lished at 2 cents in 1941. It was increased to 3 cents in 

 1947 and to 4 cents in July 1959. The gross amount col- 

 lected from the cigarette tax since its inception, by June 

 30, 1959, came close to $446 million. Formerly, a number 

 of municipalities imposed a cigarette tax but after 1955 

 such levies were disallowed where a local sales tax was 

 in force. 



Cigarette users in Illinois have a high fiscal burden 

 imposed on them for indulging in the most universal of 

 social habits. While enjoying what has been called by 

 psychologists and others "a necessity of modern living," 

 they provide the monetary means for wide benefits to 

 non-smokers and smokers alike. The state's treasury de- 

 partment, through various allocations of cigarette tax 

 collections, has converted this source of revenue to gen- 

 eral community improvements. Part of the income from 

 cigarette sales has gone to the reduction of the state's 

 bond indebtedness, a portion of which has been entailed 

 by the veterans' bonus. 



.llinois supplies the tobacco industry 



In the United States the total of retail sales of tobacco 

 products in 1959 was in the range of $6.8 billion. For the 

 raw material alone, the yields of fine leaf from a half 

 million farms, manufacturers and foreign buyers paid 

 American farmers more than $1 billion. The labor of 



