In outward appearance it closely resembles a snow white, fine-grained marble. Chemically speaking, it is a hydrous borate of lime, its composition being expressed by the formula 2C,O, 3B03, 3H,0; in other words, it consists of boracic acid 55.85 per cent.; lime, 29.78 per cent.; and water, 14.36 per cent. Its richness in boracic acid is at once apparent, and places it high above other commercial borates. Thus, ordinary borax (borate of soda) contains only 36.58 per cent. of the acid; boro-calcité and boro-natro-calcite (borates of lime and of lime and soda) vary from 8 per cent. up to 46 per cent. and average about 40 per cent. boracite and stassfurtite (borates of magnesia), containing, respectively, about 63 per cent. and 60 per cent. alone surpass it in this respect, and they can hardly be deemed commercial minerals. After very simple preparation pandermite can be very directly applied as a flux, and is more economical than borax for this purpose, thanks to its larger proportion of boracic acid. An outcrop of the mineral was discovered by a foreigner some years since, and the bed was secretly worked; small shipments were occasionally made to Europe under the denomination of plaster of Paris, thus keeping the matter hidden, and at the same time avoiding the payment of dues and duties. The Ottoman Government has since been apprised of these irregularities, and has taken energetic measures to correct them. More recently it has granted a comprehensive concession to a party of British residents, who are setting to work to develop the property. The district enjoys the great advantage of being under British protection. The workings were at first placed under that section of the Reglement des Mines relating to quarries, but have since been transferred to the section regulating mines proper. Steps are being taken to open up the deposit in a systematic manner, by first sinking a number of bore-holes, as has been done with the Kainit beds at Stassfurt, to ascertain the points of greatest development in the basin. The locality possesses a healthy climate, except in the autumn, when there is some ague. Labor is very cheap and abundant, Turks, Circassians, Tartars, Armenians, Greeks, and Italians being obtainable from the neighboring villages. There is a supply of water; oak and fir timber may be procured at 6 to 7 miles distant, and scrub for fuel covers the surrounding hills. The actual cost of the mineral, as now worked, is as follows: At 795 1-5 okes per ton, and 128 piastres per sterling (1 piastre paras), this will equal..... 3 0 To this must be added government royalty, 5 per cent. ad valorem, say.. 0 Freight and insurance. Making the total cost, "c, f, and I".... 4 18 3 Before I go on I want to say that 1 pound of that article, owing to its richness in boracic acid, will make 1 pounds of the borax of commerce. That article, according to statistics, can be laid down in England, cost, freight, and insurance, at 1.05 cents a pound. The CHAIRMAN. That is to say, for an article on which our duty is now 5 cents a pound? Mr. MATHER. Yes, sir; on refined borax; but on that article our duty is 3 cents a pound. Crude borax, we call it; but it is borate of lime, and so specified in the present tariff. The CHAIRMAN. It can be laid down in New York at the same price. Mr. MATHER. Barring duty. Freight adds very little more. The CHAIRMAN. If it was free here it could be laid down at New York at the same price? Mr. MATHER. Yes, sir. It is to be understood that the figures-1.05 cents per pound-mean *Paras per oke means mills (% of cent) per ton. cost, freight, and insurance for the crude article laid down in London in 1880. I am not able to give the figures showing the cost of its conversion into boracic acid or borax of commerce, as this service is performed wholly abroad. Boracic acid, whether obtained from manufacture in Tuscany, or from the Pandermite of Asia Minor, in both which places labor is abundant and very cheap, and little better than serf at the latter place, is clearly a manufactured product, calling for capital, plants, etc., and is admitted by the present tariff, as already shown, at less than 2 cents for the quantity contained in a pound of refined borax; while the latter article, consisting of 36.6 per cent. boracic acid, 16.2 per cent. carbonate of soda, and 47.2 per cent. water, is charged a duty of 5 cents per pound. When the duty of 1883 was established and a fair rate fixed for borax by some oversight that established for boracic acid was inadequate, and instead of being 5 cents and 4 cents for pure and commercial boracic acid, respectively, should have been 10 and 8 cents. This is so fully and logically set forth by the Hon. Mr. Rosecrans, formerly a member of the House from San Francisco, in his letter to the Ways and Means Committee, January 12, 1883, and in his letter of April 14, 1888, to the Hon. Mr. Breckinridge, of the House of Representatives, that I beg to call the attention of the committee to what he says and which will be found printed in the pamphlet now before you. LETTER FROM GENERAL ROSECRANS TO WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE OF THE FORTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS. To the Committee of Ways and Means: f JANUARY 12, 1883. GENTLEMEN: The following facts should be taken into consideration in fixing the duty on borax : (1) Borax, or biborate of soda, when pure, contains when crystallized out of solution at temperatures specified below Soda Boracic acid. Water Under 118° Fahr. 130° to 180° Fahr. Per cent. (2) The boracic acid-not the soda nor the water-is the chief substance of use in the arts. From boracic acid and any commercial salt of soda, borax is easily and and cheaply made, and carries with it the water of crystallization above shown, and to be paid for by the unsuspecting consumer. (3) Boracic acid, pure crystallized, contains Boracic acid Water Tuscan boracic acid, commercial, contains Boracic acid Eleven other substances. Water..... Per cent. 56.31 43.69 Per cent. 76.49 16.95 6.56 (4) Assuming the duty upon borax to be 5 cents per pound, that made from cool crystallization would pay on the 36.4 pounds of boracic acid in 100 pounds 13.9 cents per pound. That produced from hot solution would pay on the 47.7 pounds contained in 100 pounds of borax 10.48 cents per pound. (5) Borate of lime, now imported from Turkey and elsewhere, and sold (4,000 tons) last year in France at $70 per ton, contains Hence, at the tariff of 5 cents per pound, the 45.93 pounds of boracic acid in 100 pounds of the article would pay 10.9 cents per pound. Water (6) From the foregoing it is clear that to fix the duty with just regard to revenue and the incidental protection due to our native product, importations should be taxed in proportion to the boracic acid they contain, thus: On boracic acid, borax, and all other salts and compounds of boron used for the boracic acid contained, at the rate of 10 cents per pound for the boracic acid contained MY DEAR SIR: I see that the committee's tariff bill proposes to put all borax products on the free list. It involves no great sum of money, and I believe that if the committee had been as familiar with the subject as circumstances have compelled me to be, they would have refrained from putting these products on the free list. The production of borax from the desert alkali lands of California, Nevada, and Colorado has become quite an industry and employs a good many people, scattered all over the country. Only in the new States and Territories, however, can the raw material be found. It seems desirable, therefore, to show as much favor as possible to this industry. It is especially incumbent upon the Democratic party. But that is the least of the reasons why the business should not be meddled with. The history of the importation of borax into the United States, and of the various tariff's thereon, shows that legislation in favor of a single person or single house has been the constant rule since 1842, or at the latest since 1845. I had occasion to thoroughly examine and verify the accuracy of this statement, and in 1882 I earnestly urged on the members of the House Committee on Ways and Means, whose attention I could get, at least to do something for our own home industries, instead of building up the wealthy monopoly to which I have alluded, and which slyly procured legisla tion in its favor all these past years. This combination had placed and kept boracic acid on the free list, until in 1882, when the tariff discussion revealed the game, aud then only the inadequate tariff of 4 cents was imposed. The last change procured was to have boracic acid put on the free list. Boracic acid is the chief agent in all processes where borax is used. The common borax of the market is composed of the following ingredients, per 100 pounds: Boracic acid.... Soda...... Water of crystallization.. *38.18 *12.08 49.74 Soda (NaŎ) from soda ash and commercial caustic, can be had in our market for an average price of 4 cents per pound. Borate of lime (Ca BO) can be delivered from Turkey to the British market at 1 cent per pound, owing to the discovery of a large deposit of borate of lime about 40 miles from the sea, and by the use of cheap sulphuric acid, which separates the lime from the boracic acid, the latter can be produced at a very low price. With sulphuric acid at 1 cent per pound, boracic acid can be manufactured from these raw materials at a cost of about 6 cents per pound, or $6 per hundred pounds. Assuming that it can thus be produced for $6 per hundred pounds, and add for manufacturing and commercial profit $2 more per hundred pounds with no duty thereon, we can have boracic acid in our market at 8 cents per pound, with an enriching profit to the manufacturer and the importer. Now 12.08 pounds of soda, at 4 cents, cost... 38.18 pounds of beracic acid, at 8 cents, cost.. Allow for labor and contingencies, per hundred pounds.. Total per hundred pounds...... Cents. 48.32 305.44 16.24 370.00 Or $3.70, provided raw material be admitted free; but the people who have hitherto controlled this market have so managed matters as to charge our American consum *An average. ers, for these forty years, from 9 to 18 cents per pound, and even sometimes as high as 25 cents per pound for borax. We had no relief until our borax producers began to compete with them. If this combination be permitted to do as it has been doing in the past since the tariff of 1882 it will destroy competition, and then go back to its old ways, our own producers will be ruined, and our consumers will then be worse off than under the present tariff. An inspection of the accompanying statement of imports for the years 1883-1887 will demonstrate what I stated to the committee in 1882 as to the probable importation of boracic acid. Ere the tariff of 1883 had gone into operation, the importers rushed in 4,178,737 pounds of boracic acid, and in the same year, after the tariff went into operation, with a duty of only 4 cents per pound, which small duty bas enabled them to control the market ever since, there were imported 155,695 pounds; while the total importation for the four succeeding years, 1884, 1885, 1886, and 1887, has only amounted to 820,343 pounds, demonstrating that the object of these largé importations was to crush out competition. It will be seen from the foregoing figures in reference to the cost of producing borax that the tariff of 5 cents per pound on boracic acid is disproportionately small, since it only adds 2 cents per pound to the cost of making borax, and, therefore, under the present tariff foreign manufacturers and importers can sell borax in our market, with profit, at 5% cents a pound. To put our producers beyond the reach of monopolists, the tariff on boracic acid ought to be 10 cents instead of 5 cents. Our home producers are our dependents for deliverance from the practical "trust" which has hitherto monopolized the business, and they ought, therefore, to have the benefit of the existing tariff, with an increase of 5 cents per pound on boracic acid. You will see by the table of importations that the distinctions between commercial and pure boracic acid are practically worse than useless. The commercial boracic acid and the commercial borax are the bulk of the business, and the real basis of the tariff should be the quantities of pure boracic acid contained in the composition. The committee can rely upon the foregoing as a substantial statement of the facts; hence, it follows that the consumers have no reasonable prospect of being benefited by putting borax and its products on the free list, but that if the tariff on boracic acid be raised to 10 cents, it will give our own producers a chance to force the market down from 15 cents to perhaps as low as 7 or 8 cents per pound, which will still leave ample room for a fair competition by importers. I hope the committee will reconsider this case, and, for justice's sake, increase the tariff on boracic acid, leaving the rates for all other borax products unchanged, and saving the $20,000 or $30,000 of duty by means of reduction in tariff on something else. Very truly, yours, W. S. ROSECRANS. Formerly this article was admitted free under some specious pretext as to its being a crude or unmanufactured product, while refined borax was taxed 10 cents per pound, by which means certain importers in this country, having close arrangements with one or more foreign houses at that time, which practically controlled the boracic acid of the world, were able, with the prohibitive duty on refined borax, to fix the price in this market, which they did most effectively in their own interest, and the American people were by them charged five times the price now paid, and resulting from opening deposits of crude material in this country, and supplying the trade with every grade of borax. It is well known that these parties are opposed to the present or any tariff on borax, and, it is believed, were directly or indirectly instrumental in having it placed upon the free list in the bill presented to the House of Representatives by the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. While they are looking solely to their individual interests and for the recurrence of the time when they might, by connection with parties abroad, so control this market for the article that our consumers would be at their mercy, they would crush out, if possible, this industry of recent birth and struggling under adverse circumstances for existence and growth. Their interests lie almost wholly with their relation to foreign houses, drawing their supplies of the article produced or manufactured by the cheap labor of Italy, by the peon labor of Chili, and pauper labor of Turkey. Congress, wisely, as we think, has seen fit to place restrictions upon the advent of the teeming hordes of China, as also laborers coming from any source under contract. This was in the interest of intelligent and American labor. To admit free the products of serf labor abroad, while refusing to allow these laborers to come here and become consumers of our products, would indeed be an inconsistency rarely found, let us hope, in any legislative proceeding. Our producers are not in a general sense manufacturers of borax, but have taken up the lands of the Government, worthless for any other purpose, and paying therefor $2.50 per acre, often buying 160 acres at this price that they might obtain 5 acres of the mineral, situated in arid desert regions, affording no food or supplies for man or beast, at great distances from railroads, compelled to transport at heavy expense the supplies required in working the mines, and in some instances compelled to carry the water required by the teams and men in hauling to and from the works. These mines, owing to the many disadvan tages, have returned but little or no profit to the owners, and have in most instances barely paid for extracting and placing in the market the products, while exhausting the supplies and leaving nothing for interest on investments or means of replacing the latter. Besides, these properties are often the chief or only sources of supplying to the districts where situated the sinews to carry on their local governments in the shape of taxes. If consideration is to be given to the importer, to enable him with a small capital and a limited number of men em ployed to transact his business successfully, how much more does this apply to the producer who has large sums invested and employs thousands of men directly or indirectly in the prosecution of his enterprise? That this has not been adequately done has been already pointed out, wherein boracic acid was formerly admitted duty free, and is, by the tariff now in force, less than 2 cents per pound on borax of commerce, a sum less than is paid by our producers for freighting their products by rail or water to New York, to say nothing of the expense of hauling by teams over arid regions to connect with rail, in some cases 160 miles. As has been already stated the cost of hauling and freighting from the various sources of supply in this country to New York, the leading mart for this article, will average two cents per pound, and from San Francisco is done wholly by rail or by American vessels, owing to a law of Congress restricting transportation by water between ports of our own country to the American flag. Usually it is cheaper to freight borax by vessel to Liverpool than by the same method to New York, and it is safe to conclude that it can be done from Liverpool to New York for one-fourth the cost of the cheapest means from San Francisco to the latter place. It will be readily seen that our large disbursements for freight inure wholly to the domestic carrier, while that for foreign supplies goes almost wholly or entirely to alien flags. In the language of Mr. Morrow, from a speech delivered by him in the House of Representatives: It can not be too emphatically stated that the price of borax in all the markets of this country has been lower under the tariff of 1883 than was ever known before; that the supply has been constantly increasing and is now equal to the demand, thus insuring moderate prices to the consumer for many years to come, unless adverse legislation should cripple this new and important industry. Many an industry in this country has been warmed into life and built up by the fostering care of the Government until it has attained strength and vigor to compete successfully with competition from any and every quarter, and been the means of adding largely to the wealth of the country and the happiness of its people. The Government recognizes |