The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1912-01-12
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES


In warehouse work the packers of
tobacco find themselves squarely up
against the new law relating to the
employment of women, making it a
finable offense for female employees to
work more than 55 hours weekly. AS
mixed help is mostly employed in the
warehouses, what to do with the day
help and men after the women have
performed their nine and half hours
daily is what is now puzzling the en-
ployers. After the women leave their
benches the packers, weighers and
graders have little to do. The men are
willing to work the regulation ten
hours daily, but the law steps in and
says the female contingent cannot labor
more than 55 hours week. Packers
have commenced to figure out what the
loss of time on the day help amounts to
If paid for full ten hours daily and it
reaches considerable sum for the
handling season. If they were to put
the men on the same schedule of hours
as the women there is likely to be dis
satisfaction and there is little left to
do but pocket the loss and damn the
law that interferes with people, male
or female, who want to work and need
the wages for the support of them
selves and families. None feels the
embarrassment of such paternalistic
regulations as do the people who need
the employment and are willing and
able to work regulation days labor.
Asserting tobacco is paid by the pound
generally but the amount an employe
is able to earn depends upon the num-
Der of hours devoted to labor and the
new legal schedule forces upon women
workers less compensation than they
have heretofore earned and may also
work a reduction in the earnings of the
men day laborers as we'll.
-
AS 1911 proved far better year for
the trade than was generally expected,
so 1912 promises to be an improvement
on the volume of business at least of
ysla past year. True. the present will
be a year of presidential election which
is commonly regarded as Synonymous
with year of business disturbance.
But looking ahead and taking into con-
sideration the issues to be waged for,
the result is hardly going To ,nI;:-,,c~ about
the tremendous changes in the economic
conditions of the country which parti-
sanship will do it's level best to frighter
the electorate with. The election will
undoubtedly be fought over and con-
tested on the trust and tariff issues and
the radicals in both parties will raise
their loudest hue and cry to mislead the
voter into believing in the near ap-
proach of the millennium by voting for
their particular nostrums. AS in both
parties the radical element is maneuv-
ering for gaining the advantage ground
of supremacy, the people will be served
by both with about the same political
menu. But no matter how fierce may
become the denunciation of all corpora
tions and the denunciations of court de-
cisions which do not throw every cor
poration into instant bankruptcy and
every director and officer of such cor
porations into Jail, the sober sense of
the American people, which is not an
archistih, will reassert itself in the re-
sponsibility which the choice of the
people will have to assume in power.
The way of dealing with big illegal
corporations in the light of reason has
been established the past year by ire
vocable court decisions: And the An
glo-Saxon genius of tackling the most
difficult problems deliberately and to
the least injury of the commonwealth
at large is also constantly at work to
discover and apply the proper checks
and remedies for making the big cor
porations subservient to and not de-
structive of the public veal. What
might trouble it more is whether there
will be an abundance of qualified ma
terial to trade in and if SO whether the
trading is likely to prove profitable. SO
much seems to be certain, however,
that prices of all leaf commodities are
likely to rise rather than to fall. For
not only is steady advance IN prices
of raw material the trend of the times,
but it is largely brought about also by
the steady expansion of our industries.
Although our cigar industry is not
keeping step in its advancement with
the other branches of the trade, it is
reasonably sure to suppose that it will
not fall behind this year in extent of
the increase it gained the last year.
And if so, a larger volume of leaf will
have to be consumed and larger con-
sumption means more business. u. 5.
Tobacco Journal.
***
The western district of Wisconsin
nrOducnd . Q2A 510 CIGARS in NOVpm her