The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-26

then asked if 1t was reasonable to believe that he was qualified to engage in any business other than the grocery business.
 But" continued MT. Johnston, when he opened up in business for himself, in the very outset, he received letter from the Eagle Cotton Oil company In which they stated to him that they could not sell him goods unless he was a member of the Southern Wholesale Grocers as- sociation.
 Offered Spot Cash.
 And now consider this. In spite of times of depression the plaintiff offered spot cash for goods, for Arbuckles Ariosa coffee for instance, and after he became engaged in this difficulty with the as- socation the Arbuckle company withdrew their letter offering him their coffee on jobbing terms, for the reason that they understood he was going to handle other goods on consignment l say that when a man cannot buy goods for cash in times of depression, as was then the case, then there is a nigger in the woodpile. And you remember that an agreement was reached between certain manufacturers and the association that this defendant should be allowed to remain on the repentent stool
 'Mr Clabaugh offered the Diamond Match company cash for their matches in times of stringency and, further MT. McEllwee took his order. But we find that after the plaintiffs trouble with tho association the order was not filled, the representative lof the match company never called upsn him again and he could not secure matches from these people.
 MT. VanHooses letters about MT. Clabaugh are conspiouously untrue. He wrote the manufacturers that he had at- tempted to investigate the nature of busi- ness which Hinton G. Clabaugh & Co. in- tended to do, and that they replied to his letter in such a discourteous manner that he did not believe it would be pleas ant to go further with the investigation. This was an untruth. gentlemen The only attempt to investigate the defendants company was to send a special represen- tative to his place of business, before he opened up, to peep through the keyhole and see what was inside, and further to write the defendant letter asking him, among other things, If he would pledge himself to strictly maintain prices on list ed goods. The plaintiff replied to a ma jority of the questions, but stated that he did not care to lineup in association form and pledge himself to maintain prices. He asked to be excused In this respect. This was not a discourteous let ter, In fact I consider 1t a frank and manly communication.
 Could He Succeed2
 Under these conditions, with the ter rife pressure which was brought on the manufacturers, do you mean to say that this plaintiff could succeed. And yet the defendant says he made no earnest ef- fort. Trying as hard as he could, out making sales which amounted in all to $12,000, with about one-eighth of the goods he sought to get. that Is in variety, he had lost about 5000 when he closed out his business. Had he been able to se- cure the goods he desired, or full stock, his sales would have easily amounted to a full eight eights or $96,000, instead of the $12,000 with an eighth of full stock.
 ''Gentlemen, he has been put out of business and has been prejudiced by the defendant with the trade. You are en- titled to look to the future, and in fixing the amount of damages you should con sider not alone the damage to his busi- ness but consider the suffering caused him. And I beg of you to consider it solemnly."