The sun., 1918-07-21
Suggestion Of Tobac-
co Ration So Boys
Over There May
Get Enough Stlrs
Speculation on CIV
ilians' Demands
By JOHN WALKER HARRINGTON.

there shall surely be enough smokes FOR
the boys over there. We have been think
ing of their wants every time we gave
coin or coupons to The. SUN Tobacco
Fund, but now that a limit is likely to
be set We may have to be weighing our
cigarettes and cigars, as we do our sugar.
The average cigarette, that is the roll
. little short of three inches in length,
usually "a inches, weighs three SIXTY
fourths of an ounce without the cork tip.
About twenty -one cigarettes to the ounce
would be about right.
Take a handful of cigars of the brands
IN ordinary use, corchas, panatelas and
such sizes, and put them on the scales
Dividing the weight by the number, yor
will find that the cigar in common use
draws down a quarter of an ounce.
As to smoking tobacco, chewing tobacco
and snuff it is hard to get line on human
requirements, because the habits of uGers
vary greatly. Some inveterate dalliers
with the briar consume as much as two
ounces day.
Yearly Amount Is IN Pounds.
According to the statistics Just pub
hshed in the preliminary announcement
Of the War Industries Board, every
American man, woman or child Is en-
titled to consume u pounds of tobacco
a year. Assuming that few women smoke
snd that most young boys do not get
enough tobacco to count, the regular
smoker might easily claim ration Of an
ounce day. One Of the veteran cigar
clerks of this town, standing in the lee
of the plough of the Flatiron Building,
made this estimate yesterday as his idea
of human tobacco ration in war time.
The cigarette is now the most popular
form of using the soothing herb and it
was the first method observed when
Columbus discovered America and the art
Of smoking. The natives came up to him
and his followers putting away at tiny
rolls of leaves which were rolled up IN
corn husks.
No day passes in which every inhabl-
tant of the United States, the babe IN the
cradle and the oldest inhabitant, alike,
fails to smoke at least two-thirds of one.
That is the 1916 record, but probably
now, if the truth were known, the aver
age is one a day for everybody.
Cigarette making has increased by leaps
and bounds in the last fifteen years. Half
q century ago we were not smoking any
of the popular brands now in use and
imported only a few of the Russian
mouthpiece variety. In 1869 internal rev.
enue taxes amounting to 1928 were paid
on the 1,750,000 cigarettes made in this
country. By the year 1900 the manufac-
ture of cigarettes had arisen to nearly
three billions q year.
Sixteen Billion Rolls in Year.
1t has been steadily going up year by
year, and in 1913 little more than four
teen billions of the rolls were turDed out
IN this country. The first year of the
European war saw jump to 16,421 ,OS5,-
VUV. OuI SOluIcIS anu oolioio AAouC q oAo
demand upon the makers for the comfort
of the cigarette. The taxes on cigarettes
last year amounted to $3s,127, l6S, an IN
crease Of nearly twelve millions over the
previous twelve months.
That eminent tobacco statistician, W.
W. Young. declares that if the cigarettes
were placed end to end for one year in
stead of being burned they would make a
single strand bridge which would reach
from the earth to the moon, around the
moon five times, back again TO the earth,
and then curl around the equator four
times and still have few hundred miles
to spare. These figures do not include
the smokes of the men Of the army and
navy who roll their own out Of grant,
lated mixtures which come in muslin bags
ess,FA 'SFAAe!lpt se b9N" ic9l IL