The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-07-16
now in cahoot with the Dukes under a
New Jersey charter, wrote:
Winston \ @ Mau ID 1900.

how IN cdnOOC WITH CHe DUkeS uiueI d
New Jersey charter, wrote:
Winston, n. c., May II, 1890.
My Dear Sir: We do not think this is
full crop of tobacco, but there will be
as many pounds sold on our market as
we ever sold We think the present
crop lacks at least 20 per cent. of being
full one. All grades of tobacco sold on
this market have advance 80 per cent
since the beginning of the present tobac-
co year, with the exception of cutters,
and they declined from ) to 10 cents per
pound according to quality.
Respectfully, ETC.,
The r. j. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
Putting the statements of the Dukes
and the II. J Reynolds Tobacco Com
pany together. it appears that the Trust
saved not only the spectators profit of
s cents per pound, but gouged the far
mer to the extent of $500 to $1,000 per
hundred. SO the Dukes saved on the
100000 pounds of cutters they bought
something over a million dollars. Leay-
ing the speculatOr out of the calculation.
the farmer lost about S500,0O0 in one
year. And that was the wear the Trust
went into business, and, mark you, rep
resents the work of only one firm. Add
to this the robbery committed by the
other four members of the Trust, and
the result is appalling.
If the State Of North Carolina were to
stand at the warehouse door and take
~ per cent of the farmers money there
would be revolution and bloodshed; yet
the Cigarette Trust has been doing it
with impinity for nearly ten years, and
1x- r., Nv Il I,,,f
Kilgo. of Trinity College, that we must
not blame the Dukes but should lodge
our complaint at the throne of God. who
has made them stronger than their vic
TINS. Might makes right is the trust
doctrine.
The Cigarette Trust is undoubtedly the
most heartless and INSCRIPTIONS trust in
the country. Says the Charlotte Obser-
yer:
If the only purpose of this conspiracy
was to keep up or even to further put up
the price of cigarettes we would have
no word to utter against itSbut while do
ing this with one hand it presses down
with the other the price of the leaf to-
bacco which goes into the cigarettes. un-
til what was formerly the best paying
grade of tobacco grown is now raised at
Il price but shade above the cost of
productions. The cigarette trust domln-
ates the cutter market, and the tobacco
raiser, deprived of competition. must take
for his cutters whatever this internal
monopoly is willing to give. 1t is not as
generous to him as it is to the schools
and churches which it enriches with the
money coined out of his sweat and blood.
q has, hn Of foian N
an average OF about 40 per cent. and
the grower must submit to its terms or
go out of the busness-a business to
which his land is adapted and in which,
perhaps, his life has been spent"
Judge Travis, of Kentucky, drew this
monsters picture true to life when he
said of trusts in general in charge de-
Hvered to the grand jury in one of the
courts of his circuit.
There is nothing on earth that the
trusts won't do / believe that an aggre-
CATION of great wealth always has ten
dency to brutaliZe; believe that the ag-
gregation of great wealth always has Il
tendency to remove every instinct and
every spirit and every feeling of human
ity that men ought to have. You will
find in the hearts of the worst criminals
that come into court something that is
good, something that is desirable, some
thing that isfworth having, but you will
find nothing ON earth in organizations of
wealth that is good or that is worth
having, There is no limit; there is no
business in which they are not willing
to engage: there is no people that they
are not willing to rob; there is nothing
sacred; nothing that they will let alone:
there is nothing poor enough for them
to have pity on; there is nothing humble
enough or weak enough for them to pay
They would rob the graves of the dead
if they could reach their hands into
them''
What is the remedy? 1t is most as
suredly to elect Legislature and Il
Congress composed of honest, true men,
who will wrench these combinations
apart and forbid their reuniting under
penalty of twenty years in the peniten-
tiary. Details can be settled very easily.
What is needed now is for the opponents
of trusts to turn the back of their hands
against every politician, of high or low
ence Trusts will never be broken up
till the fight is waged in earnest. 1t
would be worth ten years of ones life
to see Legislature or Congress of men
of Cy Watsons stamp turn their bat
teries against the trusts. All the kings
horses couldn't save them in that event.
JOHN Il. WEBSTER.