The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-14
TALMAGE REPLIED TO,
TIE PRESIDENT OF THE RICE
ASSOCIATION TALKS.

ASSOCIATION TALKS.
He Explains Why the Defining Clause
Should be Retained in the Mills
Tariff Bill-Mr. Talmage's Letter to
the Rice Men and Col. Gin chs Reply
Some of Mr. Talmage's Statements
Met by Statistics and Official Reports
The Cost of Production and
Milling.
A MORNING News reporter called yester-
day on Col. Houstoun Clinch, President of
t@xSavannah Rice Association, and asked
HIM if he desired to say anything in refuta-
ton of the recent statement made by Mr.
Dan Talmage.
"Well," said the Colonel, ''the trouble
began by letter from Dan Talmage's Sons,
bearing date of March % last, and addressed
to the Vice President of our association
Without commenting on the dictatoral
way in which it is conceived, or the mani
fest discourtesy which runs through it,
will read it to you. 1t is as follows
MR.. TALMAeE's LETTER.
Your people are not beneflting themselves in
trying to have the specific definition put upon
the term uncleaned rice. We can demonstrate
beyond cavil that the cost when ready for con
sumption in this country of any cleaned rice is
the same, whether imported in paddy I'M
cleaned, plus lower rates of duty, or cleaned,
plus higher rate of duty. We demonstrate
beyond truthful contradiction that even cleaned
rice cannot be adulterated abroad with meal be
passed through our customs at the rate Of duty
imposed upon uncleaned and be prepared for
market at any less cost than the cleaned, plus
the higher rate OF duty.
BY the action of your people, If successful,
you will simply give to the foreign miller the
moiety of milling which might as well be made,
and is heinp made nv the American miller
You know, or you ought TO know, that over
nine-tenths of the India rice, which enters the
markets of the world, is in such advanced stages
of cleaning as that it would be compelled to pay
cleaned rates of duty, if the proposed definition
prevailed.
American interests ought to stand by one an
other, and the American producer ought not 70
injure the American miller especially II L.
benefit be secured thereby to the producer. II
once the Kilkenny principle is adopted the pro
ducer's viii be killed aud the American
miller, by reason Of being the fitSeS-. VII s-lr-
vive. As We have before remarked. tie tlfte--
ent duties as now posed Ara fairy -slAaEve
o1e 70 another. s1t 10 zso-S lzIz-T ; 51r1e 10
the 11--es-Ac c-op - 1es lzg,1r-4s112 q s0rSSSz
rsee Z c1s t1r- --1rs leaAz a1lsfslsr-
W 1=fsl zzici--t- 77 cc-bsa-aLlE TEl ~ ABvrE
esSlL-ei- II T'-IIr 1Esi1ih11. o. aslsyts Wiz s.
Eiilss rssau,Taln Il lr' .G,3sa1 7 T-az WISE 10
1hss nEs'uri-ICss unllIv su-s. TaU vi B3rlse
EpIr Congressman a. R1rItf 1u lhs LEzzilE1as IL
.iitllise u ~ ''lnt,faunat. s..sE q. IN
glss definition v-Hu,l Is s,n11~u-T El liz ,yas-
s1nIH II rlH writ u W. bEvt EuuvI them In
1tlI-IF pasn-B
aIF1I1 TIL ILICE Ass1-CA-JlM
@@ 411trrwErl III 3 result If sll.ssssosz1
ci-rrssH.i .Ilt.iau,;s IL Dun TAluEEt WIS
g-x1Is4- l1GT4Tg1ssv WIN ltIs .u,,s asse-5s-
rI1C here WHINE members Is TIT KEW rep
resent. II : lI-rcs s.z1s-sl- lie -la-7s-s nil
eEs- E1sr,-lszl-1s AID others 111sreSls5 II the
rics L-s1-s1rT q LIS sa.I11z- As lie had
asserted tar Tie clzzss 6s-i1lng unclaimed
o nee would . q IL teoeAt 70 the
American growers OF rice, but
would seriously damage the Arneri-
can miller and dealers in rice, it was
thought to be sufficiently important to have
all these varied interests fully represented
at the meeting The superintendents and
many stockholders of each of the mills in
this city, several rice planters and promi-
nent dealers in rice were present.
"As the MORNING NEWS reported IL. the
meeting, after hearing Mr.. Talmage, de-
cided that unless the defining clause was
maintained little or no clean rice would
hereafter be imported, thus virtually re-
ducing the duty on rice under the present
tariff from 274c. to nc per pound, and to
that extent damaging the American grower.
and as the domestic product would in
evitahly be greatly curtailed, the mills
would consequently suffer prOportionately.
Most, if not all the rice mills of this
country are located in the two Carolinas.
Georgia and Louisiana, the States where
AlNO ID hON BlONH a large sCdIS. Ile
cultivation of rice in Florida being rapidly
on the increase, mills are about to be erected
In that State. The amount invested in each
of the mills in Savannah alone runs from
100000 to $3.50, 600 or more In the various
processes required to convert rough rice or
PADDY into cleaned rice large number of
laborers are employed, many of whom are
necessarily skilled and experienced opera
tives.
THE COST OF MILLING.
''To show how this skilled labor could be
easily thrown out of employment and the
valuable plants be irretrievably damaged I
have only to add that | am reliably in
formed that the machinery required ID CON
vert the so-caled 'uncleaned' fOreign inn,
portatlon, which Mr.. Talmage wants to i'm
port, can be put up at a small cost say
from $50 ranging TO 5000, according to
the capacity. As these small mills would
do the work required as perfectly as the
large rice mills, and at a cost that would be
lnappreciable. the managers and owners of
the more extensive plants recognized at
once that while they would lose on the one
hand by the lessening production of the
American product from the importation of
the cheaper article escaping its relative pro-
portion of the tariff, on the other hand they
would not get pound of the uncleaned rice
beyond the time required to put up these
little brushing mills here or in the large sea-
ports of the country where rice is imported.
and which small brush mills can be operated
by boys.
when this was brought to the attention
of Mr.. Talmage he became much excited.
and asked if we expected to have a mo-
nopoly of the rice milling business of the
country at the expense of New York. As we
have failed to see that the interests OF Mr..
Talmage and possibly a few other import
ers OF rice, large as they may be- would
affect in any appreciate degree the city of
New York, we do not believe Mr. Talmare
can induce many of her citizens TO advocate
measure for his benefit TO the serious
injury of large and long established in
dustry, whether that industry be located
North or South, and his attempt to preiu- |
dice Northern sentiment in his favor will |
in all probability fail as utterly as his effort
10 create antagonsms between the Ameri- |
can millers and the American rice planters |
when asked if he would tell US approx |
mately what quantity Of 'unceaned' rice |
was imported annually, he replied that il
would probably amount 20 4, 900 600 pounds |
AS we knew that 100000 pounds had heen
recently brushed in this city, t p brushing |
mills in New York and elsewhere being i'm
adequate TO meet the sudden and largely |
increased demands upon them and that |