The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1915-12-03
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES



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A small army of men has been sent
out by the National Salt and Chemical
Company, of Wheeling, w. Va, to buy
up tobacco stems, which will be the
principal fuel used by the company in
the manufacture of chemicals in the
furnace plant of the Benwood Brewing
Company, just leased by the National
Company. While the tobacco stems
are being used for fuel the smoke will
be run through condensers and the res
idue will form an important ingredient
used in the, manufacture of chemicals.
Among the products will be soft soap
and saltpeter. Coal tar will be secured
from the plant of the Semet-Solvay
Company at the Riverside plant of the
National Tube Company. This is the
first time that use has been found
for tobacco stems. Local tobacco
planters have always had them hauled
away and dumped on refuse piles.-
Tobacco World.
The Department of Commerce recent
ly issued statement as to the trade of
the country for the nine months ended
September, 1915, compared with SIM
liar period in 1914, and tending to show
that our export trade was booming.
The Republican Publicity Association,
through ex-senator Jonathan Bourne,
Jr., it's president, has made an assault
on the statement referred to and
claims it was unfair in that compari-
son was made of two years only,
whereas heretofore the comparison has
been of three years. The answer is,
according to Mr. Bourne, that the fig
ures would have told a different story
had those of 1913 been included. Re-
ferring to tobacco exports Mr.. Bourne
says: From this table it will be noted
that of SO classes of exports listed by
the Department of Commerce there
were decreases for the nine months
period of 1914 in all but eight x =
manufactured tobacco. The increase in
manufactured tobacco is due to the
large orders for cigarettes placed in
this country to supply the foreign COM
missariats.' 1t is unnecessary to say
that Mr.. Bourne figures it all out that
if it had not been for the war orders,
the Underwood tariff would long ere
this have put the country on the blink.
Secretary Joseph Mendelsohn, of the
National Cigar Leaf Tobacco Associa-
tion, sounds clarion call this week,
urging every branch Of the tobacco in
dustry to fall in line in the fight against
higher taxation. ''There are nearly
one million people dependent for their
bread and butter on the tobacco indus
try" he declared, land their interests
will be injuriously affected by the i'm
position of higher taxes. - Mr.. Men
delsohn has recently sent out a circular
to several hundred members of the
trade, calling attention to the danger
of a possible increased tax upon the to-
bacco industry. He has received en-
couraging letters from prominent firms
in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Chicago
and Detroit, and is looking forward to
further encouragement from other sec
tions where the cigar industry is prom
inent. He is calling the attention of
the trade to the necessity for concerted
action. Not only are the cigar man
ufacturers interested in this matter, !"
declared Mr. Mendelsohn to Tobacco
Leaf representative, "but the interests
of the tobacco growers and cigarmak-
ers are vitally involved in fighting off a
proposition that would certainly tend
to further reduction in the output of
cigars. This would seriously affect not
only the small cigar manufacturers,
but also the hundreds of thousands of
small cigar dealers who cannot stand
an increase in the cost of the merchan-
disc they are selling. 1t would be
great pity if the trade at large remains
inactive through the assumption that
the initiative has been taken by the
National Cigar Leaf Association and
few others, and that nothing else is
necessary A representation that is
numerically strong is always more eff
fectual than a handful, no matter how
we'll informed or how we'll intentioned
it maybe or how intensely it may work
t.Is the trade at large aware of the
fact that nearly million people are in
terested in this question? We have
more than 400, 900 retail cigar stores;
there are more than 10000 cigar and
cigarette factories who employ over
200, 600 people, Add to this the manu-
facturers of smoking tobacco and the
people dependent upon them, and the
people who grow tobacco and who are
upon the tobacco farms, and
the boxmakers and label manufacture
ers-all of whom are directly and vital
ly interested. While, as | said before,
the response we have met is crafty
ing, it seems to me that, in view of the
enormous number of people interested,
it should have been larger. IN. Y.