Raleigh, June 27—That officials of the Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association are prepared to defend the contracts of 90,000 loyal members against all attempts to foster contract breaking or stir up conspiracy, is evidenced by the official statement of Monroe O. Wilson, secretary of the association, given out form Richmond, Va. Mr. Wilson’s statement is as follows:
“On the night of June 25th there was served on the association summons in 67 cases in which association members of Pitt county are instituting legal action against the association. Complaints have not yet been filed, however. From information which comes direct from one of the prime instigators of this plot it appears that they are suits for the cancellation of the association’s marketing agreement.
For a month the officers of the association have known of an intensive and secret movement by a few disgruntled Pitt county growers to band together all of the disloyal members of that county in suits against the association. The leaders of this movement, encouraged by suggestive and incendiary expressions and statements from prominent men intimately connected with the auction system, expected to get at least 200 members to join in this movement. They have held numerous meetings. They have conspired for weeks out of a membership of 1,660 in Pitt county. They have succeeded in securing only 67 members who have turned their backs on their fellow farmers, have “welched” in their contracts and have sued the association. It further appears from statements from these same officious leaders that the parties to these suits hope to keep the suits in court for a long time and to sell their tobacco as they please until the litigation is settled.
“The association pledges to its loyal members that each and every one of these suits will be contested and fought from every angle. The association is confident of the ultimate favorable outcome of these suits; confident that the North Carolina courts of law and equity will uphold in every case the obligations of solemn written instrument entered into with the association and 90,000 other growers of tobacco. Moreover the association is confident that the home of the 67 are unfounded and that the sale of their tobacco at auction can be enjoined even while these cases are pending. The association expects to protect its tobacco of the crop of 1923 by gaining temporary injunctions and restraining orders against Fred A. Elks and R.M. Elks of Pitt county, who have suits pending against them for amounts aggregating more than $7,000, and, in accordance with the recent restraining order issued by Judge Crammer of the Wake County Superior Court, must appear before him in Raleigh, Friday, June 29.
From the front page of the Reidsville Review, Wednesday, June 27, 1923
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