PARAGRAPH 427-BUTTONS. Because the present duty is so eminently fair we earnestly beg you to permit it to remain unchanged. Respectfully submitted. FEDERAL BUTTON Co., BRIEF OF PRICE, WATERHOUSE & Co. Hon. OSCAR W. UNDERWOOD, Chairman Ways and Means Committee, NEW YORK, January 29, 1913. House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: In accordance with instructions received from William A. Porter, Esq., and his associates upon a committee now in attendance upon the tariff hearings before your committee, we desire to state that at the request of a number of vegetable-ivory button manufacturers, we addressed, on the 18th instant, inquiries to 23 manufacturers of that industry including, as we understood, the principal producers. These inquiries called in each case for a statement showing the actual capital invested in the vegetable-ivory button business, net sales and the net profits derived from that business in each of the three years 1909, 1910, and 1911. We have received replies from 21 manufacturers, of whom one declined to give the information requested, and five state either that they are unable to give figures for this branch of their business separately or that their figures are so small as to be without real significance. From the remaining 15 replies we have compiled the following statistics: On the 23d instant we addressed similar inquiries to four additional concerns, but up to now we have not received any replies to these later communications. Yours, very truly, PRICE, WATERHOUSE & Co. TÖPKEN Co., NEW YORK, N. Y., ASK REDUCTION OF Rate of DUTY ON VEGETABLE PEARL BUTTONS. Hon. O. W. UNDERWOOD, Chairman of Committee on Ways and Means, NEW YORK, February 14, 1913. United States House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. RESPECTED SIR: We beg to call your attention to this, our petition, for the purpose of having the present high rate of duty on vegetable ivory buttons reduced to its former ad valorem rate of 45 per cent. The present duty is really almost prohibitive and quite unjust, for the reason that such goods as we handle in the line are made by the largest and best manufacturers of ivory buttons not only in Europe, but in the world, and such goods are most desirable by the better class of trade of clothing manufacturers in the United States and the jobbers' tailors' trimming houses, and are not approached by the domestic ivory button manufacturers in point of character, style, finish, etc. Tariff, or no tariff, the domestic manufacturers can not meet the request for such fine goods and, therefore, the present high duty is clearly an injustice to our manufacturer and to ourselves as importers. The statement that Mr. Sage of the Rochester Button Co. made to your committee in January, that if a specific duty was not assessed on vegetable ivory buttons, the appraiser would not be able to determine the value, and not only that, but insinuated that the importers might undervalue, this we believe was uncalled for, because in the PARAGRAPH 427-BUTTONS. past 20 years, and during the time that such goods were admitted at an ad valorem duty, I challenge him to point to a case of fraud by undervalution in the import of ivory buttons. He also went very far when he stated that no appraiser on earth could determine values, etc., etc. He knows little about the intelligence of the appraisers of the New York Appraiser's Department, or he would not talk that way, and, furthermore, he should not attempt, in stating his case, to besmirch the probity of the importer. There are 31 ivory button manufacturers in Germany and Austria. Only three of these, including the one we represent, make goods such as can be handled or sold in this United States market. Job lots or "out of style" goods bought in Europe from jobbers could not be sold here to the trade such as we do business with generally. The present duty is altogether too high and if continued we shall have to drop the importation of the goods, and we feel that the United States tariff was not installed to altogether shut out fair competition, nor goods such as are demanded by the consumers here, simply because it would tend only to conserve the domestic manufacturers of goods that they would force upon the consumer instead of the class of goods they demand that are made abroad. On the several lines of goods in general that we import we pay duties amounting to $300,000 or $400,000 per annum to the United States Government, and we trust our interests will be duly and carefully considered in your deliberations. English and Italian ivory buttons are not imported at all for the reason that they are not suited in style or make for this market. The above is a summary of facts in support of our claim for a reduction of the rate on ivory buttons. Tabulated costs of this or that entering into the manufacturing is only kaleidoscopic intended seemingly to confuse and mislead. If the writer, who has sold vegetable ivory buttons for the past 29 years, all over the United States, were permitted to go before your honorable body with samples of foreign and domestic ivory buttons he would have no difficulty in pointing out the difference between makes, and thus hasten a solution of the problem. Yours, very truly, TÖPKEN Co., BRIEF OF M. B. SHANTZ, ROCHESTER, N. Y., CONCERNING VEGETABLE-IVORY BUTTONS. ROCHESTER, N. Y., January 29, 1913. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, as a manufacturer of vegetable ivory buttons I would respectfully request on behalf of the industry as a whole that the present tariff of 15 per cent ad valorem and three-quarters of a cent per line per gross specific duty, paragraph 427, Schedule N, be maintained and to state that a perceptable lowering of the present tariff would be disastrous to the industry in this country. Labor is the largest item of cost in our product. We are paying in this country, from three to four times as much as our European competitors, which makes it impossible for American manufacturers to compete with the European manufacturers in the other markets of the world. This also makes it essential to have an adequate tariff in order to pay American wages to American citizens, householders, and bread winners. Believing that the committee already has abundant data to intelligently guide them to this conclusion, I will, with your permission, confine my statements to a few facts in connection with the industry. From 1877 to 1887 I was manager with a small interest in a factory in Canada. At the time of low tariff period, beginning in 1884, we established a satisfactory and growing business in the United States in spite of everything the American manufacturers could do to prevent us. Our Canadian labor being only about 10 per cent cheaper than the American, we were able to compete successfully for trade in the United States. During this same period from 1884 to 1888 a majority of the ivory button manufacturers in the United States went out of business (four of the principal ones closing up their factories in the one year, 1887). Believing that the United States Government would not permit this condition to continue very long, I came to Rochester in 1887 and began manufacturing and importing in a small way so that by 1889 I had the plant in operation and after obtaining additional capital and a fair protective tariff we were enabled to establish a satisfactory business with a rapidly-growing pay roll. PARAGRAPH 427-BUTTONS. The lowering of the tariff again in 1893 caused nearly all the manufacturers that had survived the previous depression, to discontinue. The business as it is to-day has nearly all been built up during the last 15 to 18 years and can now only be considered as being fairly well established. Because of its proportionately large pay roll it has thus far been of more value to the community and to the employees than to the employers. The following figures taken from the census of 1910, show the relative position of the button industry as regards number employed in relation to capital invested: Gentlemen, let me assure you that this is simply a statement of a few facts, omitting the sad details of hardships, mental distress, and bodily suffering, occasioned through no employment during the two long periods of low tariff depressions in this industry. I know from past experience that, personally, we could do more business with the same amount of capital and with less work and responsibility if under a low tariff we would import the bulk of our goods instead of making them here, but it is on behalf of the thousands of worthy Americans who depend upon this industry for their living that I come before you to make this appeal and, gentlemen, I thank you for the opportunity. Respectfully submitted. M. B. SHANTZ. SUPERIOR IVORY BUTTON Co., NEWARK, N. J., WRITE CONCERNING IVORY BUTTONS. Hon. OSCAR D. UNDERWOOD, NEWARK, N. J., January 29, 1913. Chairman Ways and Means Committee, and Members of the Committee. GENTLEMEN: As the committee of ivory button manufacturers can not be given a hearing, we beg to submit, for the consideration of your committee, some important facts bearing on the tariff of vegetable ivory buttons. We understand that an advalorem duty of 45 per cert is advocated by the Ways and Means Committee, and we wish to point out how such a duty, if adopted, would prove ruinous to such manufacturers as are engaged in the production of the cheaper grades of goods, while on the other hand giving practically a monopoly to those manufacturing a better quality of goods. The following examples showing the cost of 22 and 27 ligne buttons of the lower grade imported from Italy are based on actual quotations from a foreign manufacturer: Example No. 1 shows the cost of an imported button (with 45 per cent ad valorem duty added) to be $2.494 per great gross, while that same button can not be produced here for less than $3.50, a difference of $1.004 in favor of the foreign article. In example No. 2 we have the cost of a 27 ligne (a larger size) button imported at $3.17. Yet that button can not be produced here to sell at less than $4.50, a difference of $1.32 in favor of the foreign button. PARAGRAPH 427-BUTTONS. No exhorbitant profit has been figured in the above-named prices of $3.50 and $4.50only 5 per cent. This, it must be admitted, is a minimum profit, but the maximum profit does not exceed 10 per cent. In the above examples we have taken a trouser button, which is the lowest in price. Coat, vest, and sleeve buttons are made of the same material, but bring a trifle better price. Nevertheless, these goods would practically fare no better under a duty of 45 per cent ad valorem. It is plain from the above that under such conditions the American manufacturer could not exist. Our idea of a duty that would be fair to all concerned is a specific duty of one-half cent per ligne per gross and 10 per cent ad valorem, and we illustrate below how this would operate, using the same buttons as were used in examples Nos. 1 and 2. as against $3.50, the lowest price at which the same button could be made to sell for here. as against $4.50, the lowest price at which the same button could be made to sell for in this country. It will be seen from examples Nos. 3 and 4 that even under a duty of 10 per cent ad valorem and one-half cent per ligne specific, buttons that can not be produced to sell for less than $3.50 and $4.50 per great gross, respectively, can be imported for $3.21 and $4.03. It is only $0.29 and $0.47 per great gross below the domestic price under this duty, as against $1.00 and $1.32 below domestic price under a specific duty of 45 per cent; but on coat, vest, and sleeve buttons which are not sold so close the American and foreign would be on an equal basis. To show how the 45 per cent ad valorem duty and that of one-half cent per ligne per gross specific duty and 10 per cent ad valorem duty would operate on the better grade of goods, we give examples 5 and 6. This same button is sold for $0.65 per gross here, which indicates that the duty of 45 per cent ad valorem is somewhat excessive. As stated above this button can be made to sell for $0.65 here, leaving the article amply protected under a specific and ad valorem duty. We believe we have shown that under a duty of 45 per cent ad valorem the manufacturers of the lower grades (who represent about 60 per cent of the total manufacturers) come to ruin, while the manufacturer of the better grades is excessively protected. We have also shown that under a duty of one-half cent per ligne per gross PARAGRAPH 427-BUTTONS. and 10 per cent ad valorem both are amply protected, and while perhaps we may feel that the latter is the proper duty, yet what we would emphasize most is that only such a duty be adopted as will be fair to both classes, which is not true of the 45 per cent ad valorem, as has been demonstrated above. When we invested in a new building last spring, we felt that the Democratic Party would be successful. But we felt, too, that the party would be fair and just in its tariff reductions. A reduction of 33 per cent is certainly very liberal. Furthermore, it is the limit. The suggested duty of one-half cent per ligne specific and 10 per cent ad valorem represents a 33 per cent reduction-the limit. We would prefer a reduction of only 25 per cent; but if we must concede more, we trust that we will not be compelled to concede more than the limit and thus be forced to abandon a business which required hard work to establish. We have just invested $100,000 in a modern plant. We pay the highest wages and have been able to keep our men employed steadily. Our position is that of a manufacturer who desires an honest tariff that is fair to the consumer and that will protect the American workman and American capital. With this in view we shall be glad to give any further information that you may desire. Very respectfully, SUPERIOR IVORY BUTTON Co. BRIEF OF SNYDER & WHEELER, NEW YORK, N. Y. The WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE, Washington, D. C. NEW YORK, February 4, 1913. GENTLEMEN: We understand the Treasury Department has recently decided importations by United States ivory button manufacturers of ivory nut slabs from Italy as free of duty. Your committee last week gave a hearing to a deputation of ivory button manufacturers, who, we think, made out a good case for retention of present duties on ivory buttons, an article very largely, indeed, of labor when finished. To be consistent in demonstrating necessity of protection from the cheap labor of Italy, Japan, and Austria, hardly see why the United States manufacturers should benefit, as they are beginning to do, of the cheap labor of Italy, etc., on a portion of the process of button manufacture. A concession has lately been granted by Ecuador to parties who will put up a plant for drying, shucking, and cutting ivory nuts into slabs. Among the other reasons against permitting these slabs to come free of duty: The putting of ivory nuts into slab form reduces their bulk to nearly one-half, and to that extent would reduce freight earnings by steamship and railroad lines. Amount of labor now employed in United States in the bringing of ivory nuts along as far as slabs is of considerable item, and who could not exist against foreigners doing this amount of manufacture. The mere freight on slabs to United States would be a bagatelle compared to labor discrimination involved. Trade with South America would be injured, as, naturally, ivory nuts would go to a greater extent to countries of cheap labor, if such countries could send the slabs free into the United States; and inward goods usually mean outward goods of like amount for our merchants with South America. Ivory nuts and ivory nut slabs are used wholly and solely in the manufacture of buttons. It is important to this trade that a duty be placed on slabs, or pieces of ivory nuts in tariff bill now forming, for if not now recognized by your committee it may be a long time before it can again be brought up, and by then irreparable harm will have been done to a trade of long and satisfactory existence. The duty on ivory nut slabs, or pieces, should, in our estimation, be at least 35 per SNYDER & WHEELER. cent. Yours, respectfully, |