The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-03-25
A PUZZLE FOR THE TARIFF BUILDERS.
Molasses Boilers Alarmed at Re-
ports Regarding Sugar.
Their Business Dependent on Pro-
tected Sugar or Free MoIasses.
A Maine Man Appointed to Gather
Figures from the Farms.
Especial to the Press. I

forecasts of what the tariff bill is to be have
had the effect Of stirring up the industries Of
the country to wide extent. Since the fore.
casts were published the ways and mean.
committee have been beseiged by anxious
manufacturers and their agents. No small
part of the commotion has been caused by
the inaccuracy of what has been sent out
about the tariff bill. The largest and mos
influential delegation here so far is that o.
the sugar boilers, the manufacturers whC
take molasses and manufacture from it the
raw sugar, which the refners use. Thi:
delegation represented every sugar boiling
establishment in the United States Among
the gentlemen representing this industry
were Messrs. George s. Hunt of Portland
Me-. George E. Bartol of Philadelphia, Mr.
Post of B. 81. Howell & Co., of New York,
Mr.. Heyle of Philadelphia, etc. The ad-
justment of the duty upon molasses and
sugar is a very delicate matter. These boil.
ers buy the molasses and from it get the low
grade sugar which they sell to refners. Com
petition has reduced the business to so fine a
point that an eighth of cent pound upon
the sugar product is margin which means
profit or loss to the boiler.
The grade, and consequently the duty upon
molasses is determined by test with the
delicate little machine called the polariscope,
which shows different phenomena of light
for the different grades of sugar held in the
molasses. Under the present duty molasses
which the polaricope rates at fifty-six degrees
or under pays four cents a gallon duty. If
the polariscope rates it above fifty-six de-
grees it pays duty of eight cents gallon,
its value being for commercial use. Boilers
do not use it.
The duties upon sugar are graded accord
ing to the two tests, one of color and the
other of the polariscope. There is stand
ard of colors which the sugar importers get
from Germany, where the different colors are
put up in series of little bottles numbered
up from the darker to the lighter colors. The
numbers below and including thirteen are
the lower grades of dark celored sugar.
Above thirteen the grades are of the lighter
colored and higher priced sugars. The pres
ent tariff law puts duty of three and a half
cents pound G upon 9, ng sugar above No 70 Upon
Is three cents pound; and upon sugar be-
low seventeen and above thirteen the duty
Is two and three-fourths cents. Below
No. IA the sugars are darker in
color and the tariff takes no further
in the polariscope pei tests to determine Re the
graditions OF duty. Sugar graded by the
at not over 70 degrees pays a
duty of one and forty-one hundredths cents
pound, and for every degree that the polaris-
cope grade advances, the duty increases four
one hundredths of a cent At grade 50 which
q m IN m nc
the boilers make, the duty is one and six
ty eight one hundredths cents pound. At
grade 9S and 100 the rate of duty reaches
nearly to the point where the rates begin for
sugars above 13 in the color standard. This
graduation of duties. which at first appears
somewhat complicated is intended to give
protection to the sugar growers of Louisi-
ana, to the refiners, and, in connection with
The duty upon molasses, to the boilers.
Upon the adjustment of the molasses duty
,r hand depends the prosperity of the boil
,rs. They do not care so much on their own
account just how high or low the sugar duty
IS If it is SO adjusted with reference to
he 9, duty 81 upon molasses as;asn that the the
hands of foreign boilers. The size of this
molasses boiling industry may be judged
from the fact that fully 80 per cent of all the
molasses imported into this country is used
by the molasses boiling refineries. A gallon
OI OTulnary qudltIy loloiRu tnoidSseS yleiuS
on an average five pounds of sugar polariz-
ing 80 degrees. This is what is known as
raw sugar, and Is sold to the rofners. The
actual cost of converting one gallon of mo-
lasses into sugar has been found to be three
cents, not including interest on plant or cap
from abroad is about two cents more than
the cost of bringing an equivalent amount of
sugar would be-. So it is plain that 1t costs
the boiler about five cents on every gallon Of
molasses for his product. So it Is of vital
interest to the boilers that the relative dis
tance between the rate of duty on their raw
material and on their produ ct shall be suf-
ficient to allow for this cost of boiling.
The proposition attributed to the ways
and means committee to reduce the duty on
sugar about 80 per cent, while the duty on
would remain about the same, of
course meant death to the boilers; because it
reduced the protection of their product,
while keeping the same duty on the raw
material which they use. Such an
arrangement would drive the boiling bust
doubtful whether the ways and means COM
mittee had fully determined upon the pro-
position which was attributed to them, and
Il they had they will not probably carry it
but now that the boilers have explained to
them the effect. The boilers told them that
30 per cent on sugar if the molasses could be
reduced accordingly. Such reduction on
molasses would put it ON the free list.
What the ways and means committee will
do with the alternative confronting them
that molasseS must 60 onto the free list
when the sugar duty is to be reduced 30 per
cent, or else the business of the sugar boilers
must go, it is difficult to say. The business
of the boilers is very important, furnishing
annually over 400 cargoes to the American
coastwise marine, and paying about $780,,
300 in freights. There is also the cOoperage
and other Incidental business.
The sugar boilers are not In the sugar trust
and have nothing to do with it farther than
that they sell their product to it to be refined
The sugar which the boilers produce is not
suitable for domestic use until it has been re-
fined. The sugar trust does this refining.
1t seems quite possible to abolish the duty
on the molasses used by the boilers without
hurting the Louisiana interests, since their
is rot used by the boilers, who use
only the foreign article. This foreign article
is of cheaper grade than is put upon the
market by the Louisiana planters.
This whole question OF sugars and m0as-
ses has troubled the ways and means COM
mittee more than any other in connection
with the tariff. In the West there has been
a strong demand for free sugar from both
protectlonists and free traders On the 9th
er hand the Louisiana planters and those en-
gagged in the great boiling and refining in
duStrips in the East want duty enOuph to