C.B. Cheatham, assistant manager of the leaf department of the Tobacco Cooperative Association, today denied recent charges to the effect that the tobacco cooperative has connived with speculators, has played favorites and that he is a stockholder in the J.P. Taylor Company. Mr. Cheatham’s letter, which appeared in today’s Henderson Dispatch, reads as follows:
“In the Raleigh News and Observer of March 14th and 16th, giving a report of the argument in the tobacco cases before the Supreme court of North Carolina, appears, among other charges, the following by Mr. Brawley, attorney for Mr. Maynard Mangum of Durham, N.C., based upon the answer filed by Mr. Mangum in his case:
‘The association has connived with speculators, played favorites and one of the high officials of the association is a former officer of the J.P. Taylor Company and is reputed to still be as stockholder in the Taylor Company.’
The above charges refer to the writer, as is generally known in the tobacco trade.
All of your directors and officers knew that I was a stockholder and an official in the J.P. Taylor company when they employed me and nobody wishes to deny that fact. However, immediately upon my election to a position in your organization, I resigned the one I held with the J.P. Taylor Company and began selling my stock in same and within a short time had disposed of every cent of interest I had in the J.P. Taylor Company or any of its affiliated companies.
All other references to the writer in the answer of Mr. Mangum are completely unfounded in fact, not withstanding Mr. Brawley stated that he and his associates had signed the answer ‘only after careful consideration.’
Had the author of these charges been half as zealous in seeking the truth as in manufacturing damnable propaganda he could easily have obtained the real facts, as above stated.
The writer considers that it is only fair to himself and to the members of this association that he make directly to the members of the association a full and complete denial of the charges by Mr. Mangum. The writer hopes to have an opportunity at a later date to prove to a North Carolina jury the complete facts of this case.”
From page 3 of The Reidsville Review, April 4, 1923
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