6 4.5, BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SIXTIETH CONGRESS. FIRST PRINT, No. 37. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1908. WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 1908. 953 257 a. D. J. Ja TARIFF HEARINGS. THE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, Friday, December 18, 1908. (The committee this day met, Hon. Sereno E. Payne in the chair.) The CHAIRMAN. Is Judge Gary present? (There was no response.) STATEMENT OF MR. ALFRED R. URION, REPRESENTING ARMOUR & CO., OF CHICAGO, ILL. (The witness was duly sworn by the chairman.) Mr. URION. My name is Alfred R. Urion. I represent Armour & Co., meat packers, of Chicago. I am here, in response to the request of the committee, to be interrogated concerning the duty on hides. The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed with your statement. Mr. URION. I have prepared no statement for the reason that after reading the proceedings I concluded that only those who asked something at the hands of the committee in the readjustment of the tariff filed briefs or prepared statements. Armour & Co. are asking nothing in the readjustment of this tariff. However, I shall be very glad, and I think it is my duty, to give any information I may be able to give on the subject. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Urion, what the committee desires to have information upon is the question of whether the duty on hides raises the price in this country owing to the limited importations compared with the amount produced in this country; and if it does not increase the price in this country, who gets the benefit of the tariff? Mr. URION. Well, every steer has a hide on it, and that hide must have a value on the steer in the hands of the farmer as it has a value in the hands of the packer; and I think every farmer knows that. The average value of a hide, or the average of a hide, is about 6 per cent of the total of an animal. As you know, the edible parts of a steer are only about 57 per cent. The other 43 per cent is made up of the hide, the tallow, and what we classify as offal. Of the 43 per cent, the hide is the most valuable part; and, as I say, about 6 per cent. The average weight of a hide is from 60 to 70 pounds, green. I suppose a fair average is, perhaps, 65 pounds; and that hide is worth to the farmer, approximately, on the present market, $6.50 to $7. Of course that varies with the weight and size of the animal. The CHAIRMAN. Packers buy the cattle on the hoof in large quantities and slaughter them and lay aside the hides. They do not put them on the market every day when they buy the cattle, but they hold them for a better market? Mr. URION. Well, it takes about thirty days to prepare a hide in the salting and curing of it; and hides, of course, are not perishable, |