Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-10-31
On Sept. "A The Tobacco Journal re-

On Sept. "a The Tobacco Journal re-
newed its onslaught and devoted two
more columns to explaining the effects
of the duty which has reduced the price
of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania tobaccos
to an average of five or six cents a
pound, and of New York and Ohio to-
baccos to perhaps the lowest prices ever
known. The following are extracts
from this journal:
''It (McKinley duty did not improve
the tobacco. 1t did not change the at
mospheric conditions nor the soil, so that
better grade of tobacco could be raised
in competition with the foreign leaf. 1t
did not prevent the frost from striking
the tobacco before it was ready to be
cut. 1t did not prevent the growth of
the white vein. 1t did not prevent the
tobacco from rotting. 1t did not create
wider market, nor even the longed for
home market, for the trash will all have
to be exported or used for manure. And
it did not raise prices
1.-The manufacturer being robbed of
$3.50 pound on his wrapper leaf by the
folly of the tobacco growers illusion,
gets square with the tobacco grower by
cutting down the price for his fancy
filters to bare cost"
Sumatra has become an absolutely es.
sential factor for the cigar industry.
Otherwise no manufacturer would be
fool enough to pay $4 for Sumatra
if he could get an equally good wrapper
produced at home for fifty cents a
pO11n1 Rr1t wa nannpt ,,,Ol,,a
thing like Sumatra, for neither Con
necticut, Massachusetts, New York
Pennsylvania nor Wisconsin has got the
soil or climate of the tropical isle of Su-
matra. Neither would our importers be
such fools as to again import from %, ,0OO
to 10000 bales of Sumatra a year, as they
did when Sumatra came in under low
tariff. But somebody has got to pay the
raise in the Sumatra duty. The i'm
porter does not pay it. The manu-.
facturer pays it, but he wants to un
load the expense on others, and natu
rally.
AT first he thought of the jobber and
dealer, but both kicked and refused to
share the higher expense of the McKin
ley tariff. The consumer-that is, the
smoker-kicked likewise, and refused tc
pay six cents for his nickel or eleven
cents for his dime cigar. There were
but two other classes left to share the
expense of the Mckinley tariff, the cigar
maker and the tobacco grower. And
both are being made to pay the penalty
of the Mckinley tariff-the cigar maker
by reduction of his wages and the to.
bacco grower by a squeeze in the price
of his product. Wrapper leaf we cannot
grow to replace the Sumatra. But we
can grow exceedingly fine binders and
filler leaf
Under the low tariff the importer was
willing to pay a good price for binders
and very good and even high price for
fine filler leaf. All our domestic fancy
filters commanded under the low tariff
much higher figure than most of the
cigar leaf wrappers ever can. Now,
however, the manufacturer has either
dispensed with the use of this type of
leaf, or if he utilizes it he wants it at a
very low figure-at the low figure that
common filters and binders formerly
sold. For the cut he makes on this
class Of goods now has to compensat,
him for the (by the Mckinley tariff
raised expense of his wrapper leaf
The fine filler and binder leaf tina
commanded the high prices had beer
raised by Wisconsin, New York, Penn
sylvania and Ohio. Consequently the
tobacco growers of these states have tt
pay the penalty for the outrageous