The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1922-06-16
!, NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

Vice President Stevenson E. Ward of
the National Bank of Commerce, New
York, has given out the following state
ment printed in the U. S. Tobacco
Journal:
Business is better, The depression
which began in the United States in
1920 and continued throughout 1921 has
passed, and substantial progress has
already been made toward normal ac-
tivity and a new business cycle has
been entered upon. Adverse conditions,
as the coal strike, may temporarily re-
tard the upward swing. Other factors,
such as widespread crop failures, might
even result IN recession for time,
but no circumstances can alter the fact
that there is now an unassailable basis
for confidence in slow and steady ex-
pansion of the commercial and financial
activities of this country.
The basis for confidence is fivefold:
First, there is plenty of money TO be
had for reasonable rates both for short
time and longtime requirements. Sec
ond, stocks of finished goods and of
raw materials have been reduced to
reasonable proportions. Third, COM
modify prices are stabilizing. Fourth,
conditions in basic industries, including
agriculture, are improving, and pro-
duction is expanding. Fifth, gaines are
not confined to the United States Con-
ditiOns are improving throughout the
world. Some countries constitute ex-
ceptions to this statement, but their
bearing on the international situation
is not great enough to alter the fact
AZ ;cs A.
the United States and Canada in the
forefront of Improvement.
***
The ttbones'' that stand out in the
Fordney tariff bill-that is to say the
pieces of stupidity are many; but one
is of interest and Importance to so
many Americans that it achieves espec-
ial prominence as fool performance.
That is the retention of the wartime
duty of S2 35 pound on Sumatra to
bacco. Now this tobacco, be it under
stood, supplies the wrapper for almost
all domestic cigars of medium price. It
is necessary, for time has shown that
domestic tobacco, plus domestic wrap
per, cannot make an acceptable cigar
So Sumatra must be used, and the stiff
tariff on it has accounted for the price
boost of the old low priced cigar
What this country really needs is a
good five-cent cigar, said wise TON"
Marshall while ago. That was no
mere pleasantly, for it meant that with
the return of the article comes also
normal and better condition of affairs
all around. The good fve-center seemed
on the way, but retention of heavy
duty on one of it's essentials will surely
prevent its temperance. If the mil
lions who desire that kind of smoke
could formally express their opinion TO
Congress, the big tax would not be
continued. Boston Post.
Managing Director Dushkind of the
Tobacco Merchants association shows
by diagram based on statistics that
while it took only 2003 pounds of to-
bacco to produce i 900 cigars in 1910. it
took 23.1 pounds to manufacture 1000
cigars in 1920. If only the so-called
large cigars are considered, it now
takes 25 pounds of tobacco to produce
l, 900 large cigars The Tobacco Leaf
discussing the matter editorially, says
among other things:
Taking 1000, 600, 900 as the present
| 40 per cent of cheroots, stogies, ETC.,
we find the increased quantity of leaf
| tobacco in 1920 as compared with 1910
sufficient to account for approximately
/, 600, 900, 600 cigars Now. what does
| the contemplation of this analysis sug-
gest? First, it suggests that the Amer
lean smoker is not growing as indeffer-
| ent to cigar tobacco as the numerical
statistics have led most people to be-
| lieve. Second, it suggests that if man
iufacturers would reduce their sizes to
the standards of 1910 there would be at
least /, 900, 900, 600 more cigars per an
mum produced and consumed. Here we
have authentic records showing unques-
| tionably that American consumers, in
order to consume 1900, 900, 900 cigars
in 1920. had to consume approximately
as much tobacco as they consumed
through smoking 5000, 900, 600 cigars in
1910. In fine, is not the diversified
| cigar acting as deterrent to the de-
velopment of cigar smoking and cigar
production!
A coordination of all tobacco pools
now organized or in the process of or
ganiZation SO as to make national CO.
operative pool and marketing agency is
suggested by Judge Robert w. Bing-
i ham, publisher of the Louisville Cour-
ier-J Journal, and one of the active lead
ers in the formation Of the Dark Bur-
ley pool of Kentucky and Tennessee
The suggestion is made in letter to L..
G. Foster of the Wisconsin Department
of Markets. The suggestion involves a
lgrowers' combination on scale to con-
troll the entire output of tobacco leaf in
the y. S. A tobacco farmers monop-
oily of that product would, indeed, be a
new thing in agricultural cooperative
efforts, and if successful would make
one of the most gigantic combinations
in the trade world If mergers have
| been good for the meat packers, the
railways and coal barons, why not for
| the farmers? The only trouble is that
the last mentioned monopolies have
been considered national menace, the
leaders with their swollen salaries look
ed upon as financial pirates and blood
Tf~<1r