The daily sentinel., 1908-03-16

/ II
ABOUT the reign of 1.-The Night
Riders" in the Blue Grass State, and
when a clear insight on these condi-
tions are given a man is never again
| SO quick to denounce the ''Night
Riders" as lawbreakers and GRIM
inals of the worst nature.
| The Trust is to Blame.
| When it is once realized how
! frightfully the great tobacco trust
has ground the small tobacco raisers
of Kentucky under its heel, how it
has forced the prices down so low
that hundreds of poor families in
Kentucky are almost starving to
death, when it is realized that the
tobacco trust has only itself to blame
| for the conditions that exist today,
then there is always hesitation be-
| fore the night riders are bitterly con-
demned.
Would You Be One?
Think of a farmer with a large
family, a small farm, with children
wife and himself working in the to-
bacco fields, the hardest work in the
world, for sixteen hours a day and
+ his total yearly income from his crop
and for the support of his family only
$40 as a result of the criminal op-
preston of the tobacco trust. Are
you right sure, that under these con-
ditions, you wouldn't be a Might
Rider" too?
Men Who Betray Brothers.
The men that the night riders are
going after are the men who agreed
to pool their tobacco, to refuse to
sell to the trust and thus in time
bring back good prices and bring
the trust to it's knees and who re-
fused to stand by their agreement,
and stealthily sell their tobacco to
the trust for big prices while thou
sands of their fellow tobacco raisers
all over the state stand Loyalty by
their agreement although they and
their families are starving. 1t is
these traitors the DuyerS who take
these traitors crops that are being
visited by the night riders.
That the reader may know some
thing of the terrible privation of the
small tobacco grower of Kentucky,
the following from the Louisville
Courier-Journal of a few days ago
is given:
$40 Annually For Whole Family.
"It is quite probable that very few
of the larger growers of any district
are identified personally with the
night riders. though possibly some
know their plans, at least in an indef-
| mite way. Most of the night riders
are tenants. Some, no doubt, are
reckless men who go in for barn
burning and whipping for the fun
there is in it.
A Life of Hardships.
''To get right down to the meat of
the night rider movement, one has
but to know the tenant and under
stand how he is pounded into the
4 dirt by the tobacco trust. His life,
at best, is not a happy one. He
works small plot of ground on
shares with the landlord-very rare
1 ly more than four acres, that being
about the limit of one mans capac-
1 lty, even when he is assisted by his
family. The product of half this
small tract goes to the owner of the
land; the other half is the tenants
share and share alike, except that
the tenant does all the work. Some
times the landlord furnishes half the
tools.
"At n high estimate, and under
the most favorable circumstances, an
acre of land is good for 1 900 pounds
of tobacco. The produce brought
perhaps cents pound in the years
Immediately preceding the formation
of the Society of Equity
"That meant the munificent sum
of $40 n year as the tenants gross
income.
''ThinlS of it! A hundred and
forty dollars n year to rear "a family,
buy clothing and food, meet the en-
penses of marketing crop and EN-
joy life!
What If the crop should run
short, as any crop will do sometimes? =?
And what If the trust squeezed the
/ A rs.
a pound, as has been done?
Under Chariot of NIammon.
''The tenants wife and children
work in the tobacco field as hard as
he does himself. They are the living
embodiment of hard times. They
wear rags. live in little cabins which
are frequently no better than shacks,
the children are uneducated and un-
clothed. and their real interest in
life amounts to very little. They
have ambitions-God knows they
have ambitions. But they are stifled
by the iron hand of greed, and their
very souls are ground out under the
chariot of Mammon.
1.-THE condition of many of the
4 tenants is in itself the greatest in
centive they could have to any meas
ures that they think would insure
them decent living.
Price In Blood Money.
Add to this the knowledge that
the officials of the trust which rules
them live in palaces in New York, on
the Gulf or in California, and you
have everything necessary to make
the untutored mind believe that II
is time to go cunning for somebody
There Is no lacking element OF trag-