The Parisian. (Paris, Tenn.) 1907-1962, 1920-03-05
KENNEDY SHOWS
THE SITUATION OF
TOBACCO BUYERS
Marketing Difficulties Are Apparent,
!. Exchange Has Plain Bearing,
Says Expert Tobacconist.
EXPLAINS FOREIGN MONEY
SITUATION IN FULL DETAIL
Insists Interest of Producer And
Buyer of Tobacco Are Very
Much The Same.
(By W.,B. Kennedy

About ten days ago we noticed q
very conspicuous announcement m
the Paducah press that some tobacco
buyers of South Carolina were COM
ing to Paducah for the purpose of
buying and shipping large part of
the crop of tobacco out loose in cars.
In this announcement it was said that
they would make cash payment for
the tobacco when it was delivered.
We all hailed this news with delight
and have been waiting for these peo-
pie to start the crop to moving. No
one could have been more delighted
than the writer, although the article
was not gotten up in a businesslike
way. In other words, the methods
pursued We're not conducted along the
lines of shrewd business people who
proposed to spend millions of dollars.
However, we had seen prodigies in
everything and / was hoping that we
had one in this, and would have been
delighted TO have seen the Moses"
appearing on the scene, but this
morning | have been told by rep
resentative of the Retail Merchants
Association that these people had
come and made numerous bills Ia
mong them board ibills,) and had left
the city.
Now this is indeed, sad news, and
it has worked injury rather than to
help the tobacco growers. ! don't
propose to censure or seriously crit
icize anyone, but it has looked to me
as If farmers had been led to believe
that there were schemes on foot by
tobacco people to take this crop OF
tobacco away from them. Farmers
have been holding their district and
school house meetings resoluting and
condemning the methods that had
been established for marketing their
tobacco. We have watched all this
and wondered what the final outcome
would be. In December, the writer,
in his weekly market report, made
the statement that foreign" ex-
change had declined to such point
that it made business almost impossi-
Bile with European countries that
were so heavily in debt and SO terri
bly, reduced. | made this suggestion
because | am in close touch with the
foreign markets that use our dark
fired tobacco. | will give an Illus
tration to show what mean by for
eign exchange being shot to pieces:
At the beginning of the war 1-2
Italian lires paid for 81 in American
money. Today it takes 18 hires to
pay this 81. The same can be said
of France and Belgium, except their
rates are not quite SO bad, The
English pound sterling at the begin
ming of the war was worth $4.87 In
American money. Today it is worth
$3.50. l think you can see from this
what we mean about foreign ex-
change working against American
products and tobacco being luxury
Is catching it harder at present than
most anything And this foreign
condition has brought about the
present unfortunate condition in tho
tobacco market. We have all been
hoping that some provision might be
made by which these countries could
be aided from this side and the hea-
wy exchange avoided and we are still
hoping that in some way it may be
relieved, but we are told that oul
government has loaned OF advanced
to these foreign countries, already
considerably more than was safe fo,
the United States to do, and we car
only wait for developments and sex
how this matter is going to be work
ed out. We tobacco buyers and deal
81 ers are in the business for profit. 9s
percent of us are what we call "or-
der buyers" and handle tobacco or
commission. In order to be prepar
ed for business we have to contract
for houses, materials and men to de
the business, and up to this time oul
expenses are alarming, and we an,
hurting very much more than thu
farmers.
| want to emphasize one fact tina
would be glad for farmers to re