Evening star., 1923-03-25
WHY HOOVER is CUNNING
FOR THE SISAL COMBINE
Yucatan Monopoly Controls Supply oI
Fiber Absolutely Essential to the
American Farmer.

or New York on board ward lirt
steamers. which had the exclusive
contract for carrying the product
And finally the price of sisal ts
manufacturers of binding twine wal
fixed by the comision and sales made
and controlled through the New
York offices. A nice. close corpora.
ton. without a leak anywhere. And
here is what happened:
When the monopoly was tab!ish
ed sisal was selling for ga cents per
pound. This was the period describ
happily in the cleaning as they 1icc
their sheaves of wheat with twiat
made from Yucatan sisal. In MAJ
1916. few months after the l1o.
nopoly was in smooth running order
.he price mad jumped TO 7Ss cents
pound. In July of the same year the
price crept UP to 10ss cents a pound
In December. to the accompanying
tune OF laughter from the siSal gro ".
ers and groans from the twinc.
makers, the price had gone up to l4ia
cents pound. and in January, 1917
the price of 161a cents a pound fol
sisal was joyfully squeezed out of
the twin manufacturers by the Mevi.
can growers and the American cap:.
talists who were leding tnem TIE
money. In 1920 it cost the America.
cereal grower something like sc5..
100000 more to tie up his bundles Of
wheat. oats and rye than 1t had cost
MN 10 perform this Simple operation
five years before.
Taxation Creates Monopoly.
All good things must have an end
among them being the hide-bound
contract between the growers and the
comision exportadora, which lasted
Tor FIVE years. But instead Of repent.
ing OF its sins and letting the old con.
tract go, the comision exportadora
made another clever move 1t was re.
ported recently In the commerce re.
ports, sandwiched between an item
labeled New Linen Trust in Soviet
russia and another saying BRAD
FORD Combers Are Busy" The item,
headed, 1ucatan Henequen Monop-
oIE, went on to state that the Yucca
tan congress had exempted all grow
ers VINO sold their product to the
comiston exportadora from tax Of
cents per 20 pounds Of sisal This
closed the bag tighter than ever. The
Indians are strong for tax exemption
50 they cheerfully turn over every
thing to the comision exportadora and
smil!ngly give the independent buyer
| the gate. So the monopoly, in Mexico,
Is as strong as ever.
when the war came along the de-
nland for sisal twine of course went
In the cultivation Of the henequen
plant is to watch your step and let
II grow. avoiding trampling on the
young heneequens. The Sisal grow
ers watched their step accordingly
and great quantities of sisal were pro-
duced. The warehouses in New York
began TO bulge and when the war
was over and the hard times came,
the farmers let up in their cry for
twine and the price began to tumble.
Bankers Caught in Squeeze.
! 1t tumbled fast, but the stocks OF
| sisal failed to diminish. So a group
| of American bankers, who had a lot
| of money tied up in pre-war sisal
formed a corporation to get rid Of il,
| This corporation made an arrange
ment with the comision exportadora
TO let them sell their sisal. The cor
poration disposed of the old pre-Ha ar
sisal by making the twine manufac-
! turers take a percentage of II with
! new siSal. For instance, a tUine
manufacturer would like to buy
| thousand bales of new sisal, at the
current price of something like
| cents pound. He would get his
thousand bales of new sisal, but had
| TO take along with it. say, three or
four hundred bales Of old sisal. Old
| sisal rots. like all fiber. SO a certain
amount of rotten twine was manufac
| tured. leading to further howls from
| the poor farmer, who long since
ceased to sing in the cleaning as he
| bound his bundle of oats
The price of siSal today is much
| lower than 1t was in the days of the
war But what the Commerce De
partment and the Agricultural De-
partment and others, who have the
| interest of the farmers at heart rear
| hon
happen again. Besides this. the stsai
| monopoly not only controls its prices.
| hut controls its sales. and can cut
| off a customer from the list without
blinking an eyelaSh, such hardboiled
| procedure resulting In ruin TOT the
/ customer, who cannot compete with
/ rival who sells the Yucatan sisal
| twine. Yucatan sisal cannot pc ou
| plicated because it is the cheapest
| sisal for binding twine in captivity.
Sisal can be. and is grown. IN A1rlSa:
but Africa Is long way on, ana py
the time African sisal reaches the
! United States IL must bow Its heao III
shame at the price asked comPareu
with the price for Yucatan sisal. a
| manufacturer of twine is afraid To
buy other sisal. He runs the chance
! of stocking up on 1t and having his
| throat cut by rival who compla-
Gently buys the monopolistlc @ uca tan AZ
product at a price. perhaps reduced IN
| his favor TO punish the manufacturer
! who grew too bold.
| And there. for the edltication OF the
abused man on the street" Is the
! situation Congressional investiga-
! ttons and court action through inJunc-
| tions have failed to break up mo-
nopoly which is shared between a for
| eign nation and American capitalists
with resulting detriment to the
American farmer. That is why the
! Secretary of Commerce was able to
pry several hundred thousand dollars
away from Congress. He wants to
/ IL I, L.