The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1914-04-17
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES
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question ought not to end without
something being written concerning the
more or less blame the tobacco dealers
should share for the planting OF the
hybrid seed they now complain about.
In previous years when held buying
prevailed to such large extent and an
army Of buyers were engaged, many OF
whom not the best judges of good
tobacco, the big snowy leaf, always
most attractive in the field, was first
picked and contracted for at top prices.
The growers, therefore, were led to
believe that the large snowy leaf was
what the buyers wanted and continued
to plant the kind that was the best
seller. Their interest, Of course, ended
when the crop was sold and had little
knowledge of what happened to the to-
bacco in the cure after 1t had passed
out of their hands. This indiscriminate
field buying, it appears, resulted in a
good deal Of damage IN the hybrid leaf
which growers secured in buying I'M
mature tobacco, and now the packers
have united in an effort to discourage
the planting of this type of leaf, but
when the facts in the case are all
known they cannot very we'll escape the
.censure of bringing the trouble on
themselves. The situation, however,
does not effect the real issue that hy-
brid seed is not the safe seed to plant.
Xxx
The last nickel due the planters on
account of the great tobacco pools of
1907 and 1909 has been paid by the
Burley society, and checks have been
sent out from the headquarters at Lex
ington. With the distribution of the
last of the funds Of the pool the Burley
Tobacco society goes out Of existence,
many of the functions of that organ
ization being performed by the Burley
Tobacco Co., which has factory in
Louisville and makes. among other lines
City Club smoking tobacco. The total
amount paid out in the final distribu
ton was 1915, 052 81, which was scat
tered among the planters of 81 coun-
ties of Kentucky and some of the c0un-
ties of southern Indiana and Ohio. The
money is being distributed through the
county organizations of the society, the
checks for the growers in each county
being sent to the county seat banks,
where the members Of the pool eX-
change their warehouse receipts for
the checks. The money which went
out March 9th represents the per-
centages held out to fight any litiga-
ton which might be begun attacking
the pools. It formed the basis of a
number of suits to compel it's distribu-
ton and it was following the decision
Of the Court of Appeals in one of the
suits that fight was made on the Of
ficers of the present Burley Tobacco
Co. However, the present organiza-
tion won out and everything is now
harmonious. Of the money just sent
out, $191, ,755.42 represents the 1907
pool, and the balance that of 1909.
Mason county receives the largest
amount, SIS, 900 from the 1907 pool and
50, 900 from the one Of 1909. The lat
est chapter in the suit against the Bur-
ley Tobacco Co. was written this week
in Covington, when Judge Tracy prac-
tically ruled that the attorneys for the
plaintiffs against the company should
be paid their fees out of the assets of
the company. It is likely that an ap-
peal will be taken from the decision.
The antitrust bills introduced into
the House have undergone by this time
a remarkable metamorphosis. The
sting of viciousness, the venom of NAL
ice, even the implacableness of radical
enmity against any and all kinds of
business that has fallen under the dis
pleasure of demagogism seem to have
been drawn from them in their recon
struction with the saner views and
wishes and the visible anxiety Of Presi-
dent Wilson to save the business of the
country from the damaging conse-
quences of further disturbance by radi-
cal legislation. The president better
than anybody else in the present Dem
ocratic government atmosphere of
Washington seems to realize the SEN
sitiveness Of the country caused by the
sudden and rapid changes of our gov
ernmental policies, and as he has pro-
nounced himself as preacher Of peace
and freedom he naturally feels resent
full at the prospects of having the busl-
ness peace of the country broken up,
and the business freedom of the coun-
try fettered by too many and too severe
restrictions. In consequence of this
presidential attitude the antitrust bills
have been so changed as to permit cor
porations engaged in interstate or for
eign commerce to form subsidiary cor
porations provided that the effect of it
is not to eliminate or lessen pre-exlst-
ing competition This modification is
of utmost Importance to the number
of our large cigar manufacturing cor
porations, who have of late years ac-
quired subsidiary corporations in the
same line, the entire stock or part of
which went into possession of the par
ent company. Without this modifica-.
ton the dissolution or disintegration of
certain of our large cigar manufactur-
ing corporations would have had to fol
low the passage of the anti trust bills
as originally planned. Other great and
radical notifications and on the whole
most salutory were made in the bill for
the creation of an Interstate Trade
Commission, which in its original shape
was the most inquisitory and un-Amer-
lean measure ever drafted. AS changed,
however, only corporations of five mil
lion dollars and over are to come under
the control and supervision of the COM
mission and the original unrestricted
meddling of the federal agents with
ovorv Yoboco of a huSinpSS concerns