Mr. SPRAGUE. I desire to ask the attention of the Senate to the linen interest as af. fected by the provisions. from page 22 to page 25 of the amended bill reported by the ComFinance, section 6. I do not intend to make any remarks upon the general provisions of the bill, or upon the proposed tariff as a measure of expediency; nor to go into the questions which obeen so ably entered into by my friend, the Senfrom NewJersey, [Mr. CATTELL] What I desire to do is simply to state to the Senate the fact that the linen interest is a new branch of industry in this country; that it is directly connected with the agricultural interest in the production of flax and of hemp; that to produce cloth from linen requires 3 times the labor that is required for the production of cloth from cotton; that the legislation of the country has exhibited its favor to this branch of industry by admitting free of duty the machinery necessary to produce the goods; that in consequence of that favorable legislation large amounts of machinery, 100s of thqusands of dollars in value, have been introduced that will produce every known article manufactured out of linen in any coun: try; but that owing to the present condition of the revenue laws that machinery is found to be of no practical value for the purposes designed. This subject was brought to the House ComWays&Means at the last session, in June or July, and the facts were laid before the committee by the chairman of the linen interest, and they were induced to adopt a schedule or classification that would meet the necessities of this business. The House adopted provisions satisfactory to this class of people; but the tariff bill has laid over during the interval and is now before us. During the recess an agent, for whose appointment Congress in its wisdom provided, has been at work collecting information as to the various subjects embraced by this bill, and the results of his labors have been laid before Congress. The chairman of the linen interest was induced to go to the customhouse where Mr. Wells had located and to have an interview with the person to whom this branch of the tariff had been assigned. That interview was had and appeared to be perfectly satisfactory. The views expressed and endeavored to be made clear by the chairman of this interest, were, as it was thought, to be adopted by the agent employed by the Government. So the story runs. But upon the report being published it was discovered that a large portion of the classification that had been suggested andingrafted in the House bill was omitted in the report of the commissioner. Thereupon the gentleman to whom I have alluded, authorized by the linen interest of this country, came to Washington and endeavored to get a hearing before the Senate ComFinance during the holidays. Of course the Senate committee were unable to grant time enough to develop the points which he endeavored to make plain, and a written statement was presented which succeeded in obtaining something of a modification of the commissioner's bill, but not sufficient in the opinion of this interest to enable them to go on and to compete with the foreign production and to carry out the idea of promoting the cultivation of flax and hemp in this country with a view to the encour agement of the manufacture and production of all the known articles made from flax. This gentleman then appeared before the ComManufactures of the Senate and laid before them the whole condition of this interest, and that committee has authorized me to ask the favorable consideration of the Senate to the classification which I am authorized to move as a substitute for that which the ComFinance have recommended. I may say here that the chairman of this interest was a farmer who accumulated some property which he devoted in the early stages of this business to the manufacturing of linens and twine; but, sharing the fate of many new enterprises, the capital was sunk and he was induced by solicitations to himself to become an active instrument in endeavoring to bring it out of its depressed and destroyed condition. As a farmer he devoted himself to the production of linen yarns, and I have now the result of his energy, of his skill, and of his application in the production of a yarn equal to any produced in the world, yarn that will produce. fabric that is imported into this country. xhibiting skeins of yarn] It is mainly from is suggestions and from the knowledge which the ComManufactures had themselves as to the condition of this interest, that that committee were induced to suggest the points which I have risen to present to the Senate. As it takes 3 times the labor to produce a linen fabric that it does a cotton fabric, and as 40%. of the linen material is lost in the process of bleaching, it may be readily understood that if the duties are placed upon the same schedule as to rates as cotton goods it would be unequal. The linen interest should receive a higher protection in point of rate in order to produce equality; but all that is asked by those who represent it and by the ComManufactures is that it should receive the same protection only as that which is given to cotton goods, and they do not ask that it should receive as much as is given to woolens or to silks. Before I suggest the amendments that I desire to move, let me say that the product of linen is not used as a general thing by the oorer or the working classes of the people. } is used by those whose pockets are able to procure the luxuries of life, and any tax that would be required to promote the growth of flax and hemp in this country, and to develop the linen interest, will come out of the pockets of those who are able to pay the tax. I come now to consider the bill of the ComFinance; and 1st as to the duty which it imposes on the raw material. The provision is: On flax, unmanufactured, 15 dollars per ton. On flax hackled, known as dressed line, 20 dollars per ton.