1 think every statement he gave was in harmony with the absolute facts.

Personally, I do not think 60 and 65 per cent will protect us to the extent we should be protected, but it will be a great deal better than at the present time, providing we get the American valuation along with that; if we do not get the American-valuation plan, I have no hopes of being able to get a tariff sufficiently high to protect the industry and the men I speak for.

Senator JONES. If you get your 60 per cent on the American valuation plan on these electric-light bulbs, at what price must they be sold at, wholesale, in Germany, in order to compete with that same bulb here?

Mr. CLARKE. Well, unfortunately, I can not tell you exactly what the price is in America; I can only suggest that to the best of my knowledge it runs about $27 a thousand. If you place 60 per cent on the $27 value

Senator JONES (interposing). For the purpose of easy figuring, let us call it $30.

Mr. CLARKE. Then you would get $18——

Senator JONES (interposing). You would have $18 duty?
Mr. CLARKE. $18 duty to add to a $1.50-

Senator JONES (interposing). You will have $18 duty, and then the importing dealer, who usually charges 25 per cent, does he not, for handling goods of that sort-his expenses, overhead charges, and so on?

Mr. CLARKE. I could not tell you that.

Senator JONES. On his sale price? It has been so testified to by other witnesses that that is the common percentage.

So you would have 60 per cent of your $30, or $18 in duty; and $7.50 would be the dealer's expenses and overhead charges, and so on, which would make $2.50; and then there are current cartage charges, and so on, which generally are figured at 14 per cent additional.

So that a thousand of those bulbs, which would cost $4.05 in Germany, would have to sell in this country for $30 to compete with your product on the basis of 60 per cent duty, American valuation plan. And is that what you want; you think you need that much?

Mr. CLARKE. Well, I could not agree with your figures without taking a pencil and figuring it out in my own way.

But what we need, and what we want, is some rule and some rate that will prevent that ware from coming into America while the men who live in America and who are able to make this ware walk the streets in idleness.

Senator JONES. What we are endeavoring to get at is the amount here. I take it that there is going to be a duty put upon this glassware, and we want to get at some reasonable amount, and you are asking 60 and 65 per cent, and I think we ought to have something here to indicate that you need that much, something besides the mere investigation as to the cost of labor in Germany. There are other considerations over there which make the price of the product more. than you indicate by the cost of the labor.

Mr. CLARKE. I disagree with you there. I venture the statement that if we take into consideration the unskilled as well as the skilled labor the difference would be greater than I have suggested.

Senator JONES. But are there not some other factors entering into the production of glassware over there besides labor which should be taken into consideration?

Mr. CLARKE. Will you suggest what they are?

Senator JONES. You are familiar with the industry, and I am not. I am asking you because you are here asking for a duty of 60 per cent as a minimum, and I think you should make the showing.

Mr. CLARKE. I am saying to you that if you take into consideration the skilled labor, also the coal, sand, soda, and the other ingredients that constitute the glass, that they have still a greater advantage than I suggest on the skilled labor.

Senator JONES. You are now getting at the very thing I would like to have you talk about; hitherto you have only mentioned that labor. What about the soda and the silica and other things that enter into the manufacture of glass, the supply of that and its cost; and what about your overhead charges, taxes, and that sort of thing over there? Mr. CLARKE. I do not consider myself a sufficient authority to go into that phase of the subject.

Senator JONES. We have had an abundance of statements here as to the cost of German labor, but we have not had any statement, as I recall, going into the question of taxation and other factors which enter into the cost of production over there.

Senator MCCUMBER. Do you know what these bulbs that you speak of, for instance, that are produced by the German labor for about 15 cents a hundred, sell for at wholesale in the German market?

Mr. CLARKE. I do not know, but I was told last week by a man who handles them in New York that they are laid down in the United States for from $19 to $22 a thousand.

Senator MCCUMBER. What can we lay them down here for, with the present cost of labor?

Mr. CLARKE. Our labor cost is $15.40 a thousand for the skilled labor only. This does not include the things that the Senator has suggested, such as overhead, fuel, and the ingredients that go to make up the glass, and all the other additional expenses that must be added thereto.

Senator McCUMBER. You want enough to cover the difference between what it can be laid down for by the Germans and what it can be produced for in the United States?

Mr. CLARKE. I do not believe we would need that entirely, because I think we are more proficient, to some extent, in producing. Senator MCCUMBER. I am saying, what it can be laid down at? Mr. CLARKE. Oh, yes.

Senator McCUMBER. That takes into consideration that whole subject.

Senator JONES. If it merely cost 15 cents a thousand for the labor cost

Mr. CLARKE (interposing). A hundred.

Senator JONES. That continue in Germany to produce those and they are selling them here in this country at $22 or $23 a thousand, there must be some other factor somewhere of greater importance than the mere labor cost in Germany, must there not?

Mr. CLARKE. The only factor I see is that the German manufacturer is making a greater profit now than he ever made before.

Senator JONES. You say that that is all you saw. Have you made

an investigation of that?

Mr. CLARKE. Of the profits?

Senator JONES. Yes.

Mr. CLARKE. I have some statistics here on the profits in Belgium that were given to us in December when we were there a year ago this month.

Senator JONES. I think those factors I have suggested would be more important here and, perhaps, a good deal more important than the mere cost of labor over there. That factor of labor we have heard over and over again; everybody seems to know the cost of labor in Germany. One man here said that the cost of labor was only 4 cents a day in Germany.

Mr. CLARKE. I did not find anything that low. Let me say this, that I will be glad to submit those figures in my brief.

Senator JONES. We will be very glad to get any direct information, Mr. Clarke. You have made an investigation over there, and I think you ought to be able, and no doubt will, to give us some very valuable information. But my request is that you go into those other factors as much in detail as you can, so that we may have something before us besides this question of labor that we have heard so much about.

Mr: CLARKE. Let me say this, and then I will not take up any more of your time, that an international conference composed of the representatives of the glassworkers of all countries was held in Amsterdam, and I endeavored to try to do something to have the workers over there assist us so that we would not be required to reduce our wages or increase our working hours in order to give our men an opportunity to work-and the wages of our men have never been in excess of $35.02 a week in over 40 years. We failed in that direction. Since then we have come home-I may inject here that in a public address in the city of Weisswasser I notified the Germans-I think there were possibly 7,000 people there-that unless something was done to protect us we would have to protect ourselves and that it would be a matter of the survival of the fittest.

After my return home I recommended to our workers that we would have to reduce our wages, and we have reduced our wages from 10 to 30 per cent, not alone to meet foreign competition, but the 30 per cent in the one department was primarily granted to meet foreign competition, and we have not been able to do it.

I will be glad to submit here a printed statement to the secretary showing the reductions we have accepted since the 7th day of September, ranging from 10 to 30 per cent.

(The statement referred to is as follows:)

CONFERENCE SETTLEMENTS.

Feeling that a concise statement in our records giving an outline of the approximate reductions suffered in the different departments may serve a good purpose, if for no other reason than that of ready reference and comparison, I append the following:

Cutting

Chimney

Punch tumbler and stem ware_.

Bulb (failed to agree at first conference and a second conference has not been held).

Per cent.

10-20

15

13

Mold making, National Association of Manufacturers_

11

Mold making, bottle manufacturers (failed to agree, but we have advised

our workers to conform to the settlement made with the national association).

Caster place, off-hand, paste mold, and burst-off blanks 13 to 20 but

Insulator (failed to agree at first conference and a second conference has not been held).

Stopper grinding (we hold no wage conferences).

Lamp working, suffered 15 per cent in January and another 15 per cent in September___

30

Oven ware_-_.

12

Those who analyze the foregoing figures may conclude that in some instances they are not absolutely accurate. However, it must be borne in mind that it is impossible to give other than an approximate result in a concise statement because of the fact that some workmen suffered a greater reduction than others.

On the subject of bulbs, lamp chimneys, shades, globes, lighting goods, and chemical ware, which was not made here previous to the war and which the Government appealed to the officers of our organization and to the manufacturers to go into this line of ware during the war because they could not get it, permit me to say that it is all leaving us at the present time, and I have telegrams here from employers and workers appealing to me to see if we can not do something to retain that trade.

Orders for thermos bottles are coming in as many as 2,000,000 in one order, while our men at Vineland, N. J., and other cities are walking the streets in idleness. While I was in Weisswasser the superintendent of the company told me as well as Mr. McCreary, my colleague, that that very day he refused an order for 50,000,000 electric bulbs to be sent to America because they could not supply their own trade, but that if they had been able to supply their own trade at that time they would have sent the 50,000,000 bulbs.

I do not come here in the spirit of saying that you must do this or that; I come here more in the spirit of appealing to you to do something, begging you to do something, that will enable us to put our men at work. I am open to any question that anyone wants to propound, but your time is valuable and my statement may not be read.

Senator JONES. What were those electric-light bulbs selling for before the war, Mr. Clarke?

Mr. CLARKE. In America?
Senator JONES. In America.

Mr. CLARKE. I would say that in 1911, which is the only accurate statement that I could give you, they sold at $18 or $19. I am really not an authority on that, but that evidence has come out in some of our joint conferences with the manufacturers.

Senator MCCUMBER. If you will file an abbreviated brief the committee will be glad to have it.

Senator JONES. But put in such of these other matters as you can. Mr. CLARKE. We have some data on that and Mr. McCreary will be glad to do that. Mr. McCreary is here if you wish to hear from him.

(The following report was submitted:)

EUROPE'S FLINT GLASS INDUSTRY.

[By Wm. P. Clarke, president American Flint Glass Workers' Union, Toledo, Ohio.]

As an introduction to this document it appears to me quite proper to give a brief résumé of our relations with our brethren across the sea. By so doing it will enable those who take up the work where I leave off to more readily and easily comprehend all that has gone before in our efforts to attain an international understanding that would mean an end to ruinous competition against the organized American workmen in the flint-glass industry.

The importation of glassware from abroad at a cost below that at which' similar ware can be produced in America has frequently caused much annoyance to the officers and members of the American Flint Glass Workers' Union and to the manufacturers employing our members.

At a bulb conference in the Hollenden Hotel, Cleveland, Ohio, November 23, 1901, the workers presented a proposition to the bulb manufacturers calculated to increase the wages of bulb blowers from $2.15 to $2.25, and bulb gatherers from $1.30 to $1.40 per turn.

The manufacturers opposed the increase and set forth claims of " foreign competition" with such force that a resolution was presented and adopted, which provided:

"That a committee be appointed to investigate the seriousness of foreign competition on bulbs, and that the workers work under protest from December 1, 1901. If the committee decides that the companies can pay the increases, the increase shall be paid from December 1, 1901. If the committee reports that foreign competition is so serious that it will be necessary for the workers to grant some concessions to meet the competition, then the matter shall be referred to a vote of the trade for approval or disapproval. If the workers reject the proposition, the wages shall remain the same."

PRESIDENT ROWE'S EUROPEAN INVESTIGATIONS.

Mr. T. W. Rowe, then vice president of the union, and Mr. E. J. Barry, manager of the Libbey Glass Works, Toledo, Ohio, were chosen to make the investigation. On their return from Europe Mr. Rowe presented a written report, which was exceedingly brief, while Mr. Barry, so far as I am aware, made a verbal report only.

Mr. Rowe's report and reference to the report made by Mr. Barry can be found in the minutes of a bulb conference held in the Boody House, Toledo, Ohio, May 12, 1902, and printed in circular No. 42, May 29, 1902.

The outcome of the conference was that the manufacturers refused to pay the increases, and this resulted in a strike, which began on May 17, 1902, and continued until August 9, 1902, at which time the manufacturers agreed to the contentions of the workers only in so far as wage increases were concerned, while the workers waived their claim for back pay. As a result of this dispute the members of local unions Nos. 28 and 81, of Toledo, and No. 31, of Fostoria, were involved in the strike, and in this contest the union expended $21,629.50 for strike benefits alone.

During the month of May, 1903, an appeal for aid was received from the National Flint Glass Makers' Society of Great Britain and Ireland, which society was then involved in a struggle with their employers. While their appeal for financial assistance was pending before our trade, Messrs. J. J. Rudge