Tobacco Documents Online

1003p4y4.17. SUN Springfield, Ohio. April 17,, 1962 A Race Of' Heroes C le rosearchcrs ,o on e.\amining swatches of lung, tissuc. andd h)dwingsmoke in each othcr':' opcs, Thc Tobacco: Institute. Inc., haspublish^d sume figures to make one pause between puffs to contemplate the effects of The Weed, not on the1ungs, but on the purse. ' In Tn"- News: we read` "U. S. smokers paid $3.1 billion in direct cigaret taxes last~ year." , C9garet smokers are a patriotie bunch, youu must admit. They pay this tax without com- EAGLE Reading, Pennsylvania pril 28, 1962 ~u`ta~To6acco Taxes local., Maybe that'.s not much in compari'son trith national spending, but it does represent quite a nice bundle of cash. With iti by way of illustration;, Uncle Sam could more than pay for his space program this year., In fact, he'd have enough left over for 40Atlas missiles. : It's fittin;, too, that the income fromAo- bacco taxes be translated in terms of mili- tary'hardware: After all, the first cigarette fax was slapped on during the Civil War to help pay for that conflict. and the latest hike in the federal tax came during the Korean War to help pay for that. Both wars. naturally, are long since past-but the taxes linger on. Anyw'ay; with last year's ci.garette tax: Uncle Sam could pay for 27 Polaris suhma- rines:, Or, about 90 per cent ofi all the mism siles being built this year. Or. over half of all', the military aire,aft scheduled for this year. Anr;.,the Tobacco Irstitute leavcs,us withh yet another tho7-M the volume of privstek works that could be undertaken if taxesC were reduced. The government's take from ciesrctte taxes is sufficient to build 155,000 new houses, at 820,000 per copy,. Well, there's some consol.:Y.on in the thought that not all of it goes up in =moke;, a good bit goes into the pnblic treasnr' v Which minht be saying just about' thr .c,m,, th[ng, at that. plaint and at great personal sacrifice. Into the very jaws of death they march, harassedl.on all sides by the trumps and banners of the competing brands, to deposit their offering in the tax machine-receiving 20 fags as a sort ob booby prize, an "extra." . 'The President is looking for heroes'. Well. there he has them. They're all about-a little hard'to see for thee haze.,..but-N1ere, putflityx diligently to balance the blasted bndget. . whn'sgot aa matc.h" It isn't often, these days, that anyone has anything pleasant to say about those of' us who huff and hack our way through one pack of cigarettes after another. It's pleasing, therefore, to read the oa casional'.comments of the Tobacco Institute. Those people seem to like us. And according to the same source, we are accomplishing, much of a practical~ value in the way of taxes that our government in- aales from our so-called "vice." Last year, for example. American to- bacco users coughed up 3.1 billion dollars for the public purse - national, state and C NORTHWESTERN Oshkosh, Wisconsin April 11, 1962 JOURNAL Ithaca, New York Aprili 17, 1962 Ptill i~ff~ect Tobacco is: the most'' heavily taxed of all farm, products. The obacco, Institute finds that smokers as ar paid enough cigarette taxes to finance the 1963' space program-with enough left to buy 40 Atlas missiles. Cigarette taxes : totalbd $,3.1 bil- lion. The 1963 budget of the Na- tional Aeronautics and Space Ad- minist'ration is$2.96 billion. First cigarette tax was levied to help finance the Civil War. The last boost-to eight cents a pack- age-was for the Korean War. But it's still in effect. Bears Heavy Share One can hardly watch television any evening without being made aware of '~+arettes.~ Tobacco com- panies are among M principal spon- sors of programs. While there is no intention here to go into the topic of whether or not saaekiug affects the 1>;AILLthe subject is of interest be- cause some 17 million Americans get part of their livelihood from to- bacco:. The average smoker who ~ pays his cigarette taxes in dribbles probably never adds up his contribution through this channel to various lev- els of government. Federal, state and local governments in the United States last' year shared in $3.1 bi1- lion provided by the "smoker's" tax. (In Wisconsin there was adde& last year the penny-a-pack tax for specific conservation purposes, the acquisition of 16nd for recreationali use. This is to provide $50,000,000 ina 10-year period.), The $3.1 billion total tax is more than the National Aviation and Space Agency needs for its fiscal 1963 space program. In, fact, you could buy 40 Atlas missiles with the money left over. With the same money, the Uhited Statescould'cover the 1963 opera- tions of six key government depart- ments - Commerce, Labor, Post Of- fice, the State Department, the Fed- eral Aviation Agency and the Gen- eral Services Administration. You cculd build 155;000 new houses for $20,000 each with the tax money from cigarettes.. A few military examples might also~be appropriate, since the first cigarette tax was levied to help fi- nance the Civil War and the last fed- eral boost was to help finance the!! Korean War, although that amount has continued since. Here's what last year's cigarette taxes would' pay for in military items; 27 Polaris submarines; about 90'per cent of air missiles to be built this fiscal year;, and over half of the U!S. n-,illtary , aircraft scheduled for 1963. The excise taxes on cigarettes -, at all ieveis of govertument - equal about onedhird the amount of all ex- cises collected by the U.S., inclhding those on automobiles, alcoholic bew erages, tires, travel, jewelry, lug- i gage, and other luxury items. On the average, taxesaccount for half the price of every pack of cigarettessold. Tobacco is the most heavily taxed of all -agriculturai! products. )