Twenty-third. Any and all moneys at any time payable hereunder by the Comision to the Corporation shall, when the same become due or payable under this contract, be paid by the Comision to the Corporation at the office of the latter in said city of New York. It is expressly agreed that this contract, including all of its provisions, is entered into with reference to and shall be construed and interpreted under and in accordance with the laws of the State of New York. Twenty-fourth. The terms of this contract shall be for the period specified in article fifteenth and sixteenth hereof. In witness whereof said Comision Reguladora del Mercado de Henequen has caused this instrument to be duly signed and sealed by its duly authorized attorney in fact, and said parties of the second part have hereunto set their hands and seals. All done in original duplicate at the place and on the day and date first above written. El Subscrito Consul General de Mexico en Nueva York, E. U. A. Certifica que la firma que antecede es del Señor Dr. Victor A. Rendon, Apoderado General en los Estados Unidos, de la Comision Reguladora del Mercado de Henequen de Merida, Yucatan, y la misma que acostumbra user en todos los documentes que antoriza, por lo cual se la debe dar fe y credito. New York, 13 de noviembre de 1915. El consul general: Derechos. Blrs. $4. $8. (Signed) Derechos dobles, por despacho en horas extraordinarlas. ALFRED CATUREGLI. Dr. RENDON. I went to Yucatan and had a conversation with the governor. Then I came back to New Orleans, and Mr. Wexler was then in Chicago, and I went to Chicago and met him. I left New Orleans one Saturday evening at 8 o'clock, and reached Chicago the next day, Sunday, about a quarter past 10. I went to bed immediately, as I was tired, and the next morning at half past 8 met Mr. Wexler. We took breakfast together, and went to the office of Mr. Mayer. I was in that office when he was telephoning the telephone rang, and I heard him say, "Yes; Dr. Rendon is here in my office." There was, I think, Mr. Reynolds or somebody else in the bank telling him that Dr. Rendon was in town, and he said, "He is here in my office." I was surprised, because I was not acquainted in Chicago. I had been there a few hours. I had reached Chicago at a quarter past 10, and it was about 10 o'clock in the morning. That showed that I was followed by detectives. They were drawing the contract. Mr. Reynolds-Arthur Reynolds, I think, is the name-told that he had been called by Mr. Legge, I think it was, in the morning, and asked if he was going into this deal on the sisal matter. He answered in the affirmative, and he said, "Well, don't you do it. You are risking to lose your money. You don't know those people, and you are going to lose your money." "Well, anyhow, I am going in.' That was in the morning. About 2 o'clock I went to the International office in Chicago, because I was called by Mr. Perkins to go there, and I think at the same hour Mr. McCormick called Mr. Reynolds again and told him that if he was going into that deal he would withdraw all his funds from that institution Mr. FISHER. Now, Mr. Chairman, I just want to call your attention to the character of this evidence. That is all. The CHAIRMAN. Did you hear this statement yourself, Doctor? Dr. RENDON. No; I did not hear it. I was informed right there The CHAIRMAN. How did you know that Mr. McCormick had told Mr. Reynolds that? Dr. RENDON. Because Mr. Reynolds said that. The CHAIRMAN. He told you so? Dr. RENDON. Certainly. The CHAIRMAN. Then, you got it directly from Mr. Reynolds himself? Go ahead. Dr. RENDON. They were going to withdraw the funds from the bank, and I think he was-or somebody else in the same corporation was-vice president of the bank, and he would send in his resignation. In fact, I have been told that in these last weeks they have withdrawn their funds from that Continental & Commercial Bank of Chicago. Mr. FISHER. Mr. Chairman, could you not find out, incidentally, who it was told him that? It will be a little difficult, as you can see, to follow this unless we go through the stenographer's notes very carefully afterwards. The CHAIRMAN. Would you object to saying who told you that? Dr. RENDON. No. That is common conversation among the men who are in this deal Mr. FISHER. It is in the air? Mr. WEXLER. We will furnish the evidence. Mr. FISHER. As I understand it, they are furnishing it now. Mr. MAYER. As counsel for the Continental & Commercial Bank I can say to you now that the International Harvester Co. has withdrawn its deposits. Mr. FISHER. IS Mr. Mayer to be regarded as a witness also? Mr. MAYER. May I suggest to the chairman, is this proceeding to be interrupted The CHAIRMAN. I do not want to have it interrupted any more than we are obliged to. I stated at the beginning how we were going to do it. You must realize, of course, that this is not a court of justice, and we can not be governed here by all the strict rules that would apply in a court. We are going to try to get at it as well as we can. You must rely upon the committee to sift hearsay from direct testimony. Mr. FISHER. I do not want to interrupt you at any time, Mr. Chairman, upon anything, if you would prefer not to have the testimony interrupted. The CHAIRMAN. I am willing to have such interruptions as have occurred up to this time. Mr. FISHER. I just wish to suggest to you, Mr. Chairman, that without having any technical rules of evidence whatever, it would be help ful to have each witness testify and not have counsel attempt to supplement testimony by ex parte statements which apparently are not going to be subject to cross-examination. Let the witness testify, and as he goes on let us have some specifications, instead of saying that he just gets that in the air. Let us have the witness testify. The CHAIRMAN. We will try to do that as nearly as we can. Senator GRONNA. Doctor, you do not know of your own knowledge that these funds have been withdrawn from this bank; you only know it from hearsay? Is that a fact? Dr. RENDON. Yes, sir. I have no connection in Chicago. I am not in the banking business, so all I get is from the other banks. They talked about that. I have no reason to be in connection with them and to know their own business. Under all that opposition and all those threats, we signed the contract here in New York. It was about the 9th of November-or the 13th of November. The CHAIRMAN. Have you the contract? Mr. WEXLER. We filed it right there [indicating]. The CHAIRMAN. The final contract? Mr. FISHER. I suppose Mr. Wexler was referring to the document already marked. The CHAIRMAN. Please mark it, Mr. Wexler, "Final contract," Mr. DINKINS. That contract has been changed in one particular. The CHAIRMAN. I was going to ask whether there had been any change since that was made. Doctor, has there been any change since that contract was made? Dr. RENDON. Yes, sir. The change you refer to is in the commission? Mr. WEXLER. Yes. Dr. RENDON. The change that has been made, Senator-they began to publish things against us The CHAIRMAN. Whom do you mean by "they"? Dr. RENDON. One Mr. Lukens started the ball rolling-the editor of the Farm Implement News, of Chicago, to whom I had written letters. I had written letters to the editors of the agricultural papers to let them know what I was doing, and I wrote to Mr. Lukens, and he answered back, and I saw by the tone of his letter that he was angry against us. I do not know his reason, but he did not publish the letter and did not refer to the letter, and I answered back to him, and he did not pay any attention. Then I saw the article that was written spreading falsities, as we could show if the papers were here. They were spreading falsities. Then I began to pay much attention to Mr. Lukens, and I noticed that Mr. Lukens went to every one of the meetings-implement dealers' meetings-in Kansas, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and read papers, and had a resolution passed. He published in his paperThe CHAIRMAN. What is the name of his paper? Dr. RENDON. Farm Implement News. Mr. MAYER. I think he said it was published in Chicago? Mr. FISHER. That is a suspicious circumstance. Dr. RENDON. I began to pay attention. He was attending all those meetings, and he read papers, and he had that resolution passed to write to the Senators and other Representatives to have an investigation of this subject. I do not know who Mr. Lukens is; I have never seen him. In that condition, when we had just signed the contract, we cameMr. Wexler, Mr. Mayer, and myself-to pay a visit to the Attorney General and to the Secretary of State, and we showed them the contracts and told them everything that we were doing. Senator GRONNA. You mean, the Attorney General of the United States? Dr. RENDON. Yes, sir. But the first time we could not see him, and we saw Mr. Todd, the assistant. The CHAIRMAN. He is Assistant Attorney General? Dr. RENDON. Yes, sir. When we had the contract perfected and signed we came back to Washington a second time, and then we presented a brief statement of all our dealings and a copy of the contract and every one of the papers that we had signed. Those were the conditions when that noise began to arise that we were increasing the prices. I have to give some explanation about increasing the price. In reality we have not increased the price. My first price, in August, 1915, was 6 cents The CHAIRMAN. Per pound, in this country? Dr. RENDON. Yes, sir. And I remember that Mr. Canova, of the State Department, said that we were discriminating-I mean the Reguladora; that we did not sell all the hemp they needed to the manufacturers; that several complaints had been filed about that. I said, "That is not true. I am ready just now before you to sign a contract with the International or some other manufacturer for the amount of bales they need for the current year at 6 cents, if they want to fix the price now. If they do not want to fix the price now, I will supply them the hemp they need at the current market price." Senator GRONNA. What year was that, Doctor? Dr. RENDON. 1915; yes, sir. I said that to show them my bona fides in the transaction-my good faith. I did not want to raise the price, but the new tax that was imposed in Yucatan-and I have the copies of all the laws and taxes that have been imposed, and I can have them translated, if you wish, and file them. Then we raised the price to 6 cents. Senator GRONNA. I think you had better file a copy of that. Mr. SPENCER. We are having them translated now, and we will file them. Dr. RENDON. As I have said before, the cost of living in Yucatan was higher every day. Now, gentlemen, do you know how much they pay for a pound of meat. Five to 6 pesos. Five to 6 pesos. That is what the laborer has to pay. And sugar and beans and rice in the same proportion. The CHAIRMAN. The peso is a Mexican coin. How much is that in silver? Dr. RENDON. Well, that varies. Now, the rate of exchange is 20 to 1. |