PARAGRAPH 431-TOYS. DAISY MANUFACTURING CO. (INC.), The WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS, Washington, D. C. GENTLEMEN: We desire to enter a protest against any reduction in the tariff on our line of manufacture. We started in business 24 years ago, manufacturing toy air rifles. When the industry was started, we employed only a dozen men and very little capital. The business has grown steadily each year, until we now have upward of $150,000 capital engaged in the business and employ on an average of 160 people. We believe that a change in the tariff that would permit goods similar to ours being shipped from European countries, where the scale of wages is much lower than ours, would seriously handicap us and perhaps be the means of destroying the industry that has taken many years to build up. We trust your committee will have the time to get full information on the subject before any recommendation is made, and if you will do this we feel satisfied that you will look at the matter in exactly the same way that we do. Yours, truly, The WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE, DAISY MANUFACTURING CO., DAYTON FRICTION TOY WORKS, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. GENTLEMEN: We understand that there is a movement on foot before your committee to obtain a reduction in the tariff on toys, which we understand to be 35 per cent. We manufacture mechanical toys and employ over 100 people. Our Mr. Clark has personally visited the German manufacturers in Nuremberg, and saw all girls working on punch presses at less than half the wages that are paid in our factory. Toys are now imported into the United States and some sold for 10 cents, giving a profit to the retailer as well as the jobber and commission man, that it would be impossible for us to manufacture at a profit at the price charged by the retailer. We have examined some of these dies, and some of the 10-cent toys imported into this country have 19 different operations on them. The same condition exists relative to toys imported into this country and sold at higher prices. Without protection against foreign toys we would not be able to continue in business, as it is impossible to employ labor in the United States at a price which would compete with that paid to employ labor in the old country. We therefore can not urge too strongly that the present tariff rate on imported toys be not reduced, as we feel that it would be a factor in eliminating the manufacture of toys in the United States. Respectfully, yours, The WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DAYTON FRICTION TOY WORKS, THE J. & E. STEVENS Co., Cromwell, Conn., January 24, 1913. GENTLEMEN: The undersigned, the J. & E. Stevens Co., of Cromwell, Conn., are manufacturers of iron toys, consisting of banks, safes, toy cap pistols, etc., as catalogue describes. Established in 1843, one of the oldest, if not the oldest, iron toy manufacturers in the world, our business has been successful through tariff protection and that only. Reduce the tariff and we are up against it, for we can not compete with foreign labor, materials, or supplies. I will cite one case that came to the hand of the writer about two months ago. One of our customers sent a sample of the "Lion" cap pistol, made in England, stating that they were selling them at $1.25 per gross, while the one we manufacture, the same name and weight, costs more than twice that amount to manufacture, or $2.60 net. Why? The laws of Connecticut will not allow us to employ help under 16 years of age. They receive from $7 to $10 and even $12 per week in wages, while in other countries $3 per week is considered very high, as the writer has been told by foreigners that he has employed. PARAGRAPH 431-TOYS. 5221 It is the same with materials and supplies, for they, too, are manufactured by cheap labor, even to the marketing of their product. By reducing the tariff I can only see, by 35 years in the toy business, to compete with foreign countries, lower wages to employees or closed factory doors. Yours, very truly, THE J. & E. STEVENS Co. P. S.-Our yearly business amounts to from $85,000 to $100,000, and employ from 80 to 115 laborers. The WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. THE J. & E. STEVENS Co. SAGINAW WOOD PRODUCTS Co. Saginaw, Mich., January 25, 1913. GENTLEMEN: We are very much interested in the question of tariff on toys, which we believe is to be brought up before your committee on the 29th of this month. We are sending you, under separate cover, three copies of our recent catalogues, which will show you the line we manufacture. We feel strongly that as far as our own business is concerned it would be detrimental to have the tariff on toys reduced. We sincerely hope that the present tariff will be maintained. We feel that if this tariff is reduced it will affect our business to such an extent that we can not continue. Very respectfully, yours, SAGINAW WOOD PRODUCTS Co. Witness also filed with the committee two publications of playthings in the year 1912 and two portfolios containing catalogues of toy manufacturers. BRIEF OF THE STROBEL & WILKEN CO., NEW YORK. NEW YORK, January 18, 1913. For the purpose of removing all doubt as to the proper classification, we recommend paragraph 431 to read as follows: "Dolls, and parts of dolls, doll heads, toy marbles, artificial Christmas trees, Christmas-tree candle holders, and other articles made expressly to ornament Christmas trees, of whatever materials composed, filler toys, and all other toys and parts of toys not composed of china, porcelain, parian, bisque, earthen or stone ware, 25 per cent ad valorem." We are asking for a reduction on the toy schedule from 35 to 25 per cent ad valorem, believing that it will give the American manufacturers sufficient protection and probably increase the revenue. Allowing for transportation, approximately 20 per cent of the cost of the merchandise, the domestic manufacturer would have a protection of 40 to 50 per cent, which ought to be more than ample, as is evidenced by the very successful competition of the American manufacturers. It is necessary, therefore, that the cost of transportation be considered a protection to the home manufacturer as well as the duty itself. Owing to the voluminous nature of toys, the ocean freights (which are generally figured on measurements) are abnormally high so that the landing cost from factory to American seaport would easily figure at 20 per cent of the value of the merchandise and in many cases, where the goods are bulky, as high as 30 and 35 per cent. and still higher. To illustrate, we select at random one case of dressed dolls. This case measures 1 cubic meters. Notwithstanding its large size the merchandise contained in it and which fully filled the case amounts to $31.20. Freight from factory to foreign seaport, $1; ocean freight, at $2.85 per cubic meter, $4.85; cartage, 30 cents; total for transportation, $6.15. The freight charges amount to just 20 per cent, and when you add to this the cost of the case at $2.60, on which 35 per cent duty must also be paid, you have a total of $3.52 or about 12 per cent on the merchandise, which together with the freight makes a total of 32 per cent. Contrast this with other lines of less PARAGRAPH 431-TOYS. volume and higher value, such as notions, gloves, hosiery, jewelry, and the like, and it will be found that the freight charge will often not exceed 1 or 2 per cent. It must be obvious, therefore, that freight charges are indeed a big factor in the cost of such merchandise as toys and dolls and incidentally work out a great protection for the American manufacturer. With the general advance of the cost of labor, raw material, etc., in foreign countries, prices for the finished product have been advanced correspondingly so that a successful competition of imported toys with the American becomes more difficult each year to the extent that it has already become impossible to import many lines in which formerly a large business was done. Most respectfully submitted. THE STROBEL & WILKEN Co., BRIEF OF THE MITRED BOX CO., NEW YORK, N. Y. The CHAIRMAN WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE, NEW YORK, January 27, 1913. House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. Dear Sirs: We understand that there is now on foot, before your committee, a movement to reduce the tariff on toys. In such a movement we are vitally interested, for the reason that we have undertaken the manufacture and marketing of an article that to-day constitutes the chief item of the toy industry, namely, that of making a fully jointed doll with moveable eyes, an article never before made in the United States. To produce such an article in competition with the doll imported from Germany, the home of the world's doll industry, has been no small task. It required endless experimentation, the outlay of considerable capital, and now when our efforts have been crowned with success in spite of the great obstacles we had to overcome, just now when we are so far advanced as to put our goods on the market, any prospect looking toward a reduction of the tariff on toys is a matter of grave concern to us. A fair estimate of the capital we have already invested in the making of our doll, puts the sum at $50,000. A like sum would inevitably have to be invested if we remain undisturbed and able to further develop our plant, to meet the demand that already exists for our goods. We employ at present about 150 persons, a number that will rapidly rise to a higher one in our establishment, to say nothing of the fact that, once we have established the feasibility of doll production in America in competition with Germany, a task hitherto throught impossible, others are bound to take up the work, and a new industry in this country will result. Aside from the specific article we are producing it will be well to consider the doll industry as a whole, such as it exists in America. The public can to-day purchase American-made dolls from 10 cents up. That industry, in so far as it has got a foothold, has been built up in this country under enormous difficulties, and in the teeth of the most destructive competition conceivable. It could only have been done under the shield of a protective tariff. It can only be maintained under that shield because still too undeveloped to be able to exist under a condition of unrestricted foreign competition. And yet, though still in its infancy there are possibilities of the investment in the doll industry in this country of many millions of dollars, plus the many more millions that are already invested in the entire toy industry. These investments, our own included, we consider seriously menaced, if not for the most part hopelessly lost, should there be a reduction of the tariff rates on toy imports. We know that so far as we are concerned, it would be impossible to exist, were we at this time to encounter, unaided the competition of the highly developed and powerful doll industry of Germany. We respectfully request that our interests and our argument on behalf of these interests be given earnest consideration, both for the sake of the people who have invested their funds in our establishment, and for the sake of those who have found employment therein, and thereby an opportunity to earn a living. We remain, Respectfully, yours, MITRED BOX Co., PARAGRAPH 431-TOYS. STATEMENT OF GEO. BORGFELDT & CO., NEW YORK CITY. Hon. OSCAR W. UNDERWOOD, Chairman Ways and Means Committee, Washington, D. C. JANUARY 17, 1913. DEAR SIR: As importers of various lines coming under Schedule N, we respectfully submit the following suggestions: Paragraph 427, Payne bill. Buttons should pay ad valorem duty and not by line measurement, for the reason that the rate on large buttons under a line measurement is practically and intentionally prohibitive, although not admitted to be so. Agate buttons are not made in this country, and the specific rate now assessed is equivalent to an ad valorem rate of about 100 per cent. Pearl buttons are made in this country, but imports are insignificant on account of the exorbitant rates. Metal and bone trouser buttons, owing to the effect of the specific rate of duty, are also practically excluded. We suggest a division of paragraph 427 on the same lines as contained in the Wilson bill. We recommend an ad valorem duty of 40 per cent on pearl buttons; 40 per cent on metal and bone trouser buttons; and a proportionately higher ad valorem rate on agate buttons, changing, however, the present exorbitant compound duties to a reduced ad valorem duty, for, while present duties do not prevent importation, they do not permit as large a revenue as could be secured by a more reasonable rate. As already stated, agate buttons are not made in this country. Paragraph 430, Payne bill. Merchandise covered by this paragraph should pay duty according to the material of chief value. Paragraph 431, Payne bill, should be amended to read: as "Dolls, and parts of dolls, doll heads, toy marbles, artificial Christmas trees, Christmas-tree candle holders, and other articles made expressly to ornament Christmas trees, of whatever materials composed, filler toys, and all other toys and parts of toys not composed of china, porcelain, parian, bisque, earthen or stone ware,' Christmas-tree articles, are clearly in the nature of toys, being used to decorate Christmas trees, and should therefore come in at the toy rate, although, by a decision of the board, sustained by the courts, they are now held not to be toys, while small candles for use in lighting up Christmas trees are held to be toys-clearly one is as much a toy as the other. It is further recommended that the phrase "and not specially provided for in this section" be eliminated, for the reason that otherwise cheap and fragile chains of glass beads of insignificant value will be held dutiable as beaded articles at 60 per cent on all fours with strings of beads of considerable value. Other toy jewelry of various kinds and of very low value, although only fit for children to play with, are classified other than toys, owing to this phrase, and not specially provided for in this section." We recommend that this phrase be eliminated, because if an article is in its full and broad sense a toy, and provable by trade designation and commercial understanding to be such, then as a toy it should pay duty. We call attention to the memoranda attached showing, in regard to a diversified line of toy items, the actual percentage of protection beyond the 35 per cent rate ad valorem provided by the Payne bill. Paragraph 436, Payne bill.-This paragraph has caused much litigation and hardship in attempting to define what is a fancy match and what is a taper. Under the ruling of the Treasury Department, all candles, from the minute tapers to those several inches in diameter and 6 feet long, are tapers. The night lights previously referred to (see Hearings Ways and Means Committee, book 5, Jan. 10, 1913, last paragraph, p. 762), although manufactured of stearin, were classified here as wax tapers at 35 per cent, or as manufactures of metal; and the customs court found them to be dutiable at 45 per cent as in part of metal. Paragraph 438, Payne bill.-This paragraph was clearly intended to cover, among other items, such imitations of fruits, leaves, etc., as are used for millinery purposes. The appraising officers, however, classify all fruit, leaves, etc., as artificial fruit, etc., whether suitable for millinery purposes or not. It is recommended that only such artificial fruits, leaves, etc., as are suitable for millinery ornaments or other decorative purposes be clearly defined and embraced in this paragraph. Paragraph 448, Payne bill.-This is another illustration of the devious methods and hidden provisos by which heavy and prohibitive duties are exacted, and evidently drawn to hide the purpose of exacting 85 per cent duty on articles of ornaments, such as mock jewelry, brooches, rings, hatpins, dress buttons, etc. Congress should in clear and unambiguous terms state a rate of duty and not hide the intent behind PARAGRAPH 431-TOYS. ascending scales of specific duties, plus ad valorem duties and concealed provisos. The importation of merchandise can be adjusted to meet any fair rate of duty, and one should know, as a matter of right, what that duty is meant to be, expressed in clear and unambiguous terms. The duty on jewelry is 60 per cent, and it is not reasonable to suppose that it is intended to place a higher rate of duty on articles used by the great mass of consumers which are not composed in chief value of precious metals or precious stones. The great bulk of the articles comprised under this paragraph should certainly not be assessed at a higher rate of duty than jewelry proper, and we recommend that a difference of rates be maintained between actual jewelry, as above defined, and so called mock jewelry by 15 per cent at least. Paragraph 463 and 464 of Payne bill.-We recommend that this paragraph read: "Manufactures of rubber, bone, chip, grass, horn, quills, india rubber, palm leaf, straw, weeds, whalebone, ivory, gallalith, etc.," for the reason that gallalith is a new product used in industry similar in kind to some of the substances enumerated in this paragraph, but heretofore not provided for and not in extended commercial use at the time this paragraph was drawn. The present tariff on manufactures of rubber is 35 per cent; formerly the tariff on hard rubber goods was 30 per cent and on soft rubber goods 25 per cent. A powerful combination or trust exists in the United States on hard rubber combs, and with their excellent machinery and facilities they are even in a position to ship American manufactured combs to Europe. This trust succeeded in having the duty on rubber combs advanced to 35 per cent. In our judgment 25 per cent protection is all that is justified, with the enormous advantages in machinery the Americans have over the Europeans. On soft rubber goods a fair duty would be between 20 and 25 per cent, because the grade of soft rubber goods manufactured in the United States can not be imported; only such soft rubber goods which comprise specialties and which are not made in the United States can at present be imported at the present high tariff. On the other hand, the American manufacturers are swamping the European market with their products and can and do sell abroad enormous quantities of soft rubber goods without any great effort. Rubber sponges.-On account of one single rubber sponge manufacturer in Chicago, the last Tariff Commission advanced the rate of duty on rubber sponges to 40 per cent. This very manufacturer thus kept out all European competition, while on the other hand, he sells his product at a much lower price all over Europe, in quantities, than he sells to his American consumers. The name of this manufacturer is "The N Tire Rubber Manufacturing Co., of Chicago, Mr. Felix, Owner." The duty on rubber sponges ought to be the same as on soft rubber goods. In Germany American rubber goods pay about 3 per cent ad valorem duty. In connection with the duty on combs in paragraph 463, your committee's attention is directed to the fact that all combs should pay duty according to the component material of chief value, as metal combs, horn combs, rubber combs, ivory combs, gallalith combs, etc. Paragraph 465, Payne bill.-Should be amended to include all masks in chief value of paper or pulp. Paragraph 472, Payne bill.-Should be amended to include "pencil tips with or without rubber.' Also the duty on all pencils should be lowered and made ad valorem exclusively and not compound rates. The present duty is practically prohibitive on cheap pencils. Reference to the statistics will show that imports are small in themselves and to our knowledge represent much high-grade pencils as "Hardmuth, A. W. Faber," and kindred brands. The revenue under this paragraph would certainly be materially increased without damage to the domestic interests by establishing a competitive rate of 25 per cent ad valorem. Respectfully, GEO. BORGFeldt & Co. CURT G. PFEIFFER, Vice President. EXAMPLES SHOWING PERCENTAGE OF PROTECTION ON TOYS. The duty on toys and dolls is 35 per cent, but as shown in the following examples it amounts to from 37 to 44 per cent of the value of the merchandise owing to 35 per cent duty being assessed on the value of the case as well. |