PARAGRAPH 212-OSIER OR WILLOW.

The labor over in Europe is so very low, especially in the basket industry, and for a family to make a bare living the man, woman, and all the children that are able to use their hands have to work day and night, and then they barely make enough for a respectable living. The result is that with this low duty on the manufactured baskets, one can import a basket from Europe paying a duty of 40 per cent besides the freight charges and get these baskets for a much lower price than what the American manufacturer has to pay for the labor alone on it, no matter how low a salary he gives the basket maker. We are speaking from actual experience, for only recently we imported a number of baskets from France. The most expensive of these baskets was a very large willow trunk which cost us, after paying the duty of 40 per cent and also the freight, just about $1. We called down several willow workers, who were all basket makers formerly, and not a man would undertake to make a similar trunk for less than $2.50 for the labor alone. We doubt very much, even if we paid a man $2.50 for the making of a similar trunk, whether he could make more than from $12 to $14 a week, working at least from 9 to 10 hours a day. We also received a willow clothes basket which cost us, after paying all charges, 40 cents each, and to make the same basket here a basket maker would have to get at least 50 cents for the labor alone on it, so as to give him a chance to make a living making these baskets. The present high duty on the raw material, and exceptionally low duty on the finished goods, is a great injustice to the American basket makers, and those that framed these rates surely were not familiar with the basket-manufacturing industry in America.

Basket making can be taught to a man in a comparatively short time. At present there are thousands upon thousands of American laboring men out of employment. The question now is as to whether a proper and fair duty can't be put on the manufactured baskets so that the American manufacturer will have at least a ghost of a chance to honestly compete against the foreign basket manufacturers. By honest competition we mean, that the duty on the raw willow would have to be dropped entirely, and even then it would be absolutely impossible to compete with them unless the duty on the finished goods be raised at least from 75 to 100 per cent, instead of the present 40 per cent. Then, and only then, will the American manufacturer have at least a chance to fairly compete agianst these European basket makers. This will explain to you how absolutely ridiculous the present duty is on the willow business.

Should this rate of duty be honestly regulated, basket making would become a large industry in the United States and could very readily give employment to at least from 10,000 to 15,000 of the unemployed throughout the United States. The American basket makers are not asking anything unreasonable; they only want a duty fixed 80 that they will be able to compete honestly and fairly with the outside manufacturers.

SUMMARY.

What we ask of you, honored sirs, is this:

In the first place all baskets should be classified in two sections. In the first classification we would mention baskets which could be manufactured here in America. And the second classification to contain baskets which could not be manufactured here on account of inadequate facilities. The duty on baskets coming under the first classification we would like to be raised to enable us American manufacturers to compete against the imported baskets. Under classification 1 we would mention, for instance, clothes baskets, waste baskets, hampers, champagne baskets, market baskets, flower baskets, etc., which are made from willows, reed, rush, straw, and rattan. The duty on baskets under this first classification should be raised to 100 per cent, while we know by experience that a little raise will do no good at all, which has been proven in the past. Baskets under section 2 to contain all fancy baskets of art. We have absolutely no objection what the Ways and Means Committee tax these goods, using their own judgment.

In regard to willow growers in this country, and their protection, we would like to say this: If the American willow manufacturers are protected by high tariff on the finished goods, the demand for the willow will increase to such an extent that it will pay the American farmers to grow willows here. At the present time the American farmers do not raise enough willow to come anywhere near supplying the manufacturers, and we are compelled to buy our willows from Europe.

If the Committee of Ways and Means will take this matter into consideration the American manufacturers would be willing to furnish them with a committee of practical men in the basket industry to specify the difference between section one and two. Trusting that you will give this your kind consideration, we are,

THE WILLOWWARE MANUFACTURERS OF NEW YORK.
CHARLES MENKE.

PARAGRAPH 212-OSIER OR WILLOW.

TESTIMONY OF BERNARD SOPUSNIK, NEW YORK, N. Y.

Mr. Sopusnik was duly sworn by the chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Sopusnik, give your name and address to the stenographer.

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Bernard Sopusnik, basket worker, No. 209 East Twenty-fifth Street, New York City.

The CHAIRMAN. You may now make your statement.

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Honorable gentlemen, I have been 14 years in this country, where I always get the same price. We workingmen could make a living, possibly, if we could make $12 or $13 or $14 a week, but we can only make, as a rule, $10 or $11 and we can't make a living. Some men are working from 6 o'clock in the morning up to 6 and 7 o'clock in the evening and then can hardly make a living. The wife has to go out and scrub or wash floors, or anything else, only to make a living. These people never can get enough even to have a cent for themselves if sick; and if sick they must go to a hospital, and not a cent is left for that.

Mr. KITCHIN. You refer to conditions for the last three or four years? Mr. SOPUSNIK. This is the condition for the last 10 years. We get always the same wages. There is not a cent of raise, and everything is getting dearer and dearer-meat, bread, rent, and everything so we just can't make a living. I have been looking over things. I have been thinking about this thing. I just went over to one of the manufacturers and asked him how is this? Everything is raising up except our wages, and we have got to work for a small amount? He said to me, “Just wait a minute here in the office, I am going to show you something." He brought over a willow packing trunk. The trunk was imported from France. He told me, and could show it by the bill, that he bought that trunk and could sell it for $1 after paying the duty. We workingmen in this country can't make that trunk for less than $2.50, the same trunk; we have to have $2.50 to make that trunk, and even then a good man can not make more than $15 a week. Then he showed me another thing-a wash basket; the same wash basket he sells for 50 cents, and, believe me, gentlemen, it is impossible for a workingman to make it for less than 60 cents. Mr. KITCHIN. Was that one of the manufacturers showing you those articles?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Yes, sir; and I seen them myself.

Mr. KITCHIN. That was just before election, I suppose?

· Mr. SOPUSNIK. Three months ago.

Mr. KITCHIN. It was two or three months ago, just before the recent election?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. No; three months ago I seen them, and I can prove it to you in black and white.

Mr. KITCHIN. That was somewhat before the last election. So the manufacturer took you, a laboring man, representing the laboring people, and showed you a great big fine trunk that he bought for $1 and that you people could not make for $2

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Yes, sir; not for $2.50.

PARAGRAPH 212-OSIER OR WILLOW.

Mr. KITCHIN. And he told you he was bound to have a little more tariff on those articles, so that you laboring people could get a little more wages, did ne not?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Yes, sir.

• Mr. KITCHIN. And he said it was in the interest of the laboring people to vote the ticket that would give them a high tariff, so they could get more money for their labor, did he not?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Yes, sir; but, gentlemen, I beg your pardon

Mr. KITCHIN (interposing). He sorter felt you and said he wanted you to vote the Republican ticket; that is what he wanted you to do, wanted the laboring men generally to do?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Gentlemen, I want to tell you that this firm I just mentioned I never had anything to do with. I never had seen this firm, but I knew our condition and knew my condition, and I wanted to know what the situation was, and I went to some manufacturers to find out why this was, why these men had to work for so low wages, and

Mr. KITCHIN. That was during the recent campaign, and you selected this manufacturer at random. Had you gone to him a year before that do you know what he would have said to you?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. There was no campaign on that I know of. I didn't have anything to do with that. I wanted to know what was the matter. Mr. HILL. Mr. Sopusnik, you misunderstood the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Kitchin]. He is making a political speech through you and not arguing tariff. [Laughter.]

Mr. SOPUSNIK. I don't know. Now gentlemen, we were working for eight or nine years, each one of us, in a basement, and in a dark basement, where you gentlemen wouldn't like to go down into even; and the men had to work from 6 o'clock to 7 to earn a living. Looking at things after I had been here 14 years I couldn't see that any more, and I said, "Now we are going to see how things are." So I went around to one of the manufacturers, and went to several manufacturers, and each one had the same thing. Now I can prove to you that even the manufacturer himself can not make anything on it as it is except a few cents a basket.

As I see it the main thing is if these baskets wouldn't come into this country. We don't want any baskets-there are two baskets, classified one and two, and No. 2 we call willow-we, all men around here practically, working in the willow trade. We don't care about the fancy baskets. We don't want them anyhow. You could leave the fancy baskets in for nothing as far as we workingmen are concerned. What we are asking, what we want you to do, is to place these other baskets higher.

There are two lines of baskets. The line we are asking for is what we want raised so we may be able to make a living making them. If the manufacturer can get something more for them we can get a little better wages. I can prove to you by some of the very men that they are making not more than $10 and $12, and the very highest $14, and on such wages the men can't make a living for themselves and their wives and children. I can prove that by every manufacturer in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and so on, all of them, that we can't make more than $14 a week. That is the best we can do, and we can't make a living.

Mr. RAINEY. How long have you been in this country?

PARAGRAPH 212-OSIER OR WILLOW.

Mr. SOPUSNIK. I have been here 14 years. I know the trade. have been working at it. And I can prove to you that these men can not make more than $14 a week.

Mr. RAINEY. The party that has been in power that long made the tariff which has affected you?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. I don't know who represented it the last time, when the 25 per cent and 35 per cent was put on.

Mr. KITCHIN. You do not care who was in power, but you laboring people had a hard time for the last seven or eight years?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Yes, sir.

Mr. KITCHIN. And you went around among the manufacturers to find out what was the trouble as affecting the laborers in the basketmaking business?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. I found the same thing.

Now, we thought it might be we could have it a little bit better to have one set of baskets classified with a higher tariff, and take the tariff off the other baskets altogether if you want to. There are some fancy baskets coming in here from Germany, where thousands of women and children are making a bare living, and are at it all the time. We don't care about the fancy baskets.

Mr. KITCHIN. How many workmen are in the factory in which you work?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Twenty-five men. The biggest factories have 25 and 30. So you see some of the rich people are afraid of this business in the United States. They don't want to bother with baskets, because there is no money in it for them. That is why they have gone out of the business and the poor men had to stay in the business. None of the rich men want to work in baskets to help the workingmen. Mr. HILL. What kind of baskets do you make?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Willow baskets.

Mr. HILL. Ordinary hamper baskets?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. We have wash baskets, hampers. And we have

some

Mr. HILL (interposing). I ask, is the material that those baskets are made of grown in this country or imported?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Most of it is imported.

Mr. HILL. What do you ask for; what change do you want? Mr. SOPUSNIK. We have a letter here in which we can show you the situation in the basket business. We should like to have them classified and more tariff on the kind we work on, not the fancy baskets. If you will protect us, however, do either way you like.

Mr. HILL. You want the duty on willow baskets increased?
Mr. SOPUSNIK. Yes, sir.

Mr. HILL. Why?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Because of the baskets that come into this country, the way things are here now, and everything has raised and is rising; we can hardly make a living at the work.

Mr. HILL. You think by increasing the duty on willow baskets it will give you more work and at better wages? That is your idea? Mr. SOPUSNIK. Yes, sir; by increasing the duty on baskets there can be more men employed and everybody will make a better living by it. Mr. HILL. There would be more baskets made in the United States by men living in this country, instead of so many baskets imported?

PARAGRAPH 212-OSIER OR WILLOW.

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Yes, sir.

Mr. HILL. And you appear before the committee to ask an increase of duty on willow baskets for that purpose?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Yes, sir.

Mr. HILL. And you would have to take your chance for better wages on a larger supply of work?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Yes, sir. If you are going to put a higher tariff on willow baskets we are bound to make better wages and have a better living; and, besides, several thousands more men can be employed.

Mr. HILL. Whether you would get better wages or not would be a matter of opinion, but you think you would?

We

Mr. SOPUSNIK. We must have it, and we would get it for sure, because we are just as strong as the manufacturers. They wouldn't have power enough to do whatever they want to with us, and couldn't pay us the same wages and have the benefit of the tariff as their own. would have our share of the benefits the same as they would have it. Mr. HILL. Nobody sent you here, but you came of your own volition?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. I came here, of course, in the interest of the working classes, because we spoke about it and found out that to-day was to be a hearing. So we come especially for that purpose, to see if there is any possible way to do something to help our condition. Mr. HILL. All right; I simply wanted to know your position in this

matter.

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Yes, sir; that is it.

Mr. KITCHIN. You do not know anything about the rates of the tariff; all you want to know is whether we will increase the present tariff?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. The increase on certain baskets is what we want. Mr. KITCHIN. Willow baskets?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. On the finished baskets. That is the main part with us.

Mr. KITCHIN. The only thing is you want an increase on the finished baskets. You do not know anything about what the rate is now, or what the rate should be?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Oh, yes. We can make the same baskets of willow, rush, and rattan, and although not the same material, the people who import baskets can import them if you put the tariff on willow.

Mr. KITCHIN. Do you know what the tariff is on the manufactured product?

Mr. SOPUSNIK. Forty per cent.

Mr. KITCHIN. You just wanted it raised enough to protect you? Mr. SOPUSNIK. We want it as high as possible, so we can make a living. As to fancy baskets, we don't care anything. You can do whatever you please with them, as far as we are concerned. We are anxious about the baskets we work on, and to have the tariff on them high enough so we can make a living. That is all we want. As to the fancy baskets, we do not care what you do with them. The main point we want protected is willow baskets, because the importers they can bring in reed, and they can bring in rush, and they can bring in rattan baskets. We want the same rush, willow, and rattan baskets