The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 10, 1917, Page 5

idea of the farmers being able to cure tobacco. They said the farmers didn't know enough. But we did it. And through being able to sell tarough one agency we were able to ‘sell prac- tically the whole crop to independent companies that weren’'t swallowed up yet by the trust. We got as high as 15 cents for wrappers and binders. “Meanwhile the Southern tobaccc growers had been having a harder fight than we had. There was too big a crop there for the independents to handle it. They had started their or- ganization in 1903 and began in good shape’ with their warehouses in 1904, using the same system of sole agency that we borrowed. In 1904 they adopt- ed a scale of prices for all their grades and instructed the association, which had the sole agency, not to sell below this figure. In 1905 the tobacco trust refused flatly to buy, so they just kept it stored up. In 1906 the same thing happened, so they just stored that stock. That was the year the trust got hold of its big supply of old tobacco. In 1907 the trust still held out, so they stored that crop too. That about ex- hausted their storage capacity. So that year they nearly all decided not to raise another crop. As a matter of fact there was only 11 per cent of the normal crop planted. “Those were the night rider days in " the South. Feeling ran pretty high against the few farmers that wouldn't stick with the organization. Tobacco has to be planted in seed beds, you know, and then ‘transplanted in the fields. Well, there were quite a few farmers who were selling to the trust who found their seed beds hoed up. “But most of the newspaper talk about the lawlessness of the farmers was just newspaper stuff. The farm- Out of the organization of the tobacco growers in Wisconsin and the South grew the American Society of Equity. When the tobacco growers first were organized they were slandered as badly as the League farmers are slandered today: Every possible crime committed in their vicinity was attributed to them. Now the League, fighting to deprive profiteers of their ill-gotten gains, is o meeting the same abuse that faces every fighter against entrenched monopoly. Warehouse of the Lorillard Tobacco company at Madison, Wis. This warehouse holds 3,750,000 pounds of tobacco, worth at present prices something like $750,000. ers ‘used to ride out, a big delegation of them, to argue with a farmer who was selling to the trust. If it were today they would go in their Fords. The argument generally worked, too. ACCUSED THE GROWERS OF LAWLESSNESS “But the. association urged against any lawlessness. There were a couple of trust warehouses burned about this time and they 4ried to lay it to the association. But in one case, when a’ warehouse filled with low grade to- bacco, insured to the limit, was burned, a negro testified that he and another man had been paid by the trust to set it afire. Of course the newspapers blamed the tobacco growers. “In Wisconsin about that time a farmer’s drying. shed was struck by -~ lightning. I just happened to see an account of it in a Chicago paper and the headline was ‘Night Riders in Wis- consin.’ That was the game to try to break up the growers. “But it didn’t work, In 1908 the trust was short of tobacco. The farm- ers had it all tied up and they weren’t planting any more. So the trust- men gave up. They came to the growers and said: “‘We'll buy it all at your prices.’ “But some of us, who remembered that the independents had been keep- ing us going through the fight by buy- ing what they could, saw the joker. They wanted to put the independents out of business. So we said we would sell them 80 per cent of the tobacco, keeping 20 per cent for the independ- ents. “‘All or none,’ the trust said;, and broke off negotiations with us. And I tell you we had to face a pretty mad crowd of growers for awhile. They were pretty hard up against it and we had to do considerable explaining, “But they stuck with us and finally the trust gave in for good. 7 SOME BANKS WORKED WITH THE TRUST “Most of the warehouse associations quit business then. There was no need for them any more, .Since then we've been selling around 10 cents. But if the trust tried to put down prices again, we'll be ready for them.” But for help from the banks, both In Wisconsin and the South, Holmes says, the growers could never have pulled through. In Kentucky at one time the tobacco trust got “next” to some of, the small banks, which demanded im- mediate settlement from the farmers, but the growers went to some city banks which agreed to carry them and then the country banks gave up their fight. This is the story of the tobacco growers. They made their fight against many obstacles, If they had had better support from the state gov= ernment, Holmes says, they would have been stronger yet. For instance, they tried to get some investigations from the college of agriculture on some of the tobacco diseases that attacked the leaf in the warehouses while it was be- ing cured. They didn't get the help at the time. If they had had a farmers’. college president like Ladd of North Dakota, maybe they would have been better off. If they had the help of all othew farmers, in one big organization, they would have had a better chance yet. SOMEBODY IS ON THE LINE, AND HE KNOWS WHO IT IS ’ that the excessive war profits of big corporations and individuals shall be taken te help make the world safe for democrac to take is not enough. It still leaves 70 per cent of the bleod money te the profiteers. : —Drawn expressly for the Leader by Max Blewett . Guilt needs no accuser, says an ancient proverb. The conscience of the guilty one Is accuser enough. The doors and windows are locked. He thinks he is safe. He is hiding away profits made out of the distress and suffering of the people at war. But the telephone rings. He has not answered the call, BUT HE KNQWS WHO IS ON THE LINE WITHOUT ANSWERING. Sooner or later this call will come to every war profiteer, for the people of the United States are determined PAGE FIVH y. The 30 per cent that congress decided ST AT s s P———— |