The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1919-08-07
UP CUDGEL
IN TOBACCO FIGHT.
Senator Smith Emphasizes Importanc. !,
of Crop - Prices Now
Unreasonable.

At the meeting in Florence last
Friday to organize campaign to
meet the tobacco market crisis, the
Feature of the day was the address
by Senator E. D. Smith. The meet
ing was well attended and the Far
mers and business men of the Pee
Dee are starting the fight in de-
termined way.
Senator Smith was unable to speak
at any length as he had come to Flor
ence on sad mission, to bury his
friend, Willard Ragsdale, but he was
very much in earnest in this matter,
as he is in all things that pertain to
the benefit of the farmers. He stated
! frankly that he had not given as
much thought to the protection of the
tobacco planters as he had to the reg
ulating of the evils that beset the cot
ton farmers but after he had learned
from the handbook of the State de-
partment of agriculture that the to-
bacco sales in this State last year
were more than 100000 and the
value of the corn crop but STA, ,000,-
900, he saw the great relative value
Of the crop which is or can become
one of the staple crops of the State,
unless it is manipulated improperly.
He saw that the people of the State
have duty to the tobacco planters
as we'll as to the cotton farmers.
Senator Smith likened the tobacco
situation to the neck of bottle. "The
farmers produce the tobacco and in
order to get it out of the bottle into
the outside world it must pass
through the neck, so few in fact that
they can be counted upon the fingers
of one hand and four of those fling
ers cut off,
The senator continued that it is the
duty of the producers to organize and
TO hold their lower grades of tobacco
from the market as long as they can.
The higher grades Of tobacco are now
bringing fancy prices, but the lower
grades are being absorbed at prices
that are too low. He stated that
vast quantity of tobacco of he lower
grades is shipped abroad and he had
the figures to show. He had obtained
some startling statistics from the de-
partment of commerce in Washington
and from the federal trade commits
sion. These he presented to show that
there is a constant market for the
cheaper grades. Senator Smith had
time merely to file these figures with
the convention and he declared with
much earnestness that he is at the
call of the tobacco growers whenever
he can serve them and he wishes the
organization to stand to the fight and
find out, If necessary, who is mani
pulating the market and demand that
the antitrust law be applied vigor-
ously to their prosecution.
Senator Smith, in conclusion, told
of the splendid work that has been
done for the South by opening a num-
Der Of the ports, notably Charleston,
to the exports commerce Of the world.
He showed how the railroad trust had
shipped everything by way of East
ern ports, although the winter wealth
er conditions in Charleston are so
much more favorable, and he by his
position on the senate committee on
Interstate commerce, of which he
was chairman and is now the ranking
Democratic member, and other Sou
thern senator's had made the fight for
better freight rates from interior
points to Southern ports-and they
had won. This should be great stim-
ulus to the Southern farmers. He
closed with beautiful tribute to the
valor of the fighting men of the South
in the war in France, and said the
heroism of the Thirtieth Division had
won the South back into the Union.