AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 39 



facturer and member of that association 

 told the Secretary of the Treasury in 

 1886, "The duty upon foreign flax is $20 

 per ton, which is, and has been, entirely 

 inadequate to insure the cultivation of 

 flax fibre in this country for our own use. 

 The duty should be increased to $60 

 per ton as a stimulus to the American 

 agriculturist." x But what say the farmers? 

 The report of the Tariff Commission 

 gives some light on this point, in the 

 testimony of H. Koelkenbeck of Chicago. 

 He testified that he was not connected 

 with any manufacturing industry, and was 

 engaged in improving flax culture in the 

 West. He had visited the flax districts 

 of Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa, and was 

 the only person who appeared before 

 the Commission who showed an intimate 

 knowledge of flax culture. His testimony 

 is as follows : 



Q. " You are decidedly of the opinion 

 that the taking off the duty on flax would 



1 Kept, of Secretary of Treas. on Revision of the Tariff, 

 1886, p. 105. No data are given to show that this increase of 

 duty would produce the desired result. 



