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PARAGRAPH 423-BRUSHES.

tendency is to place the burden of stock carrying upon the manufacturer. This fact is a strong argument with American salesmen in their efforts to sell buyers of foreignmade brushes, and is successful with small and medium sized buyers.

But the large jobbers, the great retail stores and other buyers who are able to adequately anticipate their wants in toilet brushes, almost invariably buy abroad, because, as they tell us, they buy cheaper.

The following is an illuminating instance:

A number of years ago the Ames-Bonner Co. designed a long, narrow hairbrush. It was originally intended for curling children's hair. Eventually, however, it became widely used by barbers and hairdressers. The result is that to-day exact duplicates are being made in Germany, France, and Japan for American dealers who are able to order this particular brush in comparatively large quantities. They buy it abroad for less money than it can profitably be made here, solely on account of the great difference in the cost of labor and bristle and overhead charges.

It is not only the importers and the large jobbers who are buying toilet brushes abroad. There are retailers and houses who sell direct to the consumer that American manufacturers can not possibly sell under the present duty of 40 per cent. So great, indeed, is the distribution of foreign-made toilet brushes in the United States that the assertion may be made without fear of successful contradiction that there is not a department or drug store of fair standing in the whole country in which foreign-made toilet brushes are not to be found at all times. To-day these brushes come principally from Japan.

Taken by three decades, the increase in the importations of brushes from Japan are as follows: 1891, $15,872; 1901, $191,911; 1911, $736,781. Last year, 1912, the total was $602,923. Years 1891 to 1912, 21 years, 3,856 per cent increase.

With the continuation of such an increase, it is easy to prophesy what will become of the American toilet-brush makers before another decade has been completed unless we have relief.

Advertisements of Japanese and European brush manufacturers are to be found in all American trade journals devoted to drug sundries, dry goods, barber supplies, and even variety magazines for the 5 and 10 cent stores.

One Japanese toilet-brush concern, with a branch office on Broadway, New York, during the past year has advertised the fact that it had so increased its business in the United States that it was compelled to use the entire floor of the big Broadway building instead of the single room in which it had started business.

In Japan the employees of the brush factories work from 7 a. m. to 6 p. m. seven days a week. Generally they work 312 days in the year, though one of the largest factories is known to work 330 days. Male employees receive from 28 to 38 cents per day; females, 13 to 18 cents; and children, 8 to 11 cents. The skilled females, who do drawn work, receive up to 22 cents a day.

Contrast this condition with the condition existing in this country with everincreasing but proper stringency in the child and women labor laws; and that, while brush makers generally in most shops are necessarily among the lowest-paid workers in the United States, that the Japanese labor gets less than one-fifteenth as much. Time was when France and England furnished the bulk of the toilet brushes used in the United States, but to-day Germany and Japan have come strongly to the front. Germany is sending vast quantities of brushes to this country to-day, and, what is more, the German manufacturers are advertising in the American trade journals the fact that they are making their brushes with the improved steel anchors that have heretofore made American competition with foreign hand-drawn brushes possible in many instances.

While it is true that there are American industries grown to the stature of giants that are still protected as infants, it is also true that there are many that have not become monopolies--in fact, produce a reasonable profit only as a result of strict economy. The manufacture of toilet brushes is one of these.

Therefore when the toilet-brush manufacturers ask for a rate of 50 per cent ad valorem they are truly asking for life itself, which implies also the living of a host of faithful employees who have aided in building the industry and who are to-day unfitted for other labor.

The present tariff (which we insist was not protection) has caused the American manufacturers to develop brush making to the standing of an art, and it is a pleasure to be able to say to-day, after years of earnest and honorable endeavor, that they are now turning out high-grade toilet brushes that are freely acknowledged by experts to be the equal of any made in any country in the world.

PARAGRAPH 423-BRUSHES.

No brush trust has been developed, nor have any fortunes been made in the brush business.

And furthermore, in spite of the increased cost of living, the advanced quotations on bristles and imported woods, and the higher wages paid, the prices on the general lines of toilet brushes have not been increased, nor can they be with the present condition of foreign competition.

Not only is there no brush trust, but there is no collusion, such as a gentleman's agreement, among the various American brush manfuacturers and competition is keen.

We are herewith appealing for the very life of the toilet-brush industry, and we are honestly sincere in our assertion that it constitutes a real infant industry, far too weak to sell its products abroad.

We are not petitioning your honorable committee for the prohibition from the United States of brushes made by the very cheap labor of Europe and Asia. Our request is that we be put on a more equitable basis of competition with them. Respectfully submitted.

THE AMES-BONNER Co.,
By J. GAZZAM MACKENZIE,
Manager.

TESTIMONY OF ERNEST H. HOLTON, NEW YORK CITY.

The witness was duly sworn.

Mr. HOLTON. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I represent the importers and dealers of brushes in New York City, which city is the main source of distribution in the United States.

Brushes are provided for under paragraph 423 of the present act and pay a duty at the rate of 40 per cent ad valorem.

Mr. Bonner made a statement here yesterday, probably inadvertently, in which he stated that the total production of these goods was $14,600,000 in 1910. It happens that that was the first year that the classification in which the production was subdivided, as you will see, if you will look at your list. You will find that brooms, brushes, and feather dusters are mentioned in this paragraph and are given in one section. The manufactures of brushes are given in another section, but in making that comparison they took the total of the imports.

Mr. HARRISON. Please give me the paragraph again.
Mr. HOLTON. Four hundred and twenty-three.

So

In 1910 they were subdivided for the first time that I can find. in correcting that it would make the domestic production $29,125,000 odd, against the imports of $1,747,000. You see there has never been any distinction in the importations coming in. They have all come in under the one paragraph.

Mr. HARRISON. As a matter of fact, about 7 per cent of the domestic consumption is imported?

Mr. HOLTON. It would be more accurate to say 8 per cent.

My recommendation is that the tariff on brushes be reduced to 20 per cent ad valorem.

As far as the brooms and feather dusters are concerned, there was a gentleman appeared before you last night, an American manufacturer, who said that he would be perfectly willing to have the brooms put on the free list.

Mr. DIXON. Provided the handles were put on the free list.

Mr. HOLTON. We would like to ask that brushes be put on a 20 per cent basis. It would yield a very much larger revenue to the Government.

PARAGRAPH 423-BRUSHES.

Mr. LONGWORTH. Why do you say that?

Mr. HOLTON. On account of the popular-priced brushes being the largest seller.

Mr. LONGWORTH. Your proposition is that the imports would more than double?

Mr. HOLTON. I did not make any specific figure. I said it would increase.

Mr. LONGWORTH. You ask that the duty should be reduced 50 per cent.

Mr. HOLTON. Yes, sir.

Mr. LONGWORTH. Therefore the imports have got to double to produce the same revenue.

Mr. HOLTON. Yes, sir.

Mr. LONGWORTH. Now, you say it is going to be very much larger. Mr. HOLTON. I think it would be more than double, because it will enable a class of brushes to come in here which are now almost excluded.

Mr. LONGWORTH. Which are now made in this country?

Mr. HOLTON. Which are made in this country.

Mr. LONGWORTH. You do not want to exclude them from the American market?

Mr. HOLTON. No, indeed.

Mr. LONGWORTH. Do you want to drive them out of the market? Mr. HOLTON. No, sir.

Mr. LONGWORTH. Why not?

Mr. HOLTON. We want to be put on a competitive basis.

Mr. LONGWORTH. Where did you learn that expression?

Mr. HOLTON. I have been reading so much of it in the papers.

Mr. LONGWORTH. All right.

Mr. HARRISON. Proceed, Mr. Holton.

Mr. FORDNEY. Have the prices gone up or down since the time of the establishment of the tariff law?

Mr. HOLTON. The duty has not gone

Mr. FORDNEY (interposing). Since the establishment of the law has the price to the consumer of these articles gone up or gone down? Mr. HOLTON. I think if anything it has advanced slightly; that is, since the passage of the act.

Mr. FORDNEY. The Payne tariff law?

Mr. HOLTON. No; that was retained at the same price as before, the same tariff as before. It was first put at 40 per cent under the Dingley tariff.

Mr. LONGWORTH. What was it under the Wilson tariff?

Mr. HOLTON. Thirty-five per cent.

Mr. FORDNEY. The price has gone up since the passage of the Payne Act?

Mr. HOLTON. I could not say.

I am at present the treasurer of a corporation dealing in brushes of American manufacture, as well as imported goods. I have been engaged entirely in this one line of business during my 22 years of business life, and think at least that I can claim close acquaintance with each particular industry. In fact, the statements as to the industry are so convincing that expert testimony would not be

PARAGRAPH 423-BRUSHES.

required. The statements are more fully amplified in the brief which I have filed.

The brush industry, as regards competition, is divided into two distinct classes, one class being household brushes, shoe brushes, horse brushes, paintbrushes, etc.; the other class being toilet brushes, embracing such brushes as hairbrushes, toothbrushes, nail brushes, hand brushes, etc.

The present duty of 40 per cent has practically shut out all competition on the first class of brushes, and were the duty to be reduced to 20 per cent, as recommended, the importation of these brushes would be practically nil, owing to the patented processes of manufacture, although we ought to be placed on a competitive basis.

The second class of brushes are of more importance to the community as a whole, as we have pointed out, owing to the educational campaigns now being conducted all over the United States on the subject of hygiene, making these brushes practically a necessity in every household.

As an echo of this campaign, we would respectfully call the committee's attention to an item in the New York Times, Tuesday, January 28, 1913, which says that the warden of the Essex County, N. J., penitentiary, is supplying his prisoners with tooth brushes and powder, the rules of the prison requiring each of the inmates to make use of these brushes.

Mr. HARRISON. Do you consider that the cruel and unusual punishment which is prohibited by the Constitution?

Mr. HOLTON. Not at all.

And public schools are in some cities also giving tooth brushes

in response to this campaign.

Mr. KITCHIN. What are you going to give away?

Mr. HOLTON. Nothing.

away

The importation of this class is very much restricted by this duty of 40 per cent. The big or popular demand is for brushes of the lower grade. This branch of the industry is now being made chiefly on machines, and we find it impossible to successfully compete, as this machine industry has reduced the item of manual labor by 75 per cent. Mr. DIXON. At the present time what class of brushes are being imported?

Mr. HOLTON. At the present time almost every class of brush; nail brushes, tooth brushes, hand brushes.

Mr. KITCHIN. Two million dollars' worth of brushes were imported last year. What portion were hair brushes, would you say?

Mr. HOLTON. I could not say. We have no way of knowing. They are all grouped in one class: "Brushes, brooms, and feather dusters of all kinds, and hair pencils or quills." That is the wording of the paragraph.

The popular-priced toothbrush is conceded to be one that retails for 25 cents. When I prepared this speech I considered that to be so, but I have since received a paper in which it says "A guaranteed toothbrush to retail at 10 cents each." This is put up by the Florence Manufacturing Co., of Florence, Mass., which I think is the oldest, largest, and best equipped toilet factory in the United States. So evidently I have my standard too high there.

PARAGRAPH 423-BRUSHES.

Mr. KITCHIN. You do not take everything that a manufacturer says to be true, do you, in his advertisements?

Mr. HOLTON. No; I do not, but he offers a brush here that can be retailed, put into the consumers' hands and guaranteed for 10 cents. Mr. LONGWORTH. Then you have made a mistake of 150 per cent to the ultimate consumer?

Mr. HOLTON. That seems to be true. Up to the present moment I think it will be conceded by almost any brush maker that the popular-priced toothbrush is one retailing for 25 cents. Evidently this standard is to be upset. As I say, I do not know what that will result in. I do not know how it is going to affect the market one way or another.

Mr. HARRISON. Is it not an indication to you that the American manufacturer can produce toothbrushes cheaper than any man in the world?

Mr. HOLTON. It certainly appears that way. I am afraid we will feel the competition very strong.

Mr. LONGWORTH. Then you are not appearing here at all in behalf of the consumers?

Mr. HOLTON. I feel that I am. I think that if this is done that the consumer will always be the one ultimately benefited.

Mr. LONGWORTH. Do you believe it will benefit the consumer? Mr. HOLTON. I think the consumer will be benefited by the lower tariff on brushes.

Mr. LONGWORTH. You spoke of it under the 40 per cent tariff, you having made your estimate on the popular priced tooth brush at 25 cents. You now discover they are made here in America for 10 cents. Does that change your opinion at all? Do you wish to revise your recommendation since you read that?

Mr. HOLTON. No; I stand by my brief, because as I say this is a new field. I do not know how it is going to affect the market. has to be tried out.

It

Mr. HARRISON. It is a practical indication to you that the tariff would have to go lower still to get more revenue out of it?

Mr. HOLTON. Yes, sir.

Mr. LONGWORTH. I say, do you desire to revise your statement? Mr. HOLTON. If this were true the 25 cent brushes as a popular brush would probably be a thing of the past.

Mr. KITCHIN. May be they are doll-baby brushes.

Mr. HOLTON. NO; they are not, because it says here, "Six dozen senior size, 4 dozen junior size, 1 dozen assorted laddie and lassie sizes, 1 dozen baby size."

Mr. LONGWORTH. Do you think under those circumstances that the ultimate consumer of toothbrushes is being robbed by the tariff on toothbrushes?

Mr. HOLTON. No; I do not.

Mr. LONGWORTH. You do not?

Mr. HOLTON. No; where we are doing but 8 per cent of the business I do not think there is very much robbery there. That is on our side, and I think 92 per cent on the other side. We are standing about all the tariff we can.

Mr. HILL. Would you think a revision of the duty on brushes would increase the quantity imported by cutting the duty in two?

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