Richmond daily register., 1922-05-29

| am not surprised to hear OF
the propaganda in your section
as to the salaries being paid by
our association, and that they arc
paying me, personally, $4,000
per year, when in fact they are
not paying me one-half of this
amount, and as far as my indi-
vidual case is concerned the ques
tion of salary has never been
discussed by me, even with my
own board of directors. The
reason [ am working night and
day for the association is because
| believe and know it is funda-
mentally right. That l know TN
der old system of auction sale
that the grower of tobacco had
absolutely no protection what
ever. He simply had to accept
the grade that the buyer put on
it, and the price he decided to pay
for it. No individual grower
could help himself under these
conditions. The organization of
an association OF this kind does
not differ, to any extent, from
the organization of a bank, or
that of the big corporations who
buy Our products.
The manufacturer when ne
gets aeady to buy his require
ments does not call in all Of his
stockholders and say: Gentle
men, YOU are owners of this COM
pany, and we need so many mil
lion pounds OF tobacco, and we
would Ike for all of YOU to 60
down to Kentucky and buy what
we need" What is done is:
They call a stockholders meeting
and out of that group they select
Is of the best men as directors.
These Is directors then select
the best man they can get as an
executive head. He i'll turn en-
plOys the most experienced to-
bacCo man that he can find. and
this one man is sent down to buy
the requirements from the grow
ers. And what we have done in
the organization OF our associa-
tion is that we now have 0),000
stockholders who are growers.
Their 10000 stockholders have
selected Is men out OF their
group as directors to represent
them. These Is directors have
selected an executive head, so
that when a representative Of the
manufacturer comes to buv his
requirements, the grower has one
man to represent him and sell his
tobacco for him; and I feel sure
any business man will realize
that tobacco sold this way will
produce better results than has
been produced under the old
dumping system" OF the auction
market.
We were asked many times in
he early stages of our organiza-
ion who would decide whether
II not we had Our required min
mum of Is per cent and this de
,ision was LETT in the hands of the
committee, and t0I
insure in the minds Of Our mem
oers that our organization would
lot be declared an organization
1nless we had the full Is per cent !
We selected four or FIVE Of the |
highest class men in every coun-
y in OUR district-men who held |
he confidence of the people in !
heir counties to serve on this !
committee, and they |
re the ones who decided we had !
igned up approximately IS per |
,ent of the 1920 crop.
| believe the organization in!
our section is working along the
anne lines, and I know that there
5 not a county in West Kentucky
]. Tennessee in, Wlich you cane j.
at get as many high class men
s You need to decide whether OF
OF your association gets its !.
8 2-3 minimum.
In the organization Of our as
ociation we went through. in a
irge measure, just what YOU are
DING through with. There were