The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1904-01-01
New York.
NEW YORK. Dec. 26, 1908.

The year nineteen hundred and three.
| just about to close, will be Incorporated
| in the history of the trade as one of
! many and peculiar vicissitudes. At it's
| beginning the dread of the trust held
| the trade still captive The leaf market
was still in condition of frenzy lest it
| would be wiped off the earth by the COM
petition of the trust in it's purchases of
raw material and as if doomed to execu-
| tion it tremblingly awaited the moment,
when the entire cigar industry would be
swallowed up by the leviathan trust.
And no less despairing mood had seized
upon the retail trade. Almost every re-
and expire. The fancied terror made
towards and the towards nervousness
spread gloom sufficient to foreshadow
the end of the world. >
Our cigar industry in 1908 was less be-
set by the phantom which Mortified the
retail trade. 1t had to it's account a
phenomenal production in 1902, and the
prospects for the new year looked just
as favorable. Consequently it was too
busy to borrow trouble and devote time
and talk to topic that had become
somewhat threadbare. The dreaded
trust had spent it's force in it's attempted
conquest of the cigar field and after the
result was ascertained and had been
carefully and calmly weighed and an
alyzed it was found that its conquest
amounted to about one-seventh Of the
entire production and that there re-
NAMED for the Independents a wider
field to cover than ever before. Having
reassured themselves of the vaguenees of
it's danger and its unlikelihood of further
expansion, the Independents set to work
with will and vim to adapt their bust
ness to the changed conditions and more
modern methods and saw themselves re-
warded with complete success. For
though the output for 1903 may not
reach the vast figure of increase it did in
the previous year, it will nevertheless
outrank the total output by some few
hundred millions. The probable short
age in the increase will be found to be
chiefly in the cheaper grades, due no
doubt to the many strikes which caused
hundred thousands of workmen to econ
omize. AS for the better grades and par
ticularly the output of our clear Havana
cigar industry, the year 1908 has been
the most productive on record. And any
industry that extends the volume of its
business in any considerable proportion
must be considered in a prosperous con-
dition even it there is a shrinkage of
profit connected with it.
The Connecticut broad leaf was car
ried off the market before it had even
time to be thoroughly sampled, and the
musty Havana seed went into consump-
tion quicker than to give the nostrils
chance of being affected. And hardly
had the early rush for the New England |
crops passed before another was on for
the binder and filler crops. Not in years |
we're such voluminous transactions done |
in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin leaf as
during the early and later fall. 1t is
therefore no exaggeration to state that
in 1903 larger volume of cigar leaf was
traded in than in any other year in the
history of the trade. That profits were
not proportionate to the increase of bus
lness is very Aely; but it seems to be
one of the laws of commerce that the
arger trade cuts down the percentage of
profits. In foreign leaf trading grew
likewise proportionately.-Journal.