62 



and S720,000 was the estimated value of certain patents, and that 

 its estimated assets were $27,000,000, representing (with a possible 

 exception of $1,000,000) earnings and including a stock dividend of 

 500 per cent, or $16,000,000, declared Dec. 15, 1909, besides cash 

 dividends often declared, those in 1910 admittedlv being 17 per cent 

 on said $27,000,000." 



He further stated that " the company, through its subsidiaries, 

 is . . . also the largest consumer of aluminium, discriminating in 

 favour of its own users against outside purchasers; large bauxite 

 deposits, the chief raw material in aluminium production, exist 

 abroad and large manufacturers of aluminium in bulk are also situated 

 there. By placing aluminium on the free list, a large stimulus will 

 be given to the manufacture of aluminium products at home." 



The Aluminum Company of America filed a somewhat extended 

 statement in defence of its operations and the duty of 7 cents per 

 pound. They said: — 



" The mineral bauxite is found in Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, 

 and Tennessee. It requires 6 tons each of bauxite, coal, and lime- 

 stone to make 2 tons of alumina, from which 1 ton of aluminium is 

 made. Alumina is made at East St. Louis, 111., the point of minimum 

 freight haul for the raw materials. Carbon made from petroleum 

 coke is another important raw material employed. Next to labour, 

 electrical energy is the chief requirement in making aluminium, and 

 the company has large electric smelting plants on the Niagara and 

 St. Lawrence rivers, and is commencing another plant on the Little 

 Tennessee river. 



" The reduction process is slow and complicated and requires a 

 large investment. While bauxite is plentiful and has a market 

 value of $5 per ton, aluminum, in the form of ingot, sheet, or wire, 

 has a market value of S400 per ton, owing to labour requirements 

 and the large investment, which amounts to SI. 500 per ton of product 

 turned out annually. Even the interest amounts to 4^ cents per 

 pound. Petroleum coke is worth about $5 per ton, but the finished 

 carbons cost about S50 per ton. The smelting process is continuous, 

 requiring three daily shifts. Domestic labour is considerably more 

 expensive than the labour obtainable abroad. Freight hauls on raw 

 materials are also much longer in this country than abroad. 



" Outside of the United States there are fourteen companies 

 manufacturing aluminium, with a capacity of over 100,000,000 lb. 

 per annum, although the foreign consumption in 1911 was but 55 

 per cent of capacitv. Importations to this countrv (United States) 

 have been as follows, in round figures: 1909, 5.140,000 lb.; 1910, 

 12,340,000 lb.; 1911, 7,690,000 lb.; 1912, at rate of 18,750,000 lb. 

 There have been no exports of aluminium produced at home, but 

 there have been some exports of partly or completely fabricated 

 products made from imported ingots." 



The company asked that the present duty be retained. It 

 also stated that it is not a merger or combination, but has built up 

 up its own property and business. 



War prices seem to have further discouraged the use of aluminium 

 in the United States for transmission line construction. A comparison 



