The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-04-13

practically a farmer has only one
BUYER said the Louisville Post. IN
| element of competition in the sale O.
tobacco crops in KENTUCKY mas Deer
| almost eliminated"
Miss Alice Lloyd, of Winchester. &c
be acclaimed later as the Jeanne
dare Of the Equity crusade, tells her
| own experience. Il we'll recall a GER
tain prize-winning buyer Of the
Trust" she says. whose, ineNorable
face I cannot forget, and who was
the only purchaser Of tobacco we
ever saw in our country or severa
consecutive years. From his ulti-
matum there was no appeal. 1t was
take his offer or keep your tobacco
One big grower, though he did not
join the Equity movement, has said:
ct is true that the American Tobacco
Company did establish and maintain
a fictitiously low price for tobacco
In opposition to the Trust argu-
ment that during the eight years Of
its operation prices have been higher
than during the eight years preceding.
the argument is often advanced:
prices would have been still higher
if there had been more buyers in the
field. Demand has increased: price
has not increased in proportion to
the increased demand"
AllCtIlcI SIONSI WIlO DtCdltIc plOiil-
inent in the revolt says hat 'the
price IN white hurley had been put
down till the tenant got no more than
seventy five cents to n dollar a day
on which to live and support his
family
The tenant, it should be explained,
cuItivates a small patch on shares.
He stands III eXpense-apprOXimate-
ly $75 per acre-and then gives the
landowner one half his crop. The
owner, moreover. controls the crop,
attends to the marketing. etc. The
poor tenant is the neither milestone
of the whole system. He is ground be-
tween his landlord and the buyer.
Ii you could eliminate his cause of
complaint against the Trust, he still
has his landlord. taking one-halff his
crop, SO that a high price per pound
must be reached before the tenant
can share in any measure of the pros
perity.
Whether tenant or owner, the
grower Of tobacco began to feel the
sensations Of being wrapped round
and round. as b: a boa-constrictor.
and having the free air squeezed out
of him. Outside in the wide ma
ton people were talking about octo-
puses and hydra-headed things. He
grew aware of a poignant personal
appreciation in this talk. and the
IdlltdSliC LOOlCSlCdl NOIUS formed on
his tongue also. And as they formed,
they secreted venom there. Yea,
even he was one of the oppressed
Down, therefore, with Trusts
During three years the rumbling
of rebellion swelled to the volume
that means action. Weather vanes-
newspapers, the drummer
with goods to sell, and hardheaded
men of sense-veered with the breath
nf STORM and nn;ntol Tho
70 the hydra-headed Trust oppose
an antagonist in kind! Fight a Trust
with q Trust.
Farmers had combined before. The
old Grange was a combination for CO.
operative buying. Right here at home
was the American Society Of Equity,
whose purpose was cooperative SELL
ing. This Society did not contemplate
tobacco especially. It aimed to help
farmers apportion acreage to the diff
ferent crops according to demand, and
then to market such crops advantag-|
1t numbered twenty-sevenj
thousand members in Kentucky, now
as hardly a fifth Of the
membership of the various tobacco
societies. Burley rowe
decided to pattern after the Equity
Everybody began talking EQUITY:
everybody who wanted q vote. every
VINO had anything to sell. Against
the dollars of the Trust why not ball
he weight of many acres? The
farmers adopted that doctrine eagerly.
In Winchester. Kentucky, January
z, 1907, the w Of Burley re-
to the call by counties. When
the reports were opened and tabulat-
Ed, 1T was found that n~inety-two thou
eight hundred of Kentucky's|
acres stood pledged as a Trust
against the Trust. In other words. at
least one a OF the Burley grown
during the year was to be considered
as the crop Of one man. The Buriey1
Society, on that day given
birth. was to- be this One Salesman. |
The .Burley Society, patterned after1
and practically a branch of the Socie-l
ty Of Equity. became known as .B. f.
81 or Equity"