The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1921-07-15
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

4 WVVVVV~ ~ V~~VV~S<
The manufacturers and importers of
tobacco, while quite willing that the
duty on wrappers should be placed at
$500 per pound, are much concerned
over the increase in duty on filler to-
| bacco. They consider it an inconsist-
ency on the part of congress to lower
the duty on wrappers and increase il
on filters; both go into the making of
! the cigar and both affect the cost of it.
| Influence is being brought to bear on
members Of the Ways and Means COM
mittee not to recommend the bill as
drafted.
| Even greater is the feeling aroused
by bill to permit shipment of Cuban
cigars in quantities small enough, direct
to the consumer, to be carried through
the parcels post system. Mail order
business in Cuban cigars. The tobacco
manufacturers and the venders of ci-I
| gars are using their combined effort to
| hinder this measure from becoming
| law. tits urged that it would be the
| cheaper types of Cuban cigars which
would be sold in this way, and that the
result would be that the government
would lose in income, as the cheaper
| grades carry lower rate of duty than
/ the high priced Havanas, which under
the existing law can not be shipped in
packages containing less than 5000 ci-
| gars. The "direct to the consumer"
/ feature is likely to catch the public,
| but it is doubtful If the price of the
goods when received would be much
! lower than it is now on imported Ha-
vanas and American made Havana CT
gar5. The s'mail order" feature, if
| adopted, may serve as club over the
manufacturers and dealers, as all mail
order business does. The actual saving
obtained through the Sears-Roebuck
catalog style is not as important as it
sounds. The mail order houses in Cuba
might save the Individual smoker few
| cents, but it would not stimulate busi-
| ness at home, and to that extent it
would be direct loss to the commun-
ity.
Tobacco" one of the standard to-
bacco journals of this country, devotes
an editorial to the matter of tobacco
I lltCI cal dllO ldIC, dIlO we QUOtG
| the following: In the offices of the To-
| bacco Merchants Association of the
| United States, New York City, is the
largest and most complete library de-
voted to oatobacco in the world. 1t deals
with the history Of the plant and the
| industry; the philosophy of smoking as
dealt with by such writer's as Henry
Fielding and Charles Lamb, and the
customs and revenue laws which have
been passed to tax the use of tobacco
| in all countries and at all times. The
stock of books is increased constantly,
| for all the book dealers of the country
have a standing order to look out for
publications that bear on the tobacco
| trade. 1t includes volumes in English,
French, Spanish, German, Latin and
Russian. The librarian III charge, who
| has built up the collection, says that it
| is constantly in use as reference IL
| brary, not only by men engaged in the
| tobacco industry but by university stu
dents, sociologists and magazine writ
ers A valuable cyclopedia of current
events of interest to tobacco men has
been collected by the filing of news
paper clippings from all parts of the
| country, carefully classified and in
| dexed. They bear upon legislation in
| the matter of tobacco, the organization
| of new tobacco companies. the obit-
uaries of men identified with the indus
| try, and upon all topics bearing upon
| the general subject of tobacco.
| *#*
X The u. S. consulate in Berlin, Ger
many, reports as follows, according to
| Tobacco: The German government
| has removed all restrictions on the i'm
| port Of tobacco to take effect July /.
! As reported before, the rationing sys-
| TEN will also cease on that date. Here
| tofore it was necessary to get official
| permission before one could import to-
| bacco. The idea was that no more to-
bacco should be imported than was
necessary. The removal of the en-
| barge does not mean that tobacco may
be shipped ''free" into Germany, for
| there is duty to be paid on every
/ shipment of tobacco that passes through
| a custom house Of course, a great
many shipments never get near any
custom house. The only freedom about
about tobacco is that you may ship it
into Germany, after paying the pre-
| scribed duty, without laborious pro-
| cedure including the unwinding of end
| less red tape and depending upon thet
! w uIlIIo VI OCl Gdltl 11STGLO1OIG
one could send gift of tobacco, in linn
tied quantities, to relatives and friends
| in Germany free of duty. This also has
| been done away with Every pound of |
tobacco now has to pay duty, whether
gifts or business transactions.
***
BY careful computation, made by one
of the labor leaders of New York CITY,
thirty-three cigar factories have dis |
continued doing business in New York |
City since January of this year. Some |
of these factories had been doing busi- |
ness here for two generations. Others |
were younger and of less Importance, |
but the fact remains that New York is
demonstrably becoming less and less
desirable as place in which to make |
cigars. The reason for this change in
every instance is the fact that cigar
manufacturing cannot be profitably car