provision, mandatory on the legislature, that prohibited 

 pooling designed to increase prices. The organizers of 

 the proposed farmers' association ignored this legal re- 

 striction. It was not the first time that a planters' com- 

 bine had been formed. The earliest such organization in 

 Kentucky had appeared in 1873. 



At Guthrie, Kentucky, in September 1904, a meeting 

 of five to six thousand farmers formed the Dark Tobacco 

 District Planters' Protective Association. Those planters 

 who failed to join, the "Hill Billies," were denounced as 

 violently as were the assumed enemies. Hill Billies con- 

 tinued to sell to the usual buyers. When the news got 

 around that non-members were receiving high prices 

 for their tobacco, farmers in the Association began to 

 drift away. 



This led to direct action by members in the form of 

 night calls on farmers who preferred to remain indepen- 

 dent, and on buyers' agents. Before long, the Night 

 Riders had become a secret organization of some ten 

 thousand farmers. Although the Association denied that 

 it had any connection with the Night Riders, everyone 

 knew better. 



A 



ction and counteraction 



The original plan of the Association founders had been 

 to pack members' tobacco and sell by sample leaf. But 

 they had no outlet for members' crops. The Night Riders 

 turned to vigorous, direct, and unlawful action. The 

 crops of Hill Billies were destroyed, quite a few of these 

 independent farmers were beaten, some were wounded 

 by gunfire, and some deaths resulted. In December 1906 

 masked Night Riders raided Princeton, the seat of Cald- 

 well County, and burned down two factories. One was 

 described as "the biggest and best equipped stemmery 



52 



