The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-29
TOBACCO SMOKING.
One Million Tons a Year Goes Up in
Smoke in All Countries of Globe.

ohe MllhOn Tons Year Goes Up in
Smoke in All Countries of Globe.
From the New York Sun.
Spain is not a wealthy country, and
her per cent bonds, guaranteed by
the government and protected by the
security of public property and the
revenues from customs and local taxes,
are selling at 90 cents on the dollar.
But the people Of Spain last year (and
not the male inhabitants of the Span
ish peninsula exclusively smoked $31,-
OOO,OOO worth of tobacco, an average of
$1.S0 for each inhabitant The total
consumption of tobacco in Spain in a
year for cigarettes (Which are very
POPULAR cigars and snuff is twenty
thousand tons, the same quantity that
Is consumed in Italy, a country with
nearly twice the population of Spain
The Spaniards are greater smokers
than the Italians, as these figures
snow, and they use, too, it may be
added, much better quality of tobac-
co, or more properly speaking, they use
more of the better quality. One-third
of the tobacco used in Italy is raised,
so to speak, on the premises, and it's
excellence is not such that there is a
large foreign demand for it.
The consumption of tobacco in the
United Kingdom amounts in a year to
about $4,000 tons and in France to 40
600 tons, a disparity which is much
greater than the difference in popula-
tion, and has been steadily growing of
late years. AT the beginning of the
present century more tobacco was used
per capita in England than in France,
but gradually and steadily the French
per capita consumption has increased,
owing, some think, to the fact that for
more than eighty years the sale of
tobacco in any form in France has
been government monopoly, the
profits from which have gone toward
the reduction of taxation, and the busi-
ness of which has been greatly stimu-
lated by legislation. An enormous
quantity of tobacco, amounting in a
year to $4,000 tons. is consumed in Ger
many, and the Germans, ii is to be
observed, are rather pipe than cigar
ette smokers, cut tobacco in Germany
being the chief item of demand. Ger
many raises about 40 per cent. of the
tobacco which it's people use and i'm
ports the other co. Germany is the
country of pipe smokers as the United
States are, beyond all other countries
the land of cigar smokers. And when
the figures of foreign countries are
compared with those of the United
States, the extent of the American con-
sumption may be judged readily.
There were collected as revenue last
year by the Treasury department taxes
on tobacco to the amount of $40, 900 900
-$l2,5OO, 900 on cigars, 81 ,60000O on
cigarettes, $650,000 on snuff and the
balance, $15,25OO00, on smoking and
chewing tobacco. The American pro-
duct of tobacco amounts in a year to
25O,OOO tons, or about one-quarter of the
whole tobacco product of the world.
The exports of American tobacco are
about 100000 tons, of which Holland,
Belgium, England and Germany are
the chief consumers. The imports of
tobacco into the United States, chiefly
from Cuba and from the Dutch pos
sessions, amount to $1,000 tons in a
year Since the beginning of the Cuban
war the amount of tobacco imported
has decreased. Holland uses in pro-
portion to its population more tobacco
than does any other country in the
| world, the average consumption being
100 ounces a year for each inhabitant.
| Belgium averages so, Turkey 20, and
the United States about 60. Although
the habit is no longer so generally diff
fused as 1t once was, the United States
hold the unenviable position of being
first among the nations in the amount
| OF chewing tobacco used.