AMERICAN TOBACCO CO. AND IMPERIAL TOBACCO CO. 17 
5. Interviews with officials and buyers of the important tobacco 
manufacturing companies and dealers not named in the resolution. 
6. Data with respect to purchases by dealers on the auction floor 
and from the cooperative association were secured from the dealers 
by questionnaire. 
7. Interviews with growers, dealers, bankers, etc., familiar with the 
tobacco situation in Georgia. 
The above was supplemented by statistical and other information 
secured chiefly from the Bureau of Census, United States Department 
of Commerce, the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, United States 
Department of Agriculture, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue, 
Treasury Department. 
The evidence obtained follows and includes a description of the 
methods by which leaf tobacco is marketed and a review of the 
cooperative marketing laws in the States in which the important types 
of tobacco are grown. The data concerning the organization ~ the 
cooperative es organizations is followed by a summary of the 
information secured from the records of the American and Twperial 
companies relative to their organization and management. The 
portions of the decree of 1911 having a direct bearing on agreements 
etween the two concerns, both with respect to the purchase of leaf 
and the sale of manufactured tobacco products, are set forth and con- 
sidered in this connection. Next is presented the evidence as to the 
various factors alleged to have affected the operations of the marketing 
associations. The chief factors discussed are (a) the refusal of the 
two large manufacturers to purchase the tobacco offered by the 
association, (b) the payment of higher prices for split crops for the 
purpose of making the growers under contract ok: the association 
dissatisfied, (¢) the efforts by the Imperial Tobacco Co. to encourage 
production in Georgia where the growers are unorganized, (d) the 
dissemination of false statements by the auction warehousemen and 
the buyers and other representatives of the large tobacco manufac- 
turing companies for the purpose of Jasin growers to breach their 
contracts with the association, (¢) the small percentage of crop con- 
trolled by some of the associations, and (f) the management and con- 
trol of the various cooperative associations. 
In accordance with the above outline, a tentative report was pre- 
Pages and submitted to representatives of the American and Imperial 
obacco companies and the three important cooperatives at a public 
hearing before the commission on June 25, 1925. Fe lg 
of the two tobacco companies and of the Tri-State and Burley Asso- 
ciations were present at the hearing. Objections to certain phases 
of the report were made by counsel for the Tri-State Tobacco Growers’ 
Cooperative Association, it being charged that the Ze was inac- 
curate and incomplete in certain respects and that additional infor- 
mation should be secured from the association regarding its redrying 
and selling policies. As a result the investigation was continued, 
thus rendering it impossible for the commission to make a final report 
to the President on July 1, 1925, as called for in the resolution. ~All 
additional leads submitted were investigated. The officials and 
directors of the association were also interviewed relative to the 
question of alleged mismanagement of the association. ~The results 
of the supplemental investigation substantiate the findings made in 
the tentative report.