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PARAGRAPH 448-JEWELRY.

MARSEILLE, FRANCE, November 4, 1912.

The PAYE & BAKER MANUFACTURING CO.,

North Attleboro, Mass.

SIRS: Replying to your letter dated the 10th instant I have the honor to report that, the wages paid to the workingmen per day in the Marseille jewelry factories range as follows

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The wage scale (wage per hour) paid by a representative silver-plate novelty house in Massachusetts:

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The scale of wages paid by a representative electroplate jewelry house in Massachusetts, showing the wage per hour for a 10-hour day:

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The scale of wages paid by a representative miscellaneous line jewelry house in Providence, showing the wage per hour for a 10-hour day:

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The scale of wages paid by a representative solid gold jewelry house in Providence, showing the wage per hour for a 10-hour day:

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The scale of wages paid by a representative solid gold chain jewelry house in dence, showing the wage per hour for a 10-hour day:

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PARAGRAPH 448 JEWELRY.

Scale of wages paid per hour for a 10-hour day by a representative plated gold chain house in Massachusetts:

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(Extracts from report of Henry Studniczka, commercial agent, Department of Commerce and Labor (Special Agents' Series No. 42.)]

[Page 45:] The leading industry in Gablonz is possibly the production of cheap jewelry. The factory foremen receive from 80 cents to $1 daily, skilled helpers 60 to 70 cents, women 40 to 50 cents, and young boys and girls 30 to 40 cents. Much of this work is taken home and done by the piece, but it is claimed that only by working long hours and by special skill can better wages be secured through piecework. The general factory workmen, wagon drivers, and other laborers in Gablonz do not earn over 60 cents daily.

[Page 47:] At present in Reichenberg each house has 17 occupants or tenants, and each separate habitation, room, or set of rooms is occupied by approximately 4 persons. It must not be overlooked that 1,078 of the separate habitations are occupied by the poorer classes, who subrent to lodgers, and that of this class each habitation had 8.5 occupants for 1900 and 11 occupants for 1909.

Of the occupied habitations in 1909, 309 were in basements, 2,791 on the first floor, 2,823 on the second floor, 933 on the third floor, 184 on the fourth floor, and 2,182 i attics. The 1-room habitations, numbering 3,325, were occupied by 8,994 people: 2,068 of 1 room and kitchen were occupied by 7,524 people; 485 of 2 rooms and kitchen by 1,875 people; 1,483 of 3 rooms and kitchen by 5,957 people; 1,018 of 4 rooms and kitchen by 4,339 people; 843 of 5 rooms or more by 4,238 people.

The rents in Reichenberg may be safely placed at the following figures: One room, according to section and location, with kitchen, $57 to $72 per year; 2 rooms, $100 to $120; 3 rooms, $150 to $200; 4 rooms, $200 to $260; 5 rooms, $300 to $360. The rental values have doubled since 1900.

The WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE,

Washington, D. C.

FEBRUARY 28, 1913.

GENTLEMEN: In connection with our brief filed relative to the jewelry covered by paragraph 448, Schedule N, we beg to call your attention to the following extract from the report of Vice Consul General Lucien Memminger, Paris, dated February 4, 1913. "The quantity of jewelry, real and imitation, exported from Paris to the United States during 1912 was $842,934, of which less than $10,000 was imitation. These figures do not of course include the large quantities bought in Paris by Americans visiting Paris and which are taken back to America among their personal effects." This statement shows that the exports of jewelry from Paris alone, not including the large quantities bought there by visiting Americans, are largely in excess of the Treasury Department's report of the exports from the whole of France for 1911, which are given as $562,340 and indicates how the importations are increasing.

Respectfully,

NEW ENGLAND MANUFACTURING JEWELERS
AND SILVERSMITHS' ASSOCIATION.

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PARAGRAPH 448-JEWELRY.

STATEMENT OF HON. W. S. GREENE.

Mr. GREENE. Mr. Chairman, I have a communication from the selectmen of North Attleboro, Mass., which I would like to have placed in the record.

The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, the communication will be printed in the record.

Mr. GREENE. It refers to the same matter that the gentleman who has just been speaking has been referring to.

The CHAIRMAN. Very well, you may hand it to the stenographer and it will be printed in the record.

To Hon. WILLIAM S. GREENE,

Representative to Congress.

OFFICE OF THE SELECTMEN, North Attleboro, Mass., January 8, 1913.

DEAR SIR: We, the undersigned, selectmen of the town of North Attleboro, Mass., at a regular meeting held on Wednesday evening, January 8, 1913, voted to adopt the following resolutions, viz:

Whereas, it is the policy and purpose of the Democratic Party and its administration
to make a general reduction of the present tariff schedules during the next session
of Congress, thereby removing the protection which is absolutely necessary to the
life and continued prosperity of our manufacturing industries, which policy and pur-
pose, if carried out, and their object accomplished, will precipitate disaster and ruin
upon these industries, among which are the jewelry and silverware business; and
whereas the jewelry and silverware business are the sole supporting industries of
the Attleboros and the inhabitants thereof, these two towns, with all their merchants,
market men, and other dependent local business, derive their whole income and
livelihood from the pay rolls of these jewelry and silverware factories;
And whereas if the present protective tariff, which at present is barely adequate should
be reduced, it would leave our industry almost entirely at the mercy of the mar-
kets of European manufacturers who could flood our country with their manu-
factured product at prices with which it would be absolutely impossible for the
jewelers and silversmiths of the United States to compete. In other words, it would
mean death to the jewelry and silverware business in the United States. Therefore,
Be it resolved, That we, the selectmen of the town of North Attleboro, do hereby
enter and declare our most earnest protest against this policy and purpose of the in-
coming administration, and in behalf of our manufacturers, business men, and citi-
zens, request and petition, that you, as our representative in the Congress of the
United States, will put forth every effort at your command and exert your influence
in all the premises to preserve and keep permanent the present percentage of protective
tariff on jewelry and silverware.

Respectfully submitted.

JOHN A. ROSE,
JOHN DEVLIN,
GEO. C. BUGHIE,

Board of Selectmen of the Town of North Attleboro, Mass

Mr. GREENE. I have some more articles, right in this same line, which I would like to file also.

PARAGRAPH 448 JEWELRY.

BRIEFS RELATING TO TARIFF ON JEWELRY.

BRIEF IN BEHalf of the Maintenance of THE PRINCIPLE OF PROTECTION IN THE TARIFF AND PARTICULARLY IN BEHALF OF THE MAINTENANCE OF THE PRESENT RATES OF DUTY ON MANUFACTURES OF JEWELRY.

The COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS,

PROVIDENCE, R. I., January 25, 1913.

House of Representatives:

I file this brief without employment by any person or interest and as a citizen of the State of Rhode Island, the interests of whose people will be vitally affected by any change in the existing tariff. I am a Democrat, and in November, 1912 was elected to the senate of the State as a Democrat from the city of Cranston, one of the largest constituencies in the State. I am a protectionist and have never professed any other economic creed.

In 1912, prior to election, I circulated in my city a public address of mine in which I used these words:

"I believe in a reasonable protective tariff. When it is claimed that the labor cost of some manufactures is no greater in this country than in Europe, the claim, even if true, does not sustain the contention that American labor does not need protection. It is not the wages we have, in all cases, but the wages we ought to have, that require protection. The practical question is whether reduced tariff rates would be adequate for the protection of the labor conditions for which labor in America is making a long and, in the end, a successful struggle. It is this consideration which presents an insuperable obstacle to the permanent acceptance of low tariff ideas.

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"I do not accept the conclusion that the true remedy (for trust extortion) is the complete restoration of individualism, competitive industry. It is an ideal impossible of realization. Something to be sure can be done in that direction. The remedy, in my opinion, should be composite, partly the prevention of monopolies and partly, and this the chief reliance, the reasonable regulation of prices.

"The licensing system for great corporations engaged in interstate commerce, proposed originally by Mr. Bryan and now indorsed by many eminent men, should be introduced and so applied as to deny license to corporations monopolizing or tending to monopolize.

"Neither a license system, the breaking up of big business into small fragments, or tariff reduction or other indirect legislation should be the main reliance for relief against industrial oppression. The way to obtain economic justice is to provide for its direct enforcement. A national industrial commission should be created, and should be given extensive powers to fix tariffs and to fix maximum prices of commodities produced by corporations producing more than a certain large percentage of the entire national product. Congress would, under the constitution, retain ultimate control over the tariff, but having instructed the commission to adjust the tariff upon certain principles, public opinion would restrain it from interfering with the tariff rates, unless in rare cases for strong reasons."

Protectionists must now admit into their philosophy a new principle, that tariffs must be high enough to protect not only the wages we have but the wages we ought to have.

The people do not desire the abolition of protection, but they do demand that the Government take care that the benefits of protection are justly distributed, and this can only be done through an extension of governmental functions in the matters of price fixing (meaning maximum prices in big industries) and wage fixing (meaning minimum wages in big industries), from which we may shrink but shall find inevitable and remedial.

Meanwhile, before remedies for high prices and low wages can be settled upon, tariff reduction should be so small as not to imperil such prosperity as we have. Severe reduction of the tariff will be followed now, as always in the past, by industrial disaster and quick and decisive political reaction.

THE JEWELRY TARIFF.

Jewelry is a great Rhode Island industry, and it is strongly represented in the city I have the honor to represent in the senate. This industry will be very sensitive to tariff reduction.

Peculiar reasons exist for making absolutely no reduction in the duties on foreign jewelry. Jewelry is a luxury and should be the subject of high duties for revenue purposes.

PARAGRAPH 448-JEWELRY.

There is the further fact that jewelry duties, being necessarily ad valorem, are more successfully evaded than if they were specific or compound. Undervaluations have long rendered the jewelry duties less effective for protection than they seem. Long before the presidential campaign of 1912 I was informed, in perfect good faith, by certain of my present constituents that the jewelry tariff was inadequate for protection against the cheap labor of France and Germany, because of undervaluations. I do not believe wages in the jewelry industry are what they should be, but tariff reduction will inflict great injury upon wage earners in this industry.

Hon. CHAS. B. SMITH,

EDWIN C. PIERCE.

WARNER JEWELRY CASE Co. (INC.),
Buffalo, N. Y., January 22, 1913.

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: A few facts for your guidance in reference to the tariff on jewelry cases: This schedule at present is decidedly unfair to the American manufacturer.

As an illustration, we are sending you under separate cover by parcels post three boxes. The boxes are manufactured in Germany, and the ring box costs approximately 60 cents per dozen. The other two larger boxes cost proportionately more, according to the size.

The box is made of wood, covered with a leatherette paper, and lined with velvet and satin. The schedule calls for a duty of 5 cents per pound and 30 per cent ad valorem. One dozen of these boxes weigh a trifle over a pound, for which a duty of 5 cents is charged and 30 per cent of the cost, viz, 60 cents and 5 cents per pound plus 30 per cent duty brings it up to about 85 cents per dozen.

The American manufacturer pays more than this for labor alone, say nothing of material, etc.

The duty now exacted does not protect the American manufacturer, and he is utterly incapable of competing with the German manufacturer, who is able to procure cheap labor in all departments.

I wish to refer to you consular reports in reference to jewelry cases.

According to one of our consular reports leather workers in the German jewelry box factories earn in what our money amounts to $6.75 to $7 per week. The American leather worker demands three times this sum.

In another consular report you will find girls and women are paid 7 cents per day and in some places 25 cents per day, and a maximum of about $1.90 per week. American female help receive from $6 to $9 per week, and in some cases more.

The schedule at present allows a very great latitude for wrong appraisal. For instance, jewelry boxes of German manufacture are mostly covered with leatherette paper. The appraiser fixes the duty on this article as if the chief component part were paper, whereas, as a fact, the chief parts are made of wood, satin, and velvet, which should be appraised at a higher value.

Many years ago, we are informed, the duty on this class of merchandise was 75 to 80 per cent ad valorem. If the same duty would be enforced to-day we would have many times the number of people employed than are now.

We have endeavored to obtain information about the quantities of jewelry cases which are imported from Germany, ani have written to the Department of State, Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Manufactures at Washington, and the United States customs service at New York, but they are unable to give us the quantities or values imported each year. They have no record.

The fact that most manufacturers in this line are obliged to import jewelry cases covered with velvet and leatherette paper, shows conclusively that they can not be produced here at the same price, plus the duty. In Buffalo there are five manufacturers. One of them imports about $30,000 worth annually. The others similar amounts. The same holds good in most of the cities in the United States. Department stores, mail-order houses import most of their jewelry boxes from Germany. Jewelry boxes being a luxury are given away by jewelers, department stores, and mail-order houses free of charge, and are therefore not a burden to the consumer. We also beg to refer to Report No. 155, by Consul Ralph C. Busser, from Erfurt, Germany, under date of November 23, 1909, viz:

"It may be of interest to American paper-box manufacturers to learn that jewelry boxes of the total value of many thousands of dollars are exported to the United States every year from this consular district alone. The most noteworthy feature is that this business represents practically the transplantation to Germany of an indus

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