Mr. CLARK. You want us to stop the smuggling and raise the tariff from 35 per cent to 100 per cent? Mr. BAGGALEY. Yes, sir; to enable us to have an equal chance to compete with them. Mr. CLARK. That is a very modest request. Mr. UNDERWOOD. How much business is done in this country? Mr. UNDERWOOD. Yes. Mr. BAGGALEY. On an average of about $50,000 a year by the designers who are in business for themselves, and about $50,000 a year by designers employed inside the mills by manufacturers. Mr. UNDERWOOD. How much of it do the home producers do? What Mr. BAGGALEY. The volume of business is about equal to what we do $40,000 to $50,000, imported into this country. Mr. UNDERWOOD. You mean the volume of business is about $100,000, of which you do about $50,000 and the importers do about $50,000? Mr. BAGGALEY. Yes, sir. Mr. UNDERWOOD. You control one-half of the trade? Mr. BAGGALEY. Yes, sir. Mr. UNDERWOOD. Do you not think you are pretty well protected when you control half of the trade? Mr. BAGGALEY. I do not think so. Ten years ago there were at least twice as many designers, and the importers have sent them out of business. They were employed but about one-half the year, owing to the importation of designs. Mr. UNDERWOOD. You have 35 per cent ad valorem now? Mr. BAGGALEY. Yes, sir; and that does not bring it anywhere near right. They can import their designs or cards, which cost them 75 cents, and the ad valorem duty brings it up to $1.01, whereas our lowest price is $2.50, and we only make a reasonable wage at that. This is not printing matter at all. This is skill and is made from the hand and brush and brains. You have to understand every part of the silk machinery to make these designs, or else they would be of no use at all. Mr. BOUTELL. How much of the foreign product that gets into this country do you estimate is smuggled? Mr. BAGGALEY. I should say 90 per cent. I only know of one firm that imports these cards that pays any duty at all. Mr. BOUTELL. That is, your opinion is that 90 per cent of the foreign product that gets into this country is smuggled? Mr. BAGGALEY. Yes, sir; through the mails. Mr. BOUTELL. Have you complained to the Post-Office Department? Mr. BAGGALEY. We have complained to the custom-house, and Mr. Nathan told us to go to Mr. Morgan, of the New York post-office. There is an awful lot smuggled through the Philadelphia postoffice, too. Mr. GRIGGS. Do you know who sends these cards in here? Mr. BAGGALEY. Yes, sir. Mr. GRIGGS. Do you know that they pay no duty? Mr. BAGGALEY. We know that they pay no duty on these designs. Mr. GRIGGS. Go and take out a warrant for those fellows. That will stop them. Mr. BAGGALEY. We tried some time ago to stop them. We have been doing our best. STATEMENT OF WILLIAM S. BUTTS, OF PATERSON, N. J., RELATIVE TO THE DUTIES IMPOSED ON JACQUARD DESIGNS. SATURDAY, November 21, 1908. Mr. BUTTS. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, the foreign houses, as Mr. Baggaley said, get 75 cents per hundred, while our lowest price is $2.50. Even if we had this 35 per cent ad valorem increased to 75 per cent, that would bring it up to only $1, while our lowest possible price is $2.50. We can not compete with them. Fifty per cent of all designs used are imported to this country. In the last nine years this importation has increased up to 50 per cent, while we can state that in the designing shops in Paterson, which employ probably 12 and 14 and up to 20 designers, they have not even had any increase, but, on the other hand, have only 1 or 2 designers to-day. It has decreased their business greatly. The importation has increased largely. Thirty-five per cent ad valorem would not be sufficient. There ought to be 75 per cent duty on it to make it equal with our price. That means we will have a fair competition. Mr. CLARK. How does it happen that this trade is falling off under the very same law that you had ten years ago? Mr. BUTTS. There was not so much importing at that time. It has increased since. They are not quite all importing yet, but there are probably half a dozen or eight who are importing now and getting the designs for half price, or even one-third the price, that other manufacturers have to pay who do not import the designs. If this condition continues, we will be wiped out of business entirely. Mr. CLARK. If you could get along very well ten or eight or seven years ago, how does it happen you are getting into trouble now? Mr. BUTTS. Because they were not importing then. Mr. CLARK. They were not importing at all then? Mr. BUTTS. No, sir. Mr. CLARK. How long have you been in the business at Paterson? Mr. BUTTS. Over fifteen years. Mr. CLARK. Are you a naturalized citizen? Mr. BUTTS. Yes. Mr. CLARK. And the gentleman who just preceded you, is he naturalized? Mr. BUTTS. I do not know. Mr. BAGALAY. Yes, sir. Mr. CLARK. Both citizens, are you? Mr. BUTTS. Yes, sir; for over fifteen years. REPRESENTATIVES OF JACQUARD DESIGNERS AND CARD CUTTERS ASK AN INCREASE OF DUTIES. PATERSON, N. J., December 2, 1908. COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, Washington, D. C. GENTLEMEN: We beg to submit brief for the benefit of your committee, to show cause why the tariff should be increased on Jacquard designs and cards. We are asking only a reasonable amount of protection to our industry. The European competition has been very great during the last few years, and the custom-house statistics do not show the actual importation in the United States. It is very easy to avoid paying duty on these importations, as they come through the mails on very thin paper (as Exhibits 1, 2, and 4), made expressly for the export trade. The designers in the United States have suffered considerably through this, and their numbers have decreased 50 per cent in the last five or six years. Six years ago there were 140 designers and 50 card cutters in this part of the country, and to-day there are no more than 60 or 70 designers and 30 card cutters. The decrease is not due entirely to change of fashion, but is due to the greatly increased importations that pay no duty. One firm in this city has a special machine by which they can take these imported cards (Exhibit 2) and manufacture from them cards of the same size and similar in every way to the cards now used on the Jacquard looms, as per Exhibit 3. Cards sent this way (Exhibit 2) saves the duty on the designs, and if duty is collected it is collected on the cards only. Cards coming in this way should pay duty on the design and cards combined, as the design must be created before the cards can be perforated. Many firms in Germany export designs and cards to the United States, and if manufacturers in the United States who import them are allowed to take advantage of the extremely low duty, or duty evaded altogether, other manufacturers in the silk industry will have to follow in order to compete, and the result of such a course would be to lessen the number of designers and card cutters to a few, or drive them out of the business altogether in a short time. Considering the wages paid here and wages paid in Germany, we have no chance of fair competition, and therefore we ask for an increase in the tariff of at least 100 per cent. The minimum rate at which designs can be produced in this country is $2.50 per hundred cards, and in Germany the rate is 3 marks (75 cents) per hundred cards. We do not fear competition with any country as far as ability goes, but we can not stay in the business and exist under the present conditions. We submit exhibits of sketches, designs, and cards, also a wage scale, showing the different wages paid here and in Germany. The following is a comparative scale of wages: We also ask that all designs coming through the custom-house undervalued, or fraudulently through the mails, be confiscated. Respectfully submitted. ROBERT P. BAGGALEY, Committee (representing the Jacquard designers and card cutters of the United States). BOOKS. [Paragraphs 403, 500, 501, 502, 503, 504, and 645.] THE CONCORDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE, ST. LOUIS, MO., SUGGESTS A NEW CLASSIFICATION FOR BOOKS. COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, ST. LOUIS, November 19, 1908. Washington, D. C. RESPECTED SIRS: It is hardly to be doubted that in your work of revising the tariff rates for the various import articles your attention will have been attracted to the fact that books published in a foreign country in a language other than English pass our customhouse duty free. Even upon the risk of doing something that might be adjudged superfluous by you, we desire to respectfully call your attention to this fact anew, at the same time begging leave to politely suggest to your honored committee that this practice is hardly in conformity with our principles of protection. It is true many of the books printed in a foreign language in a foreign country are of such a nature that their production does not collide with any prerogatives of American labor, inasmuch as the demand in this country for such books would be too small for any American publisher to feel encouraged in the undertaking of their publication, but it is also a fact that American publishers whose peculiarity of business or trade gives them more or less work in foreign languages designed for home consumption will, under the prevailing conditions, find it decidedly to their individual advantage to farm out such work in Europe, thus taking away from American labor what legitimately belongs here. We respectfully hold that the customs office should make a distinction between books published in foreign countries for foreign markets and only sporadically introduced into this country by importers and books published in foreign countries with the obvious intention of marketing them in this country-in fact, made in Europe for American publishers and bearing the American publishers' imprint on their title-pages. Without undertaking to make definite suggestions to you as to a rate to be applied or as to exact demarcation between the one class and the other, we simply desire to submit this to your attentive consideration as we know from personal experience that thousands of dollars worth of such productions are brought into this country duty free, which otherwise would have to be produced here and would redound to the advantage of American labor, although the publishers in that event might be obliged to place a higher market price on such goods if produced in this country. Thanking you in advance for your kind consideration of this question, we are, Very respectfully, yours, CONCORDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE, STATEMENT OF ISAAC H. BLANCHARD, NEW YORK CITY, ASKING PROTECTION FOR THE BOOK-MAKING INDUSTRY. SATURDAY, November 21, 1908. Mr. BLANCHARD. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I represent the Typothetæ of the city of New York--the job printing and publishing industry of the United States. Our organization is a part of the United Typothetæ of America, the national organization of the graphic arts trade, and, as the strongest branch of that national organization, we feel that we represent to-day the sentiment of the job printers and publishers of this country. Many members of our organization are represented in the brief presented for your consideration by the National Association of Employing Lithographers, and our membership begs to indorse in detail the representations placed before you by that organization. In the brief, Mr. Chairman, which we submit, and which I will not read except to follow your suggestion to make a brief, we have quoted your tariff schedule of 25 per cent in clause 403, and we refer to the free list in clauses 500, 501, 502, and 503. We have submitted our substitute propositions which provide for an increase in duty. . We submit the volume of the industry on page 4 and the volume of the imports on pages 4, 5, and 6. We submit for your consideration a comparison of the weekly wages, on page 6, and some illustrations on pages 7 and 8, to which I want to call your attention. The inventory value of printed matter consists of the two factors, merchandise or paper stock and labor, and in some cases the labor value is 25 per cent of the total inventory value, and in some cases it runs as high as 75 per cent. In a case where the labor value of the inventory is 75 per cent on a $1,000 inventory, under the present 25 per cent duty the laid-down value is $1,275 of the imported $1,000 inventory. If produced in the United States, as compared with the German production, the cost of that inventory is $2,500. A further illustration is given on pages 7 and 8, which shows other comparisons, which I submit for your consideration. The organization which I represent asks one thing only-an even chance in our home market. From the tables that are submitted it |