The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-15
METAL SCHEDULE is
AGAIN BEFORE THE
HOUSE COMMITTEE


fConfinued From Page One)
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pany of Waltham. Mass, also were taken
up by the committee, which con,nued
its session far into the night.
Tariff on Watches
c A. Keene of New York, Il watch re-
taller, whom e. C. Fitch of the Waltham
Watch company. criticised for violating
the company's price standards, ursed the
committee TO fix a tariff of 60 per cent
ad yalorem on watch movements of all
grades and. with regard to watches
brought back from abroad. 20 per cent
to apply upon the improvements only.
He said he found several years ago 1t
was quite profitable to go abroad to buy
American watches to sell here. Other
purchases included Waltham move
ment, $3.50 here. foreign list price s9B,
which he bought abroad. for IS. He as
serted the WaItham company now seeks
to prevent the reshipment to America OF
their watches by adding dials to these
watches after the latter get abroad, thus
making them dutiable
As one familiar with watches. he said
he could not see where there was any
Improvement, but ii put up customs
barrier in the interest of their lower for
eign price list policy. He said the Wal
tharn company had tried to force him to
sell only at their prices. and that he
couldn't get their watches to handle now.
IF a dealer undersells their price he
can't buy any more?" suggested kepre-
sentative Palmer of Pennsylvania.
Precisely" he replied.
Want Specsfic Rates
Mr. Keene said the specific rates on va
rious grades of watches under the present
tariff were what the watch companies
wanted, and he favored an ad valorem
tariff, which he believed would result in
increased importations
Haven't you imported watches and sold
them for less than they cost your asked
Representative Fordney of Michigan.
maybe so, they might get mixed up in
the stock"
Mr. Keene was asked about the Wal
than company selling watches on the
expectation he would sell them in Egypt.
"Oh. yes" he said. II put up that job
ard, by the way, those watches went to
Alden, Arabia. We put on a new label
there and then reshipped them to this
country and / made about 30 per cent
profit" He said further that India, Cey-
Ion and other foreign places figured in
similar transactions. He told of his be-
ing enjoined by the Waltham interests.
and how at the last before .he injunc-
tion, tried very hard to keep on get
ting the goods"
Some years ago." said the witness, ex-
Naltham company had trouble in selling
the watches, one jobber in Illinois, for
instance, being short a certain grade and
another in Texas having too many. l
conceived the idea of buying in one mar
kct and selling in another, whereby the
jchber got what he wanted when he
wanted it, contrary, apparently, to the
Waltham's idea. for they stopped me-"
Representative Rainey of Illinois, refer
ring to Swiss Watches made in Represen-
tatlve Hills state of Connecticut. which
caused Mr. Hill to retort that while Con-
necticut sent it's "Swiss watches" to Eu-
rope. 1t sent its nutmegs to Illinois.
Examination into the so-called alumi-
mum trust also was undertaken py
the committee. Arthur V. Davis of Pitts
burg, president of the Aluminium Com
pany of America testified that the COM
pany's total surplus is $12.000,00 and
that the company Is capitalized at $780,
O00 900. 1t had been earning between Is
and II per cent annually in 1910, 1911
and 1912. Representative Palmer of
Pennsylvania brought out that of the
$50, 900, 900 capital the total amount of
cash actually put in was s1,S60 O00 the
remainder representing earned profits.
Mr. Davis protested against any
threatened reduction of the tariff on
aluminium. He said the company origi-
nally was started as the Pittsburg Re-
duction company in 1883 with $4,000
capital which gradually evolved with
the use of patents whose value was put
down as 100000 into the $50 900 900 cor
poration
He denied that the company ex-
ported aluminium. lie agreed with Rep
resentative Palmer that the present cap
ital and surplus Is from IL to Is times
the amount of new money put into the
plant.
AT, I,o.,te ,d,,it+a5 ttat III. co,.,na,,.
had made contracts binding its employees
and selling agents not to enter into the
business and with water power COM
panies binding them not to furnish
power TO any other aluminium manufac-
turing company within certain period
Walter Laidlaw of New York city.
who said he represented about dozen
manufacturers of pumping machinery,
but later admitted he represented the
so called pump trust testified at the
night session of the committee that
the International Pumping company
had net earnings OF $1.250,000 on its
aggregate Investment of 25.000 900 or
per cent return on its capital invested
He could not recall the amount of its
capital stock when pressed by Repre-
sentative Palmer of Pennsylvania, all
though he said he was member of the
executive committee Representative
Palmer refreshed the witness on the
history of the inner workings of the
pump company and declared that the
actual capital invested was represented
by the preferred stock. and that the
dividends were paid on the common
stock. (which is all water
oh well, that was many years ago.
admitted the witness.
The witness stated that the Interna-
tional company since it's organization
in 1899. had paid 6 per cent dividends.
and that the combination was formed
to keep down competition and reduce
the cost so that there would not be
mine wolves after every job He said
he believed that the Independents should
"be put in JAIL for making lower price
than they could make money ON.
Washington, January IA plea for re-
tention of the tariff on cotton ties and
other articles proposed to be put on the
free list was made before the committee
by ]. T.. Rose of the Atlanta Steel COM
parry. He said that putting these articles
on the free list would simply invite the
invasion of the foreign products.
Representative Palmer suggested that
he was overlooking that there is a
group of congressman here from the south
who want cotton ties to go ON the free
list
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