The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-02-26
Former Employe cf Harvester
Combine Tells Secrets.
Urges All States to Manufac'
ture Binding TWine.
ALL TO SAYEEXPENSES
Everything Is Cut to Mini
mum.
Principal Thing Is to Make
Bales Look Good.

Charles Williams. of $50 West Twen-
tieth street, Chicago, has written for
the State Journal an interesting de-
scription of the way the International
Harvester company hands it out to the
farmers of the country in the manu-
facture of binding twine.
Mr.. Williams evidently knows what
he is talking about. He says: L was
foreman of this company for years,
and have not written half what L KNOW
and every word 1 have written is true
as gospel. 1 was not fired from the
company; l quit because l would not
work for them at any price. Every
state should make it's own twine and
refuse the cast off stuff this company
sends out, for no farmer In the lano
can tell when he is going to get pad
stuff"
Mr.. Williams sends to the State jour
nal a number of the original DalIy
reports of twine tests" used in the In
ternational mills, and these reports
show that the companys own tests
prove that short weight bales are De-
ing manufactured
according to Mr.. Williams, the twine
bales labelled so pounds contain only
4S pounds, and the farmer Is oongeo
to pay high prices for the bag and rope
with which the bale is tied.
that the Harvester trust is RESPONSE
BILE for this condition of affairs. ana
that conditions IN the twtne plants are
entirely different now from what they
were before the organization Oh the
trust. He says In part:
''When the Mccormick twine mills
were started in Chicago, they were not
in the trust, and the company obtained
good. experienced workmen from what
ever source 1t could. They were glad
from
ing's plant, because experienced men
cost nothing to break in, and could DO
good work. good man received more
pay than a poor man, ana every man
did his best to get out good WORK anu
good work means good twlne- man
who did not do good work was ois-
charged. At that time the plant was
building of five floors: preparation
room where the material was put IN
shape and taken from the bales ana
foreman over that department; spin
ming room where the silver was spun
and put onto bobbins; and a oaIHns
room In the spinning room there Were
about 240 spinners, and girl ran elsnI
machines of eight flyers. That depart
rnent had a foreman. The balling room
also had foreman, and they were very
careful about inspecting tWlne TO see
that no bad twine was placed on tne
market. Then the new mill was oullt
in a similar manner. The employees
were treated right, and the girls nad
competent matron. They were very
strict about the girls in every way
Then the Trust Took Hold.
Now everything is changed, and the
change came when the different tags
came-International Mccormick, Deer
ing. Champion, Milwaukee and Plano.
Wages were cut, and an employe can
not come from Deerings without their
consent. The employees are sent from
one place to another; the old foremen
onx n
cheap help viii do. Everybody gets the
same wages, they have done away with
six or seven foremen. girl gets
reprimanded for bad work when they
used to get fired. They don't care as
much about quality as about quantity.
Girls come from the old country one
day and the next are making twine for
the farmers.
Girls Not Protected.
1.-THE two rnatrons who used to look
after the girls are gone, and everything
is to reduce expense. l could say
thousand things about this state of af
fairs but these are a few. They don't
have any competition from Deerings,
they don't want the twine they used
to want. and they know they are not
getting it. saw a letter from one
of the head men of the company and
he said, Try and get twine as good as
our competitors from sales stand
point That means merely to make the
covers look good on the balls.
Fixing the Quality on Twine.
1.-THE balling machines have tensions,
which are supposed to break bad twine
and thin places. Sometimes the twine
is so rotten that in order to keep the
girls working the tensions have to be
be loosened. so much that all bad
places can go through.
THE company knows how much
material and how much oil to put into
its twine for each locality where it
does business. The preparation de-
partment puts on certain stock and
a certain per cent of oil, and starts the
run. Then the testing department
gets in it's work. If the test shows
pretty strong. with no bad breaks, the
next day more oil is added, which
means weaker twine. Oil costs one
cent a gallon. but put into twine it
sells for from 10 to 16 cents a pound.
1t is so rancid that it is liable to cause
blood poisoning, and it leaves a sore
where it comes in contact with human
flesh Each day more oil is added
until the twine gets so weak that it
can not be run into balls. Then it is
livened up a little. One farmer NAV
get rotten twine, and one good twine,
all the same price l will give an ex-
ample of the way they worked They
had an order for manila twine and
mixed up q batch that was awful and
sent it to me to be balled. There was
not q man that ever lived that could
ball 1t. 1t was rotten that it would
not hang together. I had to make the
tens ions so loose that the ball reyolyed
on the spindle We finally had to
make rope out of that twine But
about 500 bales of it got out and If
any farmer ever got some manila Nc
Cormick or Deering that was the
worst that ever happened, 1t was prob
ably part of that lot.
Short Weights on Bales
After the twine is balled, it goes
to the scaler who weighs up the twine
from each girls bench, and the scale
is always set at 48 pounds, but the
ha les ara marked 20 porrda THE