AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 37 



manufacture of flax, hemp, 1 etc., an 

 amount but very little in excess of the 

 amount paid in duties on flax, hemp, etc., 

 for 1887 ($9,497,981.74). 



The present condition of the flax-grow- 

 ing interest in this country was very well 

 summed up by one of the manufacturers, 

 in his testimony before the Tariff Com- 

 mission. 



(p. 275.) Q. What is the objection to 

 putting flax, jute, and hemp on the free 

 list, as raw silk and raw cotton are now 

 on the free list ? A. My answer is, that 

 it would spoil a magnificent possibility for 

 the American people. 



This is indeed protection run mad, 

 to tax the whole American people annually 

 as much as the entire capital invested in 

 the flax industry, in order not to spoil a 

 magnificent possibility, and what, in spite 

 of strenuous efforts on the part of the 

 Government, has remained a possibility for 

 a hundred years. If the witness had 

 called it a magnificent impossibility while 



1 Rep. Tar. Com., p. 288. 



