AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 
STATEMENT OF MR. GEOFFREY MORGAN, REPRESENTING DARK 
TOBACCO COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION; HOPKINSVILLE, KY. 
207 
Mr. MorcaN. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the Agricultural 
Committee, I want to sincerely thank you for the courtesy of allowing 
me to come before you. I realize that you are busy men, probably 
the busiest class of citizens in the United States, and I know your time 
is very valuable, and I do not want to take up any more of it than is 
absolutely necessary. 
I am not here to-day representing myself or just a committee of 
people; I am representing here 76,000 farm families of western Ken- 
tucky, western Tennessee and a part of Indiana. 
Last year, after the McNary-Haugen Bill was vetoed, our directors 
decided to make a careful investigation among their growers to find 
out if their opinion had changed in regard to that bill. As a result, 
meeting were held all over the district and thorough discussion was 
had with the members in regard to this bill In addition to that, we 
invited letters from our members, from our official head quarters, 
and they came in by the hundreds. As a result our officials were 
able to make a careful study of the opinion of these growers, not 
only the big growers—I am talking about the little fellows, many 
of whom wrote on a sheet of wrapping paper with lead pencil and 
which we had a hard time deciphering. All classes of citizens wrote 
to us. After summarizing those responses, and after full discussion, 
our directors passed this resolution, which I want to read to you 
(reading): 
Whereas the plight of the farmers of America is even worse now than it was 
12 months ago at the time that President Coolidge vetoed the McNarv-Haugen 
bill and offered neither substitute nor even consolation to the agricultural classes, 
and 
Whereas an American standard of living has been guaranteed to merchants and 
manufacturers through the tariff bill; to bankers through the Federal reserve 
act; to railroads through the Interstate Commerce Comunission; to laborers 
through the Adamson bill and the immigration law, while farmers, by being com- 
pelled to buy on a protected market and sell on a world-wide market, are forced 
to 2 standard of living on a level with European peasants and Mexican peons, 
an 
Whereas the law of supply and demand does not apply when the supply is in 
the hands of unorganized farmers and the demand is in the hands of organized 
dealers, and ] 
Whereas cooperative marketing of farm products on a large scale has failed 
because it is financially impossible for members to carry all the burden of the 
surplus for the benefit of nonmembers: Therefore, be it 
Resolved, That we, the directors of the Dark Tobacco Growers’ Cooperative 
Association, in regular monthly meeting assembled this the 15th day of November, 
1927, and speaking for the 76,000 farm families that we represent in Kentucky, 
Tennessee, and Indiana do reaffirm our faith in the McNary-Haugen bill, and 
especially the equalization fee feature, which requires all growers of a commodity 
to share alike in carrving the burden of the surplus, just as all national banks are 
required to be members of the Federal reserve system; and be it further 
Resolved, That we earnestly request our Senators and Congressmen to show their 
sympathy for their farmer constituents by using their influence and votes to secure 
the immediate passage of the McNary-Haugen bill in the next session of Congress. 
That was their resolution, after careful thought and deliberation 
and careful inquiry. 
We have gone through quite an experience in the handling of 
tobacco. 
Mr. AsweLL., Before beginning your statement, let me ask you a 
question.