Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-12-12
Judge Robert j. Bingham,
EIoQuentIy Tells What Sa-
piro Plan Has Done for
Farmers of BurIey Section
BY ROGERS WINTER

products has come to stay, and i
destined to reYolutionize America
agriculture, in the opinion of Judg
Robert J. Bingham, president an
publisher of the Louisville Courier
Journal and the Louisville Times
who was in Atlanta Friday as tn
guest of his boyhood friend, Judg
Shepard Bryan.
He was returning north from IL
hany. in Dougherty county, wher
he had spent several days in Il,
delights of fine quail shooting, witt
his space time devoted to going owe
a tract of $500 acres recently pur
chased by himself in partnership
with William w. Davies, of Louis
vile, and Colonel r. E. l.. Spence
of Albany, for the purpose of start
ing a pecan grove. They are plant
ing 5000 trees this year. Mr.. Davie
is a prominent Louisville lawyer
who formerly practiced in Atlanta.
hS1 Z IL IlO HUI Z SIlIuuSldSllC dU
vocate of cooperative marketing il
the United States than Judge Bling
ham. He was one of the leaders il
the movement which organized tn,
Burley Tobacco Growers Co-Opera
tive Marketing association. He ha
seen the hurley tobacco growers lift
ed from bankruptcy to prosperity il
the space of a single year. He ha
seen their industry completely revo
lutionized. He is intensely interest
ed in the progress of co-operativ,
marketing for all farm products, es
pecially cotton, the biggest single
farm crop-the king of them all.
Here is the inspiring story Judge
Bingham tells:
CALIFORNIA; Prosperity
In the summer of 1920 | went
to San Francisco to the Demo-
cratic convention. l spent
good deal of time riding over the
country in an automobile. was
astonished by the evidences of
prosperity on the farms. I saw
paved roads, painted farm
houses, beautiful schools and
churches, automobiles, a social
tone in the country.
Naturally | was curious to
know by what business methods
OF production or marketing or
both. these California farmers
had achieved such prosperity.
conclusion that cooperative
marketing was the answer to it
ALL
In January, 1921, about SIX
months, later, [ saw another pic
ture-the hurley tobacco grow.
ers of my state. They were sell.
ing their 1920 crop of tobacco.
They brought it to the auctions
and dumped it on>the market for
what they could get. They were
paid from one-fourth to one-half
q Gent per pound. That was not
enough to pay the warehouse
charges on their tobacco, much
less to pay them the cost of pro-
duction. They were dead, flat
broke. They went away from
the auctions poorer than they
came. They could pay none of
their debts. They were crushed
economically and spiritually.
They were desperate. If they
had done desperate things, no.
body could have blamed them.
Then in May I saw their to-
bacco resold by those who had
bought it from them. And what
did it bring? An average of
eighteen cents a pound. Think
of that difference. It meant that
a few middlemen, Specializing in
tobacco, had bought it when the
growers dumped it on the mar
ket, had waited until the man
ufacturers entered the market,
and had reaped a profit of nearly
two thousand per cent. 1t meant
that the cream of the wealth
produced by the labor of these
growers and their wives and
children had been skinned off
by a handful of middlemen.
The Growers Organize
We decided to turn the tables.
We decided to make the hurley
tobacco growers the masters of
erative contract, prepared for us
by Aaron Sapiro (the same who
prepared your cotton co-opera-
tive contract, provided that no
grower should be bound until
and unless 70 per cent of the
whole hurley crop was signed
up. We started out to organize
the product, not the locality.
The hl1r1qU iS confined
to Kentucky, but reaches into
Tennessee, West Virginia, Ohio
and Indiana. Instead of getting
IS per cent of the whole produc-
ton. we got "a per cent.
And now I'm going to tell you
what happened when our hurley
growers brought their tobacco
to market in January, 1922
their 1921 crop. When they de.
livered it to the cooperative as
ISOLATION they were paid an
initial advance of nine and one
half cents a pound. That was
not purchase, mind you. 1t
was an advance. They were Civ
en- participation certificates
showing the grade and quantity
of the tobacco they had delivered.
In May, four months later,
they were given another adj
vance of nine and one-half cents
a pound. making a total of nine
teen cents a pound they had re-
ceived. And now in a few days
they will be given their final
payment of six cents pound,
making a total Of twenty-five
cents a pound which they have