Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1908-06-05

trust has come forward and bougnI
100000 pounds Of pooled tobacco at
Equity prices and the independent
manufacturers are buying a little.
With about 160,OOO.OOO pounds OF
hurley tobacco pooled. the Equity
growers decided that it would be inad-
vlsable to increase the store until the
trust was forced, from lack of other
supply, to purchase what is already in
hand. Their slogan became mo tobae-
CO crop for 1905" and it is the effort
to enforce this mandate upon its men,
hers and upon other growers which has
resulted in the night riding which has
attracted so much attention.
The Equity owners recognize the
hardship which would be incurred by
cutting out the crop of 1908, but they
agree that it is better 10 receive IS
cents pound for two years crop than
to be forced to accept about cents
for three years crops. Meantime they
would turn their attention to other
crops and, best of all, give their lands
rest.
The sympathy of the great mass OIL
the people Is with the farmers in their
effort to force the trust to pay a rea-
sonable and remunerative price for to-
bacco. Defeat means starvation prices
and continued scarcity of money. Vie
tory means prosperity for grower and
merchant alike. For this reason the
merchants are straining every resource
to carry their tobacco growing custom
ers on their books and the farmers are
cutting expenditures to the lowest pos
sible limit. 1t is struggle in which
practically all of Kentucky has a vital
interest. Everywhere one goes he hears
word OK commendatlon FOR the Equity;
the only condemnation Is for the ex-
cesses to which the night riders have
gone.
But there Is an excuse for the night
riders. Their mildest action Is, Of
course, Illegal, but 1t is understand
able. The law is slow. In every COM
munity in which there is a great strug-
gle for betterment, with consequent de-
privation and sacrifice, there are al
ways those whose cupidity prompts
them to take advantage of the situa-
ton and reap personal benefit, even
at the cost Of aiding the common enc
my. These individuals, though strict
ly within their legal rights, are neces-
sarily not popular with their neigh
bors, and to an extent these neighbors
are excusable when, persuasion failing,
an appeal is made to coercion. There
Is the law Of the statute books; there
is also the law Of the community. In
fraction Of the one may be punished In
the courts; defiance Of the other in
more difficult Of correction.
So long as the night riders confined,
themselves to the raking of tobacco
beds there was little criticism. When
valuable warehouses were burned there
was general expression of indigna-
ton and condemnation. When murder
was resorted to the manhood and de-
cency of Kentucky were reused to a
height which demanded that all night
riding must cease and that the crimi-
nails who had gone to such terrible ex-
cesses must be discovered and DUN.
ished.
1t is not difficult to account for night
riding In its incipiency. And from this
basis perhaps it is easy to understand
how irresponsible, daredevil young
men, prompted by love of rough ad-
venture and occasionally by personal
spite, took advantage of conditions to
excesses and Outrages.
Accompanying the night riding which
has been such an unfortunate feature
of the tobacco producers fight against
the trust there has been more than one
tragedy, but the one which attracted
the most attention and created the
greatest indignation was the killing of
Hiram Hedges by some member Of
masked mob.
Hedges was a hardworking, homes,
man for whom 1t has been long struc.
gle to support his numerous family. He
was man of decent morals, was count-
ed good neighbor and was not known
to have had an enemy. Like all farm.
ers in his part of the State he was
tobacco grower, but in a small way. In
his immediate neighborhod there had
been very little organizing among the
farmers and he was not an Equity man
One night he was visited by mob Of
about seventy-five men, called to the
door, accused of planting tobacco. and
in the presence Of his family was rid.
lied with shot.