suggestion will be made clearer by the following comparison of our method with that adopted for the Parker-Langshaw schedule, the rates being used only to illustrate the method of progression and not as an indorsement of their adequacy or inadequacy for protection or revenue: The rates by our progressive method are in some cases higher, in other cases lower, than by the Parker-Langshaw jumping process, but the superiority of our adjustment is so clear that any further attempt to explain its advantages is superfluous. SUGGESTIONS. This examination of the subject shows beyond question the wisdom of our recommendations regarding the new cotton schedule, which are: 1. Base the classifications on the yarn count as found in the finished cloth without allowance for take-up or for changes in preceding processes of manufacture. 2. Make any progressive increase in the rates in proportion to the increase in the yarn count, eliminating dividing lines. 3. Fix the tariff rates so that any existing inequalities and burdens may be removed, and no domestic industry may be injured. ParkerLangshaw method. 35 36 37 38 39 47 271 51 53 54 56 57 59 294 301 304 64 301 66 68 Per cent. Per cent. 231 241 3 15 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13333399 34 37 371 37 384 384 39 391 394 391 40 STATEMENT CONCERNING SEA-ISLAND COTTON. Hon. OSCAR W. UNDERWOOD, Chairman Ways and Means Committee, House of Representatives, United States. WASHINGTON, February 1, 1913 MY DEAR MR. UNDERWOOD: I am handing you with this a letter from W. N. Com. oley, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce of the city of Live Oak, Fla., which s self-explanatory.. I desire to say in addition that seven counties in my district are engaged in raising sea-island cotton as their principal product. As you doubtless know, our lands are thin and it requires considerable fertilization to produce a good quality and a paying quantity of sea-island cotton. Our principal competitor in the American market at the present time is the grower of Egyptian cotton in the Valley of the Nile. While the Egyptian cotton growers pay their laborers a fraction over 13 cents a day, the Florida cotton grower can not procure the commonest kind of field labor for less than $1 a day and board. While the Egyptian is not of such long staple and is not so fine in texture as is the Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina sea-island cotton, at the same time it can be used as a substitute very effectively. We also come in competition with cotton grown in Peru and the West Indies, and a duty of 4 or 5 cents per pound on Egyptian and other long-staple cotton would produce a revenue to this Government of some $5,000,000 or $6,000,000 annually. The people of Florida believe that this cotton ought to be placed upon the dutiable list for several reasons. First. It is a cotton out of which the finer and more expensive fabrics are manufactured, such as thread, lace, mercerized silks, and the webbing for automobile tires. Second. The duty we are asking is distinctively a revenue duty and would be in perfect keeping with the Democratic policy on the tariff. Third. We now pay heavy tariff duties on everything which enters into the production of sea-island cotton, which aids in marketing the crop, and also heavy duties upon everything manufactured from this cotton. We are not asking for any special privilege in order to protect our particular production; we are simply asking that we be treated fairly and not be discriminated against. I sincerely trust that your committee may see its way clear to either removing the duties from everything which the sea-island cotton grower is forced to use in the production of the cotton and in marketing it, and the duties upon everything manufactured from this cotton, or that you place Egyptian and other long-staple cottons upon the dutiable list at such a rate as will produce revenue, and at the same time put us upon a plane of equality with the other sections of the country. If your committee desires I will be very glad to appear before it and submit such data and arguments as I may be able in support of the contention herein made. Yours, respectfully, Hon. FRANK CLARK, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. FRANK CLARK. THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, DEAR SIR: You will receive a marked copy of the Cotton Record which contains an editorial entitled "Only a square deal." Please read this carefully. We are confronted in this county with a very perplexing and annoying problem with reference to sea-island cotton. At present there is about $100,000 tied up in sea-island cotton in this county. Although the production is at least 60 per cent less than last year, the price is not near so good, and there is simply no market for it at all. Our farmers are seriously discussing abandoning sea-island cotton altogether and planting short cotton instead. This is, as you know, the very heart of the sea-island belt, and it will mean quite a revolution to give up planting sea-island cotton. However, if we can not get relief in some way, it looks as if our people will be forced to give up what has long been the chiefest factor in our commerce. If you can do anything to help the situation, it will bring relief and rejoicing to every farmer who plants sea-island cotton. Should you think a representative or delegation to present the case of the sea-island-cotton growers would be able to accomplish anything in Washington, so advise me, and I will see what can be done in this direction. Yours, truly, W. N. CONOLEY, Secretary. BRIEF ON PARAGRAPHS 212, 466, 543, AND 713. HEYWOOD BROS. & WAKEFIELD Co., Mr. DANIEL C. ROPER, Clerk Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: We beg to acknowledge receipt of your esteemed favors of the 13th and 29th ultimos, the latter inclosing copy of your letter to the Hon. Wm. H. Wilder. We thank you for your promptness in responding to our communications, though, because of our delinquency in acknowledgment, we feel some embarrassment, it being due, however, in some measure, to reasons beyond our control. We now wish to state that we accept your arrangement for our hearing of 30 minutes on the 31st instant and will probably be represented in Washington on that date by Mr. Fred M. Cleaveland, who is entirely familiar with the subjects in which we are interested. You have asked us to advise you what our attitude is to the present tariff, and, generally speaking, we may say that it seems fair to most interests. We are believers in the protective system to a reasonable extent and, so far as our own industry is concerned, will be satisfied to have such protection as is represented by the difference in the cost of labor here and in other countries. We will take up here the schedules and paragraphs in which we are interested: First. Schedule D, paragraph 212: "Chair cane or reeds wrought or manufactured from rattan or reeds, ten per centum ad valorem." This small duty gives our competitors abroad, principally in Germany, an unfair advantage, because of the much cheaper cost of labor, and it also enables them to place an unfair valuation on a large product manufactured from rattan, which is being shipped into this country in ever-increasing quantities. The duty should in fact be made specific, but, as we may perhaps assume no change is likely to be made from ad valorem, we suggest that a duty of 20 per cent would fairly represent the difference in cost of labor if the goods were properly invoiced. Second. Schedule N, paragraph 466: "Matting made of cocoa fiber or rattan, six cents per square yard. Mats made of cocoa fiber or rattan, four cents per square foot." There may be those who will advocate raising this duty; but although we are considerable importers of matting and mats, as comprehended by this paragraph, which come mostly from the Far East, we are satisfied to let this paragraph stand as it is. Third. Free list, paragraph 543: "Coir and coir yarn." We are extensive importers of this material, which we import from Ceylon and India and in the manufacture of which we employ a large force at this place. There is nothing of the kind produced on this continent, and there appears to be no reason to us why it should not remain on the free list. Fourth. Free list, paragraph 713: Reeds, unmanufactured, should be stricken from this paragraph entirely, as they are covered by a duty imposed under the first schedule and paragraph above referred to. Reeds are manufactured from rattan, and should pay a duty. We wish rattan itself to remain on the free list, as it is not produced on this continent and comes principally from the British and Dutch East Indies. Thanking you for your consideration, we remain, yours, very truly, HEYWOOD BROS. & WAKEFIELD CO. BRIEF SUBMITTED BY THE MINISTER OF NORWAY. LEGATION OF NORWAY, Washington, D. C., January 25, 1913. List showing a number of articles for which a reduction of the duty might be found well founded. List showing a number of articles for which a reduction of the duty might be found well founded-Continued. Nitrate of calcium.-In the bill voted by last Congress concerning the revision of the chemical schedule this product was placed on the free list as a compound of calcium. This product being a fertilizer of equal value as nitrate of natrium, it is supposed that these two products will continue to be on the free list. For the minister of Norway. W. M. JOHANNESSEN, LEGATION OF NORWAY, Washington, D. C., February 14, 1913. MEMORANDUM. Referring to the legation's memorandum of January 25 last, concerning some items in the customs tariff act, the legation begs to draw the attention to the fact that the American mackerel fisheries no longer are of the same importance as they were when the duty on mackerel was fixed. While in earlier years the mackerel fisheries in the United States were very important, now only a few thousand barrels are yearly salted. The reasons for protecting the American fisheries against the foreign competition in salted mackerel, which is used as ordinary food by common people, therefore do not seem to exist any longer. The minister of Norway should appreciate very much if a copy of this memorandum could, through the kind intervention of the State Department, be transmitted to the Committee on Ways and Means. STATEMENT OF PUSTAU & CO., REGARDING SEVERAL TARIFF SCHEDULES. Honorable COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, NEW YORK, January 25, 1913. House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. The DEAR SIRS: While it is not likely that sugar will be put on the free list, will you permit me to point out to you that even if a reduction in the present duties on sugar should be contemplated, such a lower duty will be immediately reflected by higher prices of foreign sugars, particularly beet sugar, and that whatever the reduction may amount to, will be equalized immediately by a higher cost of importation here. At the same time, the beet-sugar industry in this country which, if left alone, will gradually work to constantly increasing figures, would be seriously jeopardized. Last years' production amounted to about 600,000 tons, against an importation of sugars of 2,200,000 tons. A duty on sugar is the best revenue that any country can have, as it is easily collectible, and the whole population of a country contributes toward it. For the same reason I have always advocated a duty on coffees, teas, and particularly spices. An ounce of pepper, when ground up, retails for 5 cents per ounce. wholesale price of Singapore pepper unground, to-day is under 11 cents per pound. White Singapore pepper is worth about 18 cents. A duty of 5 cents on spices (and double this rate for ground spices), including cinnamon, ginger, cassia, nutmegs, mace, etc., is easily collectible, and while the total amounts to quite large quantities per annum, the average consumption per capita is probably less than 1 pound per annum. In a similar way a duty on tapioca, not the flour which is used for manufacturing, but the tapioca pearl and flake, of from 1 to 2 cents per pound would be worth collecting. It is retailed for about 10 cents per pound or even more, and the average cost is seldom over 5 cents. People who eat tapioca puddings will hardly feel such duty. The total aggregate of importations in the United States is in the neighborhood of 4,000 tons per annum. Referring to the so-often expressed intention to reduce the cost of living, or reduction on food imports, in relation to this I believe that it would recommend itself to allow egg albumen and egg yolk in powder form, to be put on the free list. The Chinese are exporting to Europe tremendous quantities of both of these articles, costing in the neighborhood of 40 cents per pound. With the scarcity of eggs, particularly at certain seasons of the year, these two products are of great help to the candy manufacturers, and should therefore be put on the free list. Albumen is also used largely for technical purposes. I, however, would recommend a reduction in the duty, or in fact, would advocate the putting on the free list of all hats made of fiber, other than hemp, costing less than 50 cents per dozen first cost in producing countries, not of hats that are sewed together, but are woven by hand. A great many of these hats come now from Java, and our farmers use them largely, paying 25 cents per piece. They can probably be sold for 15 cents per piece if the duty, which is now 35 per cent, were taken off. Finer quality fiber hats, exceeding the cost of 50 per dozen, should pay the same duty as they pay now, as they are made up here into more expensive hats. Fiber hats also come from China; grass hats, and hats made of chip (wood), and those costing 50 cents or less per dozen first cost should also come in here free of duty. A careful examination of Japanese curios will probably lead your committee to come to the conclusion that it hardly pays to collect duty on these. We would advocate that fans costing less than 5 cents per piece first cost should all be admitted here free of duty. They make an article which is sold here by the 5 and 10 cent stores, and the samples which we have and can submit to you will readily convince you that it would be almost impossible to make any such goods here, anywhere near the price that they can be bought for in Japan, and the duty of 50 per cent would not be a protection for the manufacturer, while it is a burden for the poorer classes who need fans in hot weather just as much as other people. It would carry matters too far for me to go into further details and particulars regarding these different matters in writing, but if you feel interested the writer willingly will go over the entire list and give you an extract of what his experience would suggest you to do. I recommend a duty on human hair, whether raw or clean and drawn, but not manufactured, of 25 or 30 per cent ad valorem, and 50 per cent on all hair which has been manufactured. Hair of this kind is nothing but an article of luxury, and Chinese and Japanese hair of the cheaper kind can well stand a duty of 25 or 30 per cent ad valorem. The cost of importation is from 70 cents to $1 per pound, according to quality, while Italian hair is selling from $3 to $10 and $20 per pound, and is often |