Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1890-05-16
CIGAR MEN DISSATISFIED.
Cigar Manufacturers Object to High
Tariff on Tobacco.

promised higher profits for their wares,
have been engaged in preparing peti-
tlOns and remOnstrances against it.
The tin plate men, and the hardware
men, and the wooden manufacturers
are all dissatisfied. To their ranks is
now added another industry which it
was supposed could be affected only
favorably by changes in duty proposed
at this time. This is the cigar manu-
featuring business at which it appears
the Mckinley bill aims deadly blow; 4;
and, as is the case with the other
schedules which we have examined in
detail, this injury to American indus
try is entirely gratuitous, and the loss
that will be felt by the manufacturers
has not even the poor compensation
of a corresponding gain to somebody
else.
1t is proposed to raise the duty on
Sumatra tobacco, which is the light
and thin quality of leaf used in max
ing cigar wrappers, to two dollars per
pound, the present rate being seventy
five cents. Here is an increase of 166
per cent. on single article, not pro-
duciblc in this country under any con-
ceivable circumstances. 1t is asked
for by the raisers of native tobacco,
who hope thus to drive the foreign
leaf out of the market and compel the
use OF the cOarser and heavier Ameri
can leaf wrapper. No smoker needs
to be told how futile is this hope. The
cheaper grades of cigars are already
manufactured from the native growth.
1t is for the more expensive brands
that the imported wrapper is used,
and the people who smoke that quality
of goods will have them at any price.
If they cannot get them here, then
they will buy them abroad. Not one
pound additional of American tobacco
will be used by reason OF this duty.
But it hits the manufacturer heavily.
No matter what the duty, he must
have the imported leaf for wrappers,
or give up his trade in the better
grades OF cigars. They will cost him
from two dollars to two dollars and a
half per thousand more than formerly,
while they will have to be furnished
to the public at the old prices. There
are established figures for the different
grades which the trade cannot alter,
and the increase OF duty this time will
fall upon the manufacturer. The
western cigar maker has already to
compete with factories in the East
where labor Is cheaper and material
nearer at hand. He has, therefore, n
smaller margin of profit. Handicap
him still farther by the addition OF
two or three dollars per thousand to
his expenses, and it is doubtful if he
could continue in the business.
With equal care, the new tariff bill
hits him in another part of his busi-
ness. These higher grade cigars re-
quire the Havana filler, now dutiable
at thirty-five cents per pound. That
rate remains nominally in the Nc
Kinley bill. But there is inserted
proviso that, if any portion OF any to-
bacco imported in any bale, box or
package, or in bulk, shall be suitable
for cigar wrappers, then the entire
quantity of tobacco shall bear the
higher rate of duty, that is from two
dollars to $2.75 per pound. AS is well
known to all in the trade, all the Ha-
vana tobacco imported for filling cigars
contains more or less leaf that can be
used for wrappers. Indeed, large
portion of the wrappers are obtained
by sorting over the filler tobacco inn.
ported in bales or in bulk; and it
would be a hopeless task to attempt
to get bale in which there was not
leaf that could be used as wrapper.
This, under the terms of the law,
makes the whole dutiable at two dol
lars per pound, and would raise the
cost of Amcrican-made cigars, manu-
factured from imported tobacco by
from $50 to $40 per thousand. As
that is two or more times as much as
the duty levied on imported cigars
made abroad, it is clear that smokers
will obtain their cigars from stocks
imported after manufacture, and not
from domestic manufacturers who inn
ported their tobacco and had it made
up in this country by skilled workmen.
The change would probably close the
great factories at Key West, and it
would certainly cut down if it did not
destroy the extensive tobacco manu-
featuring industry throughout the
country. All these facts have been
laid by the manufacturers before the
ways and means committee, without
producing the slightest impression.
1t proposes to take off taxes on to-
bacco that hurt nobody, and then to
impose Others that will damage a
home industry irretrievably. 1t is
this method of treatment, this piling
up of duties for the mere sake of put
ting them on, and against the protests
of those whom they most Immediately
affect, which makes the Mckinley bill
a measure that any Republican can
oppose and ought to oppose with a
clear conscience.
WHILE Chicago carpenter are strik-
ing for "eight hours" dav, the Iowa
farmers are reported as "sowing oats
by moonlight"