The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1902-11-14
TIE
Wisconsin Tobacco Reporter,
Edgeton. Wisconsin.
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES.

NUIE bUUA SktIUd6o.
1t has long been a sort of axiom among
packers that tobacco ought not to be re-
moved from the sheds for stripping until
after the first hard freeze. just what
force there is to this claim has never
been fully explained. If the tobacco is
thoroughly cured out, stem and all, there
is apparently no good reason why it can
not be safely taken down any time there
after when in proper case. 1t is more
likely, however, that the packers who
stand for the ''first hard freeze theory
always entertain some doubts about the
leaf being entirely cured. The first
freeze will certainly make fat stems of
all uncured tobacco so that when strip
ped there is no danger of any portions
of the frozen being bundled with the
merchantable tobacco. AS matter OF
precaution the freezing clearly marks
the distinction in the curing, and this
may account in a measure for their po-
sition. On the other hand when the
leaf is cured and the stalks still are
green the first hard freeze generally
causes an oozing of the juices that often
stain the leaves which would be avoided
if stripping had previously taken place.
1t is generally presumed that the pack
ers prefer to have the tobacco hang un-
til the stalk is frozen dry, and this often
delays stripping until we'll towards the
middle of winter. By this time casing
weather is generally passed until the
January thaw or spring rains.
*x*
The y. S. Tobacco Journal which has
for many years consistently advocated a
reduction of tariff duties on imported to-
baccos, enters into an elaborate argu-
ment to show the falsity of the popular
cry that the tariff is the mother of
trusts" While this paper is probably
not willing to admit change of heart
on this question, it points out very plain
ly what the effect of removing the duty
upon man ufactured tobacco would lead
to.
Suppose then that Congress should
remove all duties on foreign made cigars
would such an act annihilate the Tobac-
co Trust and rebound instead to the
benefit of the twenty mine odd thousand
individual cigar manufacturers? To an
swer these questions sanely and consci-
entiously we have to consider first the
consequences of the admission of cigars
free of duty from any foreign cigar pro-
ducing country. These countries are
Germany, Holland, Cuba and the Phil
ippine Islands. The moment the duty
is removed from cigars shiploads of
these would be brought in from Ger
many, Holland and the Philippines, and
they would be sold at prices which
would make the present cut-rates look
like our sky-scrapers in comparison with
them. Many of our readers undoubted-
ly still remember the ante bellum and
ante tariff time when these foreign
made cigars were almost exclusively sold
in this country, because we had no cigar
factories of our own, and when these ci-
gars were sold by the bundle at mere
trifie at almost any street corner. Will
any individual cigar manufactures pre-
tend, no matter how intense his hatred
of the Trust may be, that he could COM
pete with the rediciously low-priced ci-
gars made in Holland, Germany and the
Philippines? And suppose the removal
of the cigar duty did kill the Cigar
Trust, would it not kill likewise every in
dividual cigar manufacturers? And how
much better off would dead cigar man
ufacturer be in the company of dead
Trust, than live cigar manufacturer in
the company of live trust? The indi-
vidual cigar manufacturer could not
meet the cheap competition of the Ger
man, Dutch and Philippine factories; he
could not find labor, nor raw material
and help cheap enough to do so; he
would have simply to give up. But what
is to prevent the Trust from withdraw
ing it's capital from the American factor
les and investing it in combinations in
those countries where labor and raw ma
terial are the cheapest? Ii Congress
should really take any earnest steps with
the prospects of realization towards the
removal of the cigar duties, it is ten to
one that before the ink is dry on such
law the Trust will have intrenched itself
as controlling factor in the cigar in
dustry of the Philippine Islands and
Holland and it would require less money
to do it than it has spent so far in ac-
quiring plants here to manufacturer only
about one-ffth of our present cigar pro-
duction. And if our domestic cigar in
dustry, not by any means the Trust, is
killed in opforp,i,,o with catch phraco
what will become of our cigar leaf pro-
duction and the hundreds of thousands
of people who make living out of both?
Will the demagogues who traffic in that
phrase compensate them? Beware, there
fore, of the treacherous catch-phrase,
The tariff is the mother of trusts"
treacherous at least as far as it relates
to our cigar industry. For it would