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The Commoner.
10
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Senator Jones' Letter.
Chicago, Aug. 21, 1901. Hon. A. A.
Losueur, Kansas City, Mo. My Dear
Sir: In compliance with your request,
I will endeavor to stato briefly the facts
about the American Cotton company
and my connection with it.
1st. tt is charged, as I understand
that I am connected with trusts, and
the charge is attempted to be sustained
by the assertion that I am a stock
holder in the American Cotton com
pany. 2d. That this company is a trust bo
causo in its original organization four
other companies were merged in it,
the implication being that these were
competing companies and that they
were merged to avoid competition.
3d It is suggested, though I believe
I have not seen it directly charged,
that stock in excess of the actual value
of the cash and property of the com
pany has been Issued.
4th. That it does not sell its presses,
but leases them.
5th. That it buys the cotton packed
by its presses and intends by this
means to monopolize the cotton mar
ket. .6th. That it has a monopoly of the
round-line method of packing cotton.
A plain statement of the facts will,
I think, show how easily in all this,
ignorance and persistent malice may
pervert the truth. I am a stockholder
in the American Cotton company, a
company organized to operate "a new
cotton press, believed by us to be in
finitely superior to any other press
ever invented. This company is in no
sense a trust, has not a single feature
or characteristic of a trust in its en
tire history or organization. The press
operated by the American Cotton com
pany is the Invention, as I believe, of
J. W. Graves, and for a number of
years I and several other gentlemen
were engaged in trying to perfect it.'
After much labor, care and expense
we had it in satisfactory condition.
During this time it appears that three
other companies or associations of per
sons were engaged in trying to develop
and perfect the same process. I and
my associates believed, .and. I firmly
believe now, as I suppose they all do,
that Mr. Graves was the original in
ventor of the press, and that we were
the rightful and sole owners of it.
The others seemed to be just as firmly
convinced that they were each the in
' ventor and rightful owner. Some one
was evidently mistaken. There was
one press, one invention, but who the
first inventor and owner might be was
, a matter of controversy. There were
two ways of determining the question
a law suit, which would involve years
of litigation and great expense, or a
compromise. After long delay and
', i i in i i
FOOD CUKE
Nature's Way to lie gain Honltli
A man mav trv all sorts of drucs to
help him to get well, but after all the
"food cure" is the method intended by
nature.
Anyone can prove the efficacy of the
food cure by making use of the follow
ing breakfast each morning for fifteen
or twenty days:
A dish containing not more than four
heaping teaspoonfuls of Grape-Nuts,
enough good, rich cream to go with
them, some taw or cooked fruit, not
more than two slices of entire wheat
bread, and not more than one cup of
Postum Food Coffee, to be sipped, not
drank hurriedly. Let this suffice for
the breakfast.
Let one meal in the day consist of an
abundance of good meat, potato and
one other vegetable.
This method will quickly prove the
value of the-selection of the right kind
of food to rebuild the body and re
place the lost tissue which is destroyed
every day and must be made up, or
disease of sbme sort onters in. This
is an age of specialists, and the above
suggestions are given by a specialist
in food values, dietetics and hygiene,
much discussion the parties reluctantly
agreed that it would be better to di
vide the invention fairly amongst us
all, each having a share, rather than
spend years in a law suit to determine
which company of the four should own
tho entire patent. None of the claim
ants of tho patents had tne capital
necessary to the introduction of the
new press, and men with means had
to bo interested 'to procure tho neces
sary capital for this purpose. The
necessary capital and only the neces
sary capital, for its successful opera
tion, was provided by certain gentle
men living in New York, and the com
pany organized, stock issued dollar for
dollar for the money paid in and for
our patents at an agreed value, and
this stock issued for the patents was
divided among the four companies in
stead of all being issued to one, as
would have been the case if either one
had established its sole right to" the
ownership of the patent. The effect
of this was simply to have a larger
number of people owning the patent
than would have been the case other
wise. There was not one dollar of
watered stock issued; every dollar of
stock represented actual value either
in money, dollar for dollar, or in stock
at a value agreed upon between the
holders of the patents and those who
furnished tho money for the company.
The constitution and laws of the
country have given the owners of pat
ents for a century exclusive rights to
use their inventions for a limited num
ber of years. We believe that our
press saves from three to four dollars
on every bale of cotton, and we charge
for the use of our press and patent in
proportion to the work actually done
by it, and receiving for such use about
one-fourth of what we believe to be
the actual saving, by its use.
An ordinary plantation "bale weighs
about 12 founds to the cubic foot.
"What Is known in commerce as a
compressed" bale, that is, a plantation
bale which has been subejeted to a
pressure of 2,400 tons to reduce its
size, weighs about 22 pounds to the
cubic foot, whereas, our bales, made
at the erin and bv a sinclfi nrnness with
a pressure of ten (10) tons, weigh 35
pounds to the cubic foot, and instead
of being packed in a mixed mass full
of compressed air through and through
as in the old style (and exceedingly
inflammable) they contain no com
pressed air, and arejthereby absolutely
fire-proof and are made by forming
the cotton into a smooth, regular bat
and rolling it upon a cylinder.
The cotton buyers, un to this time.
have refused to buy our bales, hence
when we place a press in a gin we are
compelled to guarantee to the ginner
a market for the bales put up bv the
press. We obligate ourselves there
fore to buy from each ginner, if he de
sires it, every bale of cotton packed by
him on our press at the actual market
price or cotton of the same grade
packed in any other way. We do not
and never have asked or required any
ginner to sell us any cotton. He is
at liberty to sell to anybody he chooses
and anywhere; we only agree that in
case he prefers to sell to us we will
take his cotton. We do not desire to
buy the cotton; would prefer that
other buyers should do so, but we do
not propose to have our invention de
stroyed by being boycotted, hence we
provide a market for its product.
Ours is not the only round-bale
press. The Lowery press is in open
and sharp competition with us In al
most every locality where our presses
are, and is a round-bale press. There
is not and never has been any co-operation
or understanding between us,
but as I said above, we are in open
and sharp competition with them all
the time. I believe there are some
other companies claiming to have
round-bale presses also, but I know lit
tle aobut these. There has been no
effort on the part of our company to
absorb any other company for the pur
pose of suppressing competition or to
make any combination with anv nth or
J company, or to get any other company
out of business, except for infringe
ments of our patents. Having faith
in our process, believing that our press
puts up cotton better than any other,
.wo believe that, when the public un-
uerstanus tms, our metnoa wjn oe gen
erally adopted on account of its own
merits.
We use no bagging and no ties. Our
bales are smooth, clean and regular in
form. They are handled with greater
ease both in wagons and cars than any
other bale. They can be packed more
compactly in ships and cars than any
other bales, and we trust to these ad
vantages, and not to the suppression of
competition for the general introduc
tion of the new method. Tho old
method of packing cotton, which has
been in use for years, is open to all
mankind. Anybody can .erect these
presses anywhere and operate them,
and no one will use our press unless
he believes he gets advantages over
the old system thereby. The charge
then that we are undertaking to mon
opolize the packing of cotton is ab
surd. Very sincerely yours,
JAMES K. JONES.
They Hate Americans.
A dispatch from Washington, dated
July 3, tells the true story of the Fili
pino's attitude toward the Americans:
Civil government will tomorrow su
persede military control throughout all
of the Philippine islands not in actual
rebellion against tho United States.
Rear Admiral Rogers in command of
the naval forces in the Philippines, re
ports to the navy department that the
insurrection has been practically . put
down in every part of the archipelago,
but there has just been laid before Sec
retary Root information of an entire
ly different character. '
It is a review of the situation by an
officer who has devoted especial atten
tion to the. attitude of the Filipinos
towards the Americans and it indicates
a belief on his part that civil govern
ment for a long time at least will be a
mockery. This officer finds that in
many cases the officers who have been
in command of the posts and districts
Ijaave lacked tact in dealing with the
nauves ana tnat despite orders from
headquarters that the treatment to
which the Filipinos have been sub
jected has been cruel and harsh. He
goes so far as to assert that in some
cases the villages have "been burned on
slight provocation and that some offi
cers have even resorted to torture in
trying to extract information from
natives.
He is not specific in these statements
though he says that in many cases the
officers who improperly treated the na
tives were young volunteers without
experience.
This officer says that while large
numbers of the natives have taken
tho oath of allegiance it is not because
they are reconciled to the rule of the
United States. They hate the Ameri
cans, heays, more than they ever did
the Spaniards, and they would rise to
morrow if they thought they could
drive the Americans out; but they see
that resistance is hopeless and submit,
many of them believing that they will
soon liave a complete local self-government
as communities in the United
States and as full individual civil
rights as citizens of the United States.
He does not believe that there is much
probability of these hopes being real
ized, though he considers the Filipinos
are as well fitted for self-government
as the Inhabitants of the South Ameri
can countries. He says they will al
ways hate the Americans worse than
they hated the Spaniards, for tho rea
son that under the Americans the feel
ing of race exclusiveness will be more
constantly and offensively emphasized
than it was under the Spaniards.
Of course they hate tho Americans
It is natural that they should. God
hates a liar, hypocrite and tyrant, and
why should not man? The treatment
to which the Filininos havo hoon Qu
J jected by the Americans is enough to
Great Stock Countrv.
No bettor cattle and sheop countrv
in America. Cheap lands, pure running
water, and flowing wells, fine climate no
malaria, plenty of hay. Writo for infor
mation to
J. O. MORROW,
. O'Neill, Nob.
h embitter and make resentful the soul
or lnunite rorgiveness and love. They
have been robbed of their country
plundered, humiliated and otherwise
harshly used. The colonist hated the
Englishman foe the same treatment ot
them, only not quite so bad, as their
sons are now inflicting upon the im
potent Filipinos. I can't understand
who will undertake to defend such a
policy. It violates every preceDt and
principle of the Sermon on the Mount,
repeals the chief commandment given
by the Man of Gallilee, outrages every
preconceived idea of man's duty to
man, and holds the Declaration of In
dependence up to the world as an out
worn and obsolete document. Yes, they
hate us worse thttn they did the Span
iards, and will continue to hate us. The
Americans have treated them worse
than the Spaniards ever treated them.
Not alone by the infliction of physical
punishment, the destruction of proper
ty and taking human life, but by
wounding their pride, and the base de
ception which the Americans have been
guilty of. A proud, brave man may
suffer the loss of property, be re
duced from affluence to penury, and
forgive the author of his misfortune;
but when you humiliate him, bruise his
pride, in a word, insult his manhood,
he will hate you to the end. Ages
may obliterate, or rather eradicate,
that feeling, but not until many gen
erations shall have jpassed away. VI
have no other feeling than the most
profound sympathy and commisera
tion for the Filipino. The Common
wealth. Books Received.
Ellen, or the Whisperings of an Old
Pipe, by Joseph Battell; published by,
American Publishing Co.M'iddlebury,
Vt.
The Road to Ridgeby's, by Frank
Burlingame Harris; published by,
Small, Maynard & Co., Boston.
The City for tho People, or the
Municipalization of the City Govern
ment and of Local Franchises, by
Frank Parsons; published by C. F.
Taylor, 1520 Chestnut St., Philadelphia.
The Laborer and His Hire, by I. M.
Shanklin; published by the Neale Co.,
431 11th st, Washington.
The Pli"ogopliy of History, by S. S.
Hebberd; published by the author, La
Crosse, Wis.
Poems, by Chas. McCubbin; pub
lished by the author, Neveda, Mo.
Death: the Meaning and Result, by
John-K. Wilson; published by the Sun
flower Publishing Co., Lily Dale, N. Y.
Interludes, Verses, by Belle Willey
Gue; published by the Household
Realm Press, Chicago.
Sonnets to a Wife, by Earnest Mc
Gaffey; published by Wm. Marion
Reedy, St. Louis.
American Supremacy, a Compilation
of Facts and Statistics Regarding For
eign Commerce, by Chas. Austin Bates;
published by the author, New York
Ulty.
The Captain of an Ocean Liner.
Nowadays the captain is the host of
the ship. He is no longer the gruff,
rough sea-dog in a pea-jacket of years
gone by. He must observe some of
the social amenities. He must talk to
the passengers now and then, when
the weather is fine. He must take his
seat at table Tvhen he may. He must
bo a kind of diplomat also, and pos
sess wit and tact and a patience su
blime. He must see that no Jealousies
develop among the passengers, r nave
been told of the very obliging captain,
who, to please the lady who askea
to be shown the equator while tn
!
If r.
P
