The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-04-13
THEY THAT RIDE BY NIGHT.
Continued From Page Nine.)

(oOIltiIuo0 rom rage III
none o we'll lighted, cannot Away!
make sure Of the quality of the pro
duct. In a warehouse, piled loose OF
the floor. the buyer can see just Wha
is offered, and the farmer with the
best tobacco is sure to get the hes
price.
At one time asSmall army Of Specu'
latOrS and buyers a travelled the
! Burlev district, buying for various
manufacturers. l am told that his
condition was not altogether satisfac-
tory to the farmer. On the contrary
the buyers were very often bargain
hunters and used every effort tc
peat down the farmers price Part
Of this error would be taken by one
buyer, who would be unable to use the
whole crop because his factory used
only one grade. SO the farmer often
had to deal with several buyers to
dispose Of his entire crop.
1t is more OF less difficult to get
at these historical facts. l have been
told that the urged the
American Tobacco COmpaEY-the
Trust-to establish buying agencies
throughout the Blue Grass. However
that may be. the NIB Of buyers
decreased as the Trust absorbed va
rious factories, and Trus buying
agencies We're established throughout
the district. The American Tobacco
Company, With its enormous capacity
and wide variety OF products, could
utilize all Of a farmers crop. BS
buying direct from the farmer in
stead of from spectators, the Ameri-
can Tobacco Company could pay
higher prices.
The Trust buyers We're very well
come.
IL +i-,n ~, ~ tIrncti, nnn1ifinr
arose: The Spectators. finding it
Improbable to compete With Trust
prices. gradually ithdrew from the
district, leaving the business of buying
at the barns practically in the hands
OF the Trust representatives. A farm
er could, of course. watch his daily
papers and keep posted on market
prices to ask or accept. Or, if he
had the facilities. he could prize"
his tobacco and ship it to Louisville
or Cincinnati to be sOld on the
breaks"
SO far as price is concerned. To-
bacco Trust officials recently testified
in a Federal Court that the price
Of Burley has been higher in the
eight years of Trust operation than
in the eight years previous. They are
authority for the statement that the
WV . 1 oiAANC IN W.
field was seven and tWenty-nine-one
hundredthS cents. They add that
they have increased the use of the
weed throughout the world: that, due
to them consequently, the price paid
the grower has been steadily advance
ing. And even SO, the price paid
for Burley in 1906 was eight and one
tenth cents.
The, setting of the stage for trouble
began the very next year-in 1907.
A low price Of itself cannot create
violence. Where buyers compete, no
one buyer is to blame, nor all Of
them. Farmers realize then that a
higher power, the inexOrable law of
supply and demand, is against them.
They have lever burned an elevator
yet because Of the price paid for
wheat. But as the consumption of
tobacco increased, and the stern, just
law Of supply and demand was at
law of supply and enIan was at last
favoring the grower, the grower want
a free and unhampered operation
of that law. 1t was no consolation
hat the chief buyer now in the field
offered him more than competing buy
ers had ever offered before.
So a situation at last partly psyche
logical arose. The planter, who had
n welcomed the Trust buyer, now
began to analyze. His old-time lati-
for bargaining had Shrnnk. He
somebody besides this Ameri-
can Tobacco Company fellow would
come around and make him an offer.
Of all the seventeen thousand tobacco
in the United States, with
$500, 0OO. 900 out of which to buy to-
bacco, with two hundred thousand
men, there was sent him only this
one man to buy his tobacco.