has been a remarkable increase of Canadian development at the expense of an important American industry. Legislation which favors a foreign industry and cripples an American industry will not appeal to the American sense of justice and does not accord with a wise and prudent national policy. If it is persisted in, we shall repeat in this country the unfortunate experience of the English paper industry. In 1860 the imports of paper into England amounted to only $511,900. With no duty to prevent, imports have greatly increased. In 1875 they amounted to $4,767,540; by 1890 they had reached $9,201,640; in 1907 they were $27,612,000 (the exports of paper that year were $11,408,000), and England which had hoped under a free-trade policy to become the workshop of the world found that the imports of paper were exceeding the exports and that instead of the workshop of the world, she was becoming the dumping ground of the world. The manufacturers of Germany and Austria, protected in their home markets from British competition, have free access to the English market for their surplus product. A manufacturer of Hertfordshire, testifying before the royal commission, said that he found that some German manufacturers keep one or two of their machines going entirely for the English market and that one German manufacturer boasted that he was making English postal cards for the British Government. A skilled workman in Germany, he reported, was getting 3s. 6d., against 6s. in England. England, with its mighty prestige as a manufacturing nation, could not stand such competition, and with our wage scale a good deal higher than that of England we shall find, without protection, that we can not stand the competition of Germany, Austria, Sweden, England, and Canada. This significant remark was made at the hearing referred to before the royal commission: I had a paper placed in my hands a few days ago and I was informed that the paper was manufactured in America; that the type was manufactured in America; that the ink with which it was printed was made in America; that the machine with which it was printed was also made in America; and that it was really spoken of very gratefully. Unduly the policy of protection we have developed sufficient ability and efficiency to make the multitudinous products of our common need. Our paper is manufactured in America; our type is made here and so is the ink and the machine with which our paper is printed. When you break one link in our industrial system you threaten the whole chain of these national utilities, and you strike at a system which has made us the most prosperous Nation of the world, and which has developed a manufacturing supremacy that surpasses the dreams of our fathers and challenges the admiration of the world. Bismarck, the founder of Germany's political and industrial empire, urged Germany to imitate the tariff system of the United States, “because,” he said, “it is my deliberate judgment that the prosperity of America is mainly due to its system of protective laws." It is not the part of wisdom to abandon this system now, and in the name of the New England paper manufacturers and the 28,000 wage earners in the New England paper mills, and in the interest of tho 66 great Nation whose sons and servants we are, I respectfully petition for the repeal of section 2 of the reciprocity act and urge the extension of the protective system to the various branches of the paper industry and the maintenance of this system as an advantageous national policy. I would like to offer, also, the following resolutions adopted by the Home Market Club: Recognizing that the business of the country has been built up by a protectivetariff policy, the Home Market Club, at its annual meeting, urges the President elect and the Congress of the United States to thoroughly investigate the industrial and economic conditions of the country, so that an unregulated foreign competition may not force our manufacturing establishments to close or to adopt the bitter alternative of reducing wages to the low level which prevails abroad. We ask the attention of Congress to the fact that a material reduction of the duties on boots and shoes, silk, metal, cotton and woolen goods, and machinery will be a serious blow to New England industries and the welfare of a million workingmen. We also urge Congress to grant to the pulp and paper industry the same just and fair treatment which is given to other industries in order that growth and expansion instead of stagnation and decay may once more become the proud record of a great American industry. Ample protection is essential to the maintenance of our industries and of the higher standard of American wages. Whereas wood pulp and print paper have been placed on the free list so far as Canada is concerned, notwithstanding that the expected concessions on the part of Canada have been denied to us; and paperexporting countries for the same tariff privileges which have been extended to Canada: Therefore be it Resolved, That we protest against this unjust treatment of American paper manufacturers and respectfully petition Congress to repeal this legislation. With your permission, I should like to offer as part of my testimony the following petition of employees of pulp and paper mills: The undersigned, employees of pulp and paper mills, recognizing that it was not the intention of Congress to place wood pulp and paper under 4 cents a pound on the free list regardless of Canada's action on the reciprocity measure, and believing that if the paper industry is subjected to unrestricted foreign competition many mills will close and wages will be reduced, and that our labor is equally entitled to protection with the labor on the farms and in shops and factories, respectfully petition Congress to repeal the law which is so unjust to us and to our employers. (Signatures of 14,005 wage earners in pulp and paper mills were signed to this petition, as follows:) Name of mill or company. Location. Number of signers MAINE. Do.. Cumberland Mills.. 160 54 134 20 141 37 47 216 218 46 386 147 106 160 1,878 Mountain Mill Paper Co..... Leo.. .do. do.. 11 47 413 83 146 108 26 172 141 45 123 17 101 142 43 103 30 56 99 85 39 91 89 42 32 86 33 50 6 48 179 42 ....do. ..do.. .do. ...do.. ..do. ..do. .....do. ...do.. .do. .....do.. ....do. ...do South Lee. 2,725 55 NEW YORK. Willsboro. do.. Harrisville New York. 107 18 55 36 54 62 501 22 26 84 83 67 TESTIMONY OF GEN. HERMAN STABER, REPRESENTING THE GERMANIA IMPORTING CO., OF NEW YORK CITY. The witness was duly sworn by the chairman. Mr. STABER. I am connected with the Germania Importing Co., of New York, dealers in foreign papers principally. We also handle some domestic papers. Before this committee I also appear in behalf of other firms whose names are attached to the brief I have filed here. The remarks I wish to make relate to Schedule M, and will be from the standpoint of a dealer, I may almost say from the standpoint of a consumer, because we buy any and all kinds of papers as long as we can make a profit in handling them. Consequently I might say that my views on the subject of duties on paper are from a fair standpoint, as it makes no difference to me what the duty is so long as I can handle the paper. |