tance in this connection to realize that in the cotton-mill business there is absolutely no control of prices in any way, shape, or form. Whenever overproduction occurs, the price is made and the market is fixed by the weak mill or the timid holder, and it is then a scramble to get rid of goods without a loss if possible. No mill center in the South has rejoiced over the building of the Panama Canal more than has Columbus, Ga., situated at the head of navigation of the Chattahoochee River, with direct water connections via the canal to the Orient. The Columbus Manufacturing Co. is a typical southern mill on brown sheetings and has been shipping these goods to China for the last 10 years. At present they are routed to Shanghai via Vancouver, British Columbia, at a rate of $1.20 per hundredweight, of which rate the railroads get $1 and the steamship for a haul of greater distance gets 20 cents. On this basis it is estimated that sheetings loaded at the wharf in Columbus can be routed to Shanghai for a rate of not over 50 cents per hundredweight, all-water route. Is there a resident of Columbus or a resident of Georgia or a Representative in Congress from Georgia whose patriotic blood will not be stirred when he realizes the significance of this important business possibility to a Georgia city? Columbus, Ga., with her 12 cotton mills and knitting mills, will thus be put on the international cotten-mill map. But of what avail will be the Panama Canal to Georgia mills if its great benefit is to be nullified by such tariff rates as will prevent those millfrom prospering and thus using the canal to advantage? Cripple the Columbus mills and you cripple Muscogee County and every farmer located therein. Cripple Muscogee County and you cripple the State of Georgia, reduce her revenue from taxes and cut down her appropriation for schools and every other beneficent cause. Cripple Georgia and you cripple the South, the "Nation's greatest asset.

The writer has always been and is now an advocate of "tariff for revenue only." He has believed the assurances of the Baltimore platform and the statements of the leaders of the present administration that the reduction in duties would be gradually brought about without injury to any legitimate industry, and he appeals to the Democratic Senators of the South to make glorious history by safeguarding at this critical moment the very heart, soul, and body of the commercial South. Don't listen to political sentiment; listen to common sense, every-day facts. Who appeals to you? Every southern lad with a cotton hoe in his hand, every southern boy attending an agricultural college, every crossroads cotton gin, every southern community which by pop lar subscription has built a 5,000 or 10,000 spindle yarn mill, to which has been subscribed the hard earnings of the neighboring farmers and the widows of the county looking for a safe investment.

Will you, blinded by the glare of a magnificent political victory give your own God-favored section a commercial deathblow?

The commercial papers are quoting editorial opinions as to the attitude of the cotton manufacturers of England and the Continent They are gloating over the prospect. Cotton can be shipped from Houston, Tex., to Liverpool as cheaply as to the Carolinas. I England, with a superabundance of low-priced Anglo-Saxon labe and centuries of specializing in cotton manufacturing, where immens mills are being run on one number of yarn only, they will light bon fires to the pending tariff bill unless same is modified to a competitiv basis.

Par. 256.-SPOOL THREAD.

THE JOHN M'GREGOR CO., BY RODERICK J. M'GREGOR, PRESIDENT, SOUTH LINCOLN, ME.

PROPOSED TARIFF ON SPOOL COTTON.

Hon. CHARLES F. JOHNSON,

SOUTH LINCOLN, ME., April 26, 1913.

Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR: We are particularly interested in the sections of the Underwood tariff bill pertaining to duty on spool cotton now under consideration, having been for the past 37 years manufacturing wood spools for cotton thread. We have always supplied the Clark Thread Co., of Newark, N. J., and at present have two plants, one at South Lincoln, and one at Foxcroft, Me., supplying about three-quarters of their stock. Our spool mills are, without doubt, the largest in this country. Maine has supplied almost the total amount of thread spools consumed in the United States, which spools are made of white birch wood. No other wood can well be used for turning into spools. New Hampshire to a very much smaller extent than Maine has been furnishing spools.

The profits to-day in our business are very small, and any reduction in the tariff, as proposed, from about 40 per cent to 15 per cent on 200-yard cotton, such as is universally used, would, it seems to us, result very disastrously to all spool manufacturers in Maine. Furthermore, the Underwood bill would put a duty of 20 to 25 per cent upon fine yarns from which spool cotton is made, thus taxing the raw material at a higher rate than the finished article.

If spool cotton can not be successfully manufactured in the United States, the spool mills will be likewise affected. There are very large thread mills in Scotland and England, some in Belgium, Ireland, and Germany; also large quantities of white birch in the Provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick on this side, and in Finland and Sweden on the other.

We believe we are voicing the sentiment of the other manufacturers of Maine, who in different processes of manufacture give employment to many hundred people, in objecting to the proposed tariff. The other larger spool manufacturers are: American Thread Co., Milo and Lake View; N. S. Stowell Spool & Wood Turning Co., Dixfield; E. L. Tibbetts Spool Co., Lockes Mills; Dearborn Spool Co., Bryants Pond; J. P. Skillings, Bethel; Elliot & Bartlett Co., East Stoneham; and International Manufacturing Co., Phillips.

We respectfully ask your consideration of this matter, and, if you can see conditions in the same light, ask that you use your influence and vote against the passage of the section referred to.

W. WARREN THREAD WORKS, PER CHARLES B. WARREN, PRESIDENT, WESTFIELD, MASS.

Hon. F. L. SIMMONS,

WESTFIELD, Mass., May 13, 1913.

United States Senator, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR: In addition to the brief which has been submitted to the Ways and Means Committee of the House, I beg to offer for your consideration the following comparisons: Out of the 295 different qualities and brands of thread, the selling price abroad was 16.8 cents; selling price, United States, 24.3 cents; difference, 7.5 cents; per cent, 46.

We find that the average rate of duty (231 per cent) as shown in the Ways and Means Committee Handbook is misleading concerning our industry, as the goods actually imported were composed principally of fancy items and not staple goods. If the thread imported had been used in this country, the average duty under the PayneAldrich tariff would have been between 60 and 80 per cent.

From any standpoint we find that the proposed duty is such a radical reduction that we can see nothing but a very serious condi tion ahead for our industry. Although supplies in this country range from 23 per cent to 64 per cent higher, construction and equipment from 32 per cent to 70 per cent higher, we believe that we could contend with foreign competition if it were not for the wide differ ence in labor costs, which we have shown in our brief to be from 100 per cent to 400 per cent higher in this country than in foreign countries.

Please note that the proposed bill covering cotton yarn gives a higher average duty than is placed upon spool cotton. This seems to us an inconsistency, as yarn is the raw material from which our product is manufactured. We understand that there is a possibility of some change in the cotton-yarn schedule, and if it is not deemed advisable to grant the rate proposed in our brief we certainly trust that we may be allowed 10 per cent advance over the yarn schedule. This seems to us imperative, on account of the great amount of labor added to the yarn to make the same spool cotton.

If any further information is desired, kindly take the matter up with William H. Hall, chairman of the thread manufacturers' committee, South Willington, Conn.

Respectfully submitted.

W. WARREN THREAD WORKS,
CHAS. B. WARREN, President.

P. S.-Inclosed you will please find copy of the brief referred to above, including a few additional comparative rates of wages, under Schedule B.

(The additional rates of wages follow. For brief submitted to Committee on Ways and Means, see Hearings, p. 3324.)

Girl runs 2 frames, 162 spindles each=324 spindles; speed, 1,158 revolutions per minute.

Earns 68 hanks, at 2.85d.=16/2=$3.96 per 55 hours.

Produces 68 hanks, 1,102 pounds.

Cost, 1,102 pounds for $3.96 $0.0035 per pound.

United States, 10-hank roving:

Girl runs 2 frames, 200 spindles each=400 spindles; speed, 1,250 revolutions per minute.

Earns 68 hanks, at $0.135 $9.18 per 54 hours.

Produces 68 hanks, 1,360 pounds.

Cost, 1,360 pounds for $9.18=$0.0068 per pound.

Girl runs 1 frame on 24's and 1 frame on finer count.

Girl runs 2 frames=4 sides, at 8,500 revolutions per minute.
Earns 80 hanks, at 2.84d.=18/11=$4.57 per 55 hours.

Produces 80 hanks, 704 pounds.

Cost, 704 pounds for $4.57 $0.0065 per pound.

United States, on 40's:

Girl runs 6 sides, at $1.50=$9 for 54 hours; speed, 8,400 revolutions per minute.

Produces 670 pounds.

Cost, 670 pounds for $9=$0.0134 per pound.

England, on 58's:

Girl runs 2 frames=4 sides.

Earns 60 hanks, at 3.42d.=17/1=$4.13 per 55 hours.

Produces 60 hanks, 364 pounds.

Cost, 364 pounds for $4.13=$0.0114 per pound.

United States, on 58's:

Girl runs 6 sides, at $1.50=$9 per 54 hours.
Produces 434 pounds.

Cost, 434 pounds for $9=$0.0207 per pound.

(Winding 2 or 3 ends from twister bobbins to a spool.)

Speed:

England, 400 feet per minute.

United States, 440 feet per minute.

Attend:

England, 17 to 22 drums.

United States, 25 to 37 drums.