The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1900-10-11
HOW FARMERS ARE SWINDLED
BUYING SALT AND WATER IN BAG
ulNu--rIIE TRICK HAS BEEN PAT
ENTED.

|
Mr.. III. i. Ioveland, lawyer of
Peru, Indiana, was in Augusta few
days and has been travelling all over
the South getting up evidence in n suit
brought III the United States circuit
court of Indiana, in which the Amer
ican Manufacturing company, which
IL the jute bagging trust, is the plain
tin.
Mr.. l.Oveland is one of the attorneys
for the defense and has Travelled all
over the South getting up evidence by
which he expects to prove that the
American Manufacturing company is
perpetrating n fraud by which the
Southern cotton planter is defrauded
OF thousands of dollars each year. In
speaking about the matter to u Chron-
icle reporter, Mr.. I.oveland SAID
"l can't give our defense for publ
cation al this time," he said, "but
there is matter merely incidental to
the case that ! am free TO give to the
press, and that is the imposition that
is being practiced upon the South in
weights in jute bagging. For many
years the manufacturers of ute cotton
bagging have claimed to employ pat,
ented process in its manufacture whcrct
by the fabric Is rendered lirc-proof,
and suit has been brought by John
ID. Doniphan against the Peru Bagging
company, of Peru, Indiana, for alleged
infringement of that patent. 1t seems
that in 1890 Benjamin and Andrew
Gratz, of st. Louis, both of whom are
now directors and executive officers in
the American Manufacturing company,
which controls 20 per cent. of the out
put of the bagging mills of America,
that by treatment OF cotton bagging
with d 'compound,' as they say, but
which in fact is nothing but salt and
water, the jutc was blcachcd and rem
dered tire-prOof.
"In August, 1899, after several in
eNectual attempts had been made to
absorb the Peru plant by the trust, this
patent of the Graft Brothers was as
signed by them with the right to re-
cover for all damages resulting from
past infringements, to John ID. Doni-
phan, q business associate at lhis time
of theirs, who brings this action"
Mr.. l.oveland admitted to the re-
porter that the Peru company did en-
ploy process for the treatment Of the
product not altogether unlike that
above outlined, and that the Peru COM
pany had never operated with the con-
sent of the patentccs.
"llow then do your clients expect
to escape the penalties for an infringe
mcnt ?'' he was asked,
"In the first placc,' said he, "thcy
do not admit that their process was
an Infringement, and in the next there
is nothing either 'ncw,' 'original,' or
useful in the process patented that
of applying salt water to jute. The
primary, and ] may say with perfect
safety, the only practical value of this
treatment as practiccd, and the only
object of the patent, is to enable the
manufacturers to substitute a quantity
of salt and water for its equivalent in
weight of jute, and sell the whole rs
80 many pounds of jutc. For exam.
pie, IL standard weight Of bagying runs
100 pounds to the roll of fifty yards.
standing that each roll of fifty Yards
contains 100 full pounds OF jute, and
buys it of that weight, two pounds to
the yard for the textile strength and
boiy impaired to il by that quantity of
jute fibre. Now, as a matter of fact,
as the cloth comes from the loom the
fifty yards weigh no more than SO to
81 pounds, but to meet this shortage
OF l3 to 20 pounds the goods are treat
ed while being wound in the roll with
a saturated solution of salt and water
which being wound into tight, hard
roll, the salt and tight rolling retains
the moisture and gives the roll full
weight Of 100 pounds. In this way
say eighty-tive pounds of jutc and tif
teen pounds Of salt and water are
passed to the purchaser rs 100 pounds
of jute, and il, as al present, the fabric
sells at cents per pound, the con-
sumner loses $l.20 on every fifty yards.
What IS true of the two-pound bag
ging is true of all. Why, at Vicks-
burg, as matter Of experiment, a
dealer the other day in my presence
dried 100 yard roll of 2 Ia bagging
for three hours, and it lost forty-onc
pounds. 1t had been overweightcd TO
25O pounds, and dropped in drying to
209 pounds. At Shreveport Il fifty
yard 2 Id pound roll, after stand
ing in the warehouse for eighteen
months lost seven in that time, and
thirteen pounds more in two hours
drying unrolIcd in the sun. At st.
Louis the other day two sevcnty-yard
two-pound rolls were weighed and then
dried, and shovel a respective loss of
% l2 pounds in five hours and twenty
minutes.
81 told Mr.. o. Elmer the other day,
tho representative of the American
Manufacturing company at New Or
leans, that would forfeit to him q
hundred dollars if he could find any
roll of their bagging that would not
lose in drying from eight to thirty
pounds ; that it would always be that
much short of what it was sold for,
and ! say to any dealer IN Augusta
that if he will dry in the sun from
three to five hours any of the make of
the American Manufacturing company
bagging he will discover the shrnkagc