PARAGRAPH 423-BRUSHES.

BRIEF OF THE BRAID MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

NEW YORK, N. Y., January 13, 1913.

In relation to Schedule N, sundries, paragraphs 421, 422, and 426.

Paragraph 421.-We ask that this paragraph remain unchanged, as the goods covered thereby are luxuries. The rate imposed on same of 60 per cent ad valorem is the highest revenue rate, as well as barely sufficient to enable the domestic manufacturer to compete.

Paragraph 422.-We request that braids of manila hemp, also hats, bonnets, and hoods of manila hemp, be eliminated from this paragraph.

Under the Dingley tariff law of 1897 braid made of hemp was subject to a duty of 60 per cent ad valorem under paragraph 339, covering braids made of flax, cotton, or other vegetable fiber.

Under the present Payne tariff law of 1909 the rate on braid made of manila hemp was reduced under paragraph 422 to 15 per cent ad valorem. Hemp yarn enters free of duty only when imported direct from the Philippine Islands, but is subjected to a duty of 40 per cent ad valorem if imported from any other country. In the latter case, therefore, the rate of duty on the raw material (hemp yarn) is actually higher than on the manufactured article (hemp braid).

Hemp braid could be made in this country if the duty on same was 60 per cent, the same as on similar braids made of other vegetable fibers, but at the present time this braid is made in Japan at exceedingly low prices, and at a duty of 15 per cent can be imported so cheap that it takes the place of many other braids, such as cotton braids, etc., which otherwise could be manufactured in this country from material raised here.

We therefore ask that these hemp braids be stricken from paragraph 422, in which case they would be assessed at the same rate of duty as provided for similar braid made of vegetable fibers by paragraph 349, where they properly belong.

Paragraph 426 (covering button forms).-We ask that this paragraph be stricken out, as it allows to come in at a low rate of 10 per cent ad valorem manufactured materials similar to other materials which are assessed at a very much higher rate of duty. By striking out this paragraph these goods would pay a higher rate of duty, which would mean additional revenue for the Government.

In the event that your committee should not desire to strike out this paragraph we urgently request that in that event it should be in no way broadened.

Respectfully submitted.

THE BRAID MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION

OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Per ALBERT S. WAITZFELDER.

HENRY W. SCHLOSS,

Committee.

PARAGRAPH 423.

Brushes, brooms, and feather dusters of all kinds, and hair pencils in quills or otherwise, forty per centum ad valorem.

BRUSHES.

TESTIMONY OF COL. JOSEPH C. BONNER, OF THE AMES-BONNER CO., OF TOLEDO, OHIO.

The witness was duly sworn by Mr. Harrison.

Mr. HARRISON. You may proceed, Mr. Bonner.

Mr. BONNER. I come to you, Mr. Chairman, and gentlemen of the committee, as president of the Ames-Bonner Co., manufacturers of brushes, of Toledo, Ohio, to present the brief of our company on Schedule N-brushes.

Mr. PALMER. What is the number of the paragraph}

Mr. BONNER. Paragraph 423.

PARAGRAPH 423-BRUSHES.

I have not any prepared talk, because I had expected another active officer of our company to be here to address you; hence I will simply and as directly as possible state the case. There are manufacturers in our particular line in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, and Michigan.

I notice action on the part of numerous witnesses in presenting themselves oftentimes to make some kindly reference to the personnel of the committee, and I do not want to be amiss in that respect in passing a small compliment. I observe that in your toilets, gentlemen, you are all well groomed, and I take it, it may not be other than because you are brushing your hair and using other toilet brushes that are supplied to you in the next room; but I find on investigation, taking advantage of a privilege granted me, and with a feeling of hurt, that those brushes were made in France. I also noticed in visiting Senator Burton of our State, who privileged me an examination of his rooms in the Senate Office Building, that they were made in Japan.

If I may ask one privilege of you, it will be this: That upon returning to your homes or your hotels, you look at the toilet brushes on your dressers, and I think I am safe in saying that you will find the brushes were made either in Japan or in France or in England or in Germany; also that the household brushes will have indicating markings that they were made in prisons of this or other countries.

I come before you under circumstances, I think, in a relation perhaps different from other industries coming here, because brushes, while used in every family, for every conceivable purpose, and used as tools for decorating both the inside and outside of every building and for all purposes, are to a very great extent made abroad; and if cleanliness is next to godliness, I really think the American people should be privileged to brush their hair with domestic hair brushes and to use such brush tools when decorating as are made by American workmen.

Mr. HULL. There are not enough brushes produced in this country to supply the demand, are there?

Mr. BONNER. My dear man, we could supply any of the very best brushes to the extent required by this country and other countries, if we had the opportunity, commercial conditions being equal-and those brushes would be of the very best quality, too. I refer particularly to toilet hair brushes, 60 to 75 per cent of which are now imported.

Mr. RAINEY. What is the amount of production in this country of your brushes?

Mr. BONNER. Something like $14,027,000, according to the statistics.

Mr. RAINEY. What is the amount of the imports?

Mr. BONNER. $2,026,000, I think.

Mr. RAINEY. I think you have it about right. That would be seven times as much as we import.

Mr. BONNER. Yes. That would state it properly if the $14,027,000 were all toilet brushes instead of $3,500,000, approximately, which latter amount covers every dollar of toilet brushes made annually in the United States. It is because of this burden of imports to toilet

PARAGRAPH 423-BRUSHES.

brush production that we come before you now and ask that the present rate of 40 per cent that that rate not only be maintained, but that we be granted an additional rate, to make it 50 per cent ad valorem.

I appreciate that that is a very unusual request, and if we can not make good the equity of our plea we have rightly no place here, because we recognize that this Congress was elected expressly for the purpose of establishing a tariff for revenue. We ask in this plan that you are working out that you give us that equitable relation, that you will give us a fair deal, so that the toilet-brush importations will not be as they are now, abnormal. I will undertake to show you very briefly where they are abnormal.

Mr. RAINEY. Do you think that an importation of one-seventh of the amount that is produced is abnormal?

Mr. BONNER. I think I shall be able to show from the Government's statistics that notwithstanding there are approximately 400 brush manufacturers in this country, there are not 50 toilet-brush factories.

Mr. RAINEY. What do you want the imports to be?

Mr. BONNER. I was going to say-I am referring now to the production rather than to the number of factories, and tnat calls for an explanation. While, of course, there are no definite statistics showing who manufactures the $14,000,000 worth of brushes, they are largely made in factories that do not come within the pale of the factories that have to stand the burden of this importation. They are the factories that produce mill brushes or brushes for special uses. There are not 50 factories that are in the class that can produce the goods that I have referred to as toilet-brush factories. The latter special shops are in every town, and you can readily see that they make up the statistics of the gross amount of brushes manufactured. I am supported in this statement by others in the toilet and painters' business who know in a general way the capacity of the different factories, and that is that there is not to exceed approximately $7,000,000 worth of this $14,000,000 which comes under the class which you mention that is, toilet and painters.

Mr. RAINEY. What about the imports? What kind of goods come in?

Mr. BONNER. The imports will come within the class that I mentioned-toilet and paint or artists'--because special machine brushes are made in endless variety and value and for every conceivable industrial and mechanical use. We may have a special machine, and we ask a certain man to make a certain brush for it. We can not get that brush abroad; we do not pay the commercial market price. Factory or mill brushes are limitless as to character. They even include street-sweeper brushes in this class of manufactures.

I want to call attention to the imports from countries where the increase is shown, and there is a tremendous increase. I doubt if there are many industries where the proportion of increase is so great. Since we had the last hearings, in 1908, the increased importation of brushes has been 269 per cent and the imports from that date back to the enactment of the McKinley law for something like 206 per cent. The abnormal increase in the toilet and artist brushes is from

PARAGRAPH 423-BRUSHES,

Japan. The increase of imports from Japan since the McKinley law went into effect has been 3,856 per cent.

Mr. PALMER. Your desire is to have us write a rate which will reduce the importations of the kind of brushes that compete with the American manufacturer ?

Mr. BONNER. No, sir; I do not believe that 50 per cent will reduce the importations $1.

Mr. PALMER. Then why do you want 50 per cent?

Mr. BONNER. To prevent us from being anihilated.

Mr. PALMER. Do you mean to say the imports will continue to be as much as they are now?

Mr. BONNER. Yes. I know you have the Treasury statistics before you. I had the privilege of administering the customs myself for some nine years, and in that way I happen to know and have some idea of the statistics and how they are compiled. You will see that the Japanese imports are increasing year by year abnormally, and we are prevented year by year from making the class of goods that are generally sold in this market, because of the Japanese importations. I am sure a 50 per cent rate will not curtail such shipments here at

once.

Mr. DIXON. What is the largest class of goods imported?

Mr. BONNER. Well, there are hardly any toothbrushes manufactured in this country; there are only some special goods made under patents and special designs.

Mr. DIXON. How about hair brushes?

Mr. BONNER. I should say that 60 to 75 per cent of the hair brushes and that class of brushes used in this country are imported. You can not go into a retail store or a wholesale store but what you will find that the dominating toilet brushes are imported.

Mr. Dixon. I notice that you made an examination of the brushes used in the committee rooms. What class are those?

Mr. BONNER. The hair and the hand brushes were made in France. The one that I saw in the Senate Office Building was made in Japan. Mr. DIXON. Then the brushes that are used in the House Office Building are all imported brushes?

Mr. BONNER. So far as I know, sir. I know they are in the Ways and Means Committee room.

Mr. DIXON. They are the same brushes that were used here under the Republican administration.

Mr. BONNER. Yes, sir; I called attention to the fact at that time that we ought to have a change in the tariff rate because we are not able to hold our own in a competitive way.

We are not asking for protection in this change. Your chairman was not here when I made the request which I said at the time was unusual. I understand that the party in power was on the basis of a tariff for revenue. We feel, and in fact we know, that we are entitled to 50 per cent as against 40 per cent as an equitable arrangement and as a basis of tariff for revenue.

Mr. HULL. How could you make out if you had free bristles? Mr. BONNER. I really believe that the foreign bristles would be no cheaper if free. The reason for that is that the specific rate is only 7 cents a pound and we would never find it in the price duty free.

PARAGRAPH 423-BRUSHES.

Being in sympathy with this tariff-making body, and speaking for our own factory, we feel that in deriving the revenue to which the Government is entitled the brush industry should pay its proportion on its raw materials. Right in that connection let me say that there are some twenty-odd items used in the manufacture of our toilet brushes on which we pay a duty.

We pay a duty on bristles, fibers, quills, and varnish; we pay a duty on some kinds of lumber; we pay a duty on strawboard; we pay a duty on wire; and a duty on sandpaper. We are contributors, notwithstanding the fact that the Japanese brushes are coming in here. As I said a moment ago, the increase in importations from Japan has been abnormal, having been 3,856 per cent since the McKinley law went into effect.

Mr. PALMER. The total imports were less in 1912 than they were in 1911.

Mr. BONNER. By just a few thousand dollars.

Mr. PALMER. Well, by $75,000.

Mr. BONNER. As I understand it, the imports generally fell off a little bit that year. Trade conditions changed somewhat. There has been on the market within the last year or two-or there was two years ago a class of brush goods called Parisian ivory. It was sort of a fashion or fad. Everybody all over the country wanted this Parisian ivory. This last year there has not been so much of a demand for it, and that accounts for the difference in brush imports for 1912.

The CHAIRMAN. Your time has expired, Mr. Bonner.

Mr. BONNER. I thank you. I will now file for record, with my foregoing statement, the brief of my company, The Ames-Bonner Co.

The brief submitted by The Ames-Bonner Co. follows:

Hon. OSCAR W. UNDERWOOD,

Chairman Ways and Means Committee, House of Representatives. SIR: The present duty on brushes is ad valorem-40 per cent.

Recognizing the attitude of the present Congress in relation to a tariff for protection and, therefore, appreciating the highly responsible position of your honorable committee, we, as manufacturers of toilet brushes, the very life of whose business depends upon governmental assistance in combating the inroads of foreign competition, frankly say to you that we are not seeking for protection in the sense that protection means the prohibition of foreign-made brushes.“

We have never had such protection in the past, even under administrations that professed to make the protection of infant American industries their chief consideration, because nothing under 70 per cent ad valorem could possible serve to keep out of this country the brush products of the labor of Europe and Asia, and the highest ever given us has been 40 per cent.

We are merely petitioning your committee that we be accorded the justice of having our industry pay only its fair proportion of the revenue required to satisfactorily conduct the Government.

In 1890 the importation of brushes amounted to $767,128.

In 1900 the sum had grown to $977,513.

The next decade (1910) brought the total to $1,732,200.

In 1911 there was a great increase, the figures being $2,241,066.

The year 1912, however, marked a slight decrease from the year previous $2,067,149. These importations were almost entirely confined to what are known as toilet brushes; that is, hair, cloth, nail, and tooth brushes.

Toilet brushes are not exported to any material extent, and under present conditions could not be sold even in this country in competition with the brushes made by the cheap foreign labor were it not for the convenience accorded American purchasers. The domestic goods may, fortunately for the domestic makers, be had in small quantities with immediate delivery, a very great advantage in these days when the