKE. Yes, sir. On account of the importations we can not get prices which will permit us to pay more. It is not possible. I am 40 years in the business, and have 11 men working for me, and I have still to work myself. I can't sit down myself and let them make a living for me with their work. No, sir; I just can't do it. Mr. KITCHIN. You are not in the Willow Basket Trust? PARAGRAPH 212-OSIER OR WILLOW. Mr. MENKE. No, sir; I am for myself, and it is all I can do to make it. Mr. KITCHIN. You are one of the little fellows fighting the big concerns? Mr. MENKE. I fight the importers because they don't need me and they won't buy my output. My costs are higher than the cost of those they buy from, and I have to pay more for wages, and pay 7 and 8 cents a pound for willows, and imported 9 and 10 cents a pound for willows. Mr. KITCHIN. Who are the largest willow-basket manufacturers in the United States? Mr. MENKE. There are some in Milwaukee. And Pat Mahoney, 42 Cooper Square, New York, employs 28 men; and the P. Jordan Co., West Hoboken, employs 30 men; and A. Sperling, New York, employs 36 men. Mr. KITCHIN. So it really is not a big industry anyway. There are little manufacturers in it? Mr. MENKE. I only speak here for New York, and not outside. I am not well acquainted. In Philadelphia there are a good many. Mr. HILL. They are all small concerns? Mr. MENKE. Yes, sir. Mr. HILL. There is not one establishment that employs as many as 100 people. Mr. MENKE. No; they can't do it because the people don't earn enough. Mr. HILL. It simply is a local industry, too; does not ship indiscriminately? You supply New York City trade and do not ship into the West. Mr. MENKE. Yes, sir; I send some to Los Angeles, Cal., and have done so already. Mr. HILL. I supposed you just confined yourself to New York. Mr. MENKE. I have a paper I would like to put in, giving some details I may not have given you. The CHAIRMAN. All right. Hand it to the stenographer. Mr. Menke's paper is as follows: The WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE, Washington, D. C. HONORED SIRS: There are several millions of dollars worth of baskets imported into the United States from Germany, France, and Belgium each year, while not even one one-hundredth part of the baskets sold in America are manufactured in the United States. This is all brought about by the ridiculous rate of duty on these goods. At present the rate on raw willow is 25 per cent, while the duty on the manufactured baskets is 40 per cent. This ridiculous low rate on the manufactured goods and high rate on the raw material has practically wiped out the willow-basket manufacturing industry in the United States entirely. At present a manufacturer of baskets in the United States who employs, say, about 25 men, is considered one of the largest in the business, and we doubt as to whether there are two such manufacturers in the whole United States. While on the other hand, over in Europe it isn't unusual to see factories employing thousands on baskets only all the year round. We know of a concern in Germany who employs over 4,000 men, women, and a large number of small children, making baskets all the year round, the output of which concern is all exported to the United States. |