East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1906-11-02
STATE JUTE MILL
IS KNOCKED
OREGONIAN PRINTS
AN ALLEGED INTERVIEW.
Facts Are Grossly Misrcpresented and
Every Effort Made TO Oppose the
Efforts of the Farmers TO Establish
IA State Plant-Allcged Business
Man" Speaks.

The following knock" for the state
jute plant which It is proposed to es-
tablish at the oregon pententiary,
appears as an interview from an al
legged business man" in the Portland
Oregonian.
Whoever wrote the interview shows
woeful ignorance of the subject
and especially of the facts concerning
the Walla Walla plant, which has just
bean investigated by the Oregon legls-
lators.
The interview is a bare-faced at
tempt OF the Oregonian to discourage
the project, and is as follows:
TT would cost fully 100000 to in
stan n plant, such as that contom-
plated" said a well known business
man today. "The interest the state
would have to pay on that would
amount to all of $4,000 yearly. All
that such an enterprise could hope
TO save the farmers of oregon would
not amount to more than 10000 an
nually. Here is a distinct loss to the
state of $4,000 year And to this
an annual depreciation in the plant
from wear and tear amounting to not
less than per cent, and there is a
further loss.
Is Not Profitable.
THE fact of the business is there
is nothing in the manufacture of
grain bags from jute. one large con-
cern in this city has given up making
grain sacks, and another Is doing II
merely to keep its men employed
when other articles are not being
made. Jute is now being bought by
the state of California for its mill at
san Quentin AT O59O a pound. i'm the
face Of one of the heaviest jutc crops
ever gathered in India. This means
a smaller margin OF profit for the fin
ished article.
But the principal point Is that the
grain bag is going out Of date. Where
100000 to 100000 bags were for
merly sold annually up the william
ette valley. not over 100000 to 300
900 are now sold. Farmers are going
out of the wheat raising business.
And then, again, It is only n question
Of time when the Panama canal is
completed and steamers pressed into
the shipping service, that nearly all
grain will be shipped in bulk. This
will knock the bottom out of the grain
bag business for all time in this coun-
try.
Too Late Now.
''If the state had pona into tho In q
manufacturing business Is or 90 years
ago, they might have paid for a plant,
but as II S, they will be doing business
on a declining and contracting mar
ket. Grain bags went high this year,
owing to the San Francisco fire, where
large quantities OF bags were destroyed
but there will be no more 11-cent
bags this year or the next.
THE state cannot compete with the
pauper labor Of India, where the bus
iness Is controlled by trust. 1t costs
the state nearly 40 cents day to
board n prisoner, while labor is en-
ployed in India al 12 cents day. 1t
is very apparent from these figures
where the state is going to get off
''If the state wants to employ its
convict labor with profit to the peo-
pie who pay the taxes, let It put them
10 work on the public highways,
where the benefit will be permanent
and universal, instead OF going into
the bag business, where the industry
will benefit only a comparatively few
people, and those principally in east
ern Oregon