The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1922-05-12
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

i UC poSoCu dS T6pOIl6u, VI Will Oliy
i slight notifications.
If he is right in this forecast, the i'm
port duty on wrapper leaf will stick at
| So. 80 where it is now under the emer-
gency act The entire tobacco indus
| try, with the exception of the shade
growers of Connecticut, are opposed to
the present high tariff, and have reason
/ to. This high duty on the import
ed wrapper tobacco is harmful to the
| entire industry, because it has ten
dency to increase the price of cigars
and thus lower consumption, and by SO
| doing forces the price of other tobacco
| used in the cigar down in price.
Wisconsin is against this tariff bill
because it imposes cost in the wrap
per material of cigars, which has ten
dency to force down the cost of binders
to point where the grower and packer
can not get by and produce it with any
hope of profit.
When this bill comes up on the floor
of the houses of Congress every tobacco
organization, and as many individuals
as can be reached by this appeal, should
| lombard our representatives in Con-
gress to oppose with all their might the
passage of the tobacco schedule as now
written.
The so-called protective tariff is in
itself doubtful proposition both as a
revenue getter and as an economic
measure The trouble with it is that it
does not protect the people in need of
protection. 1t is not proven that, for
instance, high tariff and high wages
| for labor are related as cause and eff
feet; but it is clearly demonstrated by
experience that the public pays the en-
| tire cost of the tariff burden, and that
American industry does not need the
protection, as it has shown itself fully
capable of competing with other ma
tion's industries in the foreign market
The tariff measure as now proposed
will undoubtedly have hard shedding
en- the floor Of Congress, and the con-
stituents should back up their repre-
sentatives in the fight which they are
called upon to make against this vicious
measure.
A protection of $1.85 is conceded as
ample to make shade growing of wrap
pers as profitable in Connecticut as is
the growing Of any other type of leaf
going into tobacco products.
If the Wisconsin Tobacco Growers
and Cooperative Marketing organiza-
tion becomes reality, its officers, in
behalf of the growers of Wisconsin
binder leaf, should throw the whole
weight of their influence against the
passage of the proposed tobacco sched-
ules as now reported.
***
From the different tobacco growing
areas in the United States the reports
month ago indicated somewhat rad
ical curtaiment in acreage for the 1922
season in consequence of the unsatis-
factory prices received by the growers
In Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Ohio
where cigar leaf is grown the price
conditions were such as to make the
farmers declare that they were going
to materially reduce the acreage this
year in order to permit the market to
recover from the effects of the two
last years of overproduction. The
theory that per cent of overproduc-
tion will make 10 per cent reduction
in price sticks under the ribs of every
producer and trader
Since the movement of organization
of cooperative storage and sales cor
porations has gotten under way the
talk about reduced acreage has sub
sided, and the reports from the sections
involved tell story of slight de-
crease or "no decrease and in the
case of Round Tip considerable in-
crease" in acreage as probable This
change of policy is due largely to the
new marketing methods to be employed
by the cooperative sales organizations.
The leaders of this movement have in
corporated as an important phase of
their marketing methods holding
proposition, keeping off the market all
goods for which there is no immediate
and active demand, and keeping in stor-
age the surplus, whether large or small.
The sale of leaf under the new plan
would no longer be in the hands of the
grower and independent packer; it will
be in control of the managers of the
CO. operative organizations who in turn
would act under the advice Of the state
and federal Department of Markets.
The tip to sell and the tip to hold would
be given by the officials of the state
and federal marketing departments.
BY this arrangement the members of
the pools and the manufacturers of
cigars and other tobacco products would
be the only parties involved in the
transaction. 1t is even suggested by
leaders of the movement in Connecticut
that the financing of the pools and their
growing and packing operations might
be done through syndicate of banks,
using one bank as the fiscal agent tc
handle all funds, except, perhaps, those
furnished by the federal government.
Hinder these conditions If ia in the hands