Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1907-11-02
The TOBACCO TRUST
md All It's Friends, Big and Little
Alike, Played by Congress
man Stanley.
M DEFENSE OF HIS PEOPLE

ders to be Tissue Of FaIsehoods--
Thousands Cheer the Distinguished
Speakers Great Address at Hop
klnsville.
In his recent great address deliv
sired before the Tobacco Planters Pro
tSCtive Association at Hopkinsville
and which was cheered by thousands
ne Hon. A. o. Stanley said:
Ladies' and Gentlemen: Four years
ago. up and down the country every
where, I proclaimed to you and to the
world that the American Tobacco
company, the Continental Tobacco
company, the Imperial Tobacco com
pany, and the Reggie contractors Of
Europe, had entered into cruel and
criminal combination to Cypress and
to rob you; that the result of that
conspiracy unless opposed or checked,
either by the people or by the federal
government, would end at last in
commercial servitude.
For that statement l was denounc-
Cd by all the Hessians of the trust as
a noisy incendiary; it was charged
that I made these statements against
ne American Tobacco company in or
der that might curry favor with the
voters, and that they were but the
Dmpty vaporings of a dangerous dem
)Sogue. In order that the trust itself
might have an opportunity to answer
The vaporings Of this demagogue; in
rider that, notwithstanding the hum
Ne position of its poor accuser,
might force it to break its contemptu-
Dus silence, / moved on the floor Of
the federal congress that the great
judiciary committee be discharged
from further consideration of this
matter, and the house, sitting as a
solemn court, investigate the truth OF
falsity of the statements of this NOISY
demagogue" However humble man
may be, or poor, or unworthy, when
he goes before a grand jury or into a
court, you must answer him. / made
those charges there with all the spe-
ciflo minuteness of an indictment; 1
charged the time and place and per-
sons present, when this company,
through its officers, did hold their
hands aloft and call their God to wit.
ness the truth Of statement after state
ment, that the records show were alb
Bolutely false. (Applause.) / proved
by their own documents, by their own
sign manual attached to solemn con-
tract after contract, that this combi-
nation did exist; | proved tbzt they
had, by dummy" corporations robbed
the federal government itself under
the very dome of the capitol J proved
by the sworn statements of their own
dupes and emissaries that they ran a
ground wire from Ill Fifth avenue,
New York, even to the senate cham.
Der Of the United States. This reso-
luton stands today unanswered not
a charge did make to which il dared
hold up its foul head and plead not
guilty; ah, you may remember, per-
haps, that l closed that argument,
contained in forty pages of the Con-
gressional Record, with these words.
II demand. sir, that the law as it IS
written be rigidly, quickly and merci-
lessly enforced by fine and imprison-
ment and that these naughty bandits
be brought to the bar of justice"
That was on the twenty-eighth day
of May, 1906. There. thank God, is
the answer to that prayer (holding up
a copy of the Indictment of the United
States of America against American
Tobacco company and others); the
attorney general of the United States,
in 1870 pages of closely written matter,
under his solemn oath, cites to the
bar Of justice this unpenitentiaried
thief. and refirms and reiterates to
the last detail many of the charges
made by this "incendiary." CHEERS
and applause)
thought that this indictment would
fall with sufficient weight upon the
guilty head OF the American Tobacco
company and it's emissaries not only
to silence 1t, but to place a finger
upon the putrid tongue of traduosment
and Islander, so far as I was concern.
ed. (Applause.) / come now with
equal emphasis and with the most d.
rect, the most positive and most min
ute proof, to charge this same trust
with a fouler crime and a deeper
depth of infamy. / thought 1t had al
ready sounded all the depths and
shoals of sin, but | was mistaken.
The farmers, uniting their strength,
opposed the hand of this robber, and
when, like a bafled beast. insatiate
for his prey, it found that 1t could no
longer despoi it, determined to de-
fame, and the American Tobacco com
pany today is presenting to you the
hideous spectacle of wretch, angered
and furious. determined, in his i'm
potent wrath, to Islander those whom
he can no longer enslave.
charge that the statements which
the American Tobacco company is in
L. At