The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1909-04-02
TALES OF
THE KING OF THE BLACK PATCH,

One of the most fascinating and
thrilling fact-stories that has ap-
peared in public print since the guer-
rilla days of the Civil War is that
found in Hampton's Magazine for
March. 1t is entitled "Night-riding
in the Black Patch" and is written
by Eugene P. Lyle, Jr., we'll known
and trustworthy author. Here is a
portion of Mr.. Lyle's story of what
the Black Patch:
Close to the Tennessee line, near
Guthrie, KY, there lives a planter,
Fel1A Ewing. He was popular, in
a way, with his neighbors. At Glen
raven, his beautiful home, he threw
open the doors now and then in a
baronial manner, and the man in
jeans came and was fiattered The
host raised tobacco. He understood
the woes of the man in jeans
In Ewing's brain there burst into
flame an idea superb, colossal, of a
daring and design worthy of genius.
That was in 1904. The growers of
tobacco should do their own selling
through him. A warehouse mon
opoly, to prize, to sample, to SELL
and to tax in commissions-the bulk
of that monuments crop OF 120,-
100000 pounds, year after year!
He must find a name potent with
the promise Of mutual cooperation,
a name to make him one with the
thousands of growers, and the thou
sands of growers one with him. All
for one, and one for all, they would
cast their lots, and their tobacco, into
one gigantic pool. The growers
would believe-and he made many of
them believe it later, by matter-of-
fact, business-like, convincing argu-
ment-that no matter how much to-
bacco they grew, or how much was
grown elsewhere, they need only cor
ner a good portion of the crop to
shoot prices skyward.
The new idea spread and had every
semblance OF fairness. 1t was fair at
first. The farmers, taking eager
hold in their despair, were possessed
with the notion that it was their
idea. They assembled by hundreds
at Guthrie on September "a, 1904,
and crystallized the idea into an or
ganization. They called it the Dark
Tobacco District Planters Protective
Association of Kentucky and Tennes-
see. 1t was really a cooperative as
sociation, according to its charter,
given under the laws of Kentucky.
The board of directors was elected
by the farmers themselves. Each
magisterial district of each county, in
an annual election, was to name di-
rector. The directors in each county
were to elect a chairman, who was to
be member of the executive COM
mittee. No member of the associa-
ton was to receive a salary. There
were to be 1000 shares, of the value
Of 81 each, with which to control an
annual product worth six or eight
million dollars.
Here was really farmers associa-
ton. Felix G. Ewing was made its
general manager. Charles H. Fort,
Ewing's neighbor, man of imposing
presence, was made president.
Of the supplanting of this cooper
ative association by a private ware
house concern chartered under a SIM
liar name, l shall write in another ar
ticle. 1t need only be stated here
that by "association" is meant first
the cooperative society during it's ex-
istence, and thereafter the private
concern that succeeded it. For the
undiscerning farmer the two associa-
tions have been one and the same
thing. The organization was first
and last His Association. AS
matter of fact, it is nobody's associa-
ton but Ewing's. He is still general
manager.
The original association began its
career with the 1904 tobacco. Ewing
and his associates claimed that sew
enty per cent. of the crop was pledged
to them. Later it was shown that
they handled about third of the
crop.
The scale of prices began to adj
vance in 1904. 1t is an economic
problem as to whether the association
or reduced acreage-or both-was
responsible for the increase. Inde-
pendent farmers, those who had not
Joined Ewing's movement, received
the advantage of the same advanced
prices obtained by association men,
bers. The independent growers were
disposed to skepticism. They said
that association "prizing" was infer
ior and costly, and association charges
were higher. Several warehousemen
who had financed the association for
hundreds of thousands of dollars
thought themselves ruined, though
they pulled out with narrow mar
gin. Independent farmers holding
aloof made the corner ineffective.
In the spring of 1905 General Man
ger Ewing faced big, grave, absorb
ing question: How shall l induce the
independents to bring me their to-
bacco?"
That question was answered,
whether by Ewing or not, with blood
shed and with the torch.-Hampton's
Magazine.