Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/182

 1 68 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

merchant. He claimed that the label was often demanded, partly from choice, and partly to avoid the payment of a fine.

V. CIGARS AND TOBACCO.

The cigar industry is well organized in Milwaukee. One would naturally look for a very strong support of the union label on cigars and tobacco, since these are articles used so extensively by union men. But the results of the investigation here are most surprising. They may be briefly tabulated for the thirty-four shops visited as follows :

Selling union-label goods only - 2 shops

Strong demand for union label - - o "

Small demand - 12 "

No demand - - - 20 "

Of the two union shops above, one was a small manufacturing concern, selling its own product. The other was a small retail shop, and has now failed and gone out of business.

The remaining thirty-two shops sold both union and non- union tobacco, but twenty of these felt no appreciable demand for the union-label product as such. The union-label goods were sold as extensively as the non-union, but no questions were raised concerning the label.

The larger establishments, catering to the demand for higher- priced goods, heard no call whatever for the union-made article. The label was almost wholly confined to the cheaper grade of cigars. In only one instance was it found on a ten-cent cigar. In other cases ten-cent cigars were sold without the label, while five-cent cigars from the same shop bore the label. Three prom- inent and well-known brands of tobacco, "made by a trust," and under the American Federation of Labor boycott, were greatly in demand in all classes of shops and in all parts of the city.

A merchant in one of the largest establishments summed up the situation in this way : "I handle both the union and the non-union goods, but hear no demand for the union-label. Union men like to use trust-made goods. They smoke Duke's Mixture, chew Battle Axe plug, and smoke Henry George cigars all trust-made (and under the boycott of the American Federation