Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1910-03-17

Hardly any household in America
IS so humble or so grand but that
mating Of some sort is to be found
on the floor, The republican con-
| gress, however, is fixing the tariff
J tax on this class of house furnish
ings followed out a policy that is
apparently directly in the interest of
the users of the higher grades of
mating and against that of those
whose position in life requires them
to limit their purchases to the poor
er qualities. In brief, the tariff on
mattings, plain, fancy or figured,
manufactured from straw, round or
| split or other vegetable substances
| included in what are commonly
known as Chinese, Japanese and In
dian straw mattings. valued at not
to exceed 10 cents per square yard,
was raised from cents TO u cents
a square yard, while the tariff on all
higher priced mating was cut from
an average of about cents--7 per
cent and 20 per cent ad valorem ad-
ded--to the same figure, 8 II cents.
Expressed in another way, the
percentage of tariff on the cheaper
grade was raised from SO to 43 per
cent of its value, while that on the
dearer grades was cut from SO per
cent of its value to "a per cent, the
tariff on the mating of the poor
being raised and the tariff on the
mating OF the well-to-do cut in two
and more. The ten cent value rep
resents the price which the importer
contracts to pay the manufacturer in
Asia, which reaches II to "a cents
in the New York market, and 40
cents to the householder. The dear
er grades run as high as $1.50
yard in the retail store. There was
no tariff on mating prior to the time
Mr.. Dingley began moulding his law.
Then, because the ingram carpet in
dustry protested, congress levied the
tariff as given above. But the in
grain carpet industry did not revive
very much because a perverse people
insisted on buying mating and refus-
ing to buy the carpet. So it was
that last year the ingram manufac
turers were down begging for duty
of 10 cents per square yard on the
cheaper grade They didn't get it
because democratic members pointed
out that it was not the business OF
congress to deprive people of what
they wanted in order to force them
to buy what they didn't want. Trade
experts declared that the decline of
the ingram carpet business was due
to the fact that it had become an
obsolete fabric.
The straw mating industry in the
United States is so small that the
Garnet men and the importers who
appeared at the ways and means
committee had not heard of it. Their
testimony was that no straw mat
ting, only paper mating, Is made in
the United States, that it is all made
in the orient from grass grown un-
der peculiar conditions. This brought
before the committee MasSachu-
setts man who runs q mill In Ken
nebunk. Me, which uses grass grown
in Texas. He said tnat whereas all
oriental mating is made in wooden
looms operated by hand and foot
power, his concern has power looms
that make a higher grade product
that sells in America for better
price. He asked that the tarin on
the medium and lower grades be re-
tained at cents, and that a speclfc
duty of IL cents per square yard be
p]aced on the higher cost grades. 1t
was refused. There is nothing in
evidence or of record to show why.
The lace curtain is no longer re-
garded as a luxury. Most every Am
erican housewife likes to have a set
Of these at each of her more import
ant windows. but if any of these
good women construed the promise
Of the president to revise the tarln
downward to mean that they would
pet their lace curtains at lower
price they are doomed to dlsappolht-
ment The industry in America Is
purely exotic, the child OF project
i've tariff, and at every step the cost
increases because at every step .he
tariff droDs in to levy n toll. The
Nottingham curtain, the standard Oh
the industry, requires highly skilled
labor. The curtains are construct
ed on intricate machines, every one
of which must be imported. at
tariff tax of 4 3 per cent. me hne
warns specially spun for the industry
which the manufacturer is obliged to
use and without which no lace cur
tain machine can be operated are all
imported at so per cent duty. The
workingmen had to be imported, and
they are all protected because Of the
tariff duty on their finished product,
55 per cent. And the householder
pays all the expenses, plus the pro-
fits from maker to seller.-Bryan's
COmmOner.
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