The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-04-11

900 600 pounds of tobacco for nothinr
is "a blessing to the State" Counting
the tobacco sold on other markets in
! the State of North Carolina, we rais.
| about l25, 900. 600 pounds a Year. and
the loss to our farmers has Therefore
been in the ne~ighborhood of $4,000
/ 600 per year for the last nineteen
| wears. basing our calculations upon
he averages of the Danville market
Or. to put it another way. the loss has
been something like 100000 since
| the trust began operations. We 1fave
had returned TO US in the way Of phi
lanthropy, let us say $4,000. 600. leay-
ing a net loss, falling upon our farm
ing class and often upon the pooreSt
members Of that class, certainly upon
the hardest-Worked portion OF our
farm laborers. q net loss Of something
like $4,000, 900. In this statement 7
have tried to be fair. My figures have
come to me as transcripts from the
records. / have found leaf tobacco
low at a time when other %productS
were high: 1 have found tho aNeraEe
price running forty per cent lower at
a time when labor is fifty TO seVeHN-
five per cent higher, and when nearly
every item of the cost Of making a
crop has greatly increased. have
seen our people become more ana
more careless about combinations a.
they exist. 1 have seen our Tobacco
farmers with their spirit broken bv
the ~long-continued low price Of Ie&f,
ready to sit down in despair and pro
claim the uselessness of depending
upon the protection Of government
But it is not in North Carolinians al
ways to bow the neck to thc yoke
We cannot always feed them on
broken promises. They only await
leadership. And vet We find men Of
affairs and of sufficient intelligence t.
be entrusted by their people to MAKE
laws who openly state that tie
"American Tobacco Company is a
good thing" [ make the bold STATE
ment that at present prices. With pres
emit cost OF stock and at present wage
Of labor, leaf tobacco cannot be grown
except at 4 loss. In the tobacco bclr,
tobacco is the only money crop; there
fore, whatever the price, a large mum
Der OF h poorer armer and tenants
are compelled to produce Il certain
quantity Of tobacco in order to set
money to pay taxes and to buy cloth
ing and certain groceries. The crop
is not remunerative; the people are
not satisfied. 1t is true they do not
swarm around the Legislature; they
nave no money to pay railroad ana
hotel bills; they are largely without
organizations; many Of those who have
protested to be their friends III the
past have not been found to be true.
w AAS lI"N - ~
masters l do not know. Their very
numbers, and, in SO many cases, their
poverty, prevent their organization.
The brunt of the effect Of low prices
falls upon the poorest. the land
lord who rents his land being at no
expense for labor. and only at a part
of the expense for the fertilizer. man
ages to endure the conditions because
his risks are small He has been
forced to adopt the tenant system.
largely because he cannot hire labor
and make both ends meet. Instances
have not been rare where poor men
Will their families have stood upon
the warehouse foo with tears cours-
ing down their checks as they saw the
remains Of a hard summers work go
ing for a song.
Some day. whether you, reader. "r
J live to see it, men will wonder that
the government permitted for 50 long
q time a few men in great combina-
tons to reap the results of the abor
Of so many. These combinations 60
not make wealth: wealth is. created
only by abor. And there is a great
economic principle which somehow We
still lose sight Of that q nation only
grows rich when its labor is free, welt
protected. we'll clad, we'll fed and We'll
paid; that neither slavery nor pOycrtv.
nor ~tarvation methods, nor a condi-
ton OF despOtism, commercial or gov
e~rnmental, is conducive to the hishcet
earning capacity or the greatest cred
tive energy.
the Supreme Court Will -"
US relief. II not, it must come. II
may take the whirlwind. | DO nos
despair. By and by. man. not the dol
lar, not the shOulGer-strap ana star.
not the title, but man. Will come into
his own. and the day Of liberation -
injustice in mart and court Will CIV"
way TO truth and honesty and justice.
and labor shall not be without its
share of the profits Of invention and
oak Ridge institute. Oak Ridge. y. g.
efficiency. ] ALLEN HOLT
April 6, 1911.