The Jan 5, 1908, NYT reports on a pending battle in the war on smoking, this time from Germany:

War has been declared by the German medical authorities against the familiar apparatus in use in cigar stores all over the world for cutting off the ends of cigars. It is said to be a prolific source of disease, especially tuberculosis and other infectious maladies whose germs are transmissible.

The danger doesn't lie in the cigars themselves, but in the habit of many smokers who insert the cigars in the little guillotine arrangement after the tobacco has already been in their mouths...

It is proposed that the cutting machines shall either be abolished or the smokers warned of the dangers lurking therein by huge placards hung up in all the places where cigars are sold. The apparatus used in private houses and clubs is described as equally deleterious. [emphasis mine]

It would seem that the personal cigar cutter would be a practical market solution, perhaps they weren't available at the time? Moreover, why weren't customers more demanding of their local tobacconists? I suppose there could be lack of information on the part of consumers, but are we supposed to believe that men (and women?) were generally okay with the status quo?