Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1889-06-23
.THE SWEETS OF LIFE
How the Price Of Sugar is Soaring
Skyward,
AND THE WHY AND WHEREFORE.
An Interesting Chat With a Wholesale
Merchant.
THE PROSPECTS FOR HIGHER RATES

"When will sugar stop going up" asked
a REGISTER reporter of a wholesale grocer
yesterday.
"Give itup," was the immediate answer
''There are no indications that the limi
has been reached" he continued, land from
the best information I can obtain thinl
it will be handled by jObbers on basis o.
ten cents for granulated before very long
"What's the cause of the rsise?"
Oh, we'll, that's rather difficult. There
is, of course, q short crop, and the supply
of raw sugar is somewhat restricted. Their
suppose the big sugar men-.he combine
az it is called-have done a little squeez
ing at odd times, and finally, VIC are just
now entering upon the season of greatest
demand Take these things all together
and YOU have abundant reason for the ad
vance ia price"
''What has the advance been, so faIP'
"Well, when the raise started, sugar
was selling at 65 cents for granulated-
that's in carload lots of one hundred bar
rels or so, understand. Then is began to
90 up gradually but steadily, and to-day
it stands at 81 cents, with very stroDg
feeling. As l said, ten cent sugar is q
likely contingency"
Glow is the demandP"
tits good among jobbers, but some
wholesalers are stocking up bit, with O
view to make some money on the coming
advance. You see, when the raise started
in, few people, or probably none at all,
had any idea that the price would 60 any
where near where it is, and as a result
there was little bought up for speculation.
Now there is disp lsitiOn to lay some by,
and q good many barrels have been bought
with that view, but it is too late to make
much, while there is a lively chance OF
spectators being dumped. In other
words, man may make half-cent, or
something like that, and he may lose two
cents It's big risk. But if man had
had the nerve, or foresight, to buy ten
thousand barrels at the start when granu-
lated was jobbiDg at Z cents or co. be
would have made fortune without the
least trouble. 1t would have been like
finding money. Here and there some
folks did this but, not in Wheeling. One
st. Louis firm 1 happen to know of Dor
rowed two hundred thousand dollars and
put it in sugar. They will have nice
thing of it,"
chow u UGH sugar does it take to run a
city like WheeliDg?"
"Well, taking one month with another,
l should say about six Thousand barrels q
month come to town Ofcourse, cOnsid-
cradle per cent. of this is reshipped by
Wheeling dealers to small towns in the
vicinity Six thousand barrels, averaging
300 pounds. and that is about it, make
nearly two million pounds month, or say
%, 900, 900 or 100000 pounds year.
You gee, it's pretty big thing"
"Much money in it?"
mot great deal. You see, it depends
a coed deal on the price. Jobbers handle
it on one-eighth cent When the price is
down, that does well enough, bat when it
is up, as at present, it cuts the profits on
any given sum away down. There is little
cash in it to the wholesaler, and little to
the retailer-sometimes the latter gets no
profit at all, taking one thing with an
other -