The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1921-03-30
TOBACCO PRODUCTS AND THE
Lower PRICE MOVEMENT
Why Retail Prices Are Not Affected
by the Decline in Southern Leaf
TobaccO-Other Facts That the
Public and the Press Should Know

A great deal has recently been said
in the public press criticizing cigar
manufacturers for retaining their
present standard of prices on cigars
in the face Of the reported slump in
prices for Burlcy and kindred types
of Southern tobaccos, and taking to
task the tobacco trade in general for
it's failure to fall in line with other
industries and reduce the prices of
all tobacco products in harmony with
the general downward price move
mcnt now going on throughout the
country.
The real genesis Of this Indoubted-
ly wcll-intended but entirely unjusti-
fled criticism was the extensive pub
lcity given to the recent comedoWn
of prices for leaf tobacco in the Sou
thcrn tobacco market, coupled with
the fact that the public does not seem
to know, in the first place, that the
tobaccos of Kentucky, Tennessee, Vir-
ginia and the Carolinas are not the
types of tobacco used for cigars, and
in the second place, that no type of
leaf tobacco can begin to be worked
by the manufactured until from one
to two years ii nthc case of cigar leaf
and from two to three years (in the
case Of cigarettes and other tobacco
products) after it has passed out of
the growers hands.
If Kentucky tobacco were selling at
only cent pound, it would have not
the slightest influence upon Shade
grown Connecticut cigar wrappers
which are now selling at five dollars
y pound, or upon any of the cigar leaf
types, such as Havana, Sumatra, Java,
Georgia, Florida New York State,
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio,
for the tobaccos of Kentucky and
ncighboring States arc not and can
not be used for cigar purposes.
Moreover, even in the case of cigar
cites and plug and other manufactur-
ed tobaccos, which are, in truth made
of Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland,
Virginia and Carolina leaf, the cxpcc-
tationS for reduced prices, because of
the lower cost of leaf tobacco, arc
similarly founded on public misinfor-
nation. The fact is, as everyone in
the trade knows, that the crops of
tobacco now being marketed in these
States will not and cannot be avail
able for manufacturing into cigarettes
and tobaccos until 1922 or 1923. And
this is not merely because manufac-
turers choose to carry large reserve
stocks of tobacco for their own pro-
lection, but because the nature Of Leaf
tobacco requires that it be cured and
aged for period ranging from one
to three years before it is fit for
manufacturing purposes.
Let us go little further into the
general question c the retail price of
tobacco products N dthc interesting
circumstances which for the time be-
ing, make Il general decline in the
prices Of cigars, cigarettes and tobac-
COS impossible. The explanation is
simple and logical enough to those
who are familiar with the tobacco
business.
First 1T must be remembered that
while the great, upward movement of
costs and prices in this country
started in l9l4, the retail prices of to-
baccO products did not begin to 90 up
until the latter part of 1917, virtually
three years behind the general move
ment of advance. Says the official
"History Of Prices During the War"
published by the War Industries
Board: "Priccs of finished tobacco
products did not begin to rise in ear
nest until the last half of 1917, three
years aitcr the outbreak of the war,
ana two years after thc beginning of
the general rise in prices" This was
largely due to the fact that mnnufac-
turcrS were able to run along for two
or three years on the raw material
that they had purchased at prc-war
prices and which was then in the pro-
c"sS of agcing and curing.
IN 1917 the manufacturers had to
begin using the raw materials bought
under the first big jump of war prices
ana 1t was not until then, three wears
a1tef the advances in other lines, that