TOBACCO TRUST.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 285, 26 August 1908, Page 7

TOBACCO TRUST.

THE KENTUCKY "NIGHT RIDERS." (BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT.) New York, August 24. Owing to the "night-riders'" campaign, the American Tobacco Trust announces that its buyors will henceforth forsake Kentucky and transact business from Cincinnati. It intends to eoncontrato its supplies in Ohio. METHODS IN KENTUCKY. _ "The Kentucky 'night riders' continuo marchrlll\'r°tOi tlio Washington correspondent ot The Times in A pril last. "Now we hear ot martial law proclaimed, of the further whippings, of independent planters,' of the burning of a stable in which over 40 thoroughbred horses pcrislicd, and that the destruction of tobacco barns is extending to adjacent States. At this distanco the brutal, pict&resque developments of the tobacco war ( are more noticeable than tho prosaic economic cause of the trouble." After stating that tho war is between tho Tobacco Trust and those planters who , rofuse its terms, the corresponclont addsTho American Tobacco Company has been primarily tho aggressor, attempting to control tho tobacco crop with a view to boing the sole buyor and obtaining a low price. An association of tobacco growers has implacably fought tho Trust by advancing the prico and by tho assistanco of masked night riders, who havo directed their attacks , upon tho independent planters in order to coerco them into refusing to deal with the company."

In March a message from Frankfort (Kentucky) states that "tho 'night riders' are now holding tho tobacco-growing districts in absolute terror. No day passes without some fresh outrage attributable to them, and their comparative immunity from capture is encouraging them to exploits of an increasingly daring charnctor. Recently there have boon several murders, wliito men and negroes alike falling victims, while, according to a rough computation, 40,0001b. of tobacco have been destroyed. ' Tho Governor of tho State Ims to admit himself powerless to cop 6 with'the situation."