The Washington times., 1916-02-03
Enemies Make Common Cause.

Not less anomalous IL the strange ar
raw OF bedfel,ows hips brouoht about by
the hcht on the sisal interest Just
few wears ago the so-rallcd rOrdage
trust was quite the most ardentiv hated
concern OF its sort in the country. so
far as the farmers were concerned.
Since the regime OF the international
Harvester Compan.' became wore or
less dominant in he realm of things
agricultural. there has been lcss disaf
fcction: the farmers have become pretty
well convinced that they We're getting
| reasonable prices and god service.
But there was a time when the Cord
age trust WAS hated with all ferNpr. and
in that epoch some of tho States tStah-
lisEed their binder tw.nc factories IN
the penitentiarIes 1t provided q way to
keep the COnviCtS ct work. Thor prod
uCtS, Of course. competed with the prod
ucts OF free labor: but n WAS the output
OF a trust. and the theory was that
anything was justiNnble so long as
trust was being opposed.
Now. however. all these former enc
mics are making common cause against
| the sls4l combination. which is accused
| OF reaching ont around all Of them
undermining them by seiZInR their sup
| plies OF materials 1T seems that back
| IN the months when the 'aranZa au-
thoritv in Mexico Was struggling for
|
mately succeed in gaining the approval
| of the Washington Government. 1t got
| very hard up, and that proVlded TN"
! opportunity for the sisal usurpers They
made some sort OF dicker with the Car
rama regime, which was entirely ascen-
| dant in Iucatan. and got control of the
mar rketinE privileges dominatinG the
crop. The exact nature of this conces-
sion Is not very cellar. Out its results
| have been eNCeedinclv obvious
Backed BY Carranza.
Last year" e%llamed Mr.. rrons
| dorf. the price CT siSal was ub0ut :,
Ter cent abon e normal. That Was nre
stunned to be u natuIHl result of turbo
lent conditions in Mexico. But this =, a
soll there is a huge advance 0ver las
years priceS. and every indication ma
| the increase Will continue.
| "DoNn to last autumn there was "Om
petition and an open market Then th'
Commissions Kcguladora d"l Nercad
de Henequcn. OF Merida. Yucatan. JiCn
cd offices in New York, at u Wal
street, and established itself ns th
sole buyers Of sisal in THCatan. an'
the sole sellers C-f it IN the unite,
States. This commission is under
stood to have brought great quantitir
OF sisal to this country and stored Il il
warehouses IN Galveston. Mobile. Ncy
ork and New Orleans. They are OF
fering it to american manufactures d
| from to -. cents pound adNanc
over last wears prices. Nobody else /
offering. nobody else can get any OF III
fiber TIE CuiranTa government W
understand, is standing frrnly hack o
tho combination, and will brook no III
reference with the monODo!y.'
How to get AT this combination is
new question. The finer is brought {
the United States ani stored. and OF
fered for sale from warehouses here
This is urged as a reason why the com
~ nT Ti,An ct iE, AVaNF -ts,a
antitrust law. But the oWnershiu ,
the property is alleged 10 be TrXirur
So the question il whether n MeXica
comhiraticn can By punished FOR per
American soil
May Sacrifice Wheat Crop.
That same issue was raised III tn
Coffee trust case. in which the FRA
lillian government financially backed
combination to control the worlds COT
fee business. There was an America
agency of the combination. and tn
Washington Government took the pc
sition that the people aud propcrt
that were physically within the iuris
attacked, and they We're. In the en-
, | the affair was settled without a COuI
determination: the brazilian and Wash
ingtOn foreign offices got tOgethe
pressure was cNeTtcd upon our Depart
ment of Justice, and Attorney Genera
McReNnolds was induced to let IT.
: matter he settled by tn" dis"ontinuanC
OF tn" ohieCtiOnahl" practices of III
combination No precedent was cstal
lished for tho present case; but tn
coffee combine was rcGardcd as luck
to get CN 30 easily.
The pr"atcsr difficuItN about the SIS
p situation - that tho "rcar advance
'fCrE sir"C Ia si vcur has caused n
manufacturers " postpone maxim