The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-06-06

decide that they wish TO grow and ex-
pand in the proper way, suddenly
they find that it is their interest TO
sell out 10 the American Tobacco
Company, and, while it is difficult to
prove hat a man was forced to sell
to the trust, he generally sells and
the feeling of the country is and the
feeling of the men of capital and
business is hat il he does not Sell he
will be crushed. He is sand-bagged
in the dark and given a body blow
in the back. OF course this tobacco
trust denies that it brushes competi-
ton. 1t denies hat it is an outlaw Of
commences; it denies that it fixes the
price of bacc to the farmer at
such prices as it chooses and most of
the time makes tobacco farmers live
on starvation prices. The decision of
the Supreme Court this week, how
ever, declared that he American To-
bacco Company is an illegal corpora
ton, operating in restraint Of trade,
and specifically found that it had been
guilty Of intimidation. There is not a
tobacco town or city in the country
that has not been injured by this
trust and nom where YOU will not find
the wrecks and broke fortunes Of
able business men who were prevent
ed from winning large success be
cause of the heavy hand of n to-
bacco trust which has been a relent-
less and cruel monopoly. 1t has made
a few men very rich. It has shut
40 noor ~ ), ~ - rJC
of men who might have made big
fortunes in manufacturing tobacco
and would have lone SO if hey had
not been denied a decent chance, and
it has made the tobacco farmers live
from hand to mouth, taking their to-
baccO at the price high enough tC
induce them to keep growing the
weed, one year and giving them moth
ing for 1T and then when they re-
duce the crop, put it up to encour-
age them to make more.
"A few men have gotten very rich, a
few communities have grown rapidly
and in wealth because of the trust
location there. Naturally in Durham
and in Winston-Salem and in other
cities where the tobacco trust has
! large plants and does a big business
there is more or less uneasines
among the people because of the Su
rreme Court decision. AS a matter O
fact, if there had never beer n to-
baoco trust il that town, Durham
would ave fifty thousand pes lt
here they ave less than 20, 900. Tie
4 ord ''Durha n III the Eanufactur, o
tobacco is the biggest asset any tow
in the world has or has ever had, and
with free competition and a fail
chance and the certainty that the iror
hand Of the trust would not be laiC
upon them, men of enterprise anC
ca pital would rave builded not tWt
or three giant factories in Durham
but fifty big factories, all having large
business and doing Well, and having
such competition in the purchase OF
the weed as would have kept the
prices of the farmers tobacco up tc
a high price SO that the manufacture,
ard business men would have alike
had prosperity and the Dukes woul,
have been very rich, but not SO ~icI
and powerful that nobody else coI..
make money manufacturing Tobacco,
If the American Tobacco Compan,
shall obey the law and dissolve a:
he law requires, of course the Duke:
will still nave the biggest thing in tn
tobacco world, and nobody begrudge
every cent they get, big or little, in
legitimate, open market of competi
tion: but if this decision returns t
the old principle Of competition an
the survival Of the fttest, we shall Sc
Durham the greatest tobacco marke
in the world. and we shall see, no
} one giant concern, but a score of bii
concerns.
Instead of the big plug tobacco fac
: tories in Winston-Salem being con