save them, we are going into the importing business. What else can we do?

I ask you.

The CHAIRMAN. I know that you are going to handle it right, because you are smart and alert.

Mr. MOLITOR. No, I am not smart or I would not be in this business, I assure you.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. At this point I wish to place in the record a statement submitted by the Amalgamated Lace Operatives of America.

AMALGAMATED LACE OPERATIVES OF AMERICA,

Philadelphia, Pa., February 27, 1940.

Mr. Chairman and Honorable Members of the Finance Committee: Organized in 1892, the Amalgamated Lace Operatives of America is a labor union that has within its membership 98 percent of the lacemakers operating levers lace machines in the American lace manufacturing industry.

It has consistently maintained its position as the foremost textile union in the country; providing for its members wage rates that are not equaled by other textile industries, a maximum workweek of 40 hours, provides a death benefit of $750, sick benefits, and minimum strike benefits of $12 per week.

There are 43 lace plants in the country confined to the following States: Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Ohio.

The purpose of this brief is to set forth the opinions of the wage workers of the American lace industry with respect to the proposal to extend the life of the TradeAgreements Act in its present form or to amend the act to provide for Senate ratification of all future trade agreements.

Since the Finance Committee desires to assemble all material facts in connection with the matter under consideration, we direct the committee's attention to the trade agreement with France that became effective June 15, 1936. In this agreement, the duty rate was substantially reduced on practically every classification of machine-made lace, other than cotton laces of coarser gages. The following items were affected: Silk laces, cotton laces of 12 points or finer; silk veilings; rayon veilings.

Since the agreement has now been in operation for more than 31⁄2 years, we are in a position to refer to statistics compiled by the United States Department of Commerce which so vividly portray the tremendous increase of imported laces.

According to a Department of Commerce release, dated November 10, 1939, "Outside of the American market, sales of French laces have become practically extinct and France's total lace production may be considered destined for the United States."

As a matter of fact, France has been exporting nine-tenths of its lace production to the United States, dispossessing the American product and creating unemployment that in its severity has never before been known in the American industry. Lace plants have been closed for periods extending into many months, others have been operating on such a curtailed basis that only on rare occasions has the industry exceeded 50 percent capacity. Several plants have been forced to permanently close their doors, and to this day many of their former employees are jobless and without means of self-support.

Prior to the ratification of the French trade agreement, the domestic lace industry was in a flourishing condition, providing steady employment to thousands of American citizens; today, our right to work has been surrendered to the lace-making centers of France. We feel entirely justified therefore, to emphatically deny as true, repeated statements made by the Department of State that the interests of labor have been carefully safeguarded and no material injury has been inflicted upon any industry by reason of the agreements now in effect.

We do not assume that the State Department would admit that the intent of the trade agreements is to reduce the wage scales of American industries to the level of foreign competition, but the tendency in this direction becomes only too obvious, when we quote in full the following letter received by our organization from the American Lace Manufacturers Association under date of September 20, 1938:

"At a meeting of the American Lace Manufacturers Association held on September 15, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: Owing to the trade agreement which the United States established with France in 1936, against the advice of the domestic lace manufacturers, the French importations of cotton and silk laces are growing continuously.

"When the trade agreement was established, the French franc stood at 6.6 cents. Since then France has devalued her currency continuously and today's rate is approximately 2.7 cents. This brought the prices of French lace of all types to such a low level that it is impossible for the domestic manufacturers to compete, and therefore, the importations during the last few months rose in avalanche-like proportions.

"In the 35 years of my experience, I have never encountered any time where prices of French merchandise were as ridiculously low as they are today.

"In several conferences at Washington, the domestic manufacturers exhausted all channels in order to receive relief in the form of a revision of the trade agreement, as the Government would have had the right to reopen the agreement on account of the devaluation of the French franc.

"Most of the domestic machines are idle and the few which are working produce merchandise which often has to be sold at less than production costs.

"In order to enable our mills to continue production and further to enable them to keep their workers and employees at their jobs, it is necessary that we receive a 33% reduction of the prevailing wage rates.

"Will you be good enough to set a time when your committee will meet with the Manufacturers' committee and advise me as soon as possible.

"AMERICAN LACE MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION, INC."

In view of the gravity of the situation effecting the workers of the domestic lace industry, we again petitioned the State Department to afford our industry some measure of relief so that our wage scales built up over a period of years through peaceful negotiations with the manufacturers could be maintained intact, but our plea for aid was in vain. Consequently, and dispite the popularity of our product, a wage reduction was accepted effective date February 6, 1939.

It is beyond the understanding of the members of this organization that we should be compelled to relinquish the only market-the American market-that exists for the product of our labor, and we cannot understand a condition which forces us to beg representatives of our own Government for permission to earn our living at any time and particularly under the present distressed conditions of our country.

After all it is our livelihood we speak for, any policy, any social philosophy that seems to interfere with our opportunity to maintain ourselves and those dependent on us like reputable Americans, cannot in the very nature of things be acceptable to us.

FREDRICK DIXON,
Secretary, Levers Section,
Amalgamated Lace Operatives of America.

The CHAIRMAN. The next witness is Mr. F. X. A. Eble of New York City.

STATEMENT OF F. X. A. EBLE, NEW YORK CITY, N. Y., REPRESENTING MADE IN AMERICA CLUB, INC.

The CHAIRMAN. Did you appear before the House committee? Mr. EBLE. Yes; but my testimony now is going to be entirely different. I am not repeating anything.

Senator BROWN. You don't mean that you have changed your mind?

Senator CLARK. Before you start with your statement, will you tell us who the Made in America Club is?

Mr. EBLE. The Made in America Club is an organization of manufacturers, farmers, workingmen and citizens that have organized under the laws of the State of Illinois; they are a nonprofit and nonpartisan group to educate the public to give greater preference to the things we make and grow in our own country.

Senator CLARK. How many members do you have?

Mr. EBLE. We represent about 65 different industries. I do not mean that we have the entire membership of those respective industries. I will mention the ones that we have-the entire American match industry; the entire china pottery, about 95 percent; a great percentage of the glass industry; a great precentage of the lace industry. In your own city, we have quite a few members-the Cook Imperial Champagne Co. is one of our members. In Rhode Island, we have a great many members in lace.

Senator CLARK. Do you have regular dues?

Mr. EBLE. No, sir.

Senator CLARK. Just what anybody chooses to send in? Who finances you?

Mr. EBLE. Our finances are obtained through an assessment according to the number of employees. If Senator Harrison, we will assume was a manufacturer and had a thousand employees, we would assess him on the basis of 20 cents per annum per employee. He would pay us $200. We would enroll his employees in the Made in America Club free. They receive messages, instill patriotism in their hearts, make them think in terms of America first, with no distinction as to race, creed, or color. We are not an isolationist group and we believe in an expansion of our foreign trade. We must have it, because in the first place there are many things which we do not make or grow in this country-coffee, tea, tin, rubber, silk, and various other items. We are the world's greatest customer for those things. But the 10,000,000 people out of employment are not drinking their full share of fresh coffee, they are not having any bananas on their cereal for breakfast, and the women out of work are not buying any silk stockings, nor are their husbands buying any rubber tires, because their cars are on the used-car market.

215171-40-21

We appreciate the endeavor of the trade-agreements program. We think it has many good features, but I am going to make some recommendations and show you just where we stand.

The Made in America organization primarily is distinctly nonpolitical.

We

Senator CLARK. What was your total budget for last year? Mr. EBLE. Our entire budget last year was less than $30,000. get so much free service and free publicity. For instance, the consumers enroll people in our organization without any charge, without any services, and our officers serve without pay-they do not even send in an expense account to me when they attend meetings. They donate.

We have one man who is a merchant and who owns 22 stores, who is not even a manufacturer, who donated-I don't know whether he would like this made public, but he wrote me a letter, and I am going to read you a paragraph out of that letter. I did not intend to put it in the record.

The CHAIRMAN. Read it all to us.

Mr. EBLE. We get free time on the air. I am going to enroll all of you gentlemen in the Made in America Club before we get through with this, because I am right in my own bailiwick.

We get free time on the air. The radio corporations recognize us as a nonprofit organization and in that appeal on the air we get much support. I went on the air one day in Philadelphia and I read some letters my secretary came in to me and said "Captain Eble, here is a letter I think has some human interest". I looked at it and it said: "Can us colored folks get in the Made in America Club and join your organization?" I hesitated a moment and I wrote the lady and I said: "I am going to answer your question over the air. Please have all of your colored friends listen in on Sunday at such and such a time over WIP in Philadelphia".

I knew that a lot of white folks would be listening in too, but here is what she heard. I said, "Bless your hearts, of course, you can join the Made in America Club. We appeal to all citizens, irrespective of race, color, or creed. We want you to sign a pledge 'I hereby promise to buy as far as practicable products made or grown in America and thereby give employment to American citizens.'

Now, our gospel has just as many supporters in the Democratic citizenry of our country as we have in the Republican; in fact I believe we have more Democrats supporting the Made in America Club than we have Republicans, because they like it, because they see the American feature of standing up for American industry without any reference to tariff.

The CHAIRMAN. And because, too, there are more Democrats in this country than Republicans.

Mr. EBLE. That may be so, too. [Laughter.]

As a result of that radio talk, here is a gentleman that wrote a letter just the day after the radio talk, and he said, "Please send me information relative to your club." This is the letter he received, a rubber-stamped letter, because thousands of these letters go out:

DEAR MR. STOUT: Thank you for your request of recent date asking for information about the Made in America Club. We are pleased to enclose a copy of our aims and purposes, and also a sample of our pledge card and button and stickers which we distribute. Our principal mission is to provide jobs for our unemployed citizens by encouraging the American consumers to give preference to the things we make and grow right here in our own country instead of buying

There

so many foreign products of foreign factories that compete with our own. are no dues and no financial assessments. Signing our pledge makes you a member. However, since this is a patriotic welfare endeavor, we will be very grateful to anyone volunteering donations anywhere from 10 cents upward. We ask that you kindly sign the pledge.

The gentleman answered my letter, and here is the letter which the Senator asked me to read:

DECEMBER 9, 1936.

GENTLEMEN: I am in receipt of your letter together with enclosed button and stickers, and am herewith returning to you my membership ticket signed— and by the way, because our emblem is a star, a lot of our friends accuse us of being a Democratic organization, but we are not. This is a star taken from our flag.

Continuing with the letter:

I am herewith returning my membership card signed. I am also sending my check for $100 as a contribution to the cause. I wish you would send me about 50 blank pledges; also send me 50 buttons. I would suggest the advisability that this sticker be made very large, and in addition to the "Buy America" slogan, I would suggest "See America, or "Travel America" or any other appropriate slogan. Should any of your representatives be in Baltimore between now and January 1, I will be pleased to have an interview with them with a possible larger contribution to the cause. My office hours are from 10 to 12 in the morning. I suggest if anybody come, that they phone me in advance.

I wrote the gentleman a letter and thanked him. I am not going to read that, because it is too long.

Senator CLARK. I would write and thank a man, too, if he sent me $100.

[Laughter.]

Mr. EBLE. When I saw him, I got a check for $1,000. Senator CLARK. You had better see him again. Mr. EBLE. That is a gentleman who is not a manufacturer. He has 22 stores. He has two stores right here in Washington. The reason I mention that, I want you good people here in this committee to realize that I am here for one definite purpose, to give you my observations on tariff, the administration of tariff-because I spent nearly 19 years in the Government service-8 years of them were spent in Europe as United States Treasury attaché in the principal export markets of the United States. I hate to tell you this, because I am not telling it to you in a braggadocio spirit, but I was a member of the Financial Commission to Poland, the Kemmerer Commission.

The Government excused me at that time to go to Poland with Professor Kemmerer. I learned an awful lot about tariff in connection with the currency situation in 1926.

Later I became United States Commissioner of Customs. I did not join the Customs Service with any idea of staying in it for any length of time. I thought I would stay in it long enough to get the top job. It was a political job, and although I was a civil-service employee, I had to go out, but through the generosity of several of my good friends on the Senate Finance Committee, I went back to Germany when the Roosevelt administration came in, and stayed there nearly a year, when several industries tried to get me to come back-one of them the silk industry, and various others well, some of them offered me twice as much as the Government was paying me, and I finally did succumb.

I came back and became manager of the American Match Institute, and it was there that I really learned something about the administration of American tariffs, as it really affects industry. I then also