The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1909-09-22

corns on their feet, but have always
understood that farmers had them in
their hands-honest toll. Now, then
what do you want? Take this bill that
has now passed Congress, that my
| friend alludes to. What is there in
that bill for you? There is everything
in that bill for you, If you only have or
ganization. There is but little in 1t II
you don't have it.
Organization the Secret.
Now. under this bill, you can sell
your tobacco without paying any tax
on It, and the man to whom you sell 1t
can retail it without paying any tax
on it. But the question is, how are you
going to get your tobacco into the
hands of the retailer? You can only
do 1t by organization. 1t won't do for
every farmer in the county to issue
lot of hand bills and circulars and
mail them all over the United States.
! The first thing you know, you will all
be bidding against each other. Now
what you want is an organization that
will give notice all over this country
that There is so much tobacco that
we are ready here to sell 1t; we will
take so much for it and it will be de-
/ liNClCu at any Niilit anu PiNSNf anu ~
duce people to go to work, merchants
| to sell and retail tobacco, or retail to-
! bacco by reason Of the money they can
make out Of II.
! Now. have you ever thought about It,
what the retail tobacco trade means to
/ you? Why, you can sell millions OF
pounds of tobacco at retail and you
can get 90 cents pound for every
pound that you sell Suppose that you
could sell your whole crop at retail? |
don mean by that that you could sell
your whole crop in separate parcels,
but suppose that you could get differ
ent agencies over the country to agree
to take your tobacco and pay you for
It 20 cents a pound and sell it out by
retail: how much money would you
make?
Wouldn't you like to have 90 cents a
pound for your tobacco? ! think YOU
would Now, if you go into this thing,
don't see any reason why not only
the wholesaling of tobacco, but the re-
failing Of tobacco can not be arranged
so that the farmers of this country,
through their own organization cal sell
their tobacco by wholesale and retail
Sometimes people make a great mis-
take when they talk of the good things
that their neighbors have done, and
don't help their neighbor 10 do these
good things again. You know that
story of Aesop about the hen that Laid
the golden egg. The owner was not
content with one egg day, but ne
wanted two or three eggs a day. He
wanted to cut the hen open and get
all the eggs at once. and the result
was that he killed the hen and never
did get an egg afterwards. 1t won't
do to be too greedy.
The Wolf and the sheep.
Now, these people that come along
and say: why. what have you got
to do with this pooling? There is
nothing in that. Don't you see that
they are paying us just as much or
more than you are getting for your TO-
bacco?" Why, you don't remember
that story that they told you, that we
are wanting to rob you. DO you re-
member that old story Of Aesop, where
the wolves tried to persuade the farm
ers that they did not need dogs to pro
tect their sncep, and they said: Why
do you distrust US? We are your
friends. we are not going 10 bother
. your S0ttU. w ny W Fpu want ~ r+~A b. ~
men TO 60 out and look after your
sheep? Turn those men loose and
these dogs and we will look after the
sheep and the farmers did 1t and they
lost their sheep. Now, whenever these
people come and talk about you trust
ing them, they are nothing in the world
but the same old wolf that went to the
farmer and persuaded MIN to turn
away his dogs and his men, in order
that they might deyour the sheep.
Now. this is plain proposition. The
question is, whether you will do It.
Now. suppose these people cant
get enough persons to sign in
order to form this pool? Suppose
that a man here and there all over the
country, or a number of men, pull back
and say. I'VE won't sign" and they
can't get as much as IS per cent Of
the tobacco men in this country TO
sign. They won't form any pool
Had you thought about that, and do
YOU know today that the American
Tobacco Company and its allies are en-
gagged in their insiduous way TO pre-
vent these people from accomplishing
this pool We'll, you say, II | put my
tobacco in there, cant sell il myself.
Somebody else sells it," That is TO
your benefit that somebody else sells
it. If you were to undertake TO sell
it yourself you would not get the price
that you otherwise would get
Farmer Handles His own Tobacco.
There, then is another thing about
It. These people, as / understand,
and this company, whenever you put
your tobacco in their hands, issue to
you a warehouse receipt. That receipt
is good in any bank in Kentucky for
from FIVE to eight cents on the pound
of tobacco, and If you have to have
absolute money, TO that extent you
safely pledge your receipt in bank and
you still hold your tobacco until you
get your price on it, 1t seems to me
10 be a very simple thing, | wish /
had some tobacco. I would be very
glad to pool it. If | had one hundred
thousand acres of tobacco today,
would pool every pound of it. CAP.
plause) Every pound of it.
You must be organized. it won't do
to go back and tell about what you
used to do away back yonder before
the pool ever existed or rather before
. he hpnanra