H 



ill Billies" and "Night Riders" 



As in other industries, manufacturing was becoming 

 more centralized, and in the case of tobacco fewer 

 buyers were purchasing increasingly larger shares of 

 available leaf. As the number of competitive buyers 

 diminished, so did prices offered to growers. By 

 1901-02, typical Black Patch tobacco was selling for 

 two cents per pound— less than it cost to grow. A group 

 of Eastern District tobaccomen sought relief from Con- 

 gress in 1904, without success. 



As a consequence, some 5,000 farmers met that fall 

 in Guthrie, Kentucky, forming The Dark Tobacco Dis- 

 trict Planter's Protective Association of Kentucky and 

 Tennessee. They agreed that the organization would 

 serve as their sales agent. Growers who chose not to 

 join became known as "hill billies," connoting a resem- 

 blance to a goat. 



At first, major buyers tried dealing with the "hill 

 billies" but soon had to turn to Association sources for 

 leaf supplies. In 1905, Felix Ewing, secretary-treasurer 

 of the Association, was able to tell more than 18,000 

 members and sympathizers in a rousing speech that: 

 Now, we are ahead. The tobacco world ex- 

 pects us to win, and that we must do so upon 

 an honest, conservative basis shoidd be the one 

 thought in the mind of every honest tobacco 

 planter. 



To some Association members, however, price re- 

 covery was disappointingly slow, and late in 1905 a 

 "Committee of 32" began taking action, sometimes 

 violent, against growers who dealt outside the Associa- 

 tion. A "Night Riders" organization began a series of 

 forays during the next several years, burning barns 



34 



