The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-11
NO TRUSTS IN CQRDAGE.
ii. Is. Grimwood TcstiHes Before the
Industrial Commission

4
| Industrial Commissions.
| According to the testimony of II. b.
Grimwocd, Secretary-and incidentally the
! only officer-of the American cordage AS
ISOLATION. the manufacture of cordage
from hemp in this country Is not con-
troiled by a trust. Indeed from the facts
presented TO the Industrial Commission by
Mr.. Grimwood, it would seem that octopi
did not thrive well upon a hemp diet The
National Cordage Company was formed
in 1887 at a time when the conditions of
the cordage trade were in n condition to
be immensely benefited by such COM
bination. II was intended to gradually
combine all mills under one management
and thus reduce the cost of production
and distribution and make more stable
hemp market by a general agreement on
prices.
1t would have tended to cut down ex-
penses in other directions; for instance.
one buyer for the combination would take
the place of twenty or thirty who form
erly secured the market for Independent
concerns. The National Cordage Com
pany failed, however In 1898. Mr. Grim
wood attributed this partly to inefficient
management and partly to lack of stiff
cient capital to tide over a period OF de-
Company was then formed. the stockhold-
ers in the National Company being as
sessed on their holdings of preferred and
common stock to the amount of So 900 0eo
The management of the concern was en-
tirely changed. and vet in a year this
company failed also, and, Mr.. Grimwood
said. substantially for the same reasons
that affected the former company. On the
same basis of assessment of sharehold-
ers the Standard Rope and Irvine Com
pany was organized, and has continued in
business until the present time. At the
time of the formation of the Standard
Company. however. the capital stock was
scaled from s20.0o0,000 to 81. Oo0, Co., the |
yS,W0,O0o in water thus run off placing |
the concern on a firmer basis than any of |
its predecessors
At present no one company controls |
more than 20 per cent of the output of |
manufactured hemp in the United States |
There is. however, an English concern |
which practically controls the supply OF |
raw hemp. Mr. Grimwood said he thought |
that no American manufacturers were in
terested in this company.
The American Cordage Association was
formed three years ago for the mutual |
interest of the manufacturers. Mr.. Grim
there is no constitution. no bylaws, in
fact. not a scrap Of writing to show that
there is such association, and yet Mr.. |
Grimwood said the association had done
effective work in the line for which IL |
was organized. The manufacturers of |
cordage composing the membership of |
the association meet at irregular inter-
walls. whenever they think the situation
is such as to demand general consulta-
tion. Prices are fixed at such meetings
Mr.. Grimwood said. although there is no
agreement made to force the manufac-
turers to adhere to them The cordage
companies made more
money, Mr.. Grimwood said. specializing |
in raw hemp than they did in selling their
product. and the wide huc-
tuations in value of the raw material ana
the way in which the available supply
was now controlled. were in part re- |
for the failures that marked the |
attempts to centralize beyond a certain
point the hemp industry of this country
X X. Wright, PRESIDENT of the Georgia
State Industrial College and one of the
two col0red paymasters in the army dur
ING the Spanish-American war. also testi-
he'd before the Industrial Cor,.nisson
Yesterday on the question of Industrial
education in the South
Calling attention to the great progress
|
Mr. Wright said that in he South at the
time of the emancipation, not only was
he labor system then reyolutionized but |
Practically paralyzed for time. For the
Ave years following the war the struggle |
,ver the reconstruction of the States and
The acknowledgements of the negro not |
only kept labor in the South in a chaotic
but so unnerved the white peo- |
DE of that section that they did not begin
he work of rehabilitation until 1870.
HAD the Government then given the
freedman his mule and forty acres of |
and rather than the ballot which he has
low practically lost, both ex-slaye and |
1x-master would have been better off |
me slave found himself without an effort
" his own invested with the privilege
rot only to hunt. fish. and lounge around
Is he had seen his free master lo hut |
WITH the right to talk politics and vote
I was very natural that the negro in |
lis attempt to enjoy these privileges, ,
hould have misused them and that he
mould have consented to be used by the
an dtheir white associates Z
IS his only alternative. his late masters
'eing wholly unprepared to treat with | I
lim on any terms other than those of ,
uaSi-sldvery.
harmony between the races throughout | ]
he South. The laboring population had I
ever learned the art of politics. and were I
ar less interested in them today than the | $
White men who were striving TO deprive b
he negro of the ballot Speaking of the ! e
onditions in Georgia, Mr.. Wright said | I
nat from Il ianultSS, homeless class or \
x-slaves in 1866. the negroes had IL come | S
aXpayers to the amount of Sl411S,72D in s
luding the ownership of LOCO 900 acres of
arm land. =
The greatest drawback and discourage 4
lept of the colored farmers was a lack | h
a working knowledge of the soil and of | G
improved farming implements. There was
tile or no effort to improve the eolored | y
irner. No farmers institutes were held | I
mong them and little or no agricultural | +
terature reached them Both In field
nd barn the old methods OF agriculture
ere still in vogue among colored farm
wners.