this situation as well as I do, and he knows that I know it. We have been pushed around from pillar to post over the Treasury Department on this matter with a lot of continuing excuses. The CHAIRMAN. I do not think it is proper for you to lecture Mr. Hester or for Mr. Hester to lecture you. Mr. COOPER. It is my impression that Mr. Hester was merely correcting the statement made. Mr. BARNES. Mr. Hester's statement now is incorrect. Mr. COOPER. I am not arguing that point with you. I have a right to make the statement I have made, and it does not need any reply from you. The CHAIRMAN. So far as the chair is advised, there are no further wintesses, and this closes the hearings on this bill. The committee will go into executive session. (Thereupon the committee proceeded to the consideration of executive business, after which it adjourned.) ADDENDA STATEMENT OF HON. HARRY B. COFFEE, A MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEBRASKA Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I have just 10 words I hope you will incorporate as an amendment to H. R. 6738 now under consideration. The amendment I propose is embodied in H. R. 6806 and provides that "Paragraph 703 of the Tariff Act of 1930 is amended by inserting after the word 'preserve' the following: '(except any of the foregoing packed in air-tight containers)'." The purpose of this amendment is to curb the importation of canned hams coming from Poland at the rate of over 1,000,000 pounds per week. This is the equivalent of the hams from 60,000 hogs per week. Paragraph 703 provides a tariff of 34 cents per pound on bacon, hams, and shoulders and other pork prepared or preserved. Canned hams are at present classified under this paragraph. By the adoption of my amendment these canned hams would be eliminated from the provisions of paragraph 703 and then paragraph 706 would automatically apply which provides a tariff of 6 cents per pound but not less than 20 percent ad valorem on meats, fresh, chilled, frozen, prepared, or preserved, not specially provided for. Canned beef comes in under the provisions of paragraph 706 in a large and increasing volume. Ham is the most expensive part of the hog and there can be no justification for such a low tariff on canned hams which is relatively a new product on the market. These imports are a serious threat to the livestock industry, not only to the hog producer but to the cattle industry with which pork competes. We have before our Agricultural Committee at the present time a general farm bill in which there is a provision for control of production on corn. I submit there can be no justification for the control of production on corn so long as this loophole is open in our tariff wall allowing unlimited imports of hams at less than a 10 percent ad valorem tariff. The following tariff schedule on certain animal products indicates the inequality of protection on pork products: Secretary Wallace in a letter to me under date of May 15 on this matter stated as follows: "It must be admitted that the rate of duty applied on canned meats under section 706 is out of line with the duty of 31⁄4 cents a pound on canned ham, in 147979-87-19 view of the fact that canned ham is a higher valued product. From this point of view there is a justification for an amendment to paragraph 703 such as you propose. While hogs are selling at a fair price, the producers have been losing money because of the high feed cost. It is the future hog market that must be protected. The following table shows imports of hams from 12 nations into New York City, which averaged more than a million pounds for each of the 4 weeks of March: Usually live hogs are from 50 cents to $1 per hundred higher in the East than they are in the Corn Belt. This year they are actually lower in the East for on March 15 the average price paid to farmers in Nebraska was $9.40 per hundred pounds while the average price paid to farmers in North Carolina was $9.20. In the year 1936 the North Carolina price averaged 40 cents above those in Nebraska and in the year 1935 they averaged 50 cents higher. Thus we see the present influence of these imports. In 1936 over 75 percent of the canned hams exported from Poland came to the United States. Poland has for several years used various means of subsidizing the exports of surplus hams and rye. The ingenious method used would make it difficult to invoke the law providing for countervailing duties for the amount of the subsidy. To safeguard the domestic livestock industry, I hope you will embody this amendment in the bill you have now under consideration providing for certain administrative changes in the Tariff Act of 1930. INDEX Statements of- Bahr, Henry, Washington, D. C., representing the National Lumber Page Barnes, Albert McC., New York, N. Y. 284 164, 175, 178 Bevans, James W., 45 East 17th Street, New York, N. Y., representing 230 191 172 185 Coffee, Hon. Harry B., a Representative in Congress from the State of 287 Cohn, Louis Marbe, 15 West Thirty-seventh Street, New York N. Y., 233 Collins, William H., representing the Waltham Watch Co., Waltham, 223 Dowsing, John E., 535 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y., representing 143 Fawcett, Charles J., general manager, National Wool Marketing Cor- 256 Fisher, Mitchell Salem, 30 Pine Street, New York, N. Y., representing 260 Frank, Eli, Jr., Baltimore, Md., representing the National Customs 180 Kendig, C. M., treasurer, Hamilton Watch Co., Lancaster, Pa Kraemer, Frederick L., 24 State Street, New York, N. Y., representing Lerch, John G., 25 Broadway, New York, N. Y., representing the 282 185 217, 221 206 Lockett, Joseph F., Boston, Mass., on behalf of the Institute of Carpet 277 Loomis, A. M., Washington, D. C., representing the National Dairy 279 Lourie, Harry L., Washington, D. C., representing the National 239 Marshall, F. R., Salt Lake City, Utah, representing the National Wool 247 Mead, Hon. James M., a Representative in Congress from the State of 275 National Lumber Manufacturers Association__ 178 Oliver, Hon. James C., a Representative in Congress from the State of 269 Reading, E. J., Consolicated Lithographing Corporation of New York, 228 Sherrill, Clarence O., president, American Retail Federation. ment. Young, Harold R., Washington, D. C., representing the National 246 39, 57, 71, 85, 95, 119 159 American Tariff League, 25 Broadway, New York, N. Y.. Bahr, Henry, on behalf of the National Lumber Manufacturers' 211 178 Boyd, Charles E., on behalf of the Detroit Retail Merchants Asso- 172 Cohn, Louis Marbe, Wool-Felt Hat Body Importers. 237 277 Lourie, Harry L., on behalf of the National Association of Alcoholic 243 National Council of Importers and Traders, 45 East Seventeenth 196 New York Customs Brokers' Asssciation, 24 State Street, New York, 221 Letters from- Mead, Hon. James M., a Representative in Congress from the State 275 Oliver, Hon. James C., a Representative in Congress from the State 274 O |