Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-05-27

The trail of the tobacco trust has been
trail of locked doors, boarded-up win
dows. smokeless stacks and deserted
shops.
Taking figures gathered by Herbert
Knox Smith. commissioner of corpora
tions. in 1897 there were in the United
States 253 tobacco factories, each pro-
ducing more than $4,000 pounds of product
annually. Ten years later there were but
1S5. Where were the missing IS?
CLOSED!
Locked, boarded up. the employees let
out to find other jobs. the proprietors
either hired servants of the trust at 9TH
er factories or else stripped naked and
left.
In 1897 independent manufacturers had
seven 5000 OO0-pound plants, 80 producing
between 100000 and 100000 pounds, and
1879 between 100000 and 100000 BY 1906
these figures had shrunk from seven to
two. from 80 to 10. and from 1S9 to Sc.
Such shrinkages account for the trusts
p 5000. o0-pound shops. 13 100000 to s.
OcO. 600 pound shops. and II 100,000-pound
plants in 1906 In big business economics
this is called Capitalization, and the econ
omy is reckoned in dollars and cents, not
in the anguish of shattered hopes and
deserted homes left behind on the trail,
BY Capitalization and monopolization of
labor-saving machinery. the trust has
been able to earn such enormous profits
as to stihe competition, buying up all
dangerous competitors as fast as they
arose.
After buying competitors, there has been
enough left from the profits to spend for
tunes In advertising, to cut prices below
cost of production on various heavy SELL
ing fighting brands and then pay big
dividends on capitalization of $3.50, 1876, 800,
of which an estimated $40OOOO,0O0 is wa
ter.
The trail of the trust is also red
dened with blood. The night riders
association was the protest of tobacco
raisers against the trust, which was
grinding them to the bone ir the prices
paid for the raw leaf. The night riders
defied the law, fighting fire with fire.
The trust has not hesitated, either,
to profit by practices made famous by
the sugar trust. The duty upon wrap
per tobacco is s1.S5 a pound; on filler
IS cents A new examiner in the New
York customs house found quantities of
wrapper tobacco invoiced to the trust
as filler. There was no prosecution, but
the trust began paying $4,000 more
per month in duties at New York than
IT had been paying previously.
Practically Wherever you touch the
tobacco trade you touch the trust, and
the trust, says Commissioners Smith, is
10 men: j. B. Duke, president OF the
American Tobacco company; A. N.
Brady, o. H Payne, p A. B. Widener,
Thomas F. Ryan, b. n. Duke. @. b.
schley, Moore & Schley (agents for
clientsl, and the estates Of w. G..
Whitney and W. l.. Elkins.
The trust has always been the foe of
union labor 1t has been a tremendous
employer of women at wages below the
union scale. In turn, the union labor
has fought the trust. advertising the
union label. And the result Of this ad-
vertising was to build up strong conf
petitors of the. trust, who cashed in on
the union label, non-trust trade cry
The government investigation show
ed that 81 of the very strongest of
these non-trust union shops were &C.
cretly controlled by the trust.
The 100 United Cigar stores were q
trust marketing device. Union labor
set its face against these storess patron
izing in many instances drug stores al
ned with the National Cigar Stands
company. The government investlga-
ton charged that some so other tobac-
CO selling concerns had been extended
such enormous credits and loans by
the trust that they were safely under
trust control.
cos in non-trust stores Inc consumer
cannot escape. the trust. The principal
ingredient Of plug tobacco, next to the
leaf, is licorice. The MacAndrews &
Forbes company has almost complete
monopoly of licorice manufacture. Tho
independent tobacco shop must buy lie
orice OF the MacAndrews e. Forbes
company trust subsidiary-two-
thirds cf whose voting stock Is held by
lie American Tobacco company
The night rider must bale his tobacco
in tobacco-trust-made sacks. The indepen-
dent manufacturer must pack his plug In
toba cco-trust-made tinfoil, or his Gig
arettes in tobacco trust-made pasteboard
boxes. or his cigars in tobacco-trust-
made cigar boxes. His advertising Is
distributed by trust billposters. Many in
dependents using patented machinery
must pay royalties into the tobacco trust
Golfers.
And the consumer, having bought non