ANALYSIS OF TOBACCO GKOWEKS' ASSOCIATION 55 



made to make payments as promptly as possible. But the sale of 

 tobacco under the conditions that came to prevail was a slow and 

 difficult process. Under the most favorable circumstances several 

 months must have elapsed before crops could have been disposed of 

 and final settlements made. This condition would have automati- 

 cally adjusted itself had the association continued in business long 

 enough, and would have resulted in benefiting the growers by giv- 

 ing them money from time to time instead of all their yearly tobacco 

 income at once. Withholding certain amounts, with payments 

 spread over the season, would have made the producers more thrifty 

 and less dependent upon the present system of crop financing so 

 prevalent in that area. It is true, however, that many of the 

 growers " would prefer $0.50 to-day to $1 a year from to-day," and 

 this was one of the contributing factors to the failure of the mem- 

 bers to deliver. 



Evidence of the realization on the part of the officials of the need 

 for prompt payments for members' tobacco (as well as evidence of 

 inefficient management) was the overpayment of $404,235.08 to 

 members, chiefly of the old-belt pool, before all tobacco for which 

 they were paid was sold. The tobacco failed to sell for a sum equal 

 to the amount already sent to the members. The amount of the 

 overpayments was then taken from the sales of tobacco of other 

 members or from funds borrowed upon the pledging of the tobacco 

 of all the members of the association. It was a common policy of 

 the association to secure an estimate of the amount the tobacco 

 would actually sell for, and to pay some pools on the basis of these 

 estimates. This policy was the result of the pressure from some 

 districts for prompt and frequent payments. 



OPERATING POLICIES AND PRACTICES 



It was in the formulation and execution of operating and sales 

 policies that the most serious mistakes of the management were 

 made. Some of these mistakes were inevitable and under less un- 

 favorable conditions would not have permanently impaired the use- 

 fulness of the association. Others appear to have arisen from a 

 division of interest and lack of experience on the part of some di- 

 rectors and employees, from inefficiency, and from lack of coop- 

 eration and coordination between certain departments. The em- 

 ployment of a full-time executive head would have been most helpful 

 in the formulation and execution of the policies of the association 

 and in the work of coordination, both as between departments and 

 between the association as a whole and its members, patrons, and 

 the public. 



LACK OF COORDINATION WITHIN THE ASSOCIATION 



Evidences of lack of coordination between departments were not 

 difficult to find. That there should be such a lack of coordination 

 under the circumstances was almost inevitable. The fact that two 

 of the departments and the administrative office were located in 

 Richmond, Va., and two departments in Raleigh, N. C, certainly 

 did not lead to close cooperation. Many interviewed persons main- 



