The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1909-09-22
Senator u. O. Bradley
Makes Appeal For Pool

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spoke in part as follows:
MY fellow citizens, | am not here
today in any interest of my own. I
heard a gentleman (Mr j. d. Clark
say 10 you awhile ago that he had come
\ up mere to ask you to help them, and
II just occurred to my mind that he
might reverse 1t by saying that he mad
come up mere to ask you to help YOUR
y selves. NOW, 1t is not any interest to
me, personally, whether you pool your
tobacco or whether you don't pool II.
~ isn't cent In my pocket one way or
the other, but I feel this way. and I
feel 1t more now since have become A.
member of the Senate than I ever felt
1t before: | feel that it is my duty TO
do everything / can to help the people
OF Kentucky and that they have a right
TO expect me to do these things. And
what | want to do is what | can for
you and the farming element of this
country.
Farmer the Bone and Sinew.
Inere is no question of It, that the
farmer is the bone and slnew of this
country. Whenever the farmers are
prosperous everybody else is prosper
Gus, and whenever the farmers are not
prosperous, then there is no prosperity
In the country. / say that TO you in
the beginning. ! want. in the first
place, my friends, to call your atten-
ton to the condition of affairs as to to-
bscco in the past.
Up to the time that the American To-
bacco Company came into existence,
you mad reasonably fair treatment.
When the American Tobacco Company
came into existence, It gradually began
81.
would take your tobacco down to Louis
vile and you could find any number
OF buyers. There was q time when hnv-
ers were going over the country and
bidding against each other, but gradual
ly this great tobacco company absorb
ed all the Independents. There are
some fellows now claiming to be indie
pendent, and nine-tenths of them be-
long to the American Tobacco Com
pany and are merely their tools used
by them TO accomplish their purposes.
Got Eighty Per Gent OF Manufactures,
This company went on and 1t bought
up all the great tobacco companies,
manufacturing companies, five or six In
: Louisville; bought them up in Chicago,
all over the country. Where It could
not buy it put down the price of Its to-
bacco so low that the other fellow
could not compete and he had to sell,
or he had to go to the wall They went
on with this thing gradually until they
owned so per cent of all the tobacco
manufactures in this country. Now.
Just think of it! One company own
ing 80 per cent of all the tobacco manu-
factories in the United States.
What was the result? 1t put the
farmer absolutely at their mercy. We
had in this country buying tobacco
what they called the Reggie purchasers;
that Is, the purchasers for kings. In
Italy, IN France and In Portugal even
as small place as that, in nearly all
these foreign countries, they would
not allow us to bring our tobacco there
for sale, but the government of those
countries took possession of the tobac.
co and farmed 1t out, or employed its
agents to come over here and buy our
tobacco bring it over there where they
would manufacture it; they would sell
1t and the government would make the
money. Whatever money was made
was turned into the treasury and these
foreign governments have made mil.
lions of dollars in that way.
Combination Effected.
They had their agents over here. The
American Tobacco Company saw the
danger Of that thing, went to these peo-
pie and made trade with them. Now,
we will all go in together and we will
apportion the tobacco districts In the
country. You can buy all the tobacco
In one district and We can buy all in
another district. We will divide Il by
turnpikes, but we will fix a price and
none Of US Is TO give any more than
that price.
They fixed that up down here IN
Western Kentucky and they finally put
the price at SO a hundred, and thew
bought from those farmers their tobac-
co at SO a hundred. when no man on
earth could have ever raised it for that
price; and finally they put those men
almost out Of business.
Then came the night rider. am not
here to apologize for them, nor am |
here to apologize for any man who vio-
lates the law Of his country. Such a
man as that does wrong, does criminal
ly wrong, and ought to be prosecuted;
but they were the cause of It; these
men. this great monopoly that reach.
ed out and took in its talons the entire
country and crushed II and treated X
as it pleased.
The Grower EncIaved
That is the condition with which we
we're confronted. In the meanwhile,
under the Mckinley law in 1890, the
farmer was given the right to sell his
tobacco without tax, and his vendee
was given the right to sell it without
tax, but In 1898, / believe, through
the efforts of this corrupt corporation,
that law was repealed, so that the
farmer had the right to sell without
tax, but the man to whom he sold
could not resell without tax; and to
make it plain to you, the farmer went
to his country merchant and said to
him, Il want to buy cotton and sugar
and coffee, and l want to pay you in .
tobacco. THE merchant said, THAT is |
all right. but when / buy your tobac-
co must arrange SO that get enough
out Of 1t TO pay my six cent tax" And,
IN that way, the farmer was at last
made to pay the tax on his own tobac-
co when he sold It by retail.
The thing went on and on and on, as
say, until the tobacco interests In
% !.