AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY 125 



were effected. Western market receipts which in 1889 were placed at 

 300,000 hogsheads had dwindled to about 110,000 in ipop. 31 



After long-drawn-out negotiations, on November 19, 1908, the American 

 Tobacco Company and the Burley Tobacco Society finally consummated 

 what was considered the largest tobacco transaction in history. Between 

 60 and 70 million pounds of Burley changed hands for a cash considera- 

 tion of between 12 and 13 million dollars. According to the agreement, 

 the company was to buy 75 per cent of the 80 million pounds in the 1907 

 pool at an average price of 17 cents a pound, totaling about $10,000,000, and 

 75 per cent of the estimated 13 to 15 million pounds of the 1906 crop 

 at an average of between 20 and 21 cents a pound, bringing an additional 

 $2,000,000. This left the pool still in possession of 25 per cent of the Burley 

 crop, which became an exciting subject of discussion. Some believed that 

 it was being held for the independent manufacturers who had been the 

 allies of the Burley and Equity societies; others maintained that the Amer- 

 ican Tobacco Company had wanted the remaining 25 per cent to squeeze 

 the independents out of business. 32 



Once the tobacco deal had been completed, accounts of the anxious 

 moments experienced by both sides during the pooling period began to 

 be told. The Burley Society, so the story ran, had to contend on the one 

 hand with the American Tobacco Company and its untold millions of 

 dollars, while on the other hand it faced impending demoralization in 

 Equity ranks. Had the war lasted sixty days longer, the pool would prob- 

 ably have disintegrated. The tobacco company also had its problems. Its 

 reserve stocks had dwindled; the 1908 crop was small and the big demand 

 from independent manufacturers had caused alarm for the company's 

 future supplies. Then, too, the activity of Thomas J. Ryan, the dominant 

 spirit of the company, had been an important factor. He wanted peace 

 and harmony restored because of the "effect and influence such action 

 might have with the government in its prosecution of the Tobacco Trust 

 as an illegal combination in restraint of trade." 33 



31. Ibid., p. 23; E. H. Mathewson, The Export and Manufacturing Tobaccos of 

 the United States, U. S. Dept. Agri., Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin 244 (Wash- 

 ington, 1912), pp. 47-48, 250-51; Filley, Cooperation in Agriculture, pp. 25-51. 



32. Cincinnati Enquirer, November 20, 26, 1908. 



33. Ibid., November 21, 1908. 



