The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1912-02-23

NOTE BOOK SKETCHES


The most reasonable solution in ac-
counting for the extraordinary heavy
yield the present crop is turning is the
excess moisture in the tobacco, either
as wet stems or high case leaf. AS the
season advances it is evident most of
the tobacco was taken down in too high
case and packers are already figuring
upon the amount of shrinkage between
the receiving and selling weights. And
it is not alone the excess moisture that
he has paid for that is worrying the
packer most, but what effect it will
have upon the tobacco in the curing
process whether it will come through
the sweat in a sound condition or not is
the puzzling question. AS one of these
remarked to the writer recently: eff
the farmer would bring the extra water
in his crop to us in pals we would
gladly pay him for it at contract price,
but in it's absorbed condition the prob
lem is to know how to dispose of it. "
Wet tobacco is the hardest proposition
the packers have to contend with, and
there seems to be plenty of it in almost
every crop as it now comes to the
warehouses. The farmer who is dis
posed to be reasonable has but little
trouble in agreeing upon deductions in
the settlements for such crops.
Because packers and manufacturers
can neither be coaxed nor inveigled in
to paying the same high price for the
1911 Pennsylvania tobacco crop as they
did for the 1910, the organization of
Pennsylvania tobacco farmers are
threatening and taking steps to create
a tobacco pooling trust for the purpose
and to the end of forcing up the price
of the 1911 crop arbitrarily and illegal
ly. In other words, the Pennsylvania
tobacco growers seem resolved to imi-l
tate the monstrously evil example set
by the Burley Tobacco Trust. The
success of that illegal combination in
monopolizing commodity and holding
out for monopolistic squeeze is evil
IDENTIFY serving as motive for our CT.
gar leaf tobacco growers to attempt
playing the same game. And since a
jury in federal court has acquitted
the Burley Trust in a damage suit
against it ia spite of the instructions of
the presiding justice that tobacco
pool was an illegal combination under
the Sherman anti trust law, the fear of
the consequences of violating the anti
trust law on the part Of the tobacco
growers seems to have lost also the
last resistance. A most singular spec
tacle is indeed presented to the country
In this respect. The general consumer
is crying out against the high prices of
every commodity and the president is
sending message to congress urging
even an international investigation of
the cause of high prices And here we
have members of congress unscrupu-
l0usly charging merchants and manu-
facturers with holding tobacco farmers
by the throat to depress prices while as
"a matter of indisputable fact, prices
for cigar leaf and for all kinds of to-
bacco were never as high as they are
at present and the tobacco crops never
yielded the farmer larger and more
profitable return than they have done
all along for the past five or six years.
In fact, prices for cigar leaf have
reached almost their limit A step
further and our cigar industry may be-
come demoralized It's growth would
certainly become more stunted. And
all that's missing to make it maonop-
olistic industry would be the pooling of
cigar leaf crops.-U. S. Tobacco Jour
nal.
The tariff question seems to bother
the tobacco trade as we'll as most every
other business and congress will find it
hard to reconcile all the divergent
views of the different branches. We
note that the directors of the New
England Tobacco Growers association
in session at Hartford February 9th,
passed resolution to the effect that
the board is unutterably opposed to
any tariff reduction whatever on inn
ported wrapper tobacco and that the
assistance of the Connecticut congress
men was asked for the maintenance of
the present rate. At the meeting the
constitution and bylaws of 1905 were
changed On the other hand the u S.
Tobacco Journal urges the Havana i'm
porting interests to get together for
there is an opportunity now to secure
lower duties when a new Cuban reci-
procity treaty is about to be >negotiat-
ed. What a hard matter to satify all