Virginia's history and tradition are closely associated with the tobacco industry. Tobacco is produced in Virginia in great quantities. Tobacco is sold in Virginia in great quantities. Tobacco is consumed in Virginia in great quantities. Because the producing and marketing of tobacco affects such a large number of citizens of the State, the General Assembly of Virginia has for many years enacted statutes regulating the marketing of tobacco. The Virginia State Supreme Court of Appeals in 1925 in Reaves Warehouse v. The Commonwealth, 141 Va. 194, at page 202, points this out in the following language:

"Because tobacco warehouses are so affected by this public use, the statutes of Virginia have for many years provided for inspection, weighing, fees to be charged, monthly reports to the Commissioner of Agriculture and many other details. . . . Being so impressed with a public interest, they [the warehouses] may be regulated under the police power." Again at page 212

"The conclusions here stated are based upon sound reason and are consistent with well established principles, among which are that public [tobacco] warehouses are affected with a public interest; that a classification based upon reason is valid."

Almost twenty-five years ago, in 1945, the General Assembly created a Commission to study and make a report on the auction method of selling burley tobacco. This Commission recommended the enactment of a statute to provide for minimum and maximum charges and fees which could be imposed by public warehouses operated for the sale of burley tobacco.

This recommendation was enacted into law with certain variations in 1946 and appears in the Code of Virginia today as §§ 61.1-55 and 61.1-56. Later, in 1968, a statute was enacted to set the maximum allowable warehouse charges on the sale of flue-cured tobacco, the provisions of which are set out later in this report.

As the maximum charges for the sale of burley tobacco were .established in 1946, the continually changing economy of the State and the industry prompted Albertis S. Harrison, Jr., Governor of Virginia, by letter dated April 7, 1964, to request the Virginia Advisory Legislative Council to make a study and report upon the burley tobacco industry. This the Virginia Advisory Legislative Council did and recommended that the two Code sections, which at that time were numbered 61-154 and 61-155, be repealed and that the study be continued and a follow-up report be made to the 1968 General Assembly. These recommendations the 1966 General Assembly refused to follow and the status quo continued.

At the 1968 Session of the General Assembly, a bill was introduced proposing to add two sections in Chapter 7 of Title 61 of the Code of Virginia, which would have created within the Department of Agriculture and Commerce the "Virginia Burley Tobacco Board of Trade". This bill failed to pass but the 1968 General Assembly did enact Chapter 690 of the 1968 Acts of Assembly, referred to above, establishing maximum allowable charges by flue-cured tobacco warehousemen, as follows:

". . . on and after July one, nineteen hundred sixty-eight, no tobacco auction ware. house shall charge the grower for services rendered in the sale and handling of flue-cured tobacco any amount or sum in excess of the following:

"(a) Warehouse charges: ten cents per one hundred pounds or fraction thereof;

"(b) Auction fee: twenty-five cents per basket and commission of two and one-half per centum of the gross amount of each sale.

"§ 2. This act shall expire July 1, 1970."

Recognizing that a thorough study of marketing of flue-cured and burley tobacco and matters relating thereto was necessary, the 1968 General Assembly adopted House Joint Resolution No. 143 creating a Commission to conduct such a study.

Pursuant to this resolution, the Governor appointed A.H. Easley, Chatham; Turner A. Gilmer, Jr., Castlewood; William N. Hendricks, Lebanon; J. Cabel Love, Kenbridge; who were respectively, as directed by the resolution, a grower of flue-cured tobacco, a grower of burley tobacco, a burley tobacco warehouseman, and a flue-cured warehouseman. The Speaker of the House of Delegates appointed two members of the House: Honorable James B. Fugate, Gate City, and Honorable R. Maclin Smith, Kenbridge. The president of the Senate appointed Senator Adelard L. Brault, Fairfax. In addition, as provided in this resolution, Maurice B. Rowe, Commissioner, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Commerce, and W. E: Skelton, Director; Cooperative Extension Service, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, served as ex-officio members. The office of the Division of Statutory Research and Drafting acted as Secretary to the Commission, Frank R. Dunham representing it. In this study, the Commission obtained invaluable assistance from Roy B. Davis, Jr., Tobacco Marketing Agent, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Commerce, and J. Paxton Marshall, Extension Specialist, Public Policy, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg.

At its organizational meeting, the Commission elected Senator Adelard L. Brault, Chairman, and R. Maclin Smith, Vice-Chairman.

During the course of its study, the Commission visited warehouse sales of flue-cured tobacco in South Boston and Danville and of burley tobacco in Abingdon. Public hearings were held in South Boston and Abingdon, which were well publicized and well attended by warehouse operators and tobacco growers. To study and discuss what had been seen by it and said to it, the Commission held several executive meetings. In addition to evaluating all information gathered by it, the Commission took an in-depth look at all practices relating to the sale of flue-cured and burley tobacco. After careful reflection, the Commission submits this Report on flue-cured and burley marketing practices in the State and proposes for adoption a method by which it believes these practices can be improved to the advantage of warehousemen, growers and buyers alike, and above all, improve the marketing of tobacco throughout the State.