Men and Things

by Henry A. Atkinson

The Cigarmakers. The cigarmakers living in Tampa and Key West form the most complete compact group of workers to be found anywhere in the United States who are interested solely in producing luxuries. Tampa is known as “The city that furnishes the world’s smoke.” Last year this city shipped (in round numbers) 300,000,000 cigars! Havana and Key West have always been considered the principal cigar cities, but the production in these latter places has been declining for a number of years, while it has been increasing in Tampa. It was a clash between the Cuban and Spanish workers at Key West which led the first manufacturer to move from that city and build his factory at Tampa. To-day there are 15,000 Cuban and Spanish workers employed in Tampa in making cigars. A person could live in the city, and by restricting his business to certain districts, from one year’s beginning to the end would never hear a word spoken in any language except Spanish. The city is a foreign city, and a city of workers producing a luxury that all the world demands. Since the time that Columbus sent his men to explore the island of Cuba in November, 1492, and found the natives “carrying and smoking firebrands” made from loosely rolled leaves of a weed which grew extensively on the island, until the present time men everywhere have found enjoyment and pleasure in the narcotic value of tobacco.

The Making of a Cigar. In its manufacture a cigar goes through a process dependent upon the knowledge and skill gained from years of practise on the part of the worker. The tobacco that is used in making the best cigars still comes from the island of Cuba. It is grown very carefully, cured, baled, and shipped under bond to the United States government. The bales as they are received at the tobacco factory weigh from 80 to 120 pounds. The tobacco is of two qualities, that to be used as a filler (which makes up the body of the cigar), and that which is known as the wrapper or the outside covering. From the time that the tobacco begins to grow until the cigars are packed in the boxes ready for shipment the weed requires special care and attention. As the bales of tobacco are brought into the factory they have to be piled in a certain way. Some of them are piled high, some of them low, some on their sides, and some on their ends; all depending upon the quality and conditions of the leaves.

The tobacco is cured by a process which adds to its value; and the curing must be carried on with precision, for a faulty method will spoil the best tobacco that can be grown. Any one who has visited Tampa is impressed with the humidity of the atmosphere. The climate of Cuba is more nearly reproduced there than in any other city in America, and because of its equable temperature, it being neither too hot nor too cold, the city has become famous as the manufacturing center for cigars.

The cigarmakers sit at long tables in parallel rows throughout the room. In one room in a large factory eight hundred workers sit as close together as possible. The tools of the trade are a flat, broad-bladed knife, a hard block, a gage, and a rule. This gage is simply a hole bored through a piece of board and as the worker makes up the cigar, from time to time he puts it through the hole in the board to see that it is the proper size and places it against the rule to see that it is the proper length. Should it be too large it must be rolled tighter, if too small it must be loosened up a bit. Much depends upon the way a cigar is rolled. “I learned to make a cigar in three months,” said a Cuban cigarmaker, “but it took me two years to learn how to put an end on it.” This is the real test, and until a machine is invented which can turn this trick, the hand-made cigars, rolled, and finished according to the old Spanish method, will hold first place.

The Reader in the Factory. The Tampa cigarmakers are all either Spanish or Cuban, and in conversation they gesticulate with their hands to such an extent that it is impossible for them to talk and work at the same time. Hence, the manufacturers are very sympathetic with the old custom of maintaining a reader in the factory. This reader has a little balcony from which he reads to the employees while they are at work, making his selections from current magazines, newspapers, novels, telegrams, dispatches from abroad, and extracts from books on national history. It is an interesting sight to see a factory of four or five hundred workers busily engaged in plying their trade, and listening at the same time to a story read by the paid reader, who, with coat off and suspenders hanging, gesticulates and shouts at the top of his voice. One of the readers in a Tampa factory has held his position for twenty years. He reads daily from the New York Herald, translating the news articles into Spanish as he reads them. The reader is well paid, for each worker gives him twenty-five cents a week; and it is reported that some of these men receive as high as $300 a month. The workers decide what shall be read. Some years ago there was a strike in one of the factories occasioned by a protest on the part of the women workers against the reading of an especially vulgar novel. The management ordered the reading of this novel stopped. The men then laid down their tools and refused to go back to work until they were assured that the story would be continued. Among the cigarmakers the tradition is that the custom of reading grew out of the desire of the early workers for a more liberal education than was offered by the church and its schools.

Wages and Unions. The wages of the cigarmakers are based on the piece-work system. An expert may make as high as $35 a week; the average is a little higher than in other employments using the same grade of labor. Some years ago, when a bitter strike was conducted in Tampa, the question of wages was one of the grievances of the men but was not the real trouble, for the problem in Tampa now as well as then is racial and psychological rather than economic. The strike was settled on the basis of an agreement called the “equalization agreement.” This provided for the appointment of a board to be composed of three manufacturers and three cigarmakers who would meet regularly, hear complaints, and make adjustments. Most of the workers belong to the union, and under this agreement there is a fair degree of peace in the industry.

One great difficulty is that the workers in the cigar industry carry into their trade no moral enthusiasm. They are doing something that is not absolutely requisite for human welfare, and while they make good money, they have no commanding purpose to impel them to carry on their work. The people live simple lives for the most part. On Saturday nights the streets of the city are filled with people, and every one is in a holiday mood. The majority of the cigar workers in Tampa are communicants in the Roman Catholic Church and it is the finest building in the city. It is constructed of marble and decorated with magnificent windows. The church takes little interest, however, in social or economic matters. One of the workers said to me the last time I was in the city, “When the business men forced us back to work, and through their private army guarded the city with sawed-off shotguns, the church was back of them. All the priests want is our money.” To the cigarmakers a church is a church whether it be Catholic or Protestant. They remember the days in Cuba under the domination of Spain when the priests held them in a kind of bondage of fear, and made it easy for the political forces to exploit them. In America they do not intend to give the church a chance at them.

The Cuban is easily pleased; very emotional, and more inclined to be fickle than the American or Englishman. A few years ago the butchers of Tampa raised the price of meat. Just at that time there happened to be a representative of the Industrial Workers of the World in the city. He gathered some of the people together in East Tampa, harangued them regarding their wrongs, and called a second meeting. He aroused so much enthusiasm that nearly two thousand of the cigar workers quit their jobs; procured sticks, and bought beefsteaks and stuck them on the end of the sticks. Carrying these over their shoulders as though they were banners, the whole mob marched through the streets to the City Hall, where they demanded of the startled mayor, that he force the butchers to reduce the price of beef. The mayor gave the necessary order and the people then dispersed and went quietly back to their homes. Union organizers complain that it is very difficult to maintain a union of any strength among the cigar workers in Tampa. “They are very enthusiastic for a time, but it is difficult for them to persistently and constantly follow the union rules,” said one of the leaders.

The city of the cigarmakers swarms with children, many of these youngsters play in the street, and as the climate is warm most of the year, during the summer they wear very little clothing. Until recently there was no provision made for organized play among the children of the city. Even now the provision is totally inadequate.

The Protestant Churches. The Protestant churches have attempted to do what they could among the cigarmakers; but the needs have been so great and the equipment so inadequate that the best results have not been secured. In West Tampa there is a very interesting piece of work being conducted by the Methodist, the Baptist, and the Congregational churches. One of the churches has a plant consisting of a church, a school, and a house that is used as a social center for the entire community. For many years two homes were operated by this church; one for boys and one for girls. Some seven hundred children attend the school in connection with the church. The services on Sunday are in Spanish, and while it has not been possible always to secure a large attendance from among the people, still there is usually a representative and interesting group present. A man who served as pastor of the Cuban church was for a number of years a regular worker in one of the big cigar factories. This gave him a peculiar relationship to the community. He was accepted as a friend and equal; and was listened to with reverence and respect where another man would not have secured a hearing.