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We suggest that you allow the present specific and ad valorem duty to remain, as it is hard even for an expert to determine the exact value of a vegetable-ivory button, which is made in different qualities-various goods looking alike, but costing much more to produce. For instance, a 90-cent button can very easily be brought in as a 50-cent button, and an appraiser can not distinguish between them.

If the present duty on vegetable ivory buttons shall be reduced, it is our humble opinion that under conditions now prevailing the industry in this country will be ruined. The consumer will not profit one penny, as the individual cost to a person is comparatively little, but a few cents on a suit of clothes. The foreign trusts in the ivory-button business of Europe will be enriched.

In 1884 to 1889 and in 1893 to 1897, when the tariff on vegetable ivory buttons was reduced, it practically put every manufacturer of this class of goods out of business. Under the present tariff European manufacturers can successfully compete with American manufacturers even to a larger extent than they do. Were the tariff changed, however, even slightly, it would allow them to sell certain kinds that they can not now sell. This additional incentive will lead them to make efforts that they are not now making.

Manufacturing is but a part of our business, and were the tariff reduced it would not affect us as much as it would were we manufacturers exclusively. If a change in the tariff is made, we could dismantle our plant and buy our goods exclusively in different centers of Europe, especially Italy, where the proportion of labor is so much less than it is in the United States; and we would, therefore, be able to remain in the business and sell our merchandise at a profit by successfully underselling American manufacturers of vegetable-ivory buttons.

We also wish to state that one of our prime motives for submitting this brief for your consideration is the fact that we have been petitioned by many of our employees in the manufacturing end of our business, who have gone through the previous tariff change on vegetable-ivory buttons, and know the hardships they would have to endure should Congress decide to reduce the tariff, and they therefore join with me in asking you to let the present duty remain as it is and allow the industry in this country to live. Respectfully submitted.

M. TURKELTAUB & SON, By NATHAN TURKELTAUB.

FINE IVORY BUTTONS.

CONSOLIDATED BUTTON Co.,

January 30, 1913.

The WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Mr. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: We contend that the present rate of duty on vegetable ivory buttons should not be changed, and we have no fear, being in possession of the facts that govern this industry, that your committee will recommend any alteration in the rates now existing. The reason for our confidence in this opinion is that your committee are endeavoring to reivse the tariff on a basis of equity and justice to all interested therein.

The present contemplated revision of the tariff is to be a Democratic revision, therefore, the Democratic Party, through its leaders, having at all times stated that no industry need fear that it will not be adequately protected by means of the tariff when it can be shown that said industry is in no way monopolistic or is conducting its business by means of combinations or trade restraint and is not making unreasonable profits through the fact that they are protected by the tariff. If we may assume that the Democratic Party have made the above assertions, we respectfully submit that they must have had in mind the conditions which now prevail in the manufacturing of vegetable ivory buttons.

We beg to submit the following facts:

1. In our industry there has not been and there is not now existing any combination. Keen competition has at all times and does now prevail, and the business can in no wise be considered a monopoly from any viewpoint.

2. The returns on actual capital invested are and have been much below 5 per cent per annum.

3. Sixty-five per cent of the cost of manufacturing in this country is paid to labor, as against 25 and 30 per cent paid to labor in foreign countries.

4. Skilled labor in this country makes from $16 to $20 per week, whereas skilled labor in foreign countries makes from $4 to $8 per week.

Unskilled labor in this country receives $5 to $12 per week, and unskilled labor in foreign countries $2 to $4 per week.

5. When viewing the conditions stated above, it will be clearly and easily seen that should the specific duty be reduced to any extent whatsoever the manufacturers of vegetable ivory buttons in this country would have to discontinue business or reduce their wage scale to a basis of the rates existing in foreign countries. Therefore, it is clearly and easily understood that were the manufacturers to so reduce the wage scale to anything nearly as low as the foreign wage scale, their employees would be compelled to seek employment in other branches of trade, and as there is an overabun dance of labor now offering in almost every other industry, the effect of any such reduction would be that the present laborers employed in the manufacture of vegetable ivory buttons (and especially those who have spent years to become skilled therein) would be thrown out of employment, with a sparse chance of obtaining employment elsewhere.

6. One of our principal arguments why the present specific duty should be maintained is that were the Government to collect duties on an ad valorem basis it would be the means of false valuations creeping into foreign invoices, as it is very difficult for even an expert to tell the value of a gross of vegetable ivory buttons, when comparing one grade which is supposed to be a cheap variety against another grade which is supposed to be an expensive variety; consequently the specific duty obviates definitely the chance of undervaluation by foreign competitors.

DEVELOPMENT OF RECENT FOREIGN COMPETITION.

A new menace has arisen in our industry within the past few years, that is, that we have to compete with Italian manufacturers, and when considering that our import factor is labor, the slightest change in the present rate of duty would cause an influx of importations into this country from Italy, where the labor rates prevailing are the cheapest in Europe. The business of the world has always followed cheap labor, and it is only within the last three to five years that Italy has become the center of the button industry, the factories there being located in small towns where labor is the very cheapest. They are, therefore, able to ship goods all over the world.

Germany, once a large factor in the button business, is no longer so to-day, and it is a known fact that one German manufacturer, probably the most prominent, in order to keep in the business, recently placed a single order in Italy for 175,000 gross of ivory buttons, despite the fact that Germany is supposedly protected by a tariff. The wage scale in Italian ivory button factories is from 20 to 25 per cent of those existing in the United States. Good authority for this statement can easily be obtained.

JAPAN.

This is the latest nation to engage in the manufacturing of buttons, and quoting from the report of the Chamber of Commerce at Yokohama, Japan, we find that there are located in one city of Japan (Osaka) 75 button factories. These Japanese factories have representatives in and are selling goods to-day in Europe, and we are credibly informed that the Italian manufacturer is now complaining of this Japanese competi

tion.

We have not contemplated herein to file any statistical conditions in reference to the industry of vegetable ivory buttons, as other manufacturers in this line, we understand, have fully covered this ground; therefore, were we also to do likewise, it would make the data in the case unnecessarily voluminous.

In closing we have the honor to contend that our position in this matter is founded on absolute facts, not on any questionable theory.

Respectfully,

CONSOLIDATED BUTTON Co., By C. O. THOMPSON, President.

BRIEF SUBMITTED BY ADOLPH WEICHT, OF ADOLPH WEICHT & SONS, PHILADELPHIA, PA. The WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE,

House of Representatives:

I respectfully petition, on behalf of our company, that the present tariff Schedule N, paragraph 427, on vegetable-ivory buttons, be allowed to remain unchanged.

LABOR.

I have been engaged in the manufacture in this country since 1884, with the exception of a period of time during which a low tariff prevented my making this class of goods.

I am well acquainted with the vegetable-ivory business of Austria. I have within the past two years visited Austria and have investigated conditions personally.

I respectfully submit the following table, showing the difference between wages here as compared with those in Austria:

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I can further state that wages in Italy are below those paid in Austria.

Respectfully,

ADOLPH WEICHT, Sr.

STATEMENT BY L. FRAISSINET, OF HOBOKEN, N. J., REGARDing Vegetable IVORY BUTTONS.

The WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

GENTLEMEN: The retention of the present tariff on ivory buttons is of very great mportance to that industry and any departure from the established schedule is surely going to work great harm and probably cause the closing of many factories. My argument is based not only on the well-known lower cost of production abroad, owing to lower wages and lower other standards, which directly or indirectly affect manufacturers, but very strongly on the fact that the button industry is to-day as never before subjected to the keenest kind of competition, so that prices obtained by manufacturers are lower now than they were at any time in recent years. On the other hand, the price of raw material (ivory nuts imported from Central and South America) is higher and labor costs, if not greater, are certainly no less.

Ivory buttons are sold at extremely low prices. There being an abundance made, the manufacturer in many cases is practically compelled to accept not what he should receive as his due for his investment and his hard work but merely what he is offered. The situation in fact can be summed up in four words, namely, "Too many goods made," hence ridiculously low prices.

This industry has developed very considerably under the present tariff, but it has come to that point where it is a question often, whether the selling price is not too close to or even under the cost price.

It is certain that the cost of buttons on a suit of clothes is a mere trifle, and I submit that a lower rate of duty could only benefit the importers and the clothing manufacturers. Admittedly, the consumer no matter what the buttons on his clothes cost will pay the same price for the suit.

Lastly, the button industry is one in which exists an entire absence of agreement or combinations and in which competition of an excessive nature has held sway to this day without interruption.

Therefore, in justice to the situation that industry is entitled and should be allowed to continue undisturbed.

Respectfully,

HOBOKEN, N. J., January 28, 1913.

(Signed) L. FRAISSINET, President the Button Machinery Co.

The CHAIRMAN. The next witness is Mr. Edwin G. Baetjer.

TESTIMONY OF MR. EDWING. BAETJER, BALTIMORE, MD.

The witness was duly sworn by the chairman.

Mr. BAETJER. I notice you are administering the oath to the witnesses. My relation to the party I represent is as counsel and director, if that makes any difference.

The CHAIRMAN. We have administered the oath to all who have appeared before us.

Mr. BAETJER. I did not know that.

Mr. Chairman, I am here at the instance of the Crown Cork & Seal Co., of Baltimore City. That company is interested in the duty on corks, prescribed by section 429 of the present law, and the duties imposed by that section. The company is interested only in the one in the second clause:

Manufactured corks over three-fourths of an inch in diameter, measured at the larger end, 15 cents per pound.

In the other duties imposed by that section the company is not interested, nor have we sufficient knowledge of the business to be able to contribute anything for the information of the commission on the subject.

With respect, however, to the section which I have quoted, perhaps this company is, of all the importers, the one most largely interested. The corks over three-quarters of an inch in diameter include the cork disks which is the lining for the crown, the lining for a tin cap for a crown which forms now almost the universal method of sealing bottles of a certain class. The duty on that is 15 cents a pound, and there are approximately 10 gross of disks to a pound. That means approximately a duty of 14 cents a gross.

Of all the imports of cork under this section probably the disks form the larger portion. The total imports by the Crown Cork & Steel Co. during the last year amounted to approximately 1.800.000 pounds, and the duty paid upon that importation amounts therefore to about 2,900.000. That you will see, by consulting the revenue statistics, forms almost the larger portion of the imports of cork under this entire section.

Of the disks imported the Crown Cork & Seal Co. probably imported almost all these figures including almost all the revenue derived from that particular source.

Our reasons for asking a reduction in the duty are these: This company is the manufacturer of crown caps. together with the machinery for applying them. The company is also at the present time engaged in the manufacture of these cork disks. It has a factory in the United States and has now also one in Spain.

Mr. HAMMOND. That is your company?

Mr. BAETJER. Yes, sir; the company that I represent. Primarily it is the raw material that the company would prefer to purchase over there. where there is a ready market for this product. It is, however, manufactured both here and abroad.

Our first reason for asking a reduction is this, that there is nothing in the protection of labor that is involved that requires any duty on these disks at all. The total amount of revenue last year from disks

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was apparently nearly $300,000. The number of disks cut in the United States all together does not exceed 10,000,000 gross or 1,000,000. pounds so that the total amount of duty is equivalent to twice the entire mount paid for labor in the United States upon that portion of the product produced here. There are a number of manufacturers; the Crown Cork & Seal Co. has a factory, and Mr. Torres has a factory; The Armstrong Cork Co. produce some, not very much. There are probably a dozen who are engaged in cutting cork disks in the United States, altogether. There are other manufacturers scattered pretty well over the country. Perhaps most of them are located in New York and Brooklyn.

Mr. PALMER. Your company is the chief purchaser?

Mr. BAETJER. No, sir. We now manufacture all of our cork disks. We are not now purchasers from anyone. Until last year we were large purchasers of disks. At the present time the company is not a purchaser of disks at all; it is a manufacturer. This is a matter, however, rather of necessity, perhaps, than choice. Disks are made either in this country or in Spain. If you compare the relative labor cost in Spain and in the United States, it is apparent that there is absolutely no occasion for the duty, comparing the two factories operated by this company, one in Spain and one in the United States. It is evident that the labor cost in the United States is almost, if not quite, as low as in Spain. It is true that the wages paid to the individual laboring man in Spain is much less than in the United States, but it is equally true that the laborer here is much more efficient than in Spain, and also that the engineers and superintendents of this country have been much more successful in inventing labor-saving machinery and devices, so that the cost as a whole of manufacturing disks in the United States is nearly what it is in Spain. It is quite possible with the introduction of the labor-saving devices in Spain there may be a difference equivalent to a half cent a gross, but no more than that, making not more than 5 cents per pound of disks. You can very readily appreciate this when I tell you that the entire labor cost of the manufacture of these disks or corks is about 2 cents, which would be 20 cents or 18 cents a pound. The duty is 15 cents a pound alone. So that there is no possibility of any difference in labor between Spain and the United States. In fact, as far as we know, the labor cost is approximately the same in the two countries.

Mr. PALMER. Can you make disks here as cheaply as you can in Spain?

Mr. BAETJER. At the present time a little cheaper than in Spain. Mr. PALMER. What in the world did you ever move to Spain for, then?

Mr. BAETJER. We did not move to Spain. The cork industry is a native of Spain, and originally almost all cork products were made in Spain. This company purchases, and has for years, a large portion of its supply in Spain. It did, however, later establish a factory in Baltimore, and that factory it has successively increased.

I do not know what the result of the duty would be. I do not know that I am prepared to state as a fact that the result of the duty remaining as it is would be a constant enlargement of the Baltimore plant and a withdrawal of the product of the Spanish plant, because that depends, perhaps, somewhat also on other factors.

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