Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1882-01-13

session, concerning the laws regulating
the inspection Of tobacco. The american
detailed reporter last week for the pur-
pose of ascertaining the views and wishes
of the different classes interested In the
question. The result of the enterprising
scribe's labors was to ascertain and report,
what the TINES has always maintained,
that the tobacco exporters of Baltimore
city, who represent foreign interests, the
Republican politicians of the Legislature,
and few unstable demagogues in the nom
tobacco growing parts Of the State, are, as
rule, hostile to the State system, and de-
sire its total abolition; while the intelll-
gent sentiment among the tobacco grow
ers themselves, in the different sections Of
the State, and their representatives in the
Legislature wherever they are represent
ed at alp, are unanimous in the opinion
that the system of inspection by the
agents of the State, in the warehouses the
planters have paid for, with free storage
for all, furnishes most necessary and de-
sirable protection to the planting interest,
and one which should be, at all hazards,
maintained, though there was some diver
sitv of views as to the extent and manner
in which the practical working OF the
present system might be modified. The
representatives, of the planting interest,"
interviewed, characterized the assertion
that the State inspection laws serve to
hamper trade and place restrictions upon
the rights of individuals, as mere Idle
sentimentality. This is what the TINES
has frequently, heretofore, stated. what
n pity it is that those whose liberties are
so previously infringed upon should not
be allowed to find out their own griev-
ances; and how strange it seems that the
liberties of the planters, who, themselves,
have never been heard to complain,
should be source of so much anxiety to
those whose antagonism to their interests
is so manifest.
The exporters, while unit in their hos
tility to the State system, which, by al
fording the planter free storage in Balti-
more for his product, fortiies him against
their rapacity, are many of them, never
theless, reported as despairing of ever ef-
fectine its downfall. One of these phil
anthropic spectators, who make fortunes
by profits on the product Of the Planter S
toll, being interviewed 10y the American
man, was frank enough to let the cat quite
out of the bag as follows:
"The warehouses" be said, should be
leased to the highest bidder, and the les
sees should employ inspectors acceptable to
the 6uuers. This would make them accepta-
BILE to the planters, as their Interests are
mutual The planters acho make quick sales
should be charged less than those ~ho store to-
5acco for long periods. WHY SHOULD THE
STATE PROVIDE INDEFINITE STORAGE FOR
TOBACCO WHEN 1T DOES NOT DO so FOR ANY
OTHER CROP RAISED BY THE FARMERS e
1t, as this "prominent" and very frank
merchant says, inspectors acceptable to
the buyers are necessarily acceptable to
the planters, because their interests 'dre
mutual" then it results conrerso, that in
spectors acceptable to the planters should
be acceptable also to the buyers! The
sworn officers OF the State, appointed from
the respectable farmers Of the counties
, compensated with ample salaries, and
prohibited from receiving gratuities from
the buyers, are entirely acceptable to the
planters, as the americans representative
found out, therefore, if the interests of the
planters and buyers are really mutual
then these inspectors should be, according
to the prominent merchants reasoning,
acceptable to the buyers also. The only re.-
son that these inspectors are not accepta-
to the buyers, is because their interests
are not mutual with those of planters, but
are antGgonistic to them. Any one who
knows anything about the tobacco trade
in Baltimore and has observed how these
BUYERS take the rounds of the commission
houses. week after week and month after
month, examining the same samples and ad-
vancing one cent after another toward Its
true value, until, after months, and years
perhaps, some approximation to the true
value of the product is finally obtained,
can readily appreciate how sweetly "mu-
tual" would be the interests of these sharks
and those of the poor planters, if the free
storage in the planters warehouses was
taken away, and every month of this de-
lay involved heavy charge to the planter
for storage. These gentlemen may rest
assured that the planters, nor NO member
of the Legislature, bat those who disregard
or are traitors to their interests, will ever
consent to have this most necessary pro-
lection of their interests swept away, and
depend on the mutual affection
of the buyers. "Why," asks this liberal
minded and appointment" merchant, "shouM
the State proride indefinite storage for to-
6acco, phen it does not do 50 for any other
product" Simply because the planters,
while paying reasonable charge for the
inspections of their tobacco by the State
inspectors, have, at the same time, through
the workings of this admirable system,
paid to the.State every dollar the ware
house property cost; and it would be an
outrage to compel them to pay for storage
in their own warehouses.
While there is no doubt that in many
cases the State inspectors have not here
ofore been diligent enough in detecting
alse and fraudulent packing on the part
of few exceptional planters. which may
have acted somewhat detrimentally to the
trade, it is equally manifest that these
faulty inspections have been grossly ex-