The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-24
REQUEST FROM WASHINGTON
Raw Materials, Freight Rates, eli
mate, Soil and Products to Be
Reported On.


the collection of data showing what partc-
ular interests are in danger and to what
extent they are threatened.
The Chamber of Commerce was repre-
sented by Hugh Craig of the New Zealand
Insurance Company and Wakefield B aker
OF Baker & Hamilton; the Manufacturers
and Producers Association by Julian
Sonntag of the Giant Powder Company
and Andrea Sbarboro represented the
grocers and liquor-dealers. f. H. Dingle,
assistant secretary of the Manufacturers
and Producers Association, was also
present.
subcommittee were appointed to make
investigations i'll response to the following
communication from one of CALIFORNIA;
representatives in Congress.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,, U. s.,
WASHINGTON, d. c., Dec. 10, 1881
w. II. DiHRORd, President Chamber Of Com
n,erce Of S. F., San Francisco, Cal.-DEAR SIR:
In recent conversations with mem Ders of Con-
gress endeevored to call their attention TO
the unfair competition of japanese manu-
facturers with American manufacturers. l
could speak only from memory as to the prices
at which the Japanese were laying down goods
in San Francisco. Icould say enough to make
them realize the inevitable ruin that would
come to american manufacturers unless some
thing were speedily done to protect them
against the cheap and uGder-paid labor of
Japan. | will be pleased II your organization
would send ne some data that could use be-
fore committees and in Congress in defense of
laws which would protect our country against
this alarming invasion of America by foreign
products. We had, as you know, great diff
Guilty in convincing the Eastern people OF the
danger OF Chinese invasion because we did
not commence promptly. wish to sound the
alarm at the ontset of this Japanese invasion
in the hope that the people OF the East may
see that it threatens their interests as we'll as
those OF California, and stop it at the outset.
The sooner you cSn give me these facts the
better it will be for us all.
l address your organization because you
represent merchants and manufacturers of
San Francisco, and they represent the Pacific
Coast.
Awaiting your reply, I am very truly yours,
GROVE l.. JOHNSON.
The committees were instructed to work
to the common purpose of obtaining exact
Information on Japan's production and
facilities for manufacturing and exporting
the following lines of goods: Textiles in
Guiding cotton and other fabrics, rope and
jute, metals and the products OF iron and
steel, buttons, matches, watches, bicycles.
All the raw materials used by Japan,
where they are obtained and at what fig
ures and how much of them are native to
the country will be investigated by Wake
field Baker, the local dealer in iron and
steel and wooden manufactures, by j.
Currier president of the Carlson-Currier
Silk Company with works at Petaluma,
and by John Rutherford of the California
Cotton mills at Oakland. This committee
will ascertain what Japan's present facili-
ties are for manufacturing any and all
products that would compete either in this
country OF in some other market with
goods manufactured in America.
Freight rates on japanese m anufactured
articles exported to markets usually sup
piled by American manufacturers will he
INQUIRED into by Julian Sonntag, by w. G.
Curtis of the Traffic Association and by u.
L. Fitzgerald of he Labor Commission.
The soil, the climate, the temperature
and the agricultural and mineral posi-
bilities of Japan will be reported on by
Rutherford.
These committees will be ready to report
January g. when another meeting of the
Joint committee will be held to !esten to
and act upon the array of facts that is ex-
pected to be presented by them.
After the meeting the following tele-
gram was sent to Washington by the chair
man of the joint committee:
SAN Francisco. Cal, Dec %, 1895.
Grore L. Johnson, Washington, d. c.: Confer
ence committee Manufacturers Association
and Chamber of Commerce organized and
appointed investigation committees to-day.
Will send detail information earliest possible
day. HUGH CRAIG, Chairman.
Julian Sonntag had come into the COM
mittee-room armed with a big package of
clippings not only from the local press
but from the interior press and from East
ern Journals that have shown great in
terest in the threatened cheap compe-
tition from the Orient. The committee
decided, however, that specific and we'll
authenticated instances rather than gen.
eral expressions would be the most effec-
tive means of convincing Congress of the
impending danger so that some protec-
tive measures might be adopted to shield
the American producer and manufacturer.
Sonntag said it is well known that the enor.
nous amount of nine carloads of buttons
is on Its wav from Japan to supply local
firm. He also told OF cheap watches, made
in Japan for much less than dollar,
that would be a menace to the Ameri-
can watchmakers.
1t seems that full-jeweled watches with
fine movements are made in Japan and
put on the market in silver cases for $40,
the movement alone being valued in New
York at $40. The Japanese are able to do
this by employing women and girls to
make the delicate movements by the aid
of microscopes and at cents per day.
Craig told of st. Louis jute manufac-
turer named Pierce, who had gone to Man.
chester and then to India for the purpose
of deciding the advisability of moving his
whole piant to Calcutta and exporting the
manufactured goods from there to the
American markets. fleTCe UOlQ MIN that
while in Manchester this summer he saw a
petition signed by 10000 operatives out of
employment requesting Parliament to i'm
pose the hours of labor limit upon India
as possession of Great Britain, in order
to protect them from competition that de-
prived them of employment.
He also told of an American who went
to Japan to manufacture patented article
there by cheap labor and export it to this
country. Inside of thirty days the Japan
csc had copied the design and were put
ting the same article on the market for
third of what he was doing it for. Pierce
had visited, while in Japan, great silk
and tapestry factory that had been in
operation for 260 years, and he had de-
clared that the best American manufac-
lures of such articles could not compete
with the product, either in skillful work
manship or cheapness.
Craig added on his own account, that
there is talk of putting in jute plant and
IA nail factory in Japan. Already, he de-
clared, their manufacture of cotton yarns
had driven the English goods ont of the
market. He said that everything, from
matches at twelve boxes for cent and
suits of tailor-made clothes at s. and $40 to
first-ciass sailing yacht at $500, can be
and is produced in Japan by means Of the
ridiculously low wages paid the workmen.
TIT oTONV MhpKrm