Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1898-10-13
ABOUT TWINE.

"'lh ~ popuiiSt irfend Wnen the sub
lect OF politics was touched upon he
became excited and easily showed
that he had no kind feelings toward
the republicans. why don't the re-
publicans," he said. sometimes tell
ns oftheir own faults and not always
hold forth their virtues? Why didn't
knute Nelson when he was here tel!
US about the states prison twine steal
by which the farmers were robbed
and had to pay 16 cents q pound
Tor twlne this wear that formerly
could be had for or 8 cents?' We
were somewhat surprised at the
charge and told our friend that if
that were trre, it certainly was a
heinous offense, hut ventured the as-
sertion that when the real facts be
known that the states prison author
tiles will be- found without blame.
Happily another Peoples party friend
who has had more experience in the
twine business than We, and had ac-
tually bought twine from the states
prison this year. came to our rescue
and explained this twine business so
that it was easily seen that no blame
could be attached to the stat prison
authorities. He himself did not blame
the authorities. The facts are that
in Years past all twine whether states
prison or not has been sold by deal
ers at practically the same price as
that fixed upon for the states prison
product. Consequently farmers have
bought their twine from the dealers.
We know farmers who each year have
taken the states prison price list and
then gone to q dealer and bought
twine at the same figures with the
freight added. The result OF this WAS
that the states prison autlroritirs
could not sell their twine unless they
sold tito the dealers, and some years
large quantities of twine were LETT on
their hands. The dealers also have
been in the habit OF running down
the states prison twine and discredit-
ing it's use, Us its sale was interfering
with their business. This year as
usual n barge number OF orders from
dealers came in and were accepted
long before any one knew there would
he a rise in the price. Dealers gener-
ally give their orders for twine in De-
cember or January. When later the
price OF twine began to go up the
farmers began to pour in their orders
so thick and fast that it became i'm
possible to I'LL them all at once. As
soon as the prison authorities be-
came aware that the price Of twine
was going up they accepted no orders
from dealers without first requiring
them to make affidavit that they
would sell the twine to farmers at not
more than one cent aud a half above
the cost price, as a precautionary
measure to protect the farmers
against extortionate prices, and or
ders that had previously neen at
cepted from dealers were cut down
as much as possible, to enable them
to fill the orders OF the farmers. MIR.
Taralseth, who was the only one, we
believe, who handled states prison
twlne up this way, gave his order
early and received not near the
amount that he ordered. There were
only n few orders from dealers in the
Red River Valley As soon as the
rush for twine was over in the south
ern part OF the state, where the har-
vest comes earlier, the state factory
caught up with their orders and were
able to supply all late orders for
twine from the Red river valley.
Every fair and unprejudieed man can
easily see that the states prison
authorities are entirely free from
blame. This was their first expert
ence with conditions and eircnm-
stances that may never occur again.
After this explanation our populist
friend began to feel more kindly to-
ward us. He ID an honest and sin
.cere man willing to listen to truth