The Jones County news., 1914-10-22
THE news BRINGS
TO LIGHT THAT
OIL MILL TRUST.
The Most Outrageous Con
spiracy Ever Organized
Has Been Exposed.


The Jones County News was the
first and is still the only paper in the
State to denounce the cotton seed oil
mill trust and to condemn Attorney
General Ross Collins for imposing on
the mills small fine, and which was
simply licensing these scoundrels to
continue to rob our farmers in paying
only half the value or their seed and
then selling adulterated meal.
In fact, when in order that he him
self might pocket $500 of their sto-
len money Ross Collins let the orga-
nizers of that oil mill trust escape by
paying a pitiful fine instead OF having
the scoundrels tried and punished as
they should have been, he became
particeps criminis.
But our little weekly has already
woke up things, and most outra-
geous and villainous conspiracy has
been unearthed, by which the oil mills
in Mississippi have robbed the tar
mers of enormous sums In buying
cotton seed at about half the actual
value, not counting the adulterated
meal they are selling. There never
was more hellish conspiracy to rob
our farmers ever concocted, and this
trust was not only encouraged and
backed but practically licensed by
the Attorney General when he himself
pocketed $500 of the stolen money
and then turned the mill owners loose
on our farmers to continue their rob-
berry. After paying that pitiful fine,
assessed by Ross Collins, all mill
owner had to do was to buy ten tons
of seed to get his money back.
It has been discovered that every
oil mill in Mississippi is organized
into q trust, and once month the
manager of each mill comes to New
<saieans, stopping at tAe Same hoial,
and are organized into what they call
1.-THE Plato Club. This club Is
dark lantern, secret, oath-bound or
ganizations, and no gang Of train
robbers or bandits ever had yiler or
more lawless ends in view
The members of this "Plato Club"
meet in New Orleans each month and
every oil mill in Mississippi must be
represented by its manager. The
doors of the room where the gang
meets are locked and then each man
sworn to secrecy, and they make oath
not to pay a penny more per ton for
cotton seed than the price fixed by
the HPlato Club. Similar organiza-
tions exist in all of the Southern cot
ton-growing States, and they all WORK
together, Thus competition in buying
seed is destroyed ana our farmers are
absolutely at the mercy is this band
of freebooters. Il is shown that the
mills can pay the farmer S23 per ton
for cotton seed and make handsome
profit. But one month the club fixed
the price at only Sll, but farmers re-
fusing to sell at that price. ii was
gradually raised to SI4, clear steal
OF SO per ton from the farmer. The
adulteratlon of meal was left to the
mill owners, and as they are abso-
lutely without honor or conscience
they not only ground up hulls and all
manner of mill trash and litter With
the oil cakes, but are now adding dirt
and even crushed stone and brick.
The New Orleans papers say that
the trouble will agin be settled by the
mills paying fines, and the smaller
mills say they can settle again with
the Attorney General by each paying
a fine of S100, ten per cent. of which
money will again go into Ross Collins
own pocket. The farmers will oppose
any compromise whatever with the oil
mills, be they big or little. They de-
mand that the last one be prosecuted
to the extent of the law, and LET juries
taken from the farmers that these
scamps have so outrageously robbed
try these scoundrels and name the
penalty. Put the last one in the PEN
itentiary, array them in stripes and
then have their pictures taken to dis
tribute over the country. This pun
ishment will not put any more money
in Ross Collins pocket, but it will
break up for good and all that Plato
Club and put an end to this high-han-
ded robbery of our farmers, and moth
ing else will.
We have an eye on Attorney Gene
raj Ross Collins, and let him dare to
let those robbers of our farmers settle
again by paying fines, and this paper
will riddle him from stem to stern, as
Collins will by this act show that be