Full Text of the Excerpt

WILLIAM MANSFIELD:

Do you ever have disputes?

JANE SQUIRES:

All the time.

WILLIAM MANSFIELD:

Tell me about some of those.

JANE SQUIRES:

Not so many this year, on a year like this. I've had many disputes in the past, when tobacco was tight and it was allocated. [They were] daily. With each company, daily.

WILLIAM MANSFIELD:

You say you have a dispute, about what? How does . . . . . .

JANE SQUIRES:

The buyers questioning why I would knock tobacco the way I did. Especially when I first started, not so much any more. The first two or three years [the buyers would ask] "Explain that to me." [or] "Who taught you that?" That went on for a couple of years but I don't get questioned too much any more. But disputes are good. I always liked my sale when my man, that was buying for Phillip Morris and my man that was buying for Export [Tobacco] were not best friends. I always liked it when there was a little bit of tension between those two. I really liked it when there was a little bit of tension between all of them.

WILLIAM MANSFIELD:

And why is that?

JANE SQUIRES:

The competition on sale was better. Tobacco bought more. If you're buying with all of your friends, [they'll say] "Oh you can have that one." Or, "Oh, do you need that one?" I don't like a sale like that. I like [the buyers to say] "It's mine!" And [as a rule] they are going to pay more for it if they see their competition wanting it just as much. So I always liked when they were friends, but not best friends.

WILLIAM MANSFIELD:

But when they would confront you with something like that, "Why did you sell that to him?" "Where did you learn that?" How did handle the disputes?

JANE SQUIRES:

I always tried to have the way it was supposed to be done (which is what I learned from Paige). And there were times that I've been wrong. There were times I have been wrong. But I would admit when I was wrong and that always made it easier. If you're wrong and you try to cover it up, these guys know. I try not to make too many mistakes any more.

WILLIAM MANSFIELD:

[Laughter] I can't see how that would be a habit to begin with. But when you say you're wrong, what kind of mistake could you make?

JANE SQUIRES:

Let's see what comes to mind. Like I say I try not to make that many. I made one in Danville [VA] one time, [at the tobacco auctioneer championship in Danville.] a dire mistake. Let me think of what it was. We had several, must have been eight or ten buyers, and say, for instance, somebody bid 75 and he said, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, I want that." And I said, "OK, can anybody else use it at 75?" And one other buyer said, "I've got 65 on it." I said, "Ok." Well the guy that originally bought it at 75 said, "Well I had 65. I just don't have 75." Well, you can always go up. But once the pile of tobacco is yours it goes to somebody else at a lower price, you can't come down. You can raise your pile. I made that mistake one time, in front of about 25,000 people. I never made it again.

WILLIAM MANSFIELD:

That's good. Somebody said mistakes are educational things.

JANE SQUIRES:

[Laughter] I know. I never made it again.