The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-05-17
LOCAL TEXTILE MEN URGE INCREASE IN
 PROPOSED TARIFF
Salts Textile Co. Represented at Hearing of Senate Sub-
 Committee
MT. Kip Discusses Conditions of Mohair Industry in England
 and America
1Rv Our Staff corres.l )

Washington, May 17.-Connecticut
 manufacturers interested in the wool and nnohair industries were before the sub committee of the Senate Finance Committee again yesterday. Sitting with the committee were members of the board of general appraisers from the New York Custom House, acting as advisers to the committee.
 Among those present from Connec- ticut were MT. Kip, representing the Salts Textile Co.,, of Bridgeport, MT. BIoomenthaI, of Shelton, and MT. c. A. Wimpfheimer, of Stonington.
 They submitted to the committee the amendments to schedule K, that they claimed were necessary to con- tinue the business in this country. They asked for g. rate on the hair of the Angora goat of 20 per cent; on tops made from the hair of Angora goats and other like animals, 35 per cent; on yarns made from rnohair, 45 per cent; on cloth and all manu- facture of every description made from Angora hair and other like ami mals, 55 per cent, and on plushes, vel vets, and all other like fabrics, cut or uncut, woven or knit, whether or not the pile covers the entire surface. made wholly or In part from the hair of the Angora goat, and all other like animals a rate of 65 per cent. ad val prem.
 They claim that nohair fabrics are Iuxuries in the highest sense, viz:: Pushes for railroad car seats, plushes in large variety in imitation of genu- inc furs, cloths for automobile tops, mems high priced suits and ladies dresses. Being exclusively luxuries 1t is claimed that they should pay their share of revenue to the government.
 The establishment Of the mohair in- dustry in the United States, they say, including the raising of Angora goats here has been very laboriously achieved. Tn order to check and per- haps destroy the American industry, the governments of Turkey and South Africa have by edict prohibited the exportation of Angora goats under any conditions. This, together with the fact that mohair fabrics are not at all a. necessity like wool but are fashion for their use, puts mohair in the same category as silk.
 The production of rnohair cloth and plushes in the United States is today very large" said MT. Kip. 'In the last ten years the Angora goat has increased in the United States over 50 per cent, and we as rnanufac- turers and very large users and inn porters of nnohair urge and request the retention of the Underwood duty of 20 per cent. on raw rnohair, as the wiping out of this industry in LnlS country would raise the pr1cS 10 the American consumer by removing from the field the competition of American grown mohair, and as mo- hair and its products are strictly arr -ticles of luxury and the rates we ask for are less than similar Iuxuries in silks we can see no Justification in granting less rates and deAtroying this industry. particularly when prices to the consumer here in a. very short time are bound to advance over pres ent figures"
 Comparative lists of wages paid in a factory in Bradford, England, and a like factory in the United States compiled on March 1. .-1s13, shows that for fdenticalIy the same class of work on machines making. the same speed the English workman receives for sorting perl24 pounds, $40, and 1 the American for the same amount | S4.3T; combers and carders, English | $4.6s, American, $s.6o per week; | connbers and carders's f1xers, per week | English, $8.16, American, $1935 per 1 week; spinners, $3.36 in England and | $8.60 in this country; in the weaving i room the English workman is paid an average of 73 cents per piece while the American workman received $2.25 for doing the same work.
 The cost of a yard of cloth made from nohair under the Underwood rate of duty is given as 2S.O; the cost of importing yard of cloth under the new law will be 24.5. Under the rate asked for by the Connecticut makers the cost of a yard of foreign made cloth delivered in this country they would say would be 27:s. or about equal to the cost of cloth made f in the shop at Bridgeport