The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-10-24

Ell oo1
vince the public that the tobacco trust
does not believe hat the courts de-
eros, will be honestly enforced by the
government. No tentative plan has
hean printed that was not in reality
q contempt of the decision Of the Su-
preme Court Of the United States.
That decree ordered dissolution. No
nlan has been suggested by the trust
that did not involve a palpable evasion
Of the Courts decree. A week ago we
were told that the trust would divide
the snake into three parts, and be-
tween the lines it was plain hat the
master hand that has built UP the
rus was to control all three parts OF
the snake and could put them together
at will, and that the division was a
mere division in nam only.
When that plan met with universal
contempt and was declared by every
sensible man outside of the trust cir
Gle TO be a fraud and an evasion Of
the Courts decree, the trust then in
vented another tweedle-dum and
tveedle-dee evasion of the law by
fling a plan under which it would
divide into four parts, but the one
ness of the controlling power is not
to be affected.
If the Taft administration should
consent to the plan proposed by the
American Tobacco Company, it wou'1
be eQuival mt to saying to that trust,
.lTeretotore .:'on have been rob: LIZ
the tobacco producers and destroying
ir1ependent manufacturers in viola
ton of th= law. In the future YOU
NAV continue, through the four
sl~eight-of-hand tricks that you have
invented, to do the same thing under
the protection and sanction Of the
Law"
What are the people going to do
about it? Attorney General Beckett,
of North Carolina. an able lawyer who
has studied the tobacco question from
its very foundation and knows that
the tobacco trust has. been robbing
the farmers to a DIN where endu-
rance ceases to be a virtue, left !es-
terday for New York city to hold a
conference with the Attorneys General
of Virginia and South Carolina and
other tobacco States in the hope that
they could have some weight in pro
tecting these tobacco farmers from the
contemplated legalization of crime.
Elsewhere is printed an interview
with Attorney General Beckett, en-
hracing a letter which he wrote to
Attorney General Wickersham on
October 9th. The letter is plain,
straightforward n direct and is a
masterful and brief exposition Of the
sham dissolution proposed by the
American Tobacco Company. He truly
says: THE plan which the
say the American Tobacco Company
has submitted to the Court G not
have the merit of ever like
a bona tide dissolution of that cor
poratiOn.' The people Of North caro-
lima will hail with pleasure and with
approval the action taken by Attorney
General Beckett in his matter, ana
they hope when he reaches New YORK
that the proper consideration VILE
be shown to the view which he states
so clearly and ably to Attorney Cen
eTal Wickersham, and that the spec
tacle Of the palpable fraud and sham
presented will not be accepted by the
Taft administration. The o.
North Carolina and Virginia and South
Carolina and Kentucky have been foI
years the mere vassals Of the tobacco
trust, and today they are at its mercy
while the independent manufacturer
have nearly all been driven out OF
business or swallowed. The proposed
division of the trust into four brancheS
Is, as Mr.. Beckett has we'll said, nc
more a real division than if the hano
should divide itself into its fingers.
The cTorth Carolina people are
proud Of the great business built VI
by the Blackwell Company and the