Mr. PALMER. Would that make it possible for you to increase the price of your product?

Mr. CORDES. No, sir; it would not. It would make it possible for us to make other goods that we can not make now-the low-priced toothbrushes, for instance. The statement was made by Mr. Holton, who referred to one of our advertisements, in which he stated we were guaranteeing a 10-cent brush. That is true. That brush is made from what we call factory seconds of our goods, which we can not market in any other way, and we simply put them out under another brand and try to sell them.

Mr. HARRISON. Is it not true that even though you may call them "seconds" you have guaranteed them, and the advertisement does not say a thing about their being seconds?

Mr. CORDES. We guarantee them as a 10-cent brush. If they are not satisfactory, we will take them back.

Mr. HARRISON. You do not say anything in your advertisement about their being seconds, do you?

Mr. CORDES. No.

Mr. HARRISON. So far as the public is concerned, they have a right to assume they are of the first grade?

Mr. CORDES. My dear sir, we do not call them Prophylactic tooth brushes. We call them "Keepclean" brushes.

Mr. HARRISON. Call them what?

Mr. CORDES. Keepclean brushes. That is simply a factory condition that exists in every factory in the world.

Mr. PALMER. You say you want this duty raised in order to protect you from the cheaper labor of the foreigners?

Mr. CORDES. Yes.

Mr. PALMER. Which would protect you in the cheaper brush?
Mr. CORDES. Yes.

Mr. PALMER. So far as the 25-cent brush is concerned, you are not asking for any protection?

Mr. CORDES. No; not so far as our specialty is concerned. In so far as our particular brush is concerned, I do not think we need it. Mr. PALMER. Of course, the 50 per cent duty would never be levied upon that, because that it is your particular article?

Mr. CORDES. Yes; it is a specialty.

Mr. PALMER. Yes; it is a specialty.

Mr. CORDES. Yes. We have spent money advertising it.

Mr. PALMER. Now, how much do you pay your labor in making these cheap brushes that you make now, when you send them out to the homes?

Mr. CORDES. The same price that we do the higher grade goods. We can not make any difference.

Mr. PALMER. Well, what is that?

Mr. CORDES. We pay our labor-for instance, the men who make the bone handles-up to $18 a week.

Mr. PALMER. And down to what?

Mr. CORDES. Well, we go down as low as $9-$10 a week-nine to ten dollars a week. We have nothing under that, except, of course, this outside labor in drawing bristles is $2.35 a gross.

Mr. PALMER. That is what I am asking about.

Mr. CORDES. Against $1.35, I think I stated, in the brief---I do not recall now-abroad for the same work.

Mr. PALMER. How long does it take one of those tenement house workers up in your country to do a gross, for which they get $2.35? Mr. CORDES. Oh, a couple of days; two or three days; some do not do more than a gross a week. It depends upon what time they have. They do it in the evenings, or something of that kind, just as if they were sewing. I am very glad you asked those question. I will tell you further we have an inspector who goes into all these homes and sees that they are perfectly sanitary, and we withdraw all machines where they are not sanitary. The Social Service League has assisted us in that work, and do right straight along, and in any case at all where people are found to be in ill health or anything of that kind we simply withdraw them immediately or do not allow them to go in if the cases are presented to us.

Mr. PALMER. How often are your inspections made?

Mr. CORDES. Our inspections are made continually. We have a man ourselves who goes around all the time. How often the Social Service League goes, I could not tell you. I do not know. That is

an outside matter altogether.

Mr. PALMER. And you have all that done to protect 5 per cent of your product, that is done outside?

Mr. CORDES. Yes.

Mr. PALMER. It is only 5 per cent?

Mr. CORDES. That is all.

Mr. PALMER. Is it?

Mr. CORDES. Yes, sir. Do you want to know the exact number of people?

Mr. PALMER. Yes.

Mr. CORDES. 110.

Mr. PALMER. Those are all the outworkers you have?

Mr. CORDES. Those are all the outworkers we have. I will give you the list of their names, if you would like to have it.

Mr. PALMER. Oh, I do not care anything about that.

Mr. PETERS. Can you give us the imports of toothbrushes?

Mr. CORDES. I can not. We would like very much to know what they are ourselves.

Mr. PETERS. Can you form any idea as to the amount of the total consumption of toothbrushes that are imported and those manufactured in this country-the proportions?

Mr. CORDES. Well, I think over half are imported.

Mr. HULL. You get your profit as a manufacturer when you part with the goods?

Mr. CORDES. Yes.

Mr. HULL. Does that increase your custom, when they have the assurance that there will be no cut in prices among the retailers? Is that the reason you carry this limitation down to the jobber and 'to the retailer?

Mr. CORDES. No; it does not increase it materially, Mr. Congressman. It just simply keeps a condition of things within the trade that is a good deal more harmonious and satisfactory. We have to get our increased trade through advertising, and it comes very slowly. When you consider the few brushes that we make, among the 100,000,000 people in this country, it is a very small proportion. We realize that.

Mr. HULL. I have understood that concerns engaged in other lines of business had similar methods, and I was trying to ascertain if I could the real object and purpose of it.

Mr. CORDES. So far as we are concerned, it is an easy method and a very simple method, and we have been told by our attorneys and all the legal light we can get that it is not within the Sherman Act.

Mr. HULL. You only have one rival manufacturer in this country? Mr. CORDES. That is all.

Mr. HULL. And the tariff rates are high enough to prevent competition from interfering with fixing the price of that particular make, are they not?

Mr. CORDES. Yes; if you wanted to have that apply to the whole brush industry in the United States, why I would not think that would be fair.

I say, so far as we are concerned ourselves, I think it is fair. It is all right, but I do not think for the industry as a whole it would be fair. We could employ more labor if we could make these cheaper goods. Now, under the circumstances, it is impossible for us to compete with the other side on that class of stuff.

Mr. KITCHIN. You say about 5 per cent of your product only is made by these children-child labor in the tenement houses? Mr. CORDES. I did not say children.

Mr. KITCHIN. But this cheap labor in the tenement houses? Mr. CORDES. I said 5 per cent offhand. I will give you the exact figures if you wish them. I think it is less than that.

Mr. KITCHIN. Well, the only reason you send the work out to these tenement houses is because you can not get enough labor to work in your own factory?

Mr. CORDES. We can not get labor at all up in our plant.

Mr. KITCHIN. And really this cheap labor they talk about in these tenement houses in the dearest priced labor you have? The labor in your factories there turn out a great deal more than this cheap labor? Mr. CORDES. They do.

Mr. KITCHIN. And you are not putting these goods out because you can get it done so much more cheaply, but because the supply of labor is not great enough? And you have found that when you pay your laborers more, the higher price you pay your laborers in the factory the more efficient work and the more product they turn out for the manufacturer, than this cheap labor that you have to use in these tenement houses, is that not the fact?

Mr. CORDES. I think that is a fact; yes.

Mr. KITCHIN. That is what I thought; so that answers all the argument on the proposition of cheap labor. That is our contention, that the highest-priced labor is always the cheapest, considering the output of the product, and that cheap labor in dollars and cents is always the dearest kind of labor when considering the output or the turnout for the employer, and your case illustrates it.

Mr. CORDES. Well, if you want to leave it on that basis, I want you to compare it

Mr. KITCHIN (interposing). No. They are the facts. That is what you testified to?

Mr. CORDES. Yes.

Mr. KITCHIN. And I was trying to justify you in sending this work out to these tenement houses.

Mr. CORDES. That is right.

Mr. KITCHIN. Because you would not do it if you could get a sufficient supply of labor in your regular factory, and I know you would

not.

Mr. FORDNEY. Do I understand you to say that your labor cost on a dozen brushes in the factory is less than the labor cost on the brushes you send out to have made?

Mr. CORDES. Yes, it is.

Mr. FORDNEY. How much is the difference there?

Mr. CORDES. Oh, it is very slight. Some of the brushes we make in the mill are made by machinery.

Mr. FORDNEY. But you send them out for the reason that you are unable to get labor in the factory?

Mr. CORDES. Yes.

Mr. FORDNEY. And for that reason alone?

Mr. CORDES. Yes; that is all.

Mr. FORDNEY. Mr. Cordes, I do not want to embarrass you and I have no quarrel with you at all, but I want to ask you whether or not you know what the total product of these goods amounts to in this country-toothbrushes?

Mr. CORDES. I could not tell you, Mr. Fordney.

Mr. FORDNEY. Do you know what proportion of the product of this country-manufactured in this country-your particular concern

turns out?

Mr. CORDES. Why, I should say that of all the toothbrushes manufactured in this country we perhaps make a third.

Mr. FORDNEY. About one-third?

Mr. CORDES. Yes.

Mr. FORDNEY. Do the other manufacturers have this trade agreement, such as you have?

Mr. CORDES. I do not know of any.

Mr. FORDNEY. You have been talking to Mr. Palmer, and he has been questioning you, but Mr. Palmer smiles when he talks. I do not think you are in any danger.

Mr. CORDES. I should be very glad to have Mr. Palmer tell me if I am doing wrong.

Mr. FORDNEY. My dear friend, I will tell you with all kindness that I believe you will agree with me that it is a violation of the law. If I were in your place, I would discontinue it. That is my advice to you. Mr. HILL. Where did you say your factory is ?

Mr. CORDES. Florence, Mass.

Mr. KITCHIN. He is giving you mighty good advice concerning the incoming administration, but he should have given it to you four years ago or eight years ago.

Mr. FORDNEY. If he had been here and had disclosed the same facts, he would have gotten the same advice; otherwise, he might have gotten in jail.

Mr. HILL. Is it not a fact that it is a practice that has existed in New England from time immemorial of sending out that class of goods into the farmers' homes, and the surrounding towns, where the people would not come into the factory, and it enables you to enlarge your producton by just so much?

Mr. CORDES. Yes.

Mr. HILL. That is all there is to it?

Mr. CORDES. That is all there is to it; absolutely nothing more. Mr. FORDNEY. My remark about the jail was just getting even with him; not you.

Mr. CORDES. I have no fear, Mr. Congressman.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you anything further to say?

Mr. CORDES. I wanted to touch on that point, and I am very glad it was brought up. I do not think I have anything more; no. I thank you very much.

STATEMENT BY FLORENCE MANUFACTURING CO., FLORENCE, MASS.-SCHEDULe N, PARAGRAPH 423, BRUSHES.

FLORENCE MANUFACTURING CO.,

Florence, Mass., January 20, 1913.

Hon. OSCAR W. UNDERWOOD,

Chairman Ways and Means Committee, Washington, D. C.:

The present duty on brushes is ad valorem 40 per cent.

We petition that brushes be made subject to 50 per cent ad valorem duty.

The principal raw material used in the manufacture of brushes is hogs' bristles, which are subject to 74 cents per pound. This is the condition in which nearly all bristles are imported.

The duty on bristles is nearly 3 per cent of the value of brushes in which they are used.

Bristles in crude state are imported free of duty, but we know of none of any consequence being imported in this shape, as quality and value can not be intelligently judged, and cost of preparing is so much greater in the United States than in foreign countries, owing to the great difference in the cost of labor.

The census of the United States for 1909 gives the sale value of brushes manufactured in the United States for that year as 14,694,000. There are about 400 brushmanufacturing establishments with an average profit of each less than $6,000. Importations of brushes and bristles from 1909 to 1912 were as follows:

There has been an increase, according to this statement, in importation of bristles, comparing 1909 with 1912, of 20 per cent. Brushes imported for the corresponding period have increased 44 per cent. You will please notice that the increase in the importation of brushes, as compared with bristles imported, was even of more injury to the brush manufacturers in the United States in the comparison of 1909 with 1911. It is fair to estimate that one-third of the better kind of brushes used in the United States are of foreign make, and of the variety of brushes imported there are not made in the United States in value more than $5,000,000.

Of toilet brushes, such as hair, tooth, cloth, etc., one-half of those used in the United States are foreign made. This statement can be easily verified by examination of the brushes offered for sale by retailers of brushes in department stores, drug stores, etc., anywhere in the United States.

Our customhouse records for seven years state importation of brushes as follows: