The Connecticut labor news., 1921-07-15
MARY INDUSTRIES
 TIED TO TOBACCO
Prohibition of Weed Would Mean Big Financial Loss to
 Allied Trades.
WHO USES THE MATCH?
The Smoker MainIy-AIso Responsible for Spending Hundreds of Millions Annually for Licorice, Sugar, Coal, Cigar Boxes, Tin
 Foil, Etc.
By GARRETT SMITH


 How many times a day is that Ques- tion asked in these United Statesr How many more times is the question un1eceSsary because most pockets are kept well supplied with the useful little article? Anyhow, inasmuch as 1t is estimated that there are 30,OOO, GOO tobacco users in the country, we would guess that the answer to that question would run into the hundreds of mill lions.
 For if 1t weren't for the smokers in these days of electric lights how many matches would be used? A pretty small proportion of the number of these "sticks of blazes" produced in che country every year. Abolish to- bacco and the match business would be shot to pieces.
 But the match business Is only one of a dozen or more allied industries which derive large revenues directly or indirectly from the tobacco trade and would suffer heavily if national pro- hibition of tobacco were to go into effect as some of our refOrmers would have it. The annual sales of tobacco products, based on retail prices, is es- timated at S1,937, 100000. Of the cost of producing and selling this quantity of cigars, cigarettes and other forms of the weed, some hundreds of million dollars are paid out for other things than the raw tobacco and labor of making 1t up.
 $25,OOO 900 Year for Boxes
 For example, the tobacco trade con- sumes each year 45,OOO,OOO pounds ot licorice, 5O,OOO,OOO pounds of sugar, both used in flavoring tobacco, and 65O,OOO tons of coal. It is estimated that the value of wooden cigar boxes used is $25,OOOOOO a year, quite an item to the lumber business and to manufacturers of the boxes.
 In making these boxes 55O,OOO pounds of nails are employed. Other large items used in making and pre- pairing tobacco for sale are tin and lead foil, paper for bags and cigarette wrappers, cloth for tobacco bags, la bels, coupons, etc, involving the print. ing trade extensively.
 Then building contractors and manu' facturers of machinery are largely in l0TOSlCu. 1uf0St1ueI1LS 0AG machinery employed in manufactur' ing tobacco are estimated at $1O2 ,OOO,. OOO Replacement, up-keep and inter est on the investment make no small sum annually.
 And let realty men note there are approximately 325,OOO tobacco farms in the country, with q total estimated valuation of $16O, 100000. Of further in terest to real estate men Is the fact that there are 100000 retail establish. ments selling tobacco, involving total rental and up-keep impossible to esti' mate, besides the large amount of Of flee space occupied by administrative branches of the general business.
 The insurance men, too, have their share of the pickings. The tobacco business pays out annually $7,OOO, ,O0( in premiums in the United States.
 And there are the railroads who rear revenue from 2,21O,OOO tons of tobacca products every year.
 As for the advertising business here again 1t is impossible to form any estimate of the enormous annual outlay.
 The prohibition of tobacco would alse knock a good-sized hole in the receipts of the United States government The internal revenue receipts from tobacco for the fiscal year 1920 amount ed to $295, ,9O9, ,35544 Customs duties provided an additional $25 100000 ir round figures, making the total revenue return to the government $32O,OOO, ,OOO
 Influence on Popular Sentiment
 It is this interlocking of the tobacco business with so many other interests and the vast amount of financial loss that would be involved in the abolition of tobacco that is one of the most Sc. rious aspects of the proposal to pro. h1b1t the sale of tobacco, a proposal however, which has little support by public sentiment if .he newspaper edi. tors of the country are correct in thei. estimate of that sentiment.
 In poll of the editors made recently by the Tobacco Merchants Association of the United States, through the Press Service Company of New York City, 95 per cent Of the 7,S47 editors who replied expressed the opinion that the people of their communities were op- posed to any law against tobacco. As these editors represent some OOOO. .OOO readers the results form a pretty gen. eral test of national opinion.
 In their remarks accompanying their replies many of the editors expressed 1t as their opinion that the opposition of their communities to the abolition of tobacco was based to some extent at least on the damage such a change would do to the business interests of the community. This was particularly true in the tobacco growing states and centers where there were large tobacco plants.
 But when the extent of the business Involved in the allied interests of the tobacco trade is considered, as above briefly outlined, 1t is clear that there is hardly a section of the country that would not be affected directly or in- directly by abolishing tobacco.