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

nobody wanted. Storage charges, in
surance charges through the winter
n cost of redrying in the spring and
ten per cent. loss by s1lrinkage from
rehandling.
But to the credit of those. farmer
hghters there was no surrender. Out
Of desperation leaped audacity. Fam
inc shall be our salvation,' they said.
Ihen c~unningly they planned the fam
Inca famine in Burley. we must
raise no tobacco in 1905" they grimly
pledged themselves. After which they
settled down to face a winter of de-
pr1vat1on, and make a waiting fight
of it.
With the resolution taken, they took
new hope. We will make enough
extra on our 1906 and 1907 pools to-
Sether to pay us for the 1908. crop
that we don't even have to grow" they
calculated.
How was it, though. with the small
farmer and the tenant? Already many
had realized cash on their certificates
when they could, and now q year Of
no crop at all confronted them.
Bitterness was gathering apace,
gathering in one home against. the
home of a ~neighbor, warping human
kindness everywhere. Up the road an
old friend was laying in more than the
usual winter comfort. And why? Be
cause, being .unpledged, he had sold
his tobacco. He had sold it at a high
price, at eleven and eight-hundredths
cents. And why? Because ], his
neighbor, who am now almost desti-
tute, have kept my tobacco off the
market. His comforts this winter are
paid for by my sacrifices. More than
that. selling his tobacco tended to
break the market, and helped to keep
me and the others of us in the pool
from getting the price we asked. And
very likely he will plant in the spring,
20 WOO n 0a i, .1n%t 1no,s what VIC ar.l
denying ourselves. If he Goes-Well,
we must fix his little crop, that's all!
Such was the genesis of violence.
The strikers hatred for the "scab" is
analogous. Worse than the scab is
the traitor. The traitor to Equity is
one who holds part Of his tobacco out
Of the poo< and sells it elsewhere. he
is called a bumper" Charges and
counter charges have been plentiful.
Even officers Of the society have been
charged with 'dumping." A Cincin-
natl newspaper alleged that one prom
inent society official himself was hold
ing six hundred hogheads out of the
pool, while urging ROVER to pool all
their tobacco.
Instances Of leaks We're a~bundantly
authenticated. One Equity man in the
northern part OF the State chose the
day after. election, when everybody
was either celebrating or nlopinS. He
had cars placed on a siding. then
hauled forty hogsheads of his tobacco
there and loaded them in. The next
day they We're en- the market.
All Equity grower could not sell
pooled tobacco without h written
consent OF his County Board of Con-
troll. This was equivalent to limiting
the buyers of his obacco to Equity
members, that the might be
a small farmer or tenant to sell his
tobacco in this way. He sold to equity
members, sometimes to officers or the
County Board OF Control, who seized
this opportunity to become Specula-
tors.
Had the grower been permitted, he
could have sold outside the pool for
two. three and -four cents more than
his brothers in Equity paid him. 1t
was charged hat all the pooled to-
bacco Of one county was bought in by
three spectators for from eight to
eleven cents. per pound, and that one
of these. spectators was Chairman OF
the Board of Control. In Bracken
county other were buying at ten and
Observation-Disclosures cents. Equity
members have repeatedly come to OF
ficers of the American Tobacco Com
pany in Louisville to raise money for
speculation in pooled tobacco. All such
offers. the American TCbacC
asserts, We're declined.
Chances for graft always develop IN
the wake OF any Dig HOFeIlleHC, puc ~
should not be forgotten either that the
enemies. of the movement are very Of.
ten the accuSerS, and that 1t IS almost
impossible to get at the factS. Equity
offcers are charged with 1evying ex-
cessive, fees for handling. the tobacco.
Those. of the executive board are
charged with voting themselves large
salaries ($10. 900 per year, and prince
-------- ). 49, -
noulrRYaoNE FULL BALE