The Topeka state journal., 1916-04-15
TWINE IS HIGHER
Farmers Will Pay an Increase
of so Per Cent.
viii Cost the State 100000
More This Year.
THIS ON STATE PRISON OUTPUT
1t Is but 0ne-SiXth of the
Amount Used.
Price Advances From $5.S3 to
$7.35 per Cwt.
THIS ON STATE PRISON OUTPUT

Farmers in Kansas will pay $780,
600 more this year for binding twine
manufactured at the state prison plant
at Lansing. according to announce
ment made at that institution by E. c.
Lands, treasurer of the twine plant
factory And the product manufac-
tured at Lansing is only one-sixth OF
all used in the state. In short, the
Kansas farmer must pay SO per cent
more for his binding twine than he
did last year.
Throughout the eastern section of
Kansas the high price of twine is one
of the important topics of conversa-
ton. The western farmer has dis
carded his binder and now uses the
headers that require no twine so he
smiles at the boys" around Topeka,
Atchison and Leavenworth.
Where Blame Is Placed.
Explanation of the reason for All
increase in price emanates from the
Lansing institution and blame is
placed upon a New Orleans syndicate
which it is alleged has made arrange
ments with the governor OF Yucatan
whereby both parties can take down
handsome sum. The governor OF
Yucatan, where the sisal plant grows
in great profusion, appointed a sisal
regulation committee.
All sisal must be marketed through
the regulation committee. In TINS
way, it is asserted, the monopoly has
brought the price of twine up from
$3.50 a hundred to $7.35. This is a rea-
son why prison labor at Jefferson City
no longer competes with free labor.
This Years Output.
At Lansing the output of twine this
year has been announced as 100000
pounds, or half a million above the
average. Men are working eight
hours day on the stringy fiber, turn
ing out 10000 pounds a day. 2'4oo
balls, or five balls weighing five
pounds each every minute. Ninety
men are working in modern L
shaped brick building with wooden
roof for 3A cents a day, and already
have turned out s1SO,000 in what Wis
itors are told is the most valuable
product of the prison. Yet it is not
insured.
Sisal is rope fiber. Fray out
small, we'll formed rope to the length
of four or five feet and you have sisal
fiber This must be a small white
rope as hemp is used in larger ropes.
This fiber comes from Yucatan in
bales of 375 pounds and it takes
month to get it on the spot. These
bales are handled from the car by
means of a steam tractor and piled
high in the storehouse.
"Brealzers'' First.
The sisa1 bales are opened by con-
VictS and started IN on their journey
through the tWine plant. The first Sc
ries of carding and combing machines
are called breakers. The sisal is mixed
with oil and runs through rollers and
carding machines where steel prongS,
looking like nails, running on an end
less apron, comb out the sisal into
endless fiber masses of Sisal- One of
the strings of fiber looks like a small
rope combed out.
Cenvicts stand at the end of these
machines and feed in the sisal. AS the
sisal runs through ten of these ma
chimes it becomes more and more pill
able. Finally it is run down into
smaller string of fiber-just enough to
make a string of twine. Ninety men
are on the move, serving the farmers
of Kansas. There is a waste of lint,
oily enough to be inflammable and the
product, costing $735 a hundred
pounds. is sold for 1926 at Lansing in
car load lots.
The Final Process.
But the final procesS-the spinning.
The prison has a 60-spindle plant. The
strands of twine are sent through these
sixty machines, each with two looms.
All that a layman sees is sisal twisted
into twine. The looms run in one di-
rection and twist the twine into the
finished strands. This factory is full
of small wheels and bearings and is as
noisy as one can imagine Every ma
chine of the 120 sends a shrill whirr
with a metallic sound that makes
conversation impossible.
Seven ball bearing machines spin
the balls. A trough behind these ma