LEADING EXPORTERS OF COTTON YARN.

The following is a list of firms prominent in the exportation of cotton yarn, as shown by the licenses granted by the War Trade Board during July-December, 1918:

THE ADJUSTMENT OF TARIFF DUTIES

ON COTTON YARN AND THREAD

CHAPTER VI.

THE ADJUSTMENT OF TARIFF DUTIES ON COTTON YARN AND THREAD.

INTRODUCTION.

Paragraphs 250 and 251 of the tariff act of 1913 provide for cotton yarn and thread of every description.

Paragraph 250 renders cotton yarns, intended for use in further manufacture, subject to progressive rates of duty, based on the number or count of the yarn. The duties increase by eight steps from the coarsest, those not over No. 9, up to the finest, those above No. 99. Yarns advanced in manufacture by combing, bleaching, dyeing, coloring, or mercerizing, pay a 2 per cent noncumulative additional.

Paragraph 251 gives a rate of 15 per cent flat, irrespective of count, method of manufacture, color, or finish, to sewing thread and to crochet, darning, and embroidery cottons. The articles thus included. average higher in value, count for count, than the yarns imported under the progressive 1ates of paragraph 250. The cotton sewing thread is necessarily more costly, because more advanced in manufacture, than the yarns of which it is composed. The yarns for handwork are made of higher priced material and in general are more advanced in manufacture than most yarns of the same counts imported under paragraph 250. The main handwork yarns are those for hand embroidery and these come in counts and plies from 10s in 3 and 4 ply up to 60s in 3 and 4 ply, both plain and mercerized. These yarns were, before the war, imported in large quantities from an Alsatian company and were mostly made of the highest grade of Egyptian cotton, combed, gassed, and mercerized.

Paragraph 251 levies a higher rate of duty on counts up to and including No. 39 than does paragraph 250. From 40s on, paragraph 251 is preferential in that it puts a lower rate of duty on the finished sewing threads than it does on the yarns of which they are made, and a lower rate of duty on the special class of yarns for handwork, most of which are made of the best material and subjected to extra labor in manufacture, than it does on other yarns, the majority of which do not cost so much to manufacture.

The differential treatment thus accorded the more advanced and higher priced portion of the spun products of the cotton industry,

in the ranges beyond 39s, seems to be due to two reasons. The first is that a large portion of the domestic industry in sewing thread and in special yarns for handwork is controlled by a single English company, and in order to prevent the possibility of any undue increase in prices of sewing thread to the garment manufacturer and the seamstress or any undue increase in prices on crochet, darning, and embroidery cottons to the users, it was not considered advisable to protect the domestic manufacturer of such special articles in the higher ranges. In other words, paragraph 251 was apparently designed to secure competitive prices on sewing thread and handwork yarns above 39s. The second reason, which is not referred to particularly in tariff hearings but which was probably taken into consideration, is that sewing thread and yarns for handwork are usually numbered, lettered, or otherwise designated in an arbitrary manner and not according to the uniform numbering system used for cotton yarns intended for further use in manufacture. Furthermore, these yarns for handwork come in short lengths and in endless variety so that testing for counts would be somewhat more difficult than in the case of yarns for machine work. This administrative difficulty has been avoided by levying a flat rate on such special yarns in short lengths and on sewing thread

But for the arbitrary system of numbering or designating sewing thread and yarns for handwork it would appear more just, according to the general intent expressed in the tariff act, to have one paragraph embrace all cotton yarns and threads and to levy progressive rates of duty, based on the yarn count, uniformly on all cotton spun products, with such differentials as might be desirable in order to insure that those more advanced in manufacture should be subjected to the higher rates.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATE NO. 1.

Plate No. 1 shows a bale and a case of cotton yarn being opened up after arrival. The bale, as shown on the right, is the more usual method of shipment. A certain number of skeins are bundled together, each bundle wrapped in paper, a number of these bundles put in the baling press, covered with waterproof paper and then with burlap, and the bale strapped with iron bands. On the left is shown the wooden case that is used for yarns that have to be handled with more care; in this particular instance the yarn is put up in cones and each cone paper-wrapped before being put in the case.

PLATE NO. 2.

Plate No. 2 illustrates some of the forms in which cotton yarn is put up for shipment and entered under paragraph 250 of the act of 1913.

No. 1. A skein of yarn reeled on a swift of 54 inches circumference. This is the most typical form of put up. The majority of international trade in cotton yarn consists of skeins bundled and baled. This particular skein is 78/2 ply, mulespun