The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1909-04-16
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES
HOW HIGH PRICED LEAF EFFECTS FOR

nal writing from Belgium tells how the
mistake of forcing combination prices
on southern leaf has effected the for
eign trade. It seems possible for the
Equity society to make the trust come
to their terms of schedule prices, but
the foreign trade doesn't have to sub
NIT as the following will show:
Most of the Continental manufacture
ers have resorted to some cheaper kinds
of homegrown or foreign tobaccos, and
now, although prices in the States are
getting reasonable, they continue to
work with those grades that they were
compelled to use when prices in the
States went too high.
In tobacco matters your farmers and
American people generally seem always
to lose sight of the fact that the situa
ton in the States is quite different from
what it is here in Europe, for, whereas
| in the States import duties are almost
prohibitive, so that you have to rely
only on the home product, the du
ties in the Continental countries Sex
cept, of course, the Regies-are so
! made that the raw material can be
drawn from amy country at fixed and
| invariable duty.
This facility of importing goods from
any point in the world gives steadi-
| ness in the value of the goods that is
| unknown with you. Whenever prices
get too high in ,one quarter there is
always some other country to be found
| where tobacco is cheaper, and our man
ufacturers are always ready to seek out
| the cheap tobaccos.
I'm this way the Continental manufac-
] turers always manage to make an artl-
Gle that can be retailed at the same
price, and peculiar as it may seem to
] the American people, the workman s
| ltobaeco, notwithstanding the high
alprices of American leaf, has all along
Y been sold at the same price in Europe.
One >of the effects mot to say the
| main effect the high prices in the
States has been the opening of new
| fields to the competition, and now that
1.-THE new tobaccos are here the question
will be to drive them out again.
I do not think that make the slight
est mistake when I say that all the
|, l,Continental manufacturers prefer the
American, tobaccos TO any other, and ii
lit were not question of price they
would seek no other source of supply,
Ijbut price is the all important factor,
and this is what your people have lost
sight of.
A striking instance of what | have
here referred to is Burley tobacco,
which formerly was largely used and
twas favorite tobacco all over Europe.
This type has now become almost un-
known, but as soon as prices become
reasonable again Burley tobacco will
again find it's way to Europe.
/ am not advocating starvation prices
such as we have seen sometimes, and
do hope that this may be forever a
thing of the past. There is no advan-
tage to anybody when tobaccOs sell be-
low cost of production, and | feel sure
that it lies in the power of the farmers
to prevent it. Low prices have always
been brought about by low quality;
either by bringing to market tObaccos
| that were barely good enough for man
ure, such as poor primings, low, sandy,
| fea-bitten and perished lugs; or else by
badly managed tobacco that gets funk
ed and damaged in the hogshead and
has to be sold at almost any price. |
have never known the time when good
tobaccos would not sell for decent
price, and if your farmers will have the
good sense to bring nothing but good
tobaccos to the market they may be
sure thht they will meet with ready
buyers and respectable prices.
j. A. Everitt, the founder of the So
ciety of Equity, is able to see some
things in their true light. He is also
able, he thinks, to discern some things
which in the uplift movement cannot be
accomplished by the farmers. Here is
what he says:
One OF the greatest mistakes farm
organization has made is the attempt
to do better eveyybody's business but
their own. And farmers themselves
have not been so much to blame. Ideas
seldom burst out into blaze of truth
all at once. The smoke of custom must
be cleared away before the real light
can be seen. When the eyes of farm
ers began to open, and they began
to see things as they had not seen them
before, they discovered wrongs that
they believed ought to be removed.
They knew they paid just about all the
money their crops brought them for
the things they must have but that
IIGy uiu HOC JTOuuc0-CH CHInSS In0y must
bury. And when all was bought and 1
their money gone, they still needed
other things. Nothing could be more
natural than that they should conclude
the merchants were charging too high
for their goods. AS organization gave
them strength they as naturally con-
eluded they could correct that evil by
doing their own merchandising. So
called farmers cooperative stores were |
established. The intricacies of trade |
were never considered, the lack of ex-
perience and skill was not taken into |
account, the fact that they were invad- /
ing some one else's field, and that they |
would naturally provoke the united op- |
position OF all that labored in that field |
was not regarded.
The annual report in regard to therI
French tobacco monopoly, covering the
year 1907, has been published. It shows
that the total receipts for the year are
$91, 103, 713, an increase on the preced-