The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1909-09-22
Congressman II. O. Stanley
Places Pool AbOOe Politics
Kentucky Member of House Urges Growers to Stand in
Solid PhalanX to Meet Tobacco Trust--Organzaton
the only salvation of the Planter of Burley Tobacco

tobacco plant; they had been raising
tobacco for a century. They never
sold II for less than from to 20 cents.
and ninety days after that combination
was completed e. NJ Flack. the biggest
tobacco broker in Kentucky, said be-
fore q committee of the Ways and
Means Committee OF the Legislature.
that he could buy every pound of to-
bacco between Hopkinsville and Nash
Vile for cents per pound all round.
Wages 20 Cents Per Day.
Destitution, misery, horror, despair,
hung ike a pail over the whole region.
The average tobacco grower was max.
ing less than 20 cents a day, ! figured
II out in my speeches and found that
II takes on an average at least 200
days 10 grow a tobacco crop. At 1000
pounds 10 the acre and three acres to
the man, you have got 10000 pounds Of
tobacco az 3 cents pound, you have
got 500. half of il to the tenant Is
s45 year ! was figuring that way
one day in Tennessee, and a big long
Tennessean got up and said: You
needn't go any further. | am through.
l rode critter-back fourteen miles to
hear you speak-they told me you was
a smart man. Any man who says you
can raise crop Of tobacco in 200 days
is a damn fool, II takes thirteen
months"
Courage In Face Of Destitution.
Forty-fve dollars a year. They were
the first men that ever organized. That
was the first meeting of the kind ever
held on earth. Those men talked and
consulted, grim visaged, brave and de.
termined as becomes men of Kentucky
and Tennessee. Their land was fitted
for the growth Of a particular brand
of tobacco. Much of the land would
not produce ten bushels Of wheat 10
the acre. but Il Is peculiarly suited to
raising Austrian leaf, which brings a
high price Those men knew that If
tobacco stayed where il was. that they
would be forced 10 take their starving
wives and ragged children and start,
homeless vagabonds down the dusty
road 10 find new land. a new home
to save them AMI theirs from the ruin
that had so suddenly and so ruthlessly
been thrown upon them. But they met
the situation with the same courage
that animated their ancestors when
clad i'm homespun and crowned with a
cOon-skin cap they stood behind the
cotton bales Of New Orleans with Old
Hickory Jackson and covered them.
selves with glory. They were the sons
of hardy and heroic pioneers. There
wasn't a man there that said I'VE can't
win-we cant organize the farmers"
They said Eve will try"
Advised Organization.
I rose in front OF that little audience.
| told them the thing 10 DO was TO
organize a concern like a bank, TO place
at the head of their organization the
best available business men, and pool
every pound Of that tobacco, and be
fore they sold it az 3 cents, to let IL
dry and wther in the barns and allow
it's dust TO be scattered back upon the
fields where II was raised. They pool
ed il. They held il. | tell you today
that Duke and Fargo and the rest Of
them bought that entire crop before
rhev organized for less money the
whole Of all the tobacco in Western
Kentucky for less money, than you
made one big sale for under the lead.
arship of Clarence LeBus. They bought
about S13.0O0,000 purchases for Eng
and, Austria. Spain and Italy. and
hose countries made out Of that to-
1acco $25OO0O00O from the Govern
ment taV alone
Folly Of Taking Low Prices.
If that tobacco had been cut into
ribbons by the hail, as / wish 10 God il
had, there would have been riots all
over Europe. Is The man vino is going
t1 get a dollar a pound going to cavil
d. paying you cents more than he
Id you before? II you don't know
D.. tier than that. 60 home and tell your
W 70 that you think the only reason
yol have got n head is because God
DIDN'T want your shirt 10 slip off of
Your shoulders. A man who don't
know better than 10 sell tobacco to
Oh. French Government for 3 cents,
moving that France can't get that
tot icco anywhere else on earth and
vii sell il for a dollar a pound
would bore him for a hollow-horn. only
7 N afraid his head is so thick that
the auger wouldn't go through.
Success Of Organization.
Those men organized. They held
rhe. tobacco, not for one year but for
three. before the trust would buy a
D6U7 d of f. And then the trust sent
its omissaries 20 the farmers saying
that they had three years supply over
what they wanted or needed. About
that time, Joe Chamberlain raised an
aeitation 10 increase the tax in Great
Britain, and the very same scoundrels
came into court and swore they didn't
have a supply for two months They
held hat tobacco until Mr.. Fargo--a
Dago--said he would take 1000 hogs
heads at their price. They said mo
you will take 10000 hogsheads, that
IS what you need" He said, No"
l"Wait ami see" They found out that
Fargo had entered into a. bond with
the King Of Italy to buy 10000 hogs
heads ana furnish Il 10 the Italian
. Government at II cents, and the Dago
was buying II for 3. He was making
o cents q pound on 10000 hogsheads
Of tNbacco, and Mr.. Ewing held him up
for that cents and paid Il to the
people 20 whom II belonged, and some
times you will find q fellow going
around saying, They arc paying him
$4,000 and he Is robbing them" For
every dollar that man was paid, he
put 500 IN the pockets Of the people.
/ God help tho American citizen that
would rather give an Italian noble