St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-30
A FEASIBLE LINE.
A Manufacturer Points the Adj
vantage of the Cigar a. a Stanle

A Manufacturer Points the Adj
vantage of the Cigar as a Staple.
/ 'If st. Paul men really desire to
make a start in manufacturing, with
local capital, there is no line that offers
'getter inducements than tine cigar fac
tory"
The speaker was Theodore Fl. Jen-
nings, the well-known cigar manufac-
turer. He continued: ''The business
men who are now agitatfng the advan-
tages offered III this city for manufac-
lures of different kinds ought to see the
opportunities offered at home for an in
dustry which is perfectly practicable as
we'll as profitable. We calculate in the
manufacture of cigars that it requires
an outlay of about $500 for each skilled
cigarmaker employed in a factory,
that is, on the finest goods. Cheap
cigars do not require such
large outlay for each operative. If
company of ten business men were
formed, with capital of say $1,000
each, thus having working capital of
$50, 900, it would operate factory of at
least $50 men on average quality of
cigars. Skilled cigarmakerS turn out
about LOCO cigars week each, which
would make total of nearly 100000
of cigars yearly. Cigar manufacturers
know that there is good round profit
on the manufactured article, providing
that the factory is run on an intelligent
plan. Forty million cigars. in round
numbers, were sold the past year directly
from st. Paul. How many of those cigars
were manufactured here? The internal
revenue books show that about 13,000,-
600 cigars were manufactured in st.
Paul in 1889. Nearly 30,000,030 cigars
were imported from Eastern factories
which might just as well have been
made by our people here, and have
given employment to hundreds of oper-
atives, and have been source of large
gain to the manufacturers.
''Our business does not require large
OUTLAWS for plants, such as tools, ma
chinery, etc. There is no dead stock in
this business. Every scrap Of tobacco
not go out of fashion like cloth
ing; besides, it does not require
great length of time to introduce the
product, as there would be an imme-
date demand. Our grocery jobbers in
st. Paul would undoubtedly handle our
home product if we gave them as good
an article and as cheap as the Eastern
product.
I'VE can compete with Eastern peo-
pie. We can bring the raw material
from the Eastern markets cheaper than
the manufactured article. The ques-
ton Of labor is an easy one to solve. On
fine Havana work-hand wOrk-we do
not pay any more here than is paid in
New York City. On the cheaper grades
we can find plenty of operatives
right here who would compete
with Eastern operatives. Let it be
known that there are few large cigar
factories in ST. Paul. and skilled cigar
makers would soon find their way here.
Another point. 1t requires no practical
experience to engage in this business
beyond good man as superintendent
over the factory. The largest factories
in New York and Philadelphia are OPP
Grated 10y men who do not know the.dif-
ference between Sumatra and Havana
tObaccos. These are a few points in re-
gard TO the advantages offered for the
starting of several large factories in our
CITY. 1t would be a benefit, not
only to the city, but would be source
of great profit to its promoters. We
need them here; we ought to retain the
large amount of money yearly paid to
Eastern manufacturers by our jobberS,
who are. themselves, agitatiHg the need
ofgnanufaetureS in st. Paul. Let few
of.our men of push and energy set the
ball going, and contribute to st. Paul's
need. Start large factory and they
will soon see that their capital has been
JudiciouSly invested"