The Forrest City times., 1891-05-15
THE TWINE TRUST.
THE MANUFACTURE OF BINDER
 TWINE STILL INCREASES.


 Opening of an Immeuse Factory in Brook lyn, N. Y.-Lower Duties Have Not Hurt
 the Twine- Maksrs False Representa-
 tons to Get Higher Duties.
 The following item has recently ap- peared in New York trade journal: "The American Manufacturing Co, which consists of the various mills com prising the jute trust has just completed and will in few days begin to operate its new mill at Brooklyn. N. \. Its capacity Is said to be s6O, o00, 900 pounds annually of rope, binder twine and bag ging"
 Here wc have the binder-twine indus try flourishing like green bay tree, al- though the twine men were filling the air with prophecies of blue ruin last year when the reduction of duty was proposed. The original Mckinley bill passed the House of Representatives and was sent to the Senate on May 21. On the 26th of May the following state mont was sent to the Senate Finance Committee by the binder-twine manu- lecturers:
 SIR-The cordage and binder-twinc man. ufacturers of the United States bog that your honorable committee will amend that clause in the tariff bill which relates to our business It places duty of IA cents per pound upon binder twine. should this be- come law it will close our mills. We ask for 1s4 cents per pound, an increase of one- half cent.
 In September came the effort to put binder twine on the free list which was at first successful in the Senate by reas- on of the Northwestern Republican Sen- tors voting with the Democrats. When, however, the bill was in conference com mittee, the trust made determined fight for the restoration of the duty. In this fight the trust was strongly support ed by the high tariff New York Tribune, which spoke of the effort to put twinc on the free list "in the interest of the farm err" as being "as shallow and indecent pretext for raid upon a legitimate in- dustry as was ever made by political bushwhackers of either party"
 This foolish defense of tho trust was made by the high tariff organ, notwith- standing the fact that Senator Davis of Minnesota had shown in his speech in the Senate that the trust was squeezing prohts oi 40 per cent. year out Of tho farmers. In the face of this fact tho organ went on to say that ~to put binder twine on tho free list is so probably out of harmony with all tho principles of protection as to be almost an absurdity in the pending bill" An other organ which came to tho aid of the Tribune in defending the trust WAS the MdnWact,irer, the mouthpiece of tho powerful protectionist organization in Philadelphia known as the Manufactur- CTS Club.
 As the result of this sqnabble over binder twine n compromise was made by the Republicans in tho conference com mittee. Twine made of istle, Tampico fiber. sisal grass or sum bore a duty under the old law of < cents per pound, and that made Of manila duty Of 255 cents. These duties were respectively equal to 21 and 22 per cent. ad vaorem. The duty on both classes was made 7-10 of cent per pound The old duty on jute twine was 35 per cent; this was reduced to 1 Y cents per pound.
 The eordage trust had said that tho duty of l4 cents per pound would close their mills and asked for tss cents. They did not get it, but got only 7-lo of a cent on manila and sisal twine Did the trust then close their mills? On the contrary, within q week or two after the Mckinley law went into operation, it issucu prospectus Wnicn was eQver- tiscd in many of the leading newspapers, in which it was said that
 "Fhe annual aggregate profits of tho several concerns for the past ten years have been more than enough to pay the annual dividend on the preferred stock and leave very large surplus, notwIth- standing the fat that during some of that period the interests now con solidated were in competition of q character now avoided
 "The committee further certifes that at no time within tho past twenty-five years have the aggregate annual profits of the several concerns been insufficient to pay the per cent dividend on the preferred stock, although the consump- ton of cordage at the beginning of that period was only one-quarter what 1t is to-day.s
 And now comes tho report of the com pletion of tho iute trusts enormous fac. tory at Brooklyn. It seems clear that when an industry says that lower duties will ruin it and close its factories, it's statements arc to be looked upon with suspicion