PARAGRAPH 91-MICA.

In respect to any change of wording: It might be changed to make it conform more to actual conditions, although the practices of the customs authorities are now well fixed on the meaning of the present wording. If any change is made it should leave it so that without any question cut or very closely trimmed mica should pay about twice as much specific duty as the uncut or roughly trimmed does, because in cutting to shape or size, or even trimming closely to expected pattern, there will be removed about half the weight from the roughly trimmed sheets. If both cut and uncut were to pay the same specific duty, most of the cutting would be done in India or Europe where the labor is the cheapest, and the net result in revenue from duty collected of the importer would be practically one half the present duty. Any change in the present wording, except it be in respect to the raising or lowering of the specific or ad valorem duty, might easily make a great difference in the amount of duty collected and, therefore, should only be done after fully advising with those who understand the preparation of mica for the market and who thus can best judge the effect of any new wording both in respect to revenue to the Government and protection to the domestic producer. Most of the importers and largest users of mica are manufacturers of built-up mica. Of this very little is imported. The specific duty on built-up should be more than on the unmanufactured, because of the difference in the cost of labor in building up, but as this material contains considerable binder (shellac or like material) the duty has to be paid on this weight of binder also and thus the protection is greater to the mica in this form than is the case with the cut form, which is pure mica like the uncut.

The cost of producing mica in India should be from one-fifth to one-eighth of the cost in this country. The present duty gives protection to only a small part of this difference in cost. If protection was used as a basis on which to draw a tariff on mica, the present rate would be multiplied many times. If revenue is to be the basis, there could with reason still be an increase on the present schedule. We as importers ourselves are not particularly anxious for an increase, but we do know that the domestic producer is already poorly enough prepared to meet the competition he already has, without any part of the slight protection now afforded being taken away.

We ask, therefore, that any change of wording be closely investigated and that there be no further reduction made either in the specific or ad valorem duties, the 20 per cent reduction that was made two years age being all the domestic producers should be asked to stand.

Trusting that you will give serious attention to the claim of our domestic producers,

we are,

Respectfully,

The CHAIRMAN. Are there any questions? is all.

ASHEVILLE MICA CO., Per W. VANCE BROWN.

[After a pause.] That

Mr. BROWN. Mr. Chairman, I have with me a couple of pamphlets which I do not desire to read, but I would like to have them submitted for the attention of the committee.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you want them printed in the record?
Mr. BROWN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. All right; they will be printed.

STATEMENT OF W. VANCE BROWN, OF THE ASHEVILLE MICA CO., AND OF B. C. GRINDSTAFF, OF THE GREAT SOUTHERN MICA Co., OF ASHEVILLE, N. C. COмPARATIVE COST OF MINING AND PREPARING MICA IN INDIA AND IN THE United STATES.

[Respectfully submitted for the consideration of the Finance Committee of the United States Senate, April, 1909.]

MICA.

We have each had about 20 years' experience in the mica industry in the United States.

The mica-bearing veins or deposits are about the same in the two countries, both producing the Muscovite species of mica, and they produce practically all the world's supply of this species.

The blocks of mica are found in veins of feldspar irregularly, both in distance apart from one another and in size, and as the size controls the value, the value of production is irregular.

PARAGRAPH 91-MICA.

The domestic mica is equal in quality with the India varieties, both for use in stoves and for insulation. Splittings made from it are as good for built-up plate as the splittings made from India mica.

India has the advantage of larger developed mines, which means a relatively lower operating cost.

The average price of labor in India is 15 cents per day; in the United States the average price is $1.50 per day for this class of work.

Dividing the production of mica at the mine into two classes:

(1) Unsound pieces that are only fit for grinding purposes and which is worth $8 per ton at the mine.

(2) Small and large untrimmed sheets varying from what will cut in sound mica a 1-inch disk to that large enough to cut upward of 48 square inches.

This will divide the production into about two equal parts in weight.

It is sold by the miner in several grades classed according to size that can be cut out of it in sound material, the small being worth less than the average price of the output, while the larger sheets are worth very much more than the average. There is more in weight of the smaller sheets than of the larger.

Allowing as mining expense the labor of splitting the blocks and sorting the pieces into various grades, according to their size. We can state that the average cost of producing the untrimmed sheet mica class will be 12 cents per pound in the United States.

Seventy-five per cent of this 12 cents per pound cost is paid for labor alone. Thus 9 cents per pound is the labor cost.

We have no data on which to base the total cost of mining per pound in India of untrimmed sheet. But allowing that 75 per cent of their cost was labor, as it is here, and their labor at one-tenth the cost of the same labor in the United States, as it is, and granting that its efficiency is only one-half, we have the fact that their labor cost per pound will be one-fifth of 9 cents, i. e., 1 cents per pound, and the total mining cost, 2 cents per pound, for untrimmed sheet mica mined and split ready for the preparation it will get before it gets to the consumer.

This is a difference in labor cost alone of over 7 cents per pound, and in total cost of mining, of over 9 cents per pound, in favor of the India producer.

The cost of preparing the untrimmed sheet into the shape or condition the consumer requires it is another operation, taking another set of hands and not subject to the irregularities of producing the mica from the mine.

It means cutting, punching, or trimming the untrimmed sheet to any iregular shape or pattern required by the consumer, or splitting it to less than five one-thousandths of an inch in thickness. None of this preparation changes the character of the mica itself, nor does it put any other substance or material to it. It only removes a part because it is unsound, or removes what is necessary to shape the piece to such pattern as is required by the consumer. The act of splitting only opens up the natural laminations. Some of this preparation may be done by machinery, but no machine has yet been invented that will prevent the further spending of 12 cents per pound average on each pound of mica prepared for the consumer. In doing this preparation it will take on an average 3 pounds of untrimmed sheet to make 1 pound of net mica as the consumer requires it, so that in the United States we have an average cost of preparing mica as follows:

12 cents per pound average cost of mining.

30 cents for waste in preparation-34 pounds for 1.

12 cents per pound for labor doing it.

Making 54 cents the total cost of 1 pound of prepared mica.

Whereas under the conditions in India we have:

2 cents per pound average cost of mining.

6 cents for waste in preparation-34 pounds for 1.

2 cents per pound for labor- of United States labor.

Making 11 cents the total cost of 1 pound of prepared mica.

A difference in average cost of mica, prepared for the consumer, of 43 cents per pound in favor of India.

Manufacturing mica plate is entirely a separate operation again, and is not considered in the cost hereinbefore stated. The thinly split laminæ are laid flat with edges overlapping, and on this surface a mixture of shellac is spread. More of the split laminæ are placed on this, and again more shellac, and so layer upon layer, until a thick sheet is built up, 36 inches square, which when pressed heavily and baked makes a solid piece of insulating material. This is built-up plate, known under several names, as micanite, micabeston, etc.

PARAGRAPH 91-MICA.

As a fact the miner in India has nearly prepared his mica for the consumer as well As mining it. And yet on nearly all the imported mica there has been only paid 6 cents specific and 20 per cent ad valorem under the Dingley bill. See United States report for 1907.

The average valuation of imported mica in 1907 was 37 cents per pound, so that the average cost to the importer for his mica, duty paid, was 51 cents per pound, against the cost of the domestic of 54 cents per pound.

The average selling price of the India mica (duty not paid) being 37 cents per pound as per United States report, 1907-and their cost 11 cents, the miner in India has had an average profit of 26 cents per pound.

It is no wonder that the domestic miner has been only able to work in a small way, or if larger operations were attempted they were unsuccessful, except in extraordinary rich veins.

The India miner has always had plenty of margin in which to develop his mines, and thus lessen his cost, while the United States miner, with exactly as good mica, has been strangled.

If the domestic miner were put on equal terms with the India miner by a higher specific duty per pound on all mica that has been prepared for the consumer beyond the untrimmed state, the domestic mines would soon be put in such shape that they could stand as well as any other industry. And with the machinery and larger operation, lower the cost of mining much below what it is now, and give the consumer his product at about the present market rates.

Some protection is needed against the phlogopite species of mica (Canadian amber), because it is mined from soft rock and is a soft mica, therefore less costly to work than the muscovite species.

An equal duty should be put on built-up plate as on thin split sheets, so that the building up will be done in this country rather than in Europe or India.

With these differences in cost between the production of foreign mica and the domestic as shown, and asking only that the domestic miner be put on the same basis as the foreign miner, we insist that we must have a very much higher specific duty than heretofore on muscovite mica that has been prepared for the consumer beyond the untrimmed sheet stage. On the phlogopite species mined in Canada we do not require any higher duty than we have heretofore had.

The Dingley Act made two classes of mica, using the words "rough trimmed" for the class on which 6 cents per pound specific was imposed, and the words "cut or trimmed" for the class on which 12 cents per pound specific was imposed. This has caused the Treasury officials and the domestic miners much trouble, for it has been difficult to determine where rough trimmed ended and cut or trimmed commenced. The India miner trimmed his mica closer and closer to get rid of the more weight, and yet there was practically none coming in under the higher classification. Then the Treasury officials took notice, and a case was tried lately in New York (decision No. 20677), and the importer lost. But further litigation must be gone into if the same wording is used and step by step the question decided, What constitutes rough trimming and what cut or trimmed? The word "thumb" should be substituted for the word "rough," and thus make a clear distinction between the classes.

For these reasons we suggest the following wording for the mica schedule in the tariff act:

"Mica, unmanufactured or thumb trimmed only, 6 cents per pound and 20 per cent ad valorem. Muscovite species of mica, when trimmed or cut or split to less than fivethousandths of an inch in thickness, 25 cents per pound and 20 per cent ad valorem. Phlogopite species of mica, when trimmed or cut or split to less than five-thousandths of an inch in thickness, 10 cents per pound and 20 per cent ad valorem. Mica plate or built up mica, and all manufactures of mica or of which mica is the component material of chief value, 25 cents per pound and 30 per cent ad valorem."

If this were done scores of mines will be started at once mining mica in this country. Thousands of hands will be employed in mining and as many more will be put to work trimming, cutting, and generally preparing the product for the consumer.

MICA.

W. VANCE BROWN.
B. C. GRINDSTAFF.

To the collectors of the several ports where mica is being entered for importation: We respectfully ask that you revise the system of classing mica for duty as it has for some time been practiced, and for your assistance we lay before you the following facts and argument:

PARAGRAPH 91-MICA.

Generally speaking, mica is being imported in the following forms:

(1) Variously trimmed with sickle knife, shears, or machine, irregular in shape, sometimes nearly rectangular.

(2) Splittings or films.

(3) Cut to rectangular or some other definite shape.

Built-up plate in various forms.

There are some other forms in which mica is being imported, but these will cover the bulk of it and they are all we now wish to call your attention to.

The trimming of mica has been carried to such a point during the past few years that there is now practically no “unmanufactured” nor “rough trimmed only" mica imported into the United States.

The Dingley Act read: "Mica, unmanufactured or rough trimmed only, six cents per pound and twenty per centum ad valorem; mica, cut or trimmed, twelve cents per pound and twenty per centum ad valorem."

The new act reads: "Mica, unmanufactured, or rough trimmed only, five cents per pound and twenty per centum ad valorem; mica, cut or trimmed, mica plates or built-up mica, and all manufactures of mica or of which mica is the component material of chief value, ten cents per pound and twenty per centum ad valorem."

So that the wording is practically the same in both laws for the "unmanufactured or rough trimmed only" class.

The practice has been to put under the lower classification all imported mica except such as was cut to some definite size or shape. Under this rule there was even yet much evasion of the higher classification by mixing a great number of sheets cut to various sizes and packing them loosely in the case, or by marking on the edge of each piece a line to indicate it would yet be cut again to make it a size mentioned in standard lists that are used by the trade. This matter came before the Board of General Appraisers in case No. 20677-Protest No. 315568—and was decided against the importers. But this only settled a very extreme case, and we claim that there is yet much mica coming in that is so trimmed and manufactured that it should pay the highest rate of duty. To better explain this we describe briefly the process of manufacturing mica.

When mica is first mined out it is in rough blocks of various shapes, size, and thickness. These blocks are split to about one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness and the sheets sorted according to what size can be cut out of each piece in sound glass-like material. On the edge of each piece is some unsound material that is only fit for grinding into ground mica, and it is usual for the miner to at least roughly trim this off the piece before it is packed for sale to the dealer in or the consumer of the mica. Some miners further advance their product to the condition used by consumer before they dispose of it. Understand that this trimming is first of all done to get rid of the unsound material on the edge, but the closer it is trimmed to any desired or expected pattern the less waste there will be in cutting it to the desired pattern, and the less specific duty there will be to pay on it. And, therefore, very properly in both the new and old tariff law the lower classification read "unmanufactured or rough trimmed only," and the higher classification "cut or trimmed," not "cut and trimmed," as the appraisers worded it in their decision in case No. 20677. So, then, the difficulty lies in distinguishing between what is "rough trimmed only" and what is "trimmed." It may be difficult for the inexperienced to draw the line closely between them under certain conditions, but as the bulk of the imported mica is now prepared, it is easy to see it is much more closely trimmed than could be termed “rough trimmed only."

We claim that practically all the Indian, and much of the Canadian that is imported, is closely trimmed; very far beyond what could reasonably be called "rough trimmed only." And this is the case whether it has been trimmed with the sickle knife, shears, or machine. In every case they are trimming it so closely that there is little waste getting it to any desired shaped pattern or rectangular size, and it should be classed as "trimmed" and pay the highest rate of duty. Imported trimmed mica is not sold in the United States as rough trimmed, but as closely knife trimmed or closely shear trimmed; the importers' catalogues usually state "closely trimmed." In the London markets, where much of the Indian product is sold for export to the United States, it is usually called "uncut" when sickle trimmed; but also "trimmed," "square trimmed," "Calcutta trimmed," "circular trimmed," and other terms to designate the kind of trimming that has been done. But it is all "trimmed" until it reaches the United States customs, where it now passes as "rough trimmed only.' The distinction between roughly trimmed and trimmed is well known and recognized among both the domestic and foreign producers, and why should it not be recognized when classing mica for duty?

PARAGRAPH 91-MICA.

We ask that all this trimmed mica (embraced under (1) on first page) as now prepared, be placed in the higher class and pay 10 cents per pound and 20 per cent ad valorem duty, until the foreign producer leaves his mica in a less advanced condition. The next step in the manufacture of mica is to take these trimmed pieces and either: (a) Split them with a hand knife to less than two-thousandths of an inch in thickness into what are termed "films" or "splittings." Several machines have been tried for this work, but so far they have not been so satisfactory as the hand work, and the bulk of it is yet done with hand. Understand, it is trimmed first and then split. Before good marketable splittings can be manufactured from the sheet, it is essential that each piece be closely-not roughly-trimmed. The law says "rough trimmed only" (notice the word "only") or "unmanufactured" in the lower classification, and "trimmed" and "all manufactures of mica" in the higher classification. So here we have a case where there can be no question of how much trimming has been done, for it is also manufactured (split). The material (films or splittings) is not "unmanufactured nor "rough trimmed only," and it is "trimmed," and it is "manufactured." Some years ago trimming before splitting was not demanded by the trade, and we imagine it was then the evasion first began. They used to take sheets that had been trimmed very little, if at all, in fact were roughly trimmed if at all, and split them thin to films. And as it is more difficult to notice the trimming after the mica is split to films than before, no doubt the difference was overlooked until the custom was established. Our attention was not called to it until we were called as witnesses in case No. 20677, above mentioned.

We may state that the labor cost of doing this splitting in the United States is 10 cents and 11 cents per pound, and there is about 10 per cent wastage of the mica in

manufacture.

We ask that all films or splittings (embraced under (2) on first page) be placed in the higher class and pay 10 cents per pound and 20 per cent ad valorem, as they should properly do.

(b) Or the sheets may be cut to definite size or pattern-embraced under (3) on first page. These sizes or patterns are innumerable. The term is "cut" (not "trimmed") to size or pattern. It would be a stretch of the word to say trimmed to size or pattern. To get a pattern out of sheet mica it is cut with either a die or shears. It can be trimmed closely to the pattern or size desired, but to get cut mica as the trade demands, it must be cut, and then it is known as "cut mica"; and while considered generally as a finished product it is sometimes again cut down or changed in shape, so that it is difficult to determine what is a finished product in mica.

For the purpose of assessing duty, cut mica is now put in the highest class, but until case No. 20677, above mentioned, was decided, quantities of it came in under the lower classification; and the same thing may occur again, and is in fact, we believe, now being done, by so closely trimming the sheet that there would be, or is, but a small loss of weight to cut the pattern required. It is easy to determine "cut mica," and that is the reason we say case No. 20677 was an extreme one, and easy to decide. But as the law is worded "cut or trimmed," there is no more reason why closely trimmed mica, as now prepared by the foreign producer, should pay only the lower duty, than there is for the better known and determined cut mica. We ask that mica that has been trimmed closely to rectangular or some other definite shape be classed in the higher class the same as "cut" mica.

Another step in the manufacture of mica is to take the films and build them up, layer upon layer, with some binder like shellac between the layers, until any desired thickness and size is formed. This is used in innumerable ways, shapes, and patterns, and is called by several trade names, or in general "built up mica." Cut mica is also used for building up, but not so generally as the films. Both are sometimes used with paper or other sheet material for making insulating material, any of which would be classified in the highest class under the new law.

We, therefore, respectfully request that you have this matter investigated, and if necessary try a case on films first, and another on trimmed mica as now being imported. We will be glad to further post you on any facts in regard to the matter so that our contention can be settled on its merits.

Yours truly,

ASHEVILLE MICA CO.,

Per W. VANCE BROWN.

THE GREAT SOUTHERN MICA CO., By H. F. SEYMOUR.

SEPTEMBER, 1909.