PARAGRAPH 42-BARYTES.

STATEMENT OF WM. A. BUDDECKE, PRESIDENT OF THE POINT MILLING & MANUFACTURING CO., MINERAL POINT, MO.

We venture to submit to you the following brief statement of facts in relation to the production of barytes in this country.

This material is mined almost entirely in the Southern States, there being operations in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia. As you know, in Washington County, Mo., it is the principal industry, and over 50 per cent of the barytes mined in the United States comes from Washington County. The employees there do little else; the men work in the mines and their families clean and prepare the ore for factory uses.

This company has a factory at Mineral Point, Mo., right at the mines and employs a full force of men in the production of this material for market, the operations being of a character that requires the factory to be run night and day, or to shut down completely.

The competition on this material comes almost exclusively from Germany, where there are very large mines, and with their cheap labor it is possible to produce at a lower price than we can here in this country under present conditions.

We attach herewith a letter recently received by one of our friends in East St. Louis, and inclosing samples, which we are sending to you in the original covers, and from these is evident the competition which exists in this industry.

We would say further that 75 per cent of the consumption of barytes is in the Atlantic seaboard cities, and for years the price on the American product in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston has been at a figure that the German producers were willing to accept, and it has been a constant effort of the American producers to meet this price.

You will note that with the letter from Holland is attached a sheet showing the prices worked out into tons of 2,000 pounds, adding the duty as at present, and showing the net price, delivered Atlantic ports, as per quotation.

Now our situation is as follows: The average price for the tiff, which is the local name for barytes ore in Washington County, is $7 per net ton at the railroad to which must be added a small loading charge and freight to our factory, averaging 30 cents per ton. The ore in manufacturing shows a loss of 5 per cent, or 35 cents per ton. The freight on the manufactured product from Mineral Point to New York is $4.65 per ton, A fair estimate of cost is $5.50 per ton, making $17.80 per ton delievered New York as against $17.90 on the foreign product. This shows an extremely small margin, as at present, and on that we are working.

To reduce the tariff means that every ton of foreign ore that comes into this country does not simply mean ore ton more used but displaces a ton of American mined and manufactured goods, and every ton means the employment of at least six men in the mining, hauling, and manufacturing. We therefore ask you to use your good offices to prevent damage to an industry that while not large it is a very valuable one and can be made still larger if properly protected, and on the other hand there is no demand made by any consumer of this material for a reduction in tariff, and that the only real benefit in

PARAGRAPH 42—BARYTES.

having the tariff reduced will be to some importing brokers at the seaboard.

We would also state that the mining and manufacturing of this material is entirely free from any consolidation or understanding; that competition is very active, there being a greater factory production than the consumption requires; also that the present duty is not prohibitive, as import records show that every year a considerable quantity of the German product is brought to this country.

We would also suggest that the railroad companies recognize the foreign competition, and have been willing to maintain a rate of freight which works out about 40 cents per ton per mile, and is as low as we can hope to obtain, and, unlike the German competition, we have no water route from this section to the Atlantic seaboard. We therefore trust you will do what you can to help the producers in this section, and prevent the mining and manufacturing of this material being obliterated by bringing into this country more of the foreign production.

Yours, very truly,

POINT MILLING & MANUFACTURING CO.,
Wм. A. BUDDECKE, President.

Messrs. GEO. S. MEPHAM & Co.,

[Inclosure.]

East St. Louis, Ill.

ROTTERDAM, January 9, 1913.

DEAR SIRS: We have pleasure in drawing your attention to a product for which we are very well posted for export to your country and we will be glad if you will give the present your very best attention. This product is heavy spar, or barytes.

We know that a fair amount of business is already done in this product on your side. They have up to this date been buying from Hamburg, but as the sources of supply are situated nearer to Rotterdam, we are in a position to make you very advantageous offers for shipment via our port, and we trust that you will not fail to avail yourselves of this opportunity.

The largest use of the above-named articles is made by manufacturers of lithophon, white lead, and carpet manufacturers. On account of its very heavy weight, it serves to add weight to the products in which it is mixed. It is also used by various other chemical works.

For your guidance we have sent you a sample of this product and we can but advise you to follow up the sale of this stuff which we know to have already found a market in the States.

We beg to quote without engagement:

Price per 1,000 kilos (2,200 pounds) c. i. f., at New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

PARAGRAPH 44-BLANC FIXE.

This heavy spar contains 97 to 98 per cent BaSO..

The price in bags is charged in the gross weight; when packed in casks an allowance of 3 per cent is made for tare on the gross weight.

Our conditions of payment are net cash against documents, and we will be glad to hear from you in regard to the above offer.

Meantime we are, dear sir, yours, truly,

PARAGRAPH 43.

RUEB & GLEICHMAN.

Blues, such as Berlin, Prussian, Chinese, and all others, containing ferrocyanide of iron, in pulp, dry or ground, in or mixed with oil or water, eight cents per pound.

See Arthur Somers, pages 335, 344.

PARAGRAPH 44.

Blanc fixe, or artificial sulphate of barytes, and satin white, or artificial sulphate of lime, one-half of one cent per pound.

BLANC FIXE.

BRIEF OF T. S. TODD & CO., CUSTOMHOUSE BROKERS AND FORWARDERS, NEW YORK CITY.

WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE,

NEW YORK, January 4, 1913.

Washington, D. C.

GENTLEMEN: Blanc fixe and satin white are made in this country from a foreign raw material not found here.

The price of blanc fixe during the past 10 years has been reduced from $55 to $39 per ton.

The imports of about 6,000,000 pounds amount to about 50 per cent of the total consumption, therefore quite removed from a monopoly.

The present duty is one-half cent per pound and provided for in paragraph 44.

Blanc fixe and satin white are made from a natural product known as witherite spar, found principally in England, although other sources of supply are found in Germany; this material is imported in the rough state from the mine in bulk, but not in sufficient quantity to admit of any reduction in the ocean freight, so that the raw material and the finished article, blanc fixe, pays practically the same freight. This raw material goes through an elaborate process of manufacture, and is reduced to its commercial product by grinding and successive treatment with muriatic acid and sulphuric acid, both of which acids cost considerably more in this country than they do abroad; as an illustration, in England muriatic acid is sold at 70 to 75 cents per 100 pounds, as against $1.20 to $1.25 per 100 pounds here. In Germany sulphuric acid can be purchased at 40 cents per 100 pounds, as against 80 to 85 cents per 100 pounds here.

Actual production figures taken from our manufacturing records show the following: Cost of raw material, $19.50 per ton; labor, $7 per ton; acids and treatment, $7.50 per ton; packing, $2.50 per ton; total, $36.50 per ton; and the finished material sells for from $39 to $40 per ton.

In House bill 20182, paragraph 56, provision is made for duty on blanc fixe and satin white at one-fourth cent per pound, equivalent

PARAGRAPH 45-LAMPBLACK.

to $5.60 per English ton of 2,240 pounds; the price of blanc fixe in England is £5 per ton, ocean freight 25s. per ton, total, $36 per ton, or $1.61 per 100 pounds, which is less than the American cost of production.

The present duty of one-half cent per pound does not admit of any abnormal profit to the manufacturer, the above figures indicating it to be less than 7 per cent, from which it is manifest that a duty of one-fourth cent per pound under present conditions, under which we are entirely dependent on England and Germany for our raw material, would force the American manufacturer to discontinue its production.

The present duty has been in force since 1897, and the American producer has voluntarily reduced his cost to the consumer 30 per cent, which should commend him to your committee as justly worthy of consideration in fixing a rate of duty which will enable him to continue a business representing a very considerable amount of labor and capital.

We have the honor to be, yours, respectfully,

PARAGRAPH 45.

T. S. TODD,

For Providence Drysalters Co., Providence, R. 1.
JOHN D. LEWIS,
Providence, R. I.

Black, made from bone, ivory, or vegetable substance, by whatever name known, including boneblack and lampblack, dry or ground in oil or water, twenty-five per centum ad valorem.

LAMPBLACK.

BRIEF SUBMITTED BY WILCKES, MARTIN WILCKES CO., NEW YORK CITY.

Brief appealing on the reduction of the duty on lampblack from 25 per cent to 15 per cent under report on Schedule A, chemicals, oils, and paints.

(1) Labor. Germany is the largest producer of lampblack in the world, and their wages are from 50 per cent to 75 per cent lower in that country than they are here. For instance, our common laborers get $2 a day, and our cooperers get $3 a day, and our foremen get $20 per week, as against the German wages for a common laborer of 3 marks, which equals 75 cents, 4 marks, which equals $1, for cooperers, and 38 to 40 marks a week, which equal $9.50 to $10 for foremen.

(2) Raw material.-Germany is also the largest producers of coal tar and coal-tar products, which are the base of the raw materials for the manufacture of lampblacks. They therefore have cheaper coal tar and coal-tar products than the American manufacturers.

(3) Marketing the product.-American manufacturers have to depend on the American market exclusively, as not a pound can be sold outside of the United States on account of the German competition. They all have the South American trade, for the reason that they are not only in a position to produce cheaper, but they transport their lampblack at ridiculously low-ocean freights right to South America.

PARAGRAPH 45-LAMPBLACK.

in their own bottoms. The same holds true in Russia, England, and Austria.

(4) No change can be made in the tariff without injuring to some extent the American industry.

(5) We are perfectly familiar with the above-mentioned facts for the reason that we are well posted on manufacturing conditions on the other side.

(6) The Germans can deliver lampblack here on the basis of only a 15 per cent duty at a lower price than the goods can be manufactured for in this country. We would be glad to give exact figures proving our contention if you will give us an opportunity.

(7) The evidence submitted is so clear, however, when you take into consideration the selling price of lampblack in this market, which to-day is as low as 2 cents a pound for the majority of it, as against the tremendous advantage which the Germans have in their labor and raw materials that very little further argument or figures is necessary.

(8) The Germans are exporting lampblack to practically every country where there is a market for it, whereas there is not a pound of lampblack exported from this country to any point.

(9) The 25 per cent duty barely kept them out of this market which they have had their eyes on for years.

(10) You will see from the knowledge which the Ways and Means Committee already have on the raw material and the labor condition and the price at which the majority of lampblack sells in this market that the duty should not be reduced from 25 per cent.

(11) Please do not get this article confused with carbon gas blackwhich is all produced in this country and exported abroad-nor ivory, bone, or drop blacks.

(12) Of course, these blacks are all made from entirely different raw materials, viz, carbon gas black from natural gas, and the other blacks from bone and vegetable matter, and they can not, any of them, be used for the same purpose as lampblack.

Respectfully submitted.

WILCKES, MARTIN WILCKES Co., By L. MARTIN.

BRIEF OF H. B. CARPENTER, OF THE LISTERS A. C. WORKS, NEWARK, N. J.

NEWARK, N. J., January 17, 1913.

The Chairman, Hon. BOIES PENROSE, and

MEMBERS OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE, U. S. Senate, Washington, D. C. GENTLEMEN: We respectfully urge upon you to consider carefully the question of removing the present duty from "animal charcoal" and pray you to leave it undisturbed, as serious consequences are likely to result to many thousands of persons whose labor and living are dependent upon the production of this article.

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