82 JOUENAL OF TilE MiTCHELL SoCIETY \_NoV. 



paid, is not large as compared with the volume of many other 

 industries, yet the use of the products is so ramified through- 

 out industrial life, reaching in some way so many manu- 

 facturing plants and threatening to affect so many laborers 

 that the question naturally finds anxious utterance — "What 

 can we do about this shortage ?" This question can be an- 

 swered best by an unflinching facing of what we as a people 

 have done, and, equally important, what we have not done. 



The synthetic dyestuff industry stands today as Ger- 

 many's triumph. It has been developed partly by that hearty 

 cooperation of industries and universities to which I have 

 already referred, and partly by favorable legislation. It is 

 permeated in every branch l)y the spirit of research. In its 

 interlacing character it is bound together by reasonable, com- 

 mon-sense cooperation, and it is long past the experimental 

 stage with these attendant heavy financial losses. 



At one time we had a young industry, nine factories in 

 all. It is interesting to note that during the decade 1872- 

 1882, with a tariff of 50 cents per pound and 35 per cent 

 ad valorem then in force, the price of "aniline red," the prin- 

 cipal dye then in use, was reduced from $G.50 to $2.25 per 

 pound. With the lowering of the tariff on dycstuffs in 1883, 

 five of the factories ceased operations. I am not arguing the 

 wisdom of such legislation, but am simply stating facts. 

 Further, it is a matter of public record that the most earnest 

 advocates of tariff reduction on dycstuffs and opponents of 

 its increase were those who are now rightly so alarmed about 

 the present shortage. Again I do not criticize, but state 

 facts in explanation. 



In spite of these difficulties one of our factories success- 

 fully undertook at one time a considerable production of 

 aniline oil and other intermediate products for which we had 

 depended, up to that time, on foreign countries. Wliat was 

 the result ? A market flooded with these products from 

 abroad at prices far below American cost of production. Why ? 

 For the express purpose of throttling the new effort in this 

 country, the quintessence of ''dumping." 



