Senator MCLEAN. You claim that your article is as good, do you not?

Mr. JACOBS. It is as good.

Senator MCLEAN. And you can sell it for 2 or 3 cents a pound cheaper?

Mr. JACOBS. No; we can not. They ask 2 or 3 cents a pound

more.

Senator MCLEAN. Well, you can sell it cheaper, and it is just as good, and you have a market to-day. Is that correct?

Mr. JACOBS. On a purely competitive basis we could not sell it as cheaply as they can.

Senator MCLEAN. You anticipate that when they import freely they are going to capture your market?

Mr. JACOBS. Yes; they are going to do it. There is no doubt about it at all.

Senator SIMMONS. But as yet you have no data to give to the committee?

Mr. JACOBS. No; because the embargo has been off only two or three months. They have had no chance to do it.

Senator MCCUMBER. Is there anything further?
Mr. JACOBS. No; I think not.

Senator MCCUMBER. Mr. Stambaugh is here this afternoon and wishes to address the committee. Mr. Stambaugh, as I understand it, addressed the committee on August 31, on the same paragraph to which he wishes to refer now. Mr. Stambaugh, is there anything new?

Mr. STAMBAUGH. Yes.

STATEMENT OF MR. J. B. STAMBAUGH, REPRESENTING THE NATIONAL ONION ASSOCIATION.

Mr. STAMBAUGH. I was sent here originally by the National Onion Association. They have requested that I should come back here to show what the work of the emergency tariff bill has been in the last year since it was passed. I have here a few telegrams to which I should like to refer.

Senator MCCUMBER. This is not covered in your previous testimony, is it?

Mr. STAMBAUGH. No; we did not have that information. I have simply two telegrams. One is from the Bureau of Markets and one from members in New York City.

I shall not take up a great deal of your time, but shall endeavor to go to the meat of this subject and show you what has taken place. I would like to have the privilege of stating that in 1914, after the Underwood tariff bill went into effect with a duty of only 20 per cent, the importation of onions was only 1,800 cars. I want now to show you what has taken place during the time since the tariff bill has been passed and to show that the emergency tariff bill carries with it the same protection that the House bill does-75 cents per hundred.

We sent a wire to the Bureau of Markets. For some reason or other the Bureau of Markets has not compiled its reports up to date They gave us the amount of onions that have been imported from the 1st day of July until the last day of October. I have a telegram here. We wired to Thurman-Page, of New York City, to give us the

amount of onions that had been imported from July 1 to date. These are the chief telegrams I wish to treat with.

The total imports of onions from July to October, inclusive, were 725,642 packages. That would figure about 1,600 cars of 500 bushels to the car.

On the 9th day of December we received a telegram from ThurmanPage, New York City, reading as follows:

Spanish correct figures, 1,173,400 packages. Holland, Italy, Hungaria, approximately 35,000 packages.

Mr. Chairman, those packages carried 120 pounds. Multiplying the number of packages by 120 pounds gives 2,900 cars of onions of 500 bushels each which have been imported into the United States during the period July 1 to December 9.

You will readily see that in 1914 our total imports were eighteen hundred and some odd cars as against 2,900 cars up to the 9th day of December. I want to impress upon your minds that we are just in the midst of the Spanish importation of onions. That will last for 100 days yet. In fact, I was down in New York City several years ago during the month of April and they were still coming in. In this report there are less than 100 packages of Egyptian onions. That shipment does not commence until February. I think that is true of the Canary Islands and Bermuda onions, so that you can see all these onions are yet coming. But from our experience in former years it looks as if we were going to have five or six thousand cars of foreign onions shipped into the United States.

In order to show the immensity of it, let me call your attention to the report of the national association as of December 1, which shows that there are 4,921 cars of onions in dry storage and 700 cars in cold storage, or approximately 4,600 cars of onions in the United States.

When you figure from July 1 to December 9, you find that there have been 2,900 cars of foreign onions that have come in here with no let up.

I wish to read this telegram to you:

"Up to date considerable goods afloat to come forward.

Of course, there is no one who can look into the future and tell how many onions are going to be imported, but I do not think it is possible to get away with less than 5,000 cars of onions into our markets.

Senator McCUMBER. That would be how many bushels?

Mr. STAMBAUGH. Five hundred bushels to the car, Senator. We figure that number to the car. If we have a telegram asking us for a car of onions and the amount is not specified, we load 500 bushels.

I am frank to say, gentlemen, that the National Onion Association is alarmed. You may think that this bill should be drawn on the basis of the Payne-Aldrich bill, but when the Payne-Aldrich bill was in vogue, the industry in Spain was not developed as it is to-day. I am speaking of Spain because it is the nation that is alarming us. These other nations are not alarming us. To show that that country was not developed at that time, let me say that they shipped only 1,800 cars into this country under a 20 per cent tariff. What developed that country's importations more than the tariff was the

60713-21-PT 41-8

World War. When that came on we were getting a good market for the onions. We could not get bottoms, as you know, and it was an opportune time for Spain. It did greatly develop. the onion business in Spain which was unheard of practically at that time. We have got to take care of that, or, rather, you have got to take care of us.

Senator MCLEAN. What rate do you want?

Mr. STAMBAUGH. I thank you for that question. I should have stated that at first. I meant to do so. When I was here before, the association told me to try to get $1.50 per hundred, or 1.50 cents per pound. We realize, as an association, that possibly if you wanted to help us it would not be in your power to help to that extent, so they instructed me to plead with you to give us 1 cent per pound.

Senator MCCUMBER. How many pounds are there to the bushel? Mr. STAMBAUGH. That is a question that would be better answered in this way. The United States has no standard.

Senator MCCUMBER. Aren't there so many pounds to the bushel? Mr. STAMBAUGH. It varies in the different States. The weight is fixed by the State. I think, for instance, New York has 57 pounds while Ohio has 56. Two years ago there was a lawsuit that arose through a misunderstanding in regard to the number of pounds.

Senator MCLEAN. The average would be about 50 cents a bushel? Mr. STAMBAUGH. It would be. You see, the 100-pound package has come in and it has become a popular package.

Senator MCLEAN. Is there any difference in the quality of the American onion and the imported onion?

Mr. STAMBAUGH. That is a broad question.

Senator MCLEAN. They claim that the Spanish onions are the best onions that we have here for consumption; is that so?

Mr. STAMBAUGH. I would have to answer that in this way

Senator MCLEAN (continuing). And that they command a little better price.

Mr. STAMBAUGH. I could say either yes or no. No; they do not command a better price.

Senator MCCUMBER. Has your onion the same flavor and the same sweetness as the Spanish onion?

Mr. STAMBAUGH. The Spanish onions are so nearly like ours that the Spanish onions are taken out of Spanish packages and put in American packages and sold as domestic onions

At

Senator MCCUMBER. That does not answer the question. least, it does not answer what I had in mind. What I want to know is this: If you take the Spanish onion, which is a very mild, sweet onion, and plant it in the United States, will you produce as good an onion as you secure from Spain, or will it be different when raised in different soil and in a different climate in the United States?

Mr. STAMBAUGH. I am afraid you are misinformed.
Senator MCCUMBER. Possibly I am.

Mr. STAMBAUGH. When you speak of that mild, soft, sweet onion it is the Egyptian onion or the Canary Islands onion or the Bermuda onion; it is not the Spanish onion.

Senator MCCUMBER. I know that I buy the Spanish onions, which are much more mild than the Bermuda onion; that is to say, I only know what I buy them for.

Mr. STAMBAUGH. Yes.

Senator MCLEAN. The others are very brittle and firm and not very sweet.

Mr. STAMBAUGH. That is the truth. I must say that I do not know. I am not competent to answer further than I have heard said. Senator MCCUMBER. I assume that they come from Spain because there are only certain seasons of the year when I can get them. They are out of the market at other times, while the Bermuda onion is in the market all the year round.

Mr. STAMBAUGH. Incidentally, the American onion is best for stewing, because it has the best flavor. The Spanish onion is best raw. They are put in American sacks and shipped out to the trade as American onions.

Senator MCLEAN. I had assumed that the Spanish onion commanded higher prices.

Mr. STAMBAUGH. The price of the Spanish onion to-day, in New York City, is practically the same as that of the American onion. They come in three different layers. There is a box about so large [indicating]. You can get the large ones in four layers and fill that box. Then you get the medium size in five layers to fill the box, and the smallest ones will take six layers to fill the box.

The large Spanish onion, according to the Bureau of Markets, was selling the other day at 5.5 cents. The medium layer onion was selling at 5.75, and the six-layer onion at 6 cents. There is about only one thing that can bring that about, and that is that the sixlayer onion conforms to the size of the American onion and they can be put in those boxes and sold. However, the market has been almost identical in price in the leading cities of the United States, as between the American and the Spanish onion.

Senator MCLEAN. Where is the major portion of the American onion grown?

Mr. STAMBAUGH. That is a large question. If you will give me time to answer that, I shall try to do so.

On ac

Senator MCLEAN. Don't they grow in the Southwest-in Texas? Mr. STAMBAUGH. The Texas onion is a Bermuda onion. count of climatic conditions or for some other reason, they do not grow as large as those grown in Egypt and the Bermuda Islands, but they have the same flavor. I understand that they get that seed from that country in which the Bermuda onion is grown. It is a mild onion. That feeds the people from the 1st of April to the latter part of July. Then Louisiana comes in with onions, followed by Florida, and finally Connecticut, Virginia, and Jersey. There are onions shipped from the United States every month in the summer. As you go north, I think, the onion is stronger.

You asked me a question a moment ago. Possibly this would be of interest to you.

Senator MCCUMBER. You are not going to duplicate anything? Mr. STAMBAUGH. No. Here are the States and the acreage: California, 7,200 acres; Washington, 350 acres; Oregon, 500 acres; Utah, 75 acres; Idaho, 300 acres; Colorado, 750 acres; Minnesota, 850 acres; Wisconsin, 990 acres; Iowa, 800 acres; Michigan, 1,100 acres; Illinois, 750 acres; Indiana, 3,550 acres; Ohio, 4,583 acres;

New Jersey, 400 acres; Massachusetts, 4,400 acres; New York, 8,720 acres.

This is in the onion section. I do not have the Texas figures, but we are told that they are planting about 10,000 acres now. They are being set out at this time.

I thank you, gentlemen, for this opportunity to appear before you again. I trust that you can give us that cent per pound, because we feel that we need it in order to perpetuate our business.

Senator MCCUMBER. The committee will adjourn until to-morrow morning at 10.30 o'clock a. m.

(Thereupon, at 4.50 o'clock p. m., the committee adjourned until to-morrow, December 14, 1921, at 10.30 o'clock a. m.)