in addition to New York, and a number of things of that kind— minor services that we were called upon to perform.

Mr. FISHER. That was this second contract which you read this morning?

Mr. WEXLER. Yes, sir.

Mr. FISHER. Has there been any further modifications of that contract?

Mr. WEXLER. The only modification has been an agreement on our part to be willing to accept a fixed commission in lieu of percentage commission for our services.

Mr. FISHER. And as to that, I understand you that the amount has not been agreed upon?

Mr. WEXLER. The amount has not been agreed upon.

Mr. FISHER. The contract has not been signed?

Mr. WEXLER. It has not been signed; it is subject to consideration.
Mr. FISHER. Have you the contract here to which you refer?
Mr. WEXLER. I have several copies.

Mr. FISHER. You have a copy there, have you, also, Mr. Wexler?
Mr. WEXLER. Yes; I have.

Mr. FISHER. Would you turn to it for a moment?

Mr. WEXLER. Sure. [After a pause.] I do not appear to have another.

Mr. FISHER. Have you, then, two copies of the edict or law creating this commission?

Mr. WEXLER. Yes.

Mr. FISHER. You have one for yourself, have you?

Mr. WEXLER. Yes.

Mr. FISHER. Turning, then, to that law or edict on the second page of it, article 4-

Mr. WEXLER. Yes.

Mr. FISHER. Article 4 contains several subdivisions.

Mr. WEXLER. Article 6 is the one.

Mr. FISHER. I am calling your attention to article 4. [After a pause.] You are right. It is not article 4; it is article 6, paragraph 3?

Mr. WEXLER. Yes.

Mr. FISHER. One of the objects of this Reguladora Comision is as follows. [Reading:]

To retain the quantities of henequen which it may consider necessary to take out of the market in order to maintain an equilibrium between supply and demand whenever the production shall be greater than the consumption.

Do you know whether there is or is not any excess of production of henequen at the present time?

Mr. WEXLER. I have no knowledge on the subject whatsoever.

Mr. FISHER. Do you know what the demand for henequen is at present, as compared with the previous normal times?

Mr. WEXLER. Extraordinarily good, from all accounts.

Mr. FISHER. Not "extraordinarily good," but in percentages. Is it equal to the normal demand?

Mr. WEXLER. I think it is in excess.
Mr. FISHER. You think it is in excess?
Mr. WEXLER. Very largely in excess.
Mr. FISHER. How do you explain that?

Mr. WEXLER. I explain it as being due to the fact that the price of manila is extremely high, for one thing; another thing is that you gentlemen all remained out of the market until your tongues were hanging out and then you had to go in and buy more than usual to make up for it.

Mr. FISHER. Is that all? Those are the only explanations?

Mr. WEXLER. I do not know. There may be many others; those are the ones which occur to me.

Mr. FISHER. Do you understand what the condition is with regard to the consumption of binder twine in the agricultural countries of Europe?

Mr. WEXLER. I am not at all familiar with it.

Mr. FISHER. You do not know whether the demand there is, and is practically certain to be during the next harvest season, very much below the normal requirement?

Mr. WEXLER. Oh, I should think in Germany, where it can not be shipped in, it would be below; but, of course, any of these ports which are open, I should say that the demand would be like yourswould be banked-up demand that would get very much heavier than it has ever been before, because of their great needs. The demand in the Argentine is as great as ever, and probably greater, and all South American countries.

Mr. FISHER. And how about Russia, for instance? Do you know anything about the actual condition of the market in Russia for binding twine?

Mr. WEXLER. I think some was shipped to Archangel, if I recollect correctly. Mr. Legge said he had been figuring with Russia for quite a large quantity.

Mr. FISHER. I asked you if you knew anything about the facts. Mr. WEXLER. How can I know? I am not in the fiber business. You are asking me. I must get it from certain hands; I can not know of my own knowledge. I am not dealing in the commodity.

Mr. FISHER. But, like many other things, you have given simply the best information you have got, as I understocd you, and I thought it would be helpful.

Mr. MAYER. You ought not to be arguing with the witness.

Mr. WEXLER. I have told you all I have got to say on the subject. Mr. FISHER. Very well. Take some of these things to which you have referred in connection with this 5 per cent commission. Mr. WEXLER. Yes.

Mr. FISHER. What would be the minimum commission which will be received by you and your associates under this transaction?

Mr. WEXLER. That will depend, of course, upon the price at which the hemp-that will depend-the minimum, you say?

Mr. FISHER. The minimum amount; the least you can possibly get. Mr. WEXLER. About $400,000.

Mr. FISHER. A year?

Mr. WEXLER. Yes.

Mr. FISHER. And you get that whether you loan anything whatever on the sisal?

Mr. WEXLER. Absolutely.

Mr. FISHER. If conditions during the next year continue so that the International Harvester Co. purchases approximately 50 per cent of the product, will there be any occasion to make any loans

28201-PT 1-16-14

upon that 50 per cent, so far as you and your associates are concerned?

Mr. WEXLER. Well, that is a question I can not answer; I do not know.

Mr. FISHER. Looking at it as a banking proposition, do you anticipate any possibilities?

Mr. WEXLER. That would depend upon the ability to get ships, and how fast the International Harvester Co. would want it shipped out, and many things.

Mr. FISHER. You only loan on sisal in this country?

Mr. WEXLER. Yes.

Mr. FISHER. Then the ships will have already been procured and the transportation will then have been performed?

Mr. WEXLER. Oh, no; but if ships were available much more of the product would be shipped to this country and carried here and held here. If the demand exceeds the shipping facilities or equals it, then the product would go right through. Therefore, the question of shipping has a bearing upon the subject.

Mr. FISHER. Let us analyze it a moment. If the product comes right through, the International Harvester Co., presumably, will require for the present and in the immediate future, at least, about 50 per cent of the product down there?

Mr. WEXLER. Yes.

Mr. FISHER. Will it not?

Mr. WEXLER. I do not know.

Mr. FISHER. That has been its requirement for some time, as you say, has it not?

Mr. WEXLER. I did not say so; you said it.

Mr. FISHER. Mr. Wexler, I understood you to refer to these two concerns as having control of the market and buying very much the greatest proportion of the market?

Mr. WEXLER. Yes, sir; nine-tenths of the production.

Mr. FISHER. Assuming that the Plymouth Cordage Co. and the International Harvester Co. take nine-tenths of the production---Mr. WEXLER. That is impossible.

Mr. FISHER. What amount do you think would be possible?

Mr. WEXLER. I do not know how many spindles they use nor what they handle. They can only get what they require for their

own use.

Mr. FISHER. Do you know what that is?
Mr. WEXLER. I have not the remotest idea.

Mr. FISHER. Not even approximately?

Mr. WEXLER. I might guess at it, but you do not want information of that kind. You can furnish the information yourself; you have it. There is no use trying to get accurate information when you have the accurate information yourself.

The CHAIRMAN. If you do not know, just say so.

Mr. WEXLER. The gentleman says I know, and I do not know. Mr. FISHER. I have not said anything of the kind. Assuming, Mr. Wexler, that the International Harvester Co.'s requirements for its own business are approximately 50 per cent of the production, do you, as a banker, anticipate the necessity of making any loans whatever on account of that 50 per cent of the production?

Mr. WEXLER. I have no opinion on the subject at all.

Mr. FISHER. Assuming that the Plymouth Cordage Co. has a demand for its own manufacturing purposes of 20 to 25 per cent, would that part of the commodity require any loans from you?

Mr. WEXLER. I do not know. I hope, for the benefit of the comision, they will not require any, and then they will save that much interest.

Mr. FISHER. But they will pay the $400.000 commission?

Mr. WEXLER. Absolutely, because we stand ready to loan the money should they need it. Answering your question: Suppose, on the other hand, you did not buy-you are putting hypothetical questions for four or five months, and the comision was compelled to store its product in order to pay the 4 cents down there, then I would be compelled to loan them the money. There is something neither of us can decide.

Mr. FISHER. Oh, yes; I think you can.

Mr. WEXLER. You think so, but I do not.

Mr. FISHER. Let us just consider a moment. You have explained how those people got their stocks down so low that they had to come to you and buy and were in a great distress.

Mr. WEXLER. They might not do that again for three months.

Mr. FISHER. In all events, they start with that, and their normal requirements are about 400,000, if it is 50 per cent of the product; and they have only bought three hundred and odd thousand bales to date. Mr. WEXLER. 346,000.

Mr. SPENCER. 360,000.
Mr. MAYER. 346,000.
Mr. WEXLER. 346,000.

Mr. FISHER. 346,000, so as to make up all past deficits from failure to borrow. To meet demands, they ought to have borrowed $456,000. Mr. WEXLER. You say they only need $400,000. They only have to pay for what they buy-that is, their consumption per annumand it would not make any difference when they bought it.

Mr. FISHER. Pardon me. If they have been shut down for three or four months, either because they wanted to be shut down or because they did not want to buy the sisal, that would be one-fourth of the year's production for a period they were not operating, when they did not have sisal.

Mr. WEXLER. I do not know whether they had any sisal; they may have had it. I know that they did import a shipload, a solid cargo from Manila, because Mr. Legge told me that before they were going to permit these people to carry out their ideas he had brought over a shipload from Manila and had paid 9 cents per pound; in other words, 2 cents more than he could buy the sisal.

Mr. FISHER. Was it not because he could not get it from the Comision Reguladora?

Mr. WEXLER. No, sir; it was not.

Mr. FISHER. We will have Mr. Legge tell us about it.

Mr. SPENCER. Do you desire a list of witnesses so that you could summon them in the meantime?

The CHAIRMAN. If any of these parties wish any witnesses put on the stand and wish us to summon them, we will have to summon them or they can produce them. We have not issued any formal summonses. We have notified people whom we thought were interested that they might come and give their testimony.

Mr. SPENCER. Can you say whether or not

The CHAIRMAN. If you know any you wish to summon and that you would like to have brought here, we will try to have them summoned.

Mr. SPENCER. There is one gentleman we would like to have summoned, the editor of a paper.

Mr. WEXLER. The Farm and Implement Journal.

Mr. SPENCER. We would like to have the editor of the Farm and Implement Journal summoned.

Mr. MEEHAN. His name is Charles A. Lukens.

Mr. WEXLER. I would like to have him bring his books.
Mr. MEEHAN. I would suggest Mr. Delano be summoned.

Mr. SPENCER. We will get him later.

Mr. ОRTH. In addition to the various State prisons which are making binder twine, I would suggest that there are two or three other manufacturers besides the International Harvester Co. and the Plymouth Cordage Co. who do considerable business every year, none of whom have been summoned to the hearing.

The CHAIRMAN. We have not summoned anyone. That is a little mistake. We have invited the public to come and testify. We knew the International Harvester Co. was interested; we knew that Mr. Wexler and Mr. Dinkins were interested, and we notified them, and also the Plymouth Cordage Co.; and you [Mr. Orth] telegraphed wanting to know whether you would be welcomed, and we told you that you would be. We have no arrangement to formally summon people here and force them to come at this time. If we have any trouble we may take steps later to get that permission, but we have been proceeding without formally summoning witnesses up to this time. We would be very glad to have anyone who can throw any light on this subject come, and if you will give the clerk the names of those manufacturers I will see that he issues them an invitation to appear, if they wish. Will you furnish them to our clerk, Mr. Orth? Mr. ORTH. Yes: I will do it with pleasure.

The CHAIRMAN. I will instruct him now to issue an invitation to those manufacturers to come.

Mr. FISHER. I am anticipating there will be quite a difference of recollection as to the conversations about which the testimony has been given. I suggest that these gentlemen arrange to have Mr. Arthur Reynolds here so they will not be surprised.

Mr. SPENCER. I see no objection; I should like to have Mr. Arthur Reynolds come. I make the suggestion that Mr. Reynolds be invited. Mr. FISHER. Mr. George M. Reynolds has been seriously ill in California, and I do not know his present condition. Therefore I, at present, refrain from suggesting his coming.

I want to make one other suggestion: I have not talked with any of them, but I understand that the Department of Agriculture has had a very interesting and important investigation made into this matter and can probably give you some light from an official source. Mr. WEXLER. Summon them.

The CHAIRMAN. And they have been notified to attend, and have declined to have a man here.

Mr. FISHER. I did not mean that. I proposed they might not be interested in the hearing; but if this committee desired to get information obtained by official means and by official representatives, I