Another evil is that tobacco sales are
thus often recounted, and actual re
ceipts of the markets falsified with
returns, showing, by multiplied sales
of same tobacco, a false market. It
is a pitty that tobacco is not openly
sold on merit, no matter to whom it
belongs pity that prejudice is so
strong against one man's buying his
neighbor's tobacco, for its value; it is
this that has led to deception; open
fairness would be better for all. We
dare say that there are few men who i
have not sold for one reason or anther '
more or less tobacco under an assumed t
name , and how can these blame the j
pinhooker when the regular buyer
does it at will, is a question of con
science. We are justified, then, in assuming
that much tobacco sold in interior
markets is either shipped by specula
tors from other markets, is owned by
a barn-buyer, or by the pinhooker,
or is pushed up by the warehouseman
or outside help of the order-man and
manufacturers. It is this class all
buyers have to contend with, and few
markets would be lively without such
side helps. Since much of this state
ment is confessedly true, and since by
no means all upland tobacco is planters'
tobacco, it is obvious that our hogs
head buyer might as well buy specu
lators' tobacco at home as elsewhere,
and all that they would have to do
would be to make a market here and
their own market for it, for they would
stand a better chance of buying it at
a real market value, and by their own
selection, regulating prices at their
will; but some prefer to be duped into
dubious ways by a dozen markets than
to build up at home. Let the legiti
mate buyer take his chances in inte
rior and this market. There is no
merit in our buyers showing their
hands to speculators on a dozen mar
kets and refraining from doing it on
our home market. There was more
activity and prosperity in all the
markets when there was more visible
life in the market. This is what all
interior markets would be glad to see.
