The star-progress. (Opelousas, La.) 1917-1921, 1921-04-20

tohancoa which demands constdera-
tton. namely. the moderation charac-
terizing the price advances on tobacco
products, as compared with other COM
modities.
II is a matter of common knowledge
that. with the exception of tobacco
products, there is scarcely a cou-
modify that did not increase in price,
after 1914, from two hundred to three
hundred per cent. Let us compare
this with what happened in the tobac-
CO business.
The prewar five-cent cigar having
gone to eight cents, the increase
amounts to Sky per cent; then the
ten-cent cigar having advanced to
fifteen cents brought an increase of
fifty per cent: the fifteen cent cigar
selling at twenty cents has advanced
thirty-three and one-third per cent;
the high-grade twenty-cent cigar,
which has been raised to twenty-five
cents, cents, has gone up twenty per
cent; while the old time twenty
five cent "perfecto," which went TO
thirty-five cents, shows an increase
of forty per cent. And be it under
stood that these advances had to take
care of the increasing war revenue
taxes, as we'll as the custom duties
paid on imported cigars, and on the
imported tobacco used in domestic
cigars-which aggregate from about
one-half cent to over cents on each
cigar.
AS to cigarettes, exclusive of the
war revenue tax, which amounts to
three cents on each package at 10
cigarettes and six cents on each
package Of 20 cigarettes, the 10 for
a nickle cigarettes, which now sell
for 10 cents, increased 81 per cent;
the 20 for Is cents cigarettes, which
have advanced to % cents, increased
50 per cent; the 10 for dime cigar
cites, which have advanced to Is cents
increased 81 per cent; the 10 for Is
cents cigarettes, have gone up to 20
cents, increased % per cent: while
the 10 for a quarter cigarettes, which
have risen to 80 cents, increased 10
/ per cent.
AS to manufactured tobaccos, divid-
ing them into three general classes, to
wit, the 1 and onelhaf ounce package,
the pre- war price for 10 cents, has
yielded an increase, after deducting
the war revenue taxes, Of TIA per
cent; (2) the 1 ounce package. which
sold for cents, and is now selling
in / 1-8 ounce packages for 10 cents
shows an increase, after deducting
the war taxes of 1875: (3) while the
ounce packages, which retailed be-
fore the rise for 10 cents and which
are now sold in packages of ga oun-
ces for 16 cents, have gone up, after
deducting the war revenue tax, S5.6
per cent.
Now, while the maximum increase
on cigars was so per cent, on cigar
cites 81 per cent, and on other tobac-
co products IS per cent, what were
the increases which the manufactur-
ers had to pay for leaf tobacco?
From an examination of the official
statistics of the government it will be
seen that the various types of cigar
tobacco have increased from 64.S per
cent for Ohio tobacco, which advanc-
ed from cents a pound in 1914 to Is
cents in 1919, to 1876 per cent. On
Wisconsin tobacco, which rose from
an average of IL cents per pound in
1914 to an average of over % cents
in 1919, while the Burley and other
types of leaf tobacco used for cigar.
4 cites or manufactured tobacco have
advanced from a minimum of 1892
per, cent, on one-sucker Kentucky
4 which were marketed at about 1-2
cents pound in 1914 and advanced to
an average of over Ice in 1919, to 5SS
per cent on the Burley district tobac.
cos, which sold at the average of SC
per pound in 1914, and reached an
average of nearly Sc cents in 1919.
One has but to compare the maxi
mum advances on the manufactured
product, which began about five years
after the general rise in prices, and
then only on a more moderate scale
than the maximum prices herein quot
ed, with the multiplied cost OF leaf
tobacco, as shown in the foregoins
coupled with the increase cost of all
other material required in the finish
ed product, as well as the high cost OF
labor, to realize that at no time, dur
ing or since the war, have the prices
advanced for tobacco products to the
consumer been nearly sufficient tc
cover the increased cost of production
1t is one thing for chocolate candies
to come down after having increas
ed, from 80 cents to $500 a pound
or for mems suits to come down after
having been increased from S25 Il
S7S OT for ShOos IN oOnoo dop,y, OPfa,