may not have been before sulphonation a fish oil. Dr. Lane, the Government chemist, describes kromoline as "a mixture of several fatty acids, petroleum and oxidized fatty acids, sodium salts," and Fog, chemist, states his analysis of it to be: "Moisture, 16.35; sulphonated saponified fatty acids, 8; sulphonated and unsaponified acids, 24.5; unaltered oil (mineral oil), 24.09; fatty acids of unaltered oil, 20.1; altogether 45 per cent; ash, 2.88; specific gravity, 0.966." The iodine value of the unaltered oil found in kromoline is shown by Dr. Lane to be 118.5 and the saponification value 189.3, while, as already indicated, the iodine value of kromoline is 70 to 71, and its saponification value 88. Enough, we think, is pointed out to clearly demonstrate that the article before us is neither scientifically nor practically a fish oil. One of the scientific witnesses (Weber), called on behalf of the Government, who has been engaged in research work, was asked: Q. Now, as a chemist, are you prepared to state here under oath that you would recommend the acceptance by any client of yours of the product which you have analyzed as a delivery of fish oil? To which he replied: No, I would not. This, we think, disposes of one phase of the Government's contention, viz, that kromoline is a fish oil, and thus excepted from paragraph 580, supra. The issue as it remains must be determined in large measure, if not altogether, by the uses to which the commodity may be practically applied. The evidence on behalf of protestant would be ample and conclusive as against the mere presumption of regularity to which the collector's classification is entitled but for the fact that the Government has diligently and with zeal sought at unusual length to sustain the collector's action, and in so doing, on the question of use and adaptability, we think the theory pursued as mistaken as the effort to show that such a mixture as kromoline is shown to be is still a fish oil. The mistake as to use may be said to be threefold: (a) As applied to its use with extracts in the processes of retanning. (b) As applied to its use on sole leather which it is said is never stuffed, and that its use in finishing is a process separate and distinct from "stuffing or dressing." (c) In the effort to prove through accounts of experimental tests that it is adapted to other uses than stuffing or dressing leather. While the Government has shown beyond question that kromoline is used in retanning processes with tanning extracts, there is utter failure to establish that in such use kromoline serves to any degree as a tanner or as an aid to make effective the tanning extracts with which it is used, other than to drive them into the leather. No attempt was made to show that kromoline has been used in what, for want of a better description, may be called the original tanning of leather, and since it has within the past 18 months been used extensively by leather manufacturers, this would seem strange if it be that it has tanning properties. The fact gleaned from the evidence is that it is not used until after the leather has been actually tanned, or, in other words, until the hide has been so far tanned as to give it the trade name of "rough leather," and when so used with extracts on the rough leather its purpose may best be illustrated by the testimony of the witness Harry Cox, a practical tanner, as follows (pp. 116–117, stenographic record): Q. When kromoline is used in conjunction with quebracho, as you have stated, in retanning, in addition to the penetrating qualities that it gives quebracho, does it itself, as an oil, enter into the fabric or, rather, the body of the leather?-A. Yes. In our own case, for instance, when we retan with quebracho we would retan a definite percentage of quebracho and use a definite percentage of kromoline, for instance, and then when we stuff that leather we allow for that kromoline, because we had that oil already in there. Q. And when it is used in conjunction the kromoline goes into the leather, and the leather has to that extent been already stuffed?-A. Certainly. Q. And requires that much less stuffing in the final?-A. Yes; exactly. The Government lays much stress upon the fact that inasmuch as kromoline is applied in certain of the finishing processes of sole leather, which it is claimed is never stuffed, it is thereby demonstrated that it has thus a use which is neither stuffing" or "dressing" leather, but we think that this is putting altogether too narrow a construction on the terms "stuffing" and "dressing." Some of the witnesses went so far as to say that they never heard of the term "dressing" as applied to leather, but the witness Horton testified (p. 345, stenographic record): Q. Please describe the finishing process for sole leather.-A. The leather is taken from the drum, bleached, put in an oil wheel and oiled, or oiled by hand-sometimes one way and sometimes the other way. It is then sent to the loft and suspended on sticks and dried; after it is dried it is taken down and dipped in water for tempering purposes and is tempered from one to two days in a closed room. It is then taken out and the grain sponged very lightly with water-cold water--followed by a slight coating of oil. It is then sent to the machines and subjected to heavy pressure, finishing it. General Appraiser MCCLELLAND. What is the purpose of oiling the leather in the two instances you have mentioned there?-A. For the purpose of toughening the grain and to have it dry without oxidation. And the witness Guelick (p. 433), on the meaning of the term "dressing," had this to say: Q. What does dressing include-what process does dressing include?-A. Retannage, bleaching, stuffing or fat liquoring, dyeing, finishing, and various others. Q. Do you mean that stuffing, the terms "stuffing" and "dressing" are synonymous and interchangeable?-A. The term "dressing" is a general name which covers the various steps of finishing, I should say, and stuffing is merely one of those steps. * Q. You draw no distinction between dressing and stuffing?—A. I said that dressing covers all stages of the leather from the rough state on to the finished state-ori to finished product. That includes retannage, stuffing, dyeing, finishing, oiling, and a dozen other steps which might enter into different kinds of leather. The Government, as we have said, seeks to put altogether too narrow a construction on the words "stuffing or dressing" as used in the paragraph. It is our view that the processes wherein it has been shown that kromoline has been applied to leather may with equal propriety be called either "dressing" or "finishing." The Government has also failed to prove generally that kromoline is practically adapted to any uses other than stuffing or dressing leather. We have been unable to overlook the fact that much of the testimony offered by the Government as to its adaptability to other uses did not come from wholly disinterested witnesses and that there was more than the usual desire to simply testify to facts regardless of the outcome could not fail to be apparent to one observing the manner and hearing the testimony of the witnesses. One witness, who, in addition to his own statement, offered the testimony of two chemists employed by his firm, frankly acknowledged that he was interested because kromoline had come into competition with and seriously affected the sales of three commodities dealt in by his said firm. Another witness was a former employee of the protesting company, whose relations therewith were severed under circumstances which left unmistakable bitterness, and his animus was so manifest that a stranger to the record could not fail to discover it on reading his evidence. He had sold very large quantities of kromoline throughout the country. In some instances had he sold single-barrel lots for uses, as he claimed, other than stuffing or dressing leather, but, strange as it may seem, if his statements of such sales were reliable, not a single purchaser for such uses was called to testify, nor was any explanation made of the failure. so to do. A witness was called to testify that he had experimented with kromoline and found it suitable for use as a "cutting oil." It could, according to this witness, be so used alone or in a mixture with other oils, but notwithstanding that he had known kromoline as a commercial commodity for about a year and a half, he had never known it to be used as cutting oil in a practical way. His interest in the outcome of this issue may be explained by the following, from his testimony (p. 390): Q. Does kromoline compete with any article that you have?-A. It does. Q. Competes heavily, does it not? A. Yes. There has been failure also to prove that kromoline is adapted to practical use as an alizarin assistant. On the contrary, it is affirmatively shown that by reason of imparting color, and its effect in |