Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-08-03
MANY INDUSTRIES
tied TO TOBACCO
Prohibition of Weed Would Mean
Big Financial Loss to
Allied Trades.
WHO USES THE MATCH?
The Smoker Mainly-Also Responsible
for Spending Hundreds of Millions
Annually for Licoriee, Sugar..
Coal Cigar Boxes, Tin
Foil, Etc.
BY GARRETT SMITH
SCOT a match?"

How many more times is the question
unnecessary because most pockets are
Kept well supplied with the useful
little article? Anyhow, inasmuch as 1t
Is estimated that there are 100000
tobacco users in the country, we would
guess that the answer to that question
would run into the hundreds of mil.
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
the country every year. Abolish to-
oacco and the match business would be
shot to pieces.
But the match business is only one
OF 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 90 into
effect as some of our reformers would
have it. The annual sales of tobacco
products, based on retail prices, Is es-
timated at $1,937 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 M.
$c5 ,oCJ oco g Ycc- for Boxes
For example, the tobacco trade con-
sumes each year 45.003000 pounds Of
licorice. 50,000.OOO pounds of sugar,
both used in tiavoring tobacco. and
6A0000 tons of coal 1t is estimated
that the value of wooden cigar boxes
used is s25,C00,000 a year, quite an
item to the lumber business and to
manufacturers of the boxes.
In making these boxes $4,000
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
bells, coupons, etc, involving the print
ing trade extensively.
Then building contractors and manu-.
facturerS of machinery are largely in
terested. Investments in plants and
machinery employed in manufactur-
ing tobacco are estimated at $102,000,-
600. Replacement, up keep and inter.
est on the investment make no small
sum annually.
And let realty men note there are
approximately 325.000' tobacco farms
in the country, with a total estimated
valuation OF 100000 coo. OF fuTther in
tereSt to real estate men is the fact
that there are 100000 retail establish
ments selling tobacco. involving a total
rental and up-keep impossible to esti-
nate, 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 picl;ings. The tobacco
bus ness pays out annually 100000
in premiums in the United States.
And there are the railroads who reap
revenue from 2,21000O tons of tobacco
products every year.
AS for the advertising business.
here again it is impossible to form
any estimate of the enormous annual
outlay.
The prohibition Of tobacco would also
knock good-sized hole in the receipts
of the United States government
The internal revenue receipts from
tobacco for the fiscal year 1920 amount
ed 70 $295,S09 35544. Customs duties
provided ar additional $25000000 in
round figures, making the total revenue
return to the government $320,O0O,0 900.
Influence on Popular Sentiment
1t is this interlocking of the tobacco
bus ness 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
hibit the sale of tobacco, a proposal.
however. which has little support by
public sentiment if the newspaper edi-
tors OF the country are correct in their
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,
80 per cent of the 1917 editors who
replied expressed the opinion that the
people of their cornmun ties were on.
posed to any law against tobacco. As
these editors represent some SO,0OO,OOO
readers the results form a pretty gen
eral test of national opinion
In their remarks accompanying their
replies many of the editors expressed
it as their opinion that the oppos ton
nj their communities to the abolition
Of tobacco was based to some extent al
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, it is clear that there
Is hardly section Of the country that !
would not be affected directly or in
directly by abolishing tobacco.