The Topeka State Journal

KANSAS
NEWS
The Lansing Prison Twine Plant Hurts Trusts.
Forces Prices Down About Three Cents Per Pound.
SUITS THE FARMERS.
Shipping Out Over 100,000 Pounds Each Week,
Warden Tomlinson Explains the Successful Work.

Leavenworth, May 28.-The prison binding twine plant is accomplishing the object for which it was established. It is bringing the binding twine trust to time in Kansas. The trust is being forced to cut its prices, and Warden Tomlinson, of the penitentiary, says that as a result the farmers of Kansas will save at least $200,000 this year on their twine purchases.

"Two months ago the trust was asking 13 cents for old twine and from 15 to 16 cents for new twine for delivery this crop season," said the warden today. "About that time we figured on cost of production and decided that the prison plant could sell twine at 10 1/2 cents a pound at the prison. This would make about 11 cents laid down at the farmers' door. Then the trust agents began to knock on our twine. They declared that it was no good; that it was too large for binders and that our twine did not run as many feet to the pound as theirs. They attempted to make the farmers believe that they would have all kinds of trouble harvest time if they bought of us. They pointed out that the twine would not work and that the farmers would be tied up right in harvest time, and would lose their crops. They were regular geniuses in thinking up mean things to say against our twine. But we are bringing the trust to time just the same. Our twine is just as good, if not better, than theirs. One of the best experts the trust had in its employ superintends the prison plant, and with the very best modern machinery and the best of raw material why should we not make good twine?

"After finding out that their knocking was not having the desired effect," continued the warden, "the agents notified the trust, and it is now cutting prices. That is exactly what we want; that is what the prison plant was established for. In my county the trust started out to sell twine at 15 cents this spring. It has now got down to 12. The prison plant is directly responsible for the 3 cents reduction. In some parts of the state the trust has made a price of 11 cents. This is true in southern Kansas, so I am informed. At Newkirk, one of the first stations in Oklahoma south of the Kansas line, where our prison plant has no bearing on the situation, the trust is asking from 12 to 13 1/2 cents, 1/2 to 2 cents more than it asks in Kansas. The only excuse for this difference is that in Kansas it has competition."

"How are the prison sales?" was asked.

"We are now shipping out on an average 100,000 pounds a week," he replied. "Beginning this week, we expect to double that amount. The harvest season is near at hand and orders are coming in thick and fast. In the past five weeks we have shipped 500,000 pounds. We have that much on hand and are making at the rate of 65,000 pounds a week. We have received enough orders from other states to consume our surplus and output up until harvest time, but we are not filling these orders. We are selling only to Kansas farmers and to them direct. The Dakotas are pressing us to give them some twine. Their harvest is from two to three weeks later than ours and if we should have any twine left we can dispose of it up there without any trouble whatever.

"As to the probable saving Kansas farmers will reap this year as the result of the opening of the prison plant: Kansas will consume at least 10,000,000 pounds of twine in its oat and wheat harvest. Trust prices have fallen on an average of 2 cents a pound since we put our twine on the market. This knocks it out of $200,000 in profits. Its loss is the Kansas farmers' gain.

"But we have made some enemies," he concluded, "in doing this. The agents of the trust and many implement dealers who sell twine are complaining-in fact, they are howling. But for every trust agent and implement dealer we make sore we make fifty farmers happy."