New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-01-26
pR5TFTiJ0V IS1 NGT.

There are millions YET living WHO "ele pViH
before the great Napoleon laid, despite chorus
of doubts and sneers, the foundations OF the
Beet Sugar industry of France. lie may DO
said TO have had no choice; but weakness sue
cumbs 10 disagreeable necessities, while genius
surmounts them. France, triumphant on land,
was under maritime blockade. Rodney and
Nelson had swept her flag from the seas, and
the victors of Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, and
Friedland, were obliged to drink their coffee
without sugar. or swcecn it at the cost OF
dollar per pound.
That Sugar was essentially tropical product
and only to be grown along the 5Oth parallel
of north latitude at Il price utterly rmnOus,
was an article of the creed of mankind. All
manner of professors and other repositories OF
useless knowledge stood ready to certify that
making Sugar in France was exactly on par
with extracting sunbeams from cucumbers or
growing pineapples in Greenland. The British
5who always protected their own infant or inn
periled industries and discouraged like protec-
tion by others) fairly exploded with derision OF
the Little COrporal's last and greatest folly One
of their innumcnble pasquinades on this theme
ended nearly az follows
Says John Bull to Bony, while use the cane
lie could make no smart replies to these lam
moons; he simply and silently went on making
Beet Sugar
The MT had to be created as well as the in
dustry; and of course great blunders were
made great errors had to be corrected 10y ex-
periencc. Beet Sugar made in France at first
cost many times the price Of Cane Sugar made
in the East or West Indies But every year
of rcsolue perseverance increased the skill and
efficiency of the growers and manufacturers;
each year witnessed the invention or adoption
of new machines, new processes auxiliary To
the new industry so that, when Napoleon fell,
pnhlic opinion. grounded in the success already
achieved, dictated 10 his Bourbon successors
the continuance of the needed Protection,
though France had now restored to her some
small bat choice tropical isles wherein Cane
Sugar was produced as cheaply and amply as
anywhere ON earth.
Thus nurturcd, the Beet Sugar manufacture
grew steadily in extent and efficiency, until 1t
had long since outgrown the need of PrOtec-
ton. Its product now pays the same tax in
| France rs Is imposed on the rival Sugar of tropi-
cal Martinique, Guadalupe, and Reunion-all
mainly devoted to Cane Sugar-yet the whole
Der pound. And the cultivation of Beets, with
the manufacture of Sugar thercfrom, is largely
prosperous and still rapidly extending. 1t has
largely increased the value Of lunds in the Beet
growing region; it has decpened and enriched
the soil of whole Departments; it employs and
PAYS many thousands of skilled rs well as un-
skilled workIucn; it supplies France more abun-
dainty rs well IA more chcapy with Sugar
than she ever was or could be supplied from
! external sources; and it has added immensely
To the sum OF her wealth and power.
| But France does not monOpolizo the benefits
! flowing from NapOcon's protective policy. The
Beet Sugar manufacture which she created has
overlooked her boundaries and Belgium, Italy,
! Germany, Hungary, and even Russia, have
| naturalizcd and are steadily increasing IT..
| Sugar-the luxury of the poor-the only luxury
of many OF thcm-is now enjoyed by many
millions Of people who would rarely have tasted
it had it continued to be an exotic. The en-
ioymcnts--few enough at bcst-Of the lab0rng
masses of Europe have been sgnally, pcrma-
nenty increased by the protection accorded by
Napoleon to the production of Beet Sugar III
France.
These and kindred facts do not find place
in the writings of the presidents and professors
who supply our colleges with their Political
Economy. They tell you that Protection is a
device of manufacturers to increase their profits ;
but ask them who and where were the manu-
facturers whom Alexander Hamilton, Henry
Clay Matthew Carey, IIezekah Niles, and their
compeers, were intent on enliching when they
initiated the Protection whereby American
! Manufactures were warmed into existence, and
they have no answer. But the People are
wiser than the professors ; aud in their instinct
i've sagaciiy is our trust.