Saint Mary's beacon., 1921-01-13
The Tobacco Situation


coupled with a more intimate
knowledge of the conditions af-
fecting the industry in Southern
Maryland, certainly warrant the
most careful consideration of the
growers. So far this section APP
pears to be in a better position
than any of the tobacco growing
districts. This, of course, is due
entirely to the Maryland Tobacco
Growers Association, which has
solidifed the growers and enabled
them to hold up the Maryland
market at least on the better
grades, whereas in other sections.
where the growers are not COM
pactly organized there has been
a general decline in the price of
all grades.
Reports from Virginia, the
Carolinas and Kentucky disclose
a most critical situation and in
dicate that strenuous methods
must be resorted to if tobacco is
to continue to be profitable
crop. In Kentucky and Virginia
there is a. strong movement on
foot to eliminate entirely the 1921
crop-plant no tobacco this year
and thereby let the question Of
price be determined by a lack of
supply. This might answer the
purpose in a way and possibly is
the best that can be done where
the growers are not organized
and where Ku-Klux-Klan and
similar agencies might be used to
enforce such a policy, but here IN
Southern Maryland it would seem
that the Growers Association
might be utilized to solve the
problem in better and less de-
structive manner.
The association is well organic
ed and efficiently ofIicered and
managed. 1t is not as strong as
it should be, for every grower Of
tobacco should be a amember Of il,
but that is detail that continued
campaign work win gradually
remedy. So far this association
has concerned itself almost ex-
clusively with Che marketing of
tobacco, and in this it has been
conspicuously successful. II has
| forced the buyers to pay what
tobacco was worth and-has sean
fhat the'grotwers reaped the bene-
fit Of it. So far, SO good; but
now an entirely new condition
presents itself, for it is no longer
a question of making tabacco
bring what it is worth, but rather
of making the crop worth more
money. Supply and demand are
the real, big determining factors
in the price. With the demand
good as it has been for several
years and the supply only equal
ing land in some years falling
short of equaling) that demand,
the price was automatically fixed
at a figure remuneratiye to the
growers. and the association
could well content itself with
standing guard and insuring that
this price, less proper charges,
was returned to the growers and
not withheld from them through
connivance between buyers and
selling agencies.
This has all been a matter Of
getting for the growers the price
fixed by the natural law Of supply
and demand. and in doing this
the association has rendered a
service that has been worth
many thousands Of dollars to the
farmers of this and other tobacco
growing counties. Southern
Maryland is now confronted with
a much more difficult problem
and yet one not impossible of
solution if the association is.made
to function properly and the
growers stand solidly back Of it.
The price itself must be regulat-
ed, or rather, maintained. To
bacco is selling high enough when
it sells at all. The trouble is that
the supply has exceeded the de.
mand. Not only is there a sur
plus left over Of the 1919 crop in
the Baltimore warehouses, but
there is an unusually large 1926
crop in the barns. 1t follows
then that it will be suicidal TO the
industry to go ahead and further
glut the market by raising anoth-
er big crop in 1921. AS long as
this surplus exists with prospects
of further augmentation, no as