Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1907-11-02

writer knew that they we're false.
| CONTINUED cheers and applause)
Now, II that be treason, If that be in
cendiarism. if l am the one red figure
with the ak and torch for making that
statement then, by the Eternal God,
stand by it. prolonged applause;
cries Of Give it to them, A. o." and
laughter)
The article to which ! specifically
refer was written by Mr. Beach, a
correspondent for the Saturday Even
ing Post. His argument, in brief, is
this: He wishes to present this case
10 the world lot Of wooden-headed
farmers in Kentucky and Tennessee
down here in what is known as the
"black patch"-got a notion in your
heads some way. God knows how; he
intimates that your heads are so thick
that somebody must have bored them
and poked it in; that the cause of low
prices in 1902 and 1903 was not due
to anything his innocent client, the
American Tobacco company, had
done; and he first attempts to show
that the low price received for that
tobacco was due to TRADE CONDI-
TONS; then he attempts to show
that in addition to trade conditions it
was due to the EXTREMELY MEAN
QUALITY OF CROPS AND THE
POPULARITY OF THE LEAF AT
THAT TINE Oaughter); then he goes
on to say that the scraping of plant
beds actually has so decreased and
depleted and curtailed the crop that
that is why the price went up (laugh-
teri. Now, that sounds very foolish
to you and me; that statement was
made for foreign consumption 0augh-
teri. Then he argues that there never
was any combination between the
American Tobacco company and the
Imperial Tobacco company and the
Regies; that they never were in col
fusion; that there never was any proof
to sustain it; he says this country was
never divided into districts and each
man had a district, and he concludes
by saying that the poor American To
bacco company never did you any
harm in it's life, and finally that you,
without cause or excuse, have stupid
ly gone to work and covered this coun-
try with war and desolation, and that
you are a band of Ku Klux; and the
New York Sun says you are worse
than the hunchakists, a band of Ar
menian assassins.
/ am here at your request, in my
poor way to prove as best can that
those statements are untrue, and that
we are not marauders and not anarch-
lists. and that while there have been
instances of lawlessness which we all
deplore, nevertheless maintain that
the law has been fairly well enforced;
that we are not, as a rule, as a whole
in a state of terror or war;
that we are still good citizens. going
to church, loving God, and working
for a living. Uong and continued ap-
plause.)
Now, ] wish to read you his first
] wouldn't misquote
the gentleman for anything-and am
not going to misquote anybody here
today. l will read you the first state
ment of Mr.. Beach. You never heard
like this before, and neither
did l. until I read in the newspapers
that was liar for saying that this
fellow was not telling the truth.
wish to say in this connection that
very few papers in this district have
treated me unfairly; that two newspa-
pers in Hopkinsville had a just com
plant against that interview, but not
on account of any fault of mine-the
interviewer understood me to say that
Mr. Beach was a correspondent of one
of these papers, and | don't blame the
papers for wanting to repudiate him.
From both the "Kentuckian" and the
New Era" during this whole trans
action have, so far as l am concern
ed, received nothing but just such
treatment as | would have accorded to
them had they made the statement as
crib1d to me and had l been running
a paper in HOpkinsville. l am going
today to be just to everybody; don't
want to do an injustice to anybody If
can help 1t.
(Reading from the Saturday Even
ing POST: THE officials Of the
American Tobacco company" says
Mr.. Beach, ION the other hand
allege that natural conditions have
played a large part in increasing the
price Of tobacco, and that the associa-
ton has exerted comparatively small
influence in securing the advance. -
Well, well. 1.-THE crop of 1902 was
fair to look upon. but its APPEAR
ANCE was it's chief virtue" (Its dis
appearance was its chief virtue to the
American Tobacco Coz (Laughter)
(Reading.) THE farmer sold it at a
fair figure, If he sold it early, but from
the time it was hung In the barn the
tobacco steadily deteriorated." Do
you remember anything about that?
(Laughter) every man who bought
It sold it for less money than he paid
for il - Didn't hut one man buV IL