Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser., 1886-10-08
The Tobacco Market.

Inc IODaccO market.
In an article last week the TIMES re-
viewed the compulsory feature of the in
spection law and showed that farmers are
not prohibited by the terms of the law
from sending their tobacco outside of the
State of Mary and for sale, without inspec.
ton, except the tobacco so shipped be
packed in hogsheads, and that the produ-
GERS of Maryland may send their tobacco
packed in any other shape, to the markets
of other States with impunity, without
previously submitting it to the State in
spection at Baltimore. We thought that
much of the Maryland tobacco is well
adapted to many purposes of domestic
manufacture and if sold in other States
where they manufacture tobacco more ex-
tensively for the home market might bring
better remuneration to the planter than is
now attainable by expectation to Europe
Since then we have been pleased to note
from the press dispatches from Alexandria,
that large quantity of tobacco grown in
our neighboring cou1ty of Prince Georges
is being shipped through that city to
Lynchburg and Richmond, Virginia. The
same dispatches refer to the fact that a
large factory for the manufacture of chew.
ing tobacco was formerly in successful
operation in Alexandria, but has for many
years fallen into disuse. This factory was
no doubt, supplied by Maryland tobacco
as prior to the adoption of the State in
spection law, much of the tobacco grown
in this part of Maryland was sold in Alex.
andria.
The superior prices formerly command.
ed by the export trade led the tobacco
growers OF Maryland to devise some relia,
BILE system of inspection which should
command confidence abroad. With this
purpose the present system of State in.
spection was devised and put in operation
about the year 1926 to supercede the pre-.
viously existing local inspections, which
had proven unreliable and unsatisfactory
to the trade. The compulsory feature Of
the system, which became necessary as a
means of indemnifying the State at large
from the expense resulting from the sys-
TEN, and which was tacitly concurred in
by the entire planting interest for that
purpose, operated to carry all tobacco
grown in Marylend to the Baltimore mar
ket and since that time, by the operation
of the inspection law, Baltimore has been
the exclusive market for our Maryland
tobacco.
At that time the Maryland product COM
manded decidedly better prices abroad
than in the home market and the people
cheerfully submitted to the compulsory
system as means of availing themselves
OF the foreign market and were not in any
degree injured thereby. Now, however,
Europe, the greater competition from other
sources, the onerous foreign tariff duties
and other causes have seriously impaired
the demand for our product abroad, and
when the State inspection itself, justly or
unjustly, seems to have fallen into at least
a temporary disrepute in the forei gn mar
ket, the compulsory feature of the inspec-
tion law becomes onerous and oppressive
to the planter. 1t now seems that the
home market, for portion at least of our
Maryland product, ,offers better advantages
than the foreign. 1t is for these reasons
that the TINES for several years past has
advocated such modification of the COM
pulsory feature as would permit the plan
ters to avail themselves to the fullest ex-
tent of the advantages of the home market
We are glad, therefore, to see that Mary
land planters are availing themselves of
the privilege now allowed them of ship
ping to other markets and we hope at the
next session of the Legislature to see all
prohibition of that character swept away.
Before concluding this article, we deem
it proper to say once more that we do not
concur at all in the opinion expressed in
some quarters that the depression in the
market for Maryland tobacco is due to the
amended inspection law, or indeed to the
State inspection law at all. The best
proof of the falsity of this opinion is found
in the fact that there is as great or greater
depression in the values of Kentucky and
and Ohio tobacco than in those of the
Maryland product.
As another historical fact throwing some
light upon the operation of the State in
spection system, as it has affected the val
ue of Maryland tobacco, it may not be out
ofplace to say that from the account books
of an old Baltimore commission house,
furnished US by friend, we find that in
the year 1928, just before the establish
ment of the present inspection system, the
average price of tobacco in the Baltimore
market was from So to So. 1t will be
thus seen that it is not true, as has been
recklessly asserted, that the State system
of inspection has ruined the market fol
Maryland tobacco. There is no doubt
that the State system was great boon to
the Maryland tobacco grower at the time
it was adopted and that it has operated to
his advantage until within the compare
lively recent past. But times have changed
and it may be that this, like some other
old institutions may have outgrown its
usefulness. Whether it has or has not is
question upon which the Maryland
planters should endeavor to inform them
selves and which should receive careful
consideration at their hands. They have
now large equitable property in tie
State warehouses at Baltimore, resulting
to them from the compulsory inspection
system, and it behooyes them to consider