Sharp County record., 1891-04-30
THE SUGAR BOUNTY.


1t VIII Cost More Than Mckinley Though,
The Treasury Department Eniarging
the Estimates Unjust Favoritism of
Bounties and Protective Tariffs.
1t was estimated by Maj. Mckinley
last year, when he was in the tariff
making business, that the sugar bounty
would cost the country about S7,OOO,OOO
year, AS the bounty was given for
fifteen years the total sum thus voted
away would be S105, 600, 900, but it is al
ready evident that this bounty is going
to cost the country vastly more than
McKinley's estimate
The treasury department has esti-
mated, upon the basis of the production
of sugar in 1890, that $4,000, 900 will be
called for for bounties-aboutS IS, 900, 900
for cane sugar, $500, 900 for beet sugar
and sorghum sugar and SS75, 900 for ma
pie sugar. The great bulk of the ex-
penditure for cane sugar will go to the
Louisiana planters, who produce 400,-
100000 pounds per year, against only
about 100000 pounds in Texas and
5000, 600 pounds in Florida. There are
TAG cane sugar producing institutions in
Louisiana, 20 in Texas and one in Flori-
da. Sorghum is produced at six insti-
tutions in Kansas and beet sugar at one
institution in Nebraska and two in Cal
ifornia. Another factory is building in
California and one in Utah and one in
Iowa. The maple sugar producers, who
are largely in Vermont, are estimated
at between 10000, and $4,000, and their
production at so, 600, 900 pounds.
The estimates made cover only the
present production and make no allow
ance for the stimulus of the big bounty,
The bounty itself is not all of the eX-
pense, for it was necessary to add $lG5,-
900 to the appropriation of the internal
revenue bureau for deputy collectors and
other officials and S36, 900 for the pay
ment of inspectors salaries and eX-
penses, and to authorize six additional
clerks in the commissioners office.
1t is reported already that an unusu-
ally large crop of sugar cane will be
planted in Louisiana this year in order
to get the Mckinley bounty. 1t may
be expected that within a few years the
sum required to meet the bounty will
be very much larger.
As the sum increases the people will
see more and more clearly the folly and
injustice of taking away millions from
the taxpayers and giving it over to
sugar producers Why should one in
dustry be favored in this way at the ex-
pense of all other industries This is the
question which will force itself upon the
minds of the people. To the protec-
zionist mind, warped as it is by eco
nomic heresy, the bounty may appear
very reasonable way to assist an indus
try which is not able to stand on its
own legs; but the plain, common-sense,
unperverted mind Of the country will
reject this conclusion in toto. Theplain
working people of the land, the farm
ers, the mechanics, will conclude rather
that an industry which of itself does not
yield a profitable return can only be
rendered profitable at the expense of
these industries. Whether this extra
profit be guaranteed by protective
duty, whether it be seized by a trust or
combination to maintain high prices, or
whether it be voted direct from the
treasury in the form of a bounty, the
people will see that the result is the
same in the long run-the toiling masses
are assessed to guarantee profits to the
few. Their instructive love of fair play
will inevitably demand that all indus
tries be put upon an equal footing-an
open field for all, and favors for none.
If under these conditions sugar plant
ers are compelled to take up other en-
Payments the country will be gamer,
and not loser; for we shall still
sweeten our tea and coffee, and do it
more cheaply than ever before. If the
few hundred window-glass makers have
to shut up shop the people would lose
nothing. We should still have glass in
our windows and have it at nearly half
price. The destruction Of an industry
is not always an evil to be feared; it
may, indeed, be good thing. The
farmer who abandons an unproductive
field to take in more fertile one gains
by the change; and if one kind of crop
does not pay he very sensibly adopts
another which has money in it.
II Is false to assert that any given In
dustry is necessity to country. Com
modities are the only things necessary,
and it is Indifferent who makes these
Not the production of commodities, but
the possession and enjoyment of them
are the main considerations Bounties
and protective duties can give us moth
ing which we could not have gotten by
simpler and cheaper methods.