The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1917-02-23

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The question of what influence the
invasion of the packing and importing
fields by manufacturers of tobacco in
recent years will have upon the gen
eral trade is the subject of long COM
munication published in the N. Y. Leaf.
eff the farmer does not raise tobacco.
there will be no tobacco to pack and no
tobacco to make cigars from. If the
manufacturer does not make cigars,
there will be no market for the farm
er's tobacco. In between the two are
the operations Of the middleman, which
is the usual term for the packers and
the jobbers. Apparently it is in this
part of the machine that the trouble
has come. The local packers, in almost
every instance, are spectators. In
this function they perform distinct
service. They give the farmer a con-
tinuous market for his tobacco. The
fact that in his immediate vicinity is to
be; found man who will take his crop
off his hands relieves the farmer of
much of the risk involved in starting a
crop. 1t relieves him Of the necessity
of holding his crop until the next year,
and it gives him money to start his new
crop and gives him the use Of his barns,
etc. Where he was unable to make a
profit he would almost certainly get
what it cost him to raise the tobacco,
and in any event he gets the market
value of the tobacco at the time he sold
it. Whatever risk goes with holding
the tobacco has been transferred to
the local packer, and the farmer gets
his decks cleared for action. And fur
thermore, the local packer is most in
evidence at times when, without him,
the farmer would have no market
that is in times of over-p production and
low prices. This local packer, in his
speculative capacity, furnishes the
asafmer with market in times when
his market has gone away from him,
and, as the farmer always has the op-
tion of3selling to the highest bidder, he
has no just grievance against the spec
ulator whose opportunities, of course,
are most abundant when prices are
low. The local packer performs use
full function, not only to the farmer
but to the industry in general, and as
matter of fact, needs no defense. The
notion that they serve no purpose save
as collectors and distributors of tobac-
co is erroneous. The tobacco that they
turn over to the manufacturers has
undergone considerable handling and
manipulation since it was delivered by
the farmer at the packing houses. 1t
has been sorted, graded and bundled
and put into cases. 1t has undergone
the sweat and the curing process under
the eyes of capable and trained work
ers. 1t struggled into the warehouse,
the good with the bad, the sound with
the unsound, of every conceivable sort
and description. It has been put into
such shape that the manufacturer can
know what he is getting. The unsound
tobacco has been removed from the
sound. In fact, it has undergone a
manufacturing process: The packer is,
in fact, manufacturer. And it is just
here that heSperforms possibly his most
useful function. He is more than a
distributor. He is more than specu-
lator. He is more than merchant,
except where that word is used in its
broadest sense. just as any manufac-
turer-who takes raw material and
by skilful manipulation gives it an
additional value-is producer, so is
the packer.of leaf tobacco producer.
1t is conceded that the practice of di-
rect buying has brought no benefit to
the trade at large, and it would be hard
to prove that the manufacturers who
do the direct buying have benefited
themselves from the practice. Their
participation in the buying has set up
a higher degree of competition than
would obtain if they were not present
and If the buving were done only by
the packers and importers