EIGHT PAGES
DAILY EAST 0 REG ONI AN. PENDLETON. OREGON. TUESDAY, JULY 4, 1916.
PAGE SEVEN
fSTi
ft 's America's Yellow Gold That Gilds
It Story of Sisal is Story of Binder
Twine Inquiry at Washington Means
Many Millions to U. S. Farmers:
By Charles M. Carroll
CUlkt Agricultural Exltmion Dttmrlmtnl, Inttrnational HarifMfr Co.
EVEN n..w, after a tragic time of
political turmoil thai has
b'ouftt Da rcit of Mexico
,'o ecor j$1 -u.ii one Stato of the un
'hsppy rep ublic remains prosperous
lar-off Yucatar down under the sweat
ing troplci, on Its low-lying, sun-,
drenched peninsula upthrust from isth
mian America between tho Gulf and
;he Caribbean s turquolso blue. For
-we thing, Yucatan li remote from
.e seatH of government that aro tho
MUM of revolt and rapine; for tho
jther thing, it has bcuo;ucr. and
hencquon Is gold, the "green gold of
Vucatan."
Hencquen's other name is sisal,
which la easier to say. You can't
v :ry wi ll mispronounce that MUM, It
tOSttda us it looks. In Yucuti.i sisal
troVs In un ahundanni and of ai ex
illence not yet approached In any
I her land. It Is the world's chief
OWM of sisal simply. Seven-eighths
of Yucatan's export trade is In sisal;
tireo fourths of Its population of 300,
' 00 and odd people take their living
Vom It.
Nor Is It a pinched and narrow liv
ing, as far as figures go not. at least,
for the sisal pla-ilcrt. Our own rela
tively populous California, for exnm
ple, takes pride MM) rente and some
of its prosperity out of the $10,000,000
a year that its cines product in pale
vellow gold. Ihe sisal of Utile Yuca
an. with only enough people to nake
a fair-Blzed American city, returned
better than that four years ago and
has done much better since. Accord
ing to the Mexican year book, t'io sisal
exports of Yucata'i in 1912 amounted
to $21,430,01). The United States eag
'erly absorbs virtually all lie: sisal Ciat
Vucalan can send up from sleepily
busy Progreso -tho world's greatest
sisal port, and Yucatan's only real port
of commerce In the chunky freight
ers that carry this rich and u.ilquo
trade.
It Is the yellow gold of the Ameri
au farmer, the cash from his golden
wheat and other grulnB, that gilds Un
'green gold of Yucatan." For sisal
I. her ts essential to the American spin
. rs, who must turn cut something
.ike' II.H.0C0 tons of bind Si twine a
ear to be fed Into the harvesting
machines that gather the grain crop
of America -lh machines that have
insd- wheelen bread the food of the
World and the cheapest thing we buy;
Ithsl have initde America a. land
lef plenty, une granary of the world;
Und thai seep all r,-eples
(rrrywkr from go'ng
hungry. WfltCUt binder
twine, aarvcaUnf D
chines could not be used;
and 85 per cent of Amer
ica's binder twine Is
,made from the sisal of
(tropical Yucatan
Millions of dollars have
neen spent In search for a
substitute fiber for sisal.
Wire-grass, flax, paper
and many different libers
!i a v e been expensively
tried and found wanting.
Manila hemp- tho abacn
!of the Philippines Is the only other
!tlbor that will adequately serve m
stead of sisal; and Manila, as they
call It In the trade, is loo costly. It
is a better fiber than sisnl for rope and
icordago, but typhoon da ge, the scar
city of ocean tonnage, Japan's grow
ing demand, and tho wartime shortage
I A hova , , tm hi II , 'rt to SClld
Ul WIID IWJlT, w "
Manila up and keep it up. Also, rich
little Yucatan Is our next-door neigh
bor with Progreso only six hundred
miles from rail-end at San Francisco.
So sisal stays master of the twine
market and Yucatan queens It over
sisal.
Smoothly balled, neatly baled and
1 corded, each ball ticked with the aiak
I er's guarantee of 600 feet to the pound,
!tbe ileal of Yucatan cornea to the
jgralnflelda of America. You assutn-
Ing that you are a farmer order what
twine you think you'll need and get it;
the neatly corded bales are tossed out
to you. There Is nothing in the me
chanical evenness of Its winding, in
its freedom from knot and Imperfec
tion or in its warm brown tone to sug
gest "green gold" or to bint at the
colorful tale that unwinds between the
Vucatan slBal field aid the American
farmer. A ball of American binder
twine is as staple as a pound of sugar
- and as prosaic.
Now and then you may have read
in your newspaper that there Is some
kind of an inquiry afoot at Washing
ton as to Yucatan slaal some talk of
a monopoly; of rising prices of tho
liber; of tho oppressed and iioverty
smitten planters of Yucatan; of wit
nesses with Spanish-seeming names
telling of their struggles to make a
living. You may have tried to match
up these brief, vague and apparently
pointless reports with intimations in
your (arm journals that "binder twine
is going up," but It all seems far off
and unimportant.
But If you could have dropped in on
some of the sessions of a Senate Sub
committee at Washington during the
last few weeks you would have heard
things to open your eyes and awaken
your interest - your self-interest.
The room Is that of the Senate Com
mittee on Agriculture and Forestry.
There sits a Subcommittee of Sena
tors Kansdell of Louisiana, as chair
man, QroflM from tho great wheat
state of North Dakota and Wadsworth
0( Imperial New York. They are In
quiring Into the matter of the importa
tion of sisal o::d its sale in the Cnited
States. By tl.e slow, patient process
of examination and cross-examination
the three Senators are getting down
to the answer of the sharp and perti
nent query from America's agricul
ture: WHY IS BINDER TWINE
HIGHER? HOW MUCH HIGHER 18
it florxo?
The senate subcommittee's inquiry
began February 17, 1116, and went
on Intermittently for about ten days
of actual testimony taking. March 27
was the date set for the resumption of
tho hearing, t'p to this writing almost
nil the witnesses have been thoso
called by the Yucatan government ,
sisal monopoly. It is fair enough to
term It that, for tho fact of an abso
lute monopoly Is freely admitted by
those who control It and profit by It.
They lean back on the plea that they
are safe from prosecution or Inter
fcrence under the Sherman anti trust
law because the sisal combination,
though financed with American money,
jy"v OKs? iz&j
,' ' "'-
A typical sisal field in Yucatan Catting the ripened leaves. Jj ' 1 1
lii n m iH CiL
:
ss&wr i
wm formed in Yucatan and not In the
I nited States.
Llttlo direct testimony has beer,
heard from the side of the Americans
who must pay all the monopoly's
profits. On the last duy of the Inves
tigation's first phase, however, one
witness for tho farmers was beard
Warden Frnnk S. Talcott of the North
Dakota Stato prison. In tho course of
his tertlmony he said:
19
The
fin'uhed
Product
of
Yucatan
Sisal
A Ball
of
American
Binder
1 wine
"And I want to impress upon
you, in this testimony, thai al
though i am representing cur lit
tle Institution and the twine
plant, that tho big question is tho
amount of twine consumed by the
farmers of that state ami what
it will mean to them. You can
tiguro what It will mean. If it
is two cents more this year, it
MM a half million dollars out
of the pockets of tho farmers of
North 1'ahota avne. if any or
ganization, without attempting to
say who, or what, or under what
control, has a monopoly upon sial
liber, should say, We will want
you to pay a cent more next year,'
every time that they raise the
price of sisal fiber it costs the
farmer a cent, and It costs the
farmers of tho Str.te cf North Ta
kota a quarter of a Bflltoo dol
lars. There is no question about
that."
There is plenty of evidence to be
had in support of that clear statement
of the sisal situation.
From its 6a;a!l beginning, about
thirty-live years ago, tho sisal indus
try of Yucatan operated throiiKh
an open market until last year. Its
price was llxed by the law of supply
and demand. Morula, the capital of
Yucatan, was the world's sisal market.
Some of the big producers built ware
houses a:.d dooks and spur trae!;s and,
in addition to handling other exports
and imports, becamo naturally mer
chandisers of their own and their
neighbors' sisal. The industry flour
ished. The plantations widened. From
4'.i0.tiu4 hales in 1900 the exports grew
to 9G4.863 hales in 1914, The plant
ers grew rich. In Paris uuu other
pleasure places of Kurope some of
them came to be known as the "hene
quon kir.gs."
Quite logically, there were attempt!
to control the market artificially. As
sociations of various sorts were forme 1
to regulate the Industry. Hut these at
tctnptl were never more than indif
ferently successful. In U'12 one of the
last legislatures that sat in Yucatan
created the Comision Regnladora del
Mercado de Heuequen, which is, in
English, commission for the regulation
of the sisal market or "Regulating
Committee." as it is generally called
In the 1 nited States.
Rut not until the summer of MIS did
the Regulating Committee come to con
sequence nnd power. The governmen
tal turmoil of Mexico had at last
spread to far-off. prosperous Yucatan.
Rapid scene shifting of polities and
reshuffling of the cards bad put in ab
solute power Gen. Salvador Alvarado.
A "poor planter"
of Yucatan direct
ing the transports'
tion of sisal leaves
to the decorticat
ing mill.
military commander and governor of
Yucatan by virtue of the appointment
of First Chief Venustiano Canaan.
Under Governor Alvaradp the regu
lating ccmr-iitee obtained a 100 per
cent control. The open market for eia.il
was closed hard and fast. New Yor'.i
offices were opened by the Commit
tee. No planter could sell, and no con
sumer could buy, excopt thresh the
Regulating Committee,
But It took an American, a railroad
man of Yucatan, to see the way to an
even more prolitable monopoly to a
tighter grip on the "green gold of Y'u
caten." This man came back home
hunting capiial. He found hi3 open
ing in New Orleans, where two bank-'
ers saw his wealthy dream as ht saxr
it only with him left out. H led
them to Dr. Victor A. Rcndon, a Yu
eateean long resident In the United
States, and to Covernor Alvarado. and
then the railroad man faded away into
the background with a, minor Job under
the Fan-American Commission Corpo
ration. By November 191."., the sisal monop
oly was Complete the production an 1
thamarliet controlled, to the lart bale
pound and shred, by tho Regulating
Committee, backed and headed by Mili
tary Commander and Governor Alvi
rado. whose will Is the only law of
Yucatan. That is the Yucatan end c
the monopoly.
On the American end is a tinam.n
company, compose 1 of a few banker
and their associates. It is the fan
American Commission Corporation, ti.o
handiwork of the New Orleans bank
ers to whom the American railroao
man took his dream. It has fl.OOl
cash capital, with $1,000,000 commou
stock paid for by the trausfer of a
contract which the New Orleans bank
ers had secured from tho Regulating
Committee. In return (or Its guaranty
to find such loans as may bo needed
to move the sisul crop, with fiber
warehoused lu the I nited States a:
security and with interest at current
market rates, the Corporation take s
bonus commission that will yield it
from $400,000 to $1,000,000 a year 4a
to 100 per cent a year on its caakj
cspiial. i
Of course the monopoly has put up
the price of sisal. From an average
of IVi cents per pound it has already I
gone to 7 cents. An agent of tha
Regulating Committee has been quot
ed as stating that it would be I cento
a pound by July 1st. 1916. The man
ager of the Regulating Committee la
the Cnited States is o". record as say
ing th.-.t he End Ul associates could
mcks the pries lo cents a pound i$
they saw ct.
And binder twine prlcee have
climbed with ths price of sisal. Thai
:s inevitable. There are at least eight
een competinj twine manufacturers!
I including chjbt State prisons Nona
I of them takes or can take more thai
a reasonable mLaatactunng profit out
of binder tine. The consumer tha
American fa.xtr must pay the ln
Crease. Already it amounts to from
$3,000,000 to $5,000,000 this year; what
R nay bo next year no man can telU
foal is why there was an outcry frora
the country ; that is why the three Sen
atoraara patiently unwinding the torf
! of thud, digging after the facts of tha ,
i Yucatan monopoly that takes ail it ,
income cut of the C cited Stairs and
all Increase of Its prorlte out i tha
bn-eches pocket of Mr. Ami r:c4
Firmer.
It Is a serious enough matt..- tb a) ,
story of sisal, but it has its funny sida
: tuar;'a a Joke in it.
The joke Ilea in the Bonnp i; jua
: A Cation of high and higher price.
1 hat Justification is the relief of tho
"poverty cursed ' sisal planter of
Yucatan from the low prices of tho
I open market system. Part of the Juko
In the fact that under these "op
I ivi conditions" the sisal Industry j
doahlsd ill volume and output in four- J
tSM years The other pari li thatj
than are about 200 sisal planters la
i ,u!u:i 100 poor gertiem. n dividing
a crop worth $lu,000,OM a year' Two.
hundred men to share with a coterio
of American hankers and their asso
ciates the added protit of from I3.0U0,-,
000 to IfcOOO,1"'!) a year, taxed out of
the American farmer by this benevn-'
;.t Mexican monopoly!