The Tobacco Industry Essays - Tobacco, Cigarettes, Smoking

The Tobacco Industry The Tobacco Industry From the beginning of time, the Tobacco plant has had a prominent impact on the lives of those involved, those involved being absolutely everyone, for smoking and chewing tobacco affects both the users and those surrounding them. While years ago, tobacco was not so much of an industry, but actually just randomly used as gifts or a simple pleasure for oneself, it certainly has become one today. This industry has greatly evolved over the years to be now one of the most prominent industries in the United States. From its history to an in depth look at its economic side, much can be learned about the tobacco industry in general. The history of tobacco in the United States can be traced right back up until the discovery of the continent by Christopher Columbus. Within a week of his landfall, Columbus had noticed the natives' fondness for chewing the aromatic dried leaves or inhaling their smoke through a pipe. His sailors inevitably began taking part in this custom that the Indians had become so accustomed to. Even though Columbus scolded his men for sinking to the level of the savages, for he foreshadowed both the delight and danger that may have come from the plant, tobacco spread throughout the globe, and was eventually recognized as being one of the treasures of the New World, along with coffee, chocolate, and cane sugar. In the 1850s, Philip Morris, a London tobacconist, catered to English smokers who picked up smoking after trying French and Turkish cigarettes during the Crimean War. Once the 1900s rolled around, American Tobacco Co. founder Buck Duke managed a small group of lawyers, lobbyists, and oth ers who appealed to the pocketbooks of legislators being asked to crack down on cigarettes. Also during this time period, three members of the key Senate Finance Committee were found to have owned tobacco stock, including its chairman, Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island, who holds stock worth more than one million dollars. Four years later, when Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, Senator Aldrich and other federal lawmakers did Buck Duke's bidding. Although no other ingested product is subject to heavier processing, more additives, or as many known or suspected toxins, tobacco was egregiously excluded from regulation. The industry has since argued that tobacco is neither a food nor a drug, and was thus properly exempted. In 1902, after succeeding McKinley as president, Theodore Roosevelt initiated more than forty anti-trust actions directed at, among others, Standard Oil, DuPont, Union Pacific, and the American Tobacco Co. Buck Duke testified in federal court, saying that every deal he ever made was intended not to destroy competition but only to round out his own company and to get out fair share of the trade. However, in 1911, the Supreme Court ruled against American Tobacco. American Tobacco thus broke up and the other components reassembled in smaller units. R.J. Reynolds emerged as the strongest competitor of these resulting companies. Duke, who became very morose and had begun drinking heavily, earned the high regard of posterity by turning to philanthropy. He endowed Trinity College with the money to become a university of nation rank when the school agreed to exchange its original name for his. In 1913, Camel introduced the first blended cigarette in the United States. Highly flavorful, the c igarette became an instant success. Later in 1916, American Tobacco followed with Lucky Strike, and the advertising battle began. For the next thirty years after that, tobacco companies lured customers with wildly false claims of health as well as social benefits from smoking. In the 1950s, three epidemiological studies demonstrated the exponential health risks associated with smoking, which ultimately led to the introduction of cigarette filters. In 1957, John Blatnick, a five term liberal representative from Minnesota, and a devoted smoker, led the subcommittee on government operations through hearings on the Federal Trade Commission's oversight of cigarette advertising. Blatnick become annoyed when the testimony revealed that the new filtered brands use stronger tobaccos, and so produce about as much tar and nicotine as the old unfiltered brands, a fact that had never before been noted in the industry's advertising. In the aftermath of these hearings, Blatnick