The National tribune., 1888-07-19

pockets Of the men who till the soil.
THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE is the only
champion the soldiers haze among the great pa
pers Of the country. The best a0ay to help all
Ueteraas is by getting it more subscribers.
THE TEACHING OF EXPERIENCE.
My feet know but one guide" said Pat
rick Henry, I" and that is the lamp of expe-
rience." The experience of France and
Germany is the best guide we can have in
guiding us to a solution of the sugar prob
lem.
In 1900 the great Napoleon saw that one Of
the first steps toward building up the wealth
of his empire must be the retention at home
of the money paid out for sugar. The French
were then, as now, great consumers ofsugar,
but they do not consume near as much as
the people of the United States, who are the
greatest sugar-eaters in the world.
Napoleon not only wanted to keep the
sugar money at home for the benefit of
France, but he wanted to deprive Jamaica
and other British colonies of it, to the in
jury of his mortal foe, England.
So he set the French scientists to work to
discover French source of sugar. Fifty
three years before that a German chemist
had discovered that the white beet yielded
CO per cent. of sugar, and the red beet 46
per cent, and the French chemists began ex-
periments for practical method of extract
ing the sugar from the beet. The first sugar
they made cost about $3.50 a pound, but
they demonstrated that first-class sugar
could be made from beets, and they devoted
themselves to cheapening the operation.
When they got the cost of production down
to franc q pound-about 20 eents-they
felt that they had achieved a wonderful sue
cess, but they did not stop until they had
beet-sugar established as permanent com
petitor of eane-sugar, and had driven ont of
the market all of the latter except what was
produced in French colonies
What is the result? France keeps the
francs at home that she used to spend abroad
for sugar The money goes into the pockets
of the French farmers, enhances the value
of every French acre, and adds TO the pros
perity of every portion of the country. Nor
does the good stop there. France finds that
raising her own sugar is such profitable bust
ness that she can afford to tax it heavily.
She assesses duty of 80 francs-$9.65-on
every 100 Kilograms (220 pounds) of sugar
produced in the Republic, and all sugars
imported must pay in addition to this seven
francs on every 100 Kilograms. Last year
she collected 1GS, BOG, 300 francs-($31 $685.
| 49, from this source, or about three-fifths
as much as we collected in the way of i'm
port duties on sugar and molasses. An Illus
tration ofthe shrewd way France attempts
to adjust all taxation to the end of encour-
aging the development Of her industries is
afforded in this imposition of the sugar tax,
which is not imposed upon the sugar itself
but upon the beets at an estimated
! product of per cent. Of sugar. This
stimulates the manufacturers to get out all
the sugar possible, since whatever is in ex-
cess of z per cent. is free Of taxation They
ora ,,oy,y f,a4tiuu On, a,,ara,,a or in - 49,, 4
out Of these beets, or two-thirds as much
more than the early chemists found in the
beets. The manufacturer also gets rebate
of so francs per 100 Kilograms for all the
sugar he exports to other countries. OWNS
to the difference between the assessed and
the real sugar of the beets, as before men
toned, this really amounts TO 612 francs 81
that he is enabled to sell sugar to othe
countries very much cheaper than the French
can buy it at home.
Germany followed the example Of Franc
Just as soon as she found herself nation
Her sugar production went up at once will
immense bounds. Importation stopped a
once, and expectation began under polio,
similar to that of France, which gave tn
manufacturer a bounty for all that he sol,
abroad. In 1870 years after the estab
lishment of the Empire-the sugar produc
ton had run up TO 1,444,29G 900 pounds
Four years later it was 2,576, 100000 pounds
OF more than our entire import from Cub
, last year! She began crowding it into for
f eign markets, aad in 1886 sold abroad
E principally in London-156, 0G5 900 mark
r $3.50, 101 $500 worth of it, Thus i
{ - years after Germany found hel
s self a united nation, with power to regu
. | late her industries as she pleased she com
G pletely stopped the enormous drainage Z
!, money outward to pay for her sugar, wa
: raising every pound she needed, and was ez
: porting nearly as much as she formerly i'm
S ported
t This is the way we would have our Go.
e eminent act. 1t is the way that the simples
a common sense dictates that she should ac
Il IL