The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-10-19

certainly. He asked me how much
Well, he said he thought that was
rather high, but it looked reasonably
good, and he thought he would fuy
some anyhow. He took that Irvine
home He had three eighties in one
field and had just made one round.
which would make two miles and
half, the whole round of three eighties.
The man is farming over 600 acres of
land He put one ball of the manila
Irvine in one reaper. They were of six
foot cuts and one of each of the other
machines had the old Saltwater Irvine.
He started to go around this two miles
and a half on the same piece and the
machine that was at the head of the
procession was the one that had the
manila twine so, if there was anything
in favor of that, it made the longer
turn around He made three trips
around that piece with the manila
Irvine, and he did not get around twice
with the sisal Irvine. His boy had
been to school and he figured it out
and saw about how it compared in
price. The sisal cost him here with the
freight added, 1012 cents; mine cost
/
figuring it out that my Irvine was
/ cheaper at IA cents a pound than the
Saltwater Irvine was at 101&. So, you
see that he paid 38 cents pound less
for my Irvine when you come to con-
slider the amount of work it swould do,
and I was also making a fair profit. I
was not selling it at cost. So you see
that this Irvine, instead of being
cheaper than it had been before, upon
investigation is found to be higher, and
the farmers of Minnesota are COM
PEELED to pay the state a higher price
for the Irvine than they could pur
chase it at all over this country from
their local dealers, to say nothing about
wholesale prices.
Future Danger to the Plant.
But that is not the serious feature of
this controversy in regard to our Still
water Irvine plant. We can stand
loss, it is quite small to each farmer,
but the serious thing about it is this:
How many of the farmers who ordered
that kind of Irvine that year will send
in their cash orders this year or next
year? How many, do you suppose, will
do that with the knowledge before
them that they have not been getting
anything but sisal Irvine, manufactured
by lot of men who don't know the
difference between good and bad
Irvine? Do you suppose they are going
to send their money there next year,
and in the month of January, February
and March, to pay for that Irvine or
the product of that Irvine plant? So
the consequence is that we will meet
with the same conditions that any
other manufacturer does when he can
not dispose of his property, and when
the next legislature meets it will meet
under a condition altogether different
from that which confronted it when
Gov. Lind took hold of that plant.
There was a surplus at that time of
some 5000, 900, and to-day, according to
State Auditor Dunn, the fund is over
drawn over 100000 Now, what will
be the overdraft year from now, pro-
vided we do not dispose of the Irvine?
And in order to dispose of it we must
sell it at least as cheap as other COM
mercial twines are sold or else the
farmers will not patronize US. Then
you will see the enemies of the Irvine
plant from all over the country, and
there are, as / say, a good many of
them, applying for the wiping out of
the whole institution, and they will
have all these facts and figures before
them to back them up and show that
the state is running behind. Up to the
present time we can say that it is the
only plant of it's kind in the state that
was making dollar and that was the
situation when Lind got hold of it; but
the situation to-day is that it has run
way behind.
Now, then, what he promised was
reform. He promised this Irvine at
cost, intimating all the time and con-
veying to your minds that you were
not getting it at fair and reasonable
rates. The price charged at the time
that he was making these charges was
512 cents for sisal, 61a for the half-and-
half, and cents for pure manila, when
every commercial Irvine dealer at that
time was selling it at from Ii to II and
up to Is cents pound.
Now, the farmers were not satisfied.
A great many of them thought that
they were being ,wronged and robbed
at that time, and thought mat perhaps
with change they would be a great
deal better off. What has the result
been? Either Gov. Lind, at the time
he made those charges, was mistaken,
or else he had not investigated the in
stitution at all; for, if he had, he could
readily have found out the facts.
Gov. Lind Directly Responsible.
But you will say he is not to blame
for that. The men who are handling
that business are to blame for it. Now.
that is partially true. but it is nv
altogether true. He appointed all of
those men and he has his own board
of control over there, and therefore he
must be held responsible to the people
of this state. The trouble is simply
this, that the men he has appointed at
the head of that institution do not
know how to make twine as cheaply
as it ought to be made 1t is easy
enough to make promises just before
election as to what a man is going to
do in office, but when you come to do
it, it is not half so easy as the man
thinks. 1t is easy to say, IF / am
elected / will do so and So" but when
you undertake to do it you will run
up against a great many difficulties
that you never dreamed of.
Now, have heard a great many say
upon that point that the governor has
not come up to their expectations
Some of them now say that there must
be something wrong with the institu-
ton, using the governors own Ian
guage of two years ago. 1 don't think
there is anything wrong except the