The statements referred to by the witness are as follows:

NEW YORK, May 22, 1888.

I hereby certify that the cost to manufacture 220,000 leaves of gold at the union rate of wages paid throughout the United States is $95.

Sworn before me this 22d day of May, 1888

ALEX. MCQUEEN,

President of the Gold Beaters' Union.

JOSEPH E. MUHLINY,

Notary Public, New York County.

1 melter and flatter

1 cutcher and 2 assistants (girls).

2 shoder beaters and 2 assistants (girls).

Scale of wages paid in Germany for the manufacture of gold leaf.

Marks.

25.00

28.80

57.69

I hereby certify that the statement is true to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Sworn before me this 22d day of May, 1888.

ROBERT HENKE, 75 Grand street, New York.

JOSEPH E. MUHLINY, Notary Public, New York County.

Mr. BRICE. I have no doubt that a great deal of this metal-leaf is sold for gold-leaf to people who are not experts and do not know the difference.

Senator ALLISON. You say there is nobody now in the United States making this Dutch metal?

Mr. BRICE. Not at present to our knowledge. We have made inquiry throughout the United States from all our representative men. Senator HARRIS. Is the process of manufacture a secret?

Mr. BRICE. Oh, no.

Senator HARRIS. It can be manufactured here?

Mr. BRICE. Oh, it can be manufactured here; yes, sir. There is some machinery required.

Senator BECK. I suppose the same process that makes the genuine will make the imitation?

Mr. BRICE. Yes, sir. The first and second processes we can put machinery on. That relieves us of a little hard work, because it is a harder metal. That machinery our employers can put up in less than sixty days; in thirty days, in fact.

Senator HISCOCK. It is hardly fair to call the gold genuine and the Dutch metal imitation. It is a new industry. That is all there is about it.

Mr. BRICE. It is a new industry.

Senator HISCOCK. In other words, they have gone to work to find a substitute for gold-leaf, which is being manufactured and imported into this country, and have fixed upon a combination of copper and spelter. Mr. BRICE. Yes, sir.

Senator HISCOck. It is imported here into this country as copper and spelter, and so far as the trade is concerned generally, unless there is a fraud perpetrated, it is sold as copper and spelter.

Senator ALLISON. It is not sold as gold-leaf.

Senator JONES. I should not think there would be very much saved by using the imitation.

Senator HISCOCK. There is a difference between 95 cents and $7 in cost. It has driven the gold-leaf out of existence.

Senator JONES. If it looks just as well what difference does it make? Senator HISCOCK. That is one of the points.

Senator BECK. I suppose the same difficulty would exist if the Dutchmetal leaf was made here.

Mr. BRICE. That might be so. I do not mean to say that is gener ally the case, but I have no doubt it is the case in some instances. People are not posted. With many of our people this is an article of luxury, and when you get to a house where they know what they are dealing in you will find the genuine gold-leaf.

Senator BECK. In other words, this is really what you want: The people of this country are getting this Dutch leaf so cheap that you want us to impose a tax upon it so that you can stand it. You want us to put on a tax that will enable you to compete with that Dutch leaf.

Mr. BRICE. We would like to have a sufficient duty to give us an opportunity to manufacture it here. As I said, a number of our men have been driven out of the business.

Senator BECK. You are not making it and you have not made it.
Mr. BRICE. But it has been made, as I will show you.
Senator BECK. I thought you said it had not.

Mr. BRICE. Not for seven years past; not a particle has been made. Senator BECK. Your complaint is that they are selling it very cheap to the people who want the Dutch metal to put on their books and around their picture frames; people who can not afford to buy gold, but want something that looks pretty. You would like to have us put on such a tax that they will have to pay twice what they are now paying, and then you will make it for them. Is not that about it?

Mr. BRICE. Well, if we have sufficient tax on it, and the people will have it, all we want is an opportunity to manufacture it here.

Senator BECK. That is about the way it works.

Senator JONES. I should think there would be a good deal of differ ence between the two leaves. I would suppose that if there was moisture in the atmosphere it would affect the Dutch metal so that it would not endure long. The gold-leaf will endure until it wears off. It strikes me the other metal will suffer from oxidation.

Mr. BRICE. That is true.

Senator JONES. Does experience show that this imitation leaf that the Dutch make lasts as long as the gold-leaf?

Mr. BRICE. Oh, it will not last as long.

Senator JONES. What happens to it; does it wear out?

Mr. BRICE. After the varnish begins to wear off it tarnishes and becomes dark and discolored. Of course there are a great many people who know pretty well what they are doing when they purchase it, and they use it for decorating purposes; for instance, in the building of a house, which they sell as soon as possible.

Senator JONES. It is good enough to sell on?

Mr. BRICE. Yes. While this is going on we are suffering. The American people want it, and we would like to be in a position to manufacture it. In the present state of affairs many of our men have been forced away from their business, there not being work enough for them all in the business.

Senator ALLISON. How many men are employed in the production of gold-leaf?

Mr. BRICE. To-day, I suppose about eleven hundred men; I think between ten and eleven hundred. There are a number of boys and women besides.

Senator ALLISON. Where?

Mr. BRICE. Throughout the United States. I think there are about that many now.

Senator ALLISON. You also ask here for an increase of duty or for a duty on bronze-powder?

Mr. BRICE. Yes, sir. That is another industry that we can turn our attention to.

Senator ALLISON. What is bronze-powder!

Mr. BRICE. After beating this material up they can clean the edges and turn that surplus into bronze-powder. It is beat up in a mold and after it is beat out at the edges and the edges cleaned down they turn that into the bronze-powder. They have the machinery to make a very fine powder.

Senator JONES. What is bronze-powder used for?

Mr. BRICE. They use it for decorating purposes through buildings and the like of that.

Senator ALLISON. Is it imported at all now?

Mr. BRICE. Yes, sir; there has been a large quantity imported in the last two years; $400,000 dollars' worth last year.

Senator ALLISON. Do you remember the present duty on bronzepowder?

Mr. BRICE. Fifteen per cent.
Senator ALLISON. Ad valorem?

Mr. BRICE. Ad valorem.

Senator ALLISON. Take 5,000 leaves of gold-leaf such as you have mentioned. What amount of bronze-powder would there be as the residuum of that work? In other words, how many leaves would it take, for example, to make a pound of bronze-powder?

Mr. BRICE. Out of the gold-leaf?

Senator ALLISON. Yes; out of the gold-leaf.

Mr. BRICE. That I can not say.

Senator ALLISON. Do you have what is called bronze-powder from the gold-leaf at all?

Mr. BRICE. Oh, we have some.

Senator HISCOCK. In the manufacture of gold leaf what per cent. of your material goes into the gold-leaf and what per cent. into the bronzepowder?

Mr. BRICE. I can not say exactly. There is very little gold-bronze powder used. The gold leaf, of course, is a large quantity compared with the other. The powder is principally from the composition. Senator ALLISON. From Dutch metal ?

Mr. BRICE. Yes, sir; there is only a small percentage of gold-powder used.

Senator ALLISON. What, in your judgment, would be the percentage of Dutch-metal bronze-powder?

Mr. BRICE. There is about twice the amount of the bronze-powder imported.

Senator HARRIS. Can you tell what percentage of the cost of the gold-leaf is material and what percentage is labor?

Mr. BRICE. There are 4 pennyweights 6 of gold in a pack of 20 books. That is $4.25 worth of gold in the package of 500 leaves.

Senator JONES. What are the 500 leaves worth?

Mr. BRICE. They are selling to-day for $6.90. I know parties that have bought recently for that.

Senator JONES. How much is the gold worth that is in them?
Mr. BRICE. The gold is worth $4.25.

Senator JONES. Then there would be what else?

Mr. BRICE There is 50 cents a pack for cutting, to the girls. Senator JONES. That would be about 30 per cent. labor then? Senator HARRIS. Dɔ you mean $6.90 is the price of the manufacturers?

Mr. BRICE. That is the retail rate.

Senator HARRIS. What is the manufacturers' rate?

Mr. BRICE. The cost of manufacture.

Senator HARRIS. I would like to have, if you can give the figures, the exact cost of the production of a package of gold-leaf; I mean the exact cost of the material and the exact cost of the labor that enters into it.

Senator ALLISON. Of 500 leaves.

Mr. BRICE. That would be $4.25 for the gold-that is really the amount of gold in it; $1.25 for beating, to the journeymen; 50 cents to the girl who cuts it; 25 cents for wear and tear.

Senator HARRIS. That is the wear and tear of the machinery?

Mr. BRICE. The wear and tear of the molds that we beat these out in. As I explained to you they are very delicate-the intestines of a bullock. Then there are about 20 books, and about 18 or 20 cents for them.

Senator ALLISON. That is actual cost, without taking into accouat the capital invested in the machinery and plant.

Mr. BRICE. Yes, sir.

Senator HARRIS. The labor that enters into it is the beating, the cutting, and the booking?

Mr. BBICE. We have to prepare our skins with gypsum in order that the gold shall pass over without adhering.

Senator HARRIS. You have an item of 25 cents for wear and tear? Mr. BRICE. We will put that all into the labor.

Senator HARRIS. But whether you can legitimately put it all into the labor or not is another question.

Mr. BRICE. Some years ago my employers used to sell the old molds and get $20 apiece for them to be used in beating metal-leaf. Now our employers tell us they get three or four dollars. We could take the molds and turn them into the metal-leaf beating. All the employers have got to do is simply to get a couple of steel hammers to give us the first and second processes. We could not earn much more than we have been earning by the week, but all the year round we would have more employment, because if the American people here run on the metal-leaf we will turn our attention to that, and then when they begin to run on the gold-leaf we can change and turn our attention to that.

Senator JONES. You particularly asked for an increase of the duty on bronze-powder.

Mr. BRICE. Well, we would like to have it on this metal-leaf particularly, and if possible something on the gold-leaf, because, as you see, the importation since we got the present wages of $11 per week has more than doubled.

Senator ALLISON.. You are an actual beater?

Mr. BRICE. Yes, sir.

Senator ALLISON. You are one of the men who received wages?
Mr. BRICE. Yes, sir; I am.

Senator ALLISON. How long have you been at work at this business? Mr. BRICE. Well, with the exception of three or four years that I left it on account of my health, I have been at it since 1853.

Senator ALLISON. It is a trade, is it not?

Mr. BRICE. It is a trade. Webster defines it as an art. We call it a trade; labor work.

Senator ALLISON. It is a mechanical industry.

Mr. BRICE. Yes, sir.

Senator ALLISON. It requires knowledge and skill.

Mr. BRICE. It does, sir. I will not say it requires more than any, but it requires equal to any intelligent mechanic in this country in any other industry.

Senator ALLISON. You say there are about 1,100 of these gold-beaters?

Mr. BRICE. I think so; between ten and eleven hundred to-day. Senator ALLISON. That does not include the girls who are cutting? Mr. BRICE. No, sir.

Senator ALLISON. That is not skilled labor, although of course it requires a little experience and knowledge in making up these books. That is done by girls.

Mr. BRICE. They give six weeks to learn it in many cases. If you like, the secretary will read some statistics of the importations. It will take but a short time. A business like ours requires a great deal of brain-work. As I say, those molds are very delicate that they beat the gold leaf in, and if you have one under the hammer and one in the press-we have to put them in presses to press the dampness outwhile we are beating on one we must keep our attention on the other, because if we overheat it and spoil it it is $45 out of our pocket. We have got to pay all damages to molds and losses of that kind, and all we get is $11 a week. That is the union rate to-day.

Senator HISCOсK. When did they first commence to import Dutch metal into this country so as to practically compete with you?

Mr. BRICE. That has really been done for I suppose at least ten years or more. Eight years ago I may say anyhow.

Senator HISCOCK. I inquire as to the time when it commenced as an earnest competition to affect you materially. I do not mean when they first commenced to bring it in here at all.

Mr. BRICE. It has been so for the last seven years.

Senator HISCOCK. Does your petition state the wages of the goldbeater?

Mr. BRICE. Yes, sir; it is all stated there.

Senator HISCOCK. What is the highest the wages have been since 1880!

Mr. BRICE. Since 1880 at one time we had the wages up to about $13 a week in some of the shops where they do piecework. We enjoyed that about eighteen months.

Senator HISCOCK. When was that?

Mr. BRICE. That was along about 1881. But the importations then came in and were immense. They flooded the market. The result was that we had to go down again to $9 per week. They flooded the market with gold-leaf.

Senator HISCOCK. What I want to get at is this: On the present tariff there is upon gold-leaf what wages could you afford to pay in this country and yet compete with the importation?

Mr. BRICE. If we had the increase on the gold-leaf?
Senator HISCOCK. No; take it on its present rate of duty.

Mr. BRICE. Do I understand you to say providing the metal-leaf is barred out?

Senator HISCOCK. Yes, sir.

Mr. BRICE. Well, I do not know as we dare go above the present