Evening star., 1924-09-16
TOBACCO INDUSTRY
OF u. S. IS STUDIED
Austrian Officials Would In
tr0duce American Meth
DDS at Home.
correspondence OF The Star and the Chicago
Daily NrMS

correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
Daily News.l
VIENNA, Austria, August 20.-Tw o
officials Of the American tobacco
monopoly who have been in the
United States studying American to-
Dacco factories are attempting TO in
troduce American methods into AUS
trlan factories. Conditions here are
so deplorable that they ought to have
little trouble in making improve
mentS. Whether they do or do not.
however, ii viii be necessary to
maintain the law which forbids i'm
portations OF American tobacco
products.
Austrian cigars and cigarettes are
Of poor quality. Austrian pipe to-
bacco would be unuSa Bile by an Eng
liShman or an American accustomed
10 anything better than finely chop
PED nay. The reason is not that Aus
trtans do not know how to work to-
bacco. but that manufacturing and
dealing in tobacco in Austria is 4
safe monopoly.
Europeans. or many OF them,
through depending upon raternal
governments. hav- lest most OF their
opportunities. Railroads, telegra pIIS.
street railways. salt. tobacco. canals.
gas works and virtually all indus
tries thar are readily controlled have
passed into the hands OF state or city
governments The kings used to con-
troll these things in order to deal out
patronage. The republics are do ng
the same thing for the sake they say,
OF state revenues. The Socialists are
continuing the system on an even
larger scale, IN order to carry out
their ideas of state ownership. Incl
dentaliy making Socialist voters of
employees Of state Institutions by Civ
ineg them special privileges.
Poor Products and High Prices.
Instead of imposing a revenue tax
upon tobacco products. the state. in
the case of such monopolieS as those
in France. Austria or Hungary. manu-
factures its own products and forbids
importattonS. Thus any quality of
tobacco can be offered To the public
a any price.
At one time, in spite "f the very
poor quality of their output. Austrian
factories operated at a loss. The
workmen. through their legal work
erS' council. virtually operated the
plants. Everything was a days
work basis. ana ii was imDoSSible to
overcome the workers opposition to
modern machines. 1t was impossi-
BILE also to discharge an inefficient
empioye, except under special condi-
tionS.
In short. the tobacco factories were
like other State-operated institutions
-sasy herths for voters and places
where political rluns We're dealt ont.
OF course, the factories lost money.
and the deficit had to be made good
from taxes. The tobacco product was
atrocious and the prices We're higher
those 81
monopoly operated.
When the League of Nations un-
dertook its reform of Austrias
finances an examination of the state
owned and state-operated institu-
tions was made. They were all
found to be operating at loss.
Hope to Effect Savings.
The two officials now seeking to
install American methods in Austrian
tobacco factories have arranged to
start what they call the American
group system of five workers to a
group. BY this they hope TO save 10
per cent in material and 90 per cent
in labor cost. The new methods are
expected to make il Unnecessary to
raise prices. That, ii was feared.
would cause decrease in consump-
tion. BY explaining to the workers
the necessity of decreasing costs it
was possible to introduce the ma
chimes, particularly as the workers
We're assured that the number of en-
ployes would be slightly increased.
1t is POSSIBLE that Austria will be
able TO regain its reputation as
maker of good tobacco products. but
it is doubtful if the state-owned fac
tories of Europe will ever be able to
produce anything to compare well
with the articles produced by the
competitive plants of the United
States.