(The brief filed by Mr. K. I. McKay is here printed in full in the record, as follows:) BRIEF OF K. I. M'KAY, ATTORNEY FOR THE CIGAR MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION OF TAMPA, FLA. The cigar industry of Tampa was founded in the year 1885 by two cigar manufacturing firms that moved to Tampa from Key West on account of constantly recurring labor troubles at that place. From these two factories the industry has grown until at present there are approximately 300 factories in operation in the city of Tampa and immediate vicinity. Many of these factories, however, are small and employ only a few workmen. All of the larger factories are members of this association. The Cigar Manufacturers' Association of Tampa is a voluntary association organized to deal with problems affecting the industry as a whole. The membership of the association is made up of the following firms: Solis Alvarez. Francisco Arango & Co. Arguelles, Lopez & Bro. Diaz, Raphael & Co. Perfecto Garcia & Bros. Maximo Grahn & Son. St. Minitol Cigar Co. F. Benjamin & Co. Big 4 Cigar Co. F. Capitano & Co. Y. F. O'Halloran & Son. A. M. Perez. Marcelino Perez & Co. S. Perez & Bro. Pent & Wright. A. Santaella & Co. Wolff Bros. Cigar Co. These firms manufacture approximately 95 per cent of the total number of cigars made in the city of Tampa and employ approximately 95 per cent of the labor engaged in the industry at this place. The total investment of the members of this association in their enterprises is approximately $20,000,000. More than 90 per cent of the labor employed in the cigar industry of Tampa is Latin or of Latin descent, chiefly Spanish, Cuban, and Italian. The Italian element of the labor employed in the industry is approximately 20 per cent of the whole, the Spanish element is approximately 20 per cent of the whole, the Cuban element is approximately 55 per cent of the whole, and the remaining 5 per cent is made up of Americans and persons of other nationalities who have learned the trade. A large percentage of the Spanish and Cuban element learned the trade in Cuba, where the manufacture of cigars is largely engaged in, and many of this element who learned the trade elsewhere, have at times followed it in Cuba. There are a number of factories at Key West, which is an intermediate point on the steamboat line between Tampa and Habana. There are also cigar factories located at Miami, St. Augustine, and Jacksonville, but Tampa is the principal place in Florida where cigars are made, Key West being the next in importance. It is customary with a certain element of the tobacco-working population of Tampa to make frequent changes of residence. Many of them will work in the factories at Tampa for a few months and then go to Key West or Habana, afterwards returning to Tampa. Such frequent shifting of residence is influenced by changing conditions and the varying demand for labor at the different places where the trade is followed, but the city of Tampa has an average population of approximately 30,000 persons who are directly or indirectly engaged in the cigar industry, or dependent upon those engaged in the trade for their support, the total number of workers of all classes normally employed in the Tampa factories being approximately 15,000. A very large percentage of the workers in the cigar factories of Tampa is alien, not over 10 per cent of the foreign-born workers having become naturalized citizens. There is no source from which labor to meet the requirements of the cigar industry of Tampa can be obtained except Cuba, and aliens coming from Cuba to be employed in the Tampa factories do not enter into competition with American skilled or unskilled laborers. If the Cuban supply of labor to the Tampa factories is cut off, it will not result in giving employment to unenployed American laborers, but will merely result in destroying or so handicapping the industry that it can not be continued. At the beginning of the year 1920 substantially all of the cigar factories of Tampa were working to their full capacity and there was an unprecedented demand for their product. Labor was scarce and every available qualified person had opportunity for employment. The wages being paid were the highest in the history of the industry, and the highest paid at any place in the world where the cigar manufacturing industry is engaged in extensively. About the 1st of April, 1920, a number of labor unions existing amongst the workers in the Tampa factories combined and made a demand upon this association for " closed shop"; i. e., that the members of this association would agree not to give employment to any workers in their factories who were not members of the unions. For obvious reasons this demand was refused. This action of this association was approved by the board of trade, Rotary Club, and practically every other civic and business organization of the city. No complaint was made by the unions as to wages, working conditions, or hours of labor, the sole and only demand being for "closed shop." Upon this demand being refused, the unions called a strike in the factories of half the members of this association, and thereupon, as a measure of self-protection, the remaining factories closed down. All of these factories remained closed until July 8, 1920, when they reopened and offered employment to all qualified workers, regardless of membership or nonmembership in any labor union, and at the same scale of wages and under the same working conditions that existed prior to the calling of the strike, with the exception of a readjustment in the manner of paying the wrapper selectors, which affected not more than 185 employees. Since the strike was called in April, 1920, a large number of persons who had been employed in the factories have left the city of Tampa, many of them going to Cuba in search of employment in the cigar factories at that place, and the unions, for the purpose of handicapping the employers, induced a large number of workers who were not radical union supporters, to leave the city, in many instances paying their transportation on condition that they would go a distance of not less than 300 miles and remain away until after the termination of the strike. The records of the Peninsular & Occidental Steamship Co., which operates a steamship line between Tampa and Habana, show that from April 1 to December 1, 1920, 1.939 second-class passengers left Tampa for Habana, and during the same period 1,859 second-class passengers left Tampa for Key West. A large number of those going to Key West subsequently went to Cuba, but it is not practicable to make an accurate estimate of the number doing so, but substantially all of the second-class passengers leaving Tampa on the Peninsular & Occidental boats were tobacco workers who were leaving in search of employment at Key West and Habana. It is conservatively estimated that between four and five thousand persons who up to April 1, 1920, were employed in the cigar industry of Tampa are now in Cuba, having gone there by direct or indirect routes, and practically all of them are aliens and will not be able to return to the United States if the proposed law is enacted. Many have left their families in Tampa, and these families may become public charges if the working members are not permitted to return and care for them. In addition, not less than 2,000 persons previously employed in the Tampa factories have gone to other places in search of employment, and many of them have engaged in other trades and will not return. Since the moratorium was declared in Cuba on October 1, 1920, the cigar factories of that country have been working with short forces, many of them having closed. Because of the prohibitive tariff on tobacco recently adopted by Great Britain and the unsettled condition of European exchange, many of the Cuban factories will not reopen in the near future, as Europe is the chief consumer of Cuban cigars. The result is that there are approximately 12,000 unemployed skilled tobacco workers in Cuba at the present time, about 40 per cent of whom have gone to Cuba from Tampa by direct or indirect routes since the present strike in Tampa began. Many of these people are without the funds with which to return to the United States immediately, although they know that they can readily obtain employment in the factories of Tampa at high wages if they can get here and would come at once if they had the means. Some who have the means, although not in sympathy with the strike, will not return to Tampa until the strike is over from fear of insult, intimidation, and violence from the strikers. The present immigration law prohibits the members of this association from aiding any of these workers to return to this country, and therefore it will not be practicable for those who have left Tampa and gone to Cuba and who desire to return to do so until they can obtain the money required for transportation and to meet the requirements of the present immigration law, and it may be months before many of these workers can return. Aside from the present unusual condition, many of the Tampa tobacco workers have families and friends living in Cuba, and as the distance is short and the cost of travel comparatively small, when they are employed and making good wages in the Tampa factories, they make frequent visits to Cuba, and should this privilege be withdrawn many would become dissatisfied and return to Cuba permanently, or at least until the restrictions of the proposed immigration law are withdrawn. A census of the various factories in this association was taken by three reputable citizens of Tampa during the week beginning December 20, and it was found that 3,277 workers were actually at work in 58 factories, the remaining factories being closed down for annual inventory or because of inability to obtain employees in sufficient number to justify operation. Inquiry was also made of the owners as to the number of workers required. The data so gathered is as follows: In addition to the above requirements there are the following factories, mem- bers of this association, that are closed down, either for inventory or because of lack of labor, viz: Solis Alvarez, Maximo Cueto, F. Capitana & Co., Dulin & Co., Felipe DeSoto & Co., Rafael Espina & Co., Every Day Cigar Co., Hygiene Cigar Co., Jose M. Lopez, Celestino Lopez, J. M. Martinez Co., Marsicano Cigar Co., Newman Cigar Co., South Florida Cigar Co., Salvador Sanchez & Co., Tampa Best Cigar Co., Tampa Token Cigar Co., Wolff Bros. Cigar Co., which, under normal conditions, will require approximately 1,000 workers, making a total shortage of 10,986 workers required for the factories that are members of this association. The remaining cigar factories at Tampa and vicinity employ approximately 750 persons and appear to be fully supplied with workers, as no strike has been called against them. There are at present unemployed in Tampa and vicinity skilled tobacco workers who refuse to work, less than 4,000, which leaves a shortage of ap- proximately 7,000 workers required to meet the demands of the factories that are members of this association, even if all workers in the city of Tampa should immediately go to work. There is no source from which this number of skilled workers can be sup- Cigar making is engaged in at other places in the United States, but the process is different, and there would scarcely be enough skilled workers cap- able of making cigars by the Spanish hand method" to supply the present shortage in the Tampa factories, if all the other factories in the United States following that method should close and send their workers to Tampa in search The following statistics compiled by the secretary of the Tampa Board of Trade from public records show the importance, as well as the growth of the cigar industry in Tampa, from the years 1900 to 1919, inclusive. These statis- tics were compiled in February, 1920, before the strike was called, and are From the foregoing figures it will be seen that the internal revenue office at Tampa has produced revenue to the Federal Government during the period covered by this compilation amounting to $19,297,323, and the customhouse has produced $32,496,579, a total of $51,793,902, and the remarkable increase in the Government revenue for the past four years should be noted. Substantially all of this revenue is derived from import duties and revenue taxes on tobacco imported into Tampa and cigars manufactured at this place therefrom. Under normal conditions from this time on the cigar industry of Tampa will pay the Government in customs duties and internal revenue approximately $6,000,000 per annum. Any legislation that will result in destroying or seriously handicapping an industry that is so productive of revenue to the Government should not be enacted in the absence of some compelling emergency. Not only does the industry produce revenue to the Government, but in norma! times it pays in wages to the employees of the factories an average of more than $300,000 per week, which money is promptly placed in circulation in the community and so stimulates all classes of trade and industry. Any serious interference with the industry will correspondingly affect every class of business in this community. There is no compelling emergency requiring the suspension of immigration of tobacco workers from Cuba to Tampa. These aliens do not enter into competition with American workmen. Their trade is peculiarly their own. The process followed by them is the "Spanish hand method." It is true that some of the factories are using molds in making cigars, but this process merely adds to the quantity the average workman can turn out, and the same method of making cigars by hand is employed, except that the filler is pressed into shape by a molding process after it is put together and before the wrapper is put on it. It is therefore respectfully submitted that if the bill in question is passed it is necessary to include in it some exemption that will permit persons bona fide engaged in the tobacco trades and the members of their families to pass to and from Cuban ports and ports of the United States without restriction, provided such aliens do not come within any of the classes excluded under existing immigration laws. K. I. MCKAY, Attorney for the Cigar Manufacturers' Association of Tampa, Fla. The CHAIRMAN. I called attention this morning to the action of the Italian Government in regard to limiting passports. I now have an official document from the Acting Secretary of State, which reads as follows: Hon. LEBARON B. COLT, JANUARY 3, 1921. Chairman Committee on Immigration, United States Senate. SIR: I have the honor to inclose for your consideration copy of a communication dated December 17, 1920, from the Royal Italian Embassy, reporting that the Italian Government has suspended the issuance of passports to subjects emigrating to the United States, and will refrain from issuing such passports until informed as to the classes of immigrants desired in this country. I have the honor to be, sir, Your obedient servant, NORMAN H. DAVIS, Acting Secretary of State. Then, inclosed with this letter from the Acting Secretary of State is the following memorandum: REGIA AMBASCIATA D'ITALIA: The chargé d'affaires of Italy presents his compliments to his excellency the Acting Secretary of State and has the honor to inform him that, according to a communication just received from the ministry of foreign affairs, the Royal Italian Government has suspended the issue of passports to subjects emigrating to the United States, and will refrain from issuing such passports until informed as to the classes of immigrants desired in this country. Senator FLETCHER. Mr. Chairman, I need not formally introduce Congressman Sparkman; he is known to all of you. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Sparkman. |