Luwaku O. Je.nkixb, Priuter. *20 Norili \Villi:ini S'trtxL >i-w York. 
 
T^ACCO MANUFACTURE 
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 A REPORT 
 
 AIOPTED IN OONYINTION OF THE TRAIE, 
 
 at ®0op£r institute. 
 
 ITE-W •2'OE.IC, UECEI/irBEE, VTH JAIiTID STH, 1864. 
 
 By EDWARD BURKE. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 A. M: E R I C A. isr K w S COMIRANY, 
 Nos. 113 AND 121 NASSAU STREET, 
 General Agents, Newsdealers and Boo 
 
 KSELLERS. 
 
.'ilJ-K Alt/ 00 
 
 
 
 ^ ij i L \i 4.1 w'i 
 
 : U 
 
 
 j :A: r;> 
 
 J-i cvil'rti'r 
 
REPORT. 
 
 The experience of the past two years has conclusively demonstrated 
 the impracticability of taxing manufactured tobacco in any of its forms. 
 The large number of long established and wealthy firms engaged in the 
 manufacture of tobacco, snuff, and cigars which have been driven into 
 other vocations or into retirement, and the multitude of operatives of 
 all ages and conditions thrown out of employment since the 1st of July, 
 in consequence of the oppressiveness and inequalities of the present 
 system of taxation, are irrefragable proof of the truth of this assertion. 
 In one branch, that of cigar-making, in the City of New York alone, 
 there are at this moment three thousand journeymen, and a correspond¬ 
 ing number of packers and strippers out of work, and rendered almost 
 homeless through the operation of the act, which went into effect on the 
 1st of July, and which act was the inevitable sequence of a tax upon 
 the manufactured article. 
 
 Six months before its passage some of the provisions of the act of 
 June 30th, as they related to the manufacture of tobacco, snuff, and 
 cigars were known to those engaged in these branches, and every manu¬ 
 facturer and dealer that could do so endeavored to forestall, to some 
 extent, their evil effects. This prudence, operated to the serious detri¬ 
 ment of employes, and in some instances came near proving disastrous 
 to employers as well; there being one provision which was not divulged 
 until after the 1st of July, and which called for the taxing at the new 
 rates of all cigars in manufacturers’ hands on that date, upon which the 
 preceding duty had not been paid. 
 
 Under the inspiration of the unusual demand for labor, which the 
 necessities of employers in their desire to secure themselves against the 
 losses which they foresaw the stagnation which would succeed the 1st 
 of July would entail upon them superinduced, operatives, especially 
 those engaged in making cigars, pushed their demands for increased 
 wages to the extreme verge of endurance, and therein they did perfectly 
 right, for it was their duty to get all they could for their services, but 
 at the same time their action was productive of great injury to their 
 employers. For it not unfrequently happened that large orders taken 
 when wages were low, would leave on delivery a very small margin for 
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
4 
 
 .TOBACCO MANUFACTURE 
 
 profit; the nclvnnces made to workmen during the completing of such 
 orders absorbing all, and sometimes more than all, the difference between 
 the actual cost and the selling price of the goods. 
 
 It was the misfortune of many to find themselves the possessors of 
 rcsiicctable deficits at the close of June, 1864, from this cause. Not 
 uncomplainingly, of course, but yet with becoming fortitude the em¬ 
 ployers stood ujD against these repeated assaults upon the citadel of 
 their hopes—their percentages; saying, well, no matter, if we do lose 
 something now, after the 1st of July the new tax will make cigars so 
 much higher, if we have a large stock of them on hand we will be able to 
 recover all we may have lost before. And so they kept at work, yielding 
 to their journeymen, and piling up their s-tock. Six months had passed 
 in this manner; the 1st of July dawned upon us, and all was changed ; 
 our dream had flown ; we had been caught napping ; the broad light of 
 day streamed in upon our benighted eyes, and showed us the coup 
 d’ etat. 
 
 The law required that all cigars upon which the tax had not been 
 paid on the 1st of July, should be assessed at the new rates; that is, 
 instead of $2.50 and $3.50 per thousand, as we exioected, we must pay 
 $8. $16, $25, and $40 per thousand. Now, the question arises was this 
 fair ? Made necessary by the exigencies of the Government perhaps, 
 but was it fair ? It was a breach of the promise made to us in 1862. By 
 the terms of the Bevenue Act, which went into operation on the 1st of 
 September of that year, the manufacturer of cigars was permitted to 
 make and sell cigars at a rate of taxation not exceeding $3.50 per 
 thousand, until the act should be modified or repealed, or until further 
 notice. Now- this right to sell cigars involved the right to make the 
 cigars which were to be sold; the two, though distinct in their inves¬ 
 titure, were as one; they went hand-in-hand up to the last moment of 
 the law's duration, and the right to make thus associated with the right 
 to sell, carried with it the right to sell so long as there was any thing 
 to be sold of the thing made. While, therefore, it is perfectly legiti¬ 
 mate of Congress to declare that cigars made after a certain date shall 
 pay a certain tax when sold or before, it does not appear to us that it 
 is competent to prohibit the sale of that which was made by its 
 encouragement, and which would not have been made but for this 
 encouragement, and which when made, it declared might be sold with¬ 
 out limit as to time if the vender complied with the condition of sale. 
 By a parity of reasoning, then, it may be observed you might as well 
 conUnd that Congress has no right to tux the watch in your pocket or 
 the carriage in which you ride. Ob, no ! the cases are not at all alike. 
 Congress may tax any thing it pleases ; the coat upon your back if it 
 will, but a due regard should be had for the time of doing so. In 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 5 
 
 equity a promise made is as binding upon Congress as upon tbe bum- 
 blest individual 
 
 OPPOSITION. 
 
 We have said tbe experience of tbe past two years has conclusively 
 demonstrated tbe impracticability of taxing manufactured tobacco. It 
 needs no argument to convince tbe manufacturer of cigars, tobacco or 
 snuff that tbe opportunity afforded by this system to dishonest persons 
 for duplicity and evasion, works incalculable injury to all whose transac¬ 
 tions are characterized by fair dealing, and who are desirous of aiding 
 rather than of defrauding the Government. Nor is it necessary to show 
 to them bow much better the interests of all would be subserved by hav¬ 
 ing tbe tux applied solely to the leaf These facts are apparent to all 
 who have given the subject a moment’s consideration. But it is vitally 
 important that tbe Government should be awakened to a realizing sense 
 of the necessity of some immediate legislation thereupon which will secure 
 it against serious loss, and afford relief to those who are suffering from 
 its mistaken policy. To enlighten it as to the best course to be pursued 
 to achieve these results is the aim and purpose of these pages. 
 
 It is the opinion of every person engaged in the manufacture of cigars, 
 tobacco and snuff, and nine-tenths of all others in the United States, 
 including Congressmen, and officials of all kinds, from the Commissioner 
 of Internal Revenue down to the humblest Deputy Assistant Assessor, who 
 have reflected upon the matter, that the only proper and just mode of 
 taxing tobacco is to tax it in the leaf And they are of this opinion for 
 these among other reasons: First, because fraud and evasion can thereby 
 be 23revcnted; second, because it is far less expensive in collection; third, 
 because collections can be made with greater facility and expedition, 
 fourth, because the tax would then be borne equally by all; fifth, because 
 double the amount of revenue can be obtained. These advantages being 
 so generally admitted, it will naturally be asked why is this system not 
 jireferred to one which offers none of these inducements. To answer this 
 question it will be necessary to adduce the arguments of its opponents. 
 
 “ It will not do,” says the tobacco grower, “ to tax the products of the 
 farm, because it would discourage agriculture; it would repress the cul¬ 
 tivation of tobacco. Agriculture is a laborious and unprofitable vocation 
 at best, and if you impose any governmental restrictions upon it you will 
 extinguish it altogether.” “It will not do,” says the representative of 
 the people, “ to hamper the agriculturist; the products of the soil should 
 go untrammeled to the market. I would never dare to go home to my 
 constituents and tell them I had voted to prevent them from taking up 
 a si^rig of tobacco and twisting it into a quid, or granulating a leaf for 
 their pipes.” What inconsiderate, what untenable soj)hisms are these? 
 
G 
 
 TOBACCO MANUFACTURE 
 
 And yet it is by such reasoning as this tliat the Government i‘s permitted 
 to be robbed out of millions upon millions of dollars every year, and tho 
 interests of a class ten times more numerous, and representing a capital 
 one hundred times greater than the tobacco growers, are sacrificed. With 
 as much propriety the advocate of a tax on the leaf might claim that, 
 manufactures should not be repressed; that no impediment should be 
 placed in the way of the free transit of the handiwork of the mechanic 
 to the markets of the world. Why, he might inquire, should the farmer 
 be exempted from burden in this hour of national peril any more than 
 the manufacturer ? or why should the one have the privilge of preparing 
 tobaccv/ for his own consumption, and the other be taxed for every morsel 
 he uses, and subjected to severe penalties if he fail to pay the tax within 
 a given time. But the question need not be discussed in this manner. 
 There is a more effectual way of meeting it. 
 
 These men are under a misapprehension. It is not, and never has been 
 intended that if the Government should finally adopt the plan of taxa¬ 
 tion here recommended that the producer should pay the whole or any 
 part of the tax. So far as he is concerned there need not be the slightest 
 change in the routine of his business. Every penny demanded by the 
 Government is to be paid directly by the purchaser, as will be shown 
 hereafter. 
 
 EVASIONS. 
 
 Besides those already mentioned, there are others in and out of Con* 
 gress who sincerely believe the tax can be as certainly and as economi¬ 
 cally collected from the manufacturer, as from the raw material. But 
 a more extended acquaintance with the practical operation of tax-gath¬ 
 ering would speedily undeceive them. Treating upon this subject last 
 season, the writer said : “ Of the whole number of cigars manufactured 
 in the United States, it may be presumed that not more than one-half 
 are ever taxed at all. The regular manufacturers j)ay promptly, when 
 called upon, for every thousand manufactured by them. But there are 
 millions upon millions made in out of the way places, such as basements, 
 garrets, etc., which the glance of an assessor’s eye never falls upon, and 
 of which, consequently, no return is ever made. This, besides being a 
 gigantic fraud upon the Government, is terribly injurious to the trade; 
 for these itinerant and covert bosses are able to undersell the regu¬ 
 lar or more conscientious dealer in the market.” What was true of last 
 season is true of to-day, unless we accept the declaration of those who 
 have investigated the matter lately, and who say the proportion of un¬ 
 assessed cigars is even greater than is there stated. And, indeed, the 
 evidence is strongly in favor of this assumption, for there are double 
 the number of cigars offered at dealers’ counters at prices which pre- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 1 
 
 elude the possibility of the tax having been paid, to ivhat there ever was 
 before. And so it will continue so long as the present system is adhered 
 to. All the laws and all the penalties that ever were or ever can be 
 devised to the contrary notwithstanding. The present law requires the 
 registry of cigar-makers, the number of the district in which they work, 
 and a monthly return of all the cigars they make, and for whom made; 
 and from manufacturers, a weekly report of all made for him, and by 
 whom, and the stamping of all cigars before sale—and what of it ? 
 Suppose they don’t comply, what is going to be done about it ? apply 
 the penalties ? How are you going to discover the culprits, or when 
 discovered, how prove the offence ? 
 
 “ I will call this evening, about the time you are closing your store,” 
 said a crippled and poorly dressed man, two weeks ago, to a dealer in leaf 
 tobacco, “ and take home my purchase which consisted of ten pounds 
 of common tobacco. The dealer smiled, and inquired, “ Are you going 
 to run the blockade ?” “ I never thought 1 should come to this,” replied 
 
 the man, with tears in his eyes, “ but what am I to do ? I have a wife 
 and seven children, the oldest only eleven years of age, and a cripj)le 
 like myself, to support. I cannot let them starve, and yet I must do so 
 or do as I am doing, for I can get no work in the shops.” In large 
 cities there are*a great many situated like this man ; and there are also 
 a great many who run the blockade from motives of cupidity, who 
 argue that it is no crime to cheat the Government; and who exultingly 
 point to the opportunities afforded by the law for evasion, as evidence 
 of the Government’s anticipation that it would be and might be de¬ 
 frauded by all those having the wit and the courage to avail themselves 
 of them. Stringent and guarded as the law' is, it is wholly inadequate 
 to reach these parties. There is one General Inspector in the city of 
 New York, it w’ould require an hundred to ferret out all the recusants. 
 There are detectives, but of what avail are they ? How are they going 
 to bring the man to justice who, under cover of darkness, leaves his 
 private dwelling with an hundred, a thousand, or five thousand cig'ars, 
 in a basket, enveloped by a bed blanket, and hurries off to some friendly 
 porter-house w hose doors arc ever open to the struggling blockade mari¬ 
 ner, and there unships his cargo ? What right has the inspector to stop a 
 man in the street simply because he happens to be carrying a basket in 
 his arms ? Not any ; and he does not do so, and hence such scenes are 
 witnessed at all hours, when night obscures the gaze, and when the noon¬ 
 tide sun is at its height. Or how can he trace the box containing from 
 ten to tw'enty thousand cigars, marked ” glass, and to be handled with 
 care,” coming from the far wilds of Pennsylvania, or the remote confines 
 of Idaho, or elsew’here in the States, to the New York, Philadelphia, or 
 Boston factor, to be stealthily unpacked and mingled with his own. 
 
8 
 
 TOBACCO MANUFACTUKE 
 
 The inspector has the power to investigate ! Yes; but he has also 
 tlie sensibilities of a man ; and it is a very delicate thing to pry into the 
 private affairs of a man who is supi^osed to be conducting his business 
 in a legitimate manner. The inspector, detectives, and assessors are 
 vigilant, energetic, and accomplish a great deal of good no doubt; but 
 they cannot be everywhere at once, the labor is too great, the field too 
 extensive. Now, as under the old law, our ehief dependence for honest 
 returns is on the oath of the manufacturer, for the stami)s amount to 
 nothing l)ut a nuisance; and how much reliance can be placed in the 
 aflirmation of many is a projjosition like some of Euclid’s problems, not 
 easy of demonstration. The incentive to swear falsely afforded by the 
 high rates of taxation, and the facility with which they may be evaded, 
 are powers too potent for the resistive force of those who have not 
 attained a certain degree of moral develoiDinent. And to many a man 
 whose nature would revolt at the bear thought of an evil act, when he 
 witnesses the depressing influence of these burdens and inequalities upon 
 his business, and sees how easy it is to obtain a partial relief, the reflec¬ 
 tion has occurred, 'ichat could I not do if I would? It is a groat tempta¬ 
 tion, it is a i)erpetual temptation, and should be removed. Not alone 
 to the honest and law-abiding manufacturer of cigars, are the grievances 
 here briefly touched iq^on apparent and oppressive; they extend to 
 every department in the trade. The tobacco-cutter, the snuff-grinder, 
 and the plug manufacturer, each in his degree is called upon to bear the 
 burdens which these outrages inflict. But upon the cigar manufacturer 
 alone devolves the lion’s share, because his business more than any other 
 admits of all the necessary conditions. The cutter must have his factory 
 and his machinery be they ever so small, and the grinder must have his 
 mill; but the cigar-maker can work in a tub. Nor are these unfortunate 
 circumstances the result of the law itself, or in consequence of any 
 defect therein. 
 
 INEFFICIENCY OF THE LAW. 
 
 The law of 1864 in reference to evasions seems to have been framed 
 with great care. Every device that ingenuity could conceive or wisdom 
 suggest, to secure the Government and protect honest men from this 
 curse, are embraced in its provisions. But the business of cigar making 
 is of that peculiar nature that no kind of restrictive legislation, however 
 skillfully designed, can cover all the avenues of illicit trade, and hence 
 the law is, and all laws upon the subject must be, signal failures. It is 
 a question if the history of all legislation upon matters of excise, and 
 especially in sjjarsely settled countries like our own, does not prove the 
 inutility of attempting to prevent frauds where a portion of the people 
 are resolutely bent upon perpetrating them. The experience of England 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 9 
 
 offers some striking examples upon this point. To insure perfect security 
 against wrong doing, the motive or the opportunity must be suppressed. 
 
 THE LAW. 
 
 It has been conceded that the law of 1864, so far as attempting to 
 provide for the prevention of illegitimate commerce was concerned, was 
 all that could be reasonably expected. But there commendation must 
 oehse. As a statutory measure for the protection and encouragement of 
 tobacco manufacturing, it is an error from beginning to end, being vague 
 ii its phraseology, burdensome in its operation, and impracticable in its 
 claracter. 
 
 EXCESSIVE RATES OF TAX. 
 
 It begins by imposing a rate of duties altogether beyond what the 
 circimstanccs would warrant, and concludes by leaving it a matter of 
 doulA in the mind of the honest taxpayer whether he can pay any tax 
 at all or not. 
 
 Let us examine the first count. At a time when the price of the raw 
 materiil had advanced from two to three hundred per cent., and that of 
 labor fiom three to four hundred, manufacturers of cigars were required 
 to add three hundred more for taxes: making in the aggregate an advance 
 of nine hundred per cent, on the cost of their goods for the year 1864 over 
 the year 1863. This was a precipitous ascent, to say the least, but yet, 
 it was ore that would have been cheerfully borne by those affected had 
 other thiags been equal. For, to their credit, workers in tobaeco as a 
 class are is intensely loyal and as desirous of aiding the Government as 
 any in th« land. AVith the close of the year 1863 there were very few 
 low-priee(^, cigars made in the country, the tax of 1862, low as it was, 
 and other combinations having rendered, a few months after its incep¬ 
 tion, their retail unprofitable, $30 per thousand being the cheapest 
 grade of tiieir own make in the hands of regular manufacturers. The 
 appreciation of labor and stock by March, 1864, was such that the same 
 grade sold at from $40 to $60 per th.)usand wholesale, and could not 
 well be sold for less than $40. When, aecordingly, on the 1st of July, 
 $25 and $40 tax was added, it can readily be seen how deleteriously the 
 the trade must be affected. It carried this grade of cigars up to $65 
 and $85 per thousand. This also might have been borne but for two 
 contingencies which were adverse. If there had been inferior grades of 
 tobacco which manufacturers could have fallen back upon, or if all 
 business were done at wholesale, it would have made no important 
 difference whether the grade in question ruled at $60 or $100 per 
 thousand. But, unfortunately, on the one hand, all leaf tobacco ruled 
 at exorbitant rates, and there was no alternative for manufacturers. 
 
10 
 
 TOBACCO MANUFACTURE 
 
 They must citlicr work the kind of which the grade spoken of were 
 made or an interior quality costing nearly or quite as much, or stop 
 manufacturing; and, on the other hand, the majority of manufacturers 
 Avere jolihcrs and retailers as well as wholesalers, and heyond all and 
 over all the whole system depended upon retailers at last. Take from 
 the business the retailer, and there would not I)e a cigar made of any 
 kind. This fact is so apparent that it seems trilling to state it, but it is 
 essential to the sequence. The man who sold at wholesale could get 
 along for some time, it may be assumed, but mark the condition of the 
 unfortunate retailer. 
 
 RETAILER. 
 
 Costing him, though himself the manufacturer, from $60 to $70per 
 thousand, to afford him a living profit, it Avas necessary for him to 
 charge ten cents a piece for them. But there Avere two obstacles ir the 
 way of this, one of which was that the public, the great public, Avas not 
 accustomed to such a price, and would not pay it; and the other, the 
 cigars were not intrinsically worth the money, nor any thing'like ii; and 
 no amount of Congressional action could make them intrinsically Avorth 
 it. What wa.s to be done? The retailer pondered over it for some 
 time. At last he hit upon a plan, as he thought; he could make i penny 
 by selling them for seven in the one case, and a halfpenny in tie other 
 by selling for eight, and so be able to keep his store open a few weeks 
 longer. But then, there was another difficult 3 ^ The customer Avould 
 give him ten cents worth of postal currencj’’, and the retailer vmuld be 
 obliged to return him two and three pennies change, and it took one 
 hundred and twenty cents in currency to buy one hundred cents in 
 pennies. What Avas to be done? the retailer asked, and he has been 
 asking the same question since the 1st of July, 
 
 VAGUENESS OF THE LAW. 
 
 Let us examine the second count. Commissioner Lewis, with that 
 acumen which ever characterises him, has done it for us in these words: 
 
 “ Sec. 94 of the Act of June 30th, 1864, in imposing a tax on cigars 
 according to a graduated scale of values, provides that the valuation 
 shall in all cases be the value of the cigars exclusive of the tax. A 
 literal compliance with this provision is a sheer impossibility, inasmuch 
 as it requires the elimination of two unknoAvn quantities from a given 
 total. When, for instance, cigars are sold at $50 per thousand, if for 
 the purpose of the exclusion we assume the tax to be $15, the net value 
 remains $35, and the cigars fall into the class subject to a tax of $25 ; 
 while if the latter be assumed as the tax to be deducted, the valuation. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 11 
 
 exclusive of the tax, is but $25, and the cigars appear to be subject to a 
 tax of but $15.” 
 
 We liave spoken of the dilemma in which the retailer is placed, and 
 have treated it humorously; but its gravity demanded a more serious 
 consideration, for an entire department of trade is blocked and jeopard¬ 
 ized thereby. 
 
 BURDENS. 
 
 The law is burdensome because it imposes obligations and expenses 
 upon manufacturers which materially affect the profits and interfere with 
 the proper conduct of their business, and which arc in no wise produc¬ 
 tive of advantage to the Government. Compelling manufacturers of 
 cigars to make a weekly return of every cigar, every pound of tobacco, 
 every stem, every scrap, every cutting that goes in or out of his factory; 
 and snuff and tobacco manufacturers, all of'these, together with every 
 pound of liquorice, tin-foil, bladder, etc., which go to make up the 
 paraphernalia of their respective establishments, entails an amount of 
 useless labor upon them which is perfectly appalling. 
 
 To say nothing of the expense of the additional book-keepers which 
 this system necessitates, the anxiety each man is forced to endure lest 
 some discrepancies in his accounts appear, which after the lapse of a 
 little time it is difficult to explain, and which would bring him into 
 unpleasant relations with the authorities is a sufficient reason for con¬ 
 demning the whole thing. Especially as no good can be derived from 
 it. Because those reports are in the hands of the Government to 
 suppose they will serve as a check upon rascals is simply absurd, for all 
 such have wit enough to make all their accounts agree, though they 
 should be obliged to report every day. 
 
 LIMITATION OF THE MANUFACTURERS’ PROFITS. 
 
 But the direct and compulsory limitation of the cigar manufacturers’ 
 vprofits which the law enjoins is a feature in legislation, the novelty of 
 which is exceeded only by its oppressiveness, and its consequent tendency 
 to discourage all enterprise, all ambition. The following are the rates 
 of tax which the law imposes: On cigarettes made wholly of tobacco, 
 cheroots, or short sixes, valued in each case at not over $5 per thousand, 
 $3 tax; cigars valued at over $5, and not over $15 per thousand, $8 
 tax; valued at over $15, and not over $30 per thousand, $15 tax; 
 valued at over $30, and not over $45 per thousand, $25 tax ; valued 
 at over $45 per thousand, $40 tax. It has just been shown by the 
 extract from Commissioner Lewis’ circular, how irreconcilable these 
 figures were with any practicable mode of assessment Observe, now, 
 
12 
 
 TOBACCO MANUFACTURE 
 
 the annovance which is the unavoidable corollary of their arrangement. 
 To rcilucc them to something like a practicable scale, Commissioner 
 Lewis devised the subjoined schedule : Cigars selling at not over $13 
 per thousand, $3 tax ; over $13, and not over $30 per thousand, $8 tax ; 
 over $30, and not over $53 per thousand, $15 tax ; over $53, and not 
 over $85 per thousand, $25 tax ; over $85 per thousand, $40 tax. This 
 schedule, though it alters the form, does not materially alfect the rates 
 of the terms ; and while being infinitely better for both the Government 
 and the manufimturer to operate under, it shows with mathematical 
 precision the limitation alluded to. Any of the ranges enumerated will 
 illustrate the point, so, for example, we will take a couple at random, 
 commencing wdth the range between $30 and $55 per thousand. A. 
 thousand cigars wTiich cost the manufacturer to get ui? $35, exclusive 
 of the tax, if there Avere no tax, he would gladly sell, as a general thing, 
 for $40, realizing $5 on the transaction; but Avith the tax included he 
 is compelled to charge $55 to realize that sum, the tax being $15, and 
 $40 and $15 making $55. Now, suppose a thousand of the same grade 
 cost to get up, exclusive of the tax, $37, $38, or $39, as is frequently the 
 case in consequence of the variable character of tobacco, one lot netting 
 a thousand or five thousand cigars, where another lot of the same 
 grade, and quantity, and costing just as much per pound, nets only five 
 hundred or two thousand five hundred, and he still Avants $5 profit, 
 and by the way, that is little enough; what shall he charge per thou¬ 
 sand, $57, $58, or $59 ? Oh, no ! Why ? because that would carry them 
 into the $25 range of taxation, which would add $10 more to the tax 
 and cause him to lose from $7 to $9 by the sale, the limit for the $15 
 tax being $55. What must he do then ? simply this : put his cigars on 
 the shelf and not sell. So too, of cigars, costing the manufacturer, 
 exclusive of the tax, $59 or $60; he is obliged to sell them for $1 profit 
 or exactly at cost, or else charge over a hundred for them, which, again, 
 is more than they are Avorth, because the tax on this grade is $25, and 
 $60 and $25 arc $85, and over $85 the tax is $40, and $85 and $15 are 
 $100. So that, whether he sell at $85 or $100 it makes not a particle of 
 ditference to the seller; if he sell at $85 he makes $1, or he makes nothing ; 
 and if he sell at $100 he makes $1, or he makes nothing, according as the 
 article cost him $59 or $60 to get up. He may sell for $30 and pay a 
 Ux of $8 only, but if he sell for $31 he must pay a tax of $15, losing 
 $7 to gain $1 ; and he may sell for $55 and pay only $15 tax, but if he 
 sell for $56 he must pay $25, and so on to the end of the chapter. 
 
 This seems to be limiting a man’s profits with a vengeance. Is it any 
 wondei alter this expose that the business of cigar-making is stagnant 
 throughout the country, or that there are three thousand journeymen 
 cigar-mukers out of employment in the City of New York ? It is folly 
 
IN' THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 13 
 
 to contend that as the tax adds so much to the cost of the cigars, that 
 so much is added to their intrinsic worth. 
 
 Cigars, like every other commodity, are worth just what they will 
 bring in the market, and no more. No more than calling potatoes dia¬ 
 monds makes diamonds of that ugly, though wholesome vegetable, 
 does declaring a given article the representative of a given sum of 
 money transform it into the representative of such a sum. A man’s 
 desire or indifference to possess is the standard, and the only one of 
 value. 
 
 If men did not esteem pearls more highly than they do coals, they 
 would not be worth-more than coals. 
 
 DISTINCTION BETWEEN MANUFACTURER AND DEALER. 
 
 Grave and serious as are the objections noticed, the most oppressive 
 of all—the one which tends to prostrate every energy of the business 
 man, and works the most harassing and indescribable confusion in the 
 trade—is the invidious distinction made by the law between the manu¬ 
 facturer of and the dealer in cigars. To the mere dealer the largest 
 liberty of action is accorded ; a carte hlanch is given to him to do what¬ 
 ever he pleases ; not a restraint, restriction, responsibility, or obligation 
 is imposed upon him ; while the cigar manufacturer is saddled with 
 every annoyance, every inconvenience, every disadvantage, every dis¬ 
 ability, every obstacle, every impediment, every burden, and every check 
 which expediency could design or necessity could exact. Perhaps this 
 was unavoidable ; then let the conditions be changed; why perpetuate 
 a system so odious in its effects. 
 
 Cigars that a manufacturer would sell at his manufactory, or his store, 
 at wholesale, to a dealer, to be retailed out by him at a certain jjrice, if 
 he retails them himself he is obliged to pay from fifty to one hundred 
 per cent, more tax than would meet the requirements of the law for the 
 same article sold at wholesale to a dealer to retail. 
 
 For example; on a thousand cigars, which he sells in his store to a 
 single purchaser for $30 per thousand, he pays $8 tax; but if he retails 
 them out for $100, that is at the rate of ten cents apiece, he must pay 
 $40 tax. Very well, is not that right? If he gets so much more for 
 them in that way, can he not afford to pay that much more tax ? Yes 1 
 Where, then, is the hardship ? Listen : Let that manufacturer step out 
 of his own store, and let a dealet step in and take his place, and after 
 paying the manufacturer $30 for that thousand cigars, he may retail them 
 out for $500, at the rate of 50 cents apiece, or for any price he pleases, 
 and never be called upon for one penny additional tax. Is this right ? 
 So too with the man who is a manufacturer and dealer combined, of the 
 first class—one who sells altogether by the box, or by the thousand; he 
 
14 
 
 TOBACCO MANUFACTURE 
 
 Cftn afford to sell 5,000 or 10,000 cheaper than he can 100 or 1,000 ; but 
 the principal part of his business being done in the latter quantities, he 
 is brought into a ruinous competition with both the dealer pure and 
 simple, and the wholesale manufacturer; because his expenses are greater 
 than either, and the latter pays a much lighter tax by selling large quan¬ 
 tities at lower rates than the manufacturing dealer can afford to sell for, 
 selling chiefly in small quantities; while the latter pays no tax at all. 
 What an anomaly is here presented ? The hunger of the law is sated in 
 the one case, with a low tax and no tax, and in the other its voracity can 
 be appeased only by swallowing everything within its reach. Legislat¬ 
 ors ! in the name of all that is good and righteous, we ask you why 
 should a worthy class of men be crushed by such legislation as this ? 
 What offence has the upright manufacturer committed that he should be 
 placed under such a ban? What encouragement, what inducement 
 has he to continue business with such a disqualification upon him ; such 
 an impediment before him ; such a gulf of ruin around him ? Nor does 
 the disability stop here. 
 
 STAMPS. 
 
 Sec. 94 declares, “ that all cigars manufactured after the passage of 
 this act, shall be stamped, etc., etc. And that any cigars which shall be 
 sold, or pass out of the manufacturer's hands, except into a bonded ware¬ 
 house, without such stamps shall be forfeited, and may be seized where- 
 cver found.” The manufacturer, again, it will be observed. The cigars 
 must not leave the hands of the manufacturer without being stamped. 
 The manufacturer must be to the trouble and expense of stamping now 
 and for evermore, and he must wait for the convenience of the inspector 
 to have it done. If he have a note to pay to-day at two o’clock, with 
 not an available dollar in the world, but having a lot of unstamped ci¬ 
 gars, which if sold would relieve him of his difficulty, and a customer 
 should come in at one o’clock, and offer to take them all, he cannot, dare 
 not sell them. And yet they are unstamped through no fault of his own, 
 but simply because the inspector who was notified two weeks previously, 
 has been so occupied elsewhere, that he could not attend to it. 
 
 This is an extreme case; but extreme cases sometimes happen, and tho 
 law makes no distinction between extreme and ordinary cases. 
 
 I. 
 
 All of his cigars must be packed in bundles, packages, or boxes, and 
 the stamps thereupon must not be broken. But the dealer can buy bun¬ 
 dles or packages of cigars, be they composed of 100 or 100,000, re-pack 
 them, and send them broadcast over the land without liability to forfei¬ 
 ture, without reassessment from now till doomsday, so far as section 94, 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 15 
 
 or any other section, specifics to the contrary. He may do more ; he may 
 be an actual ihougli not an avowed manufacturer, as many are, liaving 
 Lis work done by journeymen at their homes, pay the taxes there—those 
 of them who do pay taxes—assume to buy them of the jinirneymcn, then 
 bring them to his store, and be thenceforward free of ail responsibility. 
 We have said stamping was a failure; it is so considered in tlie Internal 
 Revenue Department. What is to hinder inspectors from selling them 
 to anybody that wishes .to buy? What is there to prevent them from 
 putting on an $8 stamp where they ought to put on a $25 one, if a 
 person feels disposed to pay them for doing so ? 
 
 II. 
 
 In his circular of August 20th, Commissioner Lewis says, after declar¬ 
 ing the object of stamping; “ Nor is there anything in tlic law requiring 
 a second inspection of cigars in the hands of a purchaser wdien they have 
 once been inspected and assessed in the hands of a manufacturer.” Mark 
 where this disorder tends. When the law went into operation, there 
 were many millions of cigars in first and second hands, not one of which 
 had to be stamped; how long would it be before that stock would be 
 consumed ? It might be six months, or it might be six years. What is 
 there to prevent people from swearing all the cigars they may make for 
 the next five years were made before the 1st of July, 1864. It wmuld not 
 take a great while, under this process, to rid the market entirely of 
 stamped cigars. But there is another process at work which will ac¬ 
 complish it more speedily. Finding themselves so circumscribed by the 
 limitations referred to, and others which the want of space compels us to 
 omit, manufacturers were forced, for the sake of self-preservation, to 
 cease manufacturing altogether. Of the vast number engaged in this 
 pursuit three mouths ago, one-fourth, perhaps, cannot thus be found to¬ 
 day. They have become dealers, absolute, honajide dealers; not an eva¬ 
 sion but an actual relinquishment of their proprietorships in manufactur¬ 
 ing, and as dealers are not required to re-stamp their cigars after receiving 
 them from the hands of the makers in bundles and parcels. 
 
 A few weeks more, therefore, and stamped cigars will be a thing of 
 history. Apprehending this condition of things, and desiring to remedy 
 it, the Cigar Manufacturers’ Association of the City of New York sent a 
 Committee to Washington, to confer with Commissioner Lewis upon the 
 subject, and as a result of their efforts, directions will probably be issued 
 in a few days by him, authorizing the stamping of all cigars of a domes¬ 
 tic kind wherever found, and whenever made. 
 
 But as the law does not demand this to be done, it is not clear how 
 the order can be enforced, nor is it likely it will. 
 
16 
 
 TOBACCO MANUFACTURE 
 
 III. 
 
 As stamps release cigars from tax after they have left the hands of the 
 manufacturer, he may stamj) and sell a million, and owe the Government 
 the tax ever after. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Another objection to stamps is, that as they indicate nearly the origi¬ 
 nal value, every purchaser is possessed of one of the prime secrets of the 
 trade, and there is no margin for profit left to the jobber. 
 
 STATISTICS. 
 
 According to the New American Gyclopmdia^ vol. XV., there were 
 raised in 1S60, in the United States, 428,121,000 lbs of tobacco, ap¬ 
 portioned as follows: 
 
 New Hampshire, . 
 
 21,000 lbs. 
 
 Mississippi, . 
 
 128,000 lbs. 
 
 Vermont, 
 
 12,000 
 
 
 Louisiana, . 
 
 41,000 
 
 “ 
 
 Massachusetts, 
 
 3,233,000 
 
 
 Texas, . 
 
 98,000 
 
 u 
 
 Rhode Island, 
 
 1,000 
 
 
 Arkansas, 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 » 
 
 Connecticut, 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 “ 
 
 Tennessee, . 
 
 . 38,911,000 
 
 
 New York, 
 
 5,764,000 
 
 “ 
 
 Kentucky, . 
 
 . 108,102,000 
 
 “ 
 
 New Jersey, 
 
 149,000 
 
 
 Ohio, . 
 
 . 29,529,000 
 
 “ 
 
 Pennsylvania, 
 
 3,182,000 
 
 “ 
 
 Michigan, . 
 
 121,000 
 
 “ 
 
 Delaware, 
 
 10,000 
 
 
 Indiana, 
 
 4,658,000 
 
 (C 
 
 Maryland, 
 
 38,411,000 
 
 
 Illinois, 
 
 714,000 
 
 u 
 
 Virginia, 
 
 123,968,000 
 
 
 Wisconsin, . 
 
 88,000 
 
 U 
 
 North Carolina, . 
 
 82,853,000 
 
 “ 
 
 Iowa, . 
 
 313,000 
 
 
 South Carolina, . 
 
 104,000 
 
 
 Missouri, 
 
 . 26,435,000 
 
 
 Georgia, 
 
 919,000 
 
 
 Kansas, 
 
 17,000 
 
 (( 
 
 Florida, 
 
 Alabama, 
 
 758,000 
 
 221,000 
 
 
 California, . 
 
 3,000 
 
 “ 
 
 Total,. 428,121,000 lbs. 
 
 And according to the Report of the Agricultural Department at Wash¬ 
 ington, the number raised was 429,390,771 lbs. As the latter is probably 
 the most reliable statement, we will take that as a basis for our first 
 estimate. To determine the proper rate of assessment for tobacco in the 
 leaf is a question of some nicety, as opinions are somewhat diverse 
 upon this point; but as it is not a question of what men think is right, 
 but what the Government must have, that is to be considered, we must 
 first see what the Government now demands of us, and what we are pay- 
 ing. Of the five grades of cigars contained in the schedule, there are 
 only four that are of any great importance any way; and those four are 
 those ranging under the $3, the $8, the $15, and the $25 tax. The ma- 
 
IX THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 17 
 
 jority of the cigars made during this year will, vrithout doubt, be 
 returned at |8 and under $8 tax. But as there will be a considerable 
 number,returned at the $15, and some under the $'2o, we may make $15 
 tax per thousand the average. As a general thing; it requires about 
 25 lbs. of tobacco to make a thousand cigars. The Government then de¬ 
 mands, and in the ordinary course of things, cigar manufacturers will 
 pay to the Government at tlie rate of 60 cents per pound for every 
 pound of tobacco contained in each thousand cigars they may make 
 hereafter. On smoking tobacco the tax is 25 cents; on snuff, 35 cents; 
 and on fine cut-chewing and plug tobacco, 35 cents per pound. 
 
 Smoking tobacco, mixed as it usually is with more or less stem, does 
 not decrease much in the manufacture—lOO lbs. of leaf yielding 100 lbs. 
 of manufactured. But there is considerable disparity in the case of 
 the othei-s, 100 lbs. of leaf yielding only about 85 lbs of snuff, 68 lbs. of 
 fine cut, and 80 lbs. of plug tobacco. The snuff manufacturer, therefore, 
 excluding fractions, pays at the rate of 29 cents per pound on the raw 
 material; the plug manufacturer 29 cents ; and the manufacturer of fine 
 cut 24 cents. 
 
 From this it would appear that almost any reduction would be agree¬ 
 able to cigar manufacturers, while, to the tobacconists, a reauction of 
 this amount could not l)e otherwise than satisfactory. Twenty-five cents 
 per pound all round, therefore, would seem to be a fair rate of assessment 
 for tijbacco in the leaf. Thirty would not be ol^'jected to if they were 
 protected in other respects by cigar manufacturers. For if there be no 
 evasions ; if every one engaged in the manufacture of cigars is compelled 
 to pay alike, it matters little to them in the aggregate how much tax 
 tliey have to pay, so long, of course, as it is not so high as to diminish 
 consumption. But there is no necessity of exacting this amount, as the 
 former will yield all the revenue the Government needs. At 25 cents 
 per pound, then, 429,390,771 pounds, with no drawback for exported, 
 would yield the enormous sum of $107,347,692, The rebellion having 
 depressed the growth of tobacco in several of the principal tobacco grow¬ 
 ing States included in the above, of course this estimate has no signi¬ 
 ficance further than to indicate wdiat might be expected from this source 
 in time of peace. 
 
 Tlie war, however, cannot last always, and five years hence, probably, 
 there will be as much tobacco raised in the country as there was in 
 1800, and even more; for Connecticut, New York, Ohio, and other 
 Northern and Middle States are increasing their production annually. 
 Besides this, allowance must be made for drawbacks on tobacco ex¬ 
 ported, unless the Government should change its policy in this respect 
 in the future, and have no drawback whatever, as is suggested by Com¬ 
 missioner Lewis in his report for 1863. 
 
18 
 
 TOBACCO MANUFACTURE 
 
 The returns to the Agricultural r)ureau for 1862 give 280,000,000 
 pounds as the entire growth of that year, and for the year 1863, 
 267,302,770 pounds. 
 
 EXPORTS. 
 
 There were exported during the latter year: 
 
 Ilhds.—111,898, averaging 1200 lbs. each, . 134,277,600 
 
 Cases— 7,685, “ 400 “ “ . 3,074,000 
 
 Bales— 26,586, “ 250 “ “ . 6,646,500 
 
 And of manufactured, 7,025,248 ll)s., which is equivalent to 8,428,298 lbs. 
 of leaf, allowing 100 lbs. of the latter to 80 lbs of the former: giving a 
 total of 152,416,398 lbs. 
 
 This amount deducted from the amount raised in 1862, leaves 
 127,583,002 pounds of taxable tobacco at the very lowest, wdiich can be 
 depended upon annually hereafter. We say can be depended upon, 
 for the foreign consumption will scarcely ever again exceed that of 1863, 
 as,our principal buyers abroad are now and will be hereafter importing 
 largely from other countries. 
 
 DIMINUTION OF EXPORTS. 
 
 The gradual diminution of our exports is becoming very apparent, as 
 may be seen by the subjoined tables: 
 
 They were in 1853, 159,853 hhds, 
 
 1854, 136.107 “ 
 
 1855, 150,213 “ 
 
 1850, 124,826 “ 
 
 1857, 115,000 “ 
 
 1858, 160,000 » 
 
 They were in 1859, 165,000 hhds. 
 
 1800, 175,000 “ 
 1861, 167,585 “ 
 1802, 105,919 “ 
 1863, 111,898 “ 
 
 Nor can this decrease be ascribed to the cessation of exports of Vir¬ 
 ginia tobacco, for the average exportations from Virginia for the pre¬ 
 ceding eight years w^ere scarcely 20,000 hhds. per annum. It is owing 
 to the culture of large quantities of tobacco in countries which hereto¬ 
 fore have been our largest customers. Twenty-five years ago all Germany 
 had not more than a few hundred acres of land in tobacco leaf. At the 
 present day, a small province—the Palatinate—furnishes from three to 
 four hundred thousand quintals annually. In Hungary, where formerly 
 only sufficient tobacco was permitted to be raised to supply the Govern¬ 
 ment monopoly, according to official statement, 80,000 hhds. of 1200 
 pounds each are now produced, a considerable portion of which goes to 
 France. 
 
 Austria, once a large customer, now takes very little from us. France, 
 which formerly drew its supplies almost exclusively from this country, 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 19 
 
 now receives large quantities from Algeria and the Departments, with 
 the cheaper supplies of the Palatinate, Holland and Hungary. Bremen, 
 representing the consumption of Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, 
 Poland and Russia, takes considerably less than in fonner years. The 
 sales of seed leaf for that market in 1858, were 3,240 cases, in 1859, 
 3,980, in 1860, 14,780, in 1861, 36,120, in 1862, 31,962, and in 1863, only 
 7,685, most of which were sent back here. 
 
 The export of 1863, therefore, may be considered a fair standard. At 
 twenty-five cents per pound 127,583,602 pounds would yield a revenue of 
 $31,895,900 50. 
 
 MANUFACTURES, 
 
 The first ten months, commencing September 1st, 1862, of the fiscal 
 year ending June 30th, 1863, brought a revenue of $3,090,028 38, fi-om 
 manufactures of tobacco, derived in the following order; 
 
 Chewing tobacco, 14,961,156 lbs. @ 15 cts, per lb., $2,244,173 89 
 Smoking “ 6,695,978 “ 5 334,798 94 
 
 Snuff, 172,230 “ 20 
 
 Cigars @ $1 50 tax per M, 34,806,673, 
 Cigars 2 00 50,605,525, 
 
 Cigars 2 50 « 75,398,072, 
 
 Cigars 3 50 “ 38,478,014, 
 
 34,466 66 
 52,210 01 
 101,211 05 
 188,495 18 
 134,673 05 
 
 These sources for the fiscal year commencing June 30th, 1863, and 
 ending June 30th, 1864, yielded a revenue of $8,583,043 77, derived in 
 the same order as the preceding, mz: 
 
 Chewing tobacco, . . . 39,180,634 lbs. @ 15 cts., $5,877,095 11 
 
 Smoking, with all the stems in, 22,926,588 “ ‘ 6 1,146,329 43 
 
 Smoking, exclusive of stems, . 1,265,204 “ 6 63,260 20 
 
 
 Total of tobacco. 
 
 $7,086,684 74 
 
 Snuff, 
 
 . 1,204,671 lbs. @ 20 cts.. 
 
 $240,934 24 
 
 Cigars @ $1 50 tax, 42,856,026,. 
 
 . 64,284 04 
 
 Cigars 
 
 2 00 “ 128,106,500,. 
 
 . 256,213 00 
 
 Cigars 
 
 2 60 “ 191,435,860,. 
 
 . 478,589 68 
 
 Cigars 
 
 3 50 “ 130,382,314,. 
 
 . 456,338 10 
 
 
 Total of cigars, . 
 
 $1,255,424 79 
 
 The total number of pounds of tobacco manufactured was 63,372,426, 
 which, including 1,204,671 pounds of snuflf, is equal, according to the 
 proportions before mentioned, to 79,323,538 pounds of leaf tobacco. 
 The total number of cigars returned was 492,780,700, consuming in their 
 manufacture 12,319,517 pounds of leaf, which added to the previous 
 
20 
 
 TOBACCO MANUFACTURE 
 
 nmonnt makes a grand total of 91,542,055 pounds of leaf tobacco con¬ 
 sumed during the year. 
 
 At twenty-five cents per pound this amount would have yielded 
 $22,885,513, against $8,583,043 77, the amount actually received; a dif¬ 
 ference in favor of the Government of $14,302,469 98. So much for the 
 past, what is the prospect for the future ? 
 
 FUTURE. 
 
 "We will suppose that during the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1865, 
 the production will be just as large as during the preceding year. There 
 must be made, therefore, of chewing tobacco, 39,180,634 jDounds, which 
 at 35 cents per pound will yield $13,713,221 91; of smoking tobacco, 
 24,191,792 pounds, which at 25 cents will yield $6,047,948; of snuff, 
 1,204,671 jDounds, which at 35 cents will yield $421,634; of cigars, 
 492,780,700 which at $15, the average chosen, will yield $7,391,710 51, 
 and all together $27,574,514 41. As has been observed, 91,542,055 
 pounds of leaf tobacco are requisite for this amount of manufactured, 
 and at twenty-five cents per pound this amount of leaf would yield 
 $22,885,513. 
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 This is but a single example, and yet it is as good as a thousand; 
 it is the key to the entire system which we advocate. Here are re¬ 
 sults which should convince the most skeptical. Here are indica¬ 
 tions of the margins which heretofore have furnished, and which here¬ 
 after will provide material for evasions to any extent. Here is evidence 
 that there were nearly forty millions of pounds of tobacco consumed 
 last year, of which no account was rendered. Here is proof, that based 
 upon what may be the acknowledged consumption of the present year, 
 and after according everything that can be claimed for the present sys¬ 
 tem, there can be a difi'erence of only about four and a half millions of 
 dollars in its favor; while if the calculation be based, as it should be, 
 uiK)n the quantity Avhich will certainly be consumed, the balance will 
 be in favor of our system by over a million of dollars. And if in addi¬ 
 tion to this the actual mfinufacture, instead of the assumed, be taken 
 as the basis, and the difference between it and what would be the manu¬ 
 facture under our system be placed, as we have a right to place it, to 
 the credit side of our account, the amount of revenue which would be 
 received would exceed by several millions the amount which will be 
 received from the present mode and rates. For nothing can be clearer to 
 the common understanding than that not more than half, if half, the 
 quantity returned as manufactured last year can be manufactured this 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 21 
 
 vcar, or any other year, under these rates. Apply this rate of tax, twenty- 
 five cents per pound, to the crop legitimately and illegitimately con¬ 
 sumed in last year’s manufacture, and we have over thirty millions of 
 dollars; apply it to any other year and it will always bear the same 
 ratio to the present rates that it does in the example cited; so. that at 
 the worst the Government could lose only about four and a half millions 
 by the change. 
 
 The crop of 1864 may reach, and possibly exceed, 300,000,000 of 
 pounds, and its manufacture, and the manufacture of all other years, the 
 growth of w'hich shall exceed the growth of 1863, will afford correspond¬ 
 ing balances in our favor. Just in proportion as the amount grown ex¬ 
 ceeds the amount of manufiictures returned, will be the margin for eva¬ 
 sion, be that amount 1,000,000 or 100,000,000, for every pound grown 
 will be consumed. 
 
 These operations, growing and consuming, are continuous, and it is 
 difficult to show by figures to those unacquainted with the routine, when 
 the crop of any one year is merged into the manufactures of another, 
 and accordingly it is impossible to prove that the crop of 1863 wdll be 
 entirely consumed within the fiscal year ending the 30th of June, 1865; 
 and yet it is apparent to the workers in tobacco that such will be the 
 case, or nearly so. In these matters, as we have had but two years of 
 taxation, and have only a limited record of the tobacco grown, we must 
 depend upon averages; and these answer every purpose, since it is of 
 little consequence to these estimates whether the growths, manufactures, 
 or exports of any given year run into the same of any other year, so 
 long as the averages are harmonized within the period of a limited num¬ 
 ber of years. 
 
 The workers in tobacco reason by analogy upon points of this kind. 
 They know that the crop of 1862 was 280,000,000 of pounds, and that 
 the reported home-consumption for the year which ended June 30, 1864, 
 was 91,542,055 pounds, and the foreign, 152,416,398 pounds, leaving a 
 balance of 36,041,547 pounds, scarcely any of which, comparatively 
 speaking, can be found to-day wholly unaccounted for. What became of 
 it ? What has become of that almost fabulous qu.antity, reaching nearly 
 or quite, ten hundred millions of pounds grown between the spring of 
 1860 and the fall of 1862 ? Three hundred millions, or thereabout, went 
 abroad, we may presume, but where is the rest of it? Where are 
 the nearly forty millions of pounds of cigar leaf raised in Connecticut, 
 Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, in 1862, but little of 
 which is on hand at the present time, while the acknowle'dged consump¬ 
 tion was less than twelve and a half millions ? The inference is, that 
 the entire mass has entered into the reported and unreported manufac¬ 
 tures of the country. The markets are infallible indicators of this every 
 
22 
 
 TOBACCO MANUFACTURE 
 
 second or third year. It is evident to every manufacturer who made 
 honest returns last year, that he cannot return anything like as much 
 this year; and it is equally evident that double the quantity produced 
 last year of this class of goods is needed to meet the requirements of 
 the country. Divide last year’s production among the people, and it 
 will give only a little over thirty cigars, and about four and a half 
 pounds of tobacco to each man and boy in the loyal States. 
 
 Our business is not paralyzed to-day because of a surcharged market 
 but because our goods are too dear, and because honesty has to compete 
 with dishonesty. Why should the cigar manufacturer be taxed sixty 
 cents a pound for tobacco which, if crushed up and used in a pipe, 
 would be taxed only twenty-five cents ? And why should both he and 
 the others be taxed so exorbitantly, when twenty-five cents per j^ound 
 uniformly applied, would afford as much revenue as is needed—even 
 though no more paid taxes than did last year. And why should Con¬ 
 necticut seed cigars be made to cost $75 or $80 per thousand when they 
 are intrinsically worth nothing of the kind, and cannot be sold for that 
 as a general thing, when the Government would receive just as much, 
 certainly, and a great deal more, probably, if they could be sold for $30. 
 The production of tobacco w’ith the present stimulus, will naturally 
 increase every year, and the demand for the manufactures thereof will 
 keep pace with its increase. The country to-day requires twice sixty- 
 three millions of pounds of manufactured tobacco, and twice four hun¬ 
 dred and ninety-two millions of cigars annually, and it gets them, though 
 taxes are paid on only half that quantity. The vast number of imported 
 cigars consumed here along with the domestic, if considered, will con¬ 
 vey some idea of our needs in this regard. In the future the higher 
 grades of the former will not prevail here to any great extent, and their 
 place must b.e supplied by the latter. 
 
 Release our business from its bonds; free us from these crushing 
 restraints, and our commerce will expand beyond all calculation ; leave 
 us as we are and we are destroyed. To our mind the figures adduced 
 seem conclusive, and we might rest our argument here with the full 
 assurance that they would seem as significant to others as they do to 
 ourselves. But illustrative as they may be of the truthfulness of the 
 position which has been thus far sustained, it was for an entirely difier- 
 ent purpose that they were called into requisition. The object sought 
 for their substantiation is yet to be stated. Waiving all that has been 
 said that may appear conjectural, ignoring everything that may seem to 
 be inferential—standing out prominently, unequivocally, and undeniably, 
 and worth all the other evidence which they have afforded, is the testi¬ 
 mony they furnish of the integrity and the capacity of a portion of our 
 trade. They may not have positively proved that one-half, one-fourth, 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 23 
 
 one-eighth, or any of our manufacturers are dishonest, but they have 
 proved beyond the possibility of a doubt, that a number of us are honest, 
 and tliat number is of such a magnitude as to have consumed the enor¬ 
 mous quantity of ninety odd millions of pounds of leaf tobacco during 
 the last year. This is a startling as well as an important fact; it is pro¬ 
 gress made. For the first time in our history we have an index of our 
 usefulness and our strength. They show that our business is already 
 one of vast importance. The record proves that we can no longer be 
 regarded as a simple craft, an unseen, unfelt, unrecognized, functionless 
 figment of the national frame a mere atom of the aggregated whole; 
 but we are henceforth to be an acknowledged power in the land ; a vital 
 force; one of the main arteries of the national life 1 Let our energies 
 be so directed that the nation’s pulse shall be strengthened by our vigor. 
 Now, it is as self-evident as anything can be, that those who paid taxes 
 last year will pay this year, next year, and eveiy year, if they are per¬ 
 mitted to do so; and, therefore, if the tax were applied to the leaf, and 
 under that system they could make only as much as they did last year, 
 which they would be sure to do, since nothing less would half meet the 
 wants of our people, the revenue which they would supply would be 
 nearly twenty-threennillions o^ dollars, and if they made more so much 
 more would be added thereto. This is positive; the figures prove it; there 
 can be no mistake about it. Nor can there be any mistake about theix 
 willingness, for the rate of tax is one of their own choosing, and in 
 accordance with the desires of every branch of the trade for the ptresent. 
 When the Government is in a condition to do so it of course can, and it 
 is expected it will, reduce this rate. Twenty-three millions is a large 
 sum of money. We do not know how much the Government anticipates 
 from this source, but if it be anything like this amount it will thus be 
 unfailingly supplied by the honest men alone of the country. It is 
 equally evident, as has been observed, that under the present regula¬ 
 tions the quantity returned this year will be much less than it was 
 last, and hence the revenue, assumed from the present rates, will be 
 diminished to the extent of the diminished production. To determine 
 at this time what the diminution will be is impossible; but judging by 
 the returns thus far made, and the experience of business men, it will 
 reach nearly one-half; at all events, instead of the revenue being up¬ 
 wards of twenty-seven millions, it will be far below twenty; and as it 
 will be this year, so it will be hereafter, under similar circumstances. 
 
 Secured against the evil effects of evaders, those parasites, those 
 leeches, who are sucking the life-blood from the vitals of the trade, and 
 these men alone would within five years return a yearly revenue of 
 thirty-tire millions of dollars. They will not be less honest this 3 '^ear 
 than they were last, if their choice be aiiproved, and last year they had 
 
24 
 
 TOBACCO MANUFACTURE 
 
 the honesty to confess having used the enormous quantity of ninety odd 
 millions of pounds of leaf. Is not such a body of men entitled to con¬ 
 sideration ? Were there no evasions, were there no grievances, could 
 they not ju'omise a larger revenue than can be obtained by taxing the 
 manufactured article, would it not be well to make the burdens which 
 necessarily attend tax'ation as acceptable as possible to an interest 
 which will contribute so much to the national treasury ? How much 
 better, how much more necessary is it, then, to do so, when that interest 
 is suffering beyond all precedent, when evasions are as common as com¬ 
 pliance, when every day brings to our counters, not patrons to buy, but 
 knaves to sell, when every channel of our trade is obstructed, when 
 the bread is being taken from our mouths, when there is no hope of 
 our safety, no chance of our perpetuity, but in some action of the 
 kind. 
 
 In these estimates it will have been noticed that in our selection of 
 data we have not chosen such as would present our arguments in the 
 most favorable light. On the contrary, we have taken a year wherein 
 there was the lowest j^roduction, allowed the largest export, and con¬ 
 ceded full returns at the highest rate of assessment; and this has been 
 done that truth and fairness might characterize our observations. It 
 will also have been observed that we have embraced all the tobacco 
 gro'wn in the United States, and that some of the States enumerated 
 furnish none of the known samjjles which enter into the manufactures 
 of the country. This is as it should be, and to this point the Govern¬ 
 ment’s attention is solicited in this place. There is not a i^ound of 
 tobacco raised in the United States, exports excepted, but enters into 
 the consumption of the United States, and hence w'e claim it should be 
 made productive. As it is neither thrown into the ocean nor made a 
 Imnfire of, where else does it go ? The Government has no hesitation in 
 making every species of manufacture, be they never so insignificant, not 
 even excepting matches, productive, and why should tobacco be an 
 exception ? And, in this connection, it should not be forgotten that the 
 jjractise of the trade differs essentially from that which prevailed a few 
 years ago in regard to the netver kinds of tobacco. 
 
 It is not very long since cigar manufacturers considered Connecticut 
 toI)accotl)e only kind of domestic growth suitable for cigars, the pro¬ 
 ducers of other States not having then learned the art of cultivating 
 and curing the plant as well as those of the former. Hut now, while 
 the Connecticut still retains the first rank in popular favor, the growths 
 of Massachusetts, New York and Ohio are eagerly sought by the trade. 
 And so of the various kinds which constitute the material of the tobac¬ 
 conist proper. Formerly they used only the growths of Virginia, Ten¬ 
 nessee and Kentucky for chewing and smoking tobaccos, while now 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 25 
 
 they find (hose of North Carolina, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, and several 
 other States well adapted to some of their purposes. So that it is rea¬ 
 sonable to conclude that it will not be very long before the product of 
 every State in the Union will enter into the regular manufactures of the 
 country as it now does into the consumption. The manufacturer of 
 tobacco is not more afflicted to-day by the knavish competitor who 
 manufactures in regular form but pays no taxes, than by the producer 
 or grower of tobacco. 
 
 Before there was any tax upon the manufactured article, the people 
 of the rural districts sought and used it in preference to their own coarse 
 productions; they gladly exchanged their butter, turnips,^ e&gs, and 
 other farm produce with the neighboring groceryman for his two, four, 
 and eight ounce parcels of manufactured tobacco. But now all this is 
 changed. They no longer resort to this species of barter, nor do they 
 purchase for cash, nor use them in anyway. Instead of this, they manu¬ 
 facture themselves, crudely, it is true, in some instances, but yet they 
 are manufactures which answer every purpose; and, in other instances, 
 they have so improved upon their original domestic machines that they 
 produce very creditable specimens of home manufacture. There are 
 machines in operation which can be ctirried in an overcoat pocket, which 
 will turn out fine-cut-chewing, plug and smoking tobacco that will 
 compare favorably with the ordinary brands of the manufactories. 
 Those who are most skilful in these domestic manufactures do a flourish¬ 
 ing business, their fame extending many miles in the country, and to 
 them all who are less fortunate in their experiments come to have their 
 little stock of leaf transmogrified into the Simon-pure, borrow their 
 apparatus, or purchase, at cheap rates, the coveted article already pre¬ 
 pared. Travel where one may through the country, there is hardly 
 a farmer to be found who has not his plot of ground devoted to tobacco 
 for home use, with cheese-boxes, cheese-presses and every other conceiv¬ 
 able contrivance for its transmutation into available form. Formerly 
 where one bundled orders were received from country factors by our 
 city manufacturers for home supply, fifty now reach them. And this 
 not because of an over supply or a diminished consumption, but be¬ 
 cause country consumers have turned country manufacturers. It is 
 the same in regard to cigar manufacturers. There is scarcely a house 
 in any country village that some member does not know how to make a 
 thing which answers for a cigar. They learn it as they do apjile paring 
 at apple bees, without eftbrt and without expense, and they have insti¬ 
 tuted systems of exchange which ramify every section of the land, and 
 so ostracise every man from abroad who has a license and has paid 
 taxes who happens to come among them to sell. It is this which makes 
 the tobacco of Kansas or Mississippi as serviceable as that of Connecticut 
 
26 
 
 TOBACCO MANUFACTURE 
 
 or Virginia, and justifies us in demanding that every pound grown in 
 the country be estimated, accounted for, and made amenable to taxation. 
 
 riPES VUIiSUS CICxARS. 
 
 It’ ever there was a time when the cigar interest needed the protecting 
 instead of the blighting hand of the Government, that time is now, while 
 it is undergoing that probationary state which is to determine which 
 is to be most in vogue hereafter, cigars or pijDes. 
 
 Among the manifold revolutions which the war has wrought in our 
 social life and habits, none are more remarkable, none more apparent 
 than that in relation to our jJractice of smoking. Four years ago to see 
 a man with a pipe in his mouth in the street was to see a blockhead. 
 Now it is almost the rule. Pi25es are seen at the hotels, at the exchange, 
 on the promenade, anywhere and everywhere where men are to be seen. 
 This custom was introduced by the soldiers, who acquired the habit in 
 the camp, and the exam^Dle once set, our people followed it as naturally 
 as they did the Kossuth hat or the Garibaldi shirt; and as cigars be¬ 
 came dearer the practice continued until it has become one of the esta¬ 
 blished customs of the country. 
 
 Now, it matters not to the Government whether it receives the whole 
 revenue from one of these interests alone or from all combined; but it 
 makes a material difference to the interests respectively if one or other 
 of them is to be driven out of existence. It is not the part of true 
 statesmanshif) to build u^J one interest on the ruins of another. As 
 returns are made, the cigar interest is smaller than the fine cut or the 
 plug ; but were all comjjelled to make returns who make cigars it would 
 be found nearly as large as either. 
 
 PLUG TOBACCOS. 
 
 The exports of manufactured tobacco are of less magnitude than is 
 generally sujDposed. In 1862 they were 4,071,963 lbs., and in 1863 
 7,025,248, of which many packages were of Canadian manufacture. 
 The drawback, therefore, which would have to be allowed on this article 
 if the raw material alone were taxed, if allowed even to the full extent 
 of the jDroposed rate, would amount to less than two millions of dollars 
 per annum. 
 
 EXEMPTION OF THE PRODUCER WAREHOUSING. 
 
 The i^roducer need not be affected by this change. There are several 
 ways by which he may be entirely exempted from any participation in 
 the jjayment of the tax. A leading house in Baltimore has already 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 27 
 
 published a j)lan which seems so admirably adapted to the purpose 
 that we copv it entire, and offer it as our own. The publication declares 
 that these reflections, “ Lead us to the conclusion, that if the Govern¬ 
 ment is to secure a full revenue from the Tobacco consumed in the 
 United States (that being the only portion of the staple that it is practi¬ 
 cable to tax), a taxation of the leaf with one uniform rate per pound, 
 the moment it goes into the hands of manufacturers or consumers would 
 be the most likely to lead to the desired result and the most easy of 
 control, while it would-leave our export trade entirely unhampered, and 
 free to com|>ete as advantageously as ever in foreign markets. In order 
 to collect the Tax in this manner, it would be necessary for the Govern¬ 
 ment to have a control over the production and removals of all Tobacco 
 grown in the United States. It should not be lawful for any farmer to 
 plant Tobacco without taking out a jicrmit to do so from the Collector 
 of Internal Revenue of his District, in which would have to be specified 
 the amount of land he intends to plant, should he afterwards wish to 
 increase it he could take out an additional permit, if to decrease he 
 could give notice of the fact, and heavy penalties should attach for 
 neglect of taking out permits or any false representation with intent to 
 defraud. These permits or licenses could be given without charge to 
 all who ask for them, and on the whole, every thing avoided to vex the 
 producers beyond the necessary measures of control. The collector by 
 keeping a register of these permits, would have the names of all the 
 producers in his District, and an approximate estimate of the quantity 
 planted. In France and other countries having a monopoly, the Gov¬ 
 ernment prescribes even the distances the plants have to be set apart, 
 thus obtaining by measurement the exact number of plants in a field; 
 this can of course be varied as best adapted for the soil and product of 
 each locality. By appointing inspectors to visit the plantations from 
 time to time, constant control can be had until the crop is housed. No 
 Tobacco should then be allowed to be removed from any farm except to 
 the nearest U. S. Bonded Tobacco Warehouse. The public Tobacco 
 Warehouses already in existence in different States and cities might be 
 designated as Bonded Warehouses of the U. S., and U. S. Comptrollers 
 in them appointed, and additional U. S. Bonded Tobacco Warehouses 
 established in central places of Tobacco growing regions where public 
 Warehouses do not yet exist. The packing, sampling, and weighing of 
 Tobacco could then be done in these Warehouses the same as is now 
 done in State or private Warehouses, and they might be made self-sup¬ 
 porting by charging the now customary fees for these services. The 
 sale of the Tobacco by samples and certificates might then be carried on 
 the same as is now done, but none could be removed without either 
 paying Tax thereon for inland consumption or in Bond to some other 
 
28 
 
 TOBACCO MANUFACTURE 
 
 U. S. Wiircliousc (for instance, from a western to an eastern city) or on 
 slnpboard for ex]mrt. Drawbacks could of course be allowed for To¬ 
 bacco on whicli Tax bad been paid for home consumption, and which 
 afterwards might be intended for export, if the identity is proven and 
 necessary formalities observed, or on manufactured Tobacco or strips 
 intended for export. 
 
 “ Objections have been made to us against this plan, on the ground 
 that it would be more difficult and expensive to control the much larger 
 number of planters, scattered over extensive regions of country, than 
 the manufacturers, that in many localities no public Warehouses exist, 
 and that their erection would have to be too numerous and expensive. 
 The system of permits if rigidly enforced (and in a matter of this kind, 
 leniency and country fashioned good nature is always misplaced), would 
 of itself be a very efiective means of control as by it the collectors or 
 their deputies in the Warehouses would know beforehand whence. To¬ 
 bacco would have to come and also the approximate quantity. By 
 checking the crops off on their registers as they come in and noting 
 down the quantity produced by each, they could, to some extent, con¬ 
 trol each man by his neighbors, and if a crop or part thereof failed to 
 appear, it would not be difficult to ferret it out. The visiting inspec¬ 
 tors, appointed from and familiar with the localities of tfieir Districts 
 would complete the control, and it would not require a large number of 
 them for any county. The proiier collection of the Tax under the pres¬ 
 ent system would probably require no less officers, as every manufactory, 
 however small, would have to be watched by a special inspector, and a 
 relief, day and night, and there arc numbers of them in every large city 
 besides those scattered in smaller towns and over the country. Nor 
 would the temptation to defraud be so great with the planters as the 
 Tax would not have to be paid by them but by the purchasers when 
 the Tobacco is withdrawn for consumption. The establishment of 
 additional Warehouses would also be less expensive than it may bo 
 thought, nor need they be so numerous. In most neighborhoods there 
 are already either public or private establishments of the kind, located 
 in the. central towns, and where there are none, it would not be necessary 
 to erect costly and ornamental buildings. Most of the Tobacco Ware¬ 
 houses in Virginia for instance, are mere sheds very cheaply erected, 
 but in almost any county town a large storehouse or warehouse could 
 no doul)t be secured by rent. 
 
 “ But granted even that there would be considerable expense. If a 
 large and full revenue is obtained, it can be afforded and would prob¬ 
 ably be no larger percentage on the amount collected, than is the cost 
 of collecting the import duties of the United States on the revenue 
 obtained therefrom. Or granted that the cost of collection on the • 
 
IX TUE UNITED STATES. 
 
 29 
 
 manufactured article would be less. Wliat would be gained if the 
 revenue would be still more so ?” 
 
 To a plan at once simple, economical, and effectual like this, little 
 need be added further than to say, its adoption will in no way interfere 
 with the freedom of the producer in his dealings with the purchaser. 
 
 Most farmers would prefer to receive customers at the flirm-house 
 where they could, while making their sales, extend the hospitalities for 
 wdiich they arc proverbial. This, they can continue to do ; all that is 
 rccpiired of them is, that their tobacco shall not leave the firrm or plan¬ 
 tation for consumption without first passing through a bonded ware¬ 
 house. The only extra duty imijosed is the trifling one of obtaining 
 permits and making returas. And in view of the privileges accorded 
 to them in the way of exports, etc., this does not seem to be much of a 
 hardship. Every manufacturer has now to do this, and has besides to 
 pay liberally for the opportunity in the form of license and other fees. 
 
 There is another 2 )lan still more simple, more economical, and fully as 
 practicable, but it does not afford that assurance of certainty and efl’ective- 
 ness which is ai^parent in the other, and therefore it is not recommended 
 for acccp)tance ; we mention it merely in jDassing. It is to constitute the 
 producer’s 2 )remiscs a bonded warehouse, subject to limitations and 
 regulations such as arc prescribed for the government of the former, as 
 is now done in the case of several manufactories. Making the 23roducer 
 responsible to the assessor of the district in which the tobacco is raised 
 when withdrawn for consumption for the 23ayiiient of the tax, and em¬ 
 powering the assessor to issue the necessary traus23ortation bonds and 
 certificates when removed to another bonded warehouse, or for export. 
 The producer in this case when dis 2 J 0 sing of his crop, or any part of it 
 to a manufacturer, has only to add to his price the rate of tax 23er 250und, 
 and, when received, hand it over to the assessor, or the 2 iiirchaser may 
 be made to do so before being 23ermitted to remove it. The objection 
 to this 2 fian is that it leaves room for collusion between the producer 
 and the assessor. 
 
 The ifiau first suggested alone affords the requisite security against 
 fraud. Under those provisions it would be an utter impossibility for a 
 pound of tobacco to be manufactured in the United States without first 
 jiaying the tax. And thus would the Government obtain every penny 
 that belonged to it, and thus would the honest manufiicturers of the 
 country, of every kind and degree, be released from the thraldom, be 
 raised from the degradation in which they are 2 fiaced. The people of 
 the country would no longer infringe upon the iirerogatives of the regu¬ 
 lar manufacturer; the knaves of the city could no longer ofi'er fine-cut, 
 plug, or snuff at our counters, at lower rates per pound than the tax 
 alone upon each. And the “ hoop-skirt and glazed-cap cigar mauufac- 
 
30 
 
 TOr.ACCO MANUFACTURE 
 
 tiircrs,” as one of our most upiiglit and most enterprising fellow-trades¬ 
 men aptly calls the horde of irresponsible vagabonds, who spring up like 
 mushrooms in a night, llourish for a day and are gone, to be succeeded 
 by others of the same ilk, and who scatter their illicit wares in every 
 nook and cranny of our abodes, will depart for ever, and the business 
 will be restored to the hands of responsible and reliable men. The leaf- 
 dealer, as well as the producer, it w’ill be seen, will be exempted by this 
 process. A safeguard against fraud on the 23art of the producer, stronger 
 even than the padlock of the warehouse, or the inquisitorial eye of the 
 inspector, will be found in the voluntary supervision of the non-pro¬ 
 ducer. Tobacco is a specialty, and is so considered by everybody through¬ 
 out the land, and the jealousy with which its growth is watched by 
 those who do not raise it, is remarkable. Unlike the cereals, which are 
 common and excite no comment, the planter who has packed and 
 weighed his crop, scarcely knows better how many pounds he is pos¬ 
 sessed of than do his neighbors living from one to twenty miles away. 
 They ride by it; they look at it in the field; they talk about it; they 
 know just about how much it will turn out to the acre, and they com¬ 
 pare the receif)ts accruing from it with their own recei]3ts from the same 
 number of acres of corn, and, as the result is usually in favor of the 
 tobacco crop, it would be more or less than human nature that would 
 j)rompt them to aid men more fortunate than themselves, to add still 
 further to their profits, by remaining reticent while they were cheating 
 before their very eyes. 
 
 I. 
 
 That no disturbance of the revenue might occur during the year suc¬ 
 ceeding this change in the mode of taxation, it would be necessary to 
 tax leaf on hand at the time of the inauguration of the act, excepting 
 such only as should be intended for export, or removed to a bonded 
 warehouse. But the payment of the tax should not be demanded until 
 withdrawn for manufacture, as in the case of tobacco raised subse¬ 
 quently. ' 
 
 II. 
 
 From manufactured tobacco in manufacturers’ hands, and upon which 
 the tax has not been paid, the present rates, perhaps, might with pro¬ 
 priety be collected ; and from cigars, the present rates, or what would be 
 better, because it would harmonize all the operations, and the reduction 
 of tax -would be compensated for by the fullness of the returns, they 
 might be taxed by the pound at the rate of thirty-five cents per pound, 
 U]3on the basis of our former estimate, that is twenty-five pounds to the 
 thousand. 
 
 An inventory of stock on hand such as was exacted on the first of July, 
 
IN TIIE UNITED STATES. 
 
 31 
 
 ■will enaljlc the GoTominent to arrive at reliable data. To prevent the 
 depreciation of the cheaper grades of cigar-leaf while these adjustments 
 are being made, as well as to increase the revenue, the duty on imported 
 tobacco might be raised even to the extent of seventy-live cents per 
 pound. 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 Gentlemen, legislators of the Thirty-eighth Congress—in no spirit of 
 selfishness, nor groundless discontent, nor from any desire to shift from 
 ourselves the responsibilities which by right should attach to us, but 
 from a deep conviction of its necessity, we ask of you the immediate 
 application of the tax to the leaf. Our mills are idle, our manufactories 
 are closed, our workshops are shut, our business is suspended, our trade 
 is paralyzed ; we cannot proceed, a general gloom pervades our path, 
 stagnation is written everywhere, loss, anxiety, perplexity, doubt, are with 
 us now, ruin in the future impends, this change will give us relief. 
 Sooner or later you must adopt this system. You may continue the 
 present five, ten or jjfteen years longer, if it were possible for us to sus¬ 
 tain ourselves for that length of time, but at last you must come to this ; 
 there is no escape from it; it is as inevitable as that the rain will fall or 
 the sun shine; then why delay until it is no longer possible for the 
 people to jiay or the Government to collect ? 
 
 In this brief survey we have only been able to present a few of the 
 evils to which we are exposed. For each one cited ten might have loeen 
 adduced, and each might have been elaborated fiir beyond its present 
 scope. The condition of the cigar-manufacturer living many miles from 
 the office of the inspector, wanting his 'cigars stamped so he can sell 
 them, and having to walk, or, if he can aflford it, ride, the whole distance 
 to notify that official, and arriving there, finding him absent, returning 
 then another day to find him again away, or if at home unwilling to go 
 so far because he would have to hire a conveyance, for which outlay the 
 work to be done would not reimburse him ; and of that numerous class 
 of dealers.who have been in the habit of dealing in a superior kind of 
 domestic cigars, made of the best of Havana tobacco, and equal in every 
 respect to the imported, and sold as such, who have been compelled to 
 relinquish business, or partially so, in consequence of the stamps indi¬ 
 cating their origin, oft’er objections to the expediency of stamping, as 
 noteworthy as any that have been mentioned. And to these may be 
 added still another. The order alluded to on a preceding page relating 
 to the stamping of all domestic cigars by a certain date, has been pub¬ 
 lished, and this order, contrary to its spirit or intent, is made in some 
 instances the means of harassing manufacturers to an extent unparal- 
 
32 
 
 TOBACCO MANUFACTURE 
 
 leloil. They being obliged to prove, under penalty of forfeiture in case 
 of failure, that the tax has been paid upon cigars U'hich they may have 
 bought, no matter when, or from whom they bought them. This would 
 not 1)0 so grievous if it were possible, even with considerable exertion, 
 to determine the fact satisfactorily; but in many cases this cannot be 
 done, because the goods were purchased before such a demand was 
 either exercised or contemplated, and purchasers paid no attention to 
 the matter, frequently not knowing even the names of the venders. 
 
 Another circumstance pregnant with danger to this interest is its 
 liability to be adversely aflected at any moment by a competition with 
 the lower grades of imported cigars. Let gold drop to 150, and a desirable 
 quantity of Havana cigars can be had in our markets, ten dollars, 
 per thousand cheaper than the correspond in g grade of domestic manu¬ 
 facture ; and if this be the case with gold at that jiremium, it is easy 
 to anticipate the effect with gold at par. 
 
 One source of the evils environing this trade, and which has not been 
 touched upon, is the schedule of grades established by the law. If the 
 tax upon manufactures is to be persisted in, there ought to be in law 
 as there is in fact only two grades of cigars recognized here, namely, 
 those made wholly of domestic tobacco, and those made wholly or partly 
 of foreign. By such an arrangement it would be impossible for any one 
 who made returns at all, to escape paying the full amount of tax assessed. 
 People could not then as they can now return cigars made of Pennsylvania 
 tobacco under the $8 tax, while their next-door neighbors who are 
 making the same style of cigars, but of Connecticut or Massachusetts 
 tobacco, are obliged to return under the $15 or $25 tax. Nor would the 
 manufacturer of foreign tobacco be made the martyr of excessive tax¬ 
 ation that he now is, having to pay two taxes to the other’s one, one on 
 the tobacco and another on the manufacture, as there would not be that 
 wide difference between the present minimum 8 and the maximum 40 
 plus eight or ten more for duty. Paying as he does a considerable 
 tax on the material he uses it seems something like extortion to exact 
 from his manufactures the high rates demanded. 
 
 Legislation of this character has a tendency to drive our manufactures 
 into the hands of foreigners. 
 
 Nor, to return, have we said a twentieth part of what might have been 
 said in support of the change which we recommend, and if in consequence 
 of this dereliction it shall seem to you that we have failed to establish 
 either a just cause for comidaint, or a sufficient reason for the adoption 
 of the plan which w'e propose for our relief, be assured it was from 
 no want of material for the former, and from no lack of recommend' 
 ations in the latter that our disappointment is to be traced; and further, 
 if, where we have dwelt at some length upon some of the more obnoxious 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 33 
 
 features of the law, it shall appear that we have imperfectly sketched, 
 or inaccurately stated its spirit, or any of the principles involved, or laid 
 tof) much stress upon those grievances which are apparent to all,*believe 
 us, there has been no intention to misrepresent, no desire to exaggerate, 
 and no eflfort made to make anything appear different from what it really 
 was. 
 
 We have honestly endeavoured to present to you in the briefest possible 
 manner, in these outlines of our views, only a faithful, truthful reflex 
 of the actual condition of affairs. 
 
 To our main argument, your wisdom will unquestionably suggest many 
 well-founded objections, yet we trust, when to the undeniable advantages 
 which pertain to our system, such others arc added as will naturally 
 occur to you in your consideration of the subject, its superiority over the 
 present will be so ai)parent, as to leave no doubt in your minds as to 
 the propriety and expediency of its adoption. We do not in our 
 zeal overlook the repugnance which as prudent statesmen you will 
 naturally feel to change a tried system for one which is to some extent 
 problematical, though the light afforded by the experience of foreign 
 countries may serve as a guide in enabling you to form a tolerably correct 
 and definite conclusion; nor do we forget that taxation in any form 
 is a novelty and an innovation here. Two years ago the present system 
 was as much of an experiment as the one we now present for your 
 consideration. At the worst our statistics have demonstrated that the 
 Government cannot be a loser by the change, while on the other hand, 
 there are many, very many reasons for l)elieviugit will be largely a gainer. 
 Men instinctively divine the right, and in this instance both instinct and 
 judgment combine to assure us our conclusions are not erroneous; we 
 arc all practical men, many of us having devoted a lifetime to these 
 pursuits, and it cannot be possible that we are mistaken in our con¬ 
 ception cf what is best for the general weal. 
 
 The system of espionage which the Government has been obliged to 
 institute is disagreeable in the extreme; it is harassing and annoying to 
 us, and expensive to the Government; it can be dispensed with by pur¬ 
 suing the course we recommend. Desiring to act honestly we wish to be 
 treated as becomes honest men, not as if our vocations made malefactors 
 of all of us. We desire to do business in the future as we have 
 been accustomed to do it in the past, without interference, without 
 annoyance, without suspicion. 
 
 Ever with sentiments of the highest respect, we remain very truly, very 
 respectfully yours, 
 
 The Tobacconists and Cigar Manufacturers 
 
 OF THE United States.