1889 .. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 965 r York as to the pressing importance of the improvement of the Harlem which fill a\ box 21\ by lf'!r by 1-r\ feet. It bas not been practicable to copy these · • vil C k t t th C · tte R' exhibits owing to the demands made upon the time of the clerks by the regular Hrver and Spuyten Duy ree. , e C.- 0 e ommi eon IVers business of the Department. To furnish such copies will require the services of and Harbors. . a competent clerk at least twelve months. I will, if desired, have copies made By .Mr. FINLEY: Petition of L. J. Newton and other citizens of of said exbi?i~s for the use of the Senate, butifr~quiredatanea.rlierperiod than Catey . Couny, t· Kentu. ck y, as. k mgan· ap_propriation to build certain additwnalclencalforce.that. s.tated, It I~ respectfully suggested that proVISIOn be made for the necessary bridges across Green River-to the Committee on Commerce. Respectfully, yours, By Mr. HAYES: Two petitions of citizens of Datoka for admission, C. S, F.A.IRCHILD, Secretary. but protesting against the Sioux Falls constitution-to the Committee Hon. JonN J.lNGALLS, on the Territories. · President pro tempore United States Senate. R.Y :U.r. LEE (by request): Petition of Jane F. White, and of the heirs The PRESIDENT pro tempore. , The resolution to which this is the of \Valker Vaughn, of Culpeper County, Virginia, for reference of reply was offered by the Senator from Massachusetts [:M:.r. HoAR], and their clailllS to the Court of Claims-to the Committee on War Claims. the communication, with the accompanying papers, will lie on the table - B.v M:r. UcCOMAa: Petition of Henry Miller, executor, for reference until be comes in, if there be no objection. of his claim to the Court of Claims, and of Henry A. Poffenberger, of Mr. HALE. What is it that accompanies the letter? Washington County, Maryland, for reference of his claim to the Court of The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The papers are contained in the pack Claims-to the Committee on War Claims. age now lying on the Secretary's desk. By l\Ir. PARKER: Petition of the New York Dairymen's Associa Mr. IIALE. That is the manuscript report, but not the copy of the tion, and of C. S. Griggs and others, in favor of branding skim cheese testimony upon wl;licb the report is based, as I understand. to the Committee on Agriculture. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair bas not ·examined the ac By .M:r. REED: Petition of farmers of North Berwick, .Me., for pro companying papers. The Secretary will read the part of the communi tection to agriculture-to the Committee on Agriculture. cation that refers to the papers and accompanying exhibits. By Mr. SPOONER (by req nest): Petition of Sarah J. Martin, widow The Chief Clerk read the portion of the communication referred to. of Samuel Martin, Company H, Sixty-fourth Tilinois Volunteers, for ALASKA SEAL AND FUR COMPANY. arrears of pension-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. By :Mr. STAHLNECKER: Resolution of the Common Council of · The PRESIDENT pro tempore laid before the Senate a communication New .York City, urging the necessity oflarge appropriation for the im from the Secretary of the Interior, transmitting a report from the gov provement of Harlem River and Spuyten Duyvil Creek-to the Com ernor of Alaska relating to certain operations of the Alaska Seal and mittee on Rivers and Harbor~. Fur Company, submitted by him in pursuance of section 5 of the act By Mr. STEELE: Petition and letters of citizens of Washington Ter of :May 17, 1884; which, with the accompanying papers, was ordered ritory, asking that a pension be granted to 1\Iary Ellen Fitzgerald-to to lie on the table and be printed. the Committee on Invalid Pensioris. PETITIOXS AND ME:U:ORIALS. The PRESIDENT pro tempore presented a joint resolution of the Leg The following petitions against the passage of the international cony islative Assembly of the Territory of Dakota, favoring t~e division of right bill were received and severally referred to the Committee-on that Territory and the admission of each portion into the Union as a l'atents: separate State; which was referred to the Committee on Territories, By Mr. DORSEY: Of citizens of Nebraska. and ordered to be printed. By Mr. HOWARD: Of citizens of New Albany and Jeffersonville, Ind. He also presented resolutions adopted by the Denver (Colo.) Cham By Mr. RICE: Of 3 publishers of Delano, Minn. ber of Corpmerce, ·favoring an appropriation for the construction of a deep-water harbor on the coast of the Gulf_of :Mexico, in Texas; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce. SENATE. He also presented the petition of Miss Frances E. Willard and the other· officers of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, SATURDAY, Jamtary 19, 1889. representing 150,000 members, praying for prohibition in the District The Senate met at 11 o'clock a. m. of Columbia; which was referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia. Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. J. G. BUTLER, D. D. The Journal of yesterday's proceedings was read and approved. He also presented the petition of J. 1.!. Dalzell, late a private in the One hundred ~d sixteenth Ohio Infantl:y, praying to be reimbursed CREDENTIALS. for commutation of rations alleged to be due him; which was referred Mr. DAWES presented the credentials of GEORGE FRISDIE HOAR, to the Committee on Military Affairs. chosen by the LegislatUre of MassachUsetts a Senator from that State .1\Ir. TELLER. I have a petition from the Denver (Colo.) Chamber for the terni of six years commencing on the 4 tb of :March 1889 · w bich of Commerce like unto the one just presented by the· President of the were read, and ordered to be filed. . ' ' Senate, but I do not think it worth while to present it, inasmuch as The, PRESIDE~T pro tempore. The Chair lays before the Senate a one has already been presented. . ~mm~nicatio? signed by the presiding officers of the senate and house 1\Ir. HARRIS presented a petition of 572 citizens of Tennessee, pray of rep~esentatives of the Legislature of the State of Delaware, which ing for the enactment of a Sunday-rest law; which was referred to the will be read. Committee on Education and Labor. The Chief Qlerk read as follows: :Mr. DANIEL presented a petition. of 1,222 citizens of Virginia, pray .STATE OF DELAWARE, ss: ing for the enaetment of a Sunday-rest law; which was referred to the Be it known that the Legislature of the ~tate of Delaware did, on the 16th day Committee on Education and Labor. of January, in the year of our Lord 1!!89, at an election in due manner held, ac Mr. BLACKBURN presented a petition of the Southern Methodist cording to the form of the act of Congress in such case made and provided. elect Anthony Higgins to be a Senator from said State in the Senate of the United Church of Hardin, Ky., and a petition of the citizens of Louisville, Ky., States for the con!IUtutfonai term to commence on the 4th day of :1\:larch next. praying for the enactment of a Sunday-rest law; which were referred Given under our hands the 16th day of January, A. D. 1889. to the Committee on Education and Labor. B~~AIAH L. LEWIS, Speaker of £he Senate. Mr. PALMER presented the petition of Catharine Fish Stebbins, Attest: praying the l'emoval of her political disabilities; which was referred to ABRAM VANDEGRIFT, Clerk of the Senate. the Committee on the Judiciary. JOHN H. HOFFECKER, REPORTS OF COMMITTEES. Speake1· of the 'House of .Representatives. WILLIAM A. GREEN, 1\Ir. CHACE, from the Committee on the District of Columbia, to Clerk of the Douse of .RepresentaHves. whom was referred the bill (H. R. 11785)to authorize tlie commission Mr. EDMUNDS. The chairman of the Committee on Privileges and ers of. the District of Columbia to permit the temporary occupation and Elections is not present. I move to refer that communication to that crossing of certain streets in the city of Washington and District of committee. It is evidently not in conformity with the requirements Columbia by the tracks of the Baltimol'e and Ohio Railroad Company, to meet the demands of increased travel incident to the inaugural cere of t~e laws of the United States. They had better consider it. monies on the 4th of March, 1889, reported it without amendment. The PRESIDENT pro te~ore. The communication will he referred to the Committee on Privileges and Elections and printed. He also, from the same committee, whom was referred the bill w (S. 3709) to authorize the commissioners of the District of Columbia to DUTIES ON SUGAR. permit the temporary occupation and crossing of certain streets of the . T~e P~E~IDENT pro tempore laid before the Senate the following city of Washington and·District of Columbia by the tracks of the Bal communicatwn from the Secretary oftheTreasury; which was read: timore and Ohio Railroad Company, to meet the demands of increased
TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF TITE SECRETARY · travel incident to the. inausrnral0 ceremonies of March 4, 1889, reported Washington, D. C., January18, i889. adversely thereon, and the bill was postponed indefinitely. · AIR: As directe~ by Senate resolntion dat~d the 8th instant, I have the honor DILLS INTRODUCED. to transmit h~rew1th ~copy oftbe manuscript report. of frauds in sugar at New ~ork and PhJladelphta, dated Nove!Dber 1,1887, which _was submitted by sp{ Mr. BROWN introduced a bill (S. 3845) to provide for the establish ctal employe F. Aubrey Byrne, of this Department. Th1s report is the same as that referred to in the resolution of the Senate dated March 1.1888, and its copy ment of ali~ht-house near th.e entrance to St. Catharine's Sound, State ing llas progressed as rapidly as the current work of the office having charge of Georgia; which was read twice by its title. thereof would permit. 'l'he report was accompanied by numerous exhibits', lrir. BROWN. I desire to have read and referred with the bill ~ 966 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENA'rE. J.ANUARY 19, ,
• -1 I communication from R. D. Evans, commander United States Navy, A bill (H. R. 4763) to grant a pension to Joseph Van Arsdel; naval secretary. A bill (II. R. 6532) to pension Thomas Davey; The PRESIDENT p1·o tempore. It will be read and referred with A bill (H. U. 6755) granting a pension to Mary Jane Harris; the accompanying papers, if there be no objection, to the Committee A bill (H. R. 7633) granting a pension to Capt. Michael Piggott; on Commerce. . A bill (H. R. 7858) granting a pension to Jennie Harris; The Chief Clerk read as follows: A bill (H. R. 9946) granting a pension to Enoch B. Vice; TREASURY DEPARTliiXNT, OFFICE OF THE LIGHT-HOUSE BOARD, A bill (H. R. 10025) for the relief of James T. Teeple; Washington, January 18; 1889. A bill {H. R. 10260) to place the name of Charles A. Stockman, of Sm: In the board's estimates for the next fiscal year is the following item for Dundee, Mich., on the pension-roll; ~ important work in your State: St.. Catherine's Sound light-station, Georgia., $20,000. (See Book of Estimates, A bill (H. R. 10289) granting a pension to 1\Iiss Emily Romine; page 158.) A bill (H. R. 10448) granting a pension to Squire Walter; This bas been omitted from the sundry civil bill, and it is understood that the A bill (H. R. 10523) granting a pension to ?tlrs. Maria C. McPherson; House Committee on Appropriations intend to exclude all items not recom mended by the Committee on Commerce. A special bill should therefore be in A bill (H. R. 11052) granting a pension to Clara M. Owen; troduced for this 'YOrk, and a copy of a bill suitable for the purpose is herewith A bill (H. R. 11089) granting a pension to Elizabeth Harper; inclosed. The board is prepared to furnish information as to its importance and A bill (H. R. 11177) granting a pE-nsion_to Christian Sanders; ~~~ . Respectfully, yours, A bill (H. R. 11316) grauting a pension to Charlotte Ayers; R. D. EVANS, A bill (H. R. 11459) granting a pension to Erasmus W . .Jones; Commander United States Navy, 1'tava£ Secretary. A bill (H. R. 11578) to increase the pension of Rowland Ward; Hon. J. E. BROWN, • United States Sen~, Washington, D. C. A bill (H. R. 11617) granting a pension to Mary Thompson; :Mr. BROWN. I ask that the communication be referred with the A bill (H. R. 11629) granting a pension to Elizabeth Clover; bill to the Committee on Appropriations. A bill (H. R. 11711) granting a pension to Nona .J. Tillery, minor The motion was agreed to. child ofWyatte L. Tillery; 1\
l.Ir. BROWN. The Senator also passed over the question of the duty abroad 48 cents a dozen, the present duty being always 50 per cent. on rice. ad valorem, the Senate substitute increases the duty from 48 per cent. Mr. ALLISON. We can take tbat up subsequently. to 330 per cent. The present amendment puts it at 75 per cent. The PRESIDING OFFICER. - The amendment of tne Senator from Upon knives costing 61 cents a dozen abroad the Senate substitute Iowa ,vm be read. increases the duty to 270 per cent. and the present amendment puts it · The CHIEF CLERK. On page 116 it is proposed to strike out para- at 109 per cent. graph 173 and insert in lieu thereof the following: Mr. ALDRICH. What is that? 173. Pen-knivesorpooket-knivesofallkinds,orpartsthereof,whollyorpartly Mr. VEST. Upon three-bladed knives costing 61 cents a dozen manufactured, valued at not more than 50 cents per dozen, 12 cents per dozen; abroad, about 5 cents a piece. I have them here, and will come to an valued ut more than 50 cents per dozen and not exceeding$2per dozen, 86 cents per dozen; valued at more than S2 per dozen, 60 cents pel' dozen; and in addi- object-lesson in a few minutes. Upon knives costing 73 cents a dozen tlon thereto on all the above, 50 per cent. ad valorem. Razors and razor-blades, or about 6 cents apiece the Senate substitute increases the duty to 230 finished or untinisbed, valued at not more than $4 per dozen , Sl per dozen; val- per cent. ad valorem, and the present amendment increases it to 99 per ued at more than $1 per dozen, Sl.25 per dozen; and in addition thereto on all the above razors and razor-blades, 30 per cent. ad valorem. · cent., or an increase of 49 per cent. over the J>resent law. Mr. VEST. That is to some oxtentanimprovementupon thesubsti- I will put all these tables in the REOORD. I have given the lowest-. tute as offered by the Finance Committee, and yet it is a very large in- priced three-blade knives which the poor people of the country use crease upon the existing law and the duties proposed by the House bill. and I come to those which cost $6 a dozen, the highest price. The duty The increase under the amendment proposed by the Finance Commit- under the substitute was 50 -per cent., no increase over the existing tee is upon those articles of cutlery and pocket-knives which are most law, and under tli.e amendment it is 60 per cent., an increase of 10 per largely consumed in the United States, and not upon the higher-priced cent. articles of pocket-knives, but upon those used by the common people When we come to two-blade pocket-knives, the lowest cost abroad is of the country, and which are articles not of luxury but of absolute 37 cents a dozen, 3 cents and a fraction apiece. The present duty· necessity. I uo not propose to engage any more in this discussion in any always being 50 per cent., the Senate substitute increased -the duty to generalities or abstractions. We have had too much of that. For the 294 per cent. ad valorem, and the Senate amendment makes it 80 per balance of this debate, speaking for myself, I propose to confine myself cent. to pmctical mattera and to items of the bill until we have finished it, Upon two-blade knives costing 61 cents, a little over 5 cents apiece, and I sincerely hope that other Senators will do the same, instead of the ioreign cost, the present duty always being 50 per cent. ad valorem, having political dissertations on Northern and Southern outrages and the Senate substitute made it 133 per cent.., and theamendment makes general economic observations which are about as old as this Capit-ol. it 109 per cent. Upon the highest-priced two-blade knife, which costs Mr. ALLISON. I fully concur in the sentiments so well uttered by abroad $1.95 a 'dozen, the Senate substitute made it 76 per cent. ad the Senator from Missouri. valorem, an increase of 26 per cent., and the amendment makes it 68 Mr. VEST. I am glad to have the concurrence of my friend from per cent., or an increase of 18 per cent. over the existing law. Iowa, because I think we have all suffered alike. Now we come to the commonest and cheapest knives; used by chil- Now, Mr. Presideut, what is the practical operation of this amend- dren and by the poorest persons in the country, one-blade pocket- ment? I have iu my band a statement by an expert, givi6g the ad knives. · valorem · ~ates under the present law, under the Senate substitute, and Mr. GEORGE. Barlow knives. under this amendment which is the particular matter under discussion. Mr. VEST. No, my friend from :T!iissi.ssippi is mistaken; they are I will give the foreign cost per dozen upon four-bladed knives which not as good as Barlows . The Barlow knif~ is an excellent knife, the is $1.22. The present duty is 50 per cent. ad valorem, and th~ Senate best cheap knife ever manufactured, llJld these knives are not at all substitute increases that to 181 per cent. ad valorem. · equal to the Barlow knife. Upon knives costing 18 cents a dozen, on M:r. ALDRICH. Is the Senator referring now to the bill as origi- which the present duty is 50 per cent., the Senate substitute increased nally reported? the ad valorem to 302 per cent., and the amendment puts it at 117 per Mr. VEST. As a matter of course, I am talking about the bill and cent. That is, upon a knife that costs 1~ cents apiece abroad the duty this amendment under discussion. I will repeat that in the analysis under this amendment would be 117 per cent. which I have in my hand I am giving the foreign cost of the different Now, the highest-priced one-blade knife that is made abroad is $1 a classifications of pocket cutlery, then the ad valorem duty under the dozen, and the duty under the substitute is 75 per cent., and under proposed Senate substitute, and then the nd valorem duty under the the amendment is 86 per cent.; so that on the knife costing a cent and amendment to the Senate substitute. I s;pppose that makes it plain. a half the increase of duty under the amendment is from 50 to 117 per On pen:-knives, which cost abroad $1.22 a dozen, and upon which the cent., while on the best qua1ity of one-blade knife, which costs $1 a present duty is 50 per cent. ad valorem, tlie Senate substitute increases dozen, the duty is only increased from 75 to 86 per cent., which would the duty to 181 per cent., and the Senate amendment increases it to 80 be only 11 per cent. increase upon the knife which the man in moderate per cent•. ad valo~em, an increase of 30 per cent. over the existing law. circumstances, not to call him a rich man, would ordinarily purchase. Upon kniVes costing $1.34 a dozen, and upon which the duty is 50 per Mr. President, hare are those knives. [Exhibiting.] Ifany Senator cent. ad _valorem-! speak now of four-bladed knives-the Senate ~:~ub- feels any interest in the matter, be can examine them. Here is the com· stitute increases it to 175 per cent. ad valorem, and the present amend- monest knife, that is made at 17 cents a dozen, the foreign cost, not quite ment to 77 per cent. ad valorem. a ~nt and a half a piece. The present duty is 50 per cent. j the Sen- On four-bladed knives costing $1.46 per dozen, the present duty of ate substitute makes the duty 300 per cent., and the amendment makes course on all these being 50 per cent., the substitute increases it to 162 it 120 per cent. That is on this knife. [Exhibiting.] Here is another . per cent. and the Senate amendment to 75 per cent.. On the next clas- · common knife, costing 93 cents a dozen; the-present duty is 50 per centr, sificntion of $1.58 cost per dozen the substitute fixes the duty at 157 the Senate bill puts it at 186 per cent., and the amendment at 88 per per cent., the present amendment 73 per cent., and so on down. I cent. Upon the highest-priced knife, costing $21.90 a dozen abroad, will not weary myself and the Senate by reading all the items. -. the present duty is 50 per cent., the Senate bill made it 35 per -cent., I com.e now to the average knife, at $2.63 per dozen, upon which the and the amendment puts it at 52.8 percent. Here are all these differ Senate substitute puts a duty of 100 per cent. ad valorem and the ent grades, showing what I assert to be the absolute truth, that upon amendment 73 per cent. On those costing $2.92 a dozen the Senate the lower class of cutlery, which constitutes 60 per cent. of the im.. substitute is 94 per cent. and the pre.sent amendment 70 per cent., portations into the United States, both the substitute and the amend· until we get down to knives at $12 a dozen, and now mark the differ- ment have increased the duty, whilst they have not increased it by any ence. Upon knives costing $12 a dozen the Senate substitute puts a means in the same proportion as to the higher-priced cutlery. duty of 42 per cent. ad valorem, and the amendment puts a dn'ty of ?t!r. ALLISON. I wish the Senator would enlarge his illustration 55 per cent. ad valorem, the difference in the increase between the aud explanation a little by showing the price of those knives now in existing lfl.W and the amendment being only 5 per cent. this country. · Upon knives costing $16 a dozen, upon which the present duty of .Mr. ALDRICH. Both at wholesale and at retail? course is 50 per cent., the substitute puts a duty of 36 per cent. ad Mr. ALLISON. Those imported, so as to give a little indication of valC!rem, and the present amendment puts a duty of 54 per cent., or the profits of the importers. · &J?- mcreas~ only of 4 per cent. over the existing law. Upon the M:r. VEST. I havejustcome intothe Senate and·have·not arranged highest-pnced knives, which cost $86 a dozen, the present duty is 50 my papers; but in the testimony which was taken by the-Senator from per cent., the Senate substitute puts on them a duty of only 27~ per ~orth Carolina [.Mr. VANCE] and myselfwbichl thought! had before cent. ad valo.rem, and the present amendment puts a duty of 51 per me, the prices in this country are stated by the witnesses; but the point cent., or an increase of_only 1 per t--ent. over the existing law. to which I call attention is that the increase of duty is put upon the So that upon the k~tfe for the poor man which costs $1.22 or $1.34 knives that are used by the common people of the country and which or $1.46 a dozen the mcr~'tSe of dut.r .is from 25 to 30 per cent. ad enter most largely into consumption. - valorem, and upon t~e kmfe for tho ncb man which is an absolute Mr. ALLISON. If the Senator would go on and explain how the ~rticle ofluxury, which costs ahroad $86 a dozen, the incrense of duty' amendment will increase the cost to the consumers of the country by lS 1 per cent., and so on thro11gh all thes? schednl~am~nifestinjustic<" · showing what price we pay now for th~se knives, and who receives the to the poorer classes of the country bemg committed m every one of profit on them I should like to bear him do it. these items with a system and regularity and pertinacity which could M:r. VEST. ' There is no doubt that the cutlery interests of the not have come from accident. - United States nre not in so dilapidated a condition as to require this Now, we will take three-blaue knives, and upon those which cost enormous increase of duties unless you propose to exclude all foreign 968 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 19,1 ------.------1 competition. That will be the result of the adoption of this amend Mr. VANCE. Yes, sir; men of high charader, who were both im- ment as stated b:Y the witnesses. It is true they are importers, but porters and mannfactnrers of cutlery, whose names are given: : they are American citizens, and are as much entitled to an equal and Senator VANCE, You do not impose them just administration of the law as any other class of the American peo ple, and they have testified with an unbroken testimony that the op This was table cutlery- eration of this substitute and of the amendment will be to exclude all on anybody as American-made knives? foreign competition. If Senators want to do that, let them avow it; Mr. SAXTON, No sir. i Senator VANCE. You do not deny the fact that they are made in Germany? i let us know it distinctly and emphatically that they propose to shut M:r. SAXTON. Not at all, out the foreign article entirely from competition in this country. Senator VEST. Still, the point, then, I suppose they make is that there is noth- ~ I am frank to say my idea in regard to the matter is that of Presi in~ in these brands which shows that they are made here. For instance, not bemg an expert, if I should look at that brand I would say it was an American dent Garfield. If you impose duties let them be such as will permit knife. The brand is "H.Cromwell Criterion Cutlery." Here you have Sheffield: an honest and healthy foreign competition, not to break down and de on all your English knives. Of course, when I look at that knife lindicating] I ' stroy the American manufacture, but let the result of the whole inure know it was made in Sheffield, England. Mr. SAXTON. How would you know but that that was put on in America.? to the benefit of the consumer, and not to put around this country a Senator VEST. The question is whether it shows the make; I would not wall which excludes entirely all foreign competition. If that be the kn~ I intention, the sooner we understand iti the better. That is the case as Mr. KonN [exhibiting]. Here is one brand, Essex Cutlery Company. This is. a New York concern in Cincinnati, and this same 1\Ir. Rockwell who comes! to cutlery, and now let us look at. razors. here makes these goods for the "Essex Cutlery Company; " and that is one of Upon razors which cost abroad 72 cents a dozen, and upon which the names they complain about. On each knife you see "Sheffield, England; the duty is 50 per cent. ad valorem under the existing law, the Senate cutlers to Her Majesty." Senator VEST. That is all right. Anybody would know that that is an En- substitute-now I call the attention of the Senate to this matter glish knife. · · is 95 per cent. ad valorem, and this aruendment increases it to 190 ·Mr. Ko&N. But it is an American knife. per cent. ad valorem, an increase of nearly 100 per cent. over the sub Senator VEST. I know you sell them, but they are made abroad. Mr. KonN. No, they are American made. stitute. Upon razors costing abroad 96 cents a dozen, the duty on Mr. SAXTON. That is the poorest class of goods they make. which under the existing law is 50 per cent. ad valorem, the Senate Senator VEST. 'Vho makes these knives? substitute imposed a duty of 78 per cent. ad valorem, and this amend Mr. SAXTON. All the American manufacturers. Senator VEST. That is a clear fraud. It has the rampant lion. ment puts 154 per cent. And on razors costing $1.20adozen the Sen· Senator VANCE. Where is this knife made? ate substitute imposed an ad Yalorem duty of 68 per cent., and this Mr. KORN. It is made in Connecticut. Here is another knife made in Con· am~mdment puts it at 133 per cent. On those costing $1.44 a dozen necticut [exhibiting]. They do not put down "Cutlers to Her l\Iajesty ;" they change their label; bnt they put down "Sheffield Knife Company, Sheffield, the Senate substitute put 60 per cent. ad valorem and this amend England.'' ment puts 120 per cent. On the next grade of razors, costing abroad Senator VANCE. They would not do things of that kind in New Engla.nd? 51.68 a dozen, the Senate substitute put a duty of 55 per cent. ad va Mr. SAXTON. We never do that at all. Senator VEST. How do you know that that company does this? lorem, and this amendment puts 110 per cent. On those costing a 1\fr. KoRN. We buy them. little over $1.92 a dozen, on which the present duty is GO per cent., Senator VEST. You bought the knives from those parties? tbesubstitnteput a dnty of48 percent. and the amendment 96 percent. Mr. 'SAXTON. Certainly. So on until we reach the highest-priced razors, at $12 per dozen, and Senator VEST. That is pretty good evidence. on them the Senate substitute put a duty of only 29 per cent. and the These samples were exhibited to tbe Senator from Missouri and my amendment 60 per cent. The rich man who can pay a dollar and a bali self in the original packages in which they had been purchased from or two dollars or two dollars and a half for his razor is taxed to the ex these Connecticut manufacturers, bearing upon the package tho words, tent under the Senate substitute of 29 per cent. and under the amend "Cutlers to Her Majesty, Sheffield, England," and so on. ment of 60 per cent., but the poor man, the workingman, the darling Mr. PLATT. Mr. President--- of the Republican party, the object of their idolatrous worship, if he Mr. BLAIR. M:ay I ask the Senator if the witness is a party who wants to buy a cheap razor that costs abroad 6 cents apiece, is made to assists in the perpetration of the fraud? pay 190 per cent. ad valorem, and that is the way we discriminate in Mr. VANCE. No, sir. favor of the poor people of this country as against the rich and luxu Mr. BLAIR. I understood the Senator to say that the party buys rious. these knives with the foreign stamp for the purpose of selling them If our friends propose by the imposition of these duties to hermeti again. · cally seal the Americanmarketagainstallforeigncompetition, let them Mr. VANCE. The party buys them from the Connecticut manu- say so, for that is the result of this amendment, both as to razors and facturers with this stamp upon them. . cutlery. There should be no disguise of that fact, because it is most Mr. BLAIR. What does he purchase them for? unquestionably and absolutely true. Mr. VANCE. He purchases them for sale. Mr. President, there is another statement made by the manufact Mr. BLAIR. Then he assists in perpetrating the fraud. urers to the effect that they want this duty so as to protect them against M:r. VANCE. No, sir; he buys the articles which are offered to him, fraud. They stated in their testimony before the Finance Committee but he says he does not sell them as foreign cutlery. that cheap German goods such as I have produced here, these low Mr. BLAIR. Notwithstanding the stamp. priced knives and razorst are manufactured in Germany and then put Mr. VANCE. He repudiates that idea. under the brands of American makers and retailed in the American Mr. PLATT. Mr. President- market as being either of American manufacture or in some instances The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from North Carolina with the English brand-the Sheffield brand-and then sold as English yield to the Senator from Connecticut? goods. I assert that the testimony shows, which I will produce in a Mr. VANCE. I am occupying the floor by the courtesy of the Sena few moments, that the American manufacturers systematically and tor from Missouri. If he will yield I have no o~jection. from year to year take forei~ brands and put them upon their goods The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri is entitled and retail them to the American consumer as English cutlery. I will to the floor. produce the identical articles here and show the knives which are made Mr. PLATT. I simply desire to say about this testimony that it is in this country, put under the English bran1ls and then retailed as not testimony taken before the committee. These same parties testified made in England, when they never saw England, and never went out before the committee and did not make these statements. Mr. Rock of the limits of the United States. well was present when they testified before the committee, and I think Mr. PLUMB. Is that because of the fact that the English goods they did not make these statements before the committee. are better, or because of the fact that they haYe that reputation, or I desire to say, with regard to the statement of Mr. Korn, that Mr. both? Rockwell, whomakesknives, asitissaid, fortheEssexCutleryCompany, Mr. VEST. The witnesses state that it is principally because they put on them ''Sheffield, Enp;land, Cutlers to Her Majesty," I under have the reputation. There are persons who think they can not get a stand that that is not trne, and I am so informed by the best authority. good pocket-knife unless it is made by Rodgers or Wostenholm. I do not say that there was not a knife exhibited there which had ~fr. VANCE. If the Senator from :Missouri will permit me, I have "Sheffield, England, Cutlers to Her Majesty" upon it, but that that the testimony here to which be refers. knife was made by 1\Ir. Rockwell or made in Connecticut I believe is . Mr. VEST. I have it myself. not true. It is trne that on table-knives at one time, five or six years Mr. ALLISON. What is the Senator reading from? ago, for a short time, one cutlery-manufacturing establishment, at the .Mr. VANCE. I am reading from the testimony taken before the request of dealers, put on the knives "Sheffield Knife Company, Enp; Senator from :Missouri [Mr. VEST] and myself by a delegation of the land;" but that was at least. six years ago, was only done for a short American Hardware Association. period, and has been entirely discontinued. ! Mr. ALLISON. I was a little curious to know. I tried to find it So all of this parade is made either about a fact which does not exist,': in our volume of testimony, but could not find it. so far as Connecticut manufacturers are concerned, or out of an instance' Mr. VANCE. It was not taken before the subcommittee of the Com of that name having been put on table-knives at the request of dealers mittee on Finance; it was taken before a self-constituted committee for a short time. It was wrong, and is wrong. , composed of myself and the Senator from Missouri, which we offer for Mr: VEST. I do not know what the Senator from Connecticut the consideration of the jury for what it is worth. means by "parade." I would hardly attach the word "parade" to : Mr. HARRIS. It is, I suppose, the testimony of men experienced the production of so ordinary an article as a penknife. We have the and expert in this pa~ticular trade. identical knives here, and we give the testimony for what it is worth. 1889. OONGR:ESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 969
Mr. PLATT. If the Senator will permit me, I did not refer to any Company" manufacturing knives in the Unite.d. St.ates, ~d. this as. thing that has been said on the other side as a parade. I referred to sociation of manufa-cturers does not manufa~tureoy 1tself; 1t lS one of this testimoney which these importers gave, as read by the Senator the associations which is common in business. It is not a trust or from North Carolina. anything of the sort, but it is an association of manufacturers. ~Ir. VEST. When I left the discnssion I was alluding to the charge ~fr. VEST. Here is the name that is given in the testimony: made by the maimfacturers before the Finance Committee that the Senator VANCE. Who did that? · English brand or trade-mark was used for the purpose of imposing the . Mr. Kon~. TWs American Association. Senator VEST. Where is that factory? cheap German-made pocket-knives upon the American public, or that 1\Ir. SAXTON. At Bridgeport, Conn. It is closed up now. They have de the American trade-mark was used upon theso cheap imported goods stroyed it. for the·same purpose. 'This is denied; but in the testimony from which It is the American Association. the Senator from North Carolina has read the statement is made that ~Ir. PLATT. That is a manufactory which some importers, Messrs. pocket-cutlery and table-cutlery both are made in this country and Wiebusch & Co., undertook to establish in the United States in com placed under the British trade-mark for the purpose of being sold to petition with American manufacturers and found that they could not the American public, and that this is done by the ~erican Cutlery carry it on. Company, and that is the company that was most conspicuous in the Mr. VANCE. If the Senator from l\!issouri will permit me, in the testimony before the Finance Committee in making this charge of fraud statement which was taken before the committee, and therefore must against the importers. be valid, this same gentleman, Mr. Rockwell, stated that foreigners Mr. PLATT. Wh~\t company? the Germans especially ha'Vebeen despicable enough to place~erican names Mr. VEST. The American Cutlery Company. upon their wares, which of itself is ample evidence that Amer1can. manufact urers, however s.lender thei~ profits, have carefully guarded Amencan names Mr. PLATT. I know of no such company in the United States. and reputation for good quahty. Mr. V .ANCE. The Essex Cutlery Company. That is the same gentleman who is interested in this Essex Cutlery :Mr. VEST. There was another called the American Cutlery Com Association, who sold his goods under the name of ''Sheffield, England, pany. cutlers to Her ~fajesty." Mr. ALDRICH. Is ther~ any such thing as the Essex Cutlery Com ~Ir. PLATT. I do not know how many times it is necessary for me pany? to say that that is not true. Whatever Mr. Korn may have testified Mr. PLATT. There is no American Cutlery Company and there is to, I think I can state with absolute certainty that the gentleman re no Essex Cutlery Company manufacturing knives in the United States. ferred to has never been guilty of any such practice• It is a brand which has beeen adopted to deceive the public. .1\lr. VANCE. Which statement does the Senator say is not true ~Ir. VANCE. The vritness, :Mr. Korn, testifies that it is called the the one that I read now, or the one I read from the testimony before Essex Cutlery Company, and that be bought goods from them with this the Senator from Missouri and myself? · false Sheffield mark upon those goods. . 1\!r. PLATT. The statement that the gentleman, 1\Ir. Rockwell, to Mr. PLATT. He says "itisaNewYorkconcern in Cincinnati." whom the Senator refers, has put that brand upon any American-made I state that there is no Essex Cutlery Company manufacturing these knives, or is interested in the Essex Cutlery Company. . · knives in the United States to the best of my knowledge and belief, Mr. VANCE. Reasserts here that the Germans especially have been and I ·think I know about it; neither is there any concern called the guilty of this meanness, and 1\fr. Korn testified that the Essex Cutle~ American Cutlery Company. It is a brand which has been put upon Association, or company, with which Mr. Rockwell was ~nnecte~, did foreign goods to deceive the American public. the very same thing, andheexhibitedoriginalpackages w1th the pnnted Mr. VEST. That is a very important admission. I have not time brands, as I have repeated again and again, upon tho~e packS;lg~s, and to turn to the testimony that was given before the·senator from North said that he bought those goods from the Essex Cutlery AssoClation, or Carolina and myself as to the names of these associations. They are company. It may be untrue. I can not tell anything about that. American corporations; whether by one name or another does not af Mr. PLATT. It is scarcely worth while to be contending over a fect the argument. We can turn to that afterwards as a matter of matter of evidence. I wish to state once more that M:r. Korn says this detail. Essex Cutlery Company is a cutlery concern which do~ business in Mr. ALDRICH. Is it the purpose of the present argument of the Cincinnati. That does not connect it very closely with Connecticut. Senator from Missonri to justify the use of American names by German I say there is no Essex Cutlery Company manufacturing goods in the manufacturers? United States. · Mr. VEST. Not at all. This is one of the brands which have been put upon German knives. Mr. ALDRICH. I did not know but that it was; .he was using it Now let me read a few of them, premising that none of these are actual in the same connection . companies-not one of them t~at I am going .to :ead-but they come .Mr. VEST. The Senator certainly does not mean to be so offensive very near in name to representmg actual compames. as to impute to me th'at I would stand here anti defend any sort of fraud. lli. JONES, of Arkansas. I should like to ask the Senator a qu~ I say that whoever does this thing and uses a false brand is guilty of tion. for information. fraud. 1\!r. PLATT. Let me read a Bpecimen of these nam~ that are put But these gentlemen, at whose solicitation these schedules have been on German knives. · so enormously increased, in order to depreciate the testimony ofimport The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri is entitled ers who are just as much American citizens as they are, went before the to the floor. Does he yield? Finance Committee and said they were guilty of this fraud. I under ~Ir. VEST. I prefer that the Senator from Connecticut would take take to say if that rule works at all it ought to work both ways, and up the debate regularly. · that the testimony shows, unless the men who came before the Senator Mr. PLATT. Let me read these names. , ·from North Carolina and myself are willful and deliberate slanderers The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from 1\fi....~ouri declines and falsifiers, that this thing is habitually done by American manu to yield. facturers; that they take the Britjsh brands, put them on their own Mr. VEST. Of course I will yield to the Senator if he is absolutely goods, and sell articles as Wostenholm's manufacture that the factory anxious about it. & ofWostenholm Co. never saw. Mr. PLATT. I think it perhaps well to put in these nam~ at this .Mr. ALDRICH. It is somewhat singular that this importers' asso period of the discussion. ciation, some of whom may be American citizens, did not make this Mr. VEST. I was about to state what I believe to be the facts in charge before the Finance Committee where there would have been a re..,.ard to the matter of brands, and then the Senator can reply to it. chance for cross-examination and where the American Cutlery Asso- The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from Missouri yield? ciation was represented by its president. · ~Ir. VEST. Let the Senator go on if he insists on it. Mr. VEST. Is there an American Cutlery Association? Mr. PLATT. The Senator yields. There are placed upon knives Mr. ALDH.ICH. I think so. made in Germany these brands: "New England Cutlery Company,, Mr. VEST. The Senator from Connecticut says there is not. "Bay State Cutlery Company," "Granite State Company"-- Mr. PLATT, No, I did not say there was not an association of ~Ir. ALLISON. Where are they located? manufacturers, but I say there is no ''.American Cutlery Company" Mr. PLATT. There are no such companies. "Pennsylvania Cut. manufacturing knives. lery Company," ''Western Cutlery Company," "Chicago Knife Com Mr. VEST. I meant the ".American Cutlery Association" if I did pany," ''Maine Knife Company," "Ames Cutlery Company," "Ful use the word "company." ton Cutlery Works,"'' Manhattan Cutlery Company," "Knickerbocker Mr. PLATT. They do not manufacture knives. Cutlery Company,"" St. Lawrence Cutlery Company,"" National Cut Mr. ALDRICH. They do not manufacture knives at all. lery Company," "Derby Cutlery Company," "Chatham Cutlery Com Mr. VEST. The persons who dictated or solicited this increase of vany," New York Cutlery Company," "Essex Cutlery ~mpany," duty are the persons whom I have in mymind when I make these state 'Windsor Cutlery Company,"·" Mt. Vernon Cutlery Company," an~ ments. Southfield Cutlery Company." · Those are only specimens ·of more than Mr. PLATT. The Senator from Missouri certainlv does not wish to three hundred brands of the same character which are put upon Ger make any statements which are not correct. - man knives to sell them in this market. The "Essex Cutlery Com Mr. VEBT. Not if I know it. pany" and "American Cutlery Company" are simply com_pani~ which Mr. PLATT. There is no "American Cutlery Company" manu do not.exist, nor do any of these supposed cutlerycompames exlSt; and facturing kni-.;es in the United States; there ·is no "Essex ·Cutlery the brands are not put on by American manufacturers either. 970 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 19;j
1\Ir. VEST. 1\Ir. President, I did not expect this schedule to come field Knife Company. Plated. Each knife bears our brand name, ' up, and therefore I am not able to present consecutively what I had to Sheffield, England." These are table-knives, with the unicorn and' say, but I will try to get the facts out before I am through. In the rampant lion and all the indicia of British manufactru·e. testimony that was taken before the Senator from North Carolina and Mr. BUTLER. That knife· was made where? myself, the Senator from North Carolina said to the witne83, 1\Ir. Sax Mr. VEST. It was made in Connecticut. As to these brands or. ton, who represents the fum of Alfred Field & Co.: trade-marks, I have a large number of them here that are placed upon Senator VANCE. It is stated here that the bulk of the cheap German knives cutlery in this country. These are the brands to which Mr. Saxton are sold here as American knives. alludes as being fictitious: "Alexander Fraser & Co.'s Celebrated Shef- 1\Ir. SAXTON. That is not true. field Cutlery. Warranted." "Richmond Cutlery Company, Rich1 Senator VANCE. I thought perhaps if there was no brand upon it, that was the reason. Is American cutlery esteemed to be any better than foreign cutlery? mond, Ind.'' There is no fraud about that. '' Pioneer Hard ware Com 1\fr. KORN. I believe the average of foreign cutlery is the best. pany. The best grade of pocket-knives, scissors, and razors.'' ''Cleve Senator VANCE. ·what reason would men have for passing off these foreign land Cutlery Company." knives as American knives? 1\Ir. KoRN. They like to have some well-sounding names, because they are 1\Ir. PLATT. There is no such company. easier to remember, easier to talk to the people of than anything foreign which 1\Ir. VEST. Of course there may not be, but these are brands, and they can not speak. For instance, there was inNewYork the concern of Fried I have tried to make -the Senator from Connecticut understand that. mann & Lauterjung, importers. They made as high a. grade of cutlery as any body did, but nobody ever could pronounce their name; no American could 1\Ir. Saxton says there .is no such company, but that these are his trade call it. Persons do not like to have such a name on their goods. ·When an marks, which he has a right to use. American merchant wants to buy goods made on a special brand, he likes to M:r. BUTLER. Are they frauds? ha\"e a name that he and his traveling man can pronounce, and not something 1\Ir. VEST. These are not fraud."!, because there is no English inark he can not pronounce; for it is a great deal easier to put down a name with 1 with which everybody is familiar-that everybody can speak. But American about them.· He simply. takes up a certain name; for instance, iii one goods have been made as poorly in this country as they ever have been made case part of the name of one of the partners in the firm of Alfred Field in England or Germany. There have been just as poor goods made in Amer ica. Really, there have been very few good goods made in America so far as & Co., but they did not say it was an English knife; they did not put cutlery is concerned. Sheffield on it. Here is the "Hawk-Eye Cutlery Company's celebrated! 1\Ir. SAXTON. The system of special branding goods has grown up in ihe last pocket cutlery, manufactured of the best quality of steel." They do fifteen years. It. has come about from the fact that competition has been grow· ing keener and keener among jobbers all the time. If a man had the same brand not state where it is made. Here is another, the Oakland Cutlery Com of knife, the same pattern in the same city, itwouldcuthis profitstopicces; bu~ pany. These are scissors, warranted; no place given. Here is Pribyl if he has the same knifennder different brands, then he can maintain his profits. Brothers' trade-mark, "unsurpassed quality of cutlery; blades war That is the reason why there have been so many special brands of cutlery. We merchants, who stand between the jobber and the manufacturer, very much ranted;" no place is given. '' J. B. F. Champlin. Finest scissors;, prefer to have our own brands, and to get our reputation on our brands, because made of quality surpassed by none, equaled by few; warranted;" no we can not possibly put on the brands of the makers. place given; and here is ''J. B. F. Champlin's pocket cutlery." But. llan order comes in for 810,000 worth o! pocket-knives we probably buy them from fifty or sixty or seventy different manufacturers, and it would be impossi there is no English trade-mark on them, there is no lion, no unicorn, ble to get every man's name on them. We mix them all up, and do not know no Sheffield, no Wostenholm & Sons; they are the trade-marks oftlie where they are. We take half a dozen manufactures of a certain lot and put American importers. that up of one quality, and another batch of another quality, and so on. We grade the goods into qualities and strike brands for each grade. Here is our Here is' the "Brandford Cutlery Company's celebrated pocket cut own brand [exhibiting]. On the best grade of goods we put our own name. lery, manufactured of the best quality of steel," and no place at all We get them made. Probably the knives that come under that brand are from given. Here is a trade-mark consisting of a B With a serpent arounu fifteen or twenty different manufacturers, but we grade theq~ that way and brand them. it. "Warranted pocket cutlery manufactured by Alfred Field & Co., On the next grade we put on that brand [exhibiting], Continental Cutlery Com Sheffield." That is the English brand, made in England and sold by pany, the Continental brand. On the next gr'li.de we put Alexander, Fraser & them as English goods, which they import from Sheffield and sell, as Co., simply a. fictitious na.me that distinguishes a. certain quality of goods. Then we have our German goods. Here [exhibiting] is H. Cromwell <.-'riterion Cut they have a right to do, as imported English cutlery. Here is the lery. That is part of the name of one of our partners. II. Cromwell Field is "Continental Cutlery Company's superior pocket cutlery, Sheffield," his name. The next grade is the Bra.ndford Cutlery Company. What these another brand of English goods. Here is the ''H. Cromwell Criterion people complain about is that they are sold as American goods. They are not sold as American goods. Company, surpassed by none, equaled by none, satisfaction warranted,'' Senator VANCE. It is your own class.iflcation for your own convenience. with no place upon it. That is the brand which is a part of the name 1\Ir. SAXTON. That is all; it is for our own convenience; and that is the case of one of the partners of Alfred Field & Co., and is taken and used as with jobbers all over the country. Senator VANCE. You do not impose them on anybody as American-made a trade-mark. But that is not put upon English goods; it is put upon knives? goods bought from the American manufacturerers. 1\lr. SAXTON. No sir. Mr. PLATT. I want to know if those are not put on German goods, Senator VANCE. You do not deny the fact that they are made in Germany? Mr. SAXTON. Not at all. · every one of them. Senator VEST. Still, the point, then, I suppose they make is that there is nothing . Mr. VEST. It makes no difference whether they are put on German in these brands which show that they are made here. For instance, not being or American or English goods, if no place is stated. Mr. Saxton testi an expert, if I should look at that brand I would say it was an' American knife. The brand is "H. Cromwell Criterion Cutlery." Here you nave Sheffield on fies that when they receive an order for a large amount of cutlery, he all your English knives. Of course when I look at that knife [indicating] I buys from probably fifty or sixty different manufacturers and then puts know it was made in Sheffield, England. on all those different purchases this trade-mark of the firm of· Alfred I have those knives here.. Field & Co. But there is no fraud in that, because he does not put 1\Ir. SAXTON. How would you know but that that was put on in America? England there, or Germany, or the United States. He may buy a part Senator VEST, The questioniswltetheritshowsthemake; I wonldnotknow. of the goods from an Englishman, part from a German, part from an 1\Ir. KoRY (exhibiting). Here is one brand, Essex Cutlery Company. This American, but unless he makes the false impression that he gets his is a New York concern in Cincinnati., and this same 1\Ir. Rockwell who comes goods from Wostenholm or Rodgers or some celebrated manufacturer, here makes these goods for the "Essex Cutlery Company i " and that is one of the names they complain about. On each knife you see • Sheffield, England; there is no fraud in it. cutlers to Her Mnjesty."· Mr. HAWLEY. To assist in understanding this, let me say that Senator VEST. That is all right. Anybody would know that that is an English when that manufacturer exhibited a ·handful of knives before the sub knife. 1\lr. KoRN. But it is an American knife. committee of the Finance Committee, I happened to be there. I was Senator VEST. I know you sell them, but they are made abroa.d. looking over, expecting just this, knowing that if he exhibited knives 1\Ir. KORN. No, they are American-made. at all, he would show the character of that trade. I picked up a Brand 1\Ir. SAXTON. That is the poorest class of goods they make. Senator VEST, 'Vho makes these knives? ford knife, for having a town Brandford in our State, I thought possi 1\Ir. SAXTON. All the American manufacturers. bly they might have had a little cutlery company there without my Senator VEST. That is a. clear fraud. It has the rampant lion. knowledge, and I asked him if that was one of these German knives. Senator VANCE. Where is this knife made? 1\Ir. KoRN. It is made in Connecticut. Here is another knife made in Con " Certainly." He did not put "England," or "Germany," or any necticut. [exhibiting]. They do not put down " Cutlers to Her Majesty; " they thing else upon that knife, but when "Pennsylvania," "U. S.," and change their label; but they put down" Sheffield Knife Company, Sheffield, "Columbia" are put ou a cheap German knife it does not deceive the England." person who does it, because he orders it done; it doe..., not deceive the Here is a box of these knives, which were made in Connecticut. dealers next to hiru in differtnt cities to whom he sells them by the They are branded " "George Wostenholm & Sons' Celebrated I. X. L. hundred dozen, but he deceives the average purchaser, and he does this Cutlery, Warranted." The witness goes on and states that Wosten thing with that intent. Now, whoever does that. is a liar and a thief. bolm & Co., with their immense reputation and large custom extend Mr. VEST. I admire the Senator's vocabulary, especially in the ing to all parts of the world, have not thought this.matter of sufficient United States Senate. importance to stop it, althongb it has been drawn to their attention. 1\ir. HAWLEY. It is very likely that has been done in Connecticut So as to these knives which I have here.· Here is a very cheap Amer at some time, but it is a dishonest business, the Senator has said that ican knife [exhibiting], the cheapest that is made. They are manu himself, to put upon a foreign knife a. name that w1ll lead everybody factured in -this country, and they are sold under a foreign brand. to think it is an American knife, or to put on an American knife the That is the commonest knife made anywhere. words "Sheffield, England," when it was not made there at all, or to Here is a knife [exhibiting] made in the United States~in Con· put ''Wostenholm" upon. a blade, taking tlie name of one of the best necticut, I believe-and here is the brand. I have it here, the orig makers in the world, when it was made here or in Germany. Those inal package, the outside cover upon it, and all. It is made in the things are dishonest in trade, but the importers are full of it, and some United States and branded, ''One dozen. Warranted. No. 1~. Han times Americans do it, though I do say that most of the American cut dles and blade one solid piece, composed of shears steel. Select Shef:- lers are anxious to establish each for himself the value of his trade- 1889. CONGRESSIONAL REOORD-SENATE. 971
mark, like the great Collins Company and others of that sort, who fight Oomparati·ve ad valorem rate, p~esent duty, etc.-Continued. for their trade-mark in English courts and American. THREE-BLADE POCKET-KNIVES. Mr. VEST. I will let the Senator from Connecticut choose his own epithets. ln language of ruy own I will say that I denounce fraud Senate wh(·rever it oxists, whether in this country or abroad. But the ques substi- tion in this case is whether the ex pm·le testimony of these persons who Four- tute,50 went before the Finance Committee and denounced all these importers cents per blade, Present dozen Senate as having perpetrated fraq.d shall go without answer or attack. I be foreigu duty, 50 blades amend- Senate amendment. lieve the testimony of the gentlemen who appeared before the Senator cost per per cent. and25 ment. from North Carolina and mvself. I did not hear them before the Fi dozen. per ceat. advalo· nance Committee, for I have not the honor of being a member of that rem. committee. 111r. HAWLEY. The Senator will pardon me. Both sides were be ------fore the committee. Pe1·cent. Per cent.. Per cent. $0.4.8 50 330 75 Value 50 cents per dozen and under, Mr. VEST. The ·senator alluded to the Brandford Company. The 12 cents per dozen and 50 per cent. rule) as I understand it, which he himse1f adopts and to which I as, .61 50 270 109 sent and have stated over and over again, is this: Thatanyimporteror .73 50 230 99 .8-3 50 20l 92 manufacturer has a right to make his trade-mark and use it as to any .97 50 180 87 article of cutlery, provided there is nothing in it which misleads. 1.10 50 162 83 \ V"&lue f.om 50 oent• po; dozen to f2 Hereis the trade-mark of the Brandford Cutlery Company: "Brandtord 1.22 50 151 80 per dozen, 36 cents per dozen and 50 1.34 50 137 77 per cent. Cutlery Co. celebrated pocket cutlery, manufacturert of the best quality 1.46 50 J27 75 of steel." That ~ a registered trade-mark. 1.70 50 113 71 1\Ir. HAWLEY. Oh, no. 1.83 50 107 69 l 1.95 50 103 68 J \- ~!r. VEST. Then I do not understand the testimony tf it is not. 2.07 50 98 80 \ 50 94 77 I Mr. PLATT. It could not be regisoored as a trade-mark. The 2.19 name of the place could not be registered as a trade-mark. 2.31 50 90 76 2. 43 50 -87 75 Mr. VEST. It is not the name of the place. It is the name of the 2.56 50 84 73 company. 2.68 50 81 73 Value more than $2perdozeu, 60cents Mr. PLATT. There is no such company ncar there and never will 3.00 50 75 70 per dozen and 50 per cent. 3.50 50 68 67 be 4.00 50 62 65 M:r. VEST. There it is. There is the brand, and these men swear 4.50 50 58 63 5.00 50 5.') 62 that it is a trade-mark. Here are the cabalistic letters upon it1 the :B with the serpent around it, and upon that branded " The Brandford 6.00 50 50 60 Cutlery Co." No place, no country, no England, no United States, no Germanyupon it; and Mr. Saxton testifies be uses that mark upon TWO-BLADE POCKET-KJ~l'I'I'ES. cutlery that he buys and he .bas a right to do it. That is a very dif ferent proposition from putting "Sheffield " on the box: and Sheffield Percent. Per cent. I Per cent. on the knives. Some of these knives are made here in the United 80.37 50 291 80 } Value 50 cents per dozen and under, 12 .48 50 228 75 cents per dozen and 5Q per cent. States, and they have upon t.hem '' Wostenbolm, Sheffield,'' and'' Eng .61 50 land," anil. these same men go before the Finance Committee and de .73 50 161188 10999 I mand an increase of duty on cutlery already bearing 50 per cent., an .85 50 142 92 .97 50 128 87 increase on the cbeapest grades, in some instances amounting to 95 and 1.10 50 116 83 ~Value from "50 cents to $2 per dozen, 100 per cent., and they still say that their testimony must be taken as 1.22 50 J.06 80 36 cents per dozen anil 50 per cent.; absolutely true, without contradiction or suspic1on. 1.34 50 100 77 value over $2 per dozen, 60 cents per 1.46 50 93 75 \ dozen and per cent. I submit for insertion in the RECORD the table of which I spoke in 1.58 50 88 . 73 the earlier part of my remarks. 1.70 50 84 n 1.82 50 60 69 I 1.95 50 ~6 68 J Comparative ad rcalorem rate, rp1·csent duty, Senate s-ubstitute, and Senate I amendment a.s repat·ted. ONE-BLADE POCKET-KNIVES. FOUR·BLADE POOKET-KNIVES.
Senate PCf'cenl. Percent. Per c.ent. . substi- 80.18 50 302 }Value 50ctmts per dozen and under,l2 tute, 50 .24 50 233 fob Fotll"- cents per 16i . 80 cents per dozen and 50 per cent. ad blade, Present Senate .37 50 valorem. dozen .48 50 127 75 foreign duty, 50 blades amend- Senate amendment. per cent. ment. .61 50 106 109 }Value from 50 cents to $2 per dozen,36 cost per and 25 .73 50 93 99 cents per dozen and 50 per cent ; dozen. per cent. .85 50 84 92 value over $2 per dozen, 60 cents per ad valo- 1.00 50 75 86 dozen and 50 per cent. rem.
Pe1· cent. Per ce11l. Percent. RAZORS. SL22 50 181 80 . I ------~~------,------~------~------1.34 50 175 77 Value 50 cents S::r dozen and under.- I 162 75 Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. L46 50 50 95 190 1.58 50 157 73 ~~ C:ai~rrmr: t~~5t~~: f:$~e;~~ I $0.72 1.70 50 143 7l dozen, 36 cents per dozen and 50 .96 50 78 154 I 1. 20 50 68 133 1.82 50 135 70 per cent. ad valorem. 1.95 50 128 69 1.4-l 50 60 120 2.19 50 117 'i7 1.68 50 55 110 50 107 75 1.92 50 51 102 2.43 Value per dozen and under, per 2.68 50 . 100 73 2.16 50 48 96 U 94 70 2.40 50 46 92 dozen and 50 per cent. e~ 2.92 50 50 88 69 2.64 50 44 88 \ 8.16 2.88 50 42 85 3.41 50 84 68 80 67 8.12 50 41 82 3.65 50 3.36 50 40 80 3.89 50 76 66 73 65 3.60 50 39 78 4.14 50 8.84 50 38 76 4.38 50 70 64 G3 4.08 50 37 80 4.62 50 68 4.32 50 36 79 4.87 50 66 62 4.56 50 36 77 5.ll 50 64 62 4.78 50 35~ 5.35 50 62 61 Value over 82 per dozen, 60 cents per 5.00 50 35 m II 5.60 50 60 61 dozen and 50 per cent. ad valorem. 2~ 5.50 50 3!. 10.00 50 30 24.00 33 60 . I 30.00 50 31 51-· 12.CO 50 29 ~i 36.00 50 30 5l 48.00 50 29 51 00.00 56 28 51 Mr. PLATT. Mr. President, before speakingoftbisduty I want.to 72.00 00 28 5l say once more that I think the statement which the Senator from 1tbs 86.00 50 27t 51 souri made, that the same men, the manufacturers who come here ask- \ 972 CONGRESSIONAL ·RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY f6,· ing for such protection of their industry as will enable them to live and .Relative cost prices of German, English, and American pocket cutlery carry on their business in the United States, are enga,ged in the fraud Continued. of putting English names upon American-made knives, is not true. The Senator has been misinformed, and that is enough for me to say. German. English. .American. I do not desire to go into that further. . . ,j Now, upon the question of duty I wis~ to say that in the year 1882, ~ 1--~--~---r------~------~ ------prior to the enactment of the present tariff law, there were twenty-five Description. ~ '0] l~ .I ~ "03 ~ t '0] ~ '0] 1 manufacturers of pocket cutlery in the United States. To-day there 'o ~~ ~] 01 ~j · ~~ "; ~j ~~ ~'a a; are seventeen: and eight of them have been either d_riven out of busi 0 8 d .., 0 ° c:l ~.c 0 8 ~ 0 8 §' 0 ness or have failed or left the business; they have failed. Three more ______~-a-~~2~ ~-a-~-QQ- ~ have failed and reorganized. So under the present rate of duty one BrRsa-lined pcn-knife-J I half the number of pocket-cutlery establishments in the United States ConLinued. l I· · have been driven out of business. The capital engaged in the produc 3 inches ...... 2 ~. 39~. 62 $1. 01 $0. 39 $1. 25 $1. 6 J $0. 53 $2. 49 $0. 33 03. 35 tion has been reduced $450,000 in that time. · The number of dozens Do...... 3 .43 .86 1.29 .43' 1.72 2.15 .58, 3.44 .44 4.46 Do...... 4 .42 1.02 1.44 .4~ 2.0~ 2.45 .57j 4.07 .51 5.15 manufactured per annum has been reduced 146,500and the value $505:- 3t inches...... 2 .471 .6.'5 1.12 .41' 1.2!1 1. 76 .64 2.59 .35 8.58 000. Most of these are small establishments; but one or two of them Do ...... ,..... 3 .49 .90 1.39 .4911.81 2.30 .67 8.62 .47 4.76 Do...... 4 .50 1.06 1.56 .50 2.12 2.62 .68 4.23 .04 5.45 have a business of over $100;000 a year. Brnss·lincd pen-knife, · The capital engaged is small capital. The salaries paid are extre~e~y pearl or shell cover- ing: meager. The concern which make the most pocket cutlery and sells 1~ m 1 the UnitedStatespaysits president and manager$1,500ayear. Notasrn 3k inches...... 3 2. 60 1. 82 4. 42 2. 60 3. 6E 6. 25 3. 50 7. 30 1. 2012.00 Do ...... 4 2. 70 1. 9< 4. 6U 2. 70' 3. 81 6. 50\ 3. 65 7. 60 1. 2512.50 glecompanyorfirmmanufacturingpocke~- cutleryhasmadeexp~~ses,or 3;\\ inches ...... 3 3.40 2.11 5.5t 3.40' 4.2317.63 4.651 8.45 1.4514.50 at least anything more than expenses, durrngthepastyear; nodtVlden~s Do ...... ······j 4 3. 52 2. H 5, 71,3. 52! 4. 38 7. 90\ 4. 75j 8. 75 1. 50!15. 00 have been declared in the cutlery business. The pocket-cutlery busi ness in the United States has about two-fifths of the value of the trade. I wish to take one or two instances. The same disproportion of cost It has a little more than one-sixth of the amount of trade in dozens. runs through them all. Take for instance a knife which costs 56 cents Now from what I have said it is perfectly plain we do not seek to a dozen in Germany-a 4·inch jack-knife, one blade, wood covering, conceal the situation that either there must be an increase of this iron-lined. It costs 91 cents in England, and it costs $1.90 in America, duty or the pocket-cutlery business must stop in the Unfted Sta~s: and 56 cents in Germany. Why? Becaus'e the cost of the labor on that Half of the concerns have failed since 1883; none of them are makrng knife is 35 cents in Germany, 70 cents in England, and $1.42in Amer any money; and the importation of foreign goodsisincreasingrapidly, ica per dozen. The duty which is proposed by the Senate amendment while the American production is rapidly decreasing. Those producers does not compensate for the difference in labor. · have asked for an increase of duty. There was great objection made to Now I take another class of knives. A brass-lined, two-and-a-half the duty as proposed ~riginally in the Sena~ bill. It was made by inch pen-knife, two blades, with ivory or stag covering, costs 81 cents jobbers· it was made by merchants as well as Importers; but I under in Germany to produce, in England $1.39, in America $2.92. Why? stand that except at the hands of the importers there is no serious ob Because the labor in Germany is 57 cents, in England $1.15, in America jection on the part of American merchants and jobbers to the present $2.30. The duty which is proposed here does not equalize that differ proposed amendment of the Committee on Finance. . ence in the cost of labor. Mr. President this is an increase which both the Republican ancl Take another of a higher price. Take a three-and-a-half-inch pen Democratic parties have bound themselves to; yet itisnotan in?rease knife, three blades,-pearlorshellcovering, which costs in Germany $4.42n. which compensate..~ for the difference between the labor engaged m the dozen, in England $G. 25a dozen, in America $12 a dozen. Why? Because production in the United States .ann the labor engaged in.forei_gn. colill the labor in Germany costs $1.82, in England $3.G5, in America S7.30 tries. What did the Democratic party say on that subject m 1ts na ner dozen. There is no such protection here as there is difference in tional convention at St. Louis? the cost of labor. The Democratic party, as well as the Republican Our established domestic industries and enterprises should not, and need not, party, is committed to that doctrine; and the only hope that the pro be endangered by the reduction a~d. correction of the bur~ens of taxation. On ducers of American pocket cutlery have is that by this increase of duty the contrary, a fair and careful rev1s10n of _our tax laws1 With due allowance for the difference between the wages of American and foreign labor, must promote the importation and sale of these goods may become somewhat less and encourage every branch of such indus tries and enterprises, by giving them profitable to the importer and the jobber, so that there may be some assurance of,extended market and steady and continuous operations. chance of getting them to handle and to deal in American knives of The Democratic party at St. Louis recognized this principle, that in better quality, which can be sold at the same price. revising and adjusting the tariff there must be a "due allowance"-! Just take the knives which the Senator from Missouri has shown us. Here is a one-bladed knife which he says cost abroad 17 cents a dozen. quote from the platform-'' for the difference ~etwe~n th~ wa~es of I never heard it put at less than 18 cents a dozen before. That knife American and foreign labor." J~st look at tht~ busm~ss m VIe~ of the difference in labor in the Umted States and m foreign countries. is sold to the boy or the girl that the Senator desires to protect for 5 In the testimony before the Committee on Finance the labor cost was cents. See what an immense profit there is between the manufacturer very carefully shown. It has not been questioned. It is accurate. It in Germany and the consumer here. Now, you may put on the duty is made up from American statistics and from ~oreign st~t~tics; and. which is proposed by the amendment and that knife will still be sold they have been verified until it can not oe questioned, or, 1f 1t can be, at 5 cents to the consumer. So with the kniie that is sold to him at 10 it has not been. . or 15 or 20 cents. Those knives will not cost any more to the con Now I will put in my remarks all this table. It is printed m the sumer. There will still be a margin of profit for the importer and the testim~ny before the committee, but I read from a paper fo~ conven jobber and the retailer, hut it will more nearly approach the m::trgin of ience. The table is as follows: profit which there is for the importer and the jobber and the retailer and the consumer when an American-makes the knife. That is all Relative cost prices of German, English, and American pocket cutle·ry. It will not shut out this manufacture. It is not a prohibitory duty It is a duty such as the St. Louis convention said they were willing to [Per dozen.] put upon articles of American manufacture. That is all there is in this matter, and it seems to me that the prin German. English. American. ciples which have been adopted on both sides of this Chamber and ~ everywhere, that we should put a duty upon the goods manufactured ~ r ------~~.-r---~~----1---.~.----.-~ by this established industry now waning and likely to be destroyed Description. which will enable them in·some degree to compete with foreign manu :c -o3 . '03 . -o3 0 "0 ... ~ ~~0 :5 -~ ...... ~0... ~ ... ~ ~ ~0 .-'o... ·.~-a 1- facture and which will to some extent equalize the difference between ~~ ~.c ~ ~~ ~.8 3 ~~ ~,.Q 8.., '1l. .5 the cost of labor in this country and in foreign countries. . ~ oa 0 0 oa 0 0 oa 8 ~ 0 The Senator from Missouri said a good deal about the higher duty ------~--- ~ ~-- ~~ ------~ being imposed upon the cheaper knife. It is true that the American Iron-lined jack-knife, wood covering: producer is better able to compete with the manufacturers of high 4inches , ...... 1 $0. 21 . 35$0. 5610.2110. 70 10. 91 $0. 2i> $1. " I'JJ$1. 90 priced knives, with Rodgers and Wostenholm and that class of manu Do ...... 2 . 30 . 501 . 80 . 30 1. OQj 1, 30 . 41 2. 02 • 27 2. 70 facturers than mth the cheap knives such as the Senator showed us, 3l inches ....•..•...... 1 .19 .34 .53 .19 ·~Z I .86 .25 1.33 .11 1.75 Do ...... 2 .26 .48 .74 .26 .95i 1.21 .35 1.90 .25 2. 50 which a;e made for 18 cents a dozen and sold for 5 cents apiece, or 3! inches ...... ••...... 1 .16 . 28 . 44 .16 . 561 • 72 . 22 1.12 .14 1.4.8 those made for 56 cent.s a dozen and sold for 10 cents apiece, or those Do ...... , ...... 2 .22 .41 .63 .22 .83 1.05 .30 1.65 .21 2.16 made for 83 cents a dozen and sold for a quarter of a dollar apiec~. It 3t inches ...... 1 .10 .28 .38 .10 - .561 .66 .14 1.12 .13, 1.39 is true they can compete better in the high-priced knives than m the Do ...... • .16 ·" .... 16 .83 ....21 1...... •. ., Brass-lined pen-knife, low-priced knives, and if it were so that these same knives :were. to be ivory or stag cover made higher to the consumers, then there would be s?~ethmg m the infl.: Senator's arm1ment· but I venture to say that with thlB duty the same 2k inches ...... 2 . 24 . 57 . 81 . 24. 1. 15 1. 39 • 33, 2. 30 . • 291 2. 92 Do, ....- •..•.••.•. ~ .... . 3 . 25 .80 1. C5 .25 1. 61 1. 86 .35 3. 22 .39 3. 96 knives which he wa'nts the poor man of this country to get,. and nine Do ...... 4 .26, .95 1.21 .26 1.90. 2.16 ·3!> 3.80 .46.1 4.62 tenths of which are a fraud upon the poor man anyway, Will be sold 1889. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 9.7·3· to him without ::my increase in price. Simply this will happen: The Table showing tlte imposs-ibility of making a "specific rate, etc.-Continued. New York jobber will not get 100 per cent. profit on his importation; there will not be 200 per cent. profit to be divided between the im FOUR-BLADE. porter and the dealers; and therefore the great inducement which im porkrs and jobbers have had to deal in German knives, which I think 62t cents I Speci.fl.c, 62! cents Speci.fl.o, on every principle of fairness and honesty ought largely to be prohib Foreign cost per perdozen $1.25 per Foreign cost per per dozen $1.25 pef dozen. and 25 dozen dozen. and 25 dozen\ ited from coming into this country, will cease to exist. per cent. knives. per cent. knives~ Mr. VANCE. Mr. President, one of the witnesses who appeared be fore the Senator from Missouri and myself gave testimony concerning the impossibility of making a fair rate on cutlery by specific duties or Per cent. Per cent. Pe1· cent. Per cent. 80 cents...... •..•...• 104 156 $8 ...... 33 15 by compound duties, and at our request he prepared a statement show 90 cents...... 96 139 $9 .•.•••••••••••.••••••••••• 32 H ing the impossibility of putting any fair rate of taxation upon cutlery $!...... 88 125 $10 ...... ••....•...... 31 13 in any other way than by ad valorem rates. I ask that this table, $1.25 ...... 80 100 $11 ....•...... •...... 31 11 S1.50 ...... ; .... . 70 80 $12 ...... 30 10 which is short, may be incorporated in the RECORD. I do not care to $1.75 ...... 60 70 $18 ...... 28 '1 have it read unless Senators desire to hear it read. $2...... 57 63 $24 ...... 28 5 4 :Mr. PLATT. :May I inquire whether that is a table which relates to $2.50* ••·••···•••·••••••····· 50 50 $30 ...... 'J:l $3 ...... •.. 46 42 $36 ...... 26 4 the bill as it was originally drawn or to the proposed amendment of $3.50 ...... 43 36 $18 •...•••••••••••••••••..• 26 3 the committee? 41 31 $60 ...... •...•...•..•.....• 26 2 Mr. VANCE. It is a table showing generally the impossibility of tL:::::::::::::::::::::::::: 38 25 $72 ...... 26 2 $ ...... 36 21 SS6 ...... 25 1l securing a fair rate of taxation by specific and compound duties, and it $7 ....••.••••••••••.•..••.....• 34 18 illustrates by taking the rates proposed by the substitute first, but for the general purpose any other rates might as well be taken. The table works out any given specific rate upon the cheaper article and "'Average cost abroad of each line. upon the higher-priced article. 1\Ir. VANCE. Mr. President, the Senator from Connecticut [Mr Mr. PLATT. It is not constructed, then, upon the plan of the amend PLATT] bas told us what a difficult time the manufacturers of cutlery ment proposed by the Finance Committee? were having in this country, and that, out of some twe~ty-odd manu Mr. VANCE. No, sir; but, as I have endeavored to explain, it will factl:liers, nine, I believe, had failed and gone out of business becaUI:Ie illustrate the general impossibility of a fair rate of taxation by specific they were undersold by the foreign cutlery, and so on. · and compound duties. Now, Mr. President, I have great rCPpect for the Senator from Con The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The paper will be printed as part of necticut; I have great regard for his integrity of character, for his pa the Senator's remarks, if there be no objection. triotism and honesty of purpose, as well as for his intelligence on mat The paper is as follows: · ters pertaining to the science of political economy; and I want to ask Table showing tlze impossibility of mal..-ing a specific rate or a compound him upon his conscience this question: If it is shown that a manufact raie on pocket cutlery to equal a uniform ad valorem 1·ate or to make a urer, protected by a duty of more than 100 per cent. upon the cheaper rate that will be anything like fair. articles used by the great mass of the people, can not make money ari~ sustain himself and do business with that great protection, I ask the ONE-BLADE. Senator if that manufacturer ought not to go out of business? Mr. PLATT. Does the Senator want a reply now? 15 cents All spe- 15 cents All spe- Mr. VANCE. In one moment. I also want to ask the Senator if per cificduty, per cificduty, Foreign cost pe"r dozen SO cents per dozen SO cents be thinks it conduces to the accumulation of public wealth to tax th_e dozen. knives per Forei!~z~~~t knives per public at -large at the rate of-more than two for one in order to enable and 25 dozen and 25 dozen that man to continue in business? percent. knives. percent. knives. Mr. PLATT. · I will endeavor to answer the question, and to answer --- it fairly and squarely. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Pe1· cent. In the first place there is no 100 per cent. ad valorem duty to be 20cents ...... 100 150 70cent.3 ...... 47 43 placed on these articles except in a very rare instance. The duty of 25ceots ...... •..•.... 84 120 SO cents ...... 44 38 30 cents..•...... 77 100 90cents ...... 42 33 12 cents a dozen or 36 cents a dozen being extended over goods of dif. 40conts ...... 63 75 $1...... •.•••••...... 40 30 · ferent prices, it is possible that one particular knife might run ~p to 50 cents ...... 56 60 $1.20 ...... 38 25 100 or more per cent., but the average duty wifl be about 65 per cent. CO cents* ...... •..... 50 50 '· not.higher than on woolen goods, not higher than on s_tructural iron, not higher than on a very great variety of articles. So that premise *Average cost abroad of each line. can scarcely be one upon which the question ought to pe answered TWO-BLADE. We should take perhaps the average ad valorem duty that wi11 be im posed under this, and that is about 65 per cent. as shown by expert 30 cents calculation. per Specific, 30 ;:~ts Specific, 62tcents dozen 62} cents Now, putting the·question in that form, ought the American manu Foreign cost per dozen per Foreign cost per facturer to.go out of business if he requires a duty of G5 per cent. to dozen. knives dozen dozen. knives d~:!n and25 and25 compete with foreigners, I say no, and I say that in my judgment and percent. knives. per cent. knives. on my conscience-beca-use the Senator asks me to answer on my con science-it is better for the United States, it is better for ~he people of Pe1· cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cenf. the United States, it is better for the people of North Carolina, that that 30 cents...... 127 213 et.25* ...... 50 50 business should be done in the United States than to have it done abroad 40cents...... 100 156 Sl. 50 ...... : 45 42 even though an aYerage duty of 65 per cent. is required in order to en 50cents...... 86 125 $1.75 ...... •...... 42 36 ·able the American manufacturer to maintain his business and to com 6G cents...... 75 104 $2 ···········••••••····•···· 40 31 70cents...... 64 8!) $2.25 ...... 38 28 pete with the foreign manufac~urers. That is my belief about it. 80 cents...... 63 78 37 25 Secondly, I think that in this particular instance I have shown, and !JOcents...... 59 69 ~:~::::::::::::::::::::: 36 23 $!...... 55 63 $3 ...... 35 21 I believe it is capable of demonstration, that these goods will not be. one penny higher to the consumer by reason of the increase of this duty, that no boy who buys a jack-knife and no lady who buys a.pen THREE-BLADE. knife in North Carolina will pay one cent more for it. The result will be simply this: whereas the importer now has all the profit and all the · • 150 cents Specific, 50cents Specific, ForeiA"n cost per per dozen $1 per Foreign cost per per dozen SL per opportunity to make money, and the peopleare taxed, if at all, to sup dozen. and 25 dozen dozen. and 25 dozen port the importer, there will be an opportunity for the manufacturer per cent. knives. per cent. knives. to make a little something and for the laborers employed to continue their employment; and upon the theory of the Se~ator from North Pe1· cent. Percent. Percent. Pe1· cent. Carolina (the correctness of which I utter"Ju and absolutely deny), the SO cents...... 88 125 $-! ...... 38 25 tax instead of being paid to the importer of foreign goods will be paid 90ccnts ...... 81 ill $4.50 ...... 36 22 to the American who makes them. I deny that there is any taxi but $1...... 75 100 35 20 $1.25 ...... 65 80 ~.00··::::::::::::::::::::: 34 18 even upon the Senator's own theory that is all there is to it. Na con Sl.50 ...... 59 67 $6 ...... 33 17 sumer is going to be asked to pay anything more for his knife. $1.75 ...... •.... 54 57 1!7:...... 32 14 Mr. VANCE. Well, Mr. President, the Senator has answered my $!!* . ···· ·········•• •••• :.... 50 50 $8 ...... 31 13 $'!!.25...... 47 45 $9 ...... 31 11 question with the candor which I expected. ~"'!.!.50...... 45 40 $10 ...... so 10 Many things in this schedule will be raised by the amendment of the ~2.75...... 43 37 $11 ...... : •...... so 9 committee largely in excess of 100 per cent., and if the Senator holds $3 .•.•. : •••.•.•••••• ;...... 42 23 $12 ...... 29 8 $3.50...... 40 30 that it is good political economy to have those things manufactured here at a cost of 100 per cent. upon their value, I should like to know where • Average cost abroad of each line. there is to be any limit to that principle. If 100 per cent. can be jus- 974 CONGRESSIONAL "RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 19, tified, 200 can, 500 can, and a thousand can; and if in all that increase I We find, then, a razor imported, if we can believe the importers, at of taxes upon the article the price is still to remain the same to the 72 cents a dozen, while the lowest price of any razor at retail in this consumer, I should be mightily pleased indeed to be let into the secret country is 40 cents. of how the manufacturer is to be benefited. Mr. VEST. Will the Senator permit me to ask a question? .The Senator seems to think that the importer is getting all the profit, 1tfr. ALDRICH. Certainly. and if there is such a large margin of profit for the importer, it seems Mr. VEST. Did he find that any of those 40-cent raw~ were made to me that there is the place where the manufacturer should come in in the United States? and divide this profit with him. Mr. ALDRICH. No, sir. But I will not undertake to enter into the mysteries of that great · Mr. VEST. They were all imported ? principle, that the more tax you put upon an article the cheaper it is 1t1r. ALDRICH. All imported. to the consumer, and at the same time -that the tax leads to the manu- Mr. VEST. Did the Senator examine into that point? facturers' benefit. That is one of the mysteries of protection that I ex- Mr. ALDRICH. Yes, sir; I did. pect to die in utter ignorance of. ~Ir. VEST. Then, if tbey are not made in this country at all, why The great fact remains that this schedule upon cutlery, pocket- does the Senator want to put on them this duty in order to protect the knives, table-knives, carving-knives, razors, and scissors is so arranged American manufacturer? by this committee by the application of specific duties as to make the Mr. ALDRICH. I do not think myself that the question of the cheaper articles used by the great mass of the people bear one, two, and amount of duty we put on a 6-cent razor is at all material to the ques three hundred per cent. more than the highest-priced articles, as will be tion at issue. That is the very point I desire to make, not only in re shown by the table which I ha>e asked to be inserted in the RECORD. gard to cheap razors, but in regard to cheap knives, that the Senators M:r, PLATT. Will the Senator allow me to_ask him a question? on the other side are malring au argument which has no pertinency or Mr. VANCE. Certainly. practical application to the question at issue. For instance, the Sena- 1t1r. PLATT. Suppose the duty were entirely taken off from that tor from Missouri says that upon a certam grade of pocket-knives, knife that costs 18 cents a dozen and that knife were let in free to this which are valued at 17 cents a dozen abroad, we propose to put a ape ~{ country, its vah~e would be a cent and a half when it comes tQ our cific duty of 12 cents a dozen and an additional ad valorem rate of 50 ( shores. Does the Senator suppose that that knife wo.uld be sold to a per c6nt., amounting to a >ery high ad valorem rate in the aggregate. I boy or girl in North Carolina. at less than 5 cents? Mr. PLATT. One hundred and twenty per cent. ~ Mr. VANCE. I suppose it would. The same argument, I rem em- Mr. ALDRICH. Yes; 120 per cent. ad valorem. The knives which ( ber, was made upon the reduction of the duty on matches, and it was are imported at that price, if any are so imported, are largely sold to stated that matches would remain at 5 cents a box no matter whether consumers at 10 cents each, and the Senator from New Jersey and other the duties were on or off. Senators upon 1hat side of theChamberha>eexpended much eloquence l\fr. DAWES. There was a tax on matches, not a duty. The tax in demonstrating that we have imposed an enormous duty upon the was an internal-revenue tax. That is a burden put right on here. 10-cent knife which the school-boy purchases. · Mr. VANCE. Yes, I see the distinction the Senator makes. The Now, let us see whether the duty we have placed upon these grades duty on matches-I am obliged to him for the correction-the tax on of either knives or razors will impose any additional burden upon the matches, the internal-revenue tax on matches, was what I was referring musses of people of this country who purchase these articles. to. Now, I have got it correctly. We were told that a box of match~ Take a 6-cent razor, for instance, with a specific duty of 8! cents, would be sold for 5 cents whether the tax was on or off; ap.d yet we making a cost of 141 cents, and then add the ad valorem rate, which foundinaveryshorttimethatwegottwoboxesofmatchesfor5cents. would amount to 2 cents more, making under theprovisions of the Why should it not be the same under the influence of competition? amendment the total cost of that razor 16! cents. If razors of that Why should not the retail dealers in all the little establishments at kind should continue to be sold for 40 cents each to the American peo every cross-roads in the United States soon learn to give a boy two ple, then you have a profit to the importer or the dealer of 150 per cent., knives for 5 cents instead of one knife? To say that the price will or they could be sold with a reasonable profit at 25 cents each. always be the s~me is to assume that the force of competition in trade Take the 10-cent knife. Suppose that in addition to the foreign cost, amounts to nothing, which it seems to me will not do. which the Senator from Missouri says is less than a cent and a half, we Therefore, without consuming further time on this subject of cut- add another cent for the specific duty and three-fourths of a cent for lery, it is sufficient for me to know and it is sufficient for the people the ad valorem rate; then we have a total cost of 3} cents for a knife of this country to know that what~ver rate of duty is necessary even which sells to our boys at retail for 10 cents, or 200 per cent. profit to. for the maintaining of the manufacturers of this country, the principle the importer or to the dealer or to both. is violated at the expense of those who are leaRt able to bear it, that The importers of tbis class of goods are taking advantage of the pres instead of imposing the least burdens and the lightest burdens upon entsituationto imposeworthlessgoods(whichinmanycasesare branded the weak, this bill and this amendment impose the heaviest burdens with American names, or simulated American names) upon the Ameri upon the weak and the lightest burdens upon the strong, who are able can public at an enormous profit to themselves or to the persons through to bear them better. whom they are sold. Mr. ALDRICH. Mr. President, I think the character of the criti- lf Senators on the other side of the Chamber care to pose before the cisms of this bill which are made by the Senators on the other side or country as advocates of these gentlemen and their methods, I can not the Chamber is very well exemplified by the arguments which have object, as it is a matter in which they must consult their own tastes and been made upon the pending amendment. iudgment; but do not try to decei>e the American people into the be- l do not care to allude to what I understand to be the argument ot lief that the mtes of duties we impose, which are, we admit, equivalent the Senator from ltiissouri [Mr. VEST], that the American mapufact- to a large ad valorem rate upon these worthless goods, would increase nrers of cutleryarenot entitled to fair treatment on account of the im- their cost to consumers. putation which the importers make that they are engaged in repre- The duty could be doubled above the rates proposed by the amend hensible practices, but will take a few minutes to examine another ment now under consideration and the cost of these gootis would not phase of the argument of the Senator from Missouri. He attempts to be increased to the American consumer; tbat is, supposing that a rea prove by the high ad valorem rates which he insists we have imposed sonable profit was to be allowed to the importer and to the dealer. on knives and razors the enormities of the bill in placing exorbitant The fact is, in regard to this paragraph and many other paragraphs duties upon articles in common use as distinguished from the duties in this bill, that the importers, who of course are desirous of breaking placed upon luxuries. down every duty which results in the -protection or encouragement of In the testimony, or so-called testimony, oftheNewYorkimporters' American industry, seek to mislead the public as to the character of Association, taken before the Senator from North Carolina. and the Sen- the duties imposed. They can readily show, it is true, an enormous ator from Missouri, the importers stated that we imposed a specific ad valorem rate upon inferior goods, which are imported greatly belo~ duty of $1 a dozen on razors, and that one class of imported 7azors cost their real ·value and sold to the American people greatly above theu abroad 72 cents a dozen or 6 cents each. Of course a duty of $1 a dozen real value. or Bk cents on a razor worth 6 cents abroad would be equivalent to If razors are made anywhere in the world at 6 cents each, 8 cents ape more than 100 per cent., to which an ~ddition of 35 per cent. ad >alo- cific.duty is a large rate upon them, and it would be a stilllargerrate rem is made. This statement is used by Senators on the other side to if 3 cents apiece, or 2 cents each, or 1 cent were taken as the price. show that we have imposed ,tnormous duties upon articles in common It is very easy for Senators on the other side of the Chamber, use. under the advice and guidance of the importers, to show the enormity Now, let us examine this particular statement from a practical stand- of this bill in this peculiar manner. These Senators have repeatedly point. . I recently visited a number of the principal hardware and cut- charged the committee with having prepared this bill under the rlicta lery stores of this city for the purpose of ascertaining the price at which tion of the American manufacturers. This is quite as prai~eworthy, I this class of razors was sold. The lowest price at which I could pur- assume, as to attempt to amend it at the dictation of the importers of chase a razor in any one of these establishments was 40 cents, and I New York. wa.s told frankly by the proprietor of the store that this razor would Senators say that these importers are American citizens. I venture not shave a man and he would advise me not to buy it; and that he to say that not one-tenth of them are American citizens. would advise me not to buy one costing less than 75 cents. Aside from The Senator from Missouri brings here the samples and the state this one establishment the lowest-priced razor I could find was 50 cents. menta of these men to break down an American industry which now 1889. CONGRESSIONAL REOORD-SENATE. commands hut one-third of·the American market in value and one-sixth people were engaged in undervaluing their goods their books would in number of pieces produced, and taking isolated cases of worthless show it? goods, greatly undervalued, seeks to mislead the American people as to Mr. VEST. I do not know what sort of testimony would be avail the true character of the rates imposed by the terms of this bill. able in this matter, but they proposed to submit themselves ta any I!!Ir. VANCE. Will the Senator allow me to ask a question? test that might be suggested. I want to say to the Senator from Rhode Mr. ALDRICH. Certainly. Island that I am as impersonal in this debate as any one. I do not Mr. VANCE. What is the possible undervaluation of anything that know t-he manufacturers; I do not know the importers; I do not know is worthless? The Senator has repeated time and again that worthless anybody in the matter except'my constitutents and the other consumers articles were greatly undervalued. I have a curiosity to know if a of this country. I have no sort of personal interests · or feelings and thing is worth nothing how can it be undervalued. could not possibly have any. Mr. ALDRICH. Take the case of the razors to which I have alluded. 1!!1r. ALDRICH. The thing which struck me as a little singular These razors have a foreign market value; they certainly have a cost was that the importers should have appeared before two Senators in of production; still they are worthless to the purchaser for use. I did an informal way and given testimony, which was published by order not use the word '' worthless,'' which the Senator understands as well of the Senate at their reque3t, and that the other people, the manu as I do, in connection with the value for the assessment of duties, but facturers and the consumers, were not represented before that commit the value for actual use. · tee, and they have not cited and introduced any testimony here from Mr. VANCE. How do they run out the American article? I can them. not understand why people would continue to buy them if they are I!!Ir. VEST. I think I can allay the virtuous fears of my friend from worthless for actual use. They must shave somebody. Rhode Island. I am not a member of the Finance Committee, but ~Ir. ALDRICH. Because of the ability of the people he represents nothing is more. natural than that I should hear from importers or the here-the importers-to deceive the American people. people whose interests are against these high protective duties. Is it Mr. VEST. Mr. President, as to the question of undervaluation, very singul.Ur that th,e manufactnrers should appear before the com about which we have heard so much, in reference to these importers, mittee? It is an open secret that they could not be satisfied. They particularly Alfred Field & Co.-and I never saw any of them, !never claim now that they elected Harrison and that they are entitled to any knew there was any such firm in existence until they came before the protection they ask. Senator from North Carolina and myself-! have simply to say that! There is no limit to their demand. Here are the manufacturers' have here their proposition in writing to the Secretary of the Treasury organs, the Iron and Steel Bnlletin, and the PhiladelphiaNorth Ameri that he might send an agent to examine their books from the time they can, and the Manufactnrer, which I have here before me, alloftbem de commenced business, and if any evidence of undervaluation was found manding in so many words that the manufacturers are to be protected in their importations they were willing to submit to any penalty, any to the full extent of their demands and not their necessities. increase of dnties, or otherwise, that the Department might assess upon .Mr. ALLISON. I desire to state, if the Senator from Missouri will them. allow me, that we heard very fully lt.fr. Field and Mr. Saxton and all ]'}fr. PLATT. I want to say that I have r.een-I had it in my pos these gentlemen in the committee-room. 1\Ir. Saxton had full oppor session until a day or two ago, but can not lay my hands upon it at tunity to be heard. I think he was there on two diff~rent occasions. this time-an affidavit made by one of these same people who testified Mr. VEST. I have not any doubt about it.. My only connection before the Senator from North Carolina..and the Senator from Missouri with this matter is that after I took my public stand in the Senate that Mr. Field's house undervalued cutlery 4G per cent. There is one Chamber against this increase of duty upon everything, I received com of them testifying against the other, and that affidavit was filed in munications from men whose interests-and I use the word advisedly the Treasnry Department and I have seen it and had a copy of it in were not for high duties, giving me information so that I could fight my possession. this bill. I do not pretend to say that their motives were disinterested, ltlr. VEST. In this testimony is the statement of Mr. Saxton, and I do not care. I want the truth, let it come from one side or the whom I never saw before and whose manner and testimony impressed other or from any source whatever. 'What do I know about these man me that he was an honest man, that a worthless character whose name ufh.ctnrers? None of them would e\er come to me. They would as he gives-a vagabond-was employed by the Treasury Department, soon go to the shade of a upas tree as to me to increase !he duty. whose business it was to assail the importers, and who was dismissed Mr. PLATT. I think that is so. afterward for drunkenness and misconduct by the Treasury Depart Mr. VEST. The Senator says that is so. Yes, it is, beca-me we ha>e ment. That is the man, I snppose, who made this charge. an enormous surplus in the Treasury, and I want to reduce it, and I :Mr. PLATT. No, no; itwasMr. Taussig, one ofyonr witnesses, and want our Republican friends to make good their platform of 1884, that as regards this other man, I wish to say that I know him-- they intended ta reduce the surplus and reform the inequalities of the Mr. VANCE. Osborn? tariff, instead of coming in with increases of duty upon everything. Mr. PLATT. I know him, and have known him for years, and since The Senator talks as if I wanted to strike down the industries of the he has been thus attacked by Mr. Saxton I desire to say that I believe country. he is as honorable a gentleman as Mr. Saxton is. ]'}fr. ALDRICH. Does not the Senator agree with the Finance Com Mr. VEST. I have practiced law so long that I am not astoni~hed mittee that the effect of onr bill will be to reduce the revenue? at any statement of this sort. Every man stands by his own witnesa. Mr. VEST. I do not know whether it would Teduce it or not. I Mr. BLAIR. I understa»d he says that he is no worse than Mr. know it puts up duties. I know that· it puts up the duty npon one Field is. grade of knives lOOper cent.(Iam. taking the average); upon two..:'&ade ltlr. VEST. My friend from New Hampshire is the contingent that knives, 70 per cent.-! am taking the amount of the amendment, not always comes in on the homestretch; but I am qnite through with it. the substitute, for that is a great deal more; upon the three-bladed Here is a letter about I!!fr. Taussig. I will read it: knives the increase is 60 per cent.; on the four-bladed knives 40 per DECEMBEE 26, 1888. cent., and upon razors 100 per cent. DEAR Bm: Our Mr. Taussig was a. member of the committee from the Whole If that reduces the revenue it is not my idea of the wny to reduce it. sale Hardware Association who bad a. hearing before your committee on De cember 12, and stated to your committee that, as manufacturers of razors in this I think when you put up the duties, and the goods come into this country, we were fully satisfied with the 60 per cent. protection afforded us by country, that increases the revenue. I have heard it intimated on this the present tariff. The main complaint made by manufacturers, as our Mr. floor before that the Democratic party, myself particularly, wanted to Taussig understoodt was that, owing to general undervaluation, the American manufacturers coula not compete. The only other manufacturer of razors of strike down the mannfacturing interests of the United States. Well, any consequence in this country besides ourselves is 1\lr. J. R. Torrey, and we I think I can treat that with contempt as an American Senator and an have learned that this manufacturer, who has been importing pocket-knives to American citizen. The men who make that sort of charge make it for sell in connection with his razors, has in several instances had his invoices ad v,a.nced on account of being undervalued. politkal purposes. :My State has more manufacturing interests than We simply desire to state to your honorable committee, in comment of abo'\'"e, a majority of the New England States. that we cheerfully unite in the offer made by the president of the Wholesale Mr. PLATT. More than Connecticut? Hardware Association as to the examination of ow.; books, etc., And remain, very respect.fully, yours, Mr. VEST. Not as much Connecticut, but more than New Hamp WIEBUSCH & IDLGER (Limited). shire, more than Maine, more than Vermont, and within three millions lion. WrLLUH B. ALLISON as much in value as Rhode Island, more than Indiana, and more than Chairman .Finance Committee, Washington, D. C. Maryland or Iowa. Missouri has $73,000,000 in manufactures, and I Mr. ALDRICH. .I want to find out whether this is the same Mr. am advised that my course here will send a Republican Senator to this Tanssig that the Senator from Connecticut has said had made an affi body in my place. If so, nobody will accept that result more cheer davit that the firm of Field & Co. tmdervalued their cutlery 46 per fully than myself, provided it is the august verdict of the people, but cent.? I will take their verdict and not that of my political opponents. I will Mr. VEST. I do not lrnow, and I know nothing about that affidavit. wait to hear from them and from nobody else. This is addressed to Hon. WILLIAM B. ALLISON, chairman of the Fi The Senator from Connecticut saJ'S that our platform in 1884 pledged nance Committee, and is the same proposition made by Alfred Field & the Democratic party to not reduce duties below that standard which Oo., that the Secretary of the Treasury should have their books exam would furnish protection sufficient to equalize the difference betwt;en ined and if any undervaluations were found that such penalties should the cost oflabor in this country and abroad. I never wanted anything be imposed a.s he thought proper. else. If our friends on the other side would content themselves with Mr. ALDRICH. Does the Senator from Missouri think that if these that platform, I wo.uld go with them. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. J.ANU.ARY 19,
Mr. PLATT. I will. lecture to our friends in charge of this substitute. It is the "hand-. Mr. VEST. Very good. I will put the Senator to the test. Here writing on the wall" unless they give, give, give. is cutlery. I read from the official report of the Treasury Department BAD FAITH Now MEANs FUTURE DEFEAT. on the census of 1880: It goes on to say that the Republican pa.riY was restored to power Cutlery and edged tools, product of the United States ...... $11,661,370 upon the distinct pledge of protecting all the industries of 'the United Amount paid for hired labor .. :...... $4,447,349 States. · Percentage of labor ...... 38.1 Is there any reason for apprehending that the party will not· keep faith with And the Senator says himself. the average duty in this cutlery sched- the people? We assert tha~ there is and we base the assertion upon the con ule is 65 per cent: I say it is 75. duct of the Republicans in the Senate with rilspect to the tariff bill now unde1· Mr. PLATT. The Senator of course desires to be entirely fair. discussion. These persons deliberately propose of their own motion- Mr. VEST. I do. There ought to be an amendment there, "These Senators;" it says ?tfr. PLATT. And he must know that the cost of labor on pocket· ''These persons''- knives and the cost of labor on edged tools are not alike. They are deliberately propose of their own motion to reduce protective duties upon the products of certain industries, and they indicate a purpose to reduce others by all embraced in one column there. If he will think a moment about means of a dicker for votes. The scheme for knocking off $27,000,000 from the a pocket-knife and the extreme minimum of cost of the material, he will sugar duties aims a blow at the sugar industries of Louisiana and Kansas, and see that almost all of it must be labor. As a matter of fact, it is S5 at the beet-sugar business, which is just beginning to assume importance. It per cent. labor, on an average. is true that compensa.Uon is to be offered in the shape of bounties to sugar· · growers; but this is not in fact a compensation. In the first place it s~~ocrifices Mr. VEST. Mr. President, I have again and again gone to the Treas the principle of tariff protection, and in the second place it compels the Ameri ury Department and attempted to get the difference in labor on specific can people to pay the bounty instead of forcing foreigners t-o pay it. The bounty system is proposed because the Senators desire to retain the internal taxes upon articles in this country and abrod.d without success, and it is not ac spirits, which we alone pay; and the operation of the.system is S,hat we shall cessible, and all that I can take are the official reports of the Treasury continue to collect from the people an exorbitant tax on alcohol, with the pro Department of the averages. I have this table here, and any Senator ceeds of which we shall pay the bounty to the sugar-grower. can obtain it; it is an official document furnished by the Treasury De On the other hand, a customs duty on sugar may be paid and probably is largely paid by the foreign producer as the price of admission to this market. partment and sl\ows the cost of labor in this country as to specific And, if this is not in fact the case now, U certainly will be the case as soon as our products. Of course that is the average, and here is cutlery, 38.1 per domestic sugar industry begins to have large proportions. l\leanwhile, the du ties upon certain kinds of iron are to be cut down, although Republican orators cent. as the cost of labor. won many votes in the iron'districts with declarations that the dutie.'l would be Mr. PLATT. Including edged tools of all sorts. more likely to go up than down. The rates on lumber are to be cut, the wool Mr. VEST. I can not help that. Here are razors with 100 per cent. growers are gravely dissatisfied with the wool schedules, and in some other cases there is to be either reduction or a failure to make such increase as is fa.irly advance in duty, and all these different grades of cutlery averaging required by the needs of the affected industries. from 40 up to 100 per cent. . The Senator himself admits that the in We are fully aware of the difficulties that beset tl1e protectionists in the Sen crease on an average is 65 per cent. Is it necessary to put 65 per cent. ate. They work amid a clashing of interests, and it seems necessary t-o make some compromises if they are to accomplish anything. This want of harmony on razors and pocket-knives, and ::ill edged tools, if yon include them, of opinion within the protectionist ranks is the greatest of all the obstacles to in order to make up the difference between the cost of labor in this the success of the cause. The free-traders are united. country and abroad? I never knew that before. Mr. PLATT. To 65, not of 65 per cent. . They all want the same thing and they stand resolutely together to tight for Mr. VEST. I say it is more than 65 per cent., and I have had the it. The protectionists are harassed by the cowardly selfishness of some of their increases mathematically made out. They range from 40 to 100 per own people. A Senator from Kansas is eager to strike down t.he iron-workers of Pennsylvania, but he waxes indignant when a proposition is made to touch cent. in the amendment brought forward by the Finance Committee; the sugar duties. 1\Iichiga.n is resolute for maintenance of the lumber duties, and yet we are told that this enormous increase is necessary in order to but her representatives would rejoice to have a chance to expose the woolen make up the difference between 38 per cent., the cost of labor on this and cotton manufacturers of the East to unequal 1·ivalry from · Europe. The antagonisms and jealousies within the Republican ranks were b,ushed during branch of industry in the United States, and the cost of labor abroad. the campaign, but victory has quickened them into normal vigor, and 'they are Now, ?t!r. President, let us look at t;b.e practical operation of this mat now expressing themselves with as much vehemence as if the Republican party ter. Here is a knife-and I will take the average; if Senators will turn had gained, somehow or other, a lease of power which can never again be ques- · to the ~mendme~t they will see what I mean-a knife costing $2.62 per tioned. But it will be questioned. It is questioned now by the iron-workers in the dozen, a four-bladed knife. The present duty is 50 per cent.; the Sen Schuylkill Valley, who perceive with amazementthat Republican Senators ap ate bill makes it 101 per cent.; and th~ amendment makes it 72.9 per pear to have forgotten all the glorious rhetoric of the campaign which exalted cent. That four-bladed knife (which is the knife that goes into the con the value of the home market, the uses of the tariff as a producer of high wages, and the vital importance of sheltering American industry. It is questioned by sumption of the middle classes of the United States, not the extremely the wool-growers, to whose resolute support of the Republican candidate his rich nor the extremely poor), and the subsequent knife, at $1.33 per election was largely due; and all over the country other workmen who voted the whole ticket in their own interests and what they were taught to regard as dozen, on which the duty in the amendment is 77 per cent., constitute the interests of the country are observing the dickering and the paltering in nearly 60 per cent of the importation. .. the Senate Chamber with indignation and disgust. If that body sacrifices the The Senator from Rhode Island has told us they are almost worth protective principle in any form it will hear from the people two years hence. The mass of the voters, at lea.'lt, were in earr.estin November, and they will less, that they are brought into this country and imposed upon Ameri not bear to be trifled with now. 'Vhat they want is a thoroughly protective tariff, can consumers, and that under the present tariff these foreign im and if the Republican party shall not keep its promise to give it to them, it will porters are robbing the people of the United States, and yet we have be held responsible for the neglect. If the present Senate can not frame a just twenty-five cutlery establishments in the United States at the lowest bill it had far better drop the matter and permit the next House of Repre~:enta. calculation. The Senator from Connecticut is my authority. tives to deal with it. ?t1r. PLATT. Seventeen. ?tfr. PLU?tfB. I wanted to know the mental disturbance which the Mr. VEST. Seventeen. We have had twenty-five; and yet with Senator must have undergone when he found he was on tl).e platform that duty of 50 per cent. the American citizen concludes it is to his in of that paper on the sugar duty and on the question of a bounty. He terest to buy from the foreign importer. Why, to listen to the Sena and the writer of that article seem to have been in exact accord upon tor from Rhode Island you would think that all. the cutlery made in that very important question, while he finds on the perusal of the arti the United States was of greatly superior quality to any that is brought cle. further that the manufacturers are utterly opposed to this tariff in from abroad. 1 bill. I find myself some consolation in that, because I have been a There is a knife made in Connecticut which costs 30 cents a dozen, little bit distrustful of any bill that absolutely met their requirements. wholesale. It is not worth two-eighths of 1 cent, intrinsically. It is I have a good many feelings in common with the Senator about some absolutely worthless. There is not any purpose to which it could be of these things, but I am a little distressed about the manner in which put except as an ornament for some boy to say "Here is my knife," he appears to wobble just now. . without ever attempting to cut anything with it-the most worthless Mr. VEST. No, Mr. President, there is no wobbling in me- thing in the shape of a knife that I have ever seen. That is the Amer :Mr. PLUMB. He is with these manufacturers against the sugar ican article; and yet my friend from Rhode Island is filled with virtu bounty; he is on all fours with them, though he is opposing this bill . ous indignation when he contemplates the foreign imported article with about as much virulence as they do. If I can not carom on the which is used to rob the .American people! Senator occasionally when I ~et to be a little less practical than some I do not want to go mto a general debate, but my friend has taunted of my associates here, I do not know whom I can carom on. me with the fact of my association with the foreign importers. His Mr• .ALDRICH. I am very glad the Senator from Missouri has. association has been with the manufacturers, and the result of the as placed upon the public record this statement of a. paper which I tm-i sociation is shown in the substitute and in the amendment also. derstand to be the official organ of the manufacturers. It is the very, These importers, I have not the slightest doubt about it, are actuated best answer which could be made to the charge which is constantlyre-: by self-interest. If there was ever a question on this earth that de peated upon the other side that in the preparation of this bill we have ~ velopsselfishness, greed, and rapacity, it is this, the tariff; and if a man acceded to the demand of every manufacturer who appeared before the; undertakes to fight all of this rapacity as he t;nust do on a plane of com committee. - · . l mon ju~ice and equality he is a very fortunate public man if he is not Mr. ViST. .A.s to what the Senator from Kansas has suggested, that, dragged down a~d .befouled in the conflict. I want to show the spirit the e XX--~2 978 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. JANUARY 19, Senator believe that it is right and proper in any case to equalize the see a large increase of duty, if you will turn over to the importations conditions in this country and in Europe in respect to labor alone and you will see a large importation. give the protection necessary to protect labor? Mr. IDSCOCK. Allow me to say right here in reference to that Mr. VEST. I would be perfectly willing, without any abstract prin of course we know what we have done better than the Senator from ciple about it, to agree to a compromise of that sort, if the manufact Missouri-- urers and their friends would be satisfied with it; but I know they will Mr. VEST. I do not belong to the committee. not be,. and they are not, as to any item or schedule in this bill. The 1\Ir. HISCOCK. In all cases we have investigated the question of great vice in t.his protective system is that you can never satisfy the labor. The importation, as a matter of course, is the most positive manufacturers. proof that the conditions as to labor have not been equalized. Else Mr. HISCOCK. There is just this difference between myself and with all the capital that we have in this country, with the plant neces the Senator from Missouri. I do not believe that there is an item in sary for doing it all, our people would make the goods and the impor the bill in which we have gone beyond that line. tation would not be continued. ·That is simply considered, and has Mr. VEST. Oh, well, that is just what we are discussing. That is been received mJ a bill of evidence. just what I am here to try and prove to the American people is not ?11r. VEST. I have not the honor to be a member of the Committee true. I am willing to take the official report of the Secretary of the on Finance, but it is a most remarkable fact that the Senator from New Treasury, and I will agree to put on a duty here that will be ample to York tells us they have examined this question of labor, and then ad equalize the difference between the cost of labor in this country and vances the remarkable proposition that the amount of importations set abroad. ' tles the amount of labor. Mr. HISCOCK. I want to make one qualification of my statement. ?!Ir. HISCOCK. I beg the Senator's pardon; I said nothing of the On account of the difficulty in drawing the division lines between dif kind. ferent rates for the same goods, there is no sort of doubt but that there Mr. VEST. What did the Senator say? may be some provisions in this bill which afford protection beyond that Mr. HISCOCK. I simply said that it was received as corroborating to cheaper grades of the same class of goods; but it does no harm for the evidence or as evidence of some sort on that question upon the process reason that as to those goods we can compete with the world to-day. of reasoning that I have indicated; but it never has been received in With that exception the bill is framed on that line. the way in which the Senator seems to state that I said. Mr. VEST. Oh, there is article after article here where we have Mr. VEST. It is remarkable that whilst we have read as to almost shown by the official export tables that the manufacturers supply the every item the estimate of the Treasury Department giving the amount domestic market and then have a surplus to go abroad, and still our of labor put into the American product, in not one single instance friends put up the duty, and they have put it up and kept it up on have our friends on the committee told us what was the cost as to the articles not one pound of which was imported into the United States. same article of labor abroad. If they had that information they ought Mr. ALDRICH. Will the Senator allow me a moment? to have given it to us. Mr. VEST. Yes, sir. Mr. ALDRICH. The Senator from Connecticut within ten minutes Mr. ALDRICH. I wish to say that neither the Treasury Depart has read within the hearing of the Senate that very statement. ment, nor the Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department, nor Mr. VEST. The Senator from Connecticut has as to one knife, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States, nor any other of even that is brought here now for the first time in the debate. ficial source, has ever furnished any statistics or made any statement Mr. PLATT. I referred to it this morning with reference to a great of the comparative cost of production growing out of the cost of labor number of knives. I put the table in my remarks. It is published between articles produced in this country and in competing countries in the testimony. abroad. When that statement is furnished authoritatively and truth Mr. ALDRICH. That is what I was going to say, that it appears fully I am willing as one protectionist to make the rates of duty in in the testimony. every instance conform to that difference in conditions and make the ?lfr. PLATT. Ithas not been questioned by any importer. rate of duty simply large enough to equalize the conditions between Mr. VEST. The Committee on Finance have not even given us the the two countries. calculation of experts as to increases of duties in the bill or in any Mr. VEST. It may be true that in one document the cost of labor amendment that they have offered. They have given us no such cal in the United States and the cost of labor abroad as to each specific ar culation. ticle are not given, but! have before me an official statement, Washing Mr. ALLISON. What is this statement here? ton, D. C., J t~.Duary 5, 1884, taken from the census of 1880, giving Mr. VEST. That is no statement of the ad valorem increase in specific and enumerated articles and the cost of labor in the United your bill It is the ad valorem duty under the existing law. Will States in their production. the Senator point me to where they have done it? Mr. HISCOCK. If the Senator will pardon me, if he will examine Mr. HISCOCK. You can reach that result- that statement he will find this, all that I have ever seen, that the ~fr. VEST. They have left us to go to experts whom we could find more finished product is classified with the raw material which makes and to pick up information here and there from importers and others. up the more finished product; and then again, in reference to tho e They have never given us the calculation of the increase of duty or the products taken as a whole, their raw materials are nowhere taken into change in duty by reason of the substitute that they have brought in account in making that statement. Take it in reference to the manu here. If they have I should like to see it. We have a column here factures of steel, tracing it back to the coal, to the ore, and all those opposite each one of these items of ad valorem rates, but that is under things, nothing of that kind has ever been done. existing law. because I worked it out after I acquired a little expert Mr. VEST. We will not go back into that. The Senator from New knowledge and was able to do it myself. York and myself had that out before. Mr. HISCOCK. It is fair the Senator should say that so far as the Mr. PLATT. I dislike to interrupt the Senator, but will he permit statement is concerned in all cases, usually at least, it gives the unit me right on this question of cutlery to state, and to illustrate it by a of value, and it is no great difficulty for him to work out the ad va single knife, that we are not equalizing the cost of labor? This is in lorem himself. the testimony, and I have some means of knowing that it is accurate. Mr. VEST. It was done with a greatdealofdifficulty when I com Take a four-bladed knife, which cost in Germany $1.56 a dozen. I menced this work. think that is pretty near what the Senator gave as the cost of his four Mr. HISCOCK. I wish to say another thing, that, in the main, so far bladed knives. as the items in this bill are concerned they were very largely prepared, Now, the labor in Germany costs $1.06. The manufacture of that practically agreed to, I would not say in all cases, without our having same knife costs in America $5.45 a dozen, the labor cost in it being examined into the question of importations, and the question of non $4.23. We do not go back to the iron mines. Thatisthecostinmak importation was more frequently used against claims which were urged ing the knife. So the difference in the cost of labor in this country over to have duties raised than it was in any other case. Germany in the making of that knife is $3.17. By this bill, by the Mr. VEST. Mr. President, I will not pursue the discussion, be amendment which the Senator is attacking so, the duty is only $1.14. cause we could not agree about it, and I apologize for having introduced So we have not come to the difference in cost. We have nothalfcome anything which led to general debate. I will not do so any more. to it. But I want to call attention to a statement for the benefit of my friend ~1r. VEST. I have no doubt that isolated instances like that can from New York, and then I am done. He has repeatedly alluded to be discovered, but we are bound to take the average through the the que tion of the product of the world as influencing the price of whole schedule. It is beyond credibility that as to these cheaper commodities. I have before me a very interesting pamphlet which I knives the cost of labor should be in any such proportion as that obtained from Mr. Carroll D. Wright. I have worked diligently to stated by the Senator from Connecticut. get from statistics (because this is one of the most interesting points But I want to make this statement, for I do not want to go into a in the whole tariff discussion) the effect of the tariff upon prices. I general debate. Throughout this whole discussion and in all the ac have at last obtained this little tract. tion of our friends on the other side, one single fact is absolutely be I suppose it will be discredited, for it comes from Michael G. 1\.iul yond question, and it is that they have never looked to the question of hall, F. S. S., a Fellow of the Scientific Society, I suppose, and the labor to guide them in fixing their rates; they have looked to importa author of "The Dictionary of Statistics." It is entitled "Variations tions. I have called attention to this again and again. Wherever you of Price Level since 1850, '' a pamphlet which belongs to the GQvern- 1889. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 979 ment, and which I am to return; I will put the concluding portion of should be added to the cost the sum total would be about 11 cents it in the R!!:CORD. It takes twenty articles comprising 90 per cent. of per capita. 1 all bum an industries, prod nets, or manufactures, and runs out the prod \\-~e have had denunciation by one Senator and another, but particu , uct of the world with the general decrease of price since 1850. Here larly by the Senator from Missouri, of a system that would enable the is the conclusion: manufacturers thus to rob the people of the United States. When it The above twenty items comprise 90 per cent. of all human industries as re- was stated here that that which cost a mere fraction of a cent was sold 1 Jl3.l"ds products or manufactures, and therefore enable us to arrive at the exact for eight or ten times what it cost and the profits went into the pockets 'variaLions of price level for the whole world, that is, the rise or fall in the pur chasing power of gold since 1850. The result is as follows: of the importers, the Senator had no denunciations for the importerd and for their greed. Yesterday, when the sugar schedule was before the Pur- Senate; when, if the Senator is correct in his theory that all the dnty is Years. chasing added to the cost of the article (and undoubtedly that is true on the power. sugar schedule, for we have not been able to manufacture sug:ar enough ------·-----!·--- in this country to change the rule), $56,500,000 would be added, or 1841-'50...... ig every one of them clearly recognizing the American principle of pro in great quantities we may determine what the price is ourselves; but1 tection to our m::mufactnres, became Jaws with the approval of the if we send it in small lots, then the other country determines the price. 1 class of men of whom I have spoken-George Washington, Benjamin That is true of all products that come here. As soon ns we get to man_I Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, ufacture in considerable quantities, then the prices go down. We have and James Uonroe, the two Adamses, and Andrew Jackson. All the not yet got to manufacture sugar so that we can do that. There is no leading men or that The ancient tax known as the tributum had fallen into disuse during the flour What do these facts signify-eight thousand millions in twenty-three ishing period of the commonwealth, when the treasuries of the world were be ing poured into the coffers of Rome and the pnblic domain, having been allotted years and seven hundred millions in the last year? They indicate that to veteran soldiers nnd other landless citizens, no longer yielded a revenue. In whatever is the amount of tax or duty you impose upon that eight order to meet the greatly increased expenses of the imperial administration a thousand millions exchanged into an import-for it is only an exp0rt capitation taxofadual kind was imposed upon real property and upon polls. The soil of the provinces was divided into portions known as capita of the estimated of a value or property of your own people converted into something value of 1,000 solidi in one such fiscal unit, so that one large proprietor might else and brought back here, and the value is simply trll118ferred and ex be rated as the owner of a. number of capita, while the land of several small changed into another product-tho import and the export represent proprietors might be combined to form one caput. The classes who possessed no landed property paid a. tax upon their personal effects. Common laborers only one value increased by transportation and exchange and still rep and sla.ves, who owned nothing, were simply rated accordjng to their polls, and resents the original value exported and the per ons who produced it; the sum due was collected from their masters or employers. In some of the whatever it may be, if the amount that you impo e upon it be 100 per provinces, such as Africa. and Egypt'!. the revenue wo.s collected in kind for the purpose of supplying the capital witn com for public distribution, and, instead cent., or if it be increased until you destroy its value entirely by plac of a tithe of the produce being exacted, the landowner WllB required to deliver ing it beyond the reach of the consumer, yon ha>e only destroyed that to the nearest imperial storehouse a. fixed quantity of grain based upon an esti much of your own production and have laid it upon the class that pro mate of the productive nature of the soil. In provinces not specially designated as granaries com or other produce was duced it just as if you had burned at your seaports this $8,000,000,000 accepted at its market value to an extent limited by the requirements of the of production, and that is a law which you can not alter. The excess government, but the demand was, as a. rule, quite equivalent to the supply, of a man or of a country's production-for it matters not which-must for the provisions not needed for the sustenance of armies engaged in almost continual warfare and of the multitude of slaves in the public employ were be exchanged into something else of value or destroyed. That :ia a nat readily dispo ed of to the Roman populace. The state continued, as in there ural law. publican age, to derive an income from gold, sil>er, and other metallic ~ines Therefore it is that, however true and howe>er wise it may be to and quarries of marble and other >aluable stone. The mines were let to con tractors or as ociations of publicani, as during the commonwealth period, and encourage new or to maint.ain old industries, howe>er wise to create an the slate supplied the contractors with the forced labor of convicted criminals, independence in the country, howe>er constitutional and lawful to ex and sometimes with the reluctant industry of regular soldiers. ercise the power of taxation or of imposing duties on imports, it must At a later period the population of mining djstricts, which probably iuclnded a. large proportion of released convicts, wo.s reduced to a sort of peonage, being be done with reference to the fact that an import is but an export and bound to the soil and forbidden to emigrate, but allowed to hire oflt their own a. production of your own converted into something else of valu~, and labor ln the mines. Salt-works, fisheries, and forests were likewise farmed to that the tax you impose upon it is in every form and necessarily a tax contractors; but the stale kept in its own hands the collection of duties on ex ports and imports, of the tolls and dues of cities, roads, and bridges, and of the upon your own people, whether it he produced by poorly pa.id or well numerous imposts with which the luxuries, and even the necessities, of life paid labor when you have purchased it with the wheat or to bncco or pro { were burdened. · visions of the United States-it is their value, their property, and the \ And in a foot-note the author goes on: more you tax it by a high duty you lessen the >aloe of the exchange, i I Augustus increased the duties on exports and imports, and also increased and yon diminish the capacity of the home producers or home market then umber ot articles liable to such duties. The ordinary 1-a.te of duty was one to buy and pay for your home manufachue. Therefore it is e>ident that fortieth of the Vl\lue of the goods, but a. person might import free of dnty any article intended for his own use. Smuggling was common, and the m81\ns taken the interests of protection to home manuf.'lctures and productions forbid by agents of the customs to detect smuggling were as offensive and annoying to a highrateofdutyand demandsuch a system as will permit an expor travelers as they are at the present day. tation of all surplus production, and as Jarge an export of all kinds as We percei>e, therefore, that in those days of the Roman empire the is consistent with the encouragementofsuch mauufacturesand such pro amount of duty on imports was about 2} per cent. instead of our duty ductions as the independence of the country in time of war requires, and of 47 per cent. ; and so, if we go on, we find when we come to the as the natural capacities of the country enable us to make with ad Venetian republic, with Florence and Venice, and their twelve hundred vantage. years of existence, the same system prevailing, the same system of Now, as to the practicability of such a system of encouragement as ·limited and moderate duties upon imports and exports; no theory of the section of this bill relating to sugar provides, namely, a system of the exclusion of trade; no theory of enormous and oppresshe and pro bounties, as to its operation upon the people, its effect upon the people at hibitory rates of duty~ and we must perceive that the maintenance of large, it seems to me there can be no question that aspecific tax applied a system of this kind of extravagant taxation and of prohibitory duties to a specific purpose would be a lighter burden than a tax upon the gen is not only unwise, not only inconsistent with the general prosperity of eral consumption of the country, and that it would avoid some of tho the people, but will have the effect of building up immense privileged more imporL.'illt objections to a system of high duties on imports, but if interests, of creating an aristocracy of wealth, as veritable and com adopted, for one I c::m see no reason why it should not be adopted for pletely plutocratic government ns if by law certain privileges were al1. made hereditary in certain persons and in certain families, and the same The encouragement by Government aid of home manufactures and result will come to us from the same cause as came to Venice and to home productions is one thing, and the methods by which it shall be Florence in the final periods of their twel>e hundred years of exist· done is another. The manner in which a·tax shall be levied and the ence. appropriation of H, and the reasons which govern each, arc as distinct But, Mr. President, these questions relate altogether to the care with as any two things in nature. which a system of duties mn:y be and should be imposed. Mr. Madi One importa.nt difrerence between the two methods, that of direct son, in his review of the different tariffs and in his letter to J\lr. Clay, appropriation and that of protection by a duty on imports, will be lays down the proposition that the abuse of this power of taxation, the found in the free competition which the direct appropriation permits abuse of a system of levies upon imports, is the great evil that is to be under the system of duties. apprehended from its nso-the increased duty, the exaggerated duty, Wben yon have stimulated the home production, or when you have the application of it to cases to which it should not be applied, to cases created the domestic competition which may produce its natural ef in which the foreign production is better for the interests of a country fects, when you ha>e produced it to such an extent as you desire, it is than the home production ~ould be; and he urges that it should be lim ttuc it will have its effect upon the >alue of the thing produced unless ited to articles necessary for the thorough independence of a country artificiul combination or causes which are within the creation of man in a time of" war and to the articles absolutely necessary for hnnum life are interrened to check this natural and necessary result, but all this which the natural capabilities of the country favored, all with the un time the people will be paying an oppressive tax. derstanding that the system of trade and commerce is a necessity for We ha>e had a. proposition to chn.nge the form in which this method nll people, nn economic necessity, and that nothing but absolute pro of encouragement or this stimulus to the development of new employ hibition will prevent commerce between countries. ments is applied from a duty on imports to an appropriation in the form But, Mr. President, before I depart from this view of the subject as of a bounty for one production only, and that one so gar, the best reve to the inefficiency of extravagant and prohibitory duties and the im nue subject. As I said in the beginning of my remarks, I can sec no po sibility of their being imposed consistently with the public juter difference in the constitutionality of the appropriation of this money ests, I wish to call attention to another fact. in the shape of a bounty or in the levying of a tax directly or in duties It is ccrta.inly true that any stimulus of any kind, either na.tuml or on imports. It matters not which, for it de1·ives its >alidity from the artificial, to production which increa.'\CS its quantity will diminish its fact of its being a b .wful object of the power of 1t!vying taxes and from exchangeable >aloe if the demand does not correspondingly increase, the fact of its being within the power to regulate commerce as con proYiUed the increased supply is accessible to the ID1lrkets of the world. sb:ued by all the early Presidents of the country and the founders of '.fhat is nn inevitable law unless artificial combinations pre>ent its the Constitution. Therefore, as to its constitutionality I think there operation, and any stimulu~ eithor by prohibitio~ or by bounty, o: of can be no o'Qjection. enconragemcnt by combination of nsc;ociated cap1tal and enterpnse, I have fuiled to see what necessary relation there was between the may develop industries and production in one country or a~other, but imposition of a tax upon the entire consumption of a country and the there will he a surplus in e>ery country. You can not adjust the wants encouragement of a particular industry or employment. Why tax the and the protluction of a people to a precise equality. There must be whole people and give :ln. unlimited range of higher prices to the a surplus somewhere, and that surplus c.1.n not be carried away, either founder of a new industry? It bas been done in all ages. It was from a mnn or a country, except by cxchauging it for something else. done in Rome is wns done in Athens, it was done in Venice, it was I finrl that in the twenty-three years from lBGO to 1883 there were done in Flore~ce, and it is a· well-est::\blished policy in our own coon eight thousand millions of breadstuff:;, pro>isions, and cotton exported try aud in aU European countries, but it produced that distinction of aucl cxchan;.~cd into foreign productions and imported into this coun classes there and it will produce it everywhere. It is a. bounty larger try, and t.hcro were nearly seYen hnn of particular persons, of the persons who engage in an ind\lstry; and application of this system, which bas become a part of the traditional although it may be true that this inducement may carry many into it, public policy of this Government, and which l\Ir. Madison in the article and thus create competition, it is also true that that competition may which I have read supports and defends. be ~ited, and yet the burden be continued indefinitely on the pP.ople I will not detain the Senate upon this subject further than to say of the country. that all the early Presidents adopted this view of this power in the As to the duty on sugar, the question should be, for purposes of pro Constitution and of its exercise, and maintained while it should be ex tection, whether or not the tax should be laid upon the consumers of ercised for its protective effect and purposes, it should be limited to a sugar equally with the consumers of manufactured goods, of woolen or low rate of duty,· and such a rate M should not be prohibitory of trade of cott-on goods, or of iron manufactures, so as to afiord an equal rate and commerce. The whole authority of the early history of the coun of protection to each. While that is true, the question ofproportioning try is to that effect and only to that effect. this taxation for the encouragement of these industries, if they are to There has been frequent assertion in the debate on this bill that the be promoted equally, leaves the sugar tax and the sugar interest to Democratic party was a free-trade party, and the Republican party for stand or fall upon the line of equality and encouragement with those protection and a friend of American industries and the workingmen. other interests, and makes special provision in the nature of a duty and It will be of some interest to consider the true distinction between a bounty for it, but no account being taken of the fact that if we are to these two parties, as given by :Mr. J efl:'erson in a letter to Mr. Adams, have a revenue duty, this is a re-venue article and most suitable, and in the philosophic calm and retirement of the honored old age of these as tea or coffee would be, and better for the purposes of collecting a two great men. revenue than any other article. From his home in Monticello, under date of June 27, 1813, Jefferson It is upon this ground that the high duty on sugar has always been wrote to John Adams as follows: maintained and successfully clefended, and for the purposes of revenue Men have differed in opinion, and been divided into pnrties by these opinions, and protection combined there can be no doubt that it may claim a from the first origin of societies, and in all governments where they have been permitted freely to think and to speak. The same political parties which now right to be placed in the highest scale of duties; and if we are to con agitate the United States have existed through all time. Whether the power sider the protective feature and its application to the case, it should be of the people or thnt of the o.ptu-rot should prevail, were questions which kept that sugar should stand upon this fair and just equality of protection the states of Greece and Rome in eternal convulsions, as they now schismatize every people whose minds and mouths are not shut up by the gag of a despot. . with any other protected article. As to the question which of tbe·two And, in fact, the terms of Whig and Tory belong t<> natural as well as to civil forms of taxation, the tax by a duty or the tax by a bounty, is the history. They denote the temper and constitution of mind of dilrerent indi easier for the people, there can be no question whatever upon that sub viduals. < To come to our own country, and to tb·e times when you and I became firsb / ject. acquainted, we well remember the Yiolent parties which agitated the old Con 1\Ir. Hamilton said in his article: gress and their bitter contests. There you and I were together, and the Jays ( and the Dickinsons and other anti-independents were arrayed against us. Bounties are sometimes not only the best but the only proper expedient for They cherished the monarchy of England, and we the :rights of our countrymen. uniting tlle encouragement of a new object of agriculture with that of a new When our present Government was in the mew, passing from Confederation -to object of manufacture. It is the interest of tlle farmer to have the production Union, how bitter was the schism between the l!'edsand Antis. Here you and I of the raw material promoted by counteracting the interference o! the foreign were together again. For although for a moment separated by the Atlantic material of the same kind. U is the interest of the manufacturer to have the from the scene of action, I favored the opinion that nine States should con material abundant and cheap. It prior to the domestic production of the ma firm tbe Constitution, in order to secure H., and the others hold off until certain terial in sufficient quantity to supply the manufacturer on good terms a duty amendments, deemed favorable to freedom, should be made. I rallied in the be laid upon the importation of it from abroad, with o. view to promote the first instant to the wiser proposition of Massachusetts, that all should confirm, raising of it at home, the interest bolh o! the farmer and manufacturer will be and then all instruct their delegates to urge those amendments. The amend disserved. By either destroying the requisite supply or raising the price of the ments were made, and all were reconciled to the Government. But as soon as article beyond whnt can be afforded to be given for it by the conductor of an it was put into motion the line of division was again drawn. We broke into infant manufacture, it is abl\ndoned or fails, and there being no domestic manu two parties, each wishing to give the Government ad i.ffercnt direction; the one factories to create a demand for the raw material, which is raised by the farmer, to strengthen the most popular branch, the other the more permanent branches, · it is in vain that the competition of the like foreign article may have been and to extend their permanence. Here you a:1d I separated for the first time, destroyed. and as we bad been longer t.han most others on the public theater, and our names therefore were more familiar to our countrymen, the party which considered 1\.fr. President, it is quite plain that these observations, in some re you as thinking with them placed your name at their head; the other, for the spects at least, are well founded, and that so fur as raising the price same reason, select-ed mine. is concerned the appropriation of a bounty has no effect whatever ex cept the indirect effect of stimulating production. Until that object is The people on one sidej the lX,IJt6roz, the few, the privileged, on the attained there is no increase of price levied upon the people of the coun other. This seems to be tho perpetual contentions from age to age. try by the appropriation of the bounty. I can therefore see that it The Democratic party the pa.rty of the people-others the apt6roz. would be a wise thing if all this encouragement to industries-except How wise is it that this distinction shall not be pressed too far, and in extreme cases where for reasons of public policy temporary exclusion that neither of the two great political parties of this conn try shall be or prohibition should be necessary-was in the shape of a specific ap characterized as against the people by the laws which they enact. The propriation, in the form of a bounty, for it would relieve the people of taxing power, the grant of benefits by law to individuals for public pur the country of this oppressive and uncertain cloud which hangs over poses, real or pretended, while it has always been public policy in every them of an excessive price for the necessaries and comforts of llie; and state, has always been the ultimate cause of ruin to all governments, that is the danger to be apprehended. It is not in the wise and rea both free and despotic, because of its natural tendency to excessive and sonable exercise of the power to encourage 4omestic industries, manu oppressive taxation in the interest of privileged classes and not for pub factures or others, by Government aid, which has become an established lic objects. It will be wise in the Republican party, now controlling policy in this country, but in the abuse of that power; and Mr. Jeffer the public policy of this country, that this bill shall not be of this char son's idea, as interpreted by .Mr. Madison in his letter alluding to Mr. acter, but that it shall largely rP-duce the oppressive and unnecessary Jefferson's opinion upon the subject, in insisting that the power to pro taxation under which the people are now suffering. In all wise gov mote and encourage the development of manufactures and industries ernments taxes should be imposed in such way as will be least burden was that it should be exercised upon the revenue basis so as to save it some to the people, and the chief object of every tax should be the col from abuse, and, as he says, t-o have a moderate and fair and equal im lection of revenue. Therefore it was that in the early history of the position upon every portion of the country. country the protective effect of a tax, a duty, was regarded 88 the inci Therefore this bill anu its provisions in whi.ch this tariff on some ar dent, and revenue as the object. ticles is run up to the extent of 60 and 100 per cent. is an unwise one; The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on the amendment it is an unreasonable taxation; it is an excessive taxation, and that of the Senator from Iowa [Mr. ALLISON]. limit should be carefully observed which will confine the protect-ion The amendment was agreed to. afforded to these different industries to such limited protection as will Mr. VANCE. I offer the proviso which I send to the desk to come induce a.nd preserve a competition between the productions of foreign in at the close of the amendment just adopted. nations,notadisadvantageous competition, but a fair and ajnst compe The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The amendment will be reported. tition, as Mr. Madison said, as Alexander Hamilt-on said, as Mr. Jef The SECRETARY. It is proposed to add: ferson said, the principle of all economic laws being that of free industry Provided, That no article mentioned in this paragraph and paragraph 172 shall and free interchange, limited and checked only to the extent necessary pay a. greater rate of duty than 65 per cent. ad valorem. for the encouragement and the development of special and particular Mr. VANCE. That is the rate that the Senators on the other side interests in a country. estimate the amount of duty under the amendment to the substitute When there shall be reciprocal trade; when the nations of the earth just adopted would average. I propose to confine it to that, for the shall learn that these restrictions nreinall cases and everywhere a bar 'Teason that the same kind of articles, as already explained, of the rier in the way of the general comfort and the greater abundance of cheaper kind are over 100 per cent. everything to every individual; when the nations of the world shall The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on the amendment have learned that in unrestricted commerce with each other and upon offered by the Senator from North Carolina [Mr. V ..A.NCE]. fair and just terms, regulated by proper, by equal conditions, that in Mr. VANCE. I ask for the yeas and nays. that commerce lies the hope of the comfort and abundance of each in The yeas 'and nays were ordered, and the Secretary proceeded to call dividual, of the progress of the arts and the higher civilization of man the roll. kind-a system looking to that as the final result, but still preserving :Mr. BUTLER (when his name wa.s called). I am paired with the independence and prosperity by reasonable and limited encouragement Senator from Pennsylvania [Mr. CAMERON]. If be were present, I in fi11Ch form as will be least burdensome to the tax-payers, is the just should vote •' yea.'' 1889. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 985 Mr. DAWES (when Mr. HoAR'S name was called). My colleague Hoar, Pasco, Ra.nsom, Voorhees [Mr. HoAR] and the senior Senator from North Carolina [Mr. RAN· Kenna, Payne, Sabin, Wilson of Iowa, McPherson, Plumb, Sherman, Wilson of Md. SOM] are paired. Mitchell, Pugh, Stanford, Mr. PAYNE (when his name was called). I am paired with my Morgan, Quay, Vance colleague [Mr. SHERMAN], and therefore withhold my vote. So the amendment was rejected. 1\!r. RIDDLEBERGER (when his name was called). I am paired Mr. ALLISON. !day I inquire of the .Chair if paragraph 172 has with the Senator from New Jersey [Mr. BLODGETT], but I am entirely been read? I have 1t marked as "passed over." I move to amend it willing that a transfer of the pair shall be :made in order to keep up a by striking out "20" and inserting "15," in line 730. quorum. If at liberty to vote, I "Should vote for the committee bill The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The paragraph bas been read, and right straight through. the amendment, in line 730, to strike out '' 20" and insert "15" is now M..r. TURPIE (when his name was called). I am paired with the pending. junior Senator from Minnesota [Mr. DA vrs], nnd therefore declbe to 1\Ir. ALLISON. I ask for a.ction on it. vote. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The amendment will be Btated. The roll-call was concluded. The SECRETARY. On page 115, paragraph 172, line 730, after the Mr. HALE. 1\fy pair with the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. BECK] word "p· eces," it is proposed to strike out "20" and insert "15; " so is transferred to the Senator from Minnesota [Mr. DAVIS], and I vote as to read: "nay." 172. Table-knives, forks, steels, and o.ll carving, butchers', coob', bunting The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Minnesota. has kitchen, bread, butter, vegetable, fruit, cheese, plumbers', painters', palette, and voted. artists' knives of all ~izes, finished or unfinished, valued at not more than $1 per per dozen pieces, 15 cents per dozen; valued at more than $1 and not more than Mr. HALE. I understood the Senator from Indiana [Mr.· TURPIE] S3, 50 cents per dozen; valued at more than $3 and not more than 18, $1 ver to announce a pair with the Senator from Minnesota, and I arranged dozen; valued at more than SS, $2 per dozen; and in addition npon all the above. with the Senator from Indiana to transfer it. named articles 30 per cent. ad vo.l.orem. Mr. TURPIE. I was not aware that the Senator from Minnesota The amendment was agreed to. had vot-ed. Is his name recorded? 1\Ir. ALLISON. On page 117, paragraph 181, I move an amendment, The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It is recorded in the negative. which I send to the desk. Mr. TURPIE. Then I am at liberty to vote. I vote "yea." The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The amendment will be stated. Mr. HALE. I withdraw my vote, and my pair with the Senator The SECRETARY. In paragraph 181, line 760, page 117, it is pro from Kentucky [1\Ir. BEcK] will stand. posed to strike out all after the word " guns" and insert: 1\!r. CULLOM. I am paired with the junior Senator from Delaware Valued at not more than $6 ea(lh, ~each; '\"&luedatmoretbant6 o.ndnotmore [l\lr. GRAY], and will not ca.gt my vote. than Sl2 each, M each; valued at more than $12- each, ~ each; and in addition thereto on all the above 35 per cent. ad valorem. · Mr. ALLISON. In the confusion I inadvertently voted, forgetting \ Single-barrel breech-loading shotguns, $1 each and 35 per cent. ad valorem. that I was paired with theSenatorfromNew Jersey [Mr. McPHERSON]. Revolving pistols, valued at not more tbA.n$1.50 ea.ch, 40 cents each; valued at \ I now take the liberty of transferring that pair to the Senator from more than Sl.50, $1 each; and in addition thereto on all the above pistols 35 per Kansas [Mr. PLU.l\IB], and will allow my vote to stand. cent. ad valorem. Mr. COCKRELL. I was paired with the Senator from Kansas [Mr. The amendment was agreed to. PLUMB] and the pair has been transferred, as stated by the Senator The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Paragraph 174 was passed over in from Iowa, and I now vote. I vote ''yea.'' the reading. · Mr. CALL (after having voted in the affirmative). I inadvertently 1\lr. ALLISON. Let that be taken up, then. voted. I am paired with the Senator from Colorado [Mr. BowEN]. The PRESIDENT pro tempqre. The paragraph will be read. Mr. HARRIS. I suggest to the Senator from Florida that be trans The Secretary read as follows: fer his pair to the Senator from Indiana [Mr. VooRHEES], who is ab 1U. Gold-leaf, $2 per package of five hundred leaves. sent. Mr. .ALLISON. I :find pa.rogra;>h 289 was passed over. Has that Mr. CALL. I will do that if there is no objection, and permit my paragraph been read, I inquire? I have it marked as" passed over." vote to stand. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It will be read. 1\lr. BATE. The junior Senator from West Virginia [1tir. FAULK Mr. HISCOCK. Was the amendment to paragraph 174 agreed to? . NER] is paired with the Senator from Pennsylvania [Mr. QuAY]. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. There was no amendment to para· Mr. CULLOM. I understand theSenatorfrom Oregon [Mr. MITCH graph 174. It was read and no amendment proposed. ELL] is absent and not paired. I will therefore transfer my pair with Mr. ALLISON. I will ask if paragraph 289 has been read? the Senator from Delaware [Mr. GRAY] to the Senator from Oregon, The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It will be read. and vote "nay." Mr. VANCE. It WM not read originally, being passed over by re· 1\!r, CHACE. I am paired with the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Cov quest. QUITT]. If he were present he would vote ''yea'' nnd I should vote The PRESIDENT p1·o tempore. So the Chair understood. It will "nay." now be read. Mr. RIDDLEBERGER. I am advised that the Senator from Ore The Secretary read as follows: gon [M:r. DoLPH] is not present, and that my pair has been transferred 289. Salt.-salt in bags, sacks, barrels, or other pa.cka.ges, 12 cents per 100 to him. If tbat be the case, I vote "nay." · pounds; in bulk, 8 cents per 100 pounds: Provided That. exporters of meats, whether pa.cked or smoked, which ha>e been cured in the United States with The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Virginia will be imported salt shall, upon satisfactory proof, under such regulations as the Sec recorded in the negative. retary of the Treasury shall prescribe, that such meats have been cured with 1\Ir. EVARTS. I am paired with the Senator from Alabama (M:r. imported salt, have refunded to them from the Treasury the duties paid on the salt so used in curing such exported meats, in amounts not less than Sl.OO: .And MoRGAN], and therefore withhold my vote. provided furtltcr, That imported so.lt in bond may be used in curing fish taken Mr. WILSON, of Iowa. I am paired with the Senator from Mary by vessels licensed to engage in curing fish on tho shores of the navigable land [Mr. WILSON]. If he were present, I should vote ''nay." waters of the United States, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe; and upon proof that the salt bas been used for either Mr. DANIEL. I am paired with the Senator from Oregon [Mr. of the purposes stated in this proviso the duties on the same shall be remitted. MITCHELL]. If he were here, I should vote "yea" and he would vote "nay." 1\fr. ALLISON. That paragraph being read, I ask that pn.ragraph Mr. HARRIS. I call the attention of the Senator from illinois [Mr. 287, which I think was passed over without reading, be now read. CULLOM] to the fact that the Senator from Virginia [Mr. DANIEL] has 1\Ir. VEST. What was done with paragraph 289? just announced a pair with the Senator from Oregon [Mr. l\1ITCHELL]. 1\Ir. ALLISON. Nothing. It stands in the bill. I have no amend· Mr. CULLOM. Then I withdraw my voto. ment to offer to it. The result was announced-yeas 19, nays 23; as follows: 1\ir. V .ANCE. We have made our record upon free salt while dis· cussing the amendments on the free-list. YEAS-19. Mr. ALLISON. The record has been fully made up, I think, on the Bate, Cockre11, Gorman, Saulsbury, salt question. Berry, Coke, Hampton, Turpie, Blackburn, Eustis, Harris, Vest, Mr. VANCE. Yes, sir. Brown, George, Jones of Arkansas, Walthall. The Secretary read as follows: Call, Gibson, Reagan, 287. Rice. -Cleaned, 1 cent per :pound; uncleaned rice and riae flour and meal, NAYS-23. one-balf of 1 cent per pound: r1ce, broken, which will pass through a sieve Aldrich, known commercially as No.12 wire sieve, and paddy, one-fourth of 1 cent per Dolph, Manderson, Sawyer, pound. Allison, Frye, Morrill, Spooner, Blair, Rawley, Paddock, Stewart; Chandler, Hiscock, Palmer, Stockbndge, Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I desire to offer a substitute for that Davis, Ingalls, Platt, Teller. paragraph, which I will send to the desk and ask to have read. Dawes, Jones of Nevada, Riddlebcrger, The PRESIDENT p1·o tempore. It will be re_ad_. • A.BSENT-34. The SECRETARY. After the figures ''287" 1t lB proposed to strike Beck, Cameron, Daniel, Faulkner, out the remainder of the paragraph and insert: Edmunds, Blodgett, Cha.ce1 Gray, Rice.-Cleaned, 21- cents per ponnd; uncleaned, It cents; paddy1.1t centa. Bowen, ColqUitt, Evarts, IIa.le, Broken rice or rice-flour which will pass through a sieve, oommerciauy known Butler, Cullom, Farwell, Hearst, as No. 12 Wire sieve, 20 per cent. ad valorem. 986 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. J.ANU.ARY 19, Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, in providing revenue for this Govern and from Old England, which is still more hoary with age and better ment, I wouldnot collect a dollar not needed by the Government by supplied with capital and skilled labor. As a Southern Senator, there any character or form of taxation for the purpose of protecting any fore, I protest against such legislation as will destroy or seriously cripple American interest, either of capital or labor. the great manufacturing interests of my own section, which, if sus In other words I would never collect by taxation a dollar not needed tained, are soon to become the leading wealth-producing agencies of by the Governm~t to protect any industry or anybody. I am not, that great section of the Union. therefore, a protectionist per ~e• . But in the proper adjustment of t?e Strike down the factories of various characters and those now en tariff I am a. strong protectiorust. Say the Government must ralSe gaged in operating them must seek other employment, and as nothing $350,000,000 a year for its economi.cal support and to meet its obliga else would offer, they will be obliged to return to the cultivation of tions, which is about what will be necessary, I suppose, for the ensu the soil. Take a half million of people out of the factories and out of 'ing year. Now, I would raise this sum and all oth~r sums ?ecessary the different mines and other branches of industry and put them in to the economical support of the Government by tariff taxation at the the cotton and corn fields and you will produce a larger supply of these custom-houses, and I would repeal absolutely the internal-revenue commodities than is needed for home consumption and a larger supply ,laws, with all their abominations, iniquities, oppressions, and domicil than can find ready market abroad. iarv vexations. You would therefore reduce the price of the farmer's production by f n raising the money by tariff taxation for the economical support increasing the quantity produced beyond the necessary consumption. of the Government I would so adjust it as to give all the reasonable On the other hand, if you can induce half a million more of the popu protection in my power to American capital and American labor, in lation of the South to leave the agricultural fields and go into manu preference to foreign capital and foreign labor. I would generally facturing, to that extent you lessen the amount of agricultural pro admit such articles as n.re raised in foreign countries and are not raised duction, and you to that extent increase the price paid the farmera ,jn this country duty free, because the tariff assessed upon articles of for the smalle-r quantity which will be produced and put upon the this character could protect nobody in this country, as nobody here market. I desire that the people of my Sts.te and my section shall either raises or manufactures such articles. diversify their interest and their labor as much as possible and build up a healthy indllStry and healthy competition in every department. TEA AND COFFEE FREE, To do this we must continuo to give reasonable protection to our in For instance, I would put tea and coffee on the free-list. We can fant or youthful industries. raise neither tea nor coffee in this country to any profitable extent, and we certainly can not raise coffee. Therefore, the tariff imposed h"EW ENGLAND'S EXAMPLF, upon coffee or tea would protect no American capital and no Ameri It is said that New England has made immense sums of money and can labor, as neither American capital nor American labo.r i 1the chaff on as it is thrashed from the straw, is called paddy. The them for less than 4 cents a pound. It has been claimed by some per !grain havin& the o~te: chaff removed, bn~ with the inner cuticle and sons that our rice is of superior quality and therefore does not need flour remainmg on 1t, 1S called uncleaned nee. protectio:t;l t(\ the extent that would make foreign rice in the market The grain, after it has been run through the proper machinery, and cost as much per pound as ours costs. Ithe inner cuticle and flour which is on the grain in the rough state are I am informed that in fact a great deal of the foreign rice is every removeJ, and the grain bas been polished, is called cleaned rice. It is way the equal of ours. There is nothing in the soil, climate, or culture then fit for food. It costs about 28 pe-r cent. of the value of the pa~dy of China, that causes the rice there to be inferior to ours. Sometimes it is to clean with proper machinery and prepare for market the rough nee. damaged by the long voyage at sea, which those in charge of it have to The other class of rice upon which there is at present a tariff of 20 make to reach our ports, but this applies only to sailing-vessels, and as per cen.t. nd valorem is known as granulated rice, which is the rice the growing .tendency is towards steam transportation, that difficulty that is broken or crushed in the cleaning or otherwise, and is not suit will doubtlessly very soon be overcome. Then our tariff must make able for family use, but is used mostly by the brewers. .. foreign rice cost the consumer as much in the market as it costs our WHY RICE SllOULD BE ESPECIALLY PROTEGrED. planters to make rice and prepare it for the market, or our planters must abandon the business and retire from the field of competition, and The fact that it costs 28 per cent. of the value of ·the paddy to pre· rice culture in the United States must come to an end. pare it in the proper mills for use, shows clearly that rice is not an o~ What are the facts as to the cost of iorejgn rice laid down in our dinary article of agricultural production.. It is more than tha~.. It 1s ports? According to the United States Treasury reports, the import an agricultural production manufactured mto the proper condition for value of the average foreign clean rice is 2 cents per pound. The ac~ u,se the cost of manufacturing being more than one-fourth of the value. ual cost counting no interest on the plantation of the average Amen Fo; this reaso·n, if for no other, it ought to bemade an exception totbe can rice is, say, 4 cents per pound. The present tariff is 2t cents per general rule applicable to agricultural productions. pound. This gi>es theAmerican planterone-fourthoflcentperpound But there is another cogent reason why the rule or per cent. of tariff the advantage in the market. The !Iills bill proposes to reduce the applying to other home productions should not apply to rice. The rea tariff to 2 cents a pound. This puts foreign rice and home-produced son grows out of the necessary exception which exists in the case of the rice in the market on terms of equality so far as price is concerned. In culture of rice. In the preparation of the soil and the mode of culture other words, the price of home and foreign rice in the market would it is not like other crops, and it is much more subject to disaster than be the same, each 4 cents per pound after the ta.rifi' was put upon the the ordinary crops. The great bulk of our rice is grown on reclaimed foreign rice. The Senate bill proposes to reduce cleaned rice to 1 cent swamp land, which has to be traversed in every direction by banks, a pound. This gives an advantage to the foreign importer who pays canals, and ditches. Most of this work is necessarily performed by hand the tariff of 1 cent a pound in the market, which must inevitably labor, and not by machinery. . Embankments ha:ve to be built and kept drive the American planter out of the business. in repair, and the canals and d1tches kept open mth a spade. They are But it may be asked why this great diif~rence exists, as ~e South obliged to be opened at least once a year, and probably oftener. The em planters prior to the war produced nee as cheaply as 1t was pro cultivation of rice is done mainly with a hoe, and it is harvested with duced anywhere, that they held the home market almost exclusively a sickle. The nature of the production and the exceptional style of its to themselves on a 20 per cent. ad valorem duty, and that they fur culture forbid to any considerable extent the use of machinery in its nished a large part of the European supply. This, I understand, is cultivation. true. ·With sla>e labor the Southern planter produced rice almost as Our most intelligent rice-planters, in connection with our most skilled cheaply as it could be produced in China, and with the advantage of mechanics, have for years studied the problem of the application of ma distance, the transportation being then conducted by sail vessels, and chinery to rice culture, and with the exception of horse-power used in the occasional injury to rice during the long voyage, theywere able to drilling or planting the rice and the ordinary Illil.Chinery used in thrash compete successfully and hold their own market. Now the whole ing the grain or paddy from the straw, the culture must be conducted matter is chanO'ed. Slave labor can no longer be used in the cultiva by hand labor entirely. .. tion of rice. Whlte men as a rule can not work in the rice plantations After the crop is made it is prepared for market in rice-mills, with in the summer any considerable length of time without being down appropriate machinery for clealli}ing the rough rice. The machinery with fever. Colored labor only is adapted to the culture, and large for preparing the rice is, however, very expensive. numbers of our colored people who as slaves lab~red on ~e ;ice planta There is nearly half a million dollars invested in rice-mills in Sa tions have left them and gone into other pnrsmts, and It IS difficult, va.nnah, and a still larger sum in New O~leans and Charleston. But many a tim.eJ for the planters to secure the necessary labor to cultivate you may aak why is it necessary to recla1m swamp lands a~d to cut the crop. canals and ditches and build embankments all through the nee-fields. I am informed by Ron. Houstoun Clinch, a highly intelligent and The reply is that the crop passes through certain periods when it must honorable rice-planter of Savannah,-Ga., that the wages pa~d day 1~ necessarily be flooded to make a successful crop, and at other periods borers on the rice plantations vary from 40 to 60 cents. Therr work IS the water must be drawn off, and the hand culture to which I have not computed by the hour, but by the amount done (the task), and is referred must be applied. To use the water by letting it on when it is mostly done by women. The more active hands have generally com needed, and draining it off when it is not needed, mainditchesorcanals, pleted their task by mid-day, and it is seldom that they are at work as and side ditches, with draws and gates, must be provided, that the late as 2 o'clock p. m. The foremen, carpenters, teamsters, and trunk water may be used according to the exigencies of the crop. minders are hired by the year. They work as far'm laborers do else If a freshet occurs in the river or stream upon which the land is lo where, from sunrise to sunset, with the usual intermission for meals. cated at any critica.l period of the crop, and breaks the dams and over They receive from one hundred and eighty to three hundred dollars a flows the land, the crop is ruined. Besides, it is subject to several other year, with rations, a house, and land to cultivate, free of cost, when . contingencies that may very seriously interfere with its success. they are not serving the employer. But it may be said if the rice crop is subject to so many contingen As a rule they each own a horse, and most of them some cattle and cies, why not nbandon it, and ra.ise othe~ farm prod~cts on the ltlnds hogs, as do the day laborers, who usually reside on and cultivate places known as rice lands, where the nee crop 1S now cultiVS:ted? M?nY ~f of their own in the vicinity of the large plantations. Take the day our most intelligent planters, and as a class no other IS more mtelli gent are anxiously desiring to find some means of using their rice lands laborer who gets 40 cents a day. This, counting three hundred days to advantage in the cultivation of other crops less uncertain. But it is to the year, would be $120 per annum. The day laborer who gets 60 cents a day receives $180 per annum. The class of foremen, carpenters, found impossible to do so. The lands used for rice culture, as already teamsters, and trunk-minders get $300 per annum, making the aver· stated, are swamp lands. They are very rich, but they lie very low, and age say about $180 per annum which the rice-planter pays each la thev lack the necessary fall to drain them sufficiently for other crops. borer. The rice crop can be best produced on such land because it needs And lam informed by Col. J ohu Scriven, one of the most distinguished floodinO' at different periods of the culture and does best on low, damp 0 rice-planters in the Southern country, that 75 per cent. of the whole land. ln a word, the lands in question, and there are large tracts of cost of raising the rice and preparing it for market is the cost of the them, seem by nature to have been better adapted to rice culture than labor. Colonel &:riven has been for forty years a rice-planter and hilS to the culture of any other crop. looked into this question with great care, and doubtless speaks ~th RIOE DE:IU.liDS AT LEAST 2 CENTS A POm'D TAniFF. great accuracy. The cost of labor in Georgia per annum in the ~1ce I am informed by some of our most intelligent rice-planters who are plantation is therefore an average of say $180 per annum. The nee gentlemen of honor and voracity, that taking the run of the seasons planter comes in competition with the laborers of China and other EllS t one with another, and counting good crops and bad crops, it actually ern countries where the imported rice is raised. cost'l them 4 cents a ponnd to produce and prepare for the market the RICE LABOR FAn HIGHER IN AJIIERICA Tll.AN IN CHINA. entire rice crop of the South, and that in this calculation no estimate is Now let us see what is the diil'erence between the price paid in made for the interest on the money invested in the plaJltation, but that GeorO'ia for labor on the rice-fie,lds and the price paid in China. We is the actual cost, t..'lking one year with another, of the rice on the plan learn°from the report of the United States minister at Peking (Reports tation and preparing it for the market. from Consuls of the United States, September, 1887, No. 83, page If this be true, and I have no doubt about the fact, then the plnnt 498) that labor in the rice-fields of China is paid about :l.S follows: ers or tbe South mnst be protected by a tariff high enough to prevent The 'average wages of an able-bodied young man is $12 per annum,' foreign planters from bringing their crops into our marketa and selling with food, straw shoes, and free shaving. Deducting $4 for his clothing, 988 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. J .A.NU.ARY 19, he saves $8 only, or may do so. Ten years' saving will enable him to price for the first thirty-seven years was $3.75 per hundred pounds. .And buy one-third of an acre of land, value per acre, $150, and necessary from 1861 to 1869, when the market of New York was supplied almost implements by which he can obtain by his own labor a subsistence. In exclusively by foreign rice, the price averaged 9.83! cents, or nearlv twentr years he can become possessor of two-thirds of an acre and one $10 per hundred pounds. The difference between $3. 75, the average third Of,J~ buffalo, and with six years' more saving he may purchase a price paid for thirty-seven years, and within a fraction of $10 per hun wife, with whose assistance he eau maintain himself on his own land, dred pounds, the price paid for eight years, including the war period, in his own but, and rear children. is very marked. Foreigners were taking their revenge, or rather reaping Iu Jap311 field hands receive their food and lodging with wages from their harvest, growing out of our folly in destroying at home this great $8.60 to $12.96 per annum. The wages of females are about $6 per interest. . annum. (See the United States Consular Reports, No. 48, December, Strike down the present tariff upon rice, or strike it down so low that 1884, page 732.) In British India we learn from the British Indian it will destroy the culture, and it will be but a few years till rice wilt famine report, 1871-'81, that in Delhi labor is paid for-males, per again reach in our market $10 per hundred pounds and possibly run diem, 6 cents; for females, 1~ cents. to a higher figure. It is much cheaper therefore to deal justly by this Colonel Scriven, to whom reference is already made as a distin great interest and give it such protection aa will keep it in existence guished rice-planter, estimates the cost of a hand on his rice planta and interpose it as a. constant barrier to the extortions of foreign rice- , tion at $168 per annum, while the wages of a hand in China, as already planters, who, if our culture is destroyed, will have us perpetually at stated, is $12 per annum. their mercy, as they will then bavo a monopoly of the business and AMERICAN RICE LABOR FOURTEE!f TDIES IIIGHER TIIAN ASIATIC. can dictate their own termR. Colonel Scriven says: PDACTICAL IDEAS CONNECTED WITH RICE CULTURE. The American is therefore pn.id fourteen times more than the Asiatic laborer, Before concluding my remarks I desire to present some point:.B t!l.ken and his wages constitute 75 per cent. of the field cost. I( the difference in the cost of production should be the measure of protection, it is clear that the pree from the report made by a committee of planters t() the Rice Associa ent duty on rice is not only not excessive, but in fact inadequate. Any alleged tion of Savannah, which was prepared with a great deal of care. In excess is only in sound, and this is amply substantiated by the fact that 36 per dojng so I shall adopt the ideas presented in the report and shall make cent. of the rice consumed in the United ~ta.tes in the past five years is Asiatic n.nd Hawaiian. There is nothing prohibitory in the present duty. It merely no apology for the reproduction of it, though it may be done partly in equalizes the prime cost of introducing the Asiatic and producing the American the very language used by the committee itself. They speak of three rice. periods in the rice culture. After that the ordinary elements governing the price of commodities The first extended down to the year 1860, or the commencement of will fix the price of each kind. the war. With the year 1860 ended the first period, which was dis If, then, the rule agreed to by both political parties in their plat tinctive in the absence of the importation of foreign rice, in maximum forms, that the difference in the cost of introduction and of produc home production, in low prices, and in exportation, which controlled tion should be the measure of protection, it is clear that the present the markets of foreign countries and made them large contributors to duty on rice is not as high as it ought to be, and the provision in the American prosperity and wealth. Mills bill which cuts off a quarter of a cent a pound is erroneous and The second period began in 1861 and ended in 1866, with character~ improper, and the provision in the Senate bill which will cut down istics the reverse of those which distinguished the first period. In cleaned rice to a cent a pound is a ruinous stab at rice culture in the 1860 there was no import of foreign rice, and the export of domestic United States. rice reached 75,373,000 pounds; but in 1861, the first year of the Con The Senate substitute, if passed, reduces the tariff on cleaned rice federate war, there were imported 148,550 pounds, and there were ex from 2} cents to 1 cent per pound. On uncleaned rice from 1! to one ported 39, 683,000 pounds. The blockade of the Sou tbern ports was half a cent :per :pound. And it proposes to reduce paddy from 1! to begun in 1861, aud from this time the Government record of domestic one-quarter of 1 cent per pound, or to one-fifth of the present tariff. I rice could have l>een partial only, and therefore affords no criterion of believe this is the heaviest and most ruinous reduction proposed by the the amount of production or of the capacity of the country to export bill on any commodity. The bill proposes to take off four-fifths of the for that year. But the following year, 1862, the statistics are decisive; present tariff on paddy, while it increases other articlt>s over 100 per domestic production and consumption of the domestic product were cent. Why this fatal stab at this struggling agricultural interest? almost exclusively confined to the Southern States, and the Govern Why should a Republican Senate crush it by withholding the protec ment sta~...aticsshow that in 1862 there were imported 56,961,317 pounds tion ind~pensable to its existence? of foreign rice and that there were exported only 3,5'J2,000 pounds, the I am aware that there are patriotic gentlemen who would say in this latter being doubtless foreign rice reshipped for lack of a market. case, as they say in CMe of any other protection of American capital THE GREAT GROWTH Oll' FOREIGN RICE IMPORTS. or American industry, that if the business can not sustain itself with out high protection, it should be lett to its fate, and our planters re In the first year of the third period, 1865-'G6, the domestic produc duced to bankruptcy, should be compelled to discontinue their busi tion was 11,592,600 pounds, and the foreign rice imported wa.s 60,407,- ness. 756 pounds. As early as the fifth year the domestic production, under Intelligent persons may without emotion speak of striking down a a tariff of 2~ cents per pound, had swelled to 53,937,000 pounds, show great American industry, rather than afford the protection necessary ing an increase of nearly 365 per cent., indeed overlapping the foreign to its very existence. What will be the effect of such a policy when importation; but still the gross importation (292,909,944 pounds) in carried out? Let the experience of the people of the United States, the first five years exceeds the gross domestic production (which was and especially of the Northern section of the Union, within the last 119,122,120 pounds) by 183,780,824 pounds. twenty-five years, answer the question. These facts show conclusively that the consumption of the foreign import has greatly increased, though not in the same volume, as that THE LESSON Oll' THE WAR .A.B TO RICE PROTECTION. of the domestic product; bnt it is clear that at no time since 1866 has Prior to the war, rice-planters, with slave labor, were able f{) make the duty been so onerous as to impede the demand for foreign rice, or all the rice needed by the people of the United States, who were much to prevent its importation, while a large surplus ig always in bond in less numerous then than now, and to sell the rice at from two to four the United States custom-houses held against any exigencies of the dollars per 100 pounds. market, and decisively restricting the price of American rice. It has The dark clouds of war gathered in our horizon, and the storm burst been seen that the domestic production increased 130 per cent. in upon the co-:mtry in 1861. The fortunes of war and the superior strength twenty years from 1840 to 1860. of one of the contending parties soon environed the Southern States in During this period the duty on foreign rice was 20 per cent. ad va a blockade, and commerce between the two sections was virtually pro lorem. In all the rice-producing division of the country slave labor hibited. Uany of the negroes were taken from the rice plantations by was then employed, and no foreign rice was imported; quite contrary their owners, under order of the military, and instead of cultivating to the present experience, when so little domestic rice ia exported as to rice were employed in building fortifications. The rice fields were be inappreciable in the marketing of the crops. More than 147,000- greatly neglected, and no more rice was made than was necessary to 000 pounds were exported in 18UO, and 112 000,000 pounds in 1860. supply the needs of the Confederacy. The result was that the Northern In the former year the average price of rice m1 the New York market people could not get rice from the South, either for their daily use, as was $3.18!, in the latter year $4.20 per hundred pounds. The average a necessity or luxury, and they could not even get it for their army price of the whole period from 1850 to 1860 was materially increased by hospitals. What was the result? The Asiatic planters very soon dis the great storm of 1854, which swept away a greater part of the crop of covered the advantage which they possessed, and the price of rice was that year, and by the draft made on the labor of the South Atlantic at once raised in our market, and it went upward and upward until it States by the emigration to the West and the Southwest. reached at last $14 per 100 pounds~ and in exceptional cases $15.50 per But it may be stated as an evidence of the cheapness of production, 100 pounds, which was paid by the .A.meril'.au people, and especially not long anterior to this period, that in January, 1854, prime rice sold the Northern section of the American people, for rice, whether used in the Savannah.market for $1.50 to $1.75 per hundred pounds. for daily subsistence, or luxury, or in the hospitals. The per diem of slave labor did not much, if at all, exceed 20 cents, PROTECTION CTII':CKS ll'ORY.IGN EXTORTION. and on this basis the cost of cultivating rice was about 110 cents per . By reference to the American Almanac for 1888, which gives a tabu hundred . lated statement of the price in New York for each year from 1825 until In 1862 the importation of foreign rice was 56,9G1,317 pounds. Ex 1886, inclusive, a period ofsixty-one years, it will be seen that the average cept for the internal supply of the Southern States the cultivatio-n of • 1889. CONGRESSION-AL RECORD-· SENATE~ ;rice was then rapidly diminishing. The rice-fields, which lay chiefly engaged in tho commercial organism of the rice industry. Abandon in the great tidal dettas, the first to be reached in the military opera ment would entail great suffering upon all of these, but most upon the tions against the South, were soon laid waste and abandoned. The proprietors and laborers; upon the former a total loss of investment, 1i planters retreated with their slaves into the interior. The result was for, extraordinary as it may appear, experience has de~onstrated that that in 1865 the crop had dwindled from 187,000,000 pounds in 1860, the rice lands of the tidal regions are incapable of any ot.her profitable. with an exportation of 75,000,000 pounds, to 12,000,000 pounds pro culture. On the laborers, now sufficiently tried, before a generation ha.S · duction, with an importation of 45,000,000 pounds. Indeed, the im survived·the throes of recent emancipation, such a change would fall portation for 1864 was nearly 100,000,000 ponnds and the production with cruel severity. naught. CONCLt:SIO~. FOREIGN RICE CAPTURED OUR COUNTRY. Mr. President, in the name of a liberal and just incidental .protec In short, Asiatic rice had taken entire possession of the American tion; in the name of one of the most useful branches of iildustry iu the markets, except within the Confederate military lines, and at this time, whole country; in the name of a large number of hon~rable, intelli despite the immense volume of importa.tions, the price in the New York gent, and useful citizens, who in former days and under,different cir market ranp:ed as high as from $12 to $14.50, and in some exceptional cumstanc~s have in good faith invested their money in tlp.s great in instances as ~igh as fifteen to sixteen dollars per hundred. The duty terest, and in the name of two hundred thousand men, women, and on cleaned rice had been raised in 1862 to 1~ cents per·pound. In 1864 children (a large proportion of them colored citizens of the United it was again increased, to 2! cents per pound. . . States) engaged in this culture, who would be turned out of employ This duty was imposed in time of war, but why may it not be con ment without the means of making a comfortable support, and in the tinued in time ofpeace? In time of war it was contributory to the cost name of the whole people of every section of the Union, who would be of the war, but it was also a tax on a foreign monopoly. In time ofpeace injured by the re-establishment of the Asiatic rice monopoly, which it remains a tax on a foreign imported commodity undiminished in would more than double the price to the consumer, r protest agalnst volume, and contributory to the maintenance of the Government,· while any legislation which strike8_down or seriously cripples the p~oducti?n it is a necessary prevention against the re-establishment of a foreign of this indispensable and very valuable commodity and brrngs rum monopoly and a protection alike to the American producer and con alike to the capital invested and the labor employed. sumer. At no time since 1865 could rice have been cultivated as a . Mr. ALDRICH. It is especially unfortunate, I think, that the Sen staple product without the protection afforded by the import duty on ator from South Carolina [Mr. BUTLER], .who addressed the Senate. on foreign grain. this subject the other day, is now absent from his seat, as there .seems In 1885 the inland rice crop and those on the short streams of South to be a radical difference of opinion between these representatiyes of Carolina and Georgia were destroyed by excessive rains and inunda two rice-producing ~tates as to the necessity of protection on this ar tions, and again in 1887 those on the greater streams, as the Savannah ticle. The Senator from South Carolina stated the other day that there and Altamaha, were swept away by freshets; and· from similar causes was no necessity for any dutyon ~t, that it 'could beprodncedas~heaply / great losses were suffered in Louisiana; and on some longer streams, here as anywhere in. the world, while the Senator from Georgm [Mr. ~ especially the Savannah, the freshet of 1888 has been still more de- BROWN] now thinks that the present :J;ate, :which is 113 per cent. ad 1 structive. · valorem, is inadequate for the protection of rice .in the State of Georgia. The main bulk of rice other than granulated has hitherto been Perhaps this item had better go over until we see whether an agree· brought into the United States from Chi:pa at an import value of only ment can not be reached as to the fu The amendment was agreed to. this country have not been depressed by means-of this tn.ri.ff system of .Mr. ALLISON. I move to add as a new paragraph, nfter paragraph which the Senator speaks. 434, what I send to the desk. Mr. ALDRICH. In paragraph 473, line 1905, I should likc- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The proposed new paragraph will Mr. GEORGE. Before going on to that I would like to make one be read. remark. The Secretary read as follows: Mr. ALDRICH. Will the Senator from Mississippi allow me to offer Print-rollers suitable for use in printing wall-pape1· or floor-cloths, $10 per a formal amendment? roller of 2i feet. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from Rhode Island Mr. ALLISON. That amendment may be considered as pending. yield to the Senator from :A-Iississippi ? 1\Ir. ALDRICH. I would like to finish my offer. The PRESIDING OFFICER. It will be passed over. / Mr. ALLISON. I desire to say a word after theremarksoftheSen · Mr. GEORGE. I would simply like to correct a statement of the I ator from Missouri [Mr. VEST] respecting 1\Ir. Mulhall's pamphlet as Senator from Iowa as to cotton. r' to the decline in prices, as I had not the opportunity of looking at the :Mr. ALDRICH. Will the Senator allow rue to offer this amend pamphlet until I got it in the Reporter's room. Before we adjourn I ment? should like to call the attention oftbe Senator from Missouri to one or 1\Ir. GEORGE. Certainly. two things in this pamphlet that he may have overlooked. The par The PRESIDING OFFICER. The proposed amendment will be ticular thing to which I would call his attention is that certain articles read. known as agricultural products have largely increased in -price during The SECRETARY. In paragraph 473, on page 163, line 1905, it is pro this time-which he inadvertently omitted to state. posed to add: Mr. VEST. I only read the concludingJ?ortion of the paragraph. And bird-skins prepared for preservation, but not further advanced in manu ~1r. ALLISON. 1\Ir. Mulhall .says: facture. The same quantities of products and merchandise consumed annually from 1\Ir. GEORGE. On what page is that? 1881 to 188! would have cost in previous periods- :A-1r. ALDRICH. On page 163. It is paragraph 473. The amend That is, the period from 1841 to 1850- ment is to add to that llaragraph: And bird-skins prepared for preservation, but not further ad>anced in manu- at the prices then ruling, -as follows. facture. • Then Mr. Mulhall's figures show that the price between 1841 and The amendment was agreed to. 1850 on meats amounted to £560,000,000 sterling, and that the same J'tir. BLAIR. Mr. President- quantity if bought between 1881 -and 1884 would nave cost -£830,000,- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi is en 000 sterling, showing a very large advance in meat products during titled to the floor. those thlrt.y-five or forty years. :A-Ir. ALDRICH. I have another amendment relating-tothe leather The same is true of -dairy products, which were £236,000,000 ster paragraph, which I will offer and let it be considered as pending. ling between 184.0 and 1850 and £340,000,000 sterling between 1881 Mr. VEST. Let it be printed. I will ask that these amendments and 1884, showing a larJ;te increase in the value of dairy products. be all printed. The same is also true of potatoes, the periods comparing ns follows: Mr. ALDRICH. . They have all been adopted except this one. £115,000,000 sterling from 1841 to 1850 and £181,000,000 sterling Mr. VEST. The Senator from Iowa offered one that was to go over. from 1881 to 1884. Uaw cotton for the period 1841 to 1850 was £76,- Mr. ALDRICH. Oh, yes. 000,000 sterling, while for the period from 1831 to 1884 it was £87,- l\1r. VEST. Let this be printed and go over. 000,000 sterling. The PRESIDING OFFICER. That order will be made_, if there be 1\fr. STEWART. How is it as to the period from 1871 to 1875? no objection . • Mr. ALLISON. I have not that table here. So raw cotton has ad Mr . GEORGE. I desire to have the attention of the Senator from vanced largely between 1850 and 1884. Iowa if I can secure it. I do not know that I understood exactly what Take another article-tobacco. The price has increased from 1850 to the Senator said with reference to the J?rlee of cotton between 1840 and the period of 1881-'84 as 29 to 37. 1850. Will the Senator kindly repeat that? Now, ta.ke manufactured products, as in this bill. I find hardware, Mr. ALLISON. · I stated that there had been an advance in the price a >ery large article of consumption, s-howing a consumption in 1850 of of cotton comparing the period 1841-'50 with the period 1881-'84,.and £576,000,000 sterling, while the same articles in the period from 1881 to the relative amount of that advance I stated. Ibavenot the book now 1884 cost £384,000,000 sterling, showing a large reduction in the price of before me, but I think it is about 15 per cent. · those articles. The same is true of cotton and woolen goods. So while 1\:lr. STEWART. I would like to inquire of the Senator from Iowa this is true of manufactured products, the reverse is true of the great or anybody e1se-- agricultural products that are consumed in our country and in every The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from 1\Iississip_pi has the J I other civilized country. floor. Does that Senator yie~d to the Senator from Nevada? . I wanted to call the attention of the Senator from Missouri to the fact 1\Ir. GEORGE. No, sir; I do not. I want to dispose of this cotton I that according to this estimate of prices on these twenty great articles matter. Then I will yield. • I of production, these great articles of agricultural production have largely Mr. ALLISON. According to this statement quoted by the Senator advanced, instead of declined, during this period. . So whateYer may be from 1\fissouri, $76,000,000 would ha-ve purchased as much raw cotton said of the oppression of our agricultural class during this period, it is in the period from 1841 to 1850 as $87,000,000 would have purchased true that thosearticlestheyproduced have largely advanced. I -wished in the _period from 1881 to 1884, showing a TelJl.tive advance in the pro. that statement to accompany the statement of the Senator from 1\-Iis portion that $76,000,000 bears to $87,000,000. souri. Mr. GEORGE. Mr. President, that statement_, iftrue, is misleading. 1\Ir. VEST. I bad not overlooked that. In 1840, 1841, 1842 (especially ~842), 18!3, and 1844, from· causes well, The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from Iowa yield to known to every person acquainted with the financial history of the the Senator from Missouri? country, there was very great depression, especially in the Southern l\1r. ALLISON. I yield. St._'l.tes, with reference to ;all agricultural products, and especially with Mr. VEST. I thought the Senator from Iowa bad concluded his re reference to cotton. I remember, sir, that in 1844 I sold some cotton marks. I had not overlooked those statements, and I am obliged to in NE:w Orleans at 4 cents per pound, so that in making the aggregate the Senator from Iowa for calling my attention to them. of which the Senator speaks, the years 1841, 1842, 1843, 1844, and We are always met, in a discussion of the tariff question, with the 1845, ·as I understand, are embraced within the period, which therefore statement that the tariff has reduced the prices. Now, what 1\Ir. Mul renders the relative price for the years 1846, 1847, 1849, 1849, an?: hall says strengthens our position, which is, that the imrrovements in 1850 very much lower. machinery, in mechanical skill, and in experience have reduced the 1\fr. STEWART. Now will the Senator yield? prices of commodities manufactured, but as to the vegetable products, Mr. GEORGE. Justonemoment. Iundertaketosaythatthe price as to meat and wheat and cotton and corn, as a matter of course, im of CQtton was very much depressed-very largely lower than it has ever provements in machinery do not affect them, and the increase of popu been since-during the first four or five year-s of the decade from 1840 lation and the increased demand have put up the prices, whereas the to 1850. After the passage of the tariff act of 1846 there was a very immense advantages which the improvements in machinery have given rapid and very large increa.c;e in the price of cotton, so that in the year to the manufacturer have brought down the prices of manufactured 1850 the planting and raising of cotton was very remunerative. I un goods; and that is the solution of this whole question. It is not the dertake to say that the average price of cotton for the years succeeding tariff that brings down the prices of commodities. the going into effect of the tariff act of 1846, up to and including the :A-Ir. ALLISON. No one has eyer disputed the fact that new inven year 1850, exceeded the average price of cotton at the present time, in tions, such as the Bessemer process in steel and other similar processes, cluding the last five years precedinJ;t this. · I understand from the Sen haYeieduced the price of iron. Nobody has e-v-er denied that machi.n,. ater from North Carolina, who has made some averages on this subject, ery has tended to reduce the prices of articles. I have never heard that the average price of cotton from some period between 1840, 1846, anybody say that those improvements in manufacture have not had a and 1850, leaving out the lower years 1841, 1842, 1843, and 1844, was tendency to reduce the prices of manufactured articles. But what I 9.8 cents per pound. want to call attention to is the fact that the agricultural interests of M:r. CHACE. May I ask the Senator a question? 1889. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 991 The PRESIDING OFFICER. Docs the Senator from Mississippi report of the committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the yield? two Houses upon the amendment of the Senate to the bill (H. R. 5870) Mr. GEORGE. No, sir; I do not, because I shall get through di to amend the Revised Statutes relating to theDistrictof Columbia, for rectlv. - the protection of girls, and for the punishment of the crime of rape. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator declines to yield. The message also announced that the House had passed the bill (S. Mr. GEORGE. The average price now in New Orleans of middling 185) to provide for the admission of the State ofSouthDakota intothe eotton for this season is less that 9k cents. Union, mid for the organization of the Territory of North Dakota, with :Mr. STEWART. I think there is an entire misapprehension here as amendments in which it requested the concurrence of the Senate. to what affects prices. From 1810 to 1850 there was a money famine. ADbllSSION OF DAKOTA. The totcLl product of gold and silver reached an annual average of about Mr. PLATT. I should like the bill for the admission of the Terri $40,000,000. From 1850 to 1875 we had a good supply of money and tories to be laid before the Senate at the present time. prices rose. Can any man show me any article of farm produce or any The PRESIDENT pro tempore laid before the Senate the amendments thing else that has increased in value-unless there was some loca-l cause of the House of Representatives to the bill (8. 185) to provide for tbe for it-between 1875 and the present time? admission of the State of South Dakota into the Union, and for the or This question of the rise and fall of prices was very extensively con ganization of the Territory of North Dakota. .sidered, and a very large number of witnesses were examined upon it 'before the royal commission, and there was a unanimous concurrence Mr. PLATT. I move that the bill, with the amendments, be referred on all hands that the principal reason for the fall of prices during the to the Committee on Territories and printed. last fourteen years, particularly in farming products, was the demone The motion was agreed to. tization of silver. Some of them thought that it was a good thing be Al\IEND:MJTh~S TO APPROPRIATION" BILLS. cause they wanted cheap food in England, and they wanted to be re 1\Ir. DOLPH submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by lieved of being tributaries to America, but they all concurred that the him to the sundry civil appropriation bill; which was ordered to be principal element in the fall of prices from 1875 until now was the de printed, and, with the accompanying papers, referred to the Committee monetization of silver. on Appropriations. As to the dairy product, there is an obvious reason why it should Mr. SAWYER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by rise in value, because your prairies, where cattle could run wild, have the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads to the genera~ deficiency been exhausted, and there are local reasons for some variation in par appropriation bill; which was referred to the Committee on Appropri ticular articles. But the general decline of prices has always occurred ations, and ordered to be printed. when there was a money famine. Up to the period of the demonetiza PUNISHMENT OF RAPE. tion of silver we had for some years been having an average of nearly $200,000,000 per annum. Since then we have had only about $100,- Mr. FAULRNER. I ask leave to present a conference report in ref 000,000, because we abandoned one of the precious metals. That fact erence to a bill the conference report on which has been adopted by is having its effect, and there never will be any increase in prices until the Hoose of Representatives. we have more money. The PRESIDE~T pro tempore. The report will be received. Mr. BLAIR. A question was raised here yesterday with reference The Chief Clerk read the report, as follows: The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on to the relative cost of living in this country and in England, and the amendment of the Senate tq the bill (H. R. 5870) to amend the Revised Stat another question. which was still further discussed this forenoon by utes relating to the District of Columbia, for the protection of girls and for the the Senator from Missouri [Mr. VEST], as to the effect of the protective punishment of the crime of rape, having met, after full and free conference have agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective Houses as tariff on wages in this country. I find in my mail to-day the Daily follows: Pre...;;s, of Manchester, in my own State, in which there is the vP.rdict That the House recede from its disagreement to the amendment of tho Sen and finding of a gentleman who was sent to this country by an asso ate, and agree to the same with amendments as follows: Strike out, before the word "District," in line 4, the words "any Territory" ciation of British laborers to investigate these two points and report and insert the "Word" the;" in line 5, after the word" place," insert" except for their benefit. I send to the Secretary that he may read it the the Territories;" in line 8, after the word" State," insert the words" or Terri finding of this gentleman who was intrusted with this important mis tory;" in line 11, before the word "years," strike out "five" and insert "fif teen;" in the same line, after the word "and," strike out the words "for the sion by British laborers, in order to settle to their satisfaction these second or other" and insert" each subsequent," and in line 13, before the word two all-important points. I ask the Secretary to read the article that "years," strike out "ten" and insert "thirty;" so as to read: I send up. "That every person who shall carnally and unlawfully know any female un der the age ofsixteenyears,orwhosbali be accessory to such carnal and unlaw The Chief Clerk read as follows: ful knowledge before the fact in the District of Columbia, or other place except [Da~y P1ess, Manchester, N.H.] the Territories, over which the United States has exclusive jurisdiction, or on any vessel within the admiralty or maritime jurisdiction of the United States, PETTIFER'S CONCLUSIONS, and out of the jurisdiction of any State or Territory, shall be guilty of a felony, II. J. Pettifer, the Englishman who came over last yea1· to investigate the and when convicted thereof shall be punished by imprisonment at hard labor for relative cost of living in this country and in Great Britain for workingmen, the first offense for not more than fifteen years, and for each subsequent of with a view to making an unprejudiced statement of the facta to an n.ssociation fense, for not more than thirty years." of British laboring men, has run counter to Sir Lyon Playfair, who made a And tile Senate agree to tlle same. similar investigation through the medium of first-class hotels and restaurants. The committee further recommend that the tille of the bill be amended so In a recent issue of the London journal called Fair Trade 1\Ir. Pettifer says this: as to read: "I also have lately returned from America, and while there have had excep "A bill to punish, as a felony, tile carnal and unlnwful knowing of any fe- tional opportunities of studying this question, having addressed thirty large male under the age of sixteen years." meetings every one in a prominent manufacturing town, scattered over six CHAS. J. FAULKl'I'"ER, d.iJrcrent State!!. In each town I either visited the mills or factories personally, JNO. C. SPOONER1 or else received deputations of workingmen engaged in the different industries, C.- B. FARWELL, with a view of obtaining all the information possible upon the question of pro Conferees on the part of the Senate. tection and its effect upon the wage-earning class. I was also allowed in I JNO. J. HEMPHILL, think every caae, when visiling a mJll or factory, to inspect the time-sheet and BARNES COMPTON, wages-book; and not only this, but both this year and lru!t (for this is my WILLIAM W. GROUT, fourth visit to America) I got all the information I could as to the price of food, Confe'rees on the part of the Ho1LSe of Representatit:es. clothing, rent, etc., and the conclusions I have come to are directly opposed to those of Sir Lyon Playfair. His opinion is that as far as America is concerned 1\fr. CALL. I think that had better lie upon the table. That is a protection is a. gigantic failure when it claims to be the source of high wages. criminal law and one imposing severe pen ali ties. "My opinion is that as far as America is concerned protection is a gigantic success when it claims to be the source of high wages. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator object to the pres "Dut now comesthemostvitn.lpartofthe whole question. Can a man live, as ent consideration of the report? fa.r as food is concerned, any cheaper in Great Britain than he can in the linited Mr. CALL. Yes, sir. States? I assert that he can not; that is to say, if he has to live up to the same standard. The very fact that a great proportion of the bread and beef, pork, The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The rules require that that question bacon cheese etc. that we consume in this country comes from America clearly must be determined immediately and without debate. It can be prove~ that it. ~ust' fetch at least as high a price here as it does in America. Poor, waived by unanimous consent. Is there objection to the report lying foolish fellow as Sir Lyon evidently thinks the Yankee is in the matter of pro upon the table and being printed? The Chair hears none. tection, we must surely give him credit for selling where he can get the best price, a.nd if flour meat, bacon, cheese, etc., fetched a higher price in America l\fr. FAULKNER. I do not know the object and purpose of the than they do here'he would never send them at all, and if he gets as high a. price objection the Senator makes. So far as the objection that he suggests or a bit higher (to pay for carriage) in this country than he does at home, how is concerned, it is certainly better than the original bill. can we buy these articles any cheaper here than we can buy them in .America," The PRESIDENT pro tempcwe. Debate is not in order. 1\IESSAGE FRO::U: THE HOUSE. 1\u. CALL. L think it ought to be examined; that is alL A message from the Honse of Representatives, by 1\fr. TOWLES, its The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The report will lie ou the table and Chief Clerk, announced that the House had passed the following bills be printed. each with an amendment in which it requested the concurrence of th~ IIOUSE BILLS REFERRED. Senate: The following bills, received from the Hoose of Rep.resentatives, were A bill (S. 332) granting a pension to Harrison Wagner; and severally read twice by their titles, and referred to the Committee on A bill (S. 3116) granting an increase of pension to Thomas Wynne. Pensions: The message also announced that the House had passed the bill (S. A bill (H. R. 538) granting a pension to James ~filler; 3112) granting an increase of pension to William H. Marston. A bill (H. R. 765) granting a pension to Annie l\fay Pifer; The message further announced that the House had concurred in the A bill (H. R. 2861) granting a pension to !fary Thorn; 992 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. A bill (H. R. 4591) granting a pension to Maria Beiser; Transfer. A bill (H. R. 4763) to grant a pension to Joseph Van Arsdel; Second Lieut. Charles G. Lyman, of the Fifth Infantry, to be second A bill (H. R. 6532) to pension Thomas Davey; lieutenant in the s~cond Cavalry. A bill (H. R. 6755) granting a pension to Mary Jane Harris; UNITED STATES CONSUL. A bill (H. R. 7633l granting a pension to Capt. Michael Piggott; A bill (H. R. 7858 granting a pension to Jennie Harris; Henry ,V. Beckwith, of lllinois, to be consul of the United States at A bill (H. R. 9946 granting a pension to Enoch B. Vice; Bermuda. A bill (H. R. 10025) for the relief of James T. Teeple; INTERSTATE CmiMERCE COMMISSIONER. A bill (H. R. 10260) to place the name of Charles A. Stockman, of Walter L . .Bragg, of Alabama, to be an Interstate Commerce Com Dundee, Mich., on the pension-roll; missioner. A bill (II. It 10289) granting a pension to 1\Iiss Emily Romine; RECEIVER OF P UBLIC MONEYS. A bill (H. R. 10448) granting a pension to Squire Walter; A bill (H. R. 10523) granting a pension to Mrs. Maria C. McPher- Frank F. Randolph, of Huron, Dak., to be receiver of public mon son· eys at Watertown, Dak. A bill (H. R. 11052) granting a pension to Clara M. Owen; TERRITORIAL PROBATE Jl::'DGES. A bill (H. R. ·11089) granting a pension to Elizabeth Harper; R. W. Cross, of Weber County, Territory of Utah, to be judge of A bill (H. R. 11177) granting a pension to Christian Sanders; probate in said county. A bill ~H. R. 11316) granting a pension to Charlotte Ayres; James A. Stark, of Piute County, Territory of Utah, to be judge of A bill H. R. 11459) granting a pension to Erasmus W. Jones; probate in said county. A bill H. R. 115781 to increase the pension of Roland Ward; A Qill H. R. 11617 granting a pension to 'Mary Thompson; A bill H. R. 11629 granting a pension to Elizabeth Clover; A bill (H. R. 11711 granting a pension to Nona J. Tillery, minor HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. child ofWyatte L. Tillery; SATURDAY, January 19, 1889. A bill (H. R. 11757) granting a pension to Rebecca H. Lyon; A bill (H. R. 11999) granting a pension to William Barnes; and The House met at 12 o'clock m. Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. W. · A bill (H. R. 12039) granting a pension to Thirza S. Jenner. H. MILBURN, D. D. The bill (H. R. 11751) to remove the political disabilities of Henry The Journal of the proceedings of yesterday was read and approved. :B. Davidson was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee VETO MESSAGES. on the Judiciary. The following veto messages were severally laid before tbe House, EXECUTIVE SESSION. • read, and referred to the Committee on Invalid Pensions and ordered Mr. CULLO:U. I move that the Senate do now proceed to the con to be printed. sideration of executive business. To the House of Representatives: The motion was agreed to; and the Senate proceeded to the consid I return without approval House bill No. 9173, entitled ".An act granting a eration of executive business. After five minutes spent in executive pension to Mary J. Drake." It is proposed by this bill to pension the beneficiary therein named as the session the doors were reopened, and (at 5 o'clock and 20 minutes p. widow of Newton E. Drake, who served as a soldier from August 1,1863, to Jan m.) the Senate adjourned until Monday, January 21, 1889, at 11 o'clock uary 18. 1865. a.m. The records do not show that he suffered from any disability during his term of servtce. He filed an application for pension September 23, 1870, claiming that he con CONFIRMATIONS. tracted rheumatism about October 1864. IIe died June 7,1881, and there does not appear to have been any evidence Executive nominations confirmed by the Senate January 15, 1889. produced as to the cause of his death or establishing, except by the allegations of his own application, that he contracted any disease or disability in the INDIAN AGENT. service. GROVER CLEVELAND. Charles E. Vandever, of Indiana, to be agent for the Indians of the EXEct:'ITVE MANSION, January 18, 1&!9. Navajo agency in New Mexico. To tluJ House of Representatives: API'OINTMENT IN THE ARMY. I return .;ithout approval House bill No. 0252, entitled "An act granting a pension to 1\lrs. Catherine llarberick, of Watertown." Andrew J. Smith, late colonel of the Seventh Cavalry, to be colonel The beneficiary named in this bill is the mother of Willlam Barberick, who of cav::Ury in the Army. enli ted February 19,1862, and died of small-pox August 2, 18M, at his home while on veteran furlough. PROMOTIONS IN THE ARMY. 1t is not claimed that the soldier contracted the fatal disease while in the Army. On the contrary, the testimony taken upon his mother's apJ?lication for pension Sttbsistence Department. to the Pension Bureau shows that be was taken sick after h1s arrival at his home M. on furlough, and tbut several of his family bad died of the contagious disease Capt. Douglas Scott, of the First Infantry, to be commissary of to which be fell a victim before he was taken sick with it. subsistt'nce, with the rank of captain. In these circumstances, unless there is to be a complete departure from the First Lieut. Charles Hay, of the Twenty-third Infantry, to be com principle that pensions are to be granted for death or disability in BOme way re missary of subsistence, with the rank of captain. lated to the military service, this bill should not become a law. GROVER CLEVELAND. Executive nominations confirmed by the Senate January 19, 1889. EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 18, 1889. PROMOTIONS IN THE ARMY. To the House of .Representatives: I return without approval IIouse bill No. 9296, entitled "An act granting a Second Regiment of Cavalry. pension to Bridget Carroll." This bill pro post'S to pension the beneficiary therein named as the dependent First Lieut. Frank U. Robinson, to be captain. mother of Patrick: Carroll, who was enrolled as a sergeant in the regular Army Second Lieut. Alvarado ~I. Fuller, to be first lieutenant. in 1&!1, this being, as it is stated, his second term of enlistment. In September.18S6, being absent from his comms.nd at Fort Warren, Ma..ssa. Fourtl' Regiment of CatJalry. chuselts, he was drowued while sailing in a small boat with two companions. The beneficiary is aged and in need of assistance, but there is no pretense that Capt. Michael Cooney, of the Ninth Cavalry, to be major. the soldier's death was in the least degree related to his military service. Ninth Regiment of Cavalry. I am sure no one conld fail to be gratified by an opportunity to join in accord ing aid to this dependent old mother of a faithful soldier, but I can not belie~e ' First Lieut. Joseph Garrard, regimental adjutant, to be captain. that such a departure as is proposed ~:~hould be made from the just principle• upon which pension legislation ought to be predicated. Seventh .Regiment of Infantry. GROVER CLEVELAND. EXECUTIVE MANSION, Januar11 18, 1889. Capt. Daniel W. Benham, to be major. First Lieut. Daniel Robinson, to be captain. To the Hou4e of Repruentativts: Second Lieut. Lewis D. Greene, to be first lieutenant. I return without approval House bill No. 9175, entitled "An act granting a pension to George Wallen." • Eighth Regiment of Infantry. The beneficiary named in this bill filed an application for pension in June, 1873, alleging as his disability a fracture of his right arm. !r'Iaj. Alfred T. Smith, of the Seventh Infantry, to be lieutenant-col In a subsequent affidavit filed In 1~83 he alleged deafness, which appears to onel. be the disability upon which the special act proposed for his relief is based. The records establish that he enlisted July 'Zl, 1861; that be deserted Apri125 Capt. Edgar R. Kellogg, of the Eighteenth Infantry, to be major. 11!62, and returned February 20, 1863, after an absence of about ten months and that he deserted again April 30, 18&!. I am Informed that his record showe . Thirteenth Regiment of Infantry. 1~.enUstments, and desertion during each. He was discharged December 31; Lieut. Col. Montgomery Bryant, of the Eighth Infantry, to be col 1 An application to J emove the charge of desertion against him was denied. onel. Without specially discussing the question of disability chargeable to military Eighteenth Regiment of Infantry. service, it seems to me that a soldier with such a record should not be pen• sioned. • · First Lieut. Robert F. Bates, to be captain. GROVER CLEVELAND. ! Second Lieut. Charles B. Hardin, to be first lieutenant. EXECUTIVE MANSION, January18, 1889.