Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-04-09
RISE OF PREMIUMS.
What We Pay For When We
Buy Tobacco.
Trade Now Devoted to Originating
Novelties in Way Of Prizes
Independent Companies Are Meeting
the Trust with Its Own Weapons.

No little historical interest attaches to
the bill to amend section 1881 OF the Re
Vised Statutes relating TO tobacco. winch
Representative Tawney tRep.y OF Mime
sofa has been struggling nearly five
months to- get out of the Ways ana Means
Committee and into the House In the
last Congress the same hiii was r.poTted
almost unanimously from the committee.
and in the House carried all but seventeen
votes for its passage. Between then ana
now some subtle agency appears To nave
been at work to prevent its even SettinS
beyond the committee threshold, and to-
day the committee took adverse acton on
the measure which proposes to amend the
section named so as to read as follows:
None OF the packages Of manufactured
smoking or chewing tobacco, Snun. cigars
or cigarettes prescribed by law ShaII be
permitted to have packed in. or attached
to. or connected with them, OF their con
tents. any article or thing whatsoever
other than the manufacturers wrapper
and labels, the internal revenue stamp
and the tobacco. snuff, cigars or cigar
cites, respectively, put up therein on
which tax is required TO be paid under
internal-revenne laws; nor shall there be
affixed to or branded, stamped fnIfked,
written sor printed upon said packages or
their contents any promise or offer or any
promise, any order or certificate, Tor
any gift prize. premium, payment, or re-
ward.
And it shall be unlawful for any manu-
facturer Of tobacco SNUFF. cigars or cigar
cites Or wholesale. or retail dealer m
cigarettes or for any other person. firm
or corporation to give or offer to give di-
reilly or indI ectly. any gilt Or premium
for the return Of amy tag. label or ccu-
punS. or any article or thing attached to
or connected with any statutory package
Of tobacco, snun. cigars or cigarettes
bearing or having attached, thereto any
internal-rcvchue stamp. Any violation OF
he provisions Of this paragraph shall sub
Jet the offender to the penalties ana
,unishments provided by section thirty
four hundred and fifty-SiX OF the Revised
Statutes of the United States: Provided.
That nothing in this act contained shall
he so construed as TO exclude frCm any
package referred to in the preceding para
graph a label of labor employed in the
manufacture of the contents of such
package.
The bill is aimed suuarely at the 'Tobac-
90 Trust. which is the chief offender III
the matter q issuing premiums in re
d-mftion OF coupons contained in the
packages of its goods: and i'll the last
Congress the independent manufacturers
seemed practically unit in favor OF such
legislation. This session the atmosphere
has cooled 50 markedly that suspicion
has got abroad that many of the indie
pendentS are going into some similar de-
vice for stimulating trade and preparing
to compete with the Trust with weapons
better matched than of old.
some years ago press, pulpit and educa-
tors united in Il demand for the suppress
sion of an insidious device for undermine
ing the morals of half-grown boys. in
what was known as the cigarette pic
ture." Enclosed in each package of GER
tain brands of cigarettes was little
picture card. which was supposed to add
To the ordinary attractions OF the tobac-
consists wares. A man who smoked cigar
cites. if Indifferent in taste. would buy
whatever brand contained the prettiest
class OF pictures. of which he would make
presents to the children or his neGhbor's
children; ami the juvenile mania tor col
lecting was temporarily diverted from
stamps and monographs and postmarks to
..isJ lE,Itta h.T
manufacturers. and the development OF
the premium idea gradually increased the
came necessary to discover some new
lines OF differentiation. This led to the
conceit Of issuing pictures in sets or
series. such as twenty-five flags OF vari-
Gus nations; the complete list of military
uniforms worn in our army from COM
nanding general TO stretcher bearer: the
coats-of-armS of all the forty odd States
and Territories. etc. The boy or girl who
collected Iull set of these groups and
returned them to the manufacturers
would receive in exchange a book of col |
ored prints. To compete with this class |
of premiums. lival manufacturers offered |
photographs of stage beauiies-at first OF
actual stars. and later of the half-clad |
dolls of the l,allet and the living picture"
Specialties. 1t was an easy step from the !
flag coupon to the coupon which enabled |
rhr holder 10 participate in disguised |
lottery: and from nude art under stocki- |
net veil to miscellaneous pictures Tisquc !
or even unnlushingly indecent. Mean |
while moreover. the patronage of the CT |
Sarettes had passed in large measure |
from the benevolent adult who gave the |
pictures away. to the immature lad who |
bought the cigarettes himself for the sake |
Of the pictures. and. while learning TO |
smoke. imhibed Il taste for the lottery or 1
Suliied his mind by contact with the sala- |
cious prints
IL was at this point that the moral |
agencies of the country awOke and de-
manded the protection of the Young from
such forms of temptation under Govern
nent auspices. Congress put into the
Dinsey tariff act a paragraph providing
that:
None of the packages of smoking tobac-