In a speech to the Virginia State Bar Association shortly after his election to
Chief Justiceship in 1903, Clark criticized Duke’s American Tobacco Company for
destroying the “opportunity of livelihood to thousands [of farmers]” through its
tobacco trust. Clark went on to state that should a planned boycott fail to break
the trust, he would favor a government monopoly on tobacco sales as existed in
France, Austria, and Italy at the time. It was part of Clark’s larger call for “necessary
monopolies” in “lighting, water, and street transportation” that should be
“operated by the government only and in the interest of all.”