The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1912-10-31

Bismarck Tribune: North Dakota
has a large Irvine mill. This was
built by the taxpayers of the state Of
North Dakota, and it was represented
to the farmers and other taxpayers,
at the time it was built that it was
necessity, as it would prove safe
guard, not only in regulating prices,
but in case of famine, it would insure
save their crops. You can we'll imag-
inc what surprise and disappoint-
ment it was to the farmers, when they
sent in orders to the Bismarck peni-
tertiary for Irvine, to receive stock
notice, that the supply was exhausted,
and that the mill was closed down,
and now to find that the warden of
the penitentiary, who is a candidate
for governor on the democratic ticket,
both in his written statements and
talks to the people, making the claim
that twine advanced or 6 cents a
pound, after he quit. If he could have
saved the farmers of North Dakota
5 cents a pound on their Irvine, why
did he quit? He will answer that his
stock was exhausted; then why did he
allow his stock to become exhausted?
Every Irvine mill in the country, at
| times saw their stock exhausted, but
they went onto the market and pur-
chased fibre and kept every spindle
| running, until the last sheaf of grain
was bound, while the Bismarck peni-
Tertiary plant lay as silent as the
tombs, and let the farmers shift for
themselves, and get their Irvine as
best they could.
AS to his statement that he quit
and closed the mill, there can be no
dispute, but in that part of his state
ment where he claims that twine ad-
vanced after the Bismarck mill clos
ed, there is no truth so far is the
large manufacturers of Irvine are con-
cerned. He makes the statement that
he sold obout 3,119,400 pounds of
! Irvine. This statement is misleading.
He evidently wants the farmers to
infer from this that he manufactured
and sold during the season of 1912,
3,119,400 pounds of twine.. Now he
manufactured very much less than
that, for hundreds of thousands of
pounds of this 3,119,400 pounds of
Irvine were carried over from the sea-
son of 1911, which was made out of
fibre that cost on an average of Is
cents per hundred less than the fibre
that was brought and manufactured
into Irvine this year. The deprecia-
ton in the carried-over Irvine would
amount to about so cents per hun
dred, for there is no farmer but what
would pay so cents a hundred more
for new twine that was manufactured
for the season of 1911. In a nutshell,
the farmers who bought the hundreds
of thousands of pounds of twine from
Warden Helstron, that was manufact-
ured for the season of 1911, paid
$1.25 more per hundred for it than
thew should have paid, or got 1925
less in value than the men who
bought twin which was manufactured
during the season of 1912,
He further claims that he saved the
farmers 2 cents pound on every
pound of twine, that has been manu-
featured in the penitentiary since he
has been warden, then the farmers of
North Dakota have been paying 2
cents pound less for their Irvine
than farmers have been paying in
other states where there was no peni-
Tertiary twine plants. An investiga-
ton of the price paid by farmers for
Irvine in the states Of Illinois, Iowa and
Nebraska, where there are no prison
Irvine mills, shows that farmers in
these states paid a lower average for
the Irvine they bought than the farm
ers Of North Dakota have latter taking
the difference in freight into consid-
eration) for the paAsssix years.
Of the penitentiary plant is to be
the protection that 1t should be to
the farmers Of North Dakota, it