to call your attention to the very urgent need for this special group because the smelter industry, which I am from, has a unique situation in the family of industries in the United States. The horizontal retort smelters fill a necessity in the needs of the country both in peace and in war.

First, I would like to call your attention to the fact that the smelting industry in the United States, the processing of ores, either foreign or domestic, or secondary, has full capacity at this time and is operating so that it will produce sufficient zinc to take care of the appetite of the American people; and that any importation of slab zinc into the United States is in excess of the present production in the United States and therefore has caused a 25 percent reduction in the employment in the zinc smelting industry in the United States, which reduction has not met the lessened requirements because of the importation of zinc; and at the present time, in less than 3 years the stockpiles lying on the grounds of the smelters of the United States have jumped from 11,000 tons to over 200,000 tons, as of this day.

Most of this zinc has been imported from countries in which the Marshall plan and other aids have set up industries in foreign countries. The CHAIRMAN. I want you just to repeat that now again for the record.

Mr. MARSHALL. I said that most of this importation of zinc in the United States is coming from factories that the Marshall plan and other foreign aids have set up in foreign countries or rehabilitated destroyed factories, in Belgium, and Holland, and so forth.

Not saying anything against the Marshall plan, but it is the concensus of opinion of the zinc workers that these countries would do well to produce materials for their undernourished and underdeveloped countries of their own instead of trying to produce goods for the American people for dollars.

The CHAIRMAN. I did not vote for the Marshall plan. I have never been for it.

Mr. MARSHALL. I am for the Marshall plan, but I think there are political atmospheres in European countries. They should start producing goods for their people instead of producing it for dollars. Our particular problem is this: All the smelters in the United States with the exception of one, I believe, is under union contract and have been prior to World War II, and the contracts all carry seniority clauses.

The 25-percent reduction in employment in these plants naturally knocks off the younger people. They are able in normal times to get reemployment in most localities, but this situation is standing on the brink of a house of cards, you might say. With the dilatory attitude of the administration in coming forth with at least some kind of a policy on importations of foreign zinc, we stand at this situation: In my plant in Bartlesville, Okla., we have some 22,000 tons of zinc lying on the ground and I think we are going to have to call on the Indian Agency of Osage County to find land to stock any more on if we keep on.

Temporarily the price of zinc went up because each and every day somebody says that information is going to come from the White House and they are going to start purchasing zinc under the recommendations of this proposition here in this Tariff Commission report, but it never comes out. The information is that they are going to

stockpile zinc. They are going to buy zinc under the recommendations of this report. It never comes out.

Should it materialize, and it has in the past, that the administration intends to do nothing, the price of zinc will hit the bottom and practically every smelter in the United States will shut down. It has before and it will again.

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Simpson will inquire.

Mr. SIMPSON. What information do you have regarding the source. of purchases for the stockpiling?

Mr. HAIN. Of course, if the Government buys according to the recommendations, I believe they will buy from domestic sources. In other words, domestic-mined ores processed in domestic smelters will be purchased by the Government, thus relieving the situation. Mr. SIMPSON. You mean produced within the United States? Mr. MARSHALL. That is right.

Mr. SIMPSON. In other words, they would not be offshore purchases? Mr. MARSHALL. It would be a fallacy to recommend that the Government buy foreign metals.

Mr. SIMPSON. The question is, if it is for stockpiling, conceivably they could buy it from any source whatever. My question is whether you have any information regarding their intentions to buy it domestically?

Mr. MARSHALL. No; I have no information, but I would certainly be against them

Mr. SIMPSON. You would recommend that, would you?

Mr. MARSHALL. Buying Mexican and Canadian in the slab because I would know right away that it was not American workers that got the work that manufactured it.

Mr. SIMPSON. Thank you.

Mr. MARSHALL. What I am saying is that we have some distress now and it will not be long until their unemployment insurance will be running out, but any further distress will cause a very big hardship on the smelter worker because, as I said before, most of them have been here a long time. The average age in our plant, Mr. Chairman, is 49 years. You can readily see that any other industries do not want us fellows. We are contaminated, to start with, with smoke and dust and there is not a one of us that could run a half a block without wheezing.

Industry does not want the dregs of these smelters, so we either have to make work for ourselves, such as farming or made work of our own or we would be out. Therefore, we will have to have extra time that a younger fellow would not need, and I highly recommend this bill because it extends the time and gives these older fellows a chance to rehabilitate themselves. Some of these men worked 25, 30, or 35 years in the smelters and they would be at a loss to readjust themselves.

That, Mr. Chairman, is the crux of my plea.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Marshall.

Mr. Wilson, do you have a word to say?

Mr. WILSON. Yes, Mr. Chairman. I would like to make a statement for the miners in Tennessee. We are supporting the bill submitted by our Congressman-our Congressman because he is the Congressman in the district that I represent of the miners.

The CHAIRMAN. I want to say to you that you have a very able man and very sincere man representing you in Congress and working in your interests.

Mr. WILSON. We appreciate that and we are glad to hear that you do. With respect to the zinc mines, I would like to tell your committee that a hard rock miner is an animal different and apart from other industrial workers. In fact, most of them are sons of miners or grandsons of miners.

They have lived in mines all their lives. In fact, my great-grandfather was a miner if you wanted to trace my ancestry.

These men who work in the mines cannot adapt themselves to other industries very quickly. It takes some time to do it. In the mines in Tennessee anybody that wanted to work after 1945 was laid off. They have a seniority system. Nobody works there now that was hired by any of the companies since 1945, so you can readily see that those men who had been working, some of them 6 years in the mine are now laid off and they cannot find a job.

In fact, just before I left I talked to one of the boys who had been hired in 1946. I said to him, "Have you found a job yet?"

He said, "No. I lost my car the other day, they took it away and my wife is going to have a baby. I cannot afford to spend this $26 I am getting. I am only to get it for about 6 more weeks." He said, "I just cannot take that money and go and hunt for a job. I am just going to have to stay home."

There is a situation where if we do not pass the Baker bill and extend that fellow's insurance, what are we going to do about it? He cannot get a job. What operation they are doing in the mines in Tennessee constitutes the storing of the concentrates. They are not shipping any out.

Mr. Marshall told you about the imports hurting some of the smelters. It does not hurt the smelters half as much as it does the mines because they ship into this country concentrates which at a cheap price are run through the American smelters, but the concentrate put the American miner out of work so we are pleading to you and your committee to pass the Baker bill and help these fellows out who are trying to rehabilitate themselves and trying to get a job somewhere.

I will tell you this: That if the administration and Government in this city sits around and allows the American zinc mines and lead mines to go out of business and we ever got into a war they could not start them up again. It would be impossible. The question was asked here of Mr. Kennedy: How long would it take to start the coal mines back up again? I am telling you it would be impossible to start a zinc mine up again.

The CHAIRMAN. They cannot start them if they flood them with

water.

Mr. WILSON. Full of water, but then you lose the experienced miners. They are gone and it is only the experienced miner that could do it, so we cannot afford in my opinion to ever let the mines in this country go down.

At least this Baker bill will do something to try to keep these miners alive until we can devise some policy to get the mines running. They are not able to find a job anywhere else right now. We would like to see them kept fed until we can get some kind of a policy through the Government to get our mines opened up.

The CHAIRMAN. We thank you very much, Mr. Wilson, for your testimony, and also Mr. Marshall and Mr. Hain. Are there any questions?

Mr. BAKER. Mr. Chairman, I want to ask Mr. Wilson one question. The CHAIRMAN. Yes sir.

Mr. BAKER. How many men are normally employed at the Mascot mine at Mascot, Tenn.?

Mr. WILSON. Normally we employ around 600 in a bargain unit. That is excluding supervisors, clerks, and people like that. If you did not exclude them it would be close to 900.

Mr. BAKER. How many of those men have been laid off in the last few months?

Mr. WILSON. Last month-some have been laid off since thatthe secretary of our union got the checkoff check from the company and I checked with him. There were 325 dues-paying members, and they all belonged to the union last month.

Mr. BAKER. Then it is down about two-thirds from normal.

Mr. WILSON. That is right.

Mr. BAKER. May I ask Mr. Hain one question?

The CHAIRMAN. Certainly.

Mr. BAKER. Mr. Hain, you have made an extensive study of this entire problem, have you not?

Mr. HAIN. To the best of my ability.

Mr. BAKER. To what do you attribute that vast unemployment in lead and zinc? What has caused it?

Mr. HAIN. I may not be an old expert. I went to work in the zinc smelters with brother Marshall back in 1936. He was there when I got there, but through the years we have always had figures before us and discussed this matter in the various zinc smelters and our various unions and so forth. It is our opinion from the records that we get that we used to produce about two-thirds of the lead and zinc. We mined and smelted. Two-thirds of what this country uses was produced and made here in this country.

I think the last figures I saw on the situation indicated it turned around to the point to where this country is only mining and manufacturing and producing about 27 percent. I do not know whether that answers your question or not.

Mr. BAKER. The answer to my question is obvious; that it is due to the importation of the material.

Mr. HAIN. When you go from somewhere around 66 percent to 70 percent down to 27 percent, it appears to us that the problem is not too hard to figure out as to why.

Mr. BAKER. Mr. Wilson, have you something else?

Mr. WILSON. I would like to say in answer to your question to Mr. Hain as to what he attributes it to, we in the mines know what the cause is. The concentrates are being shipped in from Mexico and Canada, Australia, and they are even shipped from other countries. However, those are the major sources and they will lay it down in this country cheaper than we can produce it at the wage we are getting, and we have already taken a 6-cent-an-hour wage cut. Our wages have been cut, but we still cannot produce in that fashion and the companies indicated that the only way that they could meet that and not shut down any mine would be to cut wages further about 50 cents an hour-and the top miner only gets $2.10.

Mr. BAKER. Mr. Wilson, since you put your finger on the cause of it being the tariff and trade policy of the United States Government, as a zinc miner, do you see anything wrong with the party that inflicts the injury at least paying part of the hospital bill?

Mr. WILSON. Congressman, I do not see anything wrong with it. In fact, I hope that they do it. In fact, I am in hopes that something will be done for that miner down home who does not have a job, cannot get one, and his unemployment check is running out.

Mr. BAKER. That is all. I thank each of you for coming here.

Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. Chairman, I would like to call attention to table 12 of part I of the lead and zinc report on investigation that you have up there. This is just an example.

Mr. FORAND. Mr. Chairman, we do not have that volume.

Mr. MASON. There are 3 or 4 of them along here.

Mr. MARSHALL. Congressman, I will give you this one after I get through reading it here.

Mr. FORAND. They are all over on the other side. We do not have any.

Mr. MARSHALL. It is page 96.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you just refer to it? Our time is running against us here.

Mr. MARSHALL. It is not lengthy, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Would you make the reference in the record? Mr. MARSHALL. I would like to refer to table 12, page 96, part 1, "Introduction, summary, and conclusions," in this report. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much.

Mr. MARTIN. Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Martin.

Mr. MARTIN. I just want to add my word here of my interest in your behalf in keeping you a live-working organization in the lead and zinc mining and smelting industry. There are some of us outside your mining area who have a very deep interest in keeping you fully operating within the continental limits of the United States, and I just want to add my word of interest and commendation to you for bringing us this information.

The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, we thank you very much for your appearance and the information that you have given the committee.

The CHAIRMAN. The next witness is Mr. Nelson Cruikshank, director of the social insurance activities, American Federation of Labor. Just give your name and the capacity in which you appear for the record.

STATEMENTS OF NELSON CRUIKSHANK, DIRECTOR, SOCIAL INSURANCE ACTIVITIES, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR; AND ANDREW J. BIEMILLER, MEMBER, NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR

Mr. CRUIKSHANK. My name is Nelson Cruikshank and I am director of social insurance activities of the American Federation of Labor. I was to be accompanied by Mr. George Riley, a member of the legislative committee of the A. F. of L., but Mr. Riley is detained in another hearing this morning. With your permission, Mr. Chairman, the statement which he had planned to present with respect to