The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-03-25
TWELVE PAGES.
The Free Sugar" Fraud.


The Louisville Co1trier-.Jo,irndl remarks:
The democratic administration left a
surplus Of Sl00,000,0OJ. The first repub-
hcan congress creates a deficit of at least
S5000O,0O0.
To which the Indianapolis Journal re-
spends:
And more than that amount of revenue
was cut of by removing the duty on
sugar The people can stand deficit"
caused by the removal of a tax on one OF
the prime necessaries of life.
Heigh-hol So the duty on sugar is a
tax, is it? And its repeal is relief to the
people, is it? What an amazing adIDis-
sion to come from paper which has de-
voted hundreds of columns during the
last fewyears to insistence that the tariff
is not a tax, and that whoever says it is
is parrot and villain
However, we shall doubtless hear good
deal from the organs of the monopoly
tariff for some time to come about the
enormous relief afforded to the people by
the remission OF the sugar tax. These or
gans will. no doubt, frequently be found
insisting in the very same issues that the
tariff is not a tax; that its effect is to re-
duce to consumers the price OF the ar
tices upon which it is levied, and that the
repeal OF duties always results in higher
prices to consumers. But the advocacy
of protectionism necessarily involves such
inconsistencies and contradictions.
Now what are the facts about this sugar
tax?
The tax on raw sugar has been repealed,
to take effect April l. The tax on refined
sugar has been reduced to six-tenths OF a
cent per pound, taking effect on the same
date. Thus, after April /, the sugar trust,
embracing most of the sugar refneries OF
the country, Will get its raw material free.
The consumers Of sugar will, however,
have to pay a tax of six-tenths of cent
on every pound they use for the benefit
OF the sugar trust. The people will also
be taxed to pay to a few of their
number a bounty or bonus of cents
on every pound of sugar made in the
United States. whether from sugar cane,
sorghum, beet-root or maple sap. 1t is
not likely that the people will get very
much relief out Of this arrangement.
The sugar tax, or duty, which was
chiefly a revenue tax, was repealed in or
der to afford pretext for retaining or in
creasing the duties or taxes on clothing,
tin-plate. salt, iron ore, lumber, and a
thousand other necessaries of life, or
raw materials of important industries. 1t
yielded to the national treasury S54, $685.
1875 during the fiscal year ended June
so, 1889. Congress threw away
this revenue in order to save the manu-
facturers who had the fat fried out OF
them in 1888 from any loss of "protec-
tion," and to humbug the people into the
them. At the same time it imposed new
tax on the people amounting for the first
year to more than 100000, and certain
to increase annually, which is to be paid
not into the public treasury for the benefit
of the whole people, but into the pockets
of few sugar planters in Louisiana and
maple growers in Vermont.
The time was when the American peo-
pie could have been deceived by this
fraud. But this time has passed. The
people have had their eyes opened
They are not to be humbugged by the
false and fraudulent cry of cheap sugar any
more than by BLAINE's reciprocity schemes
or by inane drivel about the Golden club
British gold and the pauper labor of Eu-
ropa