Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-01-05
The Grain-Bag Men Before Congre
sionaI Committee.

The Grain-Bag Men Before a Congress
sional Committee.
WASHINGTON, January 4th.-At the hear
ing of the Ways and Means Committee to-
day, William Bright, of Newark, n. j.,
representing the hax-dresser operatives of
that section allied to the Knights of Labor,
asked that the duty on dressed flax be in
creased from $40 to 500 per ton. He said
the industry in this country is languishing
because of insufficient protection. The
cost of dressing a ton of flax in this coun-
try is s64, while in Europe it is but S35.
He asked the additional duty upon the diff
ference in wages alone.
Abram Brentley asked that the present
duties be retained on jute, sisal and ma
Mia. He asserted that under the condi-
tons that obtained formerly, and which
could be reproduced with adequate en-
cOuragement, the existence of bagging
trust would be impossible.
Treasurer Rabbit, of the Chelsea Jute
Mills, said laborers in the American iute
mills are paid more than twice as much as
in Scotland and from five to ten times as
much as in India. He read a telegram
from the Dolphin Manufacturing Com
pany, of Paterson, n. j., saying that I'M
less Congress gave them free raw jute they
would be obliged 10 suspend, being no
Dundee manufactures. Witness argued in
favor Of free jute.
Charles T. Pearce of st. Louis made a
comparison as to the cost of Calcutta and
American bsgging, 10 show that with jute
butts free, a duty of at least per cent. per
yard upon the manufactured product must
be made in order to maintain the industry
in this country, and if the present duty of
So per ton is retained then the duty on the
manufactured product must be q cents per
yard.
Mcmillan questioned Pearce as to the
cause of the extraordinary rise in the price
of bagging from u cents in 1887 to 124
cents in 1888.
Pearce explained at length that in the
spring of 1889 seventeen of the probably
twenty-five manufacturers in the country
cornered the product and the manufact
urers were badly scared by the probability
of the passage of the Mills bill.
Mcmillan asked Pearce if he justified the
organization of trust corner.
Il say" responded the witness, that
when you undertake to destroy my bust
ness, | am justified in protecting myself,
and will do it every time"
Mcmillan remarked that the organize
ton did not relax its grip upon the people
after the danger of the passage of the Mills
bill was over.
Breckenridge said "Do you know of
any manufacturer returning the increased
price of bagging?"
II did not" said MIR Pearce. "They did
not have it."
The -Chairman-"Yo say you tried not
to put that 100000 of increased price
into your pockets. why didn't you?n
I'VE didn't get it."
"Who did get it?'
81 don't know; We didn't
To further questions by Mckinley,
Pearce said that the Mills bill, if il had
passed, would have destroyed every bag
ging mandatory in the country and prob
ably bankrupted seven-eighths of all man.
ufacturers. 1t would have wiped out from
six to eight and half millions of capital,
and the organization that cornered the pro-
duct of 1888 was due solely to the belief
that the Mills bill was hostile legislation to
invested capital. In regard to the hemp
industry, Pearce said that if it were prop
erly encouraged he had no doubt within
three years there would be instead of 200
tons, as now, from 10000 to $4,000 tons OF
hemp raised in the United States.
a. L. Bemis, of Bemis & Co., of Boston,
with bag factories in st. Louis and Mime
apolis and Omaha, made a plea for ade-
quate rates Of duty on manufactured jute
and for free raw jute.