The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1890-03-18
THE SUGAR QUESTION.

lie DllbtI Wal OoIMcCA kOuS al
Trust and the Courts is still going
on with results more and more un-
favorable for the Trust. The Amer
ican Refinery is closed and in the
hands of a receiver, and Claus
Spreckels at present seems to be
having things all his own way.
Affairs are threatening at Wash
ington. II is said that the Ways
and Means Committee of the House
is bent on reducing the revenue by
twenty millions and that they wish
to do it by taking the entire duty on
sugar. This is contrary to the holy
Republican principle of protection
to the sacred rights of rich manufac
turers, and in Difference to these
rights, the committee is disposed to
be contented with a reduction for
the present of twenty per cent.
1t is utterly impossible to say what
the outcome will be. House COM
mittees are uncertain affairs liable
to all kinds of outside pressure and
very apt to yield to it. There is no
doubt that strong fight for the
tariff will be made before the COM
mittee. On the other hand, it
should not be forgotten that the
principle gamers by the tariff are
Democrats, and this is a circum-
stance sure to weigh heavily with
committee the majority of whom are
Republicans.
One thing is sure. Soon or late
the reduction in the tariff is sure to
come In spite of the result of the
recent election there is no doubt that
a majority of the people generally
demand it, and the Republican
leaders themselves admit that some
tariff revision is a necessity. The
ultimate anxiety of the Republicans
is not to prevent revision altogether,
but to keep it out of the hands of
the Democrats Sugar is a good
thing to begin the reduction on-so
good in fact that Republicans prob
ably hope to be able to make their
tariff revision begin and end with it.
Their monstrously extravagant naval
estimates will do much to help them
out of their financial difficulties.
The duty on sugar yields the United
States revenue of over S50,000,000
year, and if it were wiped out or
even reduced 50 per cent. there
would be nothing to hinder the rich
manufacturers of the North from
leading a life of quiet, undisturbed
by tariffs and rumors of tariffs for
years to come.
The duty on sugar has strong
enemy in both parties. The Demo
cratic party, as the low tariff party,
is opposed to the high duty on
principle. The Republicans, though
high tariff party, are equally op-
posed to it, because they are forced
to make a reduction somewhere,
and it is easiest to make it
on sugar than on anything
else. 1t is easy to see that between
the two the tariff is between the devil
and the deep sea. A reduction of
from 25 per cent. all the way up to
complete abolition, may be counted
on as one of the certainties of the
near future. If this sure result is
temporarily postponed, and the
tariff saved it will be the result not
of public sentiment, not of wise
craftsmanship, but of lobbying at
Washington.
If there is any likelihood in the
foregoing forecast, it seems some
what strange that people should be
rushing SO eagerly into sugar, start
ing or projecting new plantations on
Hawaii, Oahu, Kauai, when any
year may bring a drop in the price
of the commodity of from twenty to
forty dollars ton 1t seems strange
that capitalists should still pour
their millions into this one channel,
and be so unwilling to divert even a
few scant thousands into some new
enterprise to furnish sustenance and
opportunity if ever the hour of dis
aster should come. These are the
days of our prosperity-of a pros
perity otherwise unknown in cur
brief history, and they are the days
of golden opportunity, an opportun-
ity which may never smile and
beckon so auspiciously again.