The Devils Lake world and inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1915-1920, 1916-07-20
PEARL BUTTONS
MADE IN AMERICA"

y OAAA WHY III i1iS =
can Publicity Association, through it's
president, Hon. Jonathan Bourne. j.,
gave out the following state
mcnt at it's Washington Headquarters:
The pearl button industry furnishes
a typical Illustration of the construc-
tive effect of a protective tariff IL c.-
tablishing and maintaining tEuu*ar DIS
of small enterprises which are essen
tial to a true "made in America" pol
icy.
Twenty-Five thousand operatives a..
directly employed in the manufacture
of pearl buttons in Alabama, Illinois
Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, New York, New
Jersey, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mis-
souri,. From the period of the gath
cred she'll to the finished product. IL:
600 men and 5000 women are employ
ed, while 5000 men work five months
in the year digging over $4,000 tons Of
fresh water shell, a product not hav-
ing any economic value prior to the
establishment of the pearl button in
dustry, but which now sells for $50
per ton. The capital invested in build
ings and equipment aggregates So
100000.
Prior to 1900 there was no pearl
button industry in the United States.
because the low rate Of duty, which
was rs. per cent ad valorem, did not
permit us to compete with imported
buttons. About that time the Consul
General at Vienna reported that the
manufacture of pearl buttons wouln
probably never be undertaken in the
United States. But William McKin-
ley had different ideas, and his bill
placed a specific duty on this product.
The industry had its birth from the
date of the passage of the Mckinley
Improved methods, and the introdu =
ton of machinery gave the industry q
solid foundation, and it was getting
along swimmingly until President
Wilson'S band of tariff wreckers cut
the import rates to the quick.
The Democrats did this on the tl'eo-
ry tina lower duties would increase i'm
ports to such a point that far greater
revenues would be derived from pearl
buttons, utterly obvious to the effect
on the home industry. Let us see how
their theory worked out. The Under
wood law changed the duties from
specific to ad valorem rates which car
ried a decided reduction. During the
fiscal year ended June 80, 1913, under
Republican law, we imported pearl
buttons to the value Of $91,28O, on
which revenue was realized in the sun
of $70,454, and our mills and laborers
were protected from foreign compel.
itors with their ~pauper-paid labor
Yet the duty was not prohibitive.
The Underwood law took effect
October 3, 1913, and from that date
to the end of the fiscal year 1914, nins
months, we imported $17O,439 worth o
pearl buttons, and but SOL 1888 of rev
enue vas paid into the Treasury or
those imports. In nine months, ou1
imports increased 81 per cent over thu
full fiscal year of 1913, and the reve
nue. fell of nearly $4,000.
We have five competitors in this in.
dustry: England, Germany, Austria
Italy and Japan. Four of them ar,
actively engaged in the war while ia
pan is reaping a harvest of ~prosperit!
from the same sourse as the Unitet
States. Nevertheless, the imports o
the pearl buttons during the fisca
year 1915, a war period, amounted t,
$21,369 on which duty was collected !,
the sum of $91 ,814-an increase of Is;
per cent in u imports, over the 49,;
record, but revenues increased only 2,
per cent.
The rate of wages paid to pearl but
ton operatives in the United States is
for cutters, SIS to $40 per week; il
Bohemia, $4.85 to 81; in Austria, SIS
to 1914; in England, Sc to So; Will.
the japanese receive from $3.50 to s.:
Japan is rapidly becoming our mo
dangerous competitor. There are S
factories in Osaka alone, and probabl,
over 100 in the Empire. Their mater
ial comes from India and the Sout1
Sea Islands.
Every time a member of the Pea.
Button Workers Union buttons hi
shirt it should remind him that
Democratic administration stands TO
destruction of the industry on whicI
he depends for a living, while the Re
publican party stands for protectio,
of that industry. That Union made
plea to the Democrats not to reduc
the duties, which plea was disregard
ed.
RUST DAMAGE IS FOUND