The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-12-16

bacco down now below the actual cost
OF production" What Is true in Ken
lucky is equally applicable to North
Carolina. The price OF tobacco in lhis
state is fixed by the detestably wicked
and remorseless Duke Cigarette Trust,
and the farmers are annually literally
robbed Of from Is cents to 40 cents in
every dollar of tobacco they grow and
sell. And there is nc rebate either and
no end to the long lane. For many
years this wholesale oppression and
robbery Re been going ON. in the name
of religion, and In all the tobacco grow
ing counties, now more numerous han
formerly, the skinning and the fleeing
of the farmers ~proceedeth with many
groans on their part and with great re-
joicings among the tobacco trust men.
There is a great difference in starving
and being starved, in robbing and be-
ing robbed. It is indeed a singular
work Of piety that glori1es the de-
spoiler and offers no prayers or SYM
pathy for the despoiled.
Not long ST. ce we saw an article in a
newspaper telling how the courts were
"suffing out the cigarette" in Tonnes
see. 1t seems that Judge Caldwell, of
the supreme court, has Struck terror
to the heart of the Tobacco Trust" in
kL@k xo T1~ I~4ss~- h~,,lI hold
and the law should be rigidly enforced
against all offenders. The paper stated
that Judge Caldwell held that the law
prohibiting cigarettes in Tennessee was
constitutional, and that he held" that
cigarettes are wholly deleterious, and
SO are not entitled t any of the privi-
leges of legitimate articles of COM
merce. He does not admit that the
lackages in which they are sold are
Original packages in the sense in
which the United States supreme court
applied the term to bottles of liquor,
and so denies to them the protection
of the federal laws.
The decision is certain to stimulate,
the movement of anti-cigarette laws
in other states"
In North Carolina there is an anti
cigarette law but it is not enforced We
suppose. The legislature to meet soon
might honorably and justly attend to
this unfortunate matter. The Atlanta
Journal noting the thriving trusts, says
this, and it is pertinent:
1--WE have had a republican admin
istratiOn for nearly two years, and
there were never so many trusts in this
country az there are now; trusts never
before had 81 powerful an influence,
were never before so extortionate and
arbitrary"
i How long will the people continue to
suffer these enemies to flourish un-
shorn of power and wickedness?
While they are silent and inactive the
monsters of iniquity and oppression
are getting in their devilish work by
day and by night. Trusts are blood
sucking and they rob in price, as in to-
bacco sold by growers, and they rob in
putting up the price of the manufac-
tured articles generally.
The able Norfolk Virginian-Pilot in
a strong editorial charges the trusts
| with socialistic and communistic prin-
ciples. 1t says:
"Of course the trusts and combines
and their press and other advocates
and supporters, will repudiate with
scorn and indignation, or with Gar
gantuan laughter and mockery, the
charge that they are communists, or
socialists, or in anywise implicated in
a paternal, managerial and business
form of government; yet out Of their
| own mouths they are convicted, Are
they willing to confess, repent and
bring forth fruits meet for repentance;
Or will they follow out their principles
| of combination and consolidation to
their necessary and inevitable result:
| Communism in government"