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Full text of "The Democratic assault upon Maine's industries. Remarks of Hon. Charles A. Boutelle, of Maine, in the House of Representatives, May 31, June 1 and 2, and July 9, 1888 .."

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THE  DEMOCRATIC  ASSAULT  UPON 
MAIi^E'S  INDUSTRIES. 


REMARKS 


OF 


HON.  CHARLES  A.  BOUTELLE, 


OF    MAINE,  ^^^   ^-T-.     ^ 


IX  THE 


\P^. 


HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,         ' 


May  31,  June  1  and  2,  and  M7  9, 1888. 


*<Iffoi7  the  Democratic  ITIilla  tariff-reduction  bill  proposes  to 
strike  dovrn  the  protectire  duties  that  under  Republican  latvs 
hare  stimulated  American  industries,  increased  the  fragfcs  of 
American  labor,  furnished  a  profitable  home  market  for  our 
farmers,  and  giren  to  American  ^vorkingmen  the  moat  comfort* 
■able  and  happy  homes  in  the  ^vorld." 


WASHINGTON. 
1888. 


f' 


The  Democratic  Assault  npon  Maine's  Industries. 


OF 

HON.   CHAllLES  A.   BOUTELLE. 


Thursday,  3Iay  31,  1888. 

THE  ATTACK  ON  THE  LUMBER  INDUSTRY. 

The  House  being  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  state  of  the  Union,  and 
having  under  consideration  the  bill  (H.  R.  9051)  to  reduce  taxation  and  simplify 
the  laws  in  relation  to  the  collection  of  the  revenue- 
Mr.  PARKER.     I  ask  that  the  paragraph  be  read  as  it  will  stand  if 
amended. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows: 

Be  it  enacted,  etc..  That  on  and  alter  the  1st  day  of  November.  1889,  the  follow- 
ing articles  mentioned  in  this  section,  when  imported,  shall  be  exempt  from 
duty. 

The  question  being  taken  on  the  amendment  of  Sir.  Parker  to  the 
amendment,  it  was  not  agreed  to;  there  being — ayes  89,  noes  134. 

[Applause  on  the  Democratic  side.] 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  I  move  to  amend  hv  striking  out  "1888"  and 
inserting  "1890." 

[Cries  of  "Vote!"  "Vote!"] 
'    Mr.  BOUTELLE.     No;  we  will  have  some  conversation  before  we 
vote,  if  the  Chair  pleases. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  gentleman  from  Texas  [Mr.  Mills]  has  just 
stated  to  us  with  that  positiveness  of  assertion  which  has  characterized 
most  of  his  deliverances  upon  the  tarifif  question  that  the  only  possible 
effect  of  putting  lumber  on  the  free-list  will  be  to  lessen  the  price  to 
the  consumer,  and  that  the  only  object  in  keeping  the  tariff  on  lumber 
is  to  increase  the  profit  of  the  manufacturer. 

Mr.  MILLS.  I  trust  that  we  shall  have  order.  I  desire  to  hear 
the  gentleman. 

The  CHAIRMAN.     The  House  will  be  in  order. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  Mr.  Chairman,  as  I  was  remarking,  the  gentle- 
man from  Texas  has  asserted  with  that  directness  and  positiveness  which 
have  characterized  his  utterances  upon  this  question  that  the  tariff  on 
lumber  has  only  the  effect  of  increasing  the  profits  of  the  manufacturer 
without  increasing  the  wages  of  the  laborer.  That  statement  was  re- 
iterated several  times,  and  certainly  I  can  not  be  mistaken  in  under- 
standing its  purport. 

Now,  it  would  be  important  to  know,  Mr,  Chairman,  with  what  stand- 
fu:d  the  gentleman  from  Texas  was  making  a  comparison.    He  certainly 

3 


could  not  have  intended  to  make  his  comparison  with  the  prices  paid  to 
Chinese  labor,  whose  competition  with  the  lumber  mills  of  California 
this  bill  would  invite ;  and  if  he  intended  to  make  his  comparison  with 
the  prices  paid  lumbermen  in  New  Brunswick  and  other  portions  of 
Canada,  he  is  mistaken  to  a  degree  that  can  hardly  be  comprehended. 
Nothing  is  more  thoroughly  known  among  those  who  are  familiar  to- 
day with  the  lumber  interests  of  the  New  England  States  than  the 
fact  that  for  years  there  has  existed  and  to-day  still  exists  a  very  wide 
disparity  between  the  wages  paid  to  labor  on  the  one  side  and  on  the 
other  of  the  Canadian  line.  I  have  the  honor  to  represent  a  district 
\\rith  several  hundred  miles  of  frontier,  largely  devoted  to  lumber  inter- 
ests, and  this  bill  strikes  a  destructive  blow  at  the  most  important  in- 
dustrial pursuits  of  my  constituency. 

The  effect  of  the  free-lumber  feature  of  this  bill  is  to  strike  down  a 
business  in  which  to-day  we  are  paying  to  those  brawny-armed  sons  of 
toil  who  are  professed  to  be  the  special  proteges  of  the  champions  of  this 
bill  all  the  way  from  20  to  45  per  cent,  more  than  they  receive  across 
the  line  in  Canada.  And  I  would  say  to  the  gentleman  from  Texas 
[Mr.  Mills]  that  the  most  cursory  examination  of  this  subject  ought 
to  convince  him  that  removing  the  duty  on  lumber  and  allowing 
free  importation  from  the  British  provinces  can  not  fail  to  have  the 
effect  of  striking  down  the  rate  of  wages  paid  on  our  side  of  the  line. 

The  point  sought  to  be  made  by  the  gentleman  from  Minnesota  [Mr. 
Wii^on]  in  regard  to  the  effect  of  the  proposed  action  on  the  price  of 
lumber  involved  the  exact  fallacy  which  runs  all  along  the  line  of  these 
tariff  reductions.  He  says  if  it  will  cheapen  the  cost  to  the  consumer 
it  will  do  no  harm. 

Mr.  Chairman,  everybody  understands  that  the  immediate  effect  of 
the  removal  of  this  duty  may  temporarily  reduce  the  cost.  It  is  a 
question,  as  my  colleague  has  said,  of  the  period  of  time  you  consider. 
You  pass  this  bill  putting  lumber  on  the  free-list,  opening  wide  the 
door  to  the  entry  of  Canadian  and  other  foreign  lumber,  and  undoubt- 
edly it  will  temporarily  reduce  the  price  for  the  purpose  of  breaking 
down  the  industries  in  this  country,  of  closing  up  the  mills  in  the 
United  States,  and  getting  rid  of  competition  here.  But  when  the 
competition  in  this  country  is  destroyed  or  greatly  lessened,  I  ask  my 
friend  from  Minnesota  where  he  thinks  the  price  would  then  go? 

Mr.  WILSON,  of  Minnesota.  Let  me  answer  that  by  asking  a  ques- 
tion: Which  is  the  richest,  the  manufacturer  of  lumber  in  the  United 
States  or  in  Canada  ? 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  I  do  not  know  what  bearing  that  has  on  this  sub- 
ject. 

The  CHAIRMAN.     The  gentleman's  time  has  expired. 

Mr.  WILSON,  of  Minnesota.  The  richest  men  will  not  be  overrun 
by  the  poorest. 

[Here  the  hammer  fell.] 


Thursday,  May  31,  1888. 

THE  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  RELIEVINQ  SOUTHERN  AND  NORTHERN 
COMMUNITIES. 

Mr.  WEAVER.  I  wish  to  submit  a  few  remarks  in  reply  to  the 
three  gentlemen  from  Maine.  I  have  before  me  report  No.  4173,  second 
session  Forty-ninth  Congress,  made  by  the  Committee  on  Ways  and 
Means,  upon  a  bill  introduced  by  the  gentleman  from  Maine  [Mr.  Bou- 


telle]  to  allow  a  drawback  upon  imports  of  lumber  and  building  ma- 
terial used  by  persons  in  the  city  of  Eastport,  Me.,  who  bad  suffere  I 
from  fire.     I  will  read  the  bill;  it  is  very  short: 

Be  it  enacted,  etc..  That  there  shall  be  allowed  and  paid,  under  such  regulations 
as  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  shall  prescribe,  on  all  materials  actually  used 
in  buildinpTS  erected  on  the  grounds  burned  over  by  the  fire  which  occurred  at 
Eastport,  Me.,  October  14,  1886,  a  drawback  on  the  import  duties  paid  on  the 
same  :  Provided,  That  such  materials  shall  have  been  imported  and  used  during 
the  term  of  two  years  from  and  after  the  said  14th  day  of  October,  1886. 

This  bill  was  introduced  by  the  gentleman  from  Maine,  and  its  pas- 
sage was  urged  by  him,  both  before  the  committee  and  in  the  House. 
It  establishes  this  fact  that  there  was  a  conviction  in  his  mind  at  that 
time  that  the  duty  upon  lumber  enhanced  the  price  to  the  consumer. 

Mr.  HATCH.     There  can  be  no  doubt  about  that. 

Mr.  WEAVER.  It  establishes,  secondly,  that  he  considered  it  was 
a  good  thing  for  poor  people  who  were  in  trouble  financially  to  have 
lumber  on  the  free-list.     [Applause.] 

Now  there  are  a  great  many  people  all  over  my  State  who  would  like 
to  have  cheap  lumber  as  well  as  the  people  of  Eastport,  Me. 

*  -X-  *  *  *  -Sfr  * 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  move  to  strike  out  four  or  five 
words.  [Laughter.]  We  have  had  to-day,  sir,  three  or  four  very 
striking  illustrations  of  the  character  of  the  so-called  arguments  upon 
which  the  Democratic  party  of  the  nation,  as  represented  in  this  House, 
depends  in  its  advocacy  of  legislation  which  threatens  destruction  to 
extensive  and  important  industries  of  our  country.  One  of  the  argu- 
ments is  that  adopted  by  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Beeck- 
inridge].  It  is  one  of  the  favorite  expedients  of  gentlemen  who  seem 
to  have  a  lack  of  familiarity  with  the  subject  they  are  trying  to  handle. 
[Derisive  laughter  on  the  Democratic  side.] 

It  is  a  resort  to  the  old  trick  of  attempting  to  show  that  somebody, 
somewhere,  at  some  time,  said  something  which  could  be  tortured  or 
twisted  into  inconsistency  with  the  attitude  or  the  utterance  of  some- 
body else  at  some  other  time  and  in  some  other  place;  and  so  eager 
are  these  gentlemen  to  raise  a  cloud  of  dust  to  conceal  their  inability 
to  deal  with  these  important  industrial  questions,  that  they  are  not  at 
all  careful  or  accurate  as  to  the  manner  in  which  they  make  use  of  this 
kind  of  attempted  argument. 

The  gentleman  from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Breckinridge]  comes  in  here 
and  undertakes  to  make  a  point  in  the  guise  of  an  arraignment  of  Mr. 
Blaine,  by  representing  him  as  declaring  against  a  tariff  on  foreign 
lumber — for  that  was  the  impression  sought  to  be  conveyed  by  the  in- 
troduction of  that  extract  from  a  speech  of  Mr.  Blaine's — when,  upon 
inquiry,  the  fact  proves  to  be  that  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky,  if 
not  purposely  misusing  that  quotation  from  Mr.  Blaine,  was  using  it 
with  an  ignorance  of  its  true  application  quite  in  keeping  with  the 
general  treatment  of  this  tariff  question  by  gentlemen  on  the  other 
Bide.  The  record  demonstrates  that  Mr.  Blaine  stood  at  the  time  of 
that  debate  just  where  the  Republican  party  stands  to-day — in  favor 
of  raising  the  revenues  of  this  Government  by  taxing  the  foreign  man- 
ufacturer who  desires  to  come  into  our  market  to  compete  with  the 
American  producer,  and  by  removing  as  fast  and  as  far  as  practicable 
the  taxation  placed  by  the  internal-revenue  laws,  during  a  period  of 
civil  war,  upon  the  industries  of  our  own  people.  [Applause  on  the 
Kepublican  side.  ] 

That  is  one  kind  of  ' '  tariff-reform ' '  argument. 

Another  is  the  very  much  worn  and  very  threadbare,  and,  if  it  is 


6 

parliamentary,  I  will  say  the  very  cheap  and  very  small  attempt  to 
make  a  bill  which  I  introduced  here  in  behalf  of  a  community  that 
had  been  stricken  by  a  calamity  of  fire  a  means  of  casting  discredit 
upon  the  sincerity  of  my  views  and  upon  the  strength  of  the  position 
maintained  upon  this  side  of  the  House  on  the  tariff  quovstiou.  There 
is  not  a  gentleman  on  that  side  of  the  House  of  average  intelligence — 
and  I  think  there  are  some  of  them  that  would  come  within  that  cate- 
gory— who  does  not  know  that  that  bill  was  introduced  as  a  request  to 
the  Government  of  this  country  to  exercise  an  act  of  customary  benefi- 
cence and  kindliness  to  the  people  of  a  community  who  had  seen  their 
home-i,  their  churches,  their  stores,  their  wharves,  the  entire  business 
of  their  community  swept  away  by  a  devouring  conflagration. 

There  is  not  a  gentleman  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  or  the  Ar- 
kansas, or  the  Missouri,  or  the  Ohio  who  does  not  know  that  the  bill 
was  simply  a  very  modest  request  that  this  Government  would  extend 
to  an  afflicted  community  on  the  coast  of  Maine  a  slight  measure  of 
the  same  kindness  and  generosity  that  had  been  extended  time  and 
time  again,  partly  by  my  vote  in  this  House,  to  the  people  in  those  sec- 
tions of  the  country  who  had  been  afflicted  with  disaster  by  floods  and 
otherwise;  audit  is  pretty  small  business  for  ambitious  statesmen  of  the 
region  that  has  so  frequently  been  the  recipient  of  national  bounty  to 
focus  their  intellects  in  assault  upon  a  bill  to  allow  the  people  of  the 
town  of  Eastport,  in  the  State  of  Maine,  to  bring  across  from  the  adja- 
cent shores  of  New  Brunswick,  without  the  payment  of  duty,  some  of 
the  brick  aud  other  materials  required  for  the  rebuilding  of  their 
stricken  town — it  is  pretty  small  business,  I  say,  to  parade  that  bill  as 
the  peg  upon  which  to  hang  speeches  and  reports  from  five  or  six  differ- 
eat  members  on  that  side  of  the  House  who  count  themselves  among 
the  srreat  exponents  or"  tariff  retbrm. 

[Here  the  hammer  fell.] 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.     I  ask  to  have  my  time  ex  tended. 

A  Member.     I  object. 

Mr.  WEAVER.     Mr.  Chairman 

Mr.  ANDERSON,  of  Iowa,  obtained  the  floor. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  Mr.  Chairman,  at  the  time  when  that  bill  was 
introduced  by  me 

The  CHAIRMAN.  The  time  of  the  gentleman  from  Maine  has  ex- 
pired. The  Chair  recognized  the  gent^leman  from  Iowa  [Mr.  Ander- 
son], in  front  of  the  Chair,  and  understood  he  desired  to  yield  a  portion 
of  his  time  to  the  gentleman  from  Maine. 

Mr.  ANDERSON,  of  Iowa.  I  will  yield  if  it  does  not  interfere  with 
my  time. 

Several  Members  (to  Mr.  Anderson,  of  Iowa).     You  will  get  time. 

The  CHAIRMAN.  If  there  be  no  objection,  the  gentleman  from 
Iowa  will  yield  his  time  to  the  gentleman  from  Maine. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  I  desire  to  state  as  a  matter  of  justice  to  some 
gentlemen  on  the  Democratic  side  of  the  House,  some  of  whom  are  not 
present  now — some  who,  I  believe  have  more  than  a  faint  and  glimmer- 
ing comprehension  of  the  great  principles  underlying  this  discussion  — 
that  when  that  bill  was  introduced  by  me  I  conferred  in  regard  to  it 
with  a  number  of  the  leaders  of  the  Democratic  side  of  the  House— the 
giants  of  the  Democracy  in  this  tariff  discussion — and  said  to  them 
that  if  it  was  thought  there  would  be  a  man  on  that  side  of  the  House 
who  would  attempt  to  make  that  bill  the  excuse  or  vehicle  for  a  tariff 
discussion  I  would  not  introduce  it,  and  I  had  the  assurance  of  every 


one  of  those  gentlemen  that  in  their  belief  no  one  would  think  of  at- 
tempting to  do  such  a  thing. 

That  bill  asked  that  the  same  spirit  of  kindness  be  manifested  toward 
Eastport  that  had  been  extended  to  Chicago,  to  Portland,  and  to  other 
communities  that  had  suffered  from  similar  calamities.  It  followed 
almost  immediately  after  the  direct  donations  that  had  been  made  in 
this  body  to  build  houses  over  the  heads  of  the  houseless  sufferers  by 
lihe  floods  of  the  Arkansas,  Missouri,  and  Mississippi  Rivers.  It  fol- 
lowed directly  in  the  line  of  the  appropriations  which  had  my  vote  and 
my  voice  to  send  food  to  the  foodless  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  wlio 
had  suffered  from  a  similar  dispensation  of  Providence.  The  gentle- 
man from  Arkansas  [Mr.  Breckinridge]  who  ran  before  he  was  sent 
to  make  a  report  upon  the  bill  for  the  relief  of  Eastport,  Me.,  as  one 
of  his  intellectual  efforts  on  the  tariff  question,  is  on  record  upon  the 
files  of  this  House  in  the  preceding  Congress  as  introducing  and  hav- 
ing referred  to  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  a  request  from  the 
governor  of  his  own  State  for  a  donation  of  the  public  funds  from  the 
public  Treasury  in  behalf  of  the  people  who  were  suffering  from  disas- 
ter by  a  flood  in  Arkansas.  I  will  include  in  my  remarks  the  letter,  with 
the  governor's  indorsement,  introduced  by  the  gentleman  from  Arkan- 
sas, as  follows: 

SwAV  Lake,  Arkansas  County,  Arkansas,  March  3, 1884, 
Dear  Sir  :  We  have  had  one  of  the  most  destructive  overflows  here  that  has 
ever  occurred  in  this  county.  Mil^  of  fences,  houses,  gin-houses,  store-houses 
washed  away,  and  caused  general  min  to  this  part  of  the  county.  Great  many 
left  homeless.  The  people  do  not  ask  any  aid  to  repair  their  buildings  or  fences. 
But  their  levees  are  broken  badly  and  must  be  repaired  immediately  or  we  can 
not  make  a  crop  this  year.  We  are  not  in  the  habit  of  asking  aid,  but  this  is  a 
case  of  extreme  necessity.  The  people  here  in  this  district  are  perfectly  willing 
to  be  taxed  to  pay  for  any  aid  extended.  We  are  not  able  to  repair  the  levees 
in  time  to  make  a  crop. 

*  «  *  «  «  4:  * 

If  you  have  no  power  to  help  us  and  yon  think  we  could  get  any  aid  from  the 
General  Government,  then  please  send  this  to  Messrs.  Rogers,  Breckinridge, 
and  Garland.  We  are  aware  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  money  expended  on 
the  Arkansas  River,  but  the  producing  populace  never  reap  any  of  its  benefits, 
The  most  or  a  greater  portion  of  the  money  expended  at  Pine  Bluff,  which  was 
a  failure,  etc. 

To  his  Excellency  James  Berry, 

Governor  of  Arkansas. 

This  was  signed  by  W.  R.  Groceo,  J.  S.  Anderson,  J.  "W.  Rosey,  T. 
J.  Stokes,  and  G.  E.  Crutchfield,  and  bore  the  following  indorsement 
by  the  governor  of  Arkansas: 

Dear  Sir  :  The  statements  above  made  are  true.    There  is  great  distress,  as 
the  levee  at  Arkansas  City  is  broken ;  I  fear  much  more.     If  it  is  possible  to  ob- 
tain relief,  I  know  that  all  our  members  will  do  so. 
Very  truly, 

JAMES  H.  BERRY. 
Maj.  C.  R.  Breckinridge. 

The  request  was  for  pecuniary  aid  from  the  Government.  Mr.  Chair- 
man, that  aid  was  given.  Similar  aid  had  been  voted — not  by  thousands 
or  tens  of  thousands,  but  by  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  at  a  clip, 
repeated  again  and  again  for  the  sufferers  in  that  part  of  the  country 
from  those  disasters.  Only  a  few  days  previous  the  House  voted,  on 
February  12,  1884,  $300,000  for  the  sufferers  by  the  floods  on  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  and  their  tributaries;  on  February  15  another  appropri- 
ation carrying  $200,000  additional  was  passed.  On  March  27,  1884,  a 
resolution  reappropriating  $125,000  for  the  suffererson  these  rivers  was 
approved,  and  May  27,  1884,  the  House  passed  a  further  appropriation 
of  $100,000  for  the  same  purpose. 


8 

I  say,  ;Mr.  Chairman,  with  all  seriousness,  that  it  comes  with  a  poor 
grace  from  gentlemen  belonging  to  that  part  of  our  common  country, 
thus  generously  treated,  to  undertake  to  cast  reflection  upon  me  ox  my 
people  as  mendicants,  when  Maine,  by  her  representatives  here,  on  every 
occasion  when  there  has  been  a  demand  for  this  Government  to  mani- 
fest its  sympathy  and  generosity  toward  their  people  in  affliction,  has 
voted  freely  and  liberally  for  their  relief.  In  the  face  of  such  a  record 
it  is  a  small  business  for  j-^ou  to  undertake  to. fling  back  at  me  the  bill 
to  remit  a  few  thousand  dollars,  of  duties  on  materials  for  rebuilding 
Eastport,  Me,  We  have  asked  no  alms  at  your  hands.  One  per  cent, 
of  Maine's  share  of  the  sums  voted  as  gifts  to  your  people  in  distress 
would  more  than  have  covered  all  the  redundant  revenue  that  could 
have  been  remitted  under  that  bill.  [Applause  on  the  Republican 
side.  ] 


CANADIANS  SEEKING  AMERICA   FOR  HIGHER  WAGES. 

Thursday,  May  31,  1888. 

Mr.  McMILLTN.  *  *  *  Let  us  away  with  this  hollow  pretense. 
The  gentleman  from  Kansas  [Mr.  Peters]  undertook  to  prove  that 
the  reduction  proposed  by  the  bill  would  not  benefit  the  people  of 
Kansas.  That  is  a  matter  I  leave  Ijim  to  settle  at  the  election.  He 
will  find,  1  think,  that  his  people  have  greater  intelligence  than  he 
gives  them  credit  for.  He  says  it  will  reduce  the  wages  of  labor.  But 
how  on  earth  is  it  going  to  reduce  the  wages  of  labor  if  it  is  not  going 
to  reduce  the  price  of  lumber? 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  Does  the  gentleman  want  an  answer  now  to  his 
question? 

Mr.  McMILLIN.  The  gentleman  from  Maine  has  been  on  the  floor 
to-day  for  the  greater  part  of  the  time. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  The  gentlemaai  asked  a  question,  and  I  propose 
to  answer  it. 

Mr.  McMILLIN.  I  will  ask  the  gentleman  another  question.  Is 
it  a  fact  that  the  lumbermen  of  Maine  bring  over  Canadians  to  do  their 
work?    Is  that  a  fact? 

Mr.  BouTELLE  rose. 

The  CHAIRMAN.  Does  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  with- 
draw the  pro  forma  amendment  ? 

Mr.  BAYNE.     I  do. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  I  renew  it  for  the  purpose  of  answering  the  gen- 
tleman from  Tennessee  in  the  good  old  Yankee  fashion,  by  asking  him 
another  question.  Does  the  gentleman  from  Tennessee  assert  that  the 
Maine  lumbermen  do  employ  Canadian  laborers  ? 

Mr.  McMILLIN.  I  do;  I  have  been  so  informed  on  credible  au- 
thority. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  I  want  the  gentleman  from  Tennessee  to  tell  me 
tchy  the  Canadian  laborers  can  be  induced  by  the  American  lumber 
manufacturers  to  come  over  to  work  for  them. 

Mr.  McMILLIN.  There  are  climatic  influences.  [Laughter  on  the 
Republican  side.] 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.     Let  me  hear  about  the  climatic  influences. 

Mr.  McMILLIN.  This  is  the  explanation  of  it.  During  the  severe 
rigors  of  their  more  northern  climate  there  is  a  period  of  time  when 
these  Canadians  can  go  down  to  the  State  of  Maine  and  work  more  sue- 


9 

cessfully  in  the  United  States  than  in  their  own  country,  and  then  ■when 
that  period  is  over  they  can  go  back  and  resume  their  regular  avoca- 
tions. I  understiind  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  they  do  go  back  at  a  cer- 
tain season. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  They  do !  Now  let  me  give  the  gentleman  a  little 
lesson  in  geoo;raphy.  People  in  Canada  do  not  go  down  to  the  State 
of  Maine.     [Laughter.] 

Mr.  McMILLIN.  There  is  a  part  of  Canada  from  which  they  go  and 
a  part  of  the  State  of  Maine  to  which  they  go. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  Maine  and  Canada  run  pretty  nearly  upon  tl\e 
same  parallel  of  latitude. 

Mr.  McMILLIN.     They  do  in  part. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  And  if  the  gentleman  from  Tennessee  will  come 
down  to  my  district 

Mr.  McMILLIN.     "Down"  from  here?     "Down?"     [Laughter.] 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.     Down  or  up,  whichever  way  the  gentleman  likes. 

Mr.  McMILLIN.  The  gentleman  himself  needs  a  lesson  in  geog- 
raphy. 

"Mr.  BOUTELLE.  Well,  if  the  gentleman  will  come  to  my  dis- 
trict  

Mr.  McMILLIN.     Up,  you  mean. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  Either  np  or  down,  as  you  prefer.  We  are  not 
discussing  the  climatic  or  geographical  relations  of  Washington  and 
Maine,  but  those  of  Canada  and  Maine.  If  the  gentleman  will  come 
to  my  district  in  the  month  of  January  I  shall  be  glad  to  furnish  him 
with  a  thermometer  and  let  him  make  observations,  and  then  I  shall 
be  glad  to  have  him  come  here  and  tell  us  all  about  the  climatic  differ- 
ences between  Canada  and  Maine,  all  about  the  climatic  advantages 
and  disadvantages  of  men  who  live  on  one  side  of  the  St.  John  River, 
in  the  State  of  Maine,  as  compared  with  those  who  live  on  the  other 
side  of  the  river.     Of  course  there  is  nothing  in  that. 

Mr.  McMILLIN.  If  the  gentleman  restricts  his  statement  to  that 
part  of  Canada  and  that  part  of  Maine,  of  course  he  is  correct;  but  I 
have  been  informed  that  those  who  follow  lumbering  along  the  Cana- 
dian border — not  confining  the  statement  to  Maine,  but  extending  away 
out  West — do  go  back  and  forth  across  the  line  in  the  manner  I  have 
stated. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  Mr.  Chairman,  the  difference  in  climate  all  along 
the  Canadian  border  between  the  localities  from  which  Canadians  are 
said  to  come  and  those  on  this  side  in  which  they  are  employed  in  lum- 
bering would  not  be  obvious  to  the  ordinary  observer,  but  of  course  it 
furnishes  a  convenient  refuge  for  the  gentleman  from  Tennessee.  I  be- 
lieve that  in  the  privacy  of  his  closet  and  in  the  seclusion  of  his  cham- 
ber, when  he  is  by  himself  and  is  not  obliged  to  grapple  with  the 
exigencies  of  the  Mills  tariff  bill,  the  gentleman  from  Tennessee  really 
believes  that  the  Canadians  come  over  to  Maine  to  work  because  they 
get  better  wages. 

Mr.  McMILLIN.  And  the  Maine  employers  turn  out  their  Maine 
laborers  and  employ  the  cheaper  Canadian  labor. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  And  if  the  gentleman  does  not  believe  it,  then 
I  want  to  inform  him  now  that  the  man  who  comes  from  Canada  to 
Maine  gets  from  20  to  45  per  cent,  more  wages  than  he  can  get  at 
home.     It  is  simply  a  question  of  supply  and  demand. 

[Here  the  hammer  fell]. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  Hereafter  I  shall  take  time  to  show  that  all  this 
talk  about  the  employment  of  Canadian  cheap  labor  does  not  affect  the 


10 

s^ist  of  this  question.  It  is  only  the  cheapest  class  of  labor  that  comes 
fi-ora  across  the  line.  The  skilled  labor  in  the  business  is  that  of 
American  workingraen. 

Mr.  ANDETl^SOX,  of  Iowa,  If  there  is  the  difference  in  wages  be- 
tween Canada  and  JNIaine  which  the  gentleman  states,  will  he  tell  us 
why  it  is  that  IMaine  has  not  depopulated  Canada  ? 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  She  is  doing  it  as  fast  as  the  law  of  natural  se- 
lection allows. 

Mr.  ANDERSON,  of  Iowa.     Statistics  do  not  show  it. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  Yes,  they  do  show  it.  They  show  that  Maine  is 
not  only  drawing  population  from  Canada  year  by  year,  but  that  she 
has  also  furnished  population  to  build  up  Iowa,  Kansas,  Michigan, 
Minnesota,  and  those  other  magnificent  commonwealths  of  the  West, 
some  of  which  are  most  ably  represented  to-day  in  this  and  the  other 
branch  of  Congress  by  men  who  went  out  from  Maine. 


Friday,  Junel,  1888. 
WAGES  PAID   IN  THE   LUMBER   INDUSTRY  IN  MAINE   AND   CANADA. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE  said: 

Mr.  Chairman:  The  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Outhwaite]  on  two 
occasions  has  undertaken  to  enlighten  the  House  in  regard  to  the  enor- 
mous and  exorbitant  profits  upon  the  manufacture  of  lumber.  In  order 
to  do  so  he  in  the  first  place  paraded  yesterday  figures  from  the  census, 
in  regard  to  which  he  assumed  that  the  aggregate  amount  paid  to 
the  laborers  in  theiumbering  business  in  certain  States  indicated  the 
amount  of  earnings  of  those  laborers  for  the  year.  Of  course  the  fallacy 
of  that  assumption  is  obvious  to  any  one  at  all  acquainted  with  the  sub- 
ject; and  the  fact  that  the  gentleman's  statement  was  due  to  unfiimil- 
iarity  with  the  subject  rather  than  to  an  intention  to  misrepresent  has 
been  demonstrated  by  his  expressing  a  little  while  ago  his  belief  that 
the  saw-mills  of  the  country  run  throughout  the  entire  year.  Now,  Mr. 
'Chairman,  in  my  section  of  the  country  the  saw-mills  can  not  run 
throughout  the  year.  They  are  largely  water-mills,  and  can  not  run 
more  than  six  months  in  the  year.  Suppose  you  were  undertaking  to 
make  a  computation  of  the  amount  of  money  paid  to  men  engaged  in 
cutting  ice  on  any  of  our  great  rivers.  Would  it  be  a  fair  computation 
to  take  the  aggregate  amount  paid  in  a  year  for  cutting  ice,  divide  it 
by  the  number  of  men,  and  then  say  "that  is  what  those  men  earn  iu 
a  year,"  the  fact  being  that  the  cutting  of  ice  is  merely  an  exceptional 
employment  for  a  short  period?  In  my  district  and  in  my  State,  Mr. 
Chairman,  lumbering  operations  are  largely  carried  on  by  the  farmers. 
The  cutting  of  timber  in  the  winter  is  done  by  men  who  till  the  farms 
in  the  summer.     There  is  an  alternation  of  employment. 

The  gentleman  from  Ohio  and  other  members,  if  they  desire  to  get 
an  exact  understanding  of  the  relative  profit  of  the  manufacturer  and 
the  workingman,  could  better  find  it  by  consulting  the  actual  facts 
and  figures.  Is  it  true  that  the  men  who  work  in  lumber  in  the  State 
of  Maine  and  other  parts  of  New  England  are  paid  at  a  rate  equivalent 
to  only  $170  a  year  ?    The  statement  is  absurd. 

I  hold  in  my  hand  a  comparative  statement,  very  carefully  made  up 
from  what  I  believe  to  be  reliable  sources,  of  the  relative  wages  paid 
in  the  lumber  industry  in  the  State  of  Maine  and  in  Canada.  Before 
reading  this  statement  I  will  say  that,  in  addition  to  the  amounts  which 


11 

these  men  are  paid  by  the  month  and  by  the  day,  it  costs  a  large  per- 
centage more  to  supply  the  men  in  the  lumber  eainps  of  Maine  than  it 
does  the  men  in  the  provinces,  because  our  men  insist  upon  better  food 
and  more  liberal  provision. 

The  following  rates  of  wages  have  been  furnished  me  as  a  fair  aver- 
age of  the  pay  of  workingmen  in  the  woods  and  in  the  lumber  mills  in 
New  Brunswick  and  in  the  State  of  Maine: 

Woodsmen. 


Sled  tenders 

Chopper.s 

Teamsters 

Swampers 

Cooks 

Two  horses,  teamster,  sleds,  and  chains 


New  Bruns- 
wick. 


Per  month. 
§18.00 
18.00 
18.00 
15.00 
26.00 
30.00 


State  of 
Maine. 


Per  month. 

$22. 00 
26.  (10 
?6.  CO 
18.00 
30.00 
45.00 


Millmen. 


Head  edger 

Second  edger 

First  gang  sawyer 

Second  gang  sawyer ^ 

First  rotary  sawj'er 

Second  rotary  sawyer , 

Filers 

Common  laborers , 


The  gentleman  from  Ohio  undertakes  to  say  that  the  men  who  are  get- 
ting $2.50  a  day  in  Maiue  as  against  $1.40  a  day  in  Canada  are  receiv- 
ing none  of  the  benefits  of  the  legislation  which  seeks  to  protect  the  lum- 
ber business  in  Maine  and  other  parts  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  presume  that  in  my  State  the  fiiir  average  stumpage 
of  spruce  would  be  from  $2  to  $2.25.  A  fair  estimate  of  the  value  of 
the  log  when  it  has  been  chopped  and  hauled  to  water,  and  driven  down 
the  stream  and  brought  to  the  tail  of  the  mill,  is  about  $9  per  thousand ; 
and  of  the  $9  in  value  per  thousand  represented  by  the  log  at  the  mill 
about  seven-ninths  stands  for  wages  paid  to  labor. 

[Here  the  hammer  fell.] 


"JUGGLING  WITH  FIGURES." 
Tuesday,  June  5,  1888. 
Mr.  BYNUM.     A  mill-owner  in  East  Saginaw  gives  a  list  of  the 
wages  there,  showing  an  average  of  only  $2  a  day. 

Mr.  OUTHWAITE.  If  two  thou.sand  men  get  an  average  of  $2  a 
day  the  year  round,  whether  you  compute  their  wages  by  the  day  or  the 
month  or  any  other  period,  and  one  thousand  of  these  men  get  the  whole 


12 

amount  paid  in  wages,  does  it  not  follow  that  the  other  one  thousand 
could  get  nothiKg? 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.     Then  you  believe  that,  do  you? 

Mr.  OUTHWAITE.  Believe  it !  Do  you  ask  me  whether  I  believe 
that  twice  two  are  four? 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  Then  you  believe  that  half  those  men  work  for 
nothing? 

Mr.  OUTHWAITE.     I  have  not  said  so. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.     That  is  what  you  are  telling  the  House. 

Mr.  OUTHWAITE.  I  have  said  that,  if  your  claim  that  one-half 
of  them  get  $2  a  day  is  correct,  and  the  average  is  only  $1,  then  the 
other  half  get  nothing. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  And  if  the  facts  do  not  square  with  your  per- 
centage, I  suppose  you  think  it  is  so  much  the  worse  for  the  facts. 

Mr."  OUTHWAITE.  1  have  not  undertaken  to  state  the  facts;  but 
I  do  say  that  if  your  claim  is  correct,  that  the  average  is  $1  a  day,  then 
for  every  man  who  gets  more  than  $1  a  day  there  must  be  some  other  one 
who  gets  less  than  $1  per  day. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  The  trouble  with  the' gentleman  from  Ohio  is 
that  he  is  dealing  with  generalizations  and  percentages  without  regard 
to  the  actual  facts  of  the  case. 

Mr.  OUTHWAITE.  I  am  dealing  with  figures  that  you  can  not 
answer. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  I  told  you  the  other  day  what  the  actual  rates  of 
wages  were,  and  the  statement  which  I  then  made  can  be  substan- 
tiated. 

Mr.  OUTHWAITE.    That  was  the  actual  wages  of  some  individuals. 

[Here  the  hammer  fell.] 

Mr.  OUTHWAITE.  Mr.^hairman,  I  will  ask  the  committee  to  in- 
dulge me  for  five  minutes  longer,  because  other  gentlemen  have  occu- 
pied so  much  of  my  time.  , 

There  was  no  objection,  and  it  was  so  ordered. 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  want  to  call  attention  to  a  portion  of  the  re- 
marks of  the  gentleman  from  Wisconsin  [Mr.  Guenther]  the  other 
day. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  I  hope  that  in  this  second  five  minutes  the  gen- 
tleman Irom  Ohio  [Mr.  Outhwaite]  will  proceed  to  demonstrate  that 
the  other  half  of  those  men  work  for  nothing.  [Laughter  on  the  Re- 
publican side.] 

******  * 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  Mr.  Chairman,  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr. 
Outhwaite]  very  felicitously  suggested  to  the  House  awhile  ago  that 
he  proposed  to  show  how  figures  could  be  juggled  with.  I  have  no  idea 
that  the  gentleman  intended  to  deceive  the  House-or  to  misrepresent 
facts.  I  know  that  he  has  great  zeal  in  this  matter,  and  that  he  prob- 
ably searches  the  census  reports  with  a  very  earnest  desire  to  find  there 
things  that  will  make  arguments  for  the  side  which  he  advocates,  but 
he  ought  to  know,  and  I  think  he  does  know,  that  there  is  nothing 
more  unsafe  than  to  take  figures  relating  in  a  general  way  to  any  tech- 
nical occupation  and  make  deductions  from  them,  without  some  famil- 
iarity with  the  business  itself.  I  do  not  know  how  I  could  illustrate 
this  more  forcibly  than  by  calling  attention  to  the  figures  which  the 
gentleman  gave  us  of  the  aggregate  amounts  in  the  business  of  sawed 
lumber  as  divided  between  the  manufacturers  and  the  workingmen. 

The  gentleman  from  Ohio  takes  the  proceeds  of  the  product  of  the 
mill  and  subtracts  from  that  the  amount  he  finds  sets  forth  in  this  book 


13 

as  paid  for  labor,  and  then,  making  what  he  calls  a  liberal  allowance 
for  interest  and  insurance,  he  deduces  therefrom  tlie  inference  that  a 
very  small  percentage  of  that  product  is  paid  to  the  laboring  man.  I 
want  to  say  to  the  gentleman  and  to  the  House  that  these  census  tables, 
except  as  to  certain  lines  of  statistics  in  which  there  is  little  opportu- 
nity tor  error,  are  liable  to  be  very  misleading,  and  if  the  gentleman  had 
examined  this  statement  with  a  little  more  care  I  think  he  would  have 
escaped  some  of  the  errors  into  which  he  has  fallen. 

But  even  these  figures  here  do  not  purport  to  be  what  I  understand 
the  gentleman  takes  them  for.  They  purport  to  be  reports  of  statistics  ' 
upon  the  sawed-lumber  interest.  The  heading  is,  ''Lumber  sawed;" 
and  th^  different  columns  embrace  a  list  of  the  establishments,  the 
amount  of  capital,  the  number  of  males,  females,  and  children  em- 
ployed, and  the  wages  paid  during  the  year.  I  undertook  to  fasten 
my  friend  down  at  that  point  to  find  out  for  what  the  wages  to  which 
these  statistics  refer  were  paid.  I  find  upon  examination  that  the  sta- 
tistics refer  entirely  to  just  what  the  caption  shows — to  the  sawed-lum- 
ber interest.  The  amount  of  wages  paid  is  the  amount  paid  for  sawing 
lumber  in  the  saw-mill^.  , 

Now,  how  do  I  know  that?  I  know  it  in  the  first  place  in  a  general 
way,  and  I  have  the  absolute  proof  of  it  on  this  printed  page,  which 
proof  would  have  made  itself  obvious  to  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  if  he 
had  been  familiar  with  the  lumber  business ;  because  immediately  after 
the  column  showing  amount  of  wages  paid  during  the  year  I  find  a 
column  devoted  to  the  value  of  logs.  What  does  that  mean  ?  Why, 
sir,  it  means  the  greater  part  of  this  entire  problem.  It  means  that  in 
the  figures  given  by  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  he  made  no  allowance 
for  the  great  item  of  cost  in  producing  lumber. 

Mr.  OUTHWAITE.  My  friend  will  excuse  me.  In  my  figures  I 
deducted  the  cost  of  the  logs,  in  order  to  get  the  wages  of  the  men  en- 
gaged in  the  sawed-lumber  industry. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.     How  could  you  get  the  rate  of  wages  ? 

Mr.  OUTHWAITE.  After  taking  from  the  value  of  the  whole  prod- 
uct, first,  the  cost  of  the  logs,  some  $133,000,000;  second,  the  mill  sup- 
plies, and,  third,  the  interest,  insurance,  and  taxes 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.     How  did  you  arrive  at  the  cost  of  the  logs  ? 

Mr.  OUTHWAITE.  That  is  a  separate  thing.  I  am  getting  at  the 
sawed-lumber  industry.  Those  are  the  wages  paid  in  that  industry. 
The  item  of  wages  must  have  been  included  in  the  value  of  the  logs. 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.     How  much  do  you  allow  for  the  wages  paid? 

Mr.  OUTHWAITE.  I  do  not  allow  anything,  because  in  my  calcu- 
lation I  have  included  the  value  of  the  logs. 

[Here  the  hammer  fell.] 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  The  gentleman  must  certainly  have  made  a  mis- 
take in  his  figures,  because  the  first  item  in  the  cost  of  the  lumber  is 
the  value  of  the  tree  as  it  stands  in  the  forest.  That  varies  according 
to  locality.  In  my  part  of  the  country  stumpage  for  spruce  would  be, 
I  should  say,  from  |2  to  $2.25  per  thousand;  that  is  what  the  operator 
pays  for  the  standing  tree.  When  that  has  been  paid  men  are  sent  into 
the  woods;  they  cut  the  tree  down;  they  trim  it;  they  haul  it  to  the 
water.  I  am  not  going  into  the  minutiae,  but  simply  state  the  princi- 
pal operations.  They  put  it  in  the  stream;  they  make  rafts,  which 
they  drive  down  the  river  to  the  mill.  The  logs,  when  they  reach  the 
mill  in  my  country,  will  average  a  value  of  $9  per  thousand.  Subtract 
the  cost  of  stumpage  and  you  have  something  like  $7  or  $7.50,  every 


14 

penny  of  which  has  been  paid  to  labor — the  labor  put  upon  the  log  up 
to  the  time  it  reaches  the  mill. 

Mr.  McSHANE.  Does  the  gentleman  know  how  many  men  are  em- 
ployed in  logging  in  this  country? 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.     Enough  to  supply  all  the  mills  with  logs. 

Mr.  McSHANE.     Does  the  gentleman  know  how  many? 

Mr.  BOUTELLE.  Forty  to  titty  thousand,  I  should  say.  I  do  not 
know  what  bearing  that  question  has  upon  the  matter  I  am  discussing. 
I  am  trying  to  find  out  who  gets  the  money  that  comes  from  the  sale 
of  lumber  in  the  market. 

We  have  now  carried  the  log  to  the  mill,  where  it  has  assumed  a 
value  of  about  $9  per  thousand.  To-day  spruce  sawed  boards  are 
worth  at  the  mills  in  my  State,  I  should  say,  from  $10  to  $11.  Of 
course  the  value  varies  somewhat  with  the  fluctuations  of  the  market. 
The  difference  between  the  cost  of  the  log  at  the  mill  and  the  value  of 
the  lumber  per  thousand  as  it  lies  at  the  mill  ready  for  shipping  rep- 
resents the  cost  of  milling,  which  is  a  very  small  part  of  the  aggregate 
cost  of  taking  the  tree  from  the  forest,  carrying  it  to  the  mill,  and 
making  it  into  lumber.  A  thoisaiid  feet  of  lumber,  valued  at  $10  to 
$11  or  $11.50,  represents  to  the  extent  of  eight-tenths  or  nine-tenths 
what  has  been  paid  to  labor  to  produce  it. 

As  to  this  fabulous  amount  of  profit  which  gentlemen  here  have  fig- 
ured up  as  b3ing  realized  in  the  lumber  business,  it  is  a  very  easy 
thing,  as  has  been  said  here,  to  "juggle  with  figures;  "  but  I  suppose 
among  practical  lumbermen  in  this  country,  especiall}'^  those  in  the 
Eastern  States,  and  more  particularly  those  in  my  own  State,  where 
we  are  subjected  to  close  and  sharp  cojupetition  with  Canadian  labor — 
paid,  as  I  said  the  other  day,  from  25  to  50  per  cent,  less  than  we  pay 
our  laborers — nothing  is  better  known  than  that  the  lumber  business 
has  been  carried  on  upon  the  closest  possible  margin  for  years,  and 
that  men  engaged  in  this  business  are  only  able  to  get  out  of  it  with- 
out loss  b}^  reason  of  the  advantage  which  they  get  in  the  manulacture 
of  what  is  known  as  short  lumber,  working  up  the  refuse  with  a  care 
and  economy  unknown  in  former  years — working  slabs  into  pickets, 
palings,  laths,  and  every  conceivable  ibrm  in  which  this  class  of  lum- 
ber can  be  fitted  for  the  market. 

I  have  been  told  by  an  old  lumberman,  within  the  last  six  months, 
that  within  the  past  five  years  he  has  been  simply  saved  from  absolute 
loss  by  wo  king  up  all  the  refuse  into  this  class  of  what  is  known  as 
short  lumber. 


Monday,  July  9,  1888. 
rOTATO  STARCH. 

On  the  motion  to  strike  out  the  paragraph  reducing  the  duty  on  po- 
tato starch  Irom  2  cents  to  1  cent  per  pound — 

Mr.  BOUTELLE  said: 

Mr.  Chairman:  This  item  of  the  pending  tariff  bill  is  one  which  af- 
fords our  friends  on  both  sides  of  the  Honse  an  opportunity  to  attest 
the  sincerity  of  the  protestations  they  have  made,  that  they  seek  to  pro- 
mote the  interests  of  the  farmer.  This  article  of  potato  starch  is  one 
in  which  the  farming  interests  in  certain  sections  of  our  country  are 
directly  concerned  to  a  very  important  degree.     In  Maine,  New  Hamp- 


15 

shire,  Vermont,  ond  New  York,  where  the  largest  portion  of  our  potato- 
starch  is  manulactured,  the  stiirch  factories  furnish  the  principal  home 
market  for  the  larmer's  potatoes.  In  a  large  portion  of  the  agricult'- 
ural  regions  of  those  States  the  starch  iactories  form  one  of  the  essen- 
tial sources  of  reliance  for  the  farmer. 

In  the  northern  part  of  my  State — the  most  fertile  region  of  Ma'ne  — 
the  potato  starch  industry  is  a  most  important  factor  with  regard  to  the 
interests  of  the  farmer.  During  some  years  past  the  starch  factories  of 
this  country  have  probably  consumed  annually  something  like  3,000,- 
000  or  4,000,000  bushels  of  potatoes;  and  the  production  of  starch  has 
been  25,000,000  or  80,000,000  pounds.  The  starch  factories  are  located 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  potato  fields.  The  farmer  digs  his  pota- 
toes and  sells  them  almost  at  his  very  door.  During  a  number  of  years 
past  the  farmers  in  Aroostook  County,  Maine,  where  this  industry  is 
very  largely  carried  on,  have  been  enabled  to  sell  their  potatoes  with- 
out assortment,  large  and  small,  just  as  taken  from  the  field,  at  prices 
varying  from  25  to  30  cents  a  bushel,  to  the  starch  factories.  Without 
these  factories  those  farmers  would  have  no  market  for  that  class  of 
their  potato  product  that  is  not  adapted  for  table  use. 

By  reducing  the  duty  50  per  cent.,  as  proposed  in  this  bill,  you  will 
simply  permit  the  potatoes  raised  in  the  British  provinces  to  come 
across  the  line  and  compete  ruinously  with  the  product  of  the  farmers 
of  my  State  and  of  the  other  States  bordering  on  Canada  which  are  in- 
terested in  this  business. 

In  that  portion  of  my  own  district  to  which  I  have  alluded  there  are 
some  forty  of  these  starch  fiactories  scattered  through  the  potato  region^ 
producing  thousands  of  tons  of  starch  annually  and  providing  the  farm- 
ers with  a  reliable  cash  market  at  home  for  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
bushels  of  potatoes. 

In  a  recent  interview  on  the  subject,  Mr.  Alba  Holmes,  one  of  the 
leading  starch  manufacturers  of  Aroostook  County,  Maine,  stated  em- 
phatically that  the  removal  of  the  duty  on  starch  would  close  every 
factory  in  that  county.  The  reduction  of  the  duty  to  1  cent  per  i)ouiid 
would  probably  be  quite  as  disastrous.     Mr.  Holmes  said: 

The  average  price  of  starch  for  some  time  past  has  been  4  cents  per  pound. 
Owing  to  the  prices  we  pay  for  potatoes  and  labor,  there  is  only  a  very  small 
margin  for  profit  In  fact  we  could  not  continue  the  business  and  sell  at  a  less 
price.  We  tind  formidable  competitors  in  Germany  and  Holland,  who,  owing 
to  their  starvation  labor  prices  and  tlie  low  prices  paid  for  potatoes,  are  enabled 
to  export  large  quantities  of  starch,  pay  a  duty  of  2  cetits  per  pound,  and  sell 
for  4  cents  and  make  a  profit.  Take  off  the  duty  and  we  could  not,  nor  Avould 
we  try  to  compete  with  theni.  I  shall  close  my  factories  that  moment  the  duty 
is  taken  off. 

Take  the  matter  of  dextrine  or  burnt  starch.  It  was  formerly  manufactured 
in  Providence,  li.  I.,  and  in  New  York,  the  two  factories  using  about  J,4(.K)  tons 
of  starch  annually.  At  that  time  it  was  protected  by  a  fair  duty  and  the  business 
flourished.  The  duty  was  unjustly  reduced  to  1  cent  per  pound.  We  say  un- 
justly, because  it  takes  li  pounds  of  starch  to  make  a  pound  of  dextrine,  and  at 
the  present  rate  of  duty  on  starch  it  should  now  be  3  cents  instead  of  one.  The 
result  -was  what  might  have  been  expected,  the  American  manufacturers  of 
dextrine  were  driven  to  the  wall,  and  to-day  there  is  not  a  pound  manufactured 
in  the  United  States. 

Hon.  Thomas  H.  Phair,  State  senator  from  the  same  county,  and  the 
owner  of  seven  starch  factories,  declares  that  without  the  protective 
tariff  not  a  pound  of  starch  could  be  made  in  Aroostook  until  the  farm- 
ers should  be  ready  to  furnish  potatoes  for  10  cents  a  bushel.     He  says: 

Last  year  Canadian  factories  paid  from  10  to  13  cents  per  bushel  for  their  pota- 
toes, while  the  factories  on  the  American  side  paid  from  20  to  30  cents.  Take  off 
the  duty  and  our  farmers  must  sell  their  potatoes  for  2  or  3  cents  a  bushel  less 
than  the  province  farmers,  on  account  of  difference  of  freight,  or  not  sell  any. 


16 

A  few  days  ago,  while  in  Boston,  I  metaPrinee  Edward's  Island  man  wliohad 
several  tons  of  starch  to  sell,  and  he  sold  it  for  4^^  cents,  less  the  duty  of  2  cents 
and  2i  per  cent,  commission — that  is,  he  sold  for  2j  cents,  less  the  2^  per  cent, 
commission,  and  paid  the  freight,  82.50  per  ton.  At  the  prices  paid  for  potatoes 
last  year  by  our  factories  the  cost  of  starch  here  was  about  4i  cents  a  pound. 
^Vhile  the  Prince  Edward  man  paid  $^2.50  a  ton  for  transportation,  we  have  to 
pay  87.50. 

Not  only  must  the  free-trade  policy,  if  adopted  by  the  people,  shut  up  every 
starch  factory  in  Aroostook,  but  it  must  ab.solutely  stop  shipments  of  potatoes, 
unless  our  farmers  are  ready  and  willing  to  produce  them  for  less  price  than 
the  province  farmers  now  realize. 

Hon.  C.  F.  A.  Johnson,  a  pioneer  in  this  industry,  and  one  of  the 
most  highly-respected  citizens  of  his  section,  stated  before  the  Com- 
mittee on  Ways  and  Means  a  few  years  ago,  when  this  interest  was 
similarly  threatened,  that  the  interests  of  more  than  ten  thousand  farm- 
ers were  involved.     He  said: 

Protection  to  the  starch-maker  is  protection  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the 
farmer.  It  really  means  to  him  home  comforts,  the  education  of  his  children, 
and  the  support  in  his  community  of  religious  and  charitable  institutions,  with 
a  1  that  those  advantages  imply. 

If  any  gentleman  of  this  committee  has  ever  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  a 
p'anter  and  hoer  and  digger  of  potatoes  he  will  readily  assent  to  the  proposi- 
tion that_25  cents  per  bushel  is  as  low  as  he  or  any  other  man  ought  to  do  it. 
At  this  price,  which  is  the  usual  one  paid  by  starch-makers,  starch  costs  from 
i  i-  to  4i^  cents  per  pound,  to  which  must  be  added  from  one-half  to  five-eighths 
«  f  a  cent  per  pound  for  transportation,  storage,  and  commission.  This  brings 
up  the  cost  when  it  is  sold  to  4^  to  4f  cents  per  pound.  This  variation  in  cost  is 
explained  chiefly  by  variation  in  quality  of  potatoes  in  different  years.  I  have 
known  years  when  they  yielded  but  6  pounds  per  bushel. 

There  is  in  the  communities  in  which  these  mills  are  located  in  my  own 
State  (Maine)  a  large  amount  of  capital  invested ;  the  business  is  one  involving 
large  risks;  my  own  firm  lost  in  this  business  in  1881  over  $12,000. 

The  present  tariff  of  2  cents  per  pound  is  as  small  as  we  can  possibly  work 
under.  A  reduction  would  demolish  the  industry  in  the  United  States.  The 
farmers  of  the  neighboring  maritime  provinces  (contentedly  or  otherwise)  pro- 
duce potatoes  at  much  less  price  than  ours  can,  and  the  Canadian  starch-makers 
have  a  very  material  advantage  over  us  in  the  matter  of  transportation. 

We  can  not  take  a  pound  of  starch  to  their  country  without  paying  their  gov- 
ernment a  duty  of  2  cents.  Why  should  not  American  citizens  have  the  advan- 
tage of  their  own  markets? 

Last  year  the  starch  factories  in  the  province  of  New  Brunswick 
paid  from  10  to  13  cents  a  bushel  for  their  potatoes  right  across  the  St. 
John  Kiver  at  the  very  time  when  the  farmers  of  my  State  were  re- 
ceiving 25  and  30  cents  for  every  bushel  they  could  lay  down  at  the 
starch  iiactory.  If  you  agree  to  this  proposed  reduction  of  one-half  of 
the  present  duty,  making  it  but  1  cent  per  pound,  the  result  is  to  be 
the  destruction  of  this  industry  on  the  American  side  of  the  line.  You 
are  going  to  take  away  from  the  farmers  of  New  England,  New  York, 
and  the  other  States  interested  this  chief  market  for  the  sale  of  one  of 
their  important  products;  and  you  are  going  to  do  this,  very  strangely, 
as  it  seems  to  me.  directly  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  the  Canadian 
tariff  to-day  puts  a  duty  of  2  cents  upon  every  pound  of  starch  that 
goes  from  the  United  States  to  the  British  provinces. 

Our  present  duty  on  starch  is  in  no  sense  a  burden  upon  the  Ameri- 
can people.  The  additional  cost  that  is  imparted  to  a  yard  of  cloth  by 
reason  of  the  starch  used  in  its  manufacture  is  infinitesimal,  and  this 
potato  starch  is  used  almost  entirely  for  the  purpose  of  starching  yarns 
and  fabrics  of  cotton  cloth  and  cloth  for  prints.  Yet  by  this  legisla- 
tion cutting  down  the  duty  one-half  you  propase  to  say  to  the  farmers 
of  Maine,  of  New  York,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  and  elsewhere,  who 
have  been  engaged  in  raising  potatoes  upon  land  better  adapted  for 
that  than  for  other  purposes,  "The  American  Congress  has  decreed 
that  you  shall  sell  no  more  of  your  potatoes  at  the  prices  they  now 


17 

bring,  but  you  must  raise  and  sell  them  to  compete  with  the  low  prices 
of  the  Canadian  farmers." 

Everybody  knows  that  in  Canada  labor  is  cheaper,  land  is  cheaper, 
and  that  the  people  live  in  a  less  comfortable  way  than  we  are  willing 
that  our  American  farmers  should  live;  so  that  the  competition  in- 
volved in  the  proposed  reduction  of  duty,  so  far  as  the  potato  industry 
is  concerned,  would  be  to  our  farmers  simply  destructive. 

I  can  not  see  why  we  are  called  upon  to  show  to  Canada  a  liberality 
which  Canada  refuses  to  show  to  us.  I  can  not  see  why  we  are  called  upon 
to  allow  the  products  of  the  starch  factories  of  Canada  to  come  over  into 
the  United  States  at  one-half  the  duty  which  the  Canadiap  Government 
exacts  from  the  American  manufacturer  if  he  tries  to  sell  starch  in  the 
British  provinces.  There  is  no  logic  in  this;  there  is  no  patriotism  in 
it;  there  is  no  common  sense  in  it;  there  is  no  justice  in  it  to  our 
farmers.  On  the  contrary,  so  liar  as  my  section  of  the  country  is  con- 
cerned, it  is  one  of  the  most  direct  and  serious  blows  that  this  Mills 
bill  proposes  to  strike  at  the  agricultural  interests. 

Mr.  Chairman,  this  reduction  of  the  tariff  on  potato-starch  and  the 
failure  to  put  the  rate  on  dextrine  and  similar  starch  products  at  a  rate 
that  will  protect  the  American  producer  form  part  of  what  seems  a 
systematic  assault  upon  all  the  leading  industries  of  my  State,  as  evi- 
dence of  which  I  have  compiled  from  the  figures  published  by  the 
Ways  and  Means  Committee  the  following  comparative  statement: 

THE  DEMOCRATIC  ASSAULT  UPON  MAINE'S  INDUSTRIES— HOW  THE  MILLS  BILI» 
STRIKES  AT  NEW  ENGLAND  LUMBERING,  MANUFACTURING,  AND  FARMING  IN- 
TERESTS FOR  THE  BENEFIT  OP  EUROPE  AND  CANADA — F'ACTS  THAT  SPEAK 
LOUDER  THAN  WORDS. 

The  following  table  shows  exactly  how  the  Democratic  Mills  tariff-re- 
duction bill  proposes  to  strike  down  the  protective  duties  that  under  Re- 
publican laws  have  stimulated  American  industries,  increased  the  wages 
of  American  labor,  furnished  a  profitable  home  market  for  our  farmers, 
and  given  to  American  workingmen  the  most  comfortable  and  happy 
homes  in  the  world.  Although  a  few  items  cited  below  have  been 
dropped  out  of  this  bill  since  it  was  reported,  the  following  list  repre- 
sents the  changes  of  the  existing  tariff  most  directly  affecting  the  in- 
terests of  Maine,  proposed  by  the  Mills  bill  as  it  was  indorsed  by  the 
Democratic  national  convention  at  St.  Louis  and  the  Democratic  State 
convention  of  Maine: 


Protective  duties  under 
the  Republican  tariff. 


Proposed  rates  under 
the  Democratic  Mills 
tariflf. 


Timber : 

Hewn  and  sawed  and 
timber  used  for  spars 
and  in  building 
wharves. 

Square  or  sided 

"Wood,  unmanufactured 

Sawed  boards,  planks,  and 
deals,  and  all  other  arti- 
cles of  sawed  lumber. 
Hubs,  for  wheels,  posts,  last- 
blocks,  wagon-blocks,  car- 
blocks,  gun-blocks,  head- 
ing-blocks, and  ail  like 
blocks  or  sticks,  rough, 
hewn,  or  sawed  only. 

BOUTELLE 2 


20  per  cent,  ad  valorem . 


1  cent  per  cubic  foot 

20  per  cent,  ad  valorem . 
«1  and  $2  per  1,000  feet. . 


20  per  cent,  ad  valorem... 


Free-list. 


Do. 
Do. 
Do. 


Do. 


18 


Protective  duties  under 
the  Republican  tarifl'. 


Proposed  rates  under 
the  Democratic  Mills 
tariff. 


Staves  of  wood , 

Pickets  and  palings 

Laths 

Shingles 

Clapboards,  pine  or  spruce.. 

Fish-glue,  or  isinglass 

Soap,  hard  and  soft 

Hemlock  extract,  for  tan- 
ning. 

Barytes 

All  earths  or  chiys,  un- 
wrought  or  unmanufact- 
ured. 

China  clay,  or  kaolin 

Brick 

Vegetables,  fresh  or  in  brine 
(cucumbers,  pickles,  cab- 
bages, turnips,  carrots, 
beets,tomHtoes, squashes, 
pumpkins   etc.). 

Meats,  game,  and  poultry.... 

Milk,  fresh 

Egg  yolks 

Beans,pea9e,and  split  pease 

Pulp,  for  paper-makers'  use, 

Bristles 

Bulbs  and  bulbous  roots, 
not  medicinal. 

Feathers  of  all  kinds , 

Grease , 

Lime , 

Garden  seeds 

Marble  of  all  kinds 

Plaster  of  Paris,  ground  or 
calcined. 

Brown  eartlienware,  etc 

Granite,  freestone,  sand- 
stone, and  all  building  or 
monumental  stone  un- 
manufactured. 

Tallow 

Wools:  Clothing  wools  of 
various  grades. 

Woolen  rags,  shoddy,  etc.  .. 

SlHte.  and  manufactures  of 
slate. 

Anvils,  anchors  or  parts 
thereof;  mill-irons  and 
mill-cranks  of  wrought- 
iron.  and  wrought-iron 
for  shijw.and  forgiiigs  of 
iron  and  steel  for  ve.'ssels, 
steam-engines,  and  loco- 
motives, or  i>arts  thereof, 
weighing  each  25  pounds 
or  more. 

Saws 

Cabinet  and  house  furni- 
ture, finished. 

Lumber : 

Boards,  planks,  deals, 
and  other  sawed  I  um- 
ber of  hemlock,  white- 
wood,  sycamore,  and 
basMWood — 
Planed  or  finished 
on  one  side. 


10  per  cent,  ad  valorem... 
20per  cent,  ad  valorem... 

Free-list. 
Do. 
Do 

35  cents  per  1,0()0 

$1  'SCI  to  $2  per  10'        

Do. 
Do 

'25  per  cent,  ad  valorem... 
20  per  cent,  ad  valorem... 
do 

Do. 
Do. 
Do. 

1 0  per  cent,  ad  valorem  ... 

Do. 
Do. 

Do. 

20  per  cent,  ad  valorem... 
10  per  cent,  ad  valorem... 

Do. 
Do. 

.do. 
.do. 
.do. 


10  and  20  per  cent,   ad 
valorem. 
10  per  cent  ad  valorem.... 

15  cents  per  pound 

20 per  cent,  ad  valorem... 

25  per  cent,  ad  valorem.. 
10  per  cent,  ad  valorem... 

do 

20  per  cent,  ad  valorem... 
65  cents  per  cubic  foot.... 
20  per  cent,  ad  valorem... 


Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 

Do. 
Do. 
Do. 

Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 


25  per  cent,  ad  valorem...  20  per  cent,  ad  valorem 
$1  per  ton !  Free-list. 


1  cent  per  pound 

12  and  10  cents  per  pound 
I 

lOcents  per  pound I 

30  per  cent,  ad  valorem..i 


Do. 
Do. 


Do. 
per  cent,  ad  valorem 


2  cents  per  pound '  li  cents  per  pound. 


40  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 
35  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 


S1.50  per  1,000  feet 60  cents  per  1.000  fe«i 


30  per  cent,  ad  valorem 
Do. 


19 


Protective  duties  under 
the  Republican  tariff. 


Proposed  rate  under 
the  Democratic  Mills 
tariff. 


Lumber— Continued. 

Planed  or  finished 

on  two  sides. 
Planed  on  two  sides, 
tongued     and 
grooved. 
All  other  articles  of 
sawed  lumber  notelse- 
where  specified — 
Planed  or    finished 

on  one  side. 
Planed  or    finished 

on  two  sides. 
Planed    one    side, 
tongued     and 
grooved. 
Planed  on  two  sides, 
tongued      and 
grooved. 
All  other  manufactures  of 
wood. 

Potato-starch 

Oil-cloths  for  floors 

Printing  paper,  unsized, for 

books  and  newspapers. 
Sized  or  glued  for  printing.. 

Paper  boxes 

Brushes  of  all  kinds 

■Card-clothing  for  factories 


Carriages  and  parts  of 

Friction  matches 

Inks  and  ink  powders 

Marble,  sawed, dressed,  and 

tiles. 
Marble  manufactures. 


S2per  1,000  feet 

$2.50  per  1,000  feet. 


62.50  per  1.000  feet. 

$3  per  1.000  feet 

do 

$3.50  per  1,000  feet., 


35  per  cent,  ad  valorem.. 


2  cents  per  pound 

40  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 
15  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 


20  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 
35  per  cent,  ad  valorem., 
30  i)er  cent,  ad  valorem.. 
25  to  45  cents  per  square 
foot. 
35  per  cent,  ad  valorem.. 

do. 

30  v>er  cent,  ad  valorem. 
$1.10  per  cubic  foot. 


$1  per  1,000  feet. 
$1.50  per  1,000  feet. 


50  cents  per  1,000  feet. 
$1  per  1,000  feet. 
Do. 

$1.50  per  1,000  feet. 

30  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 

1  cent  per  pound. 

25  percent,  ad  valorem. 

12  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 

15  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 
'!■'>  per  itMit.  ad  valorem. 
20  \'QV  ct*nl.  .•\d  valorem 
15  Lo  2.J  cents  per  square 

foot. 
30  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 
25  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 
20  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 
(i5  cents  per  cubic  foot. 

30  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 


COTTON  AND  WOOI.EN  MANUFACTURES. 

Cotton  goods.— TJnder  the  existing  tariff  all  cotton  manufactures  are  protected 
by  a  specific  duty  equivalent  to  about  40  per  cent,  on  the  average— the  common 
grades  less,  and  the  fine  grades  more. 

The  Mills  bill  abolishes  all  specific  duties  and  substitutes  a  sweeping  ad  valo- 
rem duty  of  40  per  cent  for  all  kinds  of  goods.  As  tiie  ad  valorem  duties  invite 
fraudulent  undervaluations,  which  practically  reduce  duties  8  to  10  per  cent., 
the  practical  effect  of  such  a  change  in  the  tariff  would  be  to  reduce  the  protec- 
tion on  fine  goods  so  as  to  prevent  their  manufacture  in  this  country. 

Woolen  goods.— The  present  tariff  imposes  a  duty  of  about  35  cents  per  pound 
(as  an  equivalent  for  the  duty  on  wool,  of  which  the  wool-grower  receives  the 
benefit),  and  35  per  cent,  ad  valorem  on  coarse  and  40  per  cent,  ad  valorem  on 
fine  goods.  As  the  pound  duty  is  intended  to  be  made  a  little  more  than  the 
average  duty  on  the  wool,  to  guard  against  errors,  that  is  also  a  slight  protec- 
tion to  those  engaged  in  woolen  manufacturing. 

The  Mills  bill  abolishes  the  pound  duty  (because  of  free  wool)  and  imposes  an 
ad  valorem  duty  of  35  per  cent,  and  40  per  cent,  on  imported  woolens.  The 
farmer  loses  the  advantage  of  the  duty  on  wool,  and  the  manufacturer  is  left 
■with  nothing  but  the  ad  valorem  duty  on  Imported  woolens,  the  effect  of  which 
must  be  to  increase  importations  and  thus  injure  the  home  manufacturers. 


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