The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-07-08
q MANY LIKE EVILS.
a Vet and Tampa, Florida, in
Danger Of Being Entirely
Deserted.
3hoy Win Be II the Mckinley
Tariff Bill Becomes
Law.
~ 1mpoftant Manufacturing Business
win be Transferred to Cuba-No
Substitute Industry.

WIN be Transferred to Cuba-No
Substitute Industry.
Il XXI WEsr. Fla. July THE citizens of
Key West and Tampa are up in arms against
those sections of the Mckinley tariff bill
which increase the duty on cigar materials
imported from Cuba. In Key West the
people anxiously await the result of the con-
test, realizing that the passage of the bill
in its present form will seal the fate of their
city. It is true that Key West is wholly de-
pendent on her cigar industry for existence,
and once let this industry be handicapped
OF killed, as it can beby congressional legis-
flation, Key West will be left without a
single resource to fall back on.
A formal protest to congress has been
prepared by the Board of Trade at this
place, supported by the citizens of Tampa,
which sets forth in concise form the great
injury which will be wrought by schedule
!, sections 239 and 240, of house bill No.
The protest sets forth that the above
sections impose such burdens upon mate
rails imported into the United States that
the manufacturers of Havana cigars will
have to give up business; their workmen
will be thrown out of employment and com
PEELED to seek new homes and occupations,
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of
investments in factories and dwellings will
become worthless, and at least two thriving
and prosperous cities will be turned into
deserted villages and this will inure, not to
the benefit of the American farmer and to-
fbacco grower. but to the benefit of the
manufacturers in the island of Cuba. At
tention 10 also called in the protest to the
fact that the manufacturing of Havana to-
bacco into cigars has built Key West up
from village Of 5000 or 1000 people
with three banks, street cars, telephone,
gas and other improvements. 1t has just
commenced system of improvements, in
Guiding grading, paving and sewerage, and
has placed 100000 of bonds upon the mar
population are either directly concerned in
the manufacture of cigars from Cuban to
bacco or are entirely dependent upon it.
Most of the Cubans who work at the bust
ness are naturalized or have established
ones have grown up there and are Ameri-
canized, and the young. Americans, both
white and colored, have learned the bust
ness and adopted it as their livelihood. The
manufacturers have built large factories,
the land owners have built tenements, and
bought their little lots and built their mod
est homes. The earnings and the savings
Of the whole people for twenty years are in
vested in lands and houses, which will be-
come valueless if the factories are COM
PEELED to close.
It is impossible to see how the population
at Key West can be supported by any other
industry, and in consequence it will have to
break up and 60 elsewhere, either to Cuba
or to the northern centers of the cigar IN
lesser scale at that part of Tampa called
Thor City, place which in a few years has
changed from pine forest to a handsome
Town. In Key West there are 1873 factories,
and during 1889, although there was strike
for three months, $1,000, 600 cigars were
600 were made. The size of this business in
Key West can be estimated somewhat by
the fact that from $4,000 to 100000 is
paid out by the bankers each week for
the disbursements of this industry. This
business. it is claimed by the cigar man
ufacturers, will be broken up by the
Mckinley tariff bill in its present form,
and these employees will of necessity be
scattered to contend for work with the
hordes of unemployed elsewhere. Estab-
pound would increase the cost of cigars
from $15 to $25 per thousand above the
present price. strike by the workmen in
Key West last year for an increase of 81
per thousand demonstrated clearly that
such an advance coq1i not be endured; but
f
lets in no tobacco at IS cents per pound.
makes all Cuban tobaccos pay 81 per pound
duty; this will be $50 duty alone on the
twenty-five pounds of tobacco which the
government estimates for thousand cigars.
That this immense duty of 81 per pound
will prohibit the manufacture of Havana
cigars in this country must be apparent
Il can also be shown, Key Westers say,
that even if the manufacture of Cuban
tobacco is stopped, their factories cannot
~. - - ADt>o
to any profit. The success of the cigar in
dustry at both Key West and Tampa is due
to the fact that the climate is SO much like
that OF Cuba that the Cuban tobacco Can
be manufactured and worked up without
the loss of aroma. and without the loss OF
and tearing, as in drier and colder eli
mate. These reasons will not hold good
however, to justify the expense of shipping
American tobacco the whole length OF the
country to be made up, and shipped back
AGAIN, Even if this should be attempted
no workman can earn the wages working
on American cigars that he can Oh Havana
cigars The wage earnings would be
diminished one-half at least. Key West
and Tampa must have the privilege Of
or they must close up their factories anc
their workmen must go elsewhere.
Again, the clear Havana cigars made II
this country constitute only per cent Of
the total output from the factories. Gan II
that increased protection is required
against this small proportion, when its cos,
a.one, Of 81 per pound for wrapper and q
cents for filler, without any duty, gives 4Ot
nar cent protection to the American to
hacco? IF American tobacco is not pro
tected by that rate, can it be protected
by any rateY
Havana tobacco can be excluded by al
excessive duty, but the result will be the de
etruction of American manufacturing in
dustries, and all the benefit will be trans
ferred. not to the farmers, but to the i'm
ported cigar. The manufacture Of Havana
eioars viii be transferred from Key West
Tsmpa. New York and elsewhere tu Cuba
but they will still appear in the marke
against American ones.
The manufacture of Havana cigars in thi
country furnishes employment to lO, 600 mel
and women. and pays wages to the amour
81 over 5000, 900 yearly. The yearly ,valu
81 the crops which are to be protected, &C
o0rdip9 to the tables. run from $456, $40 i
Massachusetts, to 81, 24S, 1863 in Connecticut
~ .587, EGO in Pennsylvania, and $l,22O, 81
b wisconsin, and this includes all kinds c
tobacco, not wrapper tobacco alone. In OF
der 70 increase this value a reasonable pr
aenf.. In il statesmaniike or just to destro
rneuufactories in which wages are paid eac
800 eaualing the amount the farmer r
oefvee, and in which capital is handled an
infsreeted exceeding the value of the who
foa,ocoo crop of the country tit to NAL