The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-02-03
Is That of Putting a Binding
Irvine Plant
In Operation at the Kansas
State Penitentiary.
AUTHOR OF THE IDEA
Was Alonz0 Wardall, Now or
Topeka, Who
Was the Father of the Plant
at Saltwater, Mimi. .,-
Will the Binding TWine Trust
Buy 1t Off!
JUST WATCHTH BILL
And See If Ii Suddenly Dis
appears.

The special committee appointed TO
visit the Saltwater, Mimi, penitentiary
and investigate the binding Irvine fac
tory there, did not start last evening,
but decided to postpone the trip till
Saturday afternoon The committee
viii then reach Saltwater on Monday
morning and get to business at once.
Representative Ravenscraft, who was
selected as the Popuhst member of the
committee from the house, announced
yesterday afternoon that he had re-
ceived a telegram calling him home on
account of sickness in his family, and
he therefore could not go to Minnesota.
The POpulists will name another man in
his place.
originator of the idea of establishing a
binding Irvine plant in the Saltwater
penitentiary. He has since succeeded in
getting a similar measure through in
South Dakota, but the plant has not
yet been put in, and he has been agita-
ting the matter in several other wheat
producing states.
Mr.. WardaH was at that time han
ding large quantities of Irvine for the
farmers of Minnesota One day as he
was on the train going to St Paul he
noticed in a newspaper that the bind
ing Irvine trust had just completed its
organization and that the price of Irvine
would probably go up. In the same pa
per he read of the failure of a large
number of manufacturers who had con-
tracted all the labor of the surplus con-
victs in the Saltwater prison, and the
state was confronted with the problem
of furnishing employment for a thous-
and idle prisoners.
1t was the last day of the session of
the legislature, and Mr. Wardau held
hurried meeting with a number of the
members and laid before them the pro-
Ject of putting in a binding Irvine plant.
A short bill was drawn up instructing
the governor to appoint commission to
go east and investigate different Irvine
plants, and if they deemed it practical
BILE to put one in at Saltwater. The bill
also made an appropriation to carry out
the project. The result was that the
commission put in a $4,000 plant.
The first year that the plant was in
operation it sold Irvine to the farmers
at cents per pound. although they
had paid the trust IL cents the year
before.
In Minnesota the Irvine is sold direct
to the farmers for cash, or to dealers
who are allowed to handle it on mar
gin of one cent a pound. All dealers are
required to enter into a contract not to
charge more than one cent a pound
higher than they pay the factory. The
result is that although the output of
the plant has been only about one-third
of the entire amount of Irvine consumed
in Minnesota, it has kept the trust from
putting up the price during harvest, as
it has done in Kansas and other states.
Instances have been recited on the floor
of the house during the present session
where the trust put up the price of
Irvine right at the beginning of the last
harvest from to Is cents.
TT is argued that this will come into
competition with free labor of the east"
said Mr.. Wardall, but the free labor
employed by the trust is nearly all
women and children who receive from
20 to so cents per day. The principal
factories of the trust are at Elizabeth
town, New Jersey 1 went through them
once and I venture to say that only
from to 5 per cent of the employees
were skilled workmen. The rest were
all women and children and hardly a
single one among them could speak a
single word of English. The majority
were Poles who had been imported to
work in the factories.
"Since we have acquired the Philip
pine islands there ought to be little
trouble in obtaining manila for the
Irvine. The Saltwater plant uses either
manila from the Philippines, or sisal
the white fiber, from Yucatan and South
America. That is all hard fiber but
believe that in the course of time when
the machinery is properly adjusted to
1t, the Irvine can be made lust as well
from the soft fiber hemp, which we can
raise right here in Kansas
"A plant costing from $500 600 to $125,-
600 would furnish enough Irvine for the
entire state of Kansas. There is plenty
of coal over at Lansing. so that there
would be no trouble about fuel and
believe the Irvine could be easily manu-
featured and furnished to the farmers
at . or cents per pound