82 AMERICAN TOBACCO CO. AND IMPERIAL TOBACCO Co.
as by the fact that certain purchasers were granted privileges not extended to
other purchasers.
We trust that you will find the foregoing a satisfactory answer to your severa’
questions.
Yours very truly,
Leon L. Stravse Co.,
By Leon STRAUSE.
- A. D. Keen Tobacco Co., of Danville, Va., on April 27, 1925.
wrote the commission as follows:
Dear Sir; In the 1924 crop we took matter.up with our connections as to
securing tobaccos from “co-ops” and were advised that the “co-ops” had
changed their policy and refused to let dealers have tobacco in green state as
formerly, and the only conditions under which they would sell a dealer was that
the dealers would have to furnish them with the name and address of their cus-
tomer, and further should their customer be a dealer they (the ‘“co-ops’’) would
charge an advance price for same. We were therefore precluded from purchasing
further from them.
The Tobacco Growers’ Association did solicit us to make purchases in green
state for crops 1922 and 1923 but did not for crop 1924.
May we further add that we have never purchased tobaccos from Tobacco
Growers’ Association in redried state, for the reason that our business and trade,
require certain condition of grading and packing to which they do not conform
and all tobaccos bought from them in green state had to be regraded and picked,
we having to make in redrying plants several grades or types out of their respec-
tive grades, and worked same along with similar types we were getting from aue-
tion Hoors.
All along we have been discriminated against by the Tobacco Growers’
Cooperative Association in that in crop 1922 we were practically cut off from
sertain grades, as they received orders from the larger companies. Then too
they advanced the prices after January to us from 2 to 3 cents per pound, and
in the 1923 crop practically the only tobacco they would let us have were rejections
from larger interests.
We are reliably informed that of the 1923 and 1924 crops most of the tobaccos
that has been redried by the “co-ops’’ are rejections of larger manufacturers as
they are privileged to reject any or all of deliveries to them an send back to
redrying plants.
Yours truly,
A. D. KEEN.
Wilson Tobacco Co., of Wilson, N. C., which in 1923 purchased
208,748 pounds of green tobacco from the association during the
three years, wrote the commission on April 21, 1925, as follows:
At the organization of the Tobacco Growers’ Cooperative Marketing Associa-
tion for the 1922 crop they sent out a price list which was supposed to have been
the same thing offered to everyone. Dealers had the privilege of buying tobacco
and going into their warehouses and either accepting or rejecting same. They
did not use this plan, however, with the manufacturers. They shipped them
tobaceo as was graded by their own organization, allowing them to accept or reject
as they saw fit. In the 1923 crop the Cooperative Marketing Association did not
give out any price list to anyone but you had to trade with them as you would
any other dealer buying from them, accepting their tobacco at their warehouses
before it was shipped. In the spring of 1924, at a meeting of their directors,
they decided to discontinue selling the leaf dealers any tobacco green direct from
the warehouses, but they would sell you if you had a direct order giving them
the name of the manufacturer to whom sold, provided you accepted this tobacco
in their warehouses. Of course, this information disclosed to them who your
customer was and gave them an opportunity to undersell you to them.
They also offered to sell you under the following conditions:
At their list price plus 10 per cent for loss in weight plus $4 per hundred for
redrying and freight, which made your tobacco cost you at least $1 per hundred
more than the manufacturer, as they were only paying to the redrying people
$1.75 per hundred and the freight charge would not have been over 50 cents and
60 cents per hundred from any point.
Very truly yours,
WiLson Tomacco Co.,
By W. J. King, President
