Evening star., 1923-03-25
BY BEN McKELwAY.

4
known as an out and out
| ignoramus, must be called In
for a moment before this story can
| proceed any further. He is asked
herewith, What do YOU know OF
Yucatan sisal or henequen, and why
all this excitement about its monopo-
| listic control which enabled the Sec
retary Of Commerce to pry several
thousand dollars loose from Congress
and the budget bureau to start an IN
yestigation to save the American ce-
real grower from being strangled 70
| death with piece of binding tWine!
| The Man on the Street" having re-
l spectfully answered, Nothing, the
| tale may now go on.
! Sisal is a fiber obtained from the
leaves of the henequen plant (agaVe
rigida). and with insignificant ex-
| ceptions Mexico is its only producing
| country. with the output of Mexico
! conferred in the state OF Yucatan.
4 where sisal is the principal source OF
| agricultural wealth. One hundred
| thousand acres, approximately. are
under cultivation there, and seven
eighths Of population of $4,000.
1 mostly Indians. devote all their time
! between siestas to producing annu-
ally ] ,000,000 bales of So pounds each
| Of the stuff Every shred OF the sisal
! is exported. and virtually all Of IL is
consumed by manufacturers Of binder
| twine in the United States. Eighty
| per cent OF all binder twine used in
| the United States and Canada is man
| ufactured from sisal grown in fuca-
tan. for which there is no practical
! substitute.
! Happy Harmony Broken Up.
Before 1915 tho Yucatan Indians
| were blissfully harvesting their crops
of sisal and selling them when and
where they could. American binding
| twine manufacturers were just as
blissfully buying from the Indians
and the American cereal farmers were
/ happily reaping their wheat and oats
and tying it into neat bundles with
twine made from Yucatan sisal.
| Everybody was happy and not 4
| thing to investigate.
| But in 1915 things began TO happen.
a few years before the congress Of
! Yucatan had abruptly awakened from
/ a long sleep and realized what a
| splendid opportunity existed within
| its gat to gather unto itself a large
and exclusive corner in the siSal mar
| ket This congress passed a law
creating a commission with the musf-
| cal name of "Comision ReEuladora del
Morcado da Henequen." with five
| members ard the governor of Yucca
tan the president ex ofticio. which was
authorized to perform all mercantile
| operations which it may consider ad-
visable in order to elevate and main
tain the prices of Yucatan fiber at a
level which shall be remunerative to
it's producers to the extent permitted
by competition in other fibers." and
"to retain the quantities which may
be necessary to take out of the mar
ket in order to maintain the eQuilib-
rum between supply and demand
! whenever the production shall be
greater than the consumption" Spe-
cial taxes were levied to support the
commission. which entered into com
petition with other buyers Of sisa
and exported sisal to the United
States at advanced prices.
More Stringent Measures
But the "Comision Reguladora
wasn't very successful. The Indians
didn't always sell their fiber to the
comision, and it failed TO tie up all
production. BY 1915, however. a mill
tary government, or despotism, de-
pending on the point OF view. had
superseded the constitutional govern
| ment in Yucatan and had things run
ming pretty much it's own way. I,
reorganized the "Comision Regula.
dora" and changed it's name to the
"Comision EXportadora." which didn't
/ mar the musical effect and allow ed
more stringent measures. The first
thing the "Comision EXportadora" die
was to write out a five-year contract
| which allowed the sisal growers 4
| cents more pound for their sisaI
1 haan nd
, | anteed them a share in the profits al
!. the end of the year
A dotted line was printed on the
contract and the sisal growers were
told to sign here" Some OF then
wanted to sign; others didn't want tc
| sign. but thought. in view Of the
political situation. it would be expe.
dient to do SO; and still others didn't
want to sign. but did so after meth.
DDS of persuasion known to exist ir
military despotisms were resorted to
It wasn't long until the "comfsior
! exportadora" had things pretty Tucf
its own way.
Tied Up for Five Years.
But even then something had to be
done to establish a floating credit ir
the United States before the sisa,
could be prouerly marketed. Tive
New Orleans bankers formed IL cor
poration which financed the sisa
sales, branch of the comisfon ex-
portadora was established in New
York city and everything was fixed
The producers were bound by five
year contract to deliver to the
comision exportadora all sisal they
produced. The comision paid the
producers a fixed price and divided
profits at the end of the year. The
| tjrn 6IC chtnnad ,tpl