Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-05-18
THE SUGAR TRUST.
The Graduated-Cumulative Tax Would
Drive 1t Out of Existence.


Drive 1t Out of Existence.
Next to -four the most important
article of household consumption is
sugar. The price at which 1t is sold,
then, Is subject of immense concern
to the people. What has transpired of
late to affect the price2 The American
Sugar Refining Co., the great sugar
trust of this country, has destroyed
competition by absorbing the independ-
ent refneries. How are prices affected?
The wrong way for everybody but the
few members of the sugar trust, of
course To the dealers in raw sugar
they say, ''you must sell to us, you have
no other market" To customers thew
say, you must purchase from us, we
are the only refners." The prices of
raw sugars have already weakened, the
prices of refined have advanced and
brokers, grocers, producers and con-
sumers finding how utterly helpless
they are under present conditions and
laws have began to consider upon means
of relief
What means are proposed? One is to
make the importation of refined sugar
duty free. A bill is before congress
now which reads as follows:
Be it enacted, etc. That after the passage OF
this act, all sugars imported into the United
States from foreign countries shall be free OF
duty, and all acts or parts of acts inconsistent
with the provisions of this act are hereby re-
pealed
But will that save the people from
being gouged by the sugar trust? Not
bit of it. Why not? The trust can
and will be made international. That
is, the refiners of both the old world
and new world can agree and will agree
to cooperate for the purpose of making
big profits. When that is done we will
be no better off with free trade than a
tariff. Some may say that interna-
tlonaI trusts are too cumbersome 10 be
maintained and therefore we need have
no fears from that source But such
assertions are all moonshine. An in.
ternatlonal trust cuts out competition
from every and all sources and is more
easily maintained than a national one.
The other means of relief proposed is
the establishment of private refineries.
This is the plan proposed by some OF
the leading brokers and grocers in sew.
eral of the larger cities. But this plan
will not work, because the trust is too
powerful financially to compete sue
cessfully against in this way So clear
is this that those who are considering
the project will never forward it into an
actual enterprise.
Then what remains to be done? Just
this, shut the trusts off just as we shut
foreigners off when we have reason to
| object to them-with a tax. What is
| the tariff but tax upon foreigners,
levied for the purpose of giving the
| American an advantage of the former:
| 1t is nothing else. Well, this method
must be applied against the trust. Sub
| ject the TRUST to aa extra tax-an in
land tariff 1t will then be worth
while for independent manufacturers
to try to compete with it. The tax
viii give them the same advantage
over the trust that the tariff gives the
American over the foreigner, and it will
be the trust that gives way instead OF
the Independents when competition
starts in.
This plan would work. No other plan
has worked or will work. Tax provi-
sions succeed because of their absolute
nature They are sure of enforcement
because it is duty the performance of
which deTolyes upon the government.