The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-10-18
Tobacco Brought SIS Last
Year Now Brings Sc.
IT'S TIME FOR A CRUSADE
Unless the Tobrco Fa.m.rs Of North Carolina
are to be Reduced by the Huge Trust
TO Perjury and Peas

was IN Ralelgn on FRIDAY, mad with MN
two samples of bright tobacco he had OBJ
tanned from the floors of Danville, Va,
warehouse. He said: This tobacco
brought in Danville six and six and u
quarter cents a pound respectively. The
same quality of tobacco brought last year
% and 80 cents respectively. l told some
friends in Danville that they could not get
a pound of my tobacco at such prices
Col. ]. Bryan Grimes was shown the
tobacco and pronounced it excellent in
quality. Not many days ago Hon. j. Bryan
Grimes, hearing trust hirehngs repeating
the story that the inferior quality of to
baceo grown III Eastern North Carolina
was the cause of the low prices, examined
the grade of tobacco sold on the Green
vile market He found that tobacco that
did not bring enough to pay the cost of
production was as excellent in quality as
tobacco that brought remunerative
prices last year. other tobacco growers
say the same thing.
The average price paid for leaf tobacco
in the town of Wilson, N. c., during Au-
gust and September, 1902 before the con-
solidation of the American Tobacco Com
pany and the Imperial Tobacco Company,
was In round figures $11.00 per hundred
pounds. The average price in the same
market during August and September for
cthe present year was IN round figures
$3.50 per hundred pounds. And the same
story comes from Kinston, Rocky Mount.
Winston, Durham ard other North Caro-
lima tobacco markets. According to these
figures a conservative estimate of the
amount of money hat will be taken from
the pockets of the tobacco growers of
North Carolina by the Doodle bloated to-
bacco trust this year will be from eight
to ten millions of dollars The same trust
will take in like manner from those leaf
dealers and warehousemen, who dared to
buy leaf tobacco at prevailing prices last
season, an additional three million dollars.
making a total of twelve millions of dol
lars of hard earned money in one short
year from the people of North Carolina
alone.
The only excuse the trust boodlers give
for this is that there is an over production
of leaf tobacco. Yet this same tobacco
trust; less than two years ago, had its
paid representatives locating in new ter
ritory, renting lands and planting to-
bacco themselves and inducing the farm
crs to abandon cotton and other products
and to plant tobacco in their stead.
There is no danger" they loudly pro-
claimed, "of over-production. We are
wanting every pound you can grow and
cure; we are invading new worlds with
the golden weed and there is practically
no limit to It's possible consumption"
4 fairly good crop of tobacco was
grown that year. The American Tobacco
Company and the Imperial Tobacco Com
pany each went into the market last sea
son and began buying against each other
and good prices were paid for all that
was offered. Farmers rushed their tobacco
to the market and such enormous sales
had not hitherto been heard of. and yet
the prices. instead of decreasing. steadily
advanced, and nothing was said about
over-production until after that famous
meeting in London at which the two
great companies were combined. Mean
while more than two-thirds of the crop
had been marketed. Within two weeks
from the announcement of this combina-
ton of the American Tobacco Company
and the Imperial Tobacco Company, there
was a decline of from 30 per cent. to 80
per cent. in the price of leaf tobacco
on the North Carolina warehouse floors,
of from 20 per cent. to 80 per cent. at
the opening of the present season. Now
they say it is production, and lack
OF storage warehouses.
Where are the million dollars worth of
empty prize houses and warehouses in
North Carolina which have been confs-
Gated and driven out of business by this
gigantic trust? There is no sane mai
who does not know that if the Imperial
Tobacco Company, the Allen and Ginter
Company, Leggett and Myers, the Black
we'll Tobacco Company, Reynolds Tobacco
Company, and the other great companies
forming this great combination were in
dependent companies today with their
buyers in the market, that leaf tobacco
would be- selling for much higher prices
than it is. II this is so, then is not this
great trust little more or less than bla.
tant highwayman, holding up the masses
and robbiug them of their hard earned
Accommodations? And if this Is SO then
are there no laws or can there be no laws
enacted that will enable the powers that
be to deal with all robbers alike? Is 1t
not time to begin a crusade right here IN
North Carolina, where eighty per cent.
of the bright tobacco is grown, and by
the enactment and enforcement or right
eous laws stop this unrighteous and unholy
combination in its apparent determination
to reduce to penury and peasantry the
owners and tillers of the most favored of
cur Southern soil?
Last year some farmers III Richmond
county hired men to cultivate tobacco as
an experiment They made as fine tobacco
as Is grown anywhere, but the ruinously
low price has caused them to decide to
make no more tobacco.
The Oxford Ledger says the tobacco
sales are large and the farmers seem de-
termined to sell their tobacco in the face
of low prices.
The Klnston Free Press notes large
sales OF tobacco and says 1.-The producers
have about decided to accept the condi
TONS
The Durham Herald saws that much to-
bacco IS being sold, mostly of low grades
at prices about same as for the past few