The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-06-30
THEIR
Statement from the Durham Fertilizer
Company--A Full and Frank State
ment of Facts Concerning Re-
cent Transactions.
DURHAM, N. c., June %.

ASAAAA ' ~ OHO ~
To the Public:
Men who follow other business pur-
suits naturally shrink from engaging
in newspaper wrangles, and the neces-
sity therefor is only excuse for this
card. It is not every false accusation
that we would notice in that way; but
the charge of fTGWd made by certain
newspapers against the Durham Fer
tilizer Company, as it has a tendency
to u~nfavorably affect the business of
the Company and also the reputation
of the several gentlemen with whom
we are associated in the management
of the business, we cannot under the
circumstances permit the charge to go
unchallenged.
We believe that most of the editors
of the several newspapers who have
published this charge did so in good
faith, however much they may have
subjected themselves to just criticism
for allowing their papers to be used in
the interest of rival manufacturers in
their attempts to injure our own com
pany. We offer them, however, test
of their good faith to be subjected to
the analysis of public opinion by pre-
senting to them the facts in the follow
ing statement with the opportunity to
publish them if they really want to do
no injustice but merely to serve, as
they claim, the interests of the public.
Now for the facts: On the Goth day
of May, 1891, the Durham Fertilizer
Company shipped by the r. & D. Rail
road to Mebaneville, N. O., three car
loads of fertilizer, one to w. B. Sellars,
Business Agent of Pleasant Grove
Alliance, No. 1888, ofAlamance county,
and the other two car loads to J. r.
Smith, Business Agent of Ridgeville
Alliance, No. 784, of Casweu county.
Mr.. Smith was in Durham at the office
of the Company on that very day, and
personally urging the Company to ship
the goods as the season was growing
late, and the farmers wanted the goods
at once. We had been buying tax-paid
tags from the department in Raleigh,
from time to time, and supposed we
had enough for this, which was about
our last shipment, and did not discover
a deficiency of tags until we began to
load the cars on the evening of the 26th
of May. We at once, on finding out
that we did not have on hand enough
tags for all the goods in these ship
ments, wrote the department on the
next day (27th May enclosing our
check of that date for the amount
necessary. Our letter and check did
not reach the department at Raleigh
until the next day Thursday, May
28thn, after the goods had left Durham,
and we received the tags by express on
the morning of May 10Th Friday), and
on the evening of May goth, we gave
the tags to the agent of the Richmond
and Danville Co., at Durham, to be
sent to the railroad agent at Mebane-
vile to tag the bags at Mebaneville.
On the next day, being informed that
the tags given the agent were not Sufi-
cient, we sent more; and all this occur
red before we had intimatiOn of any
sort that the goods had been detained
for want of tags, or that anybody in
tended to detain them. Our first Off
cial information of the detention of the
goods was on Monday, June LIST, when
an official letter came from Mr.. Robin
son, Commissioner. 1t isnot pretended
by anybody, but that only a part of
these goods lacked tags when they left
Durham, and to the charge that the
| goods were S packed in the cars that
in opening the car doors the tagged
| bags only would be seen and the un-
tagged bags were concealed in the rear
ends of the cars, we assert it is not
true and in confederation we quote
from a letter received by us from Mr..
| j. r. Smith. He writes: Il will also
state that the report that the sacks in
front of the doors in the car were
tagged and those at the bottom and at
the rear ends were not tagged is false
He further says he was present when
the cars were opened and those for
1 whom tho goods WOTn TI1TH0ho cn6 %0O1
out the first 40 sacks, and the party
who originated this false charge, and is
travelling salesman for another fertilizer
company, was not there at that time
all. We might state also that we knew
that the parties were anxious to get
the goods as soon as possible and some
of them had to be hauled twenty miles
from Mebaneville, and the nearest
some eight or ten miles, and we thought
we could safely get the tags
to Mebaneville before the last of the
| goods would be hauled away by the
farmers in their wagons. The total
amount of the tags on the goods de-
tanned at M~ebaneville was the magnif-
cent sum Of t1CO dollars and taCeLUe and
One-h0f cents, and nobody will dispute
the fact that we have paid into the de-
partment more tax on fertilizers than
any other manufacturer in the State or
manufacturing concern outside of the
State and selling goods in North Caro-.
lima. In fact we have paid the depart
ment between ~one-seventh and one
eighth of all the tax collected by it
from this source of taxation.
Would any sane man believe upon
this showing we intended to jeopardize
our business and reputation for such a
paltry sum as two dollars and twelve
and a half cents?
But lynx-eyed rivals in trade,
finding this charge about to fall to the
ground by its own insignificance, starts
another Of a more serious character,
and charge that this particular lot OF
our goods, being analysed, did not
come I'D to the gIIarantnad In