Show THE TOBACCO TRUST There will be joy in the tobacco rowing growing sections ot of the country over the the proceedings instituted in New NewYork NewYork York in the federal courts against the tobacco trust With the possIble ex cx exception ot of the Standard Oil monopoly there Is no more pernicious trust in inthe Inthe the United States than the tobacco trust and the Standard is more per pernicious pernicious because its operations cover a wider field Within its own particular I province however the tobacco trust has for years jears reigned supreme It has arrogantly dictated to the pro producer producer ducer of tobacco the price he shall re receIve receive for his product and it has just justas as arrogantly dictated to the retailer of manufactured tobacco not only the I I price he must pay for hIs but the price at which he shall sell them The trus trust refuses to sell sen any of its goods at all to the dealer who sells the products of the few remaining in independent Independent dependent factories Dealer after deal dealer er 1 has been crushed by the most un Unfair tall fair methods that could be d devised t Instances are arc on record In which the trust has gone to the owner of a store building occupied by an Independent and by offering fabulous sums for the place has induced the tha landlord to re refuse re refuse fuse to renew the lease of the hide inde independent pendent In other instances where the tho dealer could not be bought out or driven out by his landlord the trust has set up another store in hIs imme immediate immediate diate neighborhood and sold tobacco at prIces so o l low w that he could not hope to compete with it Let et an produce a popular brand ft goods It j t a month before the trust is camp campIng Ing on his trail with a tobacco of al sr equal I a mime nama and at a much lower price pric If e ever er there was D a combination in restraint of trade and competition that combination tion is the tobacco trust Upon nobody has the trust borne down harder than upon the grower In certaIn sections of Kentucky that are devoted to tobacco culture the farmers are all but bankrupt Time was In the towns that are the centers ot of the tobacco districts when there was competition among buyers buers There were regular tobacco auctions The farmer fanner came to town with his load of tobacco and would go among th the buy buyers buyers ers seekIng bids Sometimes there was wasa a difference ot of several dollars per hun bun hundred bundred dred pounds between the highest and lowest bidders The result was that the raiser ot of toba co prospered Today there Is no competition The trust buys bus all l the tobacco The Independent are shut down The industry is par paralyzed paralyzed The trust pays barely enough for the tobacco to keep the tho farmer growing It And it may be said that the production Is now limited to such lands as asare are fit for nothing else or in inthe inthe the regular rotation ot of crops That the has sufficient evidence to warrant an order to dis disrupt disrupt rupt the combination is apparent from one paragraph in the complaint This is the paragraph waIving the right to demand answers under oath from the individuals and c corporations named in inthe inthe the proceedings The waIver is most significant tor tor the making ot of answers under oath might in the jUdgment of attorneys for the government confer immunity upon the defendants The tobacco trust can be convicted with without without out any testimony from those in con control control of it |