57 



The men selected were probably the best available at the salaries 

 that the association officials wished to pay. To secure them promptly 

 and to induce them to leave old positions for positions in a new 

 and none too reliable venture required the offer of a substantial 

 increase in salary over that which they had been receiving. Good 

 salaries had to be paid to secure men qualified for their tasks. Men 

 who were well known in the tobacco field were approached as pos- 

 sible officials of the association. Some of these men refused on 

 the basis that the salaries offered were not sufficient to induce them 

 to leave the positions they then held. 



In frequent instances when a warehouse was purchased or leased 

 by the association its former operator or owner was hired as its 

 association manager. In this way some experienced warehouse man- 

 agers were secured and with them their former employees and 

 many of their former patrons as members of the new organization. 

 Many of the private warehousemen made good managers. Others 

 who were not sincere believers in the cooperative movement merely 

 took the positions offered them as the safest move in the belief that 

 operating private warehouses would be unprofitable because of the 

 existence of the cooperative. When they learned that the salary 

 given was not equal to their earnings as private operators and that 

 the farmers' organization was not proving as successful as had been 

 anticipated, many of them became antagonistic to the interests of 

 the association and directly or indirectly aided in its downfall. 



Some of these warehouse managers had been disliked and mis- 

 trusted as private operators. Many members felt that farmer mem- 

 bers should have the warehouse positions. To leave the positions 

 in the same hands did not please the farmers, as they felt that these 

 men were still in the control of the large tobacco companies and 

 that they did not represent the new method of marketing tobacco. 



Evidence of the attitude of the members in some localities toward 

 the association warehousemen is found in the report of the Agricul- 

 tural Investigating Committee. Quoting from the report : 



The committee finds that there is no doubt of the existence of very pro- 

 nounced discontent, bordering almost on revolt, on the part of certain localities 

 because of their feeling that warehouse officials are incompetent. The com- 

 mittee did not attempt to prove or disprove these accusations of the growers, 

 but it does have absolute evidence of the existence of this state of mind on the 

 part of large blocks of growers in specific areas, and it does have evidence 

 that many growers in these areas state that deliveries for 1925 will be materi- 

 ally reduced if their criticisms are not listened to. 



Table 19 shows the number of members by pools who objected, 

 and the numbers who did not object, to the local warehousemen, as 

 found by the membership study. 



About 20 per cent of the members visited objected to the local 

 warehouseman of the association. Their chief objection to him, how- 

 ever, was in regard to the salary he received, and did not refer to 

 his ability, personality, or honesty. The second most frequent criti- 

 cism was that the manager was incapable. Most of the criticisms of 

 the warehouseman were probably due to the failure of the associa- 

 tion to meet the members' demands and expectations and were not 

 really criticisms of the warehouseman as an individual. 



