122 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



was more commonly called, had reduced the growers of tobacco to a hope- 

 lessly unsatisfactory bargaining position. This condition was no doubt 

 promoted considerably by the infiltration into the tobacco areas of an 

 army of illiterate tenant farmers who raised tobacco on share leases with 

 no other hope of betterment than what they might obtain by an increase 

 in their acreage. 22 This situation exactly suited the trust, which was not 

 satisfied with its control of the manufacturing and marketing processes, 

 but expected also to dictate the prices paid for tobacco to the original 

 producers. The resulting low prices, coupled with high living and pro- 

 duction costs, created among the tobacco growers a situation of acute 

 poverty and distress. 23 



Some of the tobacco producers had felt the need of organizing well 

 before Equity appeared on the scene and had discussed plans for the or- 

 ganization of a "farmers' tobacco trust" as early as 1901. Agitation for 

 controlling production became more common during 1903 and 1904. By 

 1904 agitators were urging the farmers to "grow no more tobacco," or to 

 "cut down the crop to half," or to "grow only 25 per cent of a crop." 

 Equity appears to have received serious mention for the first time in 1904, 

 and Equity members seem to have taken an important part in the holding 

 movement of 1905 that resulted in substantially higher prices. But such 

 groups as the Dark Tobacco Growers' Protective Association, the Burley 

 Growers' Association of Kentucky, and no doubt others all with similar 

 ideas had either preceded Equity or were contemporaries of it. 24 



The object of Equity, when it appeared on the scene, was to consolidate 



22. Report of the Commissioner of Corporation on the Tobacco Industry, Part I, 

 Position of the Tobacco Combination in the Industry (3 parts, Washington, 1909- 

 15), pp. 14-15; John L. Mathews, "Agrarian Pooling in Kentucky," Charities and 

 the Commons, XX (1908), p. 193. 



23. Hearings on the Bills for the Relief of Tobacco Growers (59 Congress, 2 ses- 

 sion, Senate Document 372, Vol. VI, Washington, 1907), p. 42; Anna Youngman, 

 "The Tobacco Pools of Kentucky and Tennessee," Journal of Political Economy, 

 XVIII (January, 1910), p. 36; H. C. Filley, Cooperation in Agriculture (New York, 

 1929), pp. 246-471. 



24. Western Tobacco Journal, XXVIII (January 14, 1901), p. i; XXX (Jan- 

 uary 5, 1903), p. i; (February 2, 1903), p. 2; (February 9, 1903), p. 2; (April 27, 

 1903), p. 2; (May n, 1903), p. 4; (May 18, 1903), p. i; XXXI (January 14, 1904), 

 p. 4; (February 29, 1904), p. 2; (August 22, 1904), p. 2; XXX (April 22, 1903), 

 p. 2. 



