The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-09-19
Tree ''Smoke" A
 Thing Of The Past Government Puts Ban on Cigar
 makers Practice :. Ruling Will Effect Saving of { $325 in Bridgeport 15O Employees in Local Manu-
 factories Affected

No more will the cigarmaker get his free smokes daily. No more to drayrnen will be given unstamped cigars at the cigar manufactures. All this has been decided by recent rul- ing on the part of Royal. F. Caneii, internal revenue commissioner, who has decreed that hereafter the prac- fice shall stop, and that. moreover, fhe manufacturers shall reimburse ina government for the amount of drffv or tax that would have been paid on the cigars thus consumed dur Ming the past two years, if the cigars so used had been used n the l Gular channe1s.
 From time immemorial it has been fhe unwritten law in all shops where cigars or cigarettes are made that each ernploye should take what free cigars or sssmokes" he needed througn the day from the aggregate amount or cigars made and not from boxes that had been stamped An average num- Der of sfn cigars have been thus talk efl4 byX each employee and the prac- tice has been decidedly expensive to the manufacturers and a source or considerable loss to the federal gov ernment When 1t is taken into con- sideration that there are. upwards of 5000 male cigarmakers in the coun-
  etc, and allowing six cigars day to each man, it is seen that a total of 115. 5.O20. 900 cigars a year are thus uS- ed The government receives a tax of s3 on each 1000 cigars manufac- tured and figuring on the above basis it has been losing about S345,060 a year. Besides the cigars smoked by others are given away and it is safe to say that the government has been losing practically $500.O00 a year.
 In Bridgeport the change will also be striking About 50 cigarmakers are employed here, and allowing six cigars a day to each, 30,090,000 a year are used figuring on 300 working days a wear Many of the men, however, have formed the habit of taking a pecketfull Saturday nights to last them over Sunday, and it is safe to say that the habit costs the local man. ufacturers about 400 a year, and the government $325 year in taxes. The hard part of the new law is that re- quiring the manufacturers to account 10 the government for all cigars or cigarettes removed as smokes with in the past two years. This will be nearly impossible for some of them to compute, owing to the rapidly changing forces. and will further call for an outlay of cash for back taxes that VIII amount 10 conSldeTdDle item
 The ruling does not prohibit the manufacturer giving his employees free cigars, but makes it mandatory upon him that these cigars shall come from boxes on which the tax has been paid. Bridgeport manufae- furers, when seen yesterday. said that the law would effect a saving to the government, but little to the manu- lecturers. as they would probably have to agree with the workmen upon a. scheme of distribution whereby the wcrkmen will be permitted to take his ..smokes" upon the payment of the actual cost. for the stamp and box and labor in packing. The Workmen VIII be allowed to use their labor to make the cigars. and the manufac- Turers will probably furnish the to- hacco for them. thus making the item about as expensive as at present to the manufacturers.