The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-16

160 pounds of this wire imported into the
 United States the last fiscal year. That it valued at $4, and paid the enor- nous duty to the treasury department of
 sl.20. On the other band, we exported to foreign countries 1855, S1l. .0oo pounds, val ued at S4,64S0oa. kfF
 Tt seems to me that this statement makes it clear that the manufacturers of wire for fencing purposes in this district
 are not in danger of foreign competition. no matter what Congress may do with
 the tarifr. Of course, the present duty is
 prohibitiye so far as barbed wire is con oerned, being Ac pound, but our large export trade demonstrates that we are able to meet foreign competition without any protection after paying the transpor- tstion charges to the foreign country.
 Tt was stated before the ways and
 means committee at the hearing when the
 Payne tariff law was being written by Mir. H. J. Bailey, representing Frederick
 X Bascuort Rope company of St. Louis.
 Mo-, that we manufacture wire in this country at less cost than our English competitors. He stated that although the daily wage In England was considerably less than paid to workmen in America, that the efficiency of the American work man was so much greater than his Eng fish competitor that the actual cost of piOQuCtlOn III AfltIlca was DelOM that LII the English manufacturer. He stated that in England one man was required to attend to only one thick wire block whereas in the United States one man would attend to from four to six thick wire blocks. As to the wire of the sizes of No. A to 36, one man in England would attend to from 10 to 15 blocks, whereas in the United States one man would at- tend to from 30 to 50 blocks. That the present laws in England were enforced by labor organizations there and could not be changed
 Mir. Underwood said that the cost of the production of pig iron in Birmingham was also lower than the average cost of production in either the German or Eng fish iron and steel districts That the cost of raw material was below that of our foreign competitors, and that as the labor cost of producing wire at the mills was less than foreign countries, he did not see how the provisions of the farmers free list bill relating to wire used for fenc- ing could seriously injure the producers of wire in the Birmingham district.
 As to cotton ties, he stated that the present tax was almost probibitory, but that cotton ties were on the free list under the Wilson bill and notwithstand- ing the distressed condition of the coun- try financially at that time, the manu- facturer Of cotton ties In the lnlted states did not go out of business. although 1t cost at least s ton to pay the trans portation charges on cotton ties from the northern manufacturing centers to the cotton fields of the south.
 He said that the cost of transporta- ton from the English mills to the south ern ports was about $3.50, which gave the English mills the advantage over the northern mills so far as the cost of trans portation was concerned but that as Bir- produces unquestionably the cheapest pig metal in the United States and as the cost of manufacturing it was certainly no greater than that in the northern plants and as the city of Bir- mingham was also the geographical cen- ter of the cotton belt he believed that most of the cotton ties pro- duced in the United States would be man. ufactured in the Birmingham district, and that the manufacturer of cotton ties on a large scale in the Birmingham dis trict would be able to make more money with cotton ties on the free list than the in the north can make to- day and pay the freight rates to the southern markets.