Our industry is an old one. There are only three watch factories in the United States-the Elgin National Watch Co., of Elgin, Ill.; the Hamilton Watch Co., of Lancaster, Pa.; and the Waltham Watch Co., of Waltham, Mass.

There were 60 American watch factories in America at one time. Twenty years ago there were 7; 4 of these, the Standard, DeuberHampden, Studebaker, and Howard have been forced out of business by foreign competition and their factories scrapped in recent years. In wartimes our industry thrives because Uncle Sam needs our products and demands unlimited production for the use of our armed forces. Our workers are continually working in excess of regular hours at the request of the Army and Navy. During these times, World War No. 1 and World War No. 2, the Swiss Government makes heavy inroads into the business of the American watch companies. The United States Government says to the American watch workers, "You cannot produce for civilian use as we need your output for American defense." We agree that the United States Government is correct in so doing, but, on the other hand, the Swiss watch industry is given free rein to ship into the United States an unlimited amount of watches at total landed costs which are less than our costs of production.

Since 1934, according to Department of Commerce figures, there have been imported into the United States the following watches and watch movements and as many as 42,000 Americans' jobs transferred to Switzerland in 1 year alone. I am first going to read to you the number of watch movements and watches imported since 1934 and the foreign declared value of watches imported, as well as the American watch workers' man-hours transferred to workers in foreign countries, principally Switzerland, and the number of years of employment transferred to workers in foreign countries.

In 1934 there were 920,393 watches imported, $2,834.092 being the foreign declared value, and 11,044,716 man-hours lost, or 6,903 years work lost.

In 1935 it went up to 1,201,896 watches with 14,422,752 man-hours lost, or 9,014 years.

In 1936, 2,228,686 watches imported, with 26,743,272 man-hours lost or 16,715 years of employment lost.

In 1937 it went up to 3,127,274 watches imported, with 37,527,288 man-hours transferred, or 23,455 years work lost.

In 1938 it went down to 2,386,226 watches imported, with 28,634,712 man-hours transferred, or 17,760 years employment lost.

In 1939 it went up to 2,919,147 watches imported, with 33,029,764 man-hours transferred, 20,643 years lost.

In 1940, 3,536,982 watches imported, or 42,443,784 man-hours transferred, or 26,625 years employment lost.

For the years 1938 to 1942, inclusive, the combined output of the three American watch factories was an average of 1,405,037 watches per year, and they had an average of 6,800 employees per year. Personally, I do not know, but I doubt if our total added exports secured through our entry into the trade treaty with Switzerland will equal this demonstrated loss of American man-hours of employment in this one industry alone.

The Swiss watch importer, knowing that America's factories would be placed on war work, has built up a reserve stock here to sell to the American consumer during and after the present war.

The American jeweler who is trying to stay in business has to buy watches from whom he can, so he stocks up with foreign-made merchandise which costs him just as much as a fine American-made watch. You can't blame him for trying to stay in business, but after the war we have the post-war problem of what to do with the increased personnel who have been trained for watch making during the war period. There will be no backlog of orders; the consumer demand will have been satisfied. During the war, when people have an excess purchasing power, they will buy the things they need. They cannot buy automobiles, they cannot buy many items, but they can buy Swiss watches. Those industries are protected for the post-war period, but how about the people that I represent? How about the people who work for the other watch companies? They have done their bit for their country. Waltham employees were one of the first to have attained 100 percent participation in the pay-roll savings plan for the purchase of War bonds. 284 men out of less than 1,000 from the Waltham Watch Workers Union are in the armed forces. They are coming back, after having served their country, to what? To a job? Yes; to a laid-off job.

In the meantime, Switzerland, surrounded by the Axis, on the one side by Italy, on another side by Vichy France, and on the other by Germany, is able to export into the United States, under a trade treaty with our enemy, watches and watch movements. In exchange for these watches and watch movements, Switzerland is given millions of American dollars. Hitler receives his share of those dollars. The consuming American public is thus helping finance Hitler's war against us through the purchase of the watches which were imported into the United States during 1942. Many of these watches are cased in the United States. They are sold under trade names, nationally advertised names. The American public buys watches called "Miss America," "American Maid," "Miss Liberty," and "Croix de Guerre of American Achievement"-Swiss watches being palmed off as American-made.

These watches are assembled here of products of Swiss workers. Where does Switzerland get the raw materials for these watches during wartime? How are they so safely escorted through Axis territory to reach America, we would like to know. This question of Swiss competition has been gone into very thoroughly in the past by far more able men than I, men who made a study of this because their financial interests were at stake.

This committee recommended legislation to prevent the smuggling of watches and watch movements, mainly from Switzerland. The Congress enacted this legislation into law. This is known as the Walsh-McCormack law. When the present majority leader of the House was on this committee we presented that bill for our industry and we deeply appreciate the position Mr. McCormack took for us, and I believe it was one of the few times where this Congress and this committee have gone out of their way to stop a vicious racket, that of people being able to export into this country watches without pay

ing a duty on them. A person can take 20,000 watches and go ahead and bring them into this country in two suitcases. In one suitcase of watches you can defraud this Government of over $35,000, and your committee saw that, and it is one of the few times that you have licensed, outside of our liquor and possibly narcotics, importers. This is probably the only instance we know of where the Congress has required importers to possess a license from the Treasury Department. That law was essentially aimed to stop abuses which importers of Swiss watches had developed.

Mr. REED. I don't want to interrupt you, but I have before me here the bill where we stopped the smuggling of watches.

Mr. CENERAZZO. That is what I was talking about.

In 1934, at the hearings, briefs were filed and attorneys were hired to present to the Committee for Reciprocity Information facts which were vital to our industry. These facts were ignored and treaties negotiated and signed, notwithstanding the warning which was given at that time by Mr. T. Albert Potter, president of the Elgin National Watch Co. I quote Mr. Potter from testimony given by him on December 17, 1934, 7 years before this country went into war:

Remember, these fine craftsmen in Europe are not only makers of watches but many of them even today, as adjuncts to watch factories, are actively engaged in the making of parts for foreign munitions factories.

The American Federation of Labor, in pressing for legislation for the protection of wages and working standards, has established the following policy which was presented to both the Democratic and Republican Parties through their platform committees at their conventions in 1940 by President William Green. This is not an individual's opinion nor an officeholder's opinion. This is the program laid down by the American Federation of Labor in convention assembled, by their executive council:

To protect and safeguard the employment opportunities of America's wage earnings against unfair competition of the products of workers of low wage and depressed standards and conditions of employment of foreign countries, and, with which we are bound to be faced at the end of the present European and Asiatic wars, and, in order to hold secure the advanced industrial relations and employment standards secured by America's workers through legislative enactments and collective agreements against competition from products of workers in countries of lower standards, it is essential that adequate and proper legislation be had to obtain these ends. We urge the adoption of this policy and procedure.

Mr. WOODRUFF. Will you yield just there? Mr. William Green, the president of the American Federation of Labor, appeared before this committee and urged the extension of the reciprocal-trade policy. Mr. CENERAZZO. I read that in the newspapers this morning. Mr. KNUTSON. You were shocked, weren't you?

Mr. CENERAZZO. I was.

Mr. WOODRUFF. I have before me a copy of the statement of the American Federation of Labor, and I am wondering how any official, especially the president, of that great organization can appear before a committee of Congress and present views in opposition to the views expressed by the national convention of that organization.

Mr. CENERAZZo. That is what I would like to know, and I think a great many trade unionists in this country would like to know, how any man who is holding office can separate himself from his official opinion,

when the only reason he gets the courtesy he gets is because of the position he holds, to come down here and set himself aside and express an opinion which is not the position of the organization he represents, because the position he represents is formulated by convention assembled. It is strictly an organization which is voluntary, and each organization within that American Federation of Labor, 180 international unions, has its own policies, its own problems peculiar to that industry, and I think that is something Mr. Green will have to answer for eventually.

Mr. WOODRUFF. It seems to me that any man in Mr. Green's position should realize that in the public mind, at least he cannot disassociate himself from the organization which he represents, and the public at large will take it for granted that your organization, the American Federation of Labor, is properly represented by the views that he expressed while he appeared before this committee.

Mr. CENERAZZo. The history of tariffs within the American Federation of Labor has been announced in convention after convention. In an organization such as ours there are industries that are export industries and there are industries that are import industries, and naturally even among that great organization there are people with divergent viewpoints, and out of all those discussions come compromises, and the compromise we had by stating a definite position to protect, which I think I am doing here, the American workingman, and espousing the position that no goods be imported into this country at less than the production cost of a commercially available article.

We are willing to meet competition anywhere on the same terms, but on no different terms than the same cost of production. In other words, we have no objection to Swiss watches or anything else coming into this country so long as it costs the person that is buying themnot the consumer but the person down below-the same price.

By thinking ahead and importing watches, as I will state further on in my brief, you can bring in a watch for $2.96 landed, $2.06 declared foreign value. We can't even produce it for three times that. The American workers can't produce it. So where are we going? That is where I think President Green overlooked those things, and one of the reasons I agree with you that President Green should have been very cautious of the fact that you can't separate yourself from your office was just that.

Mr. WOODRUFF. You asked yourself a moment ago, "Where are we going?" I think the answer is made clear by reviewing what has happened in the watch industry in the last few years. I am wondering how long the present watch industry in this country can continue to exist.

Mr. CENERAZZO. I can say this to you, that if the present watch industry, after this war, is faced with present importations being allowed to come in, there won't be any watch industry. The people in our factories will have to go into other crafts, and out of it will come the loss by the United States of one of the most important and most vital industries in America. I mean, today you can't do anything in warfare except through time. Time is so essential.

You go ahead and get on the field. I don't know much about military action. I have never been in the Army, but I have read a lot about it. Everything is done on split-second maneuvers. Men are in

a shell hole. They are ready to attack. They have their orders to go at 5:112. They wait for a barrage and they run right after that barrage. If somebody miscalculates 30 seconds you may have three or four hundred men killed. Based on that, time is an essential factor.

Who are we to know that Switzerland isn't making that time for Germany? For 300 years they have stayed out of war, and I never knew of anybody that could stay out of a fight for 300 years unless he was playing both ends against the middle.

Based on this, I say that this industry is very vital. I feel that this industry is very vital. The watch industry, if it goes out, there is no way on earth that this country is going to have timepieces available. Today Great Britain has orders in our factory and has orders in the other two American watch factories, because they have no other source of supply.

Mr. WOODRUFF. How many watch factories are there left in the United States?

Mr. CENERAZZo. Only three in the United States.

Mr. WOODRUFF. How many were there at one time?

Mr. CENERAZZO. Sixty.

Mr. WOODRUFF. Half of the industry is gone?

Mr. CENERAZZo. There were 60. There are only 3 left.

Mr. KNUTSON. Will you bear with me a moment?

Mr. WOODRUFF. Will you yield for a unanimous consent request? I understand we will conclude this hearing tonight, and I ask unanimous consent that I may be permitted to extend my remarks in the record, and include therein some comments from a very eminent authority.

The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. KNUTSON. I carry a card in the typographical union, and have for 30 years, probably before you were born. I was somewhat shocked when Mr. Green appeared before the committee and urged further extension, because in doing so he was urging that American labor be thrown into competition with the labor of other countries, where wages are far below ours and living conditions in many instances are indescribably poor.

I may say, however, that Brother Green hasn't always been as green as he is this year. I want to read to you from a copy of the hearings held by the Committee on Ways and Means on H. R. 7832, a bill to facilitate, to the extent required for the effective prosecution of the war, the free movement of property and information into and out of, and of persons out of, the United States, dated December 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9,

1942:

In June 1940 President Green and members of the executive council of the American Federation of Labor publicly appeared before the platform committees of both major political parties and sent for the requests of labor on the question of immigration and on the question of the entry of competitive products of foreign workers.

I quote from the printed platform requests of the American Federation of Labor as presented by Mr. Green and his associates:

Immigration.-In order to protect the welfare and the standards of living of the American workers, organized labor has favored from the beginning a restricted and controlled national immigration policy. Upheavals brought about