14 CIBCTJLAE 10 0, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGKICULTUKE 



untarily signed the contract. As a rule the policy was to get the 

 movement well started in one county before the organization com- 

 mittee moved on to the next. Local volunteers, generally farmers 

 working without pay, continued to obtain members among their 

 neighbors and producers after the meetings. In 10 months 28,000 

 Virginia farmers were signed. They joined freely and without 

 much effort or solicitation on the part of the organizers. In some 

 counties the large majority of the farmers joined the movement; in 

 others, because of weak local leadership or other factors, the per- 

 centage was much smaller. 



Conditions were not so favorable in North Carolina and South 

 Carolina for a quick and easy sign-up. Prices in the flue-cured dis- 

 tricts had made economic conditions more satisfactory than in the 

 sun-cured and dark-fired districts. Strong, active State leaders were 

 not obtained, and the membership campaigns were conducted in a 

 way somewhat different from the way they were conducted in Vir- 

 ginia. Some growers, it is true, signed the contract at local meet- 

 ings, and a great deal of work in obtaining members was done by 

 volunteers. Many solicitors, however, were paid on a per member 

 or per contract basis, receiving $1 out of the $3 membership fee. 

 Some of these men, in their eagerness to sign the producers, were 

 not conscientious or discriminating as to the type of grower solicited 

 or in the methods employed to obtain signatures. Extravagant 

 promises were made to the growers, some, no doubt, in all sincerity. 

 Some solicitors told the producers that unless they joined before a 

 certain date the fee would be increased or that there would be no 

 market outside of the association at which to sell their product. It 

 is claimed that a few even used insulting language if a grower re- 

 fused to join. Many persons were induced to join who, under their 

 credit and other economic conditions, could not be expected to de- 

 liver their tobacco, even if such had been their intention. In the 

 cotton-producing district of North Carolina the canvassers induced 

 members to join both the tobacco and cotton cooperatives by giving 

 membership in both at the reduced rate of $5. Members who had 

 joined the tobacco growers' associations of Virginia, North Carolina, 

 and South Carolina in 1920 were to be given credit against the 

 entrance fee of the new association for whatever amount they had 

 paid. 



The membership campaign did not terminate with the incorpora- 

 tion of the association, but continued in the different districts to the 

 time of delivery. Thereafter new members were obtained whenever 

 possible, but a continuous and systematic campaign was not carried 

 on, as the efforts of the field service men were devoted to maintaining 

 the membership morale and obtaining the delivery of tobacco by 

 those who had signed. At the beginning of the second crop year the 

 association had 88,533 members. During the next three years only 

 7,437 new members were obtained — 2,471 in South Carolina, 2,202 in 

 North Carolina, and 2,764 in Virginia. Considering the compara- 

 tively small number of tobacco growers in South Carolina, the subse- 

 quent membership campaigns in that State were more successful than 

 in either Virginia or North Carolina. The data in Table 2, taken 

 from data in the files of the association, show the number of contracts 

 in force July 1 of each year in each State. 



