AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 
211 
Mr. KINcHELOE. And contending your organization at that time 
was insolvent? 
Mr. Morcan. Contending our organization at that time was 
insolvent. 
Mr. Hore. Were those suits brought by members of the associa- 
tion? 
Mr. Morgan. Supposedly. We went through the Federal court. 
Mr. Apxins. Did you ever test out the 5-cent penalty? Did 
anybody take you through the courts? 
Mr. MorGaN. Oh, yes; we have been through the courts. 
Mr. Apkins. Did the courts sustain you? 
Mr. Morgan. In every case; yes, sir. But you can not go against 
public opinion when you have a whole lot of men doing it; you can 
not run a cooperative in the law court. We soon saw we could not do 
that, that we would have to quit. These suits were deliberately 
brought to embarrass us and keep nonmembers from joining. We 
went through the courts, and Judge Dawson of the Federal court in 
Louisville denied that application for receiver, and he stated from 
the bench that he had found not one single instance of graft or mis- 
management in the whole affairs of the association, gave us a clean 
bill of health, and denied the application for receiver. He said that 
he felt the association was being handled far cheaper and better than 
it could be handled by appointment of a receiver. 
Mr. Apkins. But the effect of the receivership application was 
bad on the members. 
Mr. Morcan. It was bad on the members, entirely so. And non- 
members were afraid to come in. But we did not get that decision 
until our markets had opened for the 1926 crop; and by the time we 
set up our machinery to open and run our houses—you see, we have 
$3,400,000 worth of property, and about one-fourth of a million 
dollars worth of equipment, all paid for—and by the time we could 
set up our machinery to operate, the market was about half over, 
and so we only received very little tobacco of the 1926 crop. 
The whole thing back of this cooperative association is this: We 
maintained a fair price; we stabilized the market; and that is the 
important thing about a cooperative association. If I have to start 
out to feed a bunch of hogs expecting to get 10 cents a pound for 
them, and by the time I get rea’v to sell them the market is 6 cents, 
I can not operate that way; anc “1 is the same way with everything 
else we produce. 
These cooperative associations can stabilize the market, and that 
is what they were doing. 
We could have gone out for another five-year contract this year, 
and signed up at least, in my opinion, 40 per cent of our growers. 
But is it fair to go out and ask those men to sign up again for another 
five-year period to tie up their tobacco, set a price and carry all of 
the burden of the surplus for the other 60 per cent who would not 
come in? 
. Mr. Kercuam. Then your personal interest in this bill is the effect 
1t will have. I do not want to use the word “compelling,” but I 
think you understand the way in which I use it—it is really com- 
pelling all those that produce this particular grade of tobacco to 
join 1n carrying the surplus? 
Mr. MorGaN. That is it exactly, sir. We want everybody to 
share and share alike in carrying the burden of that surplus.