Tobacco Documents Online

•4,WIc researchers go on examining swatches plaint and at' great personal sacritice. Into the ot lung tissue and biowing smoke in each very jaws of death they march, harassed on olhor',l.eyes, The Tobaceo Institute, Inc., has all aides by the trumps and banners of the . publtshad some figures to make one pause competing brandl, to deposit'their offering in . betweeni puffs to contemplate the, effects of the tax maehine-receiving 20 fags as a, sort' The Weed, not on the•hmgs, but on the purse. ' of booby prize, an "extra." In Ma]wfixp News we reads-'•L7. S. emokers '`1Tie President Is looking for heroes? Wen;' paid t3:1 billion in direct' oigaret taxes last there he has them. They'te all about-a little year." -r . •. hard I to see for the ha¢e..but -there.: puffing, Qgaret amokers are a patriotic bunch, you diligently to balance ihe; biasted budget. must'-admit: They pay this tax without cocn- , Who's got a matchi ~IE Reading, Pennsylvania April 28, 1962 It isn't oiten these days, that anyone h'as anything',pieasant,to say about'those of; tis who buff and back,our way'through~one pacY of cigarettes after another.. It's pleasing, therefore;, to readI the oc- casional comments of the Tobacco Institute. Those people seem to like us. - A'nd, according to the, same source,, we are accomplishing much of a practical value in the, way of taxes that our government in, C aales from our so+called "vice." Last y,ear; for example;. American, to- baao users coughed up 3.1 billion dollars for the public purse - national, state and local. Maybe that's not much in comparison irith national spending, but it does represent quite a nice bundle of cash. With it: by .vay' of Illustration, Uncle Sam could more than pay for his space program th;a year. In fict, he'd have enough left over for 40 Atl?s missiles. : it's fitting, too, that the income from to- b'aceo axes be translated in, tprms of mill- tary'h'ardware: After all, the first cigarette tax was slapped on during the Civill 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. A'nyway, with i last year's cigarette ttix: Uncle Sam could pay for 27' Polaris subma- i rines.: lD.r, about,90 per cent of all the mis- eiles being built this year. Or. over half' of a11 the military. aircraft scheduled for this - year. And, theTobacco Insjitute leaves us with yet another thou -the volume of p,rivate works that could be undertaken it trxes ~ were reduced. The government's take from ci2arotte taxes is sufficient to build 155,000 new houses, at f20,000~per copy. Well, there's some consol.:t'on in tLe thought that not all of it'.gqes up in .moke: a¢ond bit Roes Into the public treasury. Which mioht be saying just about the sett« thing, at that; •1 Tobacco is the most heavily ~taxed of all farm product's; The obacco Institute finds that smokers as ar, paid enough . cigarette taxes to finance the 1963 apaee pro;grarn-with enough, left '•to buy 40 Atlas missiles. Cigarette taxes totsled! $3LL bil- lion. The,1963 budget of' the, Na- tional Aeronautics and Space Ad1 'ministration,is $2.96 bil'lion. First cigarette, tax 'was levied to help finance the: CivilWar. The last' boost-to eight cents a pack« age-was for the Korean War. But it's, still in efflect. _ NORTMSTERiQ i Oshkosh, Wisconsin Apri1 11, 1962 Bears', 'Heavy Share One can hardly watch television any evening without being, made aware of_ ~ar~e~ttes. Tobacco eom, panies are among3fi2 prittcipai,spon- sors' of programs. While there is no intention here to go,into the topic of, whether or not stitckiag affects the lr&IM,,the subject is of interest be+ eause some 17 millinn Atnericans get part of their livelihood from to- bacco. . The average smoker who pays his cigarette taxes in dribbles' probably never adds up his contributionn through this channel to various 1ew els of government: Federal, statee and local governments in the United. States last year shared in $3.1 bi1- lion provided by the "smoker's"' tax. (iIn Wisconsin there was addedd last year' the penny-a-pack tax for specific conservation purposes,, the acquisition of land' for recreational use. This is'to provide:$50,000,000 in a 10-year p,eriod.Y 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 couldi buy 40 Atlas missiles with the money left over. With the same money, the United States could 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 Adtninistf•ation. You cculd' build 155,000 new houses for $20;p00 each with the tax money from cigarettes. A few military examples might- also be appropriate, since the first cigarette tax was levied to hel(t fi- nance the Civil War and the,last fed- eral boost was'tb 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 atl` missiles to be built this fiscal year;l and' over half of the U.S, military, aircraft scheduled for 1963. The excise taxes on cigarettes -, at all levels of government - equal. aboutone-thirdlt'he amount of all ex- cises collected by the U.S., including those on automobiles, alcoholic bev- erages, tires, travel, jewelry, lug- gage, and other luxury items. On the average, taxes', account for tialf the price of everypack of'cigarettes sold. Tobacco is the most heavily taxed of all •agricultural products.