PARAGRAPH 433-FIREWORKS.

about $1.25 in Germany. The total duty for the assortment is $13.44, which is a raise in duty-of more than 610 per cent of the old duty, or 150 per cent ad valorem.

The fireworks which I import are not dangerous. They consist almost exclusively of small pieces that are sold from 1 penny to 5 cents retail, and I never heard of an accident being caused by them. I have handled some 62 articles of different sizes before the enactment of the present law. After a very close calculation as to the number of articles which I was able to import under the tariff act of 1909, I found I only could bring in 11 articles that were light enough, in weight, and the weight of packing could be decreased, and with a large sacrifice of my profit and in sales, but I was compelled to discontinue the importation of 51 articles, which were the bulk of my business.

Fireworks under the new tariff are divided into two parts-firecrackers and fireworks. The class called fireworks come exclusively or mainly from Europe and are packed in heavy zinc-lined cases. The other class, firecrackers, are imported exclusively from Asia, from where the goods are shipped in very light packing, only being wrapped in matting, where the weight of the packing cuts no figure, and duty is assessed at only 8 cents per pound gross weight.

That means that fireworks in heavy metal-lined cases from countries where the labor is paid many times higher than in Asia pays 50 per cent higher duty than fireworks imported from a country with low price for labor and where of the weight the packing is insignificant. Is that just?

per

In 1907 I imported fireworks of the value of $45,012, upon which I paid a duty of $9,000.

In 1909 I imported fireworks of the value of $50,628, upon which I paid a duty of more than $10,000.

In 1909, from the 1st of January to August 5, I imported fireworks of the value of $26,484, and from the fatal day, August 5, to the end of the year my importations dropped to $578.

In the years 1910, 1911, and 1912 I imported goods of the value of $3,973, an average of $1,324 a year-somewhat more in the year 1912 than in 1910.

You will see by these records that the average of my importations are now about 2 per cent of what they were. The 98 per cent of my business was lost, and the Government has lost a revenue from me of about $40,000 since the enactment of the tariff of 1909. While this amount of duty may be insignificant, at the same time it brings my case before you in the most forcible manner, showing that a ridiculously high rate of duty of 12 cents per pound, gross weight, practically prohibits the importation of fireworks from Europe.

I have no figures to submit on the value of the fireworks manufactured in this country, but the consumption of fireworks in this country is enormous, and the exorbitant transportation expenses on European fireworks alone would be more than sufficient protection for the domestic goods, even without duty, if protection is needed.

I am practically doing no business in the importation of fireworks at the present time, and in view of the contemplated revision of the tariff, I trust you will place the duty on fireworks at 20 per cent àd va

PARAGRAPH 433-FIREWORKS.

lorem, so as to permit me to recover at least some of the business I have lost through the tariff act of 1909.

The articles I imported were mostly all small fireworks for the amusement of the young people.

In conclusion, I wish to say my statements are based on my records, and your statistical records will confirm the statement I have made, that the present rate of 12 cents per pound gross weight on fireworks imported from European countries is absolutely prohibitive.

In the last statistics, for 1912, I see there were imported some fireworks under the name of bombs, which are no fireworks at all—some $3,000 worth, having an average tariff rate of 63 per cent. That is not correct, but it is in a way correct, for the 63 per cent is not on fireworks, because there must have been taken into consideration other things on the list.

The average on the fireworks I import is 73 per cent, which is so low on account of one, only one, little article I import, on which the duty was comparatively small. That is such a little thing as this [indicating] that could be packed very close and did not weigh much. That brought my duty to an average of 73 per cent; but the bulk of my business I have not been able to import. If I should import the average of the goods I did before, with the average per cent of the law now, it would be from 150 per cent to 250 per cent, and would probably be in average at least about 175 per cent ad valorem.

Mr. HARRISON. There is an enormous manufacture of fireworks in the United States to-day, is there not?

Mr. WAGNER. Yes, sir.

Mr. HARRISON. The importations are a very small proportion of what is used here?

Mr. WAGNER. Yes, sir. There was no importation formerly until I started it. It took me 10 years to make a living business before I could make a living business out of it.

[r.. HARRISON. Have you any idea of the amount of American manufacture?

Mr. WAGNER. It runs into the millions.

Mr. HARRISON. It runs into the millions?

Mr. WAGNER. Millions; yes.

Mr. HARRISON. Do you believe if we should decide to impose an internal-revenue' tax upon domestic manufacture of fireworks we could collect a good deal of revenue in that way?

Mr. WAGNER. It is not improbable. I would not answer yes. That would not be fair. I would not like to do that. That you can do on everything. If you want to impose a domestic tax you could impose it on almost anything, for instance on bread.

Mr. FORDNEY. Mr. Wagner, you have stated that the production of these goods in this country is very great in quantity and in value. Do you consider them a luxury or a necessity?

Mr. WAGNER. Some consider it a luxury and others a necessity. If you will ask the young American who uses them, they will tell you they are a necessity. I will tell you what I consider it; I would, in another country, consider it a nuisance. In this country I consider it is a necessity, because there is a patriotic feeling in this country that I have not seen the equal of in the world, and I have

PARAGRAPH 433-FIREWORKS.

been pretty much all over it. It was this patriotic feeling that, during the Spanish War, in some few weeks brought 200,000 boys to the colors. Those were the boys who brought the victory. They were used to fireworks and the dangers of shooting and all kinds of things like that. Take them away from your children, away from young America here, and the country may some day regret they have educated lambs instead of men. That is a necessity that is called for. In other countries they have what you call the standing army or compulsory military service, where the requirement is that everyone has to be a soldier; but here you have to look for something else.

Mr. FORDNEY. I notice paragraph 433, under which you are talking, includes bombs. Those are necessary in very many instances, are they not? They are used extensively?

Mr. WAGNER. There are various kinds of bombs, and some are not

necessary.

Mr. FORDNEY. As to that particular I am joking, but the point is you are asking for a lower rate of duty so you can once more import the foreign-made article?

Mr. WAGNER. If it is possible to bring that business up again; if it has not been killed for good.

Mr. FORDNEY. If just what you are asking for could be brought about, and that is a lower rate of duty so you can increase your importations, it would then lessen domestic production in this country and transfer it abroad, or increase the use of that unnecessary article, would it not?

Mr. WAGNER. I do not know whether it would mean anything of importance, but there is an old saying, "Live and let live." If a country wants to export goods, it will also have to allow imports that other countries can import here. I have seen it that some people want European goods of many different kinds, and will pay more for them; and if you go on the other side you will find some people can not find goods good enough unless they are American goods, and they will pay more for them there.

Mr. FORDNEY. Is it not true that a bomb, a firecracker, or a skyrocket can be made in this country that will make just as much noise as one that is made abroad-and that is what they are for, to make noise?

Mr. WAGNER. I have not had any importation of any articles that make a large, loud noise; only in the small, innocent things.

Mr. FORDNEY. Even with the small, innocent things they can raise just as much disturbance and create just as much nuisance if made here as if made abroad; and if you get into the law the words. you are expressing here, it means destruction to that much domestic industry in this country and the growth of that much abroad. Is not that right?

Mr. WAGNER. No, sir; it is not, for several reasons.

Mr. FORDNEY. How do you figure out that sending our money abroad and employing some people in Europe to make these firecrackers does not displace some American laborer making firecrackers?

Mr. WAGNER. It is not firecrackers. It is only some specialties that can be made better in Europe than here.

PARAGRAPH 433-FIREWORKS.

Mr. FORDNEY. If it is a specialty that is not made here but that is made in Europe to be used here, your tariff would not make any difference as to that particular specialty?

Mr. WAGNER. It can not be bought here if they want it, because there is a certain limit that can not come over. When the tariff becomes so high that it can not be sold for one cent there is no sale for it. I can not raise an article to one and one-half cents or two cents. Mr. FORDNEY. You never saw a patriotic boy yet that would not have something to raise Ned with on the Fourth of July. You never saw a patriotic boy that would let a cost of two or three cents prevent him from having something to make a noise with on the Fourth of July. Mr. WAGNER. The most of the things I speak of are colors that do not make a noise.

In the last five or six years, according to statistics, there were more than 25,000 accidents in the country on the Fourth of July, and not one has been laid to the door of any of the goods which I import.

Mr. FORDNEY. Since your importations have fallen off, though, those articles have increased in value to the American consumer or have gone down in price?

Mr. WAGNER. They are pretty nearly the same price for inferior goods.

Mr. FORDNEY. Then the tariff has not cut any figure so far as the American consumer is concerned, only it has transferred the industry in which you engage from abroad to the United States. That is what the law has done. That is your argument, is it not? You do not import now, but you did then?

Mr. WAGNER. Yes, sir.

Mr. FORDNEY. So now the American is making them instead of the foreigner, and you can get the American-made goods if you want them?

Mr. WAGNER. I can not get goods equal to these. It can not pay to buy goods second hand.

Mr. FORDNEY. I never knew firecrackers to be bought second hand yet.

Mr. WAGNER. These are not firecrackers.

The CHAIRMAN. That is all, Mr. Wagner. You may be excused.

Mr. OSCAR W. UNDERWOOD,

NEW YORK, N. Y., February 10, 1913.

Chairman of Committee on Ways and Means,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR: Permit me in consequence of the evidence given by me in the hearing on the 30th of January, in regard to paragraph 433, to add some information which, after what later transpired in this matter, has become necessary to add.

In the same meeting (the 30th) almost directly after my testimony was taken, Mr. D. Walter Bell of the Pittsburgh Sparkler Co., presented some evidence in regard to electric sparklers, on which he requested a reasonably high duty in order to protect his export business.

This request, coming just after I addressed the committee showing that a great reduction in the present tariff is necessary if the country in future should have any revenue at all from fireworks, makes it look almost like the whole question at issue was high or low duty on sparklers.

Whether the duty on sparklers is high or low, in as far as revenue is regarded, is without any difference. No revenue can be obtained from this article, as Europe can not compete with the United States with this article in this country. Formerly great quantities of sparklers were imported from Europe, but as soon as manufac

PARAGRAPH 433-FIREWORKS.

turers in this country started to copy this article (which is of European origin) the importation discontinued-and it discontinued long before the Payne bill went into effect in 1909, and in the figures I have given over my importations in 1907, 1908, and 1909, not a single gross of sparklers is included.

Sparklers are sold in this country at 20 cents the gross. I have bought good sparklers even at 18 and 19 cents. The highest price asked for domestic sparklers from a jobber is 25 cents a gross.

They come generally in boxes, 12 pieces in a carton.

One gross carton, 12 in a carton, costs from $2.40 to $3. Three dollars is the highest price a wholesale fireworks business pays, and the most are sold cheaper.

The cheapest price ever quoted me for sparklers in Europe is 3.50 marks, less 5 and 2 per cent per gross. Cartons of 12 sparklers equal to $3, .08 to .09, or in case lots at 10 gross, $30.80, whereas a case American sparklers is sold to the jobber at about $25 to $30, or an average of $27 a case.

As far as I remember, a case weighs 290 to 300 pounds. (These goods can be shipped in Germany in large cases, as they are not considered explosives.)

From this it will be seen that European sparklers can not be sold at all in the United States, even if there were no duty on them at all. The freight on fireworks has been raised enormously. No steamer will carry more of that class of goods from Hamburg or Bremen, and at present the cheapest calculation at which I can bring any fireworks from Europe to the United States is 8 cents per pound, gross weight.

There is thus no necessity for high duty on such goods, to protect American industry, nor do I understand Mr. Bell's meaning in stating that a reasonably high duty is necessary in order to protect American export. Whether the duty is $10 the pound on these fireworks articles, or they are on the free list, has no bearing on the exports from the United States. What the meaning is I can not understand, as I find no meaning in a request for high import duty in order to protect the export.

In connection with this, I would state that there was a movement up this winter to get all the factories that manufacture sparklers to raise the price from 20 to 45 cents the gross. This plan failed; also another plan of raising the price somewhat less. I was informed that one factory would not take part in this action unless the other parties would grant this factory certain privileges.

be

If such a corner should be successfully worked another year it would, of course, of great benefit to the so-called Fireworks Trust, if under disguise of protecting American labor a duty of 300 pounds at 12 cents gross weight, $36 a case, could be maintained. The trust could then do as it wanted.

The present high duty is an excellent protection for the trust, but if revenue is desired from fireworks, the present rate must be cut very considerably.

Respectfully, yours,

EDW. H. WAGNER.

TESTIMONY OF D. WALTER BELL.

Mr. BELL. Mr. Chairman and members of the Ways and Means Committee, I am here representing the American Sparkler Co., of Pittsburgh, Pa., who are manufacturers of what are known as sparklers. I have some samples here on the table. These sparklers are made in various sizes, and are ordinarily put up in pasteboard boxes, generally a dozen to a box. That is No. 433, under fireworks and articles not otherwise specifically provided for. These are an absolutely harmless article, I might say, by way of recommendation to the American public generally, and I will light one a little later on if you would like. This is the ordinary size [exhibiting]. The larger ones are known as torches. They are absolutely luxuries. They are used on festive occasions of all kinds-the Fourth of July, Christmas, New Year, holiday celebrations, parties, balls, and illuminations generally.

The CHAIRMAN. What duty do they pay now?

Mr. BELL. Twelve cents a pound.