One of the points that I want to make is that the duty on lithographic matter being 5 cents a pound is unjust, because the small quantities pay only about 2 or 3 per cent duty, whereas large quantities come up to 15 or 20 per cent duty.

The point I want to make is, where the hand labor enters into the cost the difference is very much greater than where they are produced by machinery.

The first cost of a post card is engraving, and that is where the labor enters into it. In the small editions is where the great differences are, in lots from one to five thousand, and that is where the bulk of the sales are made.

There are only a few places in the country where they can use an edition of over 5,000 cards. Such places as Washington, New York, Chicago, and Niagara Falls will use a large edition, but nine out of ten localities will use smaller editions-editions of from 3,000 to 5,000 cards-and there is where we do not get a show.

The lithographing is very similar to printing. Lithograph cards pay a duty of 5 cents. Printed cards pay a duty of 25 per cent, and it takes an expert to tell the difference between the two. Even experts sometimes are unable to tell the difference, and it is not a just thing to put a different duty on lithographing from that on printing.

Another point is that cardboard pays a duty of 25 per cent. Lithographic stones, engraved, pay a duty of 25 per cent. Printing plates, engraved, pay a duty of 45 per cent. In other words, all the things that enter into the manufacture of post cards pay a duty of from 25 to 45 per cent, whereas post cards themselves pay 5 cents a pound, which averages from 4 to 15 per cent, according to the quantity.

Mr. CLARK. How would it strike you to cut down the tariff on the ingredients?

Mr. ARTMAN. As far as we are concerned, it would strike us all right; that is to say, if we could buy our engraving abroad and bring it here and our cardboard abroad and bring it here we would be satisfied; we think we could compete. But the cardboard manufacturer would not be satisfied nor the other manufacturer

Mr. CLARK. I am not asking you what he wants, but what you want. It comes to the same thing in the end, whether we cut down somewhere or raise somewhere, does it not?

Mr. ARTMAN. Taking the duty off cardboard and engravings would only help us on the large editions, which are the exception. On the small editions, which comprise the great bulk of the business, we could not compete with the foreign cards, even though we should bring cardboard and engravings in free. On 1,000 editions our cost is double theirs, including duty, and on 2,000 and 3,000 editions it is 50 per cent greater than theirs, including duty, and on 5,000 it is 30 per cent greater. The 25 per cent reduction on cardboard would not amount to much, as the cost of cardboard is a small part of the total cost of small editions. To reduce the duty on photo-engravings or to put them on the free list would be of very doubtful assistance to us on account of the delays in bringing these from abroad, and to put them on the free list would be disastrous to American photo-engravers. We do not believe it is the intention of your committee to protect one industry at the expense of another, and therefore we do not suppose the reduction on duty of cardboard and photo-engravings will be con

sidered. Almost all color-view post cards are now brought in as lithographed matter at the 5-cents-a-pound duty. Five cents a pound means 35 cents a thousand on a 1,000 lot; this is less than 4 per cent. On a 2,000 lot it amounts to 70 cents-about 5 per cent; on a 3,000 lot it amounts to $1.05-about 8 per cent; and on 5,000, $1.75, or 10 per cent. Thus the small editions, which should have the most protection, have had the least protection. Therefore, a duty based on weight is a very poor one for protection purposes, and the ad valorem duty is much better. While a 50 per cent duty on colored view cards would afford us protection on editions of 5.000 and over, it would not held us on the small editions, and we therefore urge that, if possible. a higher duty be placed on small editions, say 75 per cent, which would give us a chance on all editions except the very smallest ones, and with the increased production we might find it possible to compete on the smallest quantities as well.

STATEMENT MADE TO COMMITTEE BY MATTHEW WOLL RELATIVE TO PHOTO-ENGRAVING AND POST CARDS.

THURSDAY, December 17, 1908.

The witness was duly sworn by the chairman.

Mr. WOLL. Mr. Chairman, I want to talk in regard to the photo

engravers.

The CHAIRMAN. I understand you want about ten minutes.

Mr. WOLL. Yes, ten minutes will be sufficient time to plead my

case.

I appear here in behalf of the photo-engravers and in the interest of the workers.

This post-card proposition which has been spoken of to the committee is one which seriously affects the workman of the photo-engraving craft. The photo-engraving craft is a very new craft: it has not been very long in existence, about twenty years or less than that since it has been of commercial value in this country.

In our early period we had no foreign competition to speak of, but since the development of the craft, the skill of the members, we have realized that there is a great deal of competition from the foreign shores, particularly in the post-card and in the calendar work.

That has been due to the development of the craft, and it has not been until in recent years that we have come to our legislators to seek remedial legislation to protect the American workmen.

Now, in the post-card trade and the calendar trade, the photoengravers are affected particularly, inasmuch as the post card and calendar trade is a business which has been used heretofore to fill in the idle time of those engaged in that work. In other words, the photo-engravers have nothing to sell but their skill. They can not accumulate any stock in trade, and, as the nature of the business is, it is confined largely to making photo-engravings for advertising purposes. Advertising as a rule is usually done in two seasons of the year, that is, this is work that comes periodically once or twice a year. Our busy seasons are in the fall and in the spring. During the

winter time and during the summer time we are very slack in our work.

Now, those times have always been taken up with this post-card work and this other illustrating work, which has given our men employment during the entire year. But now, with the competition from Europe, we find that even that work has left us. That is the post-card work. Under the conditions that exist now they can produce that work abroad much cheaper than we can here, and therefore it has thrown many of our men out of employment during those seasons of the year.

Not only is the post-card work affected disadvantageously in this matter, but that also refers to the calendar work that we formerly did. We are not only suffering on account of the idleness of our men, caused by the things I have stated, but we also find that our men are affected in another way. Calendar work is of a high class, it is artistic work, and it is a great disadvantage to our workmen to be deprived of that high character of work. The calendar work is, as I have said, artistic work, and we feel that inasmuch as it is our aim to have as high an ideal as possible, to have a high standard of work and to come up to that standard as far as possible, we want to be given the inducement that we find in this calendar work and other work like that. That sort of work increases our skill, and unless we can get that work we can not in any other way well acquire that high grade of skill. We can not get it simply by reading books and studying; we can only get it by doing the actual work.

Therefore, we think we need some protection from the legislature in that matter.

In the post card and calendar work is where we need protection. We do not ask protection on the other kinds of work-the catalogue work, or the periodical work, or the magazine work. In work of that kind the conditions themselves give us protection, because the immediate demand for that kind of work will not permit it to be sent out to foreign countries to be done. But as to post card work, which is merely like what we might call stock in trade, that can be sent to foreign countries and done over there, and in that way our workmen are deprived of employment at a time of year when they would especially like to have it.

I do not care to consume any more of the time of the committee unless there are some questions. I understand that a gentleman was here this morning, and he stated the case of the publishers from the publishers' viewpoint.

Mr. LONGWORTH. What do you ask?

Mr. WOLL. That our protection be higher, that a higher duty be placed on this printed matter. If the committee wants any statistical information on this I will be very glad to furnish it.

I was passing through the city here, and I was glad to take this opportunity to appear before you and speak for my craftsmen. Those are the facts. We feel particularly that this work, which has always been done by engravers, is a sort of filling-in work, to keep our men employed continually; is work that it is very desirable for us to continue to have. We have now been deprived of that work. Also, as I have said, because it fixes the price which, once fixed, is going to affect the other work.

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As for the calendar work, the same tendency is noticeable there. That work is not work that has to be done in such a hurry. They can wait months for it. Because they can wait that length of time for it, they send to the foreign importers to have that work done. Naturally we feel that we ought to do that work, not only to keep our men employed, but also to give us the opportunity of bettering our

craft.

The laws of this country, I understand, are meant to develop the artistic instincts of the people; and, as I have said, in no way can our high standard of work be kept up so well as by doing this most | artistic work; we can not accomplish the same thing by studying, or in any other way.

If we have a chance to do this work I am sure that we will gain more than by merely having other people make those cards and we simply observing them.

I think that practically concludes our case, the case of the photoengravers. We are not asking any protection to build up any industry, but we do ask protection to maintain the industry that we have already built up in the last few years.

Unless we get what we ask we will have serious competition. It will make it hard for the employers, as well as for the workmen, for this reason: In the photo-engraving trade the cost of production is largely the cost of labor. Recently a committee was appointed to determine the actual price of production. This committee reported that between 60 and 70 per cent of the cost in photo-engraving is the cost of labor. You can readily see how we are affected by this proposition. It means a great deal to the members of our craft. Mr. GAINES. What wages do you make?

Mr. WOLL. The photo-engravers' wages range from $18 to $30 a week.

Mr. LONGWORTH. And what do the Germans get?

Mr. WOLL. In marks, almost the same figures.

Mr. LONGWORTH. That would be about four times as much as you get, then?

Mr. WOLL. Yes; if you consider that they get the same figure in marks. We feel that with the training that is required to produce photo-engraving and the conditions under which we must work-because we are a sort of artistic craft-we feel that the wages are not any too high, and it surely will not relieve us or give us an opportunity to better the craft by cutting down the wages, which we have now, and compelling us to separate the craft still more and practically do away with the artistic part of it.

If there are any questions as to the photo-engravers, I will be glad to try to answer them.

1

STATEMENT OF H. M. ROSE, THE ROSE COMPANY, 606 SANSOME STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PA., RELATIVE TO CALENDARS, PICTURES, AND POST CARDS.

THURSDAY, December 17, 1908.

Mr. Rose was duly sworn by the acting chairman, Mr. Dalzell. Mr. ROSE. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I intended to call your attention to the difference in the hours of labor of employment here and in foreign countries, and the difference in the scale of wages.

Mr. UNDERWOOD. Before you proceed, will you please tell us whom you represent?

Mr. ROSE. The Rose Company, of Philadelphia, publishers and printers of calendars, pictures, and post cards. I find that the committee has been rather fully informed as to the difference in wages for printers and pressmen in this country and Europe, so I will simply say that the United States Government in its own printing shop has established wages and hours of labor which are very difficult for us to follow, while at the same time the market in our class of goods has been thrown open to foreign countries, with practically no duty whatever; countries where the rate of wages is from one-quarter to one-third the rate paid by us.

I am stopping at one of your principal hotels. I went to the news. stand this morning on the way up here, and I find that the only post cards of the United States Capitol, the White House, and all of the views of Washington, are made in Germany. We imported from Germany alone in 1907 nearly 800,000,000 cards.

Now the cost of making those cards-speaking of post cards, although we manufacture the other lines, and they all come or should come under one general heading the initial cost of a set of post cards, usually eight designs, which is the popular number, for drawings, and designs, and plates, is from $300 to $500. Of this fully 95 per cent is the cost of labor. The only material used is a little copper and wood on which the plates are made. Following that, the cost of the cardboard is about 75 cents per thousand; ink 25 cents a thousand, labor $1.50 a thousand. On the number of post cards imported from Germany alone in 1907, the wages that we would have had to pay would have amounted to about $1,200,000, or work for a year for 2,000 men and women at the rate of $12 week. In addition to that there would be about half a million dollars for plates, practically all of which was labor; and then about $800,000 for cardboard and ink. The amount of labor on that I am not familiar with. We want to pay the wages that we are paying now, and we want to increase them. The publishers of books, and the other printers are going to do it on the 1st of January, and we can not do it.

Mr. DALZELL. You have given us the American wages; can you give us the corresponding cost abroad?

Mr. ROSE. I have in my pocket a brief presented to you by the American Typothetæ, which gives that exactly. I will read it to you if you want me to do so.

Mr. ĎALZELL. No; that is already in the hearing.