The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-01-06
TALKING TARIFF.
A Maine Manufacturer Before the
Ways and Means Committee.

ettiA tutC0uo SofuTttikLGGs
WASHINGTON, January 4.-The hearing
before the committee of ways and means
was opened this morning with an argument
by Mr.. Edmund A. Whitman of Boston, in
favor of the removal of the duty On flax.
The product has fallen off from 27,OOO,OOO
pounds in 1860 to 100000 pounds in 1870,
and today it was so insignificant that no one
could tell what 1t was. The duty was there
fore burden to the linen manufacturer,
without being compensating to the farmer.
The next statement was made by Mr.. An
derson of Maine, manufacturer of fancy
cassimeres, broadcloth etc. He argues in
favor of a restoration of the duties on such
goods to about where they stood prior to the
change made in the tariff law of 1883, and in
opposition to the removal of the duties of
wool.
Abram Bentley, of Bentley & Gerwig,
twine sDinners Of Brighton, Pa, asked that
present duties be retained on iute, siSa and
MANILA. He asserted that il the conditions
that obtained formerly, and which could be
reproduced with adequate. encouragement,
the existence OF the bagging trust would
have been impossible. Many mills were
abandoned when flax began to 60 out OF use
in the face of the competition of foreign jute
butts. Mr.. Bentley said the home demand
for binder twine can be wholly met by Amer
ican hemp. Mr.. Frank l. Babbitt. treasurer
of the Chelsea jute mills, New York, de-
sc-ihed to the committee the jute plant and
the jute butt of commerce, and gave statiS-
tics. A list of firms engaged in the manu-
facture of jute showed that the businessIeX-
tends from Boston to San Francisco. Mr.
Babbitt read telegram from the Dolphin
Manufacturing Company OF Paterson, n j.,
employing 800 hands, saying that unless this
Congress gave them free raw jute they would
be obliged to suspend. Charles 4. Pearce of
st. LOUIS read statement showing that jute
mills in this country can manufacture TO-
100000 yards Of cotton batting, while the to-
tai amount required by a 100000 bale crop
of cotton is but 45,000,000 yards, leaving a
surplus of 25,000,000 yards
Mr.. Mcmillan questioned Mr.. Pearce as to
the cause of the extraordinary rise in price
of bagging from y cents in 1887 to 49, in
| 1888. He asked witness If there was not a
| trust of bagging manufacturers to bring
| about this rise Mr.. Ptarce said there never
had been trust of bagging manufacturers,
| nor combination of them to raise the price
oi 1agging. To further questions by Mr..
Mckinley, Mr.. Pearce said the Mills bill, If
IL had passed, would have destroyed every
| oaegihg inanufactOry in the country, and
| proDaDly Dankrupted seyen-eighths Of the
manuiacturers. 1t would have wiped out
the organization that cornered the Lroduct
| OF 1888 was Que solely to belief that the
| Mills bill was hostile legislation 20 invested
| capital
Crawford Lyons, a merchant of Baltimore.
spoke In behalf OF tne poor consumer A
/ protectonist himself by principle he want
| ed to see revision Of the tar fl mace equita.
| Dly. Therefore, ON carpets made from bur
| lap, the present duty Of 30 per cent would
| give the manufacturers ample protection. On
linoleum and oil cloth, with the change Of