Tobacco Documents Online

Statement of 12op~. Sdi llir:m P. Curlin, Jr., Ky.-6th before the Senate Commcrce Cunsurier Subcommittne 2--10-72 Mr. Chairman: I appear before your committee today to speak on behalf of the thousanc3s of farm families in the Sixth Congressional District of Kentucky who have suffered publi c abuse time and again v:ithout the chance to reply. These families raise tobacco and they sell tobacco. Thcy are riot subversives trying to unc?ermine the health of the nation. They are not criminals spreading evil throuoh the land. My people are law-abi dina, God-foaring, hard-working farm families who depend on a cash crop called tobacco to keep them going. And tlie tobacco industry ti..,hich buys their produce is a legitimate business thatt is just as concernedlabout the public health an&well-being as any person here today. But neither the farmers nor the industry is willing to go along with a smoke-scteen of fear in the absence of facts. Long before the first report on smok--'ng and health was submitted to Congress, the tobacco industry had already begun a multi-million dbllar research campaign on its own. The Commonwealth of Kentucky, certainly not willing to sacrifice the health of its people in the name of economy, wants to find the real answers to the smoking-health question. 35U

359 But the state doesn't accept propaoanda in place of research. No, it has chosemto impose a special five cent cigarette tax to finance additional research. Isn't this more to the point than mai:ing ash trays that cough, or selli.ng ,sterlino.-silver adult pacifiers, or clipping ti7e name of a city off television because it also happens to: be the name of a cigarette? But whi& side gets accusec]~ of "lh~.ciatering'' and "propagancla"? Mr. Chairman, I believe thi& is a serious business, worthy of a higher level of concern than that shown to datee by the tobacco prohibitionists. You, sir, have publicly conwnended the tobacco industry for volunteering to proceed with~ many measures to edocate the public concprnino the alleged hazards of smoking. You, sir, have advocated research, such as that being sponsored by the industry and the state of Kentucky. • But you, sir, have also introduced a bill in the Senate to raise the federal excise tax on cibarettes to 30 cents a package. A bill which also would phase out the entire tobacco crop sLIpport program to be replaced by a Commission on~ Tobacco Adjustmcnt Assistance. I cannot agree, just as my coll_eab e, Senator Cook, could not agree vnccn tie statccd: "At a ti.me when the United States economy needs a].l the hell) i t can get frm om all se,;mcnts of societ:y, it is inconceivabl.e to attempt to destroy t]4c,to',)acco se^~~-nt in an attempt to c,loi what Carrie Nation failed to do iin tltr• ]1920's."'

? 36v Make no mistake about the economi;c import of' tobacco among the people of Kentucky. Sv'a have 170,000 farm families in the state, many of them~with tobacco patches. Last year they harvested over 380 million pounds of what many consider the world's best varictyy of this crop, accounting for a third of the cash receipts in Kentucky's farm income. We had over 27,000 retail outlets liandlin-1 about $158 million in cioarette business in last year alone. Andi since 1936, when~ the excise tax was first applied to cigarettes, my state has received more than 246 million dollars in revenue. That's almost aquai:ter of a billion dollars helping under~~.rrite probrams the state could not have otherwise affor.ded. But, Mr. Chairmam, you know that tobacco has a significant economic impact. Its greatest critics know it has a significant economic impact. But its sionificance in economics should have no bearing,on its role in health. That is a matter to be decided impartially and:sci.entifically, an& I submit that the jury is still out and ils far fromi a verdict of cond'emnation. Tar-and-nicotine regulation would.punish the farmers of my district without waiting for factual evidence. It would represent yielding to hysteria instead of adhering L) to reason. rir. . Chtiirman, my pee,plr~, have d'one no wrong. I ask that no tin un;;, be clone unto them. Thank you.