The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-03-25
Little Danger Of Competition with
American Goods.

New York Sun.
Just at the present time" said a promi-
nent tobacco man, lit is of interest to con-
slider the relation of the Philippine tobacco
industry to the United States There need
be no fear of competition. We Will sell
them infinitely more than We Will buy from
them, and as the islands get more civilized
and more Americans and Europeans settle
there we will sell them more and more to-
bacco and cigars and buy less, though We
cannot take many fewer cigars than we do
now.
Il have several acquaintance, English
men, who occasionally like a Manila cigar,
and they have to get them of one dealer.
He sends to Canada for these cigars in sim
gle case lots. Tor there Is no stock Kept IN
this country. and yet they make in the
Philippines matter of l5JOOO,OJO cigars
year. There have been from time to time
efforts to introduce these cigars here but
without much success. In England they
sell very largely, mainly in bundles of five
These are both cheroots and cigars, rather
roughly turned out, banded with strips of
red and yellow paper about quarter of an
inch broad. They come five hundred in a
big cedar box with a sliding lid and cost
the English dealer, duty paid, about $3.50
They are to be found in nearly every drug
peculiarly light color most of il rather dull
looking. and-it has TO my taste, the flavor
among tobaccoS which the beet has among
vegetables, rather earthly. 1t is also heavy
in type and makes the smoker rather sleepy,
which gives rise to the mistaken idea that
there is opium n it. Our people will not
but not the type they prefer.
when the last rebellion in Cuba began
and the supplies of Havana leaf tobacco
fell off, among the growths introduced as
substitutes was Manila, but even under
these favorable conditions the importations
never amounted to much more than a drop
in the ocean. In 1852 we brought in S,S76
pounds, valued at 81 1888; in 1893. ,2sS pounds,
valued at 500: in 1894 none and in 1896, H.
$50 pounds, valued at 81, 7A None of this
was classified as wrapper tobacco. In cigars
the importations i'm 1892 were 339 pounds,
valued at Ai2: in 1893, 526 pounds, valued at
$317; in 1S94-5, l2SO pounds, valued at $685.
and in 1896 1896 pounds valued at $61i. The
great bulk of these shipments came from
Canada. Outside of one uptown store which
deals in every tobacco under the sun. or
pretty nearly 1 do not think you could find
Manila cigar In the city except mementos
recently brought back by soldiers
THE principal tobacco factory at Manila
is the Isabel. with capital of $1,000. 600
employing 1900 hands and making 100000
cigars. 4oO, 10000 cigarettes and 100000
pounds of cut tobacco a year. The value
of the leaf tobacco at the plantation is fixed
by an agreement which provides that no
matter what the supply or condition these
prices shall never vary.
With the exception OF a comparatively
few high-grade cigars from Cuba, no foreign
cigar has ever been able 10 gain a foOthold
here and probably never will. Fully nine
tenths of the cigars sold imported are
made right in this country of imported leaf
tobacco and of acknowledged higher
quality to-day than the cigars OF Cuba"