Amount of output (twenty-two double turns, at 75 tons, equals 1,650 tons): $3.63 $1.45 .25 1.20 4.83 One hundred and eight tons scale and cinder per month, worth $4 per ton, equals, on monthly production of 1,650 tons, 25 cents. Here is an allowance of 5 per cent. for waste. In addition to that, when I say 5 per cent. for waste, those figures are substantially taken from experience, and agree with foreign manufacturers. That statement shows the amount that remained after rolling. So it is a small matter to figure up the cost of rods. These gentlemen have stated that a rod mill is worth about $150,000, what the ground is worth, what wear and tear is, etc.; added to the cost of labor and you have the cost of rolling rods. The value of the plant, and all such things as that can be figured in a separate schedule. Mr. MOEN. Is the expense for doing business included? Mr. BELMER. That is not included in the statement. I want to say a little about the selling price of wire and about these men offering to sell rods. They are all willing to sell rods at a price that nobody can afford to pay for them, and use them, and sell their product in compe-. tition with them. I don't know who has any rods to sell. This gentleman from Joliet is not prepared to sell any before next September. They never have any rods to sell, as far as I can find out, for less money than foreign rods cost. The Cleveland Rolling Mill Company is selling No. 9 wire at 24 cents a pound. Making an allowance for freight of 15 cents a hundred, and 2 per cent. off for cash, and figures about $2.05 a hundred, don't it? The rods from the Cleveland rolling mill cost us to-day $1.95 a hundred, and other sizes in the same proportion, up to No. 12. I do not know that it is any credit to us, but we can not buy rods and produce wire and sell it in competition with these other men. If any of you gentlemen have any rods to sell at a figure that we can afford to pay for them and use them alongside of foreign rods, we will be happy to correspond with you. Senator ALDRICH. You have no practical knowledge about this matter? Mr. BELMER. None, except this affidavit. Senator BECK. The man who owns his coal bank, the man who owns his iron bank, and the man who owns all these necessaries to make his rods, and then makes his wires too, certainly must, in the division of profits that Mr. Oliver has very well said always exists, have the advantage, if he is a big dealer, over the man who buys his material with which to make rods. You can not do away with that by any legislation. Mr. BELMER. Well, grant that all these men have some advantage, and yet at the same time in every other branch of business there is so much competition that the margins are small. These men all sell the finished product in competition with us. Senator ALDRICH. Do you want us to force them out of that by legis lation in some way? How do you expect us to do it? Mr. BELMER. We ask to get our raw material at a price that will cover the excess of labor in this country over and above the price in Germany. We are willing that the rod men in this country shall have protection enough to help them, but we do not want them to have such profit as to run us out. Mr. OLIVER. I would like to ask any of the gentlemen on the other side to state whether what I have said about the foreign combination of rod manufacturers is not true. Mr. WOLFF. I suppose I am as well informed as any one on that subject. They have made a syndicate. Mr. OLIVER. This is all. Mr. WOLFF. And they are getting about 5 to 6 shillings more for their rods than before. Mr. OLIVER. There is a combination? Mr. WOLFF. Yes, sir. But it is only a pretense on the other side that duty is wanted to protect them against speculators like Naylor; that is what they say, because they have been squeezing the blood out of them by buying up all the rods at a certain price. Senator ALDRICH. Is there any combination among the wire drawers? Mr. WOLFF. On the other side? Senator ALDRICH. No; here. Mr. WOLFF. No; not that I know of. I do not know of any at all nowadays. There may be some tacit understanding, perhaps, but not amongst the class that I belong to. There may be on the other side. Mr. STIRLING. The question having been raised as to whether there is a combination of wire producers here, I would like to put on record the fact that within the last ten days I have been endeavoring to sell rods of the Joliet Steel Company, having ascertained that it was safe to do so, knowing about when we would start, and I have found the Hartman Steel Company or the Braddock Company, I am not certain which, and foreign rods all competing with me and quoted against me; but I have sold rods to three parties in Joliet at three different prices according to the competition I had to meet. I am a seller in the market to-day, and I am ready to sell. Mr. MOEN. Don't you want some protection? Mr. STIRLING. No, sir. Mr. GATES. I am interested in the Saint Louis wire mills. We are making rods to day, and selling them. We have been sellers on the open market of our Braddock rod and importers of foreign rods for the Saint Louis mills. Senator BECK. What is the bulk of your wire-barbed wire mostly? Mr. GATES. Yes, sir; it is mostly barbed wire and wire nails. We import to Saint Louis simply because we can get a freight rate to New Orleans and then up the river to Saint Louis at profitable rates. Mr. STIRLING. If we had not a home market where we are, we could not have a rod mill at work to-day. THURSDAY, June 14, 1888. SCHEDULE J.-FLAX AND HEMP. The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, we are ready to hear you on Schedule J, or any part of that schedule which is in regard to hemp, jute, and flax goods. STATEMENT OF ALFRED R. TURNER, Jr. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Turner, you may please state your residence,. occupation, etc. Mr. TURNER. I am president of the Flax and Hemp Spinners and Growers' Association; residence, Boston; I am also a member of the firm of Ross, Turner & Co., dealers and manufacturers in flax, threads, and twines, Boston. The CHAIRMAN. I suppose you have looked into the proposed changes in what is known as the Mills bill, in this schedule. Mr. TURNER. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Have you prepared a statement to submit to the committee? Mr. TURNER. I have prepared a general statement. The CHAIRMAN. Read it, please. Mr. TURNER. The members of our association are all interested in the advancement of manufacturing of flax aud hemp or the production of these fibers. The industry has grown slowly until we now estimate that $8,000,000 is invested in manufacturing and over 6,000 workers are employed. This estimate does not, however, include the investment in the manufacturing of sisal, manilla, or jute. We are striving to make progress as American manufacturers even under the present tariff, and while paying two or three times the average wages paid throughout Europe, the least we can ask is that the present duties shall be maintained. On raw flax we pay a duty on the imported of $20 per ton, averaging 9.05 ad valorem, and while the manufacturers would be benefited to a slight extent, and while the removing of this duty would stimulatesome additional manufacturing, provided the present duties on manufactured goods were maintained, yet the majority of the manufacturers are favorable to having the duty remain, to stimulate and aid the raising of flax in the United States. At present we are too much dependent on foreign nations for our supply of flax and hemp, and we may some time find ourselves in the position of some American linen spinners, who in 1854-55 were obliged to close their works by the failure to receive a supply of flax in consequence of the Crimean war. More attention is now being paid to the getting out of good flax fiber than has been done for many years. Hemp pays a duty of $25 per ton or an average of 16.59 ad valorem. The reduction of the duty on hemp would curtail the raising of American hemp. The amount of hemp raised last year was about 7,000 tons, and would undoubtedly have amounted to 10,000 tons, the same as the crop of the previous year, but for the reduced yield on account of the drought. Mr. Turner here submitted the following paper: [Flax and Hemp Spinners and Growers' Association-1887.] Duty-paying imports of the United States, home consumption, for the year ending June 30, 1887. Amounts of additional and discriminating duties, also the values of all merchandise withdrawn from warehouse on which the duty has been remitted, have been excluded from the computation of the average ad valorem rate. |