The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-12-31

cents per pound, which not only knocks
the middle man out of his $1250, but
''gets rid" Of him to the tune of $4,000
actual loss to the farmer. But the ex-
ponents Of the Trust argue that every
thing has come down in price and that
lenf tobacco has only come down proper
tionaly with other articles. Let's see
about that. Statistics for the hast five
years show that the increase in the con
sumption of manufactured tobacco has
more than kept pace with the increase
in the production of leaf tobacco, and yet
the price OF tho manufactured article is
lust as high to the consumer as it ever
was. while tho poor farmer receives
about one-third as much money as he
used to for his crop Of leaf tobacco and
the middle man" is out Of the business
entirely.
For the last two or three years there
has been some competition caused by the
heavy purchases OF Messrs. Muir Broth
ers, of Japan, but the ocean cable
brings the sad message to the middle
man that their concern has been bought
hy the American Tobacco CO., and thus
he last vcstige OF competition is gone.
Some of these fellows who draw nice
4alnrcs from the Trust go so far as to
say that taking the thing as 4 whole
tnbnrco Is bringing about as much as IT
lid before the Trust was formed. Surely
these nudaGous reaSOners have got
the thing confused in their heads, and in
stcad Of saying taking the thing as a
whole" they must mean TO say that the
Trust has taken "thc whole thing and
fbnt they get ms much out Of it as they
used 10. Such arguments are so pre-
nostcrous as to remind one Of the story
gotten off on Tennesseean by North
Cnrolinian during the war. 1t seems
that n lot of Tennessee soldiers had col
lectcd about Goldsboro and were good
naturally guying the North Carolina
boys about the ignorance Of North Caro-
linians when an old fellow from the
"Tar Heel" State arose and said that
he was raised in the backwoods Of Ran
tolnh county, where the people were very
green and had never seen anything ID
the way of n wagon but a big two-wheel-
ed cart, and that one day fellow from
Tennessee came through his county with
big covered schooner wagon having
four wheels, when one of his neighbors,
n nice young man, seeing that the hlnd
wheels of the wagon were so much Dig
ger than the front ones followed the out
ft clear into South Carolina to see if the
hind wheels would not overtake the
front ones. The Tennesseean was so inn
pressed with this North Carolinan that
he carried him in his wagon to Tennes
see where he was soon made Governor
Of the State.
But in all seriousness, the outlook for
the farmer and the middle man is very
gloomy. TO the man who has studied
the situation carefully, but two alterna-
tives present themselves-either the
farmers will have to quit growing tobac.
co or they will have to control the sale
of it after growing it; the former plan
would be the height of folly and weak.
ness and the latter would be the perfec.
ton of wisdom and manhood. The
farmer can no more afford to stop grow
ing the crop to which his soil is adapted
best than he can afford to grow it at d
price far less than it costs to grow it
1t is gratifying to know that remedy
is Mt hand the development of which
promises to be quite interesting in the
near future.
J. f. JORDAN.