The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-15
rHE SUGAR BOUNTY.

THE SIGAE BUINIh-
There Is no feature Of the new tariff
which has been the subjecs Of fercer as
ssnlt or clumsier attempts AZ ridiculs by
the opposition press and speakers than
that which provides for . bounty Of two
cents pound on domestic sugar produc-
ton, IS an Offset to and IN harmony with
the provisions for placing foreign sugars
on the free list. subject 70 the making OF
reciprocal trade arrangements with coun-
tires from whence foreign sugars may be
imported.
In their tariff treatment of the sugar in
terest the Republicans have been as
broadly national and as consistent as the
Democrats have been narrowly sectional
and inconsistent With reform Of the
tariff, downward" for their shibboleth,
the Democrats have insisted upon main
tanning an onerous duty upon sugar, an
article of universal consumption. upon
which the duties amounted 10 more than
upon any other one article which we have
imported-the duty reaching the round
sum of ffty-ive million dollars Per an
num--and an article of which the home
product has constituted bnt an insignia
cant fraction Of the total consumed
But cane sugar has been produced al
most exclusively in the South, and only
upon limited area Of that section Its
cultivation has been recognized as dis
lively Southern industry. On that ground
alone-no other is assignabls or conceiv-
able-the Democrats have made sugar an
exception TO the operation of their free
trade principles, and have made this ex-
elusive Southern product an object OF ten
der solicitude and protection, caring for
Louisiana. according 10 their own creed, at
the cost Of all the other states and every
man, woman and child in the country.
But the Republicans found that with all
Of this special fostering care. the produc-
ton Of cane sugar had about reached its
utmost limit, that it was incapable Of
further material expansion by any amount
of protection, and that the cost to the
whole people of protecting it by an impost
duty was far in excess of any benefits that
possibly could be accomplished. There
they removed the duty, but in doing so
did not sacrifice the protective principle.
This principle they maintained by substi-
tuting for the vastly onerous impost duty
. bounty on the home product which, as
70 that product, was equivalent 70 the
duty. AT a present saving of fifty millions
q year or thereabouts to refiners and con-
sumers, the producers are no less pro-
tected than before. This was not intended,
nor is in fact mere sop to louisiana. 1t
fairly protects and stimulates the cane
sugar industry, but Is calculated to have
the wider and general effect of stimulat-
ing sugar beet culture and the manufac-
ture OF beet sugar, TO which many sections
are adapted, and thus in time leading by
the only practicable path to our indie
pendence Of all foreigners in the matter of
sugar supply.
The extent to which this policy prom
ises this result has been finely demon
strated IN several European countries of
late. Recent statistics show that whereas
IN 1880 the beet sugar production Of the
world amounted to ], ia 900 tons, five years
later, under the bounty system practiced
by certain countries of Europe, in 1885 it
had reached 2.54s, 600 tons, an increase of
nearly A. per cent, and surprising the
total production of cane sugar in that
year.
Five years later-last year-the produc-
ton of beet sugar reached {, 800 900 tons, a
further increase of 80 per cent, nearly
double the production of 1880, and more
than double the entire cane sugar produc-
ton Of the whole world for the year 1880.
To achieve these results France paid sew
enteen millions in bounties; Germany.
sixteen millions; Austro- Hungary, five
millions; Belgium, four millions, and Hol-
land, three millions, an aggregate of forty
i've millions, more than ten millions less
than the amount produced by the sugar
impost that the Republicans removed. 1t
may belt is to be hoped that it will be-
that the amount required to pay bounties
VIII gradually increase until it equals the
sum formerly derived from duties.
But If ii does, and when it does the
United States will have ceased IN he an
importer Of sugars, and will have become.
thanks TO this form of Republican protec-
ton, the greatest sugar producing and
sugar exporting country of the world.
The opposition must seek some other
point than the sugar bounty clause upon
which TO attack the Republican tariff
policy. At that point they are invulner-
able.