The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1909-04-23
NOTE. BOOK SKETCHES
Observation-Disclosures,

of the 'O8 crop, which has steadily been
going on for the past few weeks, has
reduced the fraction remaining in coun-
try hands to very small percentage,
SO that the crop can be truly said to be
about as closely gathered in as the av-
erage season when it is supposed to be
practically taken over. There is always
few thousand cases back in growers
hands with perpetual holders, whatever
the price, but this can hardly be figured
on when it is said crop has been lifted.
-
Congressman Geist of Lancaster, Pa,
in discussing the tariff bill has the fol-
lowing to say regarding the tobacco
schedule and its relation to his constit-
uents:
So far as the testimony at the hear
ings shows, nothing has transpired to
warrant this contemplated change in
the policy of the United States gov
sion the official publication of the
hearings of the Ways and Means COM
mittee on Tobacco and Manufactures
of Tobacco, Schedule F of this bill.
Not a single witness advocated what
the committee has recommended. There
is not line nor a word in all of this
published report of testimony in advo-
cacy of the admission of any Philippine
tobacco free, or, for that matter, of
any other kind of tobacco. And yet, in
other paragraphs of this bill and other
schedules, both the Chairman of the
Ways and Means committee, and the
leader of the minority, in their debates
in this house, have maintained their re-
spective positions by quoting copiously
from the testimony submitted at the
hearings before the Ways and Means
committee But, in the tobacco sched-
ule, wherein the people of my county
are vitally interested because it grows
more tobacco and because it's agricul-
tural product is greater than the agri-
cultural product of any other single
county on the American continent, the
testimony taken, so far as the publish
ed record shows, has been totally ig-
nored; and an entering wedge for Ori-
entail competition, with cheap land and
poorly paid labor back of it, is driven
into an agricultural industry, which
during the last fiscal year passed
through this governments revenue Of
flee at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, more
than eight hundred and thirty-se
millions of cigars, almost one-e.ghth of
the product of this whole nation, and,
for the privilege of SO doing, paid into
Uncle Sam Golfers over two millions
of dollars. This provision of the bill, it
seems, not only threatens with injury
the farmer of the Pennsylvania tobacco
fields, but it may in time, with ever
recurring agitation, deprive this gov
ernment of a revenue that has been
sure and steadfast these many years.
Three or four years ago, when the
question of admitting tobacco free from
the Philippines was being discussed in
Congress, it was contended by those
who favored free entry of products of
the Philippines that the growth and
prosperity of the Philippines depended
on the establishment Of free trade re-
lations with the United States. Not
withstanding that contention, this gov
ernment adhered to what has hereto
fore been it's settled policy, under Re-
publican rule, of protection to the
American working man and the Ameri-
can farmer. What has been the result?
Have the Philippines refrigerated? Not
in the least. But am satisfied that it
was not the intention of that great
disciple of American protection that, in
maintaining this guarantee, in making
good, we should restrict one whit the
opportunity of our own people to peace
fully and prosperously pursue the voca-
tions to which they have been devoted
for generations. 1t was not his inten-
ton, nor is it the wish of the American
people, simply because Old Glory floats
over the Philippines, for their own
good, for their own advancement, for
self-government, that their property
and prosperity should be held inviolate
at the expense of the property and
prosperity of our own Industrious and
enlightened tillers of the soil.
The Payne tariff bill was passed by
the House on Friday last, and the
measure not only carries with it the
increased tax on cigarettes, which was
Incorporated with the bill with great
deliberation, and higher rate of 81
per thousand on little cigars. At the
eleventh hour the duty on unstemmed
filler tobaccos was changed from 35
cents pound to 70 cents pound;
stemmed filler tobaccos was changed
from SO cents a pound to $1.00. The
former anti-coupon clause was stricken
off entirely, and provisions were made
so as to allow farmers to sell their
cured tobaccos locally without paying
six cents pound tax. The Philippine
clause of the bill remains unchanged
and by it will be admitted practically
the entire present production of these
islands free of duty. Reciprocally, all
products of the United States are
granted free admission into the Philip
pines. This would mean that tobacco
from the United States can be sent to
the Philippines free of duty and there
used in combination with Philippine to-
bacco, manufactured into cigars and
brought into this country again without
the payment of one cent of import duty.
Some American-grown tobacco has al
ready been used in test in the Philip
pines, with view of determining its
utility, and that fact now becomes all
the more significant. The Payne tariff
bill as it stands now is upon the whole
"a r,onCf or9xTo1.c1a %haf hos,