ling expense for officers' salaries. It is of
interest to note, further, that the American firms which complain most
of Italian competition showed the largest salary accounts. One firm,
in fact, had a salary expense, included in manufacturing cost, of more
than $1 per dozen hats. Nevertheless, even after the payment of such
salaries, it has been shown that the industry as a whole earned
approximately 10 per cent on the invested capital during the period
covered by the commission's investigation.

It would be obviously difficult to determine what salaries should
reasonably be allowed, but, in view of such a showing, it might be
argued with force that, as has been done in other investigations when
data unsatisfactory for a fair comparison have been secured, such
data on both sides should be excluded from the final calculation. To
illustrate, the commission in the present investigation has eliminated
the item of interest here and in Italy, since adequate data for the
Italian industry were unobtainable. If this principle were followed
in the matter of overhead, a conclusion might reasonably be based on
the comparison of material and labor costs here and in Italy plus
transportation from Italy to our principal market or markets.

To illustrate the possibility, already mentioned, of diverse conclusions
from the commission's record, the difference between the material and
labor costs here and in Italy, with transportation included, is shown in
the following table:

------------------------------------------------+--------+--------
|Domestic|Italian
------------------------------------------------+--------+--------
Material costs | $6.44 | $4.35
Labor | 4.60 | .87
+--------+--------
Total | 11.04 | 5.22
+--------+--------
Difference | $5.82
Transportation to New York | 1.10
+-----------------
Final difference | 4.72
+=================
Foreign selling value | 6.42