Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-08-30
STATE 1N|N[ Factory
A Man Who Is In the Business;
Says 1t Is Folly For State
to Attempt 1t
THERE IS NO TwINE TRUST
The Talk About the Farmers Being at
the Mercy Of the Harvester Trust,
So Far as Irvine is Concerned, Has
No Foundation in Fact, Says August
Post, Of Moulton.


Des Moines, Aug. Gothic propos-
ition to invest half million or 81 mil
lion dollars Of the states funds In a
binding Irvine factory at one Of the
prisons is all moonshine and an Idle
dream" said August Post of Moulten
at the state fair yesterday
There Is no necessity for Iowa to
make twil1e to compete with the Inter-
national Harvester company. The talk
about the International having q mon
opoly on the Irvine business and hav-
ing the farmers at it's mercy Is ali
bosh There are a number of ince-
pendent plants in America. / represent
one of the factories and l sold more
than you could measure in four years.
last year. There Is no occasion for The
Iowa farmer paying tribute to the tn
ternational Harvester trust unless he
really likes 1t and wants to do 1t.
And the state Of Iowa doesn't need
to sink $1,0OO,000 of the taxpayers
money in a profitless industry to save
the farmers from the clutches of The
Irvine trust. either.
~ sold Irvine last year at 91A cents.
while, the International fellows sold 1t
for 10 and 10A cents. Yet they had
business that couldn't get, for there
always Is some one who prefers to pay
the higher price for an equally good
article However, sold enough Irvine
to make a fairly good business, thaEk
you.
II believe that 1OO0o0.o00 pounds OF
Irvine were sold in Iowa last year. II
could have supplied all that vas
bought { would have saved the farm
ers at least 100000 and given them
just as good Irvine as was sold in the
state. $40 you see / can do at Moulton
for the farmers Of Iowa exactly as
much as Representative Powers pro-
posed to do by using the convicts o. the
prisons and investing at least $50 900
Of the taxpayers money in a verture
bound, sooner or later, to be profiiless,
while i, you see, would do as well by
the state and the people would not
have cent Of their cash invested in
the enterprise.
"The fact is that the twine making
business as conducted by state prisons
is not satisfactory or profitable. Min
nesota is the only one which has run
without heavy loss. That was due to
the fact that it bought hemp or sisal
in 1898, before the Philippine war; when
1t was down to five and six cents. After
the war, it went to ten and eleven
cents, and since then the factories that
have been making the Irvine with
prison labor even, have not been bus
mess successes South Dakota tried to
pass law for a state prison binding
Irvine factory, but the law failed, for
tunately for the state. North Dakota
and Kansas are making Irvine, but not
successfully.
Heavy Capital Needed.
zone chief difficulty you see, is that
the labor employed is not in proportion
to the capital invested. After u few
men, in the big factories, the labor Is
chiefly done by girls. There is no
necessity for the labor Of full grown
men like convicts But the investment
must be enormous, to secure the mater
ial Of which to make the Irvine, to mar
ket it, to carry the paper Of the dealers
till they sell farmers and to oulld tne
original plant and maintain it.
TN my judgment, the state o.. iowa
has no business going into the Irvine
making business. Put the convlcts to
work on the roadd or manufacturing
road making material