Duties on Metals and Manufactures of Metals
By United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Finance 1912 Testimony
http://books.google.com/books?id=QDkvAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA893&dq STATEMENT OF MR. W. A. KING, OF MERIDEN, CONN., REPRESENTING THE PARKER BROS. GUN CO.
The Chairman. Mr. King, you are the superintendent of the works of the Parker Bros. Gun Co., are you not?
Mr. King. Yes, sir.
The Chairman. I am informed that you are familiar with the wage question here and abroad.
Mr. Kino. Yes, sir; to a very limited extent abroad.
The Chairman. I think the committee would like to be enlightened on that point.
Mr. King. I can speak only for our own company in so far as wages go. For instance, on the question of barrels, Mr. Hunter informed your committee that some years ago some of the manufacturers of this country attempted to make barrels. We made some barrels: we built an addition to the factory, put in some up-to-date machinery, and brought some men from Belgium to show our blacksmiths how to do it. Wo had to pay our blacksmiths not less than 32 cents an hour, up to 40 cents, and we gave it up, because
the highest wages paid the Belgian blacksmiths for exactly the same grade of barrel are 11 cents per hour. That is what is paid to the highest-priced man employed.
Senator Smoot. In Belgium?
Mr. King, In Belgium: yes, sir. That is where all of our barrels are imported from, with the exception of our very high-grade Whipple (likely a typo for Whitworth) steel barrels.
Senator Lodge. Those are rough-bored barrels?
Mr. King. Rough-bored only.
The Chairman. Do you make any barrels at all?
Mr. King. We make no barrels whatever.
King may be referring to a late 1870s attempt by Parker to produce laminated steel and twist in house
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