The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-07-26
BRUSH MAKERS
ASK FOR
AID
Congress Flooded With
Strong Appeals for
Protection.
BY Ernest G.. Walker.

mail Special to the .Advertiser.)
WASHINGTON, D. c., July IL
Appeals for protection have been COM
ing from unexpected quarters and have
been based upon unexpected grounds
ever since the tariff bill was brought
into the House of Representatives.
There are strange currents ard eddies
in the matter of production the world
over and these have powerful effect
upon manufacture.
One of the eleventh hour appeals to
the Senate was for higher duty upon
paint brushes and other brushes, even
to those with which the barber applies
the Iather preliminary to a shave. As
the tariff bill was reported to the SEN
ate, the same rate of duty applies to
the broom which the housewife uses. the
clothesbrush and the daintiest ivory
handle, bristles- rubber shaving
tool. An advalorem of forty per cent.
is laid upon all these articles. 1t hap
pens that no brooms worth mentioning
are imported and in the years gone
by the American manufacturer has
been pretty well able to take care of
the brush trade of whatever character.
But his troubles have increased The
American pig is one of them. In the
earlier and better days of the Republic
the American pig grew good stiff
bristles, fit for a shaving brush or a
paintbrush or even for a toothbrush.
But the fancy breeders have been busy
and the result is that the modern Amer
lean pig does not grow hair enough to
make good eyebrow. Accordingly
the manufacturers of brushes have to
look elsewhere for their bristles. They
bring them from China and Russia and
such countries, where fancy breeds of
pigs are unknown.
Even more. The aggressive Japa-
nese is invading the American market
with many articles. Among them are
brushes for the hair and face and
clothes and also paint brushes Labor
is very cheap over there and men with
money have discovered that the Japa-
nese can make brushes much more
cheaply than can be done out in Ohio,
where brush making has become a
great industry. The appeal for higher
duties on the better grades of brushes,
however, was made too late to the
Senate to be of any avail. The Sen
ate and the House have agreed upon
the same rate and it is not now even
subject for conference.
Senator Dick, of Ohio, took up the
fight for higher duties on brushes, but
he was less successful than Senator
Lodge, of Massachusetts. to whom was
directed a similar Macedonian cry. Up
at Leominster, Mass, there is a thriv-
ing factory town. which is virtually the
seat in this country of the manufacture
of celluloid goods. There are factories
elsewhere to be sure. but the bulk Of
celluloid manufacture, ranging from
celluloid collars to the most exquisite
toilet articles. is at Leominster. The
representatives of the industry came
down to Washington early in the SEES
sion to ask for a few increases on
collodion and compounds of pyroxylin,
which enter largely into celluloid They
were given about what they asked and
the Senate passed the paragraph in that
form. But along at the eleventh hour
of the Senate s consideration the PEG
pie of Leominster Learned that two new
and very modern celluloid mills were
being erected near Toxic, that the Japa-
Continued on Page Four.)