The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1919-09-24
BUILDING A MARKET i
Prospective Tobacco Stemmery
And Steam Drying Plant
For Sumter

For Sumter
Next Tuesday afternoon, Septem-
ber 23rd at o'clock at Sumter
Chamber Of Commerce rooms, mat
ter of extraordinary importance to
the business interests Of this city, also
of great importance to the Sumter
tobacco market and thousands of to-
baceo growers Of Sumter, Lee, and
Clarendon counties will be up for con-
sideration.
The immediate future of the Sum-
ter tobacco market hinges largely on
the results of this meeting when a
representative Of tobacco trading and
exporting company, capitalized at five
million dollars, will submit propo-
sition for the establishment in this
city Of a steam dying plant and
stemmery. This representative has to
leave on the p. m. train and the
meeting has been therefore called for
o'clock.
Negotiations have been going on
quietly between the managing secre-
tary of the Chamber Of Commerce
and this tobacco trading and export
ing company for several weeks. Ten
tative propositions have been made
and accepted on both sides. But the
tobacco trading and exporting COM
pany now wishes to decide the mat
ter within the next week, definitely,
as to whether Sumter wants this i'm,
portant enterprise, or whether the to-
baeeo company, which prefers Sum-
ter to: other places competing, will
take their proposition to another
place.
It is now up to one side or the
other to "treat, trade or travel as we
sometimes say. The original propo-
sition on the part iof the tobacco
company was for Sumter to put up
the necessary buildings for a. stem
merry, while the new proposition calls
for q larger enterprise with a steam
drying plant, employing 500 hands and
the Sumter people taking block of
the necessary capital stock for the in
stallation of portion of the machin-
cry and other equipment in order to
show our own confidence in the future
of the Sumter tobacco market, and
to guarantee the active and working
cooperation Of the business interests
and the tobacco growers who sell
their tobacco in this section of South
Carolina Many tobacco buyers say
they can pay much more, ten to
twenty cents per pound for common
grades of tobacco if they could have it
steam dried right here, and proper
tionately higher for best grades.
The secretary of the Chamber OF;
ing the original proposition. and did
guarantee that the necessary buildings
for a. tobacco stemmery would be
erected. But he now has to call for
help on the bigger propositions which
will mean many more hundreds OF
thousands Of pounds Of tobacco an
unally handled on this tobacco mar
ket. ,e5z
If the business men of Sumter, and
brokers. owners Of city and country
property, lawyers, doctors, rnanufac-
turers. and men in every line Of busi-
ness, and if the tobacco producers
and the faHaS,and owners who want
to rent their lands or share crop lands
for profitable diversifcation next
year, or the year after, when the boil
weevil makes cotton producing un-
profitable, are interested in develop
ing the tobacco industry, and in caus-
ing millions of dollars to be put in
circulation for redistribution in years
to come, they will be at the Sumter
Chamber of Commerce next Tuesday
afternoon at 4 o'clock. This is big
proposition, and it requires coopera-
ton and money to put it over.
If Sumter loses this opportunity for
a big thing, please don't blame the
Sumter Chamber Of Commerce. The
meeting is open to the public.
Other commercial organizations in
other places are awaiting the oppor-
tunity which Sumter has been given
the refusal of, simply because Sumter
has the very best transportation fa-
cilities for shipping in and shipping
out ste1nmed and steam dried tobac-
co, and because Sumter is picked by
several of the largest tobacco COM
panies in the world as the best place
in which to develop a big tobacco
market. Will Sumter help outside
brains and capital.