The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 22, 1917, Page 4

BINDER TWINE —A “HOLDUP” How the Farmers of South Dakota Lost a Quarter Million—Also, the General Sisal Situation lature. ment? BY E. B. FUSSELL “":‘Et)l"]‘ll DAKOTA manufactures % binder twine for its farmers. ,_g The state penitentiary at 3 Sioux Ifalls has been in the business for eight years. Dur- ing all of these eight years the state has been selling twine for a price at least three cents lower than the price demanded by the International Har- vester company and other private con- cerns, according to Warden C. C. Red- field. Generally the difference in price bhe- tween the state manufactured twine &nd the privately made twine has been even greater. This year the state sold its twine for an average of 121 cen.ts per pound; private concerns demanded —and got—ag high as 20 cents a pound in large quantities, and farmers who bought in small lots naturally paid more. Anyone who read just this far would think that South Dakota farmers must be pretty lucky to get their twine from the state for so much less than private concerns demand. But-— This is a very important “BUT.” The state doesn't begin to manufac- ture all the twine that is needed. This yvear the production of the state twine plant was 3,345,000 pounds. The farm- ers of the state had to have 20,000,000 pounds. After the state had sold its entire product at cost to ahbout one- sixth of the farmers of the state, the Harvester company and other private concerns came along and gouged the other five-sixths of the farmers with 20-cent binder twine. LEGISLATURE REFUSES TO HELP FARMERS For this condition fhe short-sighted policy of South Dakata legislators is to blame. When the writer visited the penitentiary the other day there were 204 inmates, In the twine plant just 70 of them were working and Warden Redfield told the writer that 60 of them could do the work. It is necessary to keep some of the convicts for household work about the prison and others are used on the prison farm. But after all that are needed for these outside activities were provided, Warden Redfield could use twice the number of men that he has now in the twine plant. “The 1915 legislature was asked for sufficient money to double the output of the twine plant,” said Warden Redfield. “They turned it down. The same request was made of the 1917 legislature and it was turned down again. We could easily double our output, ‘with the present number of in- mates, if we had the equipment. But we haven’t got it.” Here is the situation that was before the state legislature: The state has the labor of 200 men at a cost of only $1.05 a day. This is the average cost of maintenance, including overhead ex- penses, which is charged against the twine plant. About 46 cents a day is for food and the rest for other ex- penses. HOW FARMERS LOST MONEY ON TWINE In competition with the state are the International Harvester company and other great concerns operated for private profit. Instead of using all of the cheap labor at the prison for the benefit of the farmers, the state uses only 70 men in the twine plant. These turn out enough twine to supply one-’ gixth of the farmers. The rest of the farmers are left at the mercy of the profiteers. O. S. Swenson, the former warden, recommended to the 1915 legislature South Dakota farmers this year lost the tidy little sum of $250,000—a quarter of a million —on binder twine alone, because farmers were not in control in the South Dakota legis- Does this sound like a strong state- Anyone who is inclined to doubt it is invited to check up for himself the facts that are cited here, and then to form his own conclusion. that the capacity of the twine plant be doubled. The legislature did nothing. Warden Swenson died and Redfield was appoeinted warden. It didn’t take Redficld long to see what the situation was. He also recommended that the capacity of the twine plant be doubled, making this recommendation to the 1917 legislature. Again the legislature, which professed to be working in the interests of the farmers, did nothing. If the legislature had doubled the capacity .of the Sioux Falls binder twine plant it would have manu- factured an extra 3,345,000 pounds of twine this year. This twine, in- stead of selling at 20 cents, the figure paid by most of the farmers, would have sold for 1215 cents. There would have been a saving of 7> cents to the farmer on every pound of this extra 3,345,000 pounds and this would have meant a saving of $250,875 to South Dakota farm- €ers. And besides the saving to the farm- ers, would be the saving to the state, for $1.05 for maintenance of prisoners working in the twine plant is'charged against the twine, The state doesn't have to bear this expense. And there would also be the benefit to the prisoners. The old saying is that His Satanic Majesty finds work for idle hands to do. If all the prison- ers were gainfully empolyed, and given work that would keep them busy dur- ing every minute of their nine-hour day, it would be better all around. AMERICANS FINANCE THE SISAL TRUST . Also, if the state doubled its output it would produce one-third of what is needed by South Dakota farmers, enough to give it some control over the market. As it is, manufacturing only one-sixth, it is hardly more than a drop in the bucket. The state twine is much higher than it used to be. This is due to the sisal trust, The sisal is the fiber of a variety of cactus which grows in the state of Yucatan, Mexico. There used to be an open market in Yucatan and the repre- sentatives of the state twine mills and other buyvers purchased directly from farmers or small commission men. The sisal was cheap then. As lately as two years ago in October, Warden Redfield says, sisal could be bought as cheaply .as $3.65 per 100 pounds. But at about this time a sort of in- ternational trust was formed. A com- pany with a Spanish name above seven feet long was formed under the au-" thority of the Mexican government, which took over all the sisal produced by the growers of Yucatan. For short, this Mexican government company is known as the “Commission Regula- dora.” On this side of the interna- tional boundary a group of New Or- leans and New York financiers formed another company known as the Pan- American commission. The Pan-Amer- HANDLING BINDER TWINE Convict at South Dakota penitentiary loading binder twine in 50-pound bundles, into prison warchouse, which holds 2,000,000 pounds of twine. the rear is the twine factory. ican commission agreed to supply the Commission Reguladora with suffi- cient money to handle the crop. In return the Cemmission Reguladora made the Pan-American commission its sole agent in this country, agreeing to supply the Pan-American commis- sion with at least 450,000 bales a year and to allow the Pan-American com- mission a commission of $1.1215 per bale. As a matter of fact imports will be above this amount and the commis- sion of the American financiers, due to their corner on the sisal importations into this country, will be about $1,000,- 000 a year. GOVERNMENT TRIES TO BREAK TRUST This, however, is nothing to what the Commission Reguladora is making out of it. The price of sisal at New Or- leans has jumped from $3.65 per 100 pounds two years ago .to $19.60 today. The grower in Yucatan gets somewhat more than he did two years ago. The Pan-American commission, on this side of. the line, gets $1,000,000 out of the split and the Commission Regula- dora gets the rest. As the Mexican company is organized under authority of the Carranza government, the gov- ernment actually is largely financed by its control of the sisal market. Dakota, Minnesota and Montana wheat grow- ers, besides paying the, expenses of ' state government and United States - Binder twine is one of the necessities of the farmer. reason. . price should be fixed. Its price continues to soar out of a}l It is one of the things on which a fair The farmer is com- pelled to market his wheat at a low fixed price. Why not a fixed fair price on some of the things he has to buy? This is what the St. Paul con- ference meant when it prqmised support to the government in ‘fixing prices down the line.” PAGE FOUR The builiding at government, are also helping to pay the salary of the officials of the repub- lic of Mexico. The TUnited States government is now proceeding against the Pan-Amer- ican commission, attempting to dis- solve it under the anti-trust laws. It is doubtful, however, if this will do much good, as the Mexican govern- ment is probably streng enough now to finance the Commission Reguladora without outside help. Besides, as has been shown, the $1,000,000 that the New Orleans and New York financiers get is only a small part of the sisal graft. ‘What probably will have to be done eventually, and what is said to be un- der consideration in Washington now, is the use of some coercion on the Mexican government. Carranza will have to be told to find some other way of paying off his soldiers and clefks than by levying taxes on Dakota wheat growers. If necessary the United States can use strong but yet peaceful measures, for Yucatan is largely de- pendent upon this country for food. If an embargo should-be declared until the sisal situation could be straighten- ed out, Senor Carranza probably could be brought to time. FOOD ADMINISTRATION TAKES UP MATTER The present price of sisal means binder twine-at a much higher price yet next year. The present price of sisal is 19 5-8 cents per pound F. O. B. New Orleans. Freight adds a half-cent more and the cost of manufacture in the Sioux Falls plant is about two cents. This works out to give 221-8 cent binder twine without a cent of profit in manufacture and without counting freight from the factory to the farmer. And remember that the state twine plants, in South Dakota and other states, supply only a very - small part of the total demand. So serious has the situation be- corne that the federal food admin- istration has taken the matter up. Last month nearly all thc wardens of state penitentiaries manufactur- (Continued on page 19) 4 hi B \