Evening star., 1926-03-16

crushed. after the manner Of crushing
sugar cane.
Thousands Of pounds of guayuIe are
used In mixtures with other rubber; il
Is not SO good, however, as para rub
Der. It will be q long time before we
| can develop homo competition with
East India rubber production.
X x < 4
Brazil produces o5 per cent Of the
worlds coffee, and the United States
consumes more than half Of her
crop--55 per cent. For the last 20
years the Brazilian government has
exercised "valoriZation' of her cof-
fee ito standardize prices Yet.
while the coffee producer was getting
| 6 cents q, pound for his crop we were
paying 80 cents retail In the United
States; since government control has
Increased efficiency" we pay from
SO to 60 per cent higher. This con-
troll began in 1906 by the govern.
| ment's buying 10000. 900 bags, which
1t held out Of export five. years, then
| sold 1t at a profit. by reason OF its
corner" This enterprise was made
possible by a British loan Of 5000, 900
pounds sterling.
In 1918 a second large purchase
| was made by the government,
financed by issuing paper money and
by a loan-a total Of 100000 900.
That enabled the government to ma
! nipulate prices and sell at profit in
1919. Since 1921 the government
merely limits the shipment OF coffee
from plantations. Loans from Amer
lean banks have enabled the Brazil
| ians to hold their shipments until
| they could raise prices on American
consumers. Our coffee excess cost
is $135,O0o.o0o a year.
| < \ x X
I Germany. before the war, held q
| monopoly on potash; today France
shares that monopoly through pos
| session of Alsace. Lorraine: but 1t is
stilI monopoly, even with France and
Germany combined, and it IS sus.
tanned by agreement between the
| governments Of those "eneny ma.
| tions."
! Potash has been found in Texas by
diggers for oil. but it will cost a mil.
f; lion dollars to ascertain whether 1t is
there in sufficient quantities to be
| profitable. In the meanwhile the
iFranco.Germans outbid Americans In
America. A bill is pending to enable
the Department Of the Interior to
bore and test the potash.
* v X i
We are paying to the government
of Chile an export tax OF $l6,O32,00O
a year on the nitrates we buy. Chile
has the only natural deposit of pure
nitrates in the world. When we com
plete our Muscle Shoals development
we may make our own from the air.
Yucatan holds the cord that could
strangle American grain raising. She
raises Is per cent OF the WORLDS slsal
and we buy 80 per cent of 1t. Our
soil and climate would produce sisal
but there is problem Of labor. We
cannot hire sis. laborers Tor 6o
cents O day, as does Yucatan. We
cannot import Mexicans to raise our
sisal on our own soil, because or our
immigration laws. so we let fucatan
control our binding twine. II the
kaiser had succeeded in buying all
Yucatan's sisal In 1917 and 1918 our
wheat would have suffered, or we
would have been at war with Mexico
for seizing the fiber. Manila hemp
lis better but insufficient In quantity.
| y X X
Mississippi and Texas can produce
ilong staple cotton. almost as good az
that Of Egypt. Would it pay? The
Weld per acre is less than ordinary
cotton, so that the spread in price
does not make it profitable--at least
lit. has not yet demonstrated the profit
'Spinners declare that with additional
labor in spinning they can substitute
short cotton wherever long staple Is
used. Hence, they claim, we need MOI