The herald., 1897-01-03

raw 5ute Chairman Dingley incidents
ally stated that the government had re-
= ceivcd $2,500OO duty on burlaps and
$780, 900 on bags per year under the Nc
Kfndey bill, all of which had been thrown
away by the Wilson bill.
Crawford Lyon Of Baltimore charac-
terized Mr.. Rutherford as an alarmist,
and declared his statements regarding
free entries of goods were absolutely
untrue Mr.. Lyon is an importer and he
came armed with load of samples, de-
elarings that only three varieties of the
many ~ exhibited were entered free His
plea was for lower duties on oil clothes
and linoleums. as the law, he declared,
restricts importations and lavishly
y protects manufacturers. The witness
declared that. Americans could make
these goods cheaper than they could be
made abroad by reason of more efficient
3 machinery, and that any requests for
& an advance of tariffs should be looked
on with suspicion. 1t would give the
four close corporations controlling the
American market, he asserted, an op-
portunity they never. had neglected to
squeeze the public.
Chairman Dingley stated that under
the Wilson law importations of limo
leunn have increased so per cent and rev.
enues decreased 3S per cent.
Leslie Coombs Of Lexington, KY, who
said he was the largest grower Of hemp
In the country before the act of 1894,
said the placing of aax, jute and hemp
on the free list had destroyed entirely
his ability to produce hemp, and since
that time he had not produced pound.
He appeared. he said, in behalf of the
farmers of Kentucky, who were depend
ent upon it's production.
He called attention to the fact that
the st. Louis platform promised pro-
: lection to these four articles, specific
ally hemp, sugar, wool and lumber. He
asked for duty of $50 per ton on hemp
and SIS per ton on sisal, manila and
jute. He also asked that it be made
penal offense to sell jute goods as
American hemp goods
A duty of s25 g. ton on hemp he did
not think sufficient. In 1885 seventy
five thousand tons were produced in
two states; in 1889, Under duty of S25,
eleven thousand tons were produced,
ard last year but five thousand tons.
Mr., Johnson of North Dakota inter-
rupted to say that the northwest had
supported free jute and manila on the
theory that there was no substitute for
them SO cheap for binding twine. Mr..
Coombs said he did not claim that
protective duty on jute, manila and
hemp would not slightly raise the cost,
but on a protective basis this was to be
expected. The farmer would get this
back If the protective theory was to be
placed In operation in an increased
price for their wool.
The price of binding twine, Mr. john
son said, in 1885 was % cents. in 1887 10
cents and last year cents.
Congressman Van Horn Of Missouri
said if a fair duty was placed on hemp
Missouri. the finest hemp producing
state in the Union. would go back to it's
production. The hemp industry in Mis-
souri, was destroyed. With a duty it
would become the second agricultural
product in the state.
]. j. Bemis Of Boston, a burlap manu-
facturer, argued that there was no jute
industry in this country worthy Of pro-
lection, as but five per cent of the jute
was grown here about twenty-five years
of protection representing the bur1ap
bagging industry he asked a duty Of
80 per cent on imported bags and free
raw material.
porter OF jute fabrics, submitted
brief. He commented on samples of
cloths admitted free as burlaps in San
Francisco, exhibited by Rutherford,
which he declared would not be admit
ted in New York. and which were not.
in his opinion, burlaps at all. He ad-
vised that the treasury department be
notified of this clear evasion at San
Francisco.
Charles e. Peace of st. Louis, repre-
senting the manufacturers OF cotton
baggfng and cordage, asked for a re-
storation of the duty on these products
in the act of 1890 with a reduction of
about % per cent. He said he had been
one of those who had been forced to
suspend the manufacture of hemp when
jute was placed on the free list by the
act of 1890. He also made interesting
statements in regard to the threatening
disaster from Japan and Oriental COM
petition. To saF
Mr.. Pearce said the importation of
5ute and o>s.ar vegetable hbres free had
dlsplaced 21,O00,000 bales of cotton. If
he were a cotton planter he would be
there asking for duty on all vegetable
hbres On cotton bagging he asked one
and two-sixteenths cents, on cordase
one cent, a reduction of 25 per cent
from the rate of the act Of 1890.
The committee then adjourned until
Monday, when the hearing will be de-
voted to the tobacco schedule.
A WIDOW WANTS HER RIGHTS