The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1904-03-31
HENDERSON, n. c., THURSDAY, MARCH 81, 1904.
Organizing Tobacco Growers.
Charles E. Fuller, in Progressive Farmer.

Charles E. Fuller, in Progressive Farmer.
I have read with much interest and
profit every copy OF your paper since
[ became d subscriber. Was espe-
cialy entertained by the issue of
March LIST. Now, as | am a tobacco
farmer in a small way, | am naturally
most interested in the timely gues-
ton asked by Or. Freeman, OF Will
son: How are the tobacco farmers
to be organized and VINO is to do it?
Indeed, l do not pretend to know,
and am about to conclude that we,
as whole, are the most pitiable set
Of producers upon the face OF the
earth. Truly the cotton and grain
farmers have some natural advan-
tages over us, but the greatest vic
tory that has come to them, as | be-
lieve, was born of a greater spirit OF
brotherly love and kindness. There
seems to be something in the make
up of the producers OF food and
raiment" that stimulates them to
nobler and more fixed purpose than
we have been able so far to- demon
strate.
However, we ought to do better,
and in fact, must do so, because ere
long, with the department OF graft
which has crept into the tobacco bus
mess, our houses and fields will be left
unto us desolate.
There are times when we might be
organized, and they are when starva-
ton and ruination stare us boldly in
the face, and demand the last penny.
Mot particularly the small farmer,
for bankruptcy to him, as a rule, is
daily fare; but the well-tO-dO farmer
who, if he would, could easily fling
alOft the banner of his own success
and1ead legions of his less fortunate
brethren to a glorious overcoming.
But it is only when it was his OK
that was gOred that the farmers
could be permanently and thorough
ly organized.
| have been so often engaged in an
effort to organize ourselves, and be-
ing anxious to divine Alright the poll
cies of men with whom | have been
associated, | am thus often reminded
of Il little poem which runs like
this:
When the devil was sick, the devil a saint
would be.
When the devil got well, the devil of saint
was he.
Indeed, brother tobacco farmers, it
is a burning shame that we have
allowed our tobacco invoices to be
converted into lottery tickets. There
hyrf 10
Ofparticular grades OfsObaccO should
not be as stable as that OF stated
grades of cotton. And Just at this
point Iwould suggest that the surest
way to attain this end is, for the
farmers of this and other States to
rise up in their majestic power and
demand laws at the hands of our
legislators that will regulate this
matter.
We can do it indirectly, if no other
way. Then why not? l know my
letter is already too long, but before
| close let me give the tobacco grow
ers some information which has come
to me within the last few days. |
read in one of my papers, published
in Kansas, that the independent to-
bacco retail dealers of New England
have been notified by the Tobacco
Trust that they must not handle to-
bacco made by any firm outside Of
the trust. was also told by a Vir-
ginia warehouseman who claimed to
have been on the inside, that the
American Tobacco Company kept on
secret files in it's Offices a list Of
premiums grading upward to be
awarded respectively to the agents
or buyers who at the end Of the sea-
son could show the lowest average
purchase price OF leaf.
| do not know this to be true, but
in all probability it is; at least it
looks so in the market down this
way.
Did you ask what has become of
the Alliance in Vance? And are you
interested in the post norton inves-
LEGATIONS of other farmers clubs?
This humble message, if properly
Interpreted, will tell the story, in con-
clusion, Brother ''Bacco-MaL," how
are we to be organized, and who is
going to do it? With best wishes to
the Progressive Farmer and DR.. Free
man and all his kind.
| Vance County, N. c.