Note. This print is for the immediate use of the Committee
and is subject to correction before the final print

COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

SIXTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, THIRD SESSION.
JOSEPH W. FORDNEY, Michigan, Chairman.

WILLIAM R, GREEN, Iowa.
NICHOLAS LONGWORTH, Ohio.
WILLIS C. HAWLEY, Oregon.
ALLEN T. TREADWAY, Massachusetts.
IRA C. COPLEY, Illinois.
LUTHER W. MOTT, New York.
GEORGE M. YOUNG, North Dakota.
JAMES A. FREAR, Wisconsin.
JOHN Q. TILSON, Connecticut.
ISAAC BACHARACH, New Jersey.
LINDLEY H. HADLEY, Washington.
CHARLES B. TIMBERLAKE, Colorado.
GEORGE M. BOWERS, West Virginia.
HENRY W. WATSON, Pennsylvania.

II

CLAUDE KITCHIN, North Carolina.
HENRY T. RAINEY, Illinois.
CORDELL HULL, Tennessee.
JOHN N. GARNER, Texas.
JAMES W. COLLIER, Mississippi.
CLEMENT C. DICKINSON, Missouri.
WILLIAM A. OLDFIELD, Arkansas.
CHARLES R. CRISP, Georgia.
JOHN F. CAREW, New York.
WHITMELL P. MARTIN, Louisiana.

ERNEST W. CAMP, Clerk.

Am P 2.8040

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1921k

WOOD, AND MANUFACTURES OF.

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COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS,
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
Monday, January 17, 1921.

The committee was called to order by the chairman (Hon. Joseph
W. Fordney) at 10 o'clock a. m.

The CHAIRMAN. The first gentleman on the list this morning is Mr. F. W. Beardsley, Chamber of Commerce of Athletic Goods Manufacturers of the United States, Louisville, Ky. Is Mr. Beardsley present? If not, we will hear Mr. B. R. Demeritt.

STATEMENT OF MR. B. R. DEMERITT, DEMERITT CO., WATER-
BURY, VT..

The CHAIRMAN. Give your full name, address, and the business you represent.

Mr. DEMERITT. B. R. Demeritt; Demeritt Co., Waterbury, Vt. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Demeritt, we are obliged to limit our hearings to about 10 minutes.

Mr. DEMERITT. I will try not to take up any more time than that. The CHAIRMAN. If you have a brief which you wish to file, we will be very glad to have it.

Mr. DEMERITT. The article for which I am appearing before you happens to be spring clothespins.

Now, the first spring clothespin ever made was made in Montpelier, Vt. Therefore it is naturally a Vermont industry. This was madethe first spring clothespin was made in 1897 and was known as the "United States spring clothespin," this being an entirely new device for fastening clothes to a line, and the cost of their manufacture being considerably more than the common split pin, the sale was limited for several years. This pin was a patented article and was manufactured solely by the United States Clothespin Co. In 1903 another spring clothespin, with a different form of spring, known as the "Holdfast spring clothespin," was put on the market by the Demeritt & Palmer Packing Co., of Waterbury, Vt., who at first employed only four or five persons.

About 1910 the National Spring Clip Co., of Montpelier, Vt., was organized, who manufacture the "Moore spring clothespin.'

Within a few years spring clothespins have also been manufactured in limited quantities by the Fulton Manufacturing Co., of Richmond, Va., by the Cassidy-Fairbanks Manufacturing Co., of Chicago, and very recently by the Troy Wire Goods Co., of Troy, N. Y. There are slight differences in the formation of the springs of the various pins, but all answer the same purpose.

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