The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1909-03-26

uIactuGeS no prevent IA IN from
: charging a price which would give
| them more than a fair return or
, their investments.
, Mr.. Schwab, who was formerly
president of the steel corporation
was one of the most earnest advo-
Gates for protection for the steel in
dustry to appear before the commit
tee. His replies to the questions of
members of the committee were re-
plete with figures and with argu-
ments. He declared that the Besse-
mer process of steel manufacture will
within five years, be suppressed by
the open hearth process, which he
predicted, will in turn be abandoned
for the electric system of manufac-
ture being developed in Germany.
The agitation for free lumber by
those in sympathy with the move
ment for the conservation of the
forests of the country, resulted in
a strong appeal from the lumber in
terests of the South and the north
west, Representative Champ Clark
Of Missouri, the minority leader Of
the house, submitted the lumber
magnates to severe cross examina-
lions and these hearings We're among
the most interesting. T. B. Walker
and Edward Kinds, two of the larg-
est lumber dealers in the northwest
argued for the retention of the pres
ent duty on lumber, claiming that
the United States cannot compete
with Canada in facilities for cheap
transportation or cheap labor. A
number of southern lumbermen al
so asked for the protection, contend
ing that the cost of production has
increased.
A severe arraignment of the So
called paper trust by John Norris,
representing the American News
paper Publishers Association, and
defense of the International Paper
Company, by Chester w. Lyman,
assistant to the president of the
company, offered one of the sensa-
tons of the hearings. The Ways
and Means committee, while taking
the keenest interest in the testimony
was predisposed to depend upon the
report of the special committee
which conducted hearings on wood
pulp and print paper last year for
the information upon which to base
its conclusions regarding the paper
and pulp schedule.
The proposition to nave the val
ues of articles upon which an ad vol
orem duty is imposed determined
by the wholesale prices in this coun-
try as we'll as by the cost at the
place Of production was first dis
cussed at the hearing given the pot
terry interests. This method of col
Letting the duties would permit the
appraisers to call upon witnesses in
this country for information, which,
under the present method of collect
ing ad volorem duties is not posi-
BILE. The plan was advanced as
means for preventing under valua-
tions, of which there has been COM
plant whenever ad volorem duties
have been imposed. Several cases
of under valuation were presented
to the committee by the pottery
manufacturers, who favored an in
crease in the duties on the better
grades of china. The importers adj
vanced arguments for a reduction of
% per cent in the duties on pottery.
AS at all of the former tariff
hearings there was a fight between
the shoe and leather manufacturers
of New England and the cattle rails
ers of the west. The leather manu-
facturers were loath to admit that
their industry could stand a reduc-
ton in the duties on shoes and other
leather articles, but urged that the
raw material should be placed on the
free list. An amusing incident oc-
cured when one of the shoe men
admitted that with free hides the
shoe manufacturers would be able
to compete with foreign manufac-
ture without tariff protection.
This caused the leather man
ufacturers to assemble their
forces to show that the duties on
the manufactured article should not
be reduced.
Elisha w. Cobb, manufacturer
of heavy leather of Boston, Mass,
told the committee that the tariff
on hides accrued only to benefit the
packers and not the farmer and
cattle raisers. He declared that the
large packers of Chicago are en-
gagged in the tanning business and
look forward to the time when they
will have complete monopoly in the
hide business and the sole and upper
leather business.
The wool schedule was the oc-
casion for more contention than any
other and during its consideration
there was much criticism of the
methods by which tariff bills are
framed. While William Whitman,
If Boston, representing the National
Wool Manufacturers was on the
stand, Representative Clark, of Mis-
souri,, placed in the record a pam
phlet which purported to inform the
Ways and Means committee chow
tariff laws are framed" The name
If the author was given as Frank
P. Bennett, of Boston.
THE place you get in your work
is not in the House of Representa-
tives or in the Ways and Means com
mittee, but is in the senate, isn't it?''
was one of the characteristic ques-