Mr. LUKENS. I do not think so. Mr. SPENCER. How about 1912? Mr. LUKENS. As a rule, what I say is true as I have been informed by numbers of small manufacturers. Mr. SPENCER. You have never sought to obtain any information from Dr. Rendon of your own motion, have you? Mr. LUKENS. No. Mr. SPENCER. You have never undertaken to interview him or ask him for a statement of his side of the case, have you? Mr. LUKENS. He gave his side of the case in this letter that he wrote me on November 30. Mr. SPENCER. That was not of your seeking, was it? Mr. LUKENS. No. Mr. SPENCER. Was not that occasioned by your publication of November 25? Mr. LUKENS. He had written this letter apparently before he read that story, because in the final paragraph he says [reading]: Since writing the above my attention has been directed to an article in your issue of November 25. Mr. SPENCER. That letter was written November 30, was it not, that Dr. Rendon sent you? Mr. LUKENS. November 30. Mr. SPENCER. Did you endeavor in any way to get any information with regard to the so-called middlemen's monopoly in Yucatan? Mr. LUKENS. I knew what he meant by that. Mr. SPENCER. Why did you say you did not know what he meant? Mr. LUKENS. I said I had never heard of it as a monopoly. I knew that he meant Montes and Peirce and the International Harvester Co. and Peabody. Mr. SPENCER. Did you know they were buying- Mr. LUKENS. I have been in this business long enough to know something about the different houses. Mr. SPENCER. Did you know they had a practical monopoly of the sisal business of Yucatan? Mr. LUKENS. No; I did not. I know that reports from Yucatan show there used to be quite a number of different shippers of fiber there. Mr. SPENCER. Were you aware of what proportion of the Yucatan production was bought by Montes and Peirce? Mr. LUKENS. I could not say off hand what it was. a large part of it. I knew it was Mr. SPENCER. Did you know it was a much as 90 per cent? Mr. LUKENS. No. May I ask what this has to do Mr. SPENCER. This is preliminary to what I am going to ask you a little further along. Where did you get your information on which you wrote these various articles that appeared in your paper? Mr. LUKENS. The editorials, from the information I got from Mr. Daly and from the contract that was drawn up between the bankers and the Reguladora. I have a copy of the contract. Mr. SPENCER. Did you get any information from Mr. Daniels? Mr. LUKENS. No; only the confirmation of the first report I had that the Reguladora had obtained control. Mr. SPENCER. Now, then, you continued to write on this subject? Mr. LUKENS. Yes. Mr. SPENCER. In almost every issue, did you not? Mr. LUKENS. Yes. Mr. SPENCER. Do you recall what was the next issue in which you wrote ? Mr. LUKENS. The issue of December 9. Mr. SPENCER. Has that been followed up? Mr. LUKENS. Yes; in nearly every issue since; practically every issue. Mr. SPENCER. Did you write that as simply news or editorial matter? Mr. LUKENS. Both. Mr. SPENCER. Was any of it given to you in the form of an advertisement? Mr. LUKENS. Not a word. Mr. SPENCER. Not a line? None of that was ever paid for by anybody? Mr. LUKENS. Not a line of it. Mr. SPENCER. This article [indicating copy of Farm Implement News] that appears in your issue of February 10, 1916, on page 15, which is headed "Warn farmers of the Sisal Trust menace." Mr. LUKENS. I wrote that. Mr. SPENCER. That display article? Mr. LUKENS. I wrote it, and, further, had it set that way. Mr. LUKENS. No, sir. Mr. SPENCER. You never received anything for that? Mr. LUKENS. No, sir. I will make a general statement, and perhaps anticipate some questions, and save time, if the chairman will permit. Nothing that has been printed in the Farm Implement News about this sisal fiber situation, about the Reguladora Comision, nothing in connection with it, I say, has been printed on the request or the suggestion or through the payment of money by anybody. I have written it all on my own initiative. I have expressed these opinions as my own, and the paper is responsible for it. Mr. SPENCER. In addition to writing articles in your paper, did you do anything else in connection with this sisal matter? Mr. LUKENS. What do you mean by "do anything else?" Mr. SPENCER. Did you send out letters to people? Mr. LUKENS. Yes, sir. Mr. SPENCER. Did you send out pamphlets? Mr. LUKENS. We had reprints of the articles. Mr. SPENCER. You had reprints made and sent out? Mr. LUKENS. Yes; page 2. Mr. SPENCER. Who did you send them to? Mr. LUKENS. They were sent to newspapers and bankers-the bankers mentioned in connection with this contract. They were sent to officers of dealers' associations. Senator WADSWORTH. Just a moment. What sort of dealers? Mr. SPENCER. And most of these implement dealers are engaged in handling the International Harvester Co. implements? Mr. LUKENS. Not all-a large part of them-because they are a large factor in the implement trade. Mr. SPENCER. Is that the form in which you sent out these reprints; is that one of them [handing clipping to Mr. Lukens]? Mr. LUKENS. No; I never saw that that I know of. Mr. SPENCER. You did not send that out? Mr. LUKENS. This seems to be Mr. SPENCER. Did you ever see that before? Mr. LUKENS. Yes; I saw this statement in another implement paper. We never published it. Mr. SPENCER. You did not send that out? Mr. LUKENS. No, sir. Mr. SPENCER. That appears to be a reprint from some other paper, you say? Mr. LUKENS. No; I saw this yes, I saw this story, I think, in looking over very hastily another implement paper. Mr. SPENCER. Did you receive one of those? Mr. LUKENS. No. Mr. SPENCER. You do not know where it came from? Mr. LUKENS. No, sir. Mr. SPENCER. Did you not write a great many special articles which you sent around to all newspapers and implement dealers in the United States, or a great many of them? Mr. LUKENS. No. Some of the articles I have written we republished, and they have been sent out in page-proof form from our office. Mr. SPENCER. How many people did you send them to? Mr. LUKENS. Oh, I could not tell you that. We have had a great many requests from dealers for extra copies of the paper, and to fill those requests we had proofs taken, so as not to send the entire paper; in fact we could not; we did not have enough extra copies. Mr. SPENCER. How many of them did you send out? Mr. LUKENS. I could not tell you, only as a guess. Mr. SPENCER. Did you send out a thousand of each article? Mr. SPENCER. Five hundred? Mr. LUKENS. I should say not to exceed 200, and some of them none at all. Mr. SPENCER. How many of these different articles did you send out in that way? Mr. LUKENS. Probably two or three. The main story was told, you know, in the issue of December 9-first, in the issue of November 25 was the bare news, and then the main story, with our opinions of what the effect would be; and after that it was merely following up the news as it developed and reiterating our opinion, to warn the farmers and have them protest, so that the matter would be taken up by the Government. Mr. SPENCER. And how long did you conduct that campaign? Mr. SPENCER. Down to the present date? Mr. LUKENS. Yes, sir. (At this point the committee recessed for five minutes.) Senator GRONNA (presiding). Mr. Spencer, you may proceed. Mr. SPENCER. What is the largest number of these articles that you sent out in that way? Mr. LUKENS. You mean as special? Mr. SPENCER. Yes. Mr. LUKENS. Well, I could not say as to that. If you wish to know the exact number, I can ascertain it for you, and be glad to give you the information. Mr. SPENCER. I should like to know just exactly what articles you did send out, in proof form that way, to the newspapers, and the farmimplement dealers, and to other people, and how many of each? Mr. LUKENS. Mr. Baker is our general manager. He is here and he will give you the figures. STATEMENT OF MR. E. J. BAKER, SECRETARY-TREASURER, FARM IMPLEMENT NEWS CO. Mr. BAKER. If you wish, I could. I will have to look at these papers. Senator GRONNA. Will you give the stenographer your full name? Mr. BAKER. E. J. Baker. I am the secretary-treasurer of the Farm Implement News Co. We printed 500 copies of that first article and distributed the greater part of them to the various people, association men, about 100 copies to newspapers, and other copies to public men and other organizations-newspapers on application. Mr. SPENCER. Did you send any of them to Washington here? Mr. BAKER. Possibly a half dozen copies. Mr. SPENCER. To whom, do you remember? Mr. BAKER. To the names of the gentlemen; that is, the Members of Congress in the Senate who were mentioned in connection with these resolutions or the investigation. Mr. SPENCER. Was not this article of yours of November 25 sent out before any resolution was introduced in Congress at all? Mr. BAKER. Yes; it was. Mr. SPENCER. Who did you send it to? Mr. FISHER. Wait; let him answer. Mr. BAKER. What was the date of the resolution? That was January 6, was it not? Mr. SPENCER. Yes. Mr. BAKER. Oh, yes; this article was sent out immediately after it was published. Mr. SPENCER. And to whom in Washington, do you recall, that you sent this? Mr. BAKER. At that time? Mr. SPENCER. Yes. Mr. BAKER. A few prominent members of each House; I do not know just how many. There were not many. There were 500 extra copies printed, and a few were sent here. Mr. SPENCER. What other special articles did you print and send out in the same way? Mr. BAKER. There was 1,000 extra copies of that article printed [indicating]. Mr. SPENCER. What is the date of this? Mr. BAKER. That is the issue of December 9. Mr. SPENCER. One thousand copies of that. Who did you send it to? Mr. BAKER. About the same list. Mr. SPENCER. Only more of them? Mr. BAKER. Well Mr. LUKENS. They were not all sent out; he said there were 1,000 printed. Mr. BAKER. Practically the extra supply of those were used. We did not send them to any more public men or any more newspapers; in fact, my memory is that they went out together. The first one was not printed until after the second article was published, and they went out immediately after December 9. Mr. SPENCER. What other articles did you print and send out and distribute? Mr. BAKER. This article [indicating]. Mr. SPENCER. What was the date of that? Mr. BAKER. The date of that article is not based exactly on a certain issue, but the greater part of the matter appeared in one issue. but it is a slight abridgement of the matter, based mostly on one issue, but I don't remember the exact date; it was about December 23. Mr. SPENCER. How many of these did you print? Mr. BAKER. There were 10,000 of those printed. Mr. SPENCER. And how many of those were distributed? Mr. BAKER. Nearly all of them. Mr. SPENCER. To whom were they distributed? Mr. BAKER. Almost entirely to implement dealers in the United States. Mr. SPENCER. Who paid for the printing of these? Mr. BAKER. The Farm Implement News Co. Mr. SPENCER. Did you receive any compensatoin for printing 10,000 and distributing 10,000? Mr. BAKER. Not at all. We used it as a subscription campaign document for our own purpose. Mr. SPENCER. Did you get any subscribers from the result of it? Mr. BAKER. We did. Mr. SPENCER. From whom? Mr. BAKER. From implement dealers. Mr. SPENCER. Who is your largest advertiser ? Mr. BAKER. The largest single account? Mr. SPENCER. Yes. Mr. BAKER. The International Harvester Co., but only a very little larger than others. Mr. SPENCER. What others are as large as the International Harvester Co. ? Mr. BAKER. The account of the International Harvester Co. is about 5 per cent larger than the account of Deere & Co., of Moline, but the agency and subsidiary companies and selling agencies run a large amount of business independently, so that their total business is far larger than the International Harvester. Mr. SPENCER. You mean, you take the International as a single body? Mr. BAKER. Yes. |
