in the world." A year later the Xiglit Riders moved in on 

 Hopkinsville and engaged in violent activity. Included 

 in the destruction tliat took place was a warehouse tliat 

 held $15,()()() worth of tobacco owned by the Italian 

 Rc'^ie. 



B\- 1908 it appeared as if the Association and its mili- 

 tant arm had won. Black Patch farmers were operating 

 in a sellers' market. Almost all tobacco produced in their 

 area was bougiit directl\- from the Association. (Only a 

 tenth of the 1907 har\est of 1()(),()()(),()()() pounds came 

 from independent farmers.) Tiie average price paid 

 member farmers was three to four times that current in 

 the \ears just l)efore the Association was formed. 



Yet in the same year when the organization was look- 

 ing forward to a long existence and a comfortable old 

 age one of its victims, who had been beaten, won a suit 

 in a federal court for damages against thirty Association 

 members. Other successful suits followed. Meanwhile, 

 contingents of the state militia had been moved into 

 the Black Patch districts. Other elements were combin- 

 ing to reduce the effectiveness of the Association. Hogs- 

 head selling was on the way out; farmers could now 

 dispose of their crops at loose-leaf auctions if they 

 wished. Prices were better. A section of the Payne- 

 Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909 eliminated the tax on pro- 

 ducer-to-consumer sales of natural leaf. The Association 

 had begun to lose membership at a noticeable rate from 

 1909 on. Its last days came by 1915. 



Se\eral farmers' pools had, meanwhile, been organ- 

 ized in the Burley districts. Most conspicuous of these 

 was tliat known as "the Lebus pool," after the president 

 ot tiie Burle\ Tobacco Societ\', Clarence Le Bus. Despite 

 moderate leadership, a situation similar to that in the 

 Black Patch developed. The economic factors that 

 affected farmers in the Black Patch soon brought about 

 the dissolution of the Burley pools. 



53 



