The Kentucky Tobacco War.
FOR a number of months past there has been a regular war going on in Kentucky between the tobacco trust on the one hand and a mob called the "night riders" on the other. These "night riders" would usually come into a town or neighborhood on horseback and burn and destroy the property of the tobacco trust and also of those who would sell their tobacco to the trust. The following news item that is current in the press gives an idea of the sharp stage to which the fight has come: "Lexington (Ky.), March 22.—Because of warning letters and visits from 'night riders,' many farmers in nearly all of the forty-two counties in the White-Burley tobacco district are busily destroying their tobacco beds, and at the present time less than one-third of the number usually planted have been started. In many counties huge signs have been erected on buildings and in high places nearby declaring the intention of the farmer not to raise a crop this season. Realizing the difficulty in making a living for their families in case the decision to raise no tobacco is adhered to, many tenant farmers are preparing to move to other states, while many farm owners have placed their property on the market with the avowed purpose of leaving Kentucky. "The murder of Farmer Hedges in Nichols County yesterday and the raids in Woodford and other counties last week, have increased the alarm. In announcing their determination to go elsewhere, the tenants declare that it will be impossible to subsist from the proceeds of crops of hemp, wheat, and corn. "In the neighborhood of Mount Sterling many farmers have been receiving threatening letters, with which were matches, powder, and poison, and in both farm districts and tobacco towns armed guards have been placed at threatened points. Conditions throuout the state are declared to be worse than at any time since the tobacco war began." This contest is merely illustrative of the rioting that will exist all over this world at no distant day. The prophecies of the Bible tell us that such will be the condition of things in the last days; but if the Bible had said nothing about it, any observing person should be able to see from the discussions that are going on in the world that just such lawlessness must finally result. There are many composing a large section of society, who are teaching that the rich are robbing the poor and that some drastic thing should be done about it. This doctrine has been dinned into the ears of the poor man until he is becoming very violent in his feelings toward the rich. And then when any provocation arises they start out in marauding mobs to burn and destroy. When the mob is once formed and the spirit of frenzy has seized the multitude, there is no knowing what they will do. Those who are perfectly innocent are just as likely to be struck down by the hand of violence as are the ones against whom the leaders in this rioting may have a grievance. The only protection against this is the protection afforded by the arm of the infinite Father. But, thanks be to His name, this protection is more than ample.