PARAGRAPH 90-FLUORSPAR. The average price of domestic fluorspar of all grades in 1912 remained practically the same as in 1911, but it is believed by the domestic producers that there is a slight profit at the present prices, although, as stated by the Department of the Interior, the profit is not "attractive." The report for 1911 summarizes the situation as follows: Under the most favorable conditions, therefore, the margin of profit can never be expected to be large, and it requires exceptionally good management to conduct any spar-mining operations profitably, unless the veins are thick and of uniformly good quality. The present duty will continue to stimulate an increased domestic production. The producers will attempt to increase profits slightly by larger production and a more economical distribution of cost. As the Bessemer plants are changed into open-hearth plants, and as new open-hearth plants are built, the requirements of the steel business of the country will increase, and the fluorspar production should be permitted to keep pace with the steel business. 9. Effect of present tariff on domestic consumer-Has not increased cost of living. The amount of fluorspar used to produce a ton of finished steel varies slightly, in accordance with the character of the scrap iron or the character of the iron ore used in the furnace. Between 800 and 1,000 pounds of gravel fluorspar are used on every heat of 55 tons. At most, therefore, the cost of fluorspar is less than 5 cents to the ton of finished steel. Under the influence of the tariff the price of gravel fluorspar to the steel companies in this country has advanced less than $1 per ton. The increase in cost of fluorspar to the ton of finished steel is approximately one-half of a cent. Fluorspar is the smallest item entering into the production of steel. An increase in its cost of one-half of a cent per ton of finished steel is insignificant and has no effect to raise the price of steel. The tariff on fluorspar has no effect on the ultimate consumer of finished steel. The steel industry as a whole are entirely satisfied with conditions. under the present fluorspar tariff. With the possible exception of a few mills at or near our eastern seacoast, the steel industry of the country has no desire to have the duty removed or even reduced. The ordinary steel company prefers to pay one-half of a cent additional for the fluorspar used in producing a ton of steel, in order to be able to rely upon an increased accessible dependable production of a standard grade of fluorspar. 10. Competitive conditions under the present tariff-The last available quotation of foreign fluorspar was $7.65 per long ton, f. o. b. cars Philadelphia, including duty. Adding the freight rate of $1.60 per long ton, or $1.20 per short ton, the basis on which domestic spar is sold. The freight rates on gravel fluorspar from the Kentucky and Illinois districts to the Pittsburgh field are $2.30 and $2.10 per ton, respectively. Under this competition the price of domestic fluorspar in the Pittsburgh field can not exceed approximately $6 per ton at the rail shipping point. As recognized by the Department of the Interior, there is small profit to the domestic producer at this figure. The steel mills east of the Pittsburgh field can still purchase their requirements of fluorspar at lower prices than the mills in the west PARAGRAPH 90-FLUORSPAR. of that field, and the eastern field is still entirely in the hands of the foreign producer. 11. Conditions under present tariff satisfactory to both domestic consumer and domestic producer.-While the present duty does not enable the domestic producer to compete with the English product east of the Pittsburgh field, and while it holds prices in that field for gravel fluorspar to a level of about $6 per ton, still the domestic producer believes that under present conditions there is hope for a fair profit, particularly as the production is extended and developed. Development of production in turn will bring better transportation facilities to many of the fluorspar properties in the Kentucky and Illinois districts. The steel companies in turn have found conditions more satisfactory for them during the past two years than ever before in the history of the fluorspar business. Any possible exception to such expression will be confined to a few steel companies east of the Pittsburgh field, and will be due undoubtedly to the agitation of the importer. The domestic consumption of the mills east of the Pittsburgh field amounts to considerably less than 10 per cent of the total domestic consumption. 12. Effect of removal or reduction of present tariff-As the complete removal of the duty would only reduce the cost of fluorspar to the steel companies about one-half of a cent per ton of finished steel, it will not reduce the price of steel to the ultimate consumer. The money invested on the faith of the tariff in the past two years to improve domestic properties and to open new properties will be entirely lost. Extension of railroad facilities now under contemplation to certain of the fluorspar properties will be abandoned. Domestic production of fluorspar will decrease at once. One of the most fundamental industries in the country, to wit, the steel business, will be left wholly dependent for an absolute essential upon an uncertain foreign supply. The Government will suffer a loss of revenue. 13. Revenue tariff-Loss in revenue will benefit the foreigner alone.The loss in revenue to the Government will not result in a proportionate reduction of prices of fluorspar. Prices will drop to a figure just below the price at which domestic fluorspar can be profitably marketed. It will only be necessary for the importer to drop the price about $1 per ton below the present price to drive the domestic producer out of business. The conditions existing prior to 1909 will return. Two-thirds of the amount of the revenue lost to the Government will go into the pockets of the foreign producer or importer. In view of the fact that the foreigner alone will substantially benefit by the removal or reduction of the tariff, it is submitted in conclusion that the duty of $3 per ton on fluorspar is an eminently fitting application of the principle of a revenue tariff. In the earnest hope that the present duty on fluorspar may remain undisturbed, at least until it has received a longer trial, these facts are respectfully submitted. PARAGRAPH 90-FULLER'S EARTH. FLUORSPAR INTERESTS OF ROSICLARE AND FAIRVIEW, ILL. Hon. OSCAR W. UNDERWOOD, Chairman, Ways and Means Committee, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1, 1913. House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: In connection with the statement made by Mr. C. S. Nunn, on behalf of the fluorspar people, I wish to make the following statement and request that it be made an adendum or appendix to hearings which have already been filed and printed. During the early part of January, the rise of water in the Ohio River, due to the continuous and heavy rains in the Ohio watershed, so flooded the country, in and about Fairview and Rosiclare, Ill., that the mines of the Rosiclare Lead & Fluor Spar Mines and the Fairview Lead & Fluorspar Co. were entirely filled with water. It is impossible to estimate the exact quantity of water in the shafts of the mines and workings, but the water in the shafts is within 5 or 10 feet of the mouth of the mines. The shafts are, as stated in the brief filed with the committee, perpendicular, so that the mines are filled just as a bottle would be standing on its bottom. The water flowed into the Rosiclare mines at the rate of 10,000 gallons per minute, and it is impossible to state to what extent the mines have been injured by the drowning, owing to the fact that the breaking in of the water was at a point 200 feet below the surface, having broken through the soft underlying strata. This is the most serious disaster that has happened to our property during the last five years, and accentuates the precarious character of fluorspar mining. It will cost in money to dewater the mines and put them in condition for successful operation again as much or more than we can expect to make out of the operation during a year's run on an ordinary basis of profit. With these conditions confronting us, any reduction in the tariff at the present time would make economic mining of this material impossible. On behalf of the mining interests located at Rosiclare and Fairview, in Hardin County, Ill., I beg that the committee will take into consideration the effect of this great disaster which has come upon us and through which at the present time we can not clearly see our way. It will be impossible to begin pumping out the mines until the Ohio River has receded to a point where it will receive the ejected water. There is no measure of how much pumping will be necessary to empty the mines, owing to the saturated condition of the soil for 300 feet below the surface and the seepage into the mine being impossible of computation. On behalf of these interests, I therefore pray that the present duty of $3 per ton on imported fluorspar be not changed. Yours, very truly, ROSICLARE LEAD & FLUOR SPAR MINES, By COLIN H. LIVINGSTONE, Manager. FULLER'S EARTH. THE AMERICAN CLAY CO., AKRON, COLO., WRITE CONCERNING FULLER'S EARTH. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE, House of Representatives. GENTLEMEN: Please find inclosed a letter from Mr. J. A. Hensler, and also one from Attorney E. E. Armour, both of Akron, Colo. (on file), to which is attached a communication addressed to the Senators and Congressmen from Colorado, both elect and in office, all of which are self-explanatory. I will only add that this mine is in my district. I am fully acquainted with the plant and the struggle of the owners to make it a success; and I cheerfully indorse what is said about this industry, as so ably presented in the inclosures. Respectfully, A. W. RUCKER. PARAGRAPH 90-FULLER'S EARTH. AKRON, COLO., January 9, 1913. Hon. Simon Guggenheim, Hon. John F. Shafroth, Hon. Charles S. Thomas, Hon. Edward T. Taylor, Hon. Edward Keating, Hon. George J. Kindel, Hon. H. H. Seldomridge, Hon. Addison W. Rucker, Hon. John A. Martin, Senators and Congressmen of Colorado, elect, and in office. GENTLEMEN: The undersigned desire to call your attention to a Colorado industry which possibly may not have come to your notice, and which should have tariff protection to aid in its development. We refer to the mining and treatment of fuller's earth, and particularly that actually under way near Akron. The American Clay Co., of which we are the principal stockholders, owns a quarter section of land 3 miles northwest of Akron, in this State, containing very extensive beds of high-class fuller's earth, and has mined, treated, and marketed it, as best it could under prevailing conditions, for several years. During that time continuous and systematic effort has been made by the company to bring it to the attention of packers and other consumers with the purpose of getting it on the market, and with the result that its superior merit has been invariably acknowledged by the packing companies and others that have used it. This means many of the principal packing companies of the United States, and other concerns. It has been marketed to some extent in Omaha, St. Joe, Kansas City, New Mexico, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, and other places, and long ago would have been exclusively used by the main consumers in this country had it not been for the very low duty on the foreign product. The duty, we believe, is only $2 and $3 per ton on the raw and the treated material, respectively, and this merely nominal duty is further lightened by being reckoned upon the long, or English, ton. Our principal competition comes from the English producers, who, by the excellence of our clay-proved by the United States Government analysis and acknowledged by the packers have been compelled to reduce the price from as high as $39 per ton to as low as $9 and $10 per ton, in order to hold us out of the market. Our factory for treating the earth was first located at Omaha, but later was moved to the mines. The progress of the company was temporarily checked by fire destroying the factory, a loss of approximately $10,000. A new and better factory was immediately constructed, and the company has continued its efforts to manufacture and market the product to the present time, but has been so hampered by its successful foreign competitors under the protection given to them by the light duty upon their product-that profitable business for the American Clay Co., or for any other home producer, has been rendered impossible. The development of an industry, valuable to the community and the State and to other localities throughout the country, has thus been not only crippled, but almost entirely prevented. This condition can not improve under the present tariff. This company has practically an unlimited quantity of fuller's earth, and could supply the American market for many years under suitable tariff protection; but with the present rate of duty, here is the difficulty. The packers and other important consumers will not change their contracts from the foreign producers to us even at the same or a lower price-without the assurance that we can and will promptly fill their orders; but this assurance we can not give without first increasing our facilities for mining and treatment, which we are not warranted in doing at the meager and precarious profit now obtaining. We say meager, because foreign competition has already cut the price nearly to the cost of production; and precarious, because the same competition is able to cut it still more, thus leaving the American producer with nothing save his mines and factories, silent and lifeless property, representing loss of money and wasted efforts. It is not the purpose of this company should the duty be raised on the foreign product to materially increase t price of its clay, if at all, over what the packers now pay the English and other foreign producers, for we can manufacture and market it to some profit even at the price which they are now getting; but we want and need sufficient duty imposed to justify and make safe an adequate increase in our facilities for mining and manufacture to supply the market demands and to protect us against further reduction in prices by the foreigner whereby profit to us will be rendered impossible. We ask only such protection as will make it reasonably safe to proceed with the development of our properties and the increase of our facilities for supplying the market. We submit that the interest of the principal consumers in this case should not be a matter of very heart-rending concern. For who and what are they? Nothing less than the great packing concerns of the country. Even though an increased duty should add a trifle to the price which the product now costs them, would this cripple their PARAGRAPH 90-FULLER'S EARTH. business? Surely there is nothing there to worry about. Would they raise the price of meat, etc., and thus strike the public another blow? Not so, for willing as they are to do the like, if they have not already gone the limit in that direction, they certainly do not need this trifling matter as a pretext for raising prices. But the tariff which we ask would hurt neither the packers nor the people. On the contrary, it would tend to help both of them. Why? Because, if granted, the prices of fuller's earth would remain practically unchanged, thereby eliminating that influence, at least, from the trust price-fixing of packer products; whereas, to deny the increase of duty asked, would dectroy American production, of which ours is the most active and promising, and leave an open field to the foreign producers for supplying the American market at advanced prices. By reason of the competition and threatened competition, which this company has created, they, the foreign producers, now supply it, for the most part, at from $9 to $10 per ton, the prices at which we can furnish it if protected by adequate duty against further reduction by them. With that competition removed-as it must be under a continuance of the present duty-will the foreigner hold down the price to its present figure? The question is an idle one. Freed from our efforts and the consequent menace to his business, he will advance the prices to their former heights of $39, and more, a ton. The packing house companies will have to pay the advance and the people follow suit. The present nominal duty affords no protection. It is wholly useless, save for a little revenue to the Government. But this revenue would be increased rather than diminished by a reasonable increase of duty, for such increase would not keep out the foreign product. Its effect would be to encourage and increase home production, and especially production in this State and by this company. If the duty be not increased, only the foreign producer, German and English principally, will be benefited. The American consumers, be they packers or others, and all who are affected by higher prices to them, would be injured; the writers hereof and their associates would be losers. Their business in question would be ruined; and an enterprise of great value to the community and to the State of Colorado would be destroyed. A tariff of $10 per ton, or more, and possibly less, on the foreign product would give the American product a chance to get into the market and not cost the consumer any more than he now pays (or at most but little more), which, in any event, would be much less than he would be compelled to pay under a continuance of the present duty. And thereby further, as the paramount consideration and result of it all, the American producer would be afforded a living profit. With such a duty we can confidently assure you, at least, that a thriving business would be speedily developed at Akron, Colo., which would greatly benefit the community and be of very material value to the State. You will do a substantial and merited service to this quarter and to this State, as well as to others, by raising the duty on fuller's earth, as herein suggested and requested. We earnestly hope that you will give the matter careful consideration and favorable action.. Further elaboration by us is superfluous in addressing gentlemen of your extended experience, sound judgment, exalted capacities, and conscientious concern for the public good. With high regards and the wish that you may all be eminently successful in the discharge of your several trusts, and with strong confidence that you will, we have the honor to be, SIRS: The undersigned two firms, L. A. Salomon & Bro., 216 Pearl Street, New York, and Hammill & Gillespie, 240 Front Street, New York, importing about two |