The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1904-05-20

warm days to send along an amazing
growth of the plants. The delays of a
late spring interfering with other farm
work is what the tobacco farmers have
most to fear at the present writing.
TX
The marked advance in the price of
manufactured tobacco recently announc-
ed by reason Of higher prices being paid
for Burley leaf has in no way effected
the cigar end of the industry, indicating
that the different types of leaf occupy
distinctly different positions in the mar
kets of the country. While quotations
Oh plug and smoking tobaccos are being
jumped up as the raw leaf advances,
cigars continue to be demoralized by re-
tail prce-cutters, gift enterprises, trad
ing stamps and other devices that event
ually eat into the profits ct the manu-
facturers. Such an anamolous condition
is peculiar to the tobacco industry alone.
The y. S. Tobacco Journal calls atten-
ton to another singular fact that the
price of cigar leaf has advanced nearly
100 per cent over the price of the same
types in 1894 and that the visible supply
of leaf upon the market is both defective
in quality and quantity. In domestic
wrapper leaf only a limited supply of
Connecticut broad leaf and Florida will
be available and while enough Sumatra
will be in stock to make up any defcien-
c.- ia the domestic supply, the new i'm
portations of Sumatra command de-
cidedly higher figure than those of last
year. In binder supply things are still
worse. The severe winter prevented the
proper curing of Wisconsin and state
seed and not one-third of the regular
supply will be available this year from
these crops, not taking into considera-
tion the inferiority of what ought to be
suitable in them. Neither is the -dones-
tic filler production up to the normal
standard, particularly not in fancy types.
Nor is there surplus of the old crops
on hand to make up for these glaring
Deficiencies. And yet IN spite of these
incontrovertible facts. which If they
were to occur in any other raw material,
would send up the price of the manu-
featured article sky high, 1.-the price of
cigars remains immutable except on the
down grade scale. How can this strange
condition be logically explained? Is it
because of the large margin of profit in
the manufacture of cigars which permits
substantial rise in the price of raw
material without an adequate rise in the
price of the manufactured article, or is
it because of the lack of backbone in the
packer in failing to insist on getting the
proportionate advance he has to pay to
the grower? But whatever the cause
the cigar leaf trade can learn lesson
from the manufacturers of tobacco who
are plucky enough to adapt their busi-
ness to any changed condition of the
raw material market, that is, they re-
duce the price of their manufacture,
whenever the raw material is abundant
and cheay enough, and advance it's price
when the contrary condition prevails in
the market. And that is truly business
like policy
A dispatch from Syracuse, n. Y,
brings information of interest to local
packers because a Wisconsin firm is
given possession of goods replevined
from a bankrupt debtor:
"The replevin action brought by Levi
B. Carle & Son, of GAINESVILLE, Wis,
against George Freeman and B. Danow
& Son, the latter being bankrupt cigar
dealers, was tried in municipal court be-
fore jury, for a second time, and re-
suited in verdict in favor of the plain
tiffs, the jury finding that they were
entitled 10 the possession of nine cases
of tobacco, valued at S36S.12. The first
trial resulted in verdict for the plain
tiffs, but the verdict was set aside by
Judge w. G. Cady, who, in his decision,
wrote that while B. Danow & Son had
fraudulently secured the tobacco, it was
not shown that Mr.. Freeman was party
to the fraud. The plaintiffs claimed
that Mr.. Danow got the tobacco just be-
fore going into bankruptcy, and did not
intend to pay for it. When Benjamin
Danow was on the stand, Attorney E. f.
Brown for the plaintiffs asked him if he
had intended to pay for it, and he de-
clined to answer on the ground that the
answer would tend to incriminate him.
Mr.. Freeman claimed that he had taken
a chattel mortgage on seventyfour cases
of tobacco which were in his warehouse,
while the note given by Danow It Son as
security for a loan of $1,000 covered but
sixty cases, showing difference of four
teen cases. The plaintiffs claimed that
ten of the fourteen cases were those sent
here by Carle & Son, and were not in
cluded among those given as security for
the loan.''