Part 6 — TOBACCO AND THE CIGARETTE PART TWO—ECONOMIC

Why do farmers raise Tobacco, manufacturers make it up, and dealers sell it?—It is because there is an enormous profit in it all along the lines. The profit is so great that the manufacturers sometimes pay $1500.00 to $2000.00 for a single advertisement in a leading journal.

In an editorial entitled “The Damnable Cigarette,” in the Religious Weekly, of May 6, 1911, we read of the profits of the Tobacco Trust as follows:—

“The evil is fearfully profitable.—the net income over $25,000,000—an increase of about twenty per cent. The dividends on common stock increased from fifty per cent to sixty-two and one-half per cent. The fat pockets of the recipients jingled with the gruesome coin, while insane lads and weeping mothers sat in sodden shame and sorrow.”

What Statistics Show

“The consumers of chewing and smoking tobacco, in 1908, paid as a tax into the United States Treasury at the rate of $54,984 per day. They more than paid the sailors of the United States Navy.”

“The smokers of cigars and Cigarettes pay an average of sixty-six thousand six hundred thirty-seven dollars per day in tax, or enough to provide salaries for the Supreme Court of the United States for one whole year. And the good ‘Sisters of the Chimney Corner’ paid tax on snuff at the rate of three thousand four hundred seventy-three dollars a day. They thus contribute enough money to Uncle Sam’s exchequer, to maintain the Public Health and Marine hospital service.”

“Should three of our largest American cities burn down each year, it would be considered a national calamity; and yet, each year, the people of this country burn up in tobacco leaves, an amount equal to the total assessed valuation of Detroit, Cincinnati, and Buffalo. But the financial waste is of small consideration compared with the physical and moral waste resulting therefrom.”

“A brand new Panama Canal could be built each year for the money that is reduced to ashes between the lips of America’s cigar smokers. And the census report shows that the consumption of cigars since 1860 has increased twenty-fold, while the population has increased only twofold. Every year our cigar bill increases another thirty million dollars.”

“An industry that shows such stupendous figures of present volume and of steady growth, indicates unusual stability.”

Dr. D. H. Kress, speaking from his extended experience as physician and superintendent of sanitariums in England, in Australia, and in America, where he has had unusual opportunities for observing the effect of tobacco upon the human body, in an article entitled, “The Rapid Increase of the Tobacco Habit,” says:—

“The amount spent in the United States alone for tobacco, annually, would enable me to provide thirty thousand families each year with all the necessities of life. In addition, I could grant an allowance of $5,000 to each of ten thousand other families. To each of ten thousand others I could give $10,000. To each of one thousand other heads of families, I could make a Christmas present of $50,000. To each of another thousand I could give $100,000; and, besides, to each of five hundred of my best friends I could make an annual allowance of $1,000,000. After doing all this, I would still have left each year, $200,000,000 to bestow on charitable institutions, and at least $10,000,000 to keep the wolf from the door. Four hundred years ago the use of tobacco was unknown in civilized lands. To-day it is used by men, women, and children. Degeneracy has been the result. What the coming generations will be, if this craze continues to increase as it has in the past, does not present a picture pleasing to contemplate.”—Temperance Instructor for 1911.

In 1910, while traveling in Northern Michigan, I met Mr. A——, a business man of Grand Rapids. He said he had never used Tobacco. He had two boys who had never used the weed. He owns a nice home, his boys are strong and healthy; the older one is a prominent athlete at the Y. M. C. A. Mr. A—— said he was one day calling on a neighbor who asked why Mr. A—— was able to own a home, while he could not.

While they were talking, the elder son of Mr. G—— came in and said, “Give me a cigar, dad.” The father replied, “They are all gone. Go to the store and buy a box.” When the son returned, father and son each took a cigar. In a short time the younger son, a boy of sixteen or seventeen, came and asked for a cigar and was told, “There’s the box, help yourself!”

They could not afford a home, but could afford to buy cigars by the box. In the twenty years of married life of that man, he had burned up a home, was setting a bad example for his boys, and allowing them to use a poison that was injuring them. Mr. G—— and his two sons were not up to the standard of Mr. A—— and his sons, physically, mentally, financially. Why?—Tobacco. A word to the wise is sufficient. A noted man once said, “Let your competitor smoke.”