Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1885-12-18
The Tobacco Inspections.

tobacco growers from the other counties
and the Baltimore buyers in convention
in that city on January 18th proximo, or
the purpose of taking into consideration
such amendments in the present system of
inspecting tobacco as may be deemed of
mutual Advantage to both the buyers aud
growers of the product.
! We commend this matter to the earnest
consideration of our tobacco growers, and
hope that they will respond to the invita-
ton; and that Charles may be fifty repre-
sented at the meeting referred to- We
believe that it is, at this time, very desir-
able that our tobacco growers should COM
pare views with the Baltimore agents of
The foreign trade upon this vexsd question
and meet them in = spirit of amity and
mutual concession in the effort to devise
such Improvements in the present system
as shall secure absolute fairness and relia-
bility in the sampling Of tobacco at the
State warehouses.
|
ter of regret that the foreign tobacco trade
and the Maryland growers of the product
should assume antagonistic positions be-
fore the Stae Legislature upon this ques-
tion of vital interest to both. But so long
as the buyers would content themselves
with nothing short Of total abolition of
| no Sfafo al al
with grasping corporation, anxious to
control the trade, in uncompromising ef-
forts to that end, there has been no course
which the Maryland growers could pursue
but to oppose them with all their influence,
and this has been repeatedly done with
success.
Now, however, that the buyers manifest
disposition to meet the growers in q
spirit of amity, with view of devising
such measures as will increase the ef.icien-
cy of the present system without taking
away its essential principles, we think it
is to the interest of the planter to meet,
and confer with them in an earEes' endea-
vor to arrive at harmonious conclusion
with regard to the means of effecting the
end. 1t is but just to say that there has
always existed on the part of the represen-
tative planters a spirit of conceding such
| amendments and rigid regulations in the
manner of sampling tobacco at the State
warehouses as weu'd break up the prac-
tice OF Ease packing and ensure fair samp-
ling, and that it has been the buyers them
selves, and the influences they allied them
selves with, that have prevented such i'm
provements by their incorporating eft
forts to effect the total adjustment of the
present system.
The TIMES has always opposed the sbo-
lition Of the State system, as a measure
that would work great detriment to the
tobacco growing interest The interme-
diary inspection of tobacco being render
ed necessary by the multiplicity AVID un-
known responsibility of its packers, which
incapacitates them from guaranteeing their
own SAMPLES, it has always seemed to US
q
State, whose salary depended in no meas
ure upon their work, were the most rela-
BILE and impartial Intermediates to per
form that delicate and responsible duty
In view, too, Of the fact that the planters
have already, by the outage fees upon
their tobacco, paid for the extensive and
very valuable warehouse property in Bal
timore city, which now secures to them
the impo txnt privilege Of one years free
storage of their unsold product, We have
deemed it unwise in the worst degree for
them To consent to the abolition of the
State system and the consequent los. of
this important property, for the sole pur-
pose of having the inspections made By
private persons whose compensation
should depend solely upon their work,
and in warehouses for which high rem
tai would have to be paid by way OF sior-
age by the planters. These views have
been fully expressed by the representative
planters and they have thrown the weight
OF their influence against the buyers in
their efforts to abolish the system, and so
it has been and will continue to be pre-
served.
The advocates of the State system have
not, however. claimed for it Perfection
On the other hand they have had reason
to believe that a vicious system Of false
packing prevails among some of the pack
ers of tobacco, which fraudulent methods
have gone undetected through the State
warehouses, as the method of sampling is
now regulated. The planters have not
felt at liberty to discredit the statements
of the foreign consumers In this regard :;
and the better cement of the planting in
terest have dsplored the existence of such
false practices, realizing that they are in
furious to high degree to the whole pro-
ducing interest, They have believed how
ever, that this bad practice may be as ef-
fectually bro ken up by proper and rigid
regulation OF the method of sampling in
the State warehouses as by private inspec-
tions; and we feel sure that the planters
will be ready to meet the buyers half way
in any stringent regulations looking to
this end.
We understand that one of the chief
measures which will be proposed by the
tobacco buyers will be the establishment
by law of board of arbitration fully au-
thorized to adjust reclamations on the part
of the foreign consuming interest result
ing from false or defective sampling. This
should be conceded. But we believe the
true remedy lies in putting the ak to the
root of the evil and adopting such rigid
regulations in the method of sampiing as