Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1915-11-27
GAS MANTLES
MADE in AMERICA" "


respondence) When the manufacture
ers of gas mantles sought to illumine
the beclouded intellects OF the Demo-
cratic members of the ways and means.
committee of Congress, engaged in
smearing the Underwood tariff law in
to some sort of form, they only suc-
ceeded in further befuddling those
benighted apostles of free trade. The
light of reason was to them binding
glare. II was the eight that failed"
Gas mantles are manufactured in
Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York,
Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas and New
Jersey, few factories being scattered
in other States. About so companies
are engaged and several millions OF
dollars in capital are involved. The
sales average $4,OOO,O 900 annually, and
600 mantles. Twenty-six to thirty per
cent OF the cost of manufacturing gas
mantles goes to labor. The rest to
material, overhead charges, etc. The
wages paid to labor in this industry are
trifle more than twice as much as
those paid in Germany in the same line
of work, while material costs from
thirty to thirty-five per cent more here
than in Germany. Competition among
American manufacturers has reduced
the price of .mantles from 35 and so
cents each to 10 and 20 cents for the
same grade.
Several contentious were made dur
ing the hearings on this subject before
the House committee. Mr.. w. E.
Brown, representing 95 per cent OF the
gas mantle manufacturers, wanted the
duties on mantlss, and thorium, the
chief material from which they are
manufactured, to remain as they were
under the Republican law, at 40 per
cent. He declared that reduction in
duty on thorium would be absorbed by
the German producers of that product,
in-as-much as they had no competitors.
Mr.. Dallas Boudeman advocated putting
thorium on the free list, stating that if
this were done his interests could stand
reduction Of the duty on mantles to
80 per cent. He represented the
General Gas Mantle Company Of New
Jersey. Mr.. Boudeman gave figures
to show that if his- suggestion were
adopted the cost per thousand mantles
in the United States would be $42.O7
against $42.5O in Germany, thus giving
this country an edge of 43 cents. Evi-
IDENTITY before any hearing on the SUBJ
ject had been held the committee had
decided on the rates. When asked
what would be the effect of reducing
the duty on thorium and upon foreign
mantles to % per cent ad valorem on
each, Mr.. Boudeman again presented
4 table showing conclusively that such
action would give the German manu-
facturers an advantage OF 1857.
With characteristic bull-headedness
the committee put duty of Is per cent
on gas mantles, not sufficient for pro-
lection, and lowered the duty on
thorium to IS per cent, which did no.
body any good. 1t was another instance
of the classical Democratic policy of
giving the foreign manufacturers q
double advantage by removing pro-
lection from the American industry and
putting duty on the raw material used
by that industry. Under the Republi-
can law the American manufacturer Of
gas mantles at least had a protective
duty on his product of forty per cent.
The Underwood tariff law went into
effect October 4, 1913. Comparing the
period October 1, 1912, to June 30 1913,
under Republican tariff rates with the
period Oct. a, 1913 to June 80, 1914 we
find that for the former period there
were imported gas mantles to the value
of 49,S97 on which revenue in the sum
of $40, ,919 was collected, while for the
latter period we imported gas mantles
to the value of 0,620, which paid re-
venue in the sum of SIS, 155. The
Democratic argument that lower duty
frates increase importations to such an
extent as to increase revenues is again
proved to be unsound. Here we have
an increase Of Is per cent in imports
within period of nine months, and q
decrease Of "a per cent in the revenue,
displacement of American labor cor.
responding to the increase in imports
loss of revenue badly needed by ar
impoverished Treasury, and no diminu
ton in the price of gas mantles to tn.
public. II is one more example of tn.
fallacy OF the frse-trade- with a-handi
cap policy of the Democratic Party.
MOTHER GRAY'S SWEET POwDER/