The Washington herald., 1922-02-12
ITALY WOULD CUT
BONDS OF FOREIGN
TOBACCO SLAVERY
Nation Makes Attempt to
Grow All Crops It
Needs.

= ROME. Feb. IL. = Along with
Italy's present effort 70 free herself
from the bondage Of foreign coal
domination by the liberalization or
her state railways. Italy IS making
an equally heroic effort-to throw on
the yoke of foreign tobacco slavery
Between what Italy now pays Tor
foreign coal and foreign tobacco. II
can be truthfully said that a goodly
portion of her national wealth goes
annually UP in smoke-and foreign
smoke at that.
What makes 1t particularly hard
for Italy to gain her tobacco inde-
pendence Is the fact that just as
she gets her nostrils nicely, flied
with the sweet scent of liberty and
Is on the point Of burning her let
tiers with the lighted stump of q
domestic made cigar, the italian
population as a whole suddenly
takes to smoking more than ever.
and Italy has to return to spending
millions abroad in order to supply
the demand.
Women Take to Weed.
Before the war Italy smoked
4oo,ooo,ooo lire worth of cigars ana
cigarettes annually. Now she smokes
2.7Oo.O0o.O00. While portion of
this increase Is due to the advance
In prices charged, yet the greater
bulk of IL Is due to the fact that
the war taught hundreds of thou
sands of young men to smoke, many
OF whom had they remained in their
native peasant districts would not
have been able to, and also to the
fact that italian women are in. no
way behind their sisters of other
modern civilized nations. in taking
to the wicked weed. -
All of this has a very direct bear
ing upon Italy's finances owing 20
the fact that the government oper-
ates a state monopoly on tobacco
In Italy as regards both the manu-
facture and the sale. As she also
has to buy the raw product the
question of whether .she can pro-
duce enough at home to supply her
local demand or whether she has TO
buy abroad, thereby increasing her
expectations and sending up her
exchange, becomes of great i'm
portance.
Promotes Tobacco Growing.
Itafy's monopoly on tobacco rs
the only one that as a matter of
fact has been a real success as II
revenue producer. She has been
able to operate this On a basis of
about 10 per cent profit. In other
words of the 1000. 900 lire which the
italian public spends every day for
tobacco, 100000 lire goes into the
state treasury as profit and revenue
and only 100000 lire actually goes
up in smoke.
Frankly, Italy thinks that Il
would hardly be possible to do bet
ter than this; in fact she doubts II
the public would stand for a larger
percentage of tax and a smaller
ratio Of smoke. Hence her only
chance OF making the monopoly
more profitable to the state is BY
producing all of her tobacco at
home and avoiding foreign pur-
chases Of the raw material.
The government is. therefore. en-
couraging and doing everything
possible to promote tobacco grow
ing. However, italian peasants are
neither fond of novelties In the
matter of crops or of the difficulties
involved In tobacco growing. bur
little by little the italian govern
ment Is winning her freedom from
foreign tobacco markets.
Hopes for Independence.
At the present time the italian
government spends 100000, 900 lire
annually for raw tobacco Of which
only 1S0,000.000 Is spent at home,
the other 100000. 900 going to for
etgn tobacco growers.
To date Italy has made the most
progress in the growing of light
tobacco of which she uses 10000
quintals annually. In the southern
province of Leccese about 2o,0oc
acres are now under cultivation and
this about supplies the local de-
mand.
With dark tobacco of the Ken
lucky" type for her cigars. Italy -
not so fortunate. At the present
time this is being cultivated prin-
cipauy in Tuscany, However, her
needs are 100000 quintals annually
and she produces only $4,000. But
by bringing her present acreage
from 5000 up to 1900 Italy hopes
eventually to win her tobacco in
dependence and blow her smoke in
the face Of other nations instead of
having to blow back their own, for
which she has paid them.