The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1903-04-24
TIE
Wisconsin Tobacco Reporter,
Edgerton, Wisconsin.
NOTE BOOB SKETCHES,
Ejgerton

urged by Hon. A. Fl. Dahl of Vernon
county regarding the taxation of tobacco
were to become law it would result in
more injury to the tobacco industry than
could be repaired in years. His PROPOSE
ton in brief is to take the assessing au-
thority away from local communities,
placing them with the state tax commls-
sion to fix the valuation on leaf tobacco.
There could be only one result from
making sun radical departure in the
methods of assessing tobacco for taxa
ton purpos;es-and that is there would
be no tax at all derived from the tobacco
purchased by non-residents in this state.
Fully three-quarters of the crop of every
year is purchased by eastern dealers,
who only sort, pack and store it here,
pay local taxes on the same, purely as
matter Of convenience, as the tobacco
eventually goes to the eastern manufac-
turers for consumption. If taxes were
raised to an unreasonable figure the to-
bacco would surely be moved out as it is
received from the growers and the han
ding and storage would go to other
markets. Thus the tobacco handling
towns of Wisconsin would not only lose
the taxes now paid in by these dealers,
but also the wages paid for labor in han
ding the crop. The loss would also in
clude insurance commissions, storage
charges, etc, aggregating we'll towards
million dollars year. In his vain hope
of squeezing few dollars more of taxes
out of the tobacco industry, Mr.. Dahls
measure would lose thousands of dollars
now coming into the state. killing the
hen that lays the golden egg'' was told
about years ago. Mr.. Dahl may not
have heard about it.
***
In his argument before the assembly
committee in urging the passage of his
bill, Mr.. Dahl stc ted many things that
were not so regarding the valuation of
tobacco in the different local markets,
Incidentally bringing out the fact that
the valuation in his own county has been
placed so high as to drive all storage of
Mr.. Strause of the American Cigar Co.
plainly told the committee what would
happen in case taxation was made un-
reasonable, when he said his company
would do just what they have been do
ing in the Connecticut valley this season
shipping the leaf South to be handled
by cheap negro labor. Rather than pay
ian outrageous tax his company could af
ford to close all their warehouses in this
state. and have their goods handled else
where. When the assessor came around
on May 1st there would be no tobacco in
Wisconsin to be taxed. Legislation that
drives business out of the state is not
the best kind to enact.
*.*
The bill introduced at the request of
the Wisconsin Tobacco Growers and
Dealers association for an appropriation
of $4,000 for tobacco experiments and
for the improvement of seed has been re-
ported by the committee for passage, but
the amount asked for has been cut to
$1,000. There is some reason to believe
that the bill will become a law. The
money will go to the state experimental
station and will be expended under di-
rection of Prof. Henry.
~
An experienced leaf dealer of New
York says the cigar industry is steadily
growing and will continue to do so as
long as the manufacturers continue to
improve their product. After discerning
the nice discrimination employed by i'm
porters in the selection of goods he says:
And the domestic cigar leaf crops, too,
may each season count upon their own
share of popular attention. Each must
come up to we'll understood require
ments. If they don't, then there is a
scramble for representative tobaccos of
the older crops, and somewhere, some
how, the desired tobaccos are found
And thus it goes on year after year, with
unfailing regularity. Whether the sup
ply be large or small, the demand is al
ways met. The consuming public always
gets what it is willing to pay for. Popu-
lar taste in the matter of cigars appears
to be pretty much the same all over the
United States. The cigar which pleases
the Middle West may be counted upon
to please any other part of the country
1t is only in the matter of shape that
fashions differ. Everything else is stable
excepting that cigar manufacturers are
constantly improving their product. We
are making better cigars in the United
States today than we made five years
ago, or even three years ago. Those that
are to be made next year will be better
than we are making today superior in
aroma, in workmanship, in appearance.
And so it will go on indefinitely. We
are learning all the time, because we are
studying all the time. The growing, the
packing, the handling and the manipu-
lation into cigars of all the many types
of leaf which we use in our cigar indus
try, are constant subject of study by
many thousands of earnest, painstaking,
intelligent men. This has been the CON
dition in the United States for the past
fifty years and the result is that. despite
a heavy tariff on inDorted tohaccos we