Evening star., 1917-09-23

stCoPyright. l9l1, by Frank g. terpenter-l
WINSTON-SALEM. y. e.
00 7INsTON-SALEM is one of the
Ah\X chief centers of the tobacco
sHNY manufacture of the United
~ States. II makes cigarettes
hy the millions a day and ships out
trainload Of chewing and smoking
tobacco every twenty-four hours. It
makes more plug tobacco than any
other town In the country, and it pays
tnbaceo taxes to the amount of almost
1s.g0e.eo0 per annum. Just now the fac
tories are running at their full to sup
ply the extraordinary demands on ac-
count of the war, and the same is true
Qf every tobacco center in the United
States.
fBut few people realize the extent of
our tobacco industry. 1t brings in to
t3e farmers more actual cash than we
Ret from our gold mines The crop
Yields them something like 500. 100000
[year. and the taxes upon il drop into
the United States Treasury more than
$4,000 an hour. day and night. year in
and year out. The industry employs
&bout 900 hands 1t pays out in wages
a million dollars a day. and the value
Of the product. including the manu-
factures thereof is more than $500, o,0oe.-
6bo per year.
::
Our total production of tobacco :ta-
nually amounts to more than 1.000.-
100000 pounds. We make enough to
give ten pounds to every man. woman
and child in the United States We
produce about two-thirds of all the
tobacco used by mankind. Our chief
competitors are found in the countries
Of Europe. Russia grows one-fourth or
one-nfth as much as we do, and the
product of Austria-Hungary and Ger
pany in normal times is in the neigh
borhood of 100000 pounds, which is far
less than the amount they consume. 1t
seems strange to speak OF tobacco as
an element of warfare. but it appears
to be necessary to the men in the
trenches. and those who have contract
ed the habit of using it lose their nerve
when it is not supplied Our exports
have greatly increased since the war in
Europe began. and this increase will be
still greater now that we are sending
our own troops to the front
As 1t is now, our exports Of tobacco
ere more than four hundred thousand
pounds every year. and this includes
cigars and cigarettes valued at millions
Of dollars We are. now making eight
billion cigars every twelve months,
and our cigarette output is three times
rs many. The cigars which the United
States makes in one year, if laid out
end to end. would reach several times
around the world on the Line of the
equator. and the cigarettes are so many
that il they were joined they would
make a line of small smokes four times
as long as the distance between the
earth and the moon. Our consumption
Of cigars is so great that we burn up
more than twenty-one million day
We smoke nine hundred thousand eli
gars every hour. more than fifteen
thousand a minute. and over two hun
dred and fifty a second. As to c.gaY-
cites. the United States is nov using
something like sixty million dav. This
means about two and half million per
hour. more than forty thousand a min
ute. and about seven hundred every
time the watch ticks from January to
December. year In and year out
Ine internal revenue receipts from
tobacco would build a fleet of thirty
i've ocean greyhounds each as big as
the Lusitania to carry our food supply
to the allies, or it would build and
equip ten big battIeships to Id us in
DESTROYING the fleet Of the Germans.
This Will give you some idea of the
extent of the tobacco industry reduced
10 brass .tacks. 1t has many ramifica-
tions and its products are equally sur
prlsinE, l do not know just how many
ions of plug tobacco the United States
.now consumes, but there is one factory
here which covers several acres and is
devoted to nothing but plug. AT the
tme OF my visit at least five hundred
employees were operating machines
making the square and oblonR packages
sold in the stores. and others were
standing at tables twisting out the
black snake-like ropes of chewing to-
bacco called twist" The weed has to
be specially treated in the making of
plug 1t is saturated with licorice and
sugar and favored to taste.
You may think that the custom of
snufnng is dying out. The statistics
show that we are still producing about
thirty million pounds OF snuff every
year. or enough to give pound and
half Of this nose-titillating mixture to
every American family. 1t was at Dur
ham. N. C.. that / saw M first snuff
factory. In making the powder the
tobacco leaves are half rotted and