BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1904-12-23
EDITORIAL

IQaC LnSIC Is d HlOvCLllChl O1 wv
among the tobacco planters and ma
nufacturers of Porto Rico to petition
the Legislature at its coming session
in January to do all in its power to
protect this great industry from GER
tain inroads which threaten its very
existence Just at time when 1t is
about to reach the height of its pros
perity.
Our readers, and in fact everybody,
knows what stubborn fight it has
been to secure for Porto Rican tobac-
co the recognition to which it was
most eminently entitled by the con-
sumers of the product IN the united
States. We all realize what bitter
fight it was to get our goods on the
marked either in the form of cigars or
as leaf tobacco, and now that they are
there we do not propose to stand quiet
ly by and see them again belittled and
driven from the cigar stands through
out the States simply because ceerta1n
people have found means OF 1mpos-
ing upon the public an article which
is spurious with the representation
that it is the genuine Porto Rlcan
goods.
Our tobacco is nearly as good as the
Cuban product and it is infinitely bet
ter than the leaf produced in Virginia
or any other state in the Union, and
such it has como to be recognized by
the conuoiSseurs of the very highest
rank, and as gone steadily ahead to
the front rank from the time when
the cheap manufacturers we're driven
out of our market and those men who
had come to stay had settled down to
manufacturing the best of Porto Rlcan
cigars from the highest grade of ma
terial obtainable.
Not only is it recognized in the
markets of the United States as a
high grade, first, class article, but, it is
also welcomed as being comparatively
cheap. There is no doubt that the
future has in store for our tobacco
much better things than we have
realized up to the present time, and
the demand will eventually become
so great that it will be difficult to
produce in quantities sufficient to keep
up with the same.
lust at this time comes the inform
alton that there is an intention IN
certain circles to take advantage of
the popularity of our tobacco in the
market of the United States and reap
harvest by stablishing among us
factory, capitalized by gentlemen from
the North, which will produce hund
reds of thousands of cigars weekly
destined for the markets of the United
Sta teS.
While this weuld appear to be one
of the best indications of the prospe
rous condition of the tabacco grower
and manufacturer and would also
seem to imply that We should all join
in extending the hand of welcome to
this new industry. looking upon il as
a source of so much more benefit to
our tobacco operators, yet we cannot
say that such is actually the case,
since it seems that there is an under
curret of rumor to the effect that 1t is
the intention of those engineering the
establishment of the factory in queS-
tion to bring from the United States
tobacco grown in Virginia, Kentucky,
Louisiana, and other tobacco growing
states, in order to mix it with the
Porto Rican product and manufacture
cigars which are to be afterward ship
ped to the State as genuine Porto
Rican cigars, manufactured exclusi-
vely from native grown tobacco.
If this is true there could be no
more alarming information impaired
to the purchasing public or to the
honest manufacturer who has already
established a firm market for his
wares, since the introduction of cigar,
made from tobacco grown In the
States, under the name of the Porto
Rican article will most certainly deal
a most vital blow to our most promls-
ing industry at the present time.
Our tobacco growers and manufac-
turers should immediately organize
and consider the ways and means best
suited to defeating the intentions Of
anybody who would consider debasing
our tobacco and thus depriving hun
dreds, of operators of subsistence,
since it will be only short time until
our cigars are once more looked upon
as they were two or three years since
when the cheap manufacturers were
shipping inferior goods, made from
the very lowest and cheapest grades of