The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1922-04-06
TRLSTATE TOBACCO GROWERS ASSOCIATION
CAMPAIGN TO MAKE SENATORS UNANIMOUS
REVIEW OF The WORK OF The ASSOCIATION BY men Who
ARE ENGAGED IN PERFECTING THE ORGANIZATION
THAT WILL LIBERATE OPPRESSED FARMERS

carried notes and accounts from 1914
to 1919 for collection will affirm, or
as those who are wondering how long
their obligations of 1921 will have
to be carried before growers can re-
cuperate sufficiently to pay them up,
will certainly agree.
Here, in short, is the cause for and
the need of this overwhelming move
ment for cooperative marketing
among tobacco farmers of the Caro-
linas and Virginia.
There are farmers in many South
Carolina counties who would have
sent their children off to school, who
would have painted their homes, put
running water in the house and bought
improved machinery if their tobacco
had brought the growers what it was
worth last year.
But the boys and girls are obliged
to stay at home, the houses go un-
painted, the growers wives must
trudge back and forth from the well
and spring and they must plod along
with the same old tools because their
tobacco was dumped down at public
auction for others to name, not only
the price, but even the grade.
Within less than three months of
the present writing within thirty
miles of Raleigh, tobacco for which
25 cents was offered on one market,
sold for 66 cents on another market
a few miles distant, and within three
days time. Another lot of 1874
pounds, for which II cents was Of
fered on one market, sold within three
days for AZ cents upon another near
by market, or nearly three times the
original price offered. The tobacco
grower who sold his product on one
market for two and three times the
price he could have obtained upon
another, is only one among the many
thousands who has suffered for many
years from the injustice of sys-
tenn which allows the producer some
thing less than 10 cents of the con-
sumers' dollar.
These figures Of the sales made
upon markets of the Carolinas are
not fanciful. The sales sheets and
warehouse tags of local tobacco farm
ers who, with other witnesses, can
vouch for their correctness are simply
samples of practices become too conf
mon to call for frequent comment.
The question is not "Where did this
thing happen last fall?" but "where
did it not happen?" That it shall
not happen again is the present de-
termination of 10000 tobacco farm
ers and the solid organization ex-
tending from northern Virginia
through the Carolinas to the Georgia
line.
Within the past twelve months, the
farmers of the Carolinas and Virgin
ia have accomplished tasks which they
were told would be impossible.
"It is impossible that the farmers
will ever stick" was the comment
of thousands who misjudged the stern
Of tobacco growers to
carry through their plans. With TO-
900 tobacco growers pledged by iron
clad contracts to stick for, five years
and thousands more eager to sign
their fve-year enlistment papers in
this advance to economic freedom,
there is no longer any question as
to whether tobacco farmers will stick.
The only question is, how small a
will stay on the outside and
get stuck.
Another imaginary barrier. of i'm
possible dimensions enlarged upon by
cynics and enemies of the plan for
markets was finance.
People said, "You can't finance it.
Where will you get your money? 1t
will cost millions" Within less than
a year, the Burley growers Of Ken
lucky have organized, bought ware
houseS1 paid advances to their men,
be1l growers, paid off all debts to the
Ke1 tucky banks, and secured credit
witt the War Finance Corporation
1IGicient to enable them to borrow
millions for their future needs and
growth.
Directors of the Tobacco Growers
Association from North
Carolina and Virginia who recently
visited Kentucky report that many
members of the Burley Growers
Association received more
for their first advances on this years