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Show Tobacco Important In Marshall Plan Is Present Prop Of Tobacco Farmer Tobacco, from the time of the Virginia colony, has marched along as an intimate part of the American Amer-ican story to the present day. In the wake of World War II, as the United States emerged the strongest strong-est economic power, the American cigarette became temporarily a universal wampum the chief currency cur-rency in both Berlin and Burma. "You have a cigarette economj from Paris to Peking," a member told the house of commons in 1946. John Rolfe, husband of Pocahontas, Pocahon-tas, would be astonished if he could see what he started when he brought in the seed of modern tobacco. to-bacco. In 1948, the United States made about 387 billion cigarettes, and the tobacco industry directly paid in excise and import taxes nearly two billion dollars. From Virginia and Maryland the tobacco fields, growing over 25 types, have spread into North and South Carolina, south Georgia and northern Florida, Connecticut and Massachusettes, and the great bur-ley bur-ley area of Tennessee, Kentucky and the north bank of the Ohio. America and the world have smoked the tobacco in pipes, cigars and cigarettes, and snuffed it in powdered form and chewed it. The "chaw" is the most American Amer-ican of tobacco habits. European visitors have looked upon this habit with disgust. In 1947, addicts chewed 100 million pounds of tobacco. to-bacco. The cigarette is the prime favorite. favor-ite. The modern cigarette, as we know it, was created almost on the eve of World War I. The formula for the popular brands sounds appetizing ap-petizing and nutritious. They mix with the bright leaf some Turkish tobaccos, much sweetened Burley and some Maryland. A quantity of glycerine or its equivalent preserves pre-serves moisture. The whole is made tasty with such flavors as sugar, rum, licorice, chocolate, and vanilla-like products or chemicals. chem-icals. The cigarette has even wooed many of the ladies away from their pipes or snuff sticks. Tobacco is of considerable importance im-portance in the Marshall plan and the Marshall plan is the present pres-ent prop of the tobacco farmer. |