The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1913-03-21
CIGAR MAKERS
ARE LAID OFF
GENERAL BUSINESS CONDI-
TIONS GOOD BUT CIGAR IN
DUSTRY ON THE BUM-
SOMETHING is DECIDEDLY
WRONG ABOUT 1T.

industry in Everett? The mills are
all running. There are as many peo
pie here as ever. Merchants report
that business in most lines is good
There are as many cigars smoked by
Everett people as ever, but the local
industry is in rotten shape. What's
wrong?
Cigarmakers earn on an average 500
a week. Every cent they earn goes
into the pockets of Everett business
men. They trade at home and they
don't hoard their money. AS a rule
they spend it freely; keep it in circu-
lation. Thirty cigarmakers working
in Everett would put into circulation
right here at home a total of 5000 a
week. Mr.. Home Industry Booster,
isn't that right in your line?
Some interesting facts and figures
have been gathered from two of Ev-
erett's leading cigar manufacturers.
They all lead to the conclusion that
Il.
Mr., Haferkorn has been compelled
to close down his factory entirely for
a period of two weeks-a thing which
has not happened before with him in
four years. Billy says that in his
eighteen years in business in this
county, things have not been so dull
in the cigar line. He should have
twelve or fourteen men working.
When he closed down he had only six.
Mr.. Sartor had seven men working
when the town was dry; he only has
seven men working now and they
were recently laid off for two weeks.
These seven men, it must be under
stood, are the skilled men, the union
members.
Both proprietors and employees are
aggrieved at the lack of patronage on
the part of Everett smokers of the
home made product-and justly so.
The man who makes his living out Of
Everett and sends his money a thou
sand miles away for an article no bet
ter, if as good, as the one made at
home, hasn't much license to pose as
an Everett booster. Seven cigarmak-
ers working in the city as against
thirty who should be employed $40
spent each week in Everett by the
cigarmakers instead of 5000. Don't
figures speak eloquently of something
wrong?
We believe the saloon men of Ev-
erett could help to change that condi-
tion and that they ought to- The cigar
manufacturers and the cigar makers
worked their heads off during the To-
cal option campaign last fall to swing
Everett from the dry" to the wet
column. They spent time and money.
believing that an orderly license sys-
TEN was preferable from the stand
point of both business and morals
Billy Haferkorn is authority for the
statement that from the 1st to the
18th of March he sold but 500 cigars
to all the saloons in town. He states
that the saloons average five or six
thousand cigars each in stock and
that not over six hundred are home
made. Mr. Sartor states that during
the month of February he sold less
than six thousand cigars to all saloons
One cigar maker alone could make all
the cigars Of his factory sold in Ev-
erett liquor houses during that month.
Business in the factory, he claims, is
not as good as before the saloons
opened and yet there are unquestion-
ably as many cigars of some brand or
other consumed. What is the answer?
We believe the saloon men do not
realize the actual conditions and that
when they do they will stand by the