November 3, 1936

PERSONAL

Re: Experimental Cannabis "Marihuana".

Mr. H. J. Anslinger,

Commissioner of Narcotics,

Washington, D.C.

Dear Sir:

In connection with the subject of your letter of November 2, 1936, I have succeeded in getting in telephone communication with Mr. Ridgway, who is the experimental part of the Tribune Experimental Farm. Today being election day he is not sure that he will be in his office long enough to talk with me, anticipating almost immediate call to the outside. However, if we are not able to have a meeting today, we shall tomorrow, and I will find out what machine was used to harvest the hemp; what if anything, he knows about the places in the United States where there is a demand for a machine, and also what the hemp is used for in those sections.

I have been trying to get an interview with Mr. Bellrose, whom I visited in company with Senator Young of California, and who is promoting a large commercial use of hemp fiber to make what is apparently from the samples a very strong cotton fiber, a linen fiber suitable for airplane wings, and a silk undistinguishable from the finest silk on the market. I hinted in my note yesterday to the difficulties which may lie in the way of the destruction of all of the Cannabis in the country. Objections raised by manufacturing druggists who have slight need of the extracts of the Cannabis in medicinal compounds will be trifling when compared with the country-wide protests that will be raised as with one voice by the experimental stations everywhere developing the use of fibers of the Cannabis plant stems for every variety of textile.

I am following every hint of information that I receive and will forward everything to the Bureau.

Respectfully submitted,

Signed Elizabeth Bass

Elizabeth Bass,

District Supervisor,

District No. 9.