The sun., 1919-04-06
PICKING TOBACCO at the RIGHT TIME is o
PRIMARY IMPORTANCE
There's Uncle Sam Counting on a Tax
of $250.000.00O, to Say Nothing of
the. Vast Capital Invested and
Labor interests Involved

end of the traffic the crusaders hope to
kill. AS an industry, tobacco is agri-
cultural at the start. The plant can
be grown in nearly every one Of the
forty-eight States 1t has Importance
among the crops of twenty. Kentucky
led In 1918 with 360.739,o0o pounds
North Carolina was nexhwith 240,444,-
900, Virginia third with 162, 900,
Ohio fourth with 112.363.o0o.
! Tennessee. Pennsylvania, South
Carolina Wisconsin, Connecticut
Maryland, Massachusetts,, Indiana and
West Virginia tapered along from ei.-
100000 to 100000 pounds. New
York, not ranked as a great tobacco
State. produced the respectable-beg
pardon. the reputable-quantity Of
s.567;ooo pounds. The national total
was 1.266.6s6 900 pounds.
The estimated acreage in tobacco
this season totals 154s,00o. The num-
Der Of farmers growing It is around
$4,000. or course they could grow
something else. nutritious food or lilies
OF the valley. 1t would mean scrap
ping and replacing a good deal of their
farm equipment and learning some
new line of agriculture to supplant the
one to which many Of them have
singlemindedly devoted their whole
lives. But that is a detail.
Capital ind Labor Interests.
Capitals end of problem gets small
consideration these days, especially
from moral reformers. Perhaps It will
be insolent to mention that, the capital
stock OF the American Tobacco Com
pany, one Of the Big Four in the busi-
ness, is ss2.942, 100. and the capitaliza-
lions Of the Lorillard, Liggett & Myers
and Reynolds companies Is on the
same scale. and a long list of minor
concerns are items worth figuring.
! But labor's end is treated with more
respect. The report of the Commits
sioner Of Internal Revenue for 1918
showed that there were 1877 cigar
factories, 81 cigarette factories and
1918 pipe, chewing and other tobacco
factories in the United States, besides
sixty-one where snuff was made
They employed 10000 skilled laborers
alone.
The retail business was represented
by 100000 licenses issued to retailing
tobacconists, conservatively estimated
to have employed 1000, 900 persons.
While that monster OF moral de-
pravity. the ultimate consumer, who
doesn't come into the business equa-
ton except as he pays the freight Tan
economic waste. the anti-tobaccohort
assure us) was estimated as $4,000, 900
strong. not to say reeking and pollut-
ling nttr 90 net L.
the highest among nations, ga pounds
on estimate. The lowest consumers
are the Russians.
or manufactured temptations, ciga-
rettes have not only held their own.
but gained ground under war and it's
living costs. The number taxed in the
United States in 1918 was 37,ssO,617
BIT, and that doesn't include the great
quantities shipped to the A. e. F. tax
free. But It more than doubles the
1914 total.
Cigars show Decrease.
But cigars have been receding, per-
haps because Of popular economy. In
1918 the domestic production was
6,99o,S24,632, as against 7,s57,572,776
for 1917. Last January 51s.0o0,ooo
were manufactured, 14,000,0 900 less
than In January, 1917.
Our foreign trade in tobacco, natur-
ally cut by the wars preemptions and
regulations, has always shown q COM
Portable trade balance in Uncle Sans
favor. Europe normally Is an eager
customer. The continental countries
are large tobacco producers, and can,
or could before the war, extend their
production sufficiently to be independ-
ent OF us, without throwing other lines
OF agriculture out of balance. But
they buy our tobacco to blend because
it is cheap, and because its mildness
goes well with the stronger leaf
which their soils and climates favor.
In 1917 we exported $45,673,852
worth and imported 33.471.754. In 1915
the export amounted to So, 1885,, O40, the
import to s26,S56.0s5.
Altogether Uncle Sans tobacco busi-
ness amounts to something, among his
own works and the worlds. It Is ex-
pected to amount to more. taxation
and resulting prices Notwithstanding.
Theorists In both camps OF the prohibi-
; ton struggle have predicted that the
removal of drink will cause Americans
to lean more heavily on the other vice
that we won't use Old Red Eye be-
cause we can't get It. but as for our
smoke lust, the dryness will whet II.
Tea and Coffee Nextf
And while on the subject of making
ono vice do duty for another, a writer
in Good Health. which they publish
out In Battle Creek. where good health
10 advertised AZ a pprchasahis CON-
modify. opinea that ksa has already