The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 13, 1918, Page 13

Dt The at a Meat Substitute I Cottonseed Meal and Other By-Products Pass Into Control by the Monopoly —What the Texas Nonpartisans Will Do About It A cotton oil mill at Dallas. At the left are the storage sheds, where cotton seed is being unloaded from the freight cars. "In the background are seen the huge tanks filled with cottonseed oil, the smaller tanks holding 25,000 gallons each. There is so much profit in this business that the meat packers have seized it. The Nonpartisan league would economize for the benefit of the whole people and establish state-owned plants of this sort. BY E. B. FUSSELL HERE is an old story about a school teacher who wanted to .impress on her class the value of the cow and asked: “What is the animal that provides us both food and drink, the butter that we spread on our bread and the shoes we wear on our feet ?” : “I know,” said one boy, wav- ing his hand madly. “It’s dad.” “Dad” ordinarily does a lot of things, but he ~ doesn’t do any more than a plant that they raise - " down South. This plant provides clothing for the world, food for humans and food for cattle—and it also supplies an essential element for the deadliest explosives that are being used in the present war to kill and maim thousands. : This plant is cotton. The part of the plant that is used for clothing is the fiber. It is separated at © the cotton gin. There is then left the cotton seed, a dark brown shell with a yellow, oily kernel inside of it. Usually, after the cotton has been run through the gin, enough fiber sticks to the seed to make it look a dirty white or gray instead of brown. The cotton seed is sold to a cotton oil mill. There are thousands of these scattered through the South. While they try to keep it secret, the fact is well known that a majority of these belong to the “Big Five” packing concerns of Chicago and Kansas City, Swift, Armour, Cudahy, Wilson and Morris. The cotton oil mills have been buying seed this year for approximately $70 per ton. Before the war the price was as low as $18 and $25. The seed is first put through a cleaner. This operates a series of saws which scratch the lint from the seed. The lint, which is extremely short fibered, formerly was used for mattress padding, collar pads, cotton batting, etc. Now it is used almost exclusively for guncotton. The big pur- chaser is the Dupont Powder company. POWDER TRUST CLASHES " WITH MEAT TRUST The cotton oil plants of the South, controlled by the meat trust, have in the past been able to fix, not only the price at which they bought cotton seed - _from the farmers, but also the price at which they ~ sell all their products. But a peculiar thing has happened this year. In disposing of one of their products, the lint cleaned from the seed, the meat trust has run up against a still stronger trust—the powder trust. In 1916 the Dupont Powder company paid 7% cents a pound for lint. In 1907 they announced flatly a price of 5% cents and refused to pay more—this in spite of the fact that cotton has nearly doubled in price and that tbe cotton lint, for guncotton manufacture,.is Investigation reveals that the meat trust has seized hold of the manufac- ture of cotton by-products. This at a time when cottonseed meal is coming to the fore as a meat substitute. South- ern farmers used to put cotton seed upon the land as a fertilizer for the growing of other crops..Then they be- gan to feed it to stock, for the produc- tion of meat. Now we are beginning to consume it directly on our tables, instead of using it in more roundabout and wasteful methods of securing food. The Nonpartisan league in Texas is planning state-owned mills which will destroy the monopoly on this important article. worth more than cotton with a long fiber. Further- more, the 56%-cent price is F. 0. B. New-York or Hopewell, Va., where the Dupont people have two of their biggest plants. The oil factories have to pay freight of 78 cents a hundred pounds on each shipment of lint that they make. After the cotton seed is cleaned of lint (they get 125 to 160 pounds of lint from each ton of seed) the seeds are cracked and the kernel, which con- tains theoil, is shaken loose from the hulls and the two parts are separated. There are between 550 and 600 pounds of hulls from each ton of cotton seed. The hulls are sold back to the farmers for cattle feed. A dozen years ago, the writer was told by an oil mill manager, hulls were sold for $2 a ton. The present price is $24. FOOD FOR MAN - > ) = AND BEAST Next the kernels of the cotton seed are rolled flat until they look something like rolled oats. Then the kernels, which by this time are an oily meal, are wrapped up in camel hair blankets in the form of a cake an inch or an inch and a half thick, two feet long and 18 inches wide, and these packages are placed in a press. The press squeezes a stream of oil from each package, the camel hair blanket- preventing ' the meal from spreading. Sometimes these blankets are made from human hair. This was the case just after China adopted a republi- can form of government and the Chinese all shaved off their pigtails. For a while human hair was " cheaper than camel hair. ' The mill gets from 86 to 40 gallons of oil from each ton of cotton seed. This oil sells now at the factory for $1.31 per gallon. What is left over is the cottonseed meal. This may be sold either powdered, to be mixed with hulls and fed to dairy PAGE THIRTEEN ~ cattle,. or in the form of a hardened cake, which can be spread on the ground and fed to range cat- tle. In either case the price at the factory is $2.85 . per 100 pounds. From 850 to 900 pounds of meal are produced from each ton of cotton seed. This cottonseed meal not only is good for cattle but at a pinch can be used for human food. It is being introduced in the South as a flour substitute. One part of cotton meal mixed with four parts of wheat flour or corn meal makes the finest kind of cakes or bread. . WORK LONG HOURS AT LOW WAGES The cottonseed mills make good profits. They need only a small amount of labor. They use negro labor, pay a small wage and work their men 12 hours. Most of the mills operate for only three or four months during the year, in the winter when labor is cheapest. But the mills now are not making nearly the profit that they did. The reason is that the food administration has stepped in and fixed prices. More than that, because of the shortage of cattle feed, the food administration is telling the mills where they must ship their meal and hulls. The mills, however, are allowed to ship their oil, the most valuable product, whére they please, which means much to the packers that are their owrers, and here is where the real profit comes in. Figuring the maximum production of a mill, this is what they get out of a ton of cotton seed for which they have paid $70: Forty gallons oil at $1.31............$52.40 | 900 pounds meal at $2.85 per 100 ... . 25.65 600 pounds of hulls at $24 per ton ... 150 pounds of lint at 5% cents ...... 7.20 8.2b l__ Total ..ccevirerneireseoncnnsass$93.50 I — —— — S— — P—P— S S R — t— — As 40 gallons of oil weigh approximately 32¢ pounds, this accounts for all of the ton of cotton seed except the dust that is cleaned out of it. Just as the meat trust, in operating its big packing plants, saves every part of the pig except its dying squeal, so the meat trust, in operating its cotton oil mills, saves everything but the dust, and makes a good profit out of it. y " But the meat trust has another chance for profit yet. While the price for the crude cottonseed oil is fixed at 17% cents a pound by the food adminis- tration, the price for the cooking compounds made from this oil is placed 5 cents higher, or 22% cents a pound. Costs of manufacture are. low and the packers make another sizable profit ‘on this turn over. This brings the total price of the products of