AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY 121 



bers of the society asked him what he would take for his paper, he priced 

 it at $75,000, an exaggerated price which naturally was rejected. 20 



Whatever the truth of the matter may have been, the convention of 1907 

 deposed Everitt and elected a new slate of officers headed by C. M. Barnett 

 of Kentucky as president. Completely unreconciled to the change, Everitt 

 organized a short-lived rival order, the Farmers' Society of Equity, as a 

 spite move, obviously designed to drain the original Equity of its mem- 

 bership. Bitter warfare, with violent charges and countercharges, followed, 

 to the detriment of both the orders. Many farmers continued to subscribe 

 to Up-To-Date Farming, thinking that they were paying dues to the 

 American Society of Equity, while others, who had grown disgusted with 

 the turn of events, refused to have any further dealings with either body. 21 



The departure of Everitt from the presidency marked a sharp break in 

 the policies of the Equity. Plans for controlling production were gradually 

 relaxed and greater stress was placed on cooperative marketing and buy- 

 ing. Also, the organization became highly decentralized, as opposed to 

 the earlier practice of centering authority in Indianapolis. The result was 

 an unwieldly collection of state and commodity organizations, theoretic- 

 ally but not practically bound to the parent body, with a common name 

 and common enemies, but influenced in their various activities more by 

 local interests than by a general agricultural program. In fact, the Amer- 

 ican Society of Equity, as a national organization, had suffered mortal 

 wounds from which it never fully recovered. 



An early manifestation of the new spirit of autonomy in Equity oc- 

 curred during the wars waged by the tobacco producers of Kentucky and 

 Tennessee against the tobacco trust. This episode, in which Equity played 

 a leading role, marked the last, as well as the most conspicuous, effort of 

 the society to put its production-control and price-fixing policies into 

 operation. It was also a classic illustration of the possibilities open when 

 a group of agriculturists band together in an effort to exact fair prices 

 from a giant corporation. 



By 1900 the American Tobacco Company, or the "tobacco trust," as it 



20. Ibid., pp. 35-36. 



21. Yo Have Been Deceived and Betrayed By Your Trusted Representatives 

 (Indianapolis, 1907), p. 28 [pamphlet]; Equity Farm Journal, I (October, 1908), 

 p. 7; III (February i, 1910), p. 12. 



