Wilson Times Says Col. Bruton Entitled to His Opinion on Co-ops, July 31, 1923

The Co-Ops Criticize Col. Bruton

The Wayne County Co-ops in convention assembled have passed resolutions scoring Col. John F. Bruton of this city for a speech made by him at a recent picnic held by the warehousemen of eastern North Carolina at Silver Lake Park near this city. Col. Bruton said in his speech that he felt for the poor widow and those who had not been able to collect their tobacco money from the Co-ops.

Col. Bruton when interviewed on the subject, said that he had already expressed his views and that had nothing more to add, and that if he was wrong time would tell, but that he was curious to know what public office he held which precluded him from expressing a personal opinion on a subject which affects the property rights of his own county people?

Col. Bruton has the same right to express his opinion as Sapiro, who maligned the tobacco warehousemen of Wilson for not turning their warehouses over to his Association at a price to be fixed by the Association. Sapiro certainly talked about them, when the property belonged to them, and they had spent years in building up their business, which he would destroy over night.

Col. Bruton certainly has a right to criticize a system which takes the money of the farmer, which belongs to some merchant, who in turn owes his bank and the merchant can’t pay the bank, because the farmer can’t pay the merchant.

Col. Bruton certainly has the right to criticize a system that pays its farmer members in driblets and then not as much as they receive cash on the open market, and he sees distress, anxiety and embarrassment on every side because of this failure to pay.

Col. Bruton is a member of the regional reserve board and has been a banker for years. His experience in finance and general conditions makes his opinion worth while on any subject. He merely expressed his opinion after years of experience, and like the Editor of The Times believes that the Co-operative marketing system as it is now being handled is impossible of success, and that marketing tobacco by this method will never be successful for the reason that tobacco must be sorted out for the various dealers and various types of tobaccos separately, and the tobacco which goes to England and the continent from here which constitutes 80 per cent of the amount sold on this market must be put up in a different way from the rest.

Finally, the citizen has the right to an opinion of The Times to criticize any system that hurts him or those around him, because we are all dependent on one the other, and the prosperity of one affects the prosperity of the whole.

From the editorial page of The Wilson Times, July 31, 1923, John D. Gold, editor.