Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-09-05
The National Weed.

perts has been figuring on the tobacco
proposition and gives us some interest
ing tables. The amount of money
| which go up in tobacco smoke in this
of the interest-bearing debt of the ma
ton. There is a lot of tobacco used
| for chewing purposes, but it is very
small compared with that which is
smoked. and smoking, as many men
have learned, is a very expensive habit.
But the government statisticians do not
mOralize on the dangers or evils OF
smoking, or attempt to show whether
men are better or worse off for the
habit. They do demonstrate, however,
that good cigar is something more
than smoke. 1t represents a manu-
featuring industry which in 1905 en-
ploycd s323, 9S3 sol of capital and ex-
pended $l26, OSs,6O for material. ST., 64O,-
500 for wages, $500, 434 for salaries and
$S0,1i5,016 for incidentais. The total
value of the product as shown in the
census returns for the year 1905 was
1891 7,6S1. This manufacturing indus
try gave employment to 159,4oS persons,
including S5,691 men, 66,3O1 women and
7,416 children under 16 years of age.
One of the interesting things left out
of the tables is the number of centena-
rians who tell the interviewers that
they have used tobacco for over 80
years and also the number who aScribc
their long lives to the fact that they
never touched tobacco in any form.
Historians tell us that tobacco was
survived when Popham failed. Any
way, Virginia was long preeminent i'll
the tobacco industry and as late as
1910 produced half of the total product
of the country. But this precmlnency
has not been maintained in recent
years. She has even fallen to fourth
place as a tobacco producer, the re-
turns for 1908 showing that Missouri
and North Carolina produced nearly
onc-half Of the chewing and smoking
tobacco and snuff raised in this coun-
try. The value of MisSouriS product
was nearly s30,00O.O0O, that of North
Carolina s2550O. GOO. Kentucky produced
tobacco valued at $13,000,0 900 and Fir-
ginia raised d crop valued at $40, OO0, 900.
Florida ranks fourth in the manu-
facturc Of cigars and cigarettes. the
value OF her product being S16,76f276
in 1905. New York that year reported
$50, 623,G17. or 2S.3 per cent. of the total
of the country.
Any discussion of the production or
of tobacco must neccssa-
riy take into consideration the influ-
ence of the tobacco trust. The report
IF the bureau of manufactures shows
that the state of New Jersey recorded
an increase in the manufacture of
1900, to SS,331, GIL in 1905. This increase
is attributed by Mr.. William NJ. Steu-
art. the chief statistician, to "thc eS-
adjustment of a number of large cigar |
factories, most of which were owned |
by one corporation" The amount of |
capital invested in this business also |
increased nearly 200 per cent. in the |
i've years.
Another interesting feature Of the re-
port is that it shows the United States |
lot only consumes most of their to- |
)acco products. but imports vast guam |
titles. The imports in 1905 of cigars,
cigarettes and cherootS amounted to |
a. OPS ,107. Our exports were practically |
confined to cigarettes, of which we sent |
abroad shipments to the value Of near
y $4,000. 900. Altogether too many, how
yer, were used here at home.
In the last So years the consumption
# cigars in this country has increased |
rcarly seven fold, whereas the popula-
ion during the same period has only a
title more than doubled.