The National tribune., 1908-01-02
KrxruuKY NIGHT RIDERS.


law. 1t would seem that Kentucky, o
at least portions of it, is in the sam
condition as the entire South befor
the war. when popular passion ant
lprejudice absolutely overrode law. A
near as can be found out, there is ;
bitter fight going on between the so
called Tobacco Trust and the Planters
Protective Association. This fight ha
taken the shape of open war. At Hop
kinsville, place of 10000 inhabitants
and the largest in southern Kentucky
500 masked and armed riders entered
the town at o'clock in the morning
and after taking possession of the tele-
graph and telephone offices burned sew
eral big tobacco warehouses and fac
| tories, with a loss of something like
100000. While this was going on the
midnight horsemen amused themselves
by shooting up the town so thoroly that
they killed one citizen and destroyed
some $4,000 worth of glass. Prior to
this they had raided Princeton, KY
about 80 miles north of Hopkinsville
when they took possession of the police
and fire departments, water works
telegraph and telephone offices and de-
stroyed tobacco factories valued at
100000. There have been smaller
raids in great number, in which ware
| houses or barns have been burned, and
| in which growers, who have refused to
| pool their tobacco with the Association,
have been taken from their homes and
whipped and their houses fired into.
| 1t is estimated that up to date there
has been S1,000,000 worth of property
destroyed by these midnight incursions,
and, worst of all, there has been the
fear of personal violence and the de-
struction of property from the fires
started by these bandftti. Only the alb
sence of wind on the nights when they
were raided saved Hopkinsville and
Princeton from total destruction. Many
men have been so terror-stricken that
they refuse to sleep at home, and are
days to avoid the Confederate conscrip-
tors
1t is well known who the leaders of
these incursions are and there is only
pretense of secrecy, yet no one dares
to bring them under the operations of
the law. The Planters Protective As
sociation, which is undoubtedly respon-
sible for these outrages, was formed
years ago, when it was found that to-
bacco was selling for less than it cost
to raise it. 1t claimed that the Trust
was unduly depressing prices, and the
members entered into an agreement
not to sell to the Trust The organiza-
ton developed a remarkable strength,
and in little while had a membership
of over $1,000, which controlled the
bigger part of the export crops raised
in western Kentucky and northwestern
Tennessee. Since then prices have gone
up astonishingly, and the Association
takes the credit of raising them The
trouble that the Association encoun-
tered was that the small growers, usu-
ally in the hill country-the hilly billies,
as they were called-would not put
their tobacco in the pool, but, being
anxious to realize upon it, sold it for
whatever they could get to whoever
would buy. AS collectively they raised
an immense amount, their competition
was very severe, and these night raids
have been usually for the purpose of
discouraging them and forcing them
into the Association. The recent strin-
gency brought matters to a crisis IN
the Association, as money was strongly
in demand everywhere, and there was
a great temptation among the members
to forget their agreement with the As
sociation al sell as best they could.
The terrorizing methods were resorted
to to keep them in line.
The matter takes an international
aspect, since the Italian ambassador
has called upon Secretary Root TO bring
to the attention of the Governor of
Kentucky the destruction of large
amount of tobacco belonging to the
Italian Government and which was
stored in that State.
The defenders of the Protective As
sociation claim that the Association is
made up of peaceful farmers, who have
been goaded on by extortion and fraud.
against which they had no protection.
and thus had to revenge themselves in
the only way in their power. 1t is
claimed that under the trust system
tobacco that always brought from six
to eight cents a pound would sell for no
more than three cents, and that land
that had formerly produced from s75
to 5000 an acre now yields less than
half that rating. 1t is claimed that the
Trust took away the last hope of the
tobacco growers by arranging with the
tobacco buyers of France, Italy, Aus
tria and Spain an agreement which
took away the last source of relief from
the exactions of the Trust.
No matter what the allegations, the
night riding is criminal in the highest
degree, and should be stopped by the
heavy hand of the law. If the Trust is
anything like as iniquitous as is repre-
sented, there is a legal way in which it
can be curbed and suppressed, and the
exercise of ordinary political common
sense would have as speedily brought
the Trust to its knees in Kentucky as
other trusts have been brought else
where. The night riding is simply a
return to the barbarous, brutal abso-
lutely indefensible practices of other
days, when law was feeble and inef-
fective.