The sun., 1919-04-06

We're coming. .oe're coming, q brave
nttle bundi
W3th the bright s1cord OF Temperance
held In our hand-
We don't use Tobacco, for tceH zoe may
think
That chetoin0 and smoking lead only
to Drinki
old Blue Ribbon marching song.
THEY may continue to lead to It
as viciously as ever. But after
very few more fevered clock
ticks they won't be able to make US
drink even II they do the leading, for
q well known and diversely regarded
reason. None the less, since January
1e. when Nebraska sealed Drinks
doom, declarations Of a new war on
Hbacco. avowals Of a. fell purpose to
got chewing and smoking prohibited
while the prohibiting is good, have
been constantly imputed to the moral
reformers.
the particular moral reforners
whose canny playing Of politics is
everywhere believed to have been the
power that did for drink are the Anti
Saloon League. and the Anti-Saloon
1Aaguers deny that they plan to go
on and do for tobacco-at this time.
They say rumors to the contrary were
started by the wicked drink people,
looping to discredit the league and
eave or national prohibition.
The w. C. T. U. files like dis
claimer. It's New York State presl-
dent, Mrs. Ella A. Boole, says the
uhion is not-at this time-campaign-
ING for, an anti-tobacco Nineteenth
Amendment, and will stick to It's ef-
Forts to keep cigarettes from the
young. according to law.
IL Digs Up the Hatchet.
But the twenty-year-oldA Anti olga
fette League, having healed a schism
That was opened by the cigarette need
or appetite Of the A. e. F.. has dug up
the Ratchet and sworn applicability.
r It Is organizing a national offensive
conferred in New York. And a new Com
ftiittee OF Fifty. patterned after the
one that fought drink years ago, is in
Being with an imposing list Of names.
All this is rough on the doubtless
shattered nerves OF tobacco addicts.
They are genuinely alarmed. They
don't look for a tobacco ban, but they
Rave seen that anything in the line Of
bans Is possible. "There amt no SIGH
beast" as an amendment cutting off the
weed-but II he sticks his whiskers
Ground the corner, what are we going
% doe
Uncle Sam Is wondering, or we'll he
may be. what he would be going to do.
Az plenty of foreign observers and
eome Americans are ready to tell him,
OK were ready two years and a half
ago. Uncle is a sordid old scalawag
with no soul above dollars and cents.
Assume he is. Not figuring in the in
come and excess profits tax returns,
Gncle's internal revenue for 1918 came
70 $856,619.748 and some odd cents. OF
that between one-fifth and one-sixth
--S166.188,660 TO be painfully exact
was from tobacco.
And $44S.s3s.544 was from spirits
and fermented liquors, a source of
revenue now abolished. Uncle has
sheathed the sword, but he hasn't but
toned the wallet by a good deal. He is
about to market another issue of
emergency bonds. and-"drives," Ger
man and otherwise, being over-he's
privately hoping for the best as to
their sale. He hates to think Of piling
a. heavier burden upon our incomes
and the profits OF our industries. So
Do wei
Boosting the Tax.
He Is having to figure pretty nimbly
among his sources OF ready money, and
he counts on tobacco, q luxury" to
Yield him 500. 1000. 900 moro this year
than last His tax impositions upon 1t
have that in view. In February he
Jumped the tax on cigarettes, for in
stance, from $2.o5 to 50 per Thousand
Cigarettes alone are expected to yield
q hundred million of the $3.50, 900, 900
for which the tobacco industry and
business IL down.
The manufacturer is now paying 6
cents tax on every packet Of twenty
cigarettes, while we--er-that is, the
unregenerate ultimate consumers-are
paying a quarter for such a packet
which used to be sold for Is cents, and
10 to II cents according to where we
i've and with whom We deaD for an
ounce and seven eighths OF that jimmy
Joyous. doesnt-burn-my-t tongue, Pa
Ttme-and-Ma-N Nature kind OF pipe am
npunition that used to be 10 cents and
Q pipe or q chrome thrown In with
your FIRST pound.
at is true that pipes, very decen,
ones. too, are cheaper. II you1l only
keep on buying ammunition at ad.
vanced rates you may have the CUR
Tor song.)
And cigars are correspondingiy NOR,
expensive.
This pkesches the national hnancia!