New-York tribune., 1907-12-22
KENTUCKY TOBACCO VAR.
Half q Million Dollars Worth of
Property AIready Destroyed.

4 tobacco war RACES in Kentucky. families
are divided No man in the BLACK Patch feels
safe. No one knows when the Might Riders
VIII swoop down upon him and burn his prop
erty. Property worth hundreds Of thousands Ol
dollars has been destroyed as a result OF the
fight of the tobacco growers against the ToDacco
Trust and several lives have been sacrificed.
When the fight started the sole object of the
tobacco growers to control the production
of tobacco and maintain prices. Now the mat
ter has become 50 complicated that every form
of business is affected. Augustus +. WILSON,
the new Governor, in mis- Inaugural! address
few days ago said that in tEe next four wears
he purposes to have law and order IN the State
OF Kentucky. But how VIII he bring it about!
In the Black Patch men afraid 10 e%-
press an opinion. and it is believed it wir be
impossible to secure grand jures that viii r.
turn indictments Even the peace officers are
afraid to do their duty. They do not kno"
when they will be shot down at night or thelr
property destroyed.
The dark tobacco districts in Kentucky ana
Tennessee supply most of the tobacco used IN
England and italy. Years ago the farmer SOFA
his crop TO the buyer who offered the best price
Only in those years when the crop was large
were the prices low. The law of supply and
demand established the scale. Then the trust
came along. BY combining capital the buyers
were controlled and the counties were divided
into districts, and agents for the so-callcd To-
bacco Trust were named for these districts. The
price OF tobacco came down to 3i3 cents, and the
farmers say that tobacco cannot be grown for
this price.
Then tie farmers tried combining, They
formed the Dark Tobacco District Planters As
sociation, and the organization rapidly spreD,
rra fheir fnbac in he wal o.
houses and hold it for their own price The
plan to form a trust of the tobacco growers
might have been successful had every tobacco
grower become Il member of the society. But
many OF the farmers did not join the associa-
ton. and sold their tobacco as they saw fit.
Then the organized farmers attempted by
force to bring the independent farmers into the
association. Thousands of the plant beds OF the
independent farmers have been destroyed in The
last year by Might Riders" Who first appeared
in the fall of 1900 in Robinson and Montgomery
counties, in Tennessee. There warehouses be-
longing the trust and filled with tobacco
were burned. The losses reached into the thou
sands. Then the war spread into Kentucky. and
warehouses at Eussellvillc and Elkton were de-
stroyed Last November other large ware
houses az Princeton, Ky, were destroyed. Over
five hundred Might Riders rode into the town
and terrorizcd the citizens shot at people took
charge of the telephone station teicr ph sta
ton and police headquarters ana then So fire
to the warehouses.
This the biggest outrage pcrpctratcd V
tie lawlcss element until few days ago. two
large warehouses in Hopkinsvc, Ky. both he
longing to the trust. destroyed and sey-
cral persons were wounded in pitched battle
between the Might Rider" and the shcrifrs
posse, but arrests were made. and the Riders
all got away unidentified. Persons livin; aIong
the Ohio River on the Indiana side are greatly
worried uD over reports that the Might Riders
intend to invade that state. also and rrtc out
Vengeance to the farmers who have been selling