The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1894-08-23
SUGAR DUTIES IN HISTORY,
What Congress Has Done for
the Refiners During Thirty
Years.

Dutch standard was cents pound.
and on raw sugar above No. II and
not above No. 10 the duty was 81 cents
a pound. On refined sugar the duty
vas cents pound. Reduced to ad
valorem, the duties on raw sugar
under that tariff were above 20 per
cent. Although these duties yielded
considerable public revenue, the main
object cflegislation was to protect the
sugar refners by making discrimi-
nation of upward of one cent pound
in their favor.
The tariff of 1872 fixed the duty on
raw sugar above No. Z and not above
No. 10 the main importation) at 2
cents pound; and on refined sugar
at 81 cents pound-making dis
elimination of II cents pound in
favor of the refiners.
This proving not quite satisfactory
to the refners, the duty on raw sugar
was raised in 1875 to 2 cents pound
plus 20 per cent ad valorem, and the
duty on refined sugar was raised to
4 cents pound plus 25 per cent ad
valorem. There was no Sugar Trust
in those days, but manifestly the trust
has shown none of the power that the
sugar lobby then possessed in the halls
of Congress.
In the tariff of 1888 another twist
was given to the sugar duties, always
keeping the interest of the refiners in
front. The duty on raw sugar was re-
duced to 2 cents a pound, and the
duty on refined sugar was reduced to
3! cents pound-m making a discrim-
ination of l. cents pound in favor of
the refiners. Under the tariff the
average duty of refined sugar was up
ward Of 72 per cent ad valorem-so
great was the fear of Senator Sherman
Senator Allison and the rest of the
Republican statesmen lest the manu-
facturers of sugar should be subjected
to the ruinous competition Of the
"pauper labor of Europe. 1t need
not be said that during the operation
of the tariff Of 1883 hardly a pound
of refined sugar was imported over the
high tariff walls. The sugar refners
were the peculiar objects of the solici-
tude and favor of its Republican
authors.
Then came the Mckinley tariff of
1890, which, while nominally putting
raw sugar on the free list, fixed a tax
of half a cent pound on the entire
consumption Of refined sugar and gave
a bounty of 2 cents pound to do
mestic producers. The effect of this
operation is to take upward Of $780,
100000 a year out of the pockets of
American consumers for the sole ben
eft of the Sugar Trust, and $4,000
600 besides in bounties. When this
fagitious measure was devised for de-
spelling the public Treasury of its
revenues and fleeing consumers the
Sugar Trust was represented by a
powerful lobby in Washington. But
a scheme of plunder which gives the
trust its raw sugar free of tax and a
subsidy of halfa cent every pound it
refnes was more than the most sang
uine of its agents had reason to antici-
pate.
Contrast with this series of Repub-
lican sugar duties from 1864 to 1890
the sugar schedule now. This sche-
dule. with its 40 per cent duty on raw
sugar, will put upward of $4,000, 900
of revenue into the Treasury and save
S12,000,000 in bounties, while reduc-
ing the discrimination in favor of re-
fined sugar to one fifth Of a cent per
pound. If corrupt influences prevail
ed in the adjustment of this schedule,
what sinister influences prompted the
legislation on sugar for
the last 80 years? If the Democratic
members of the Senate Finance Com
mittee we're under the sway of the !
Sugar Trust, what insidious power was
behind Senator Sherman, Senator
Aldrich and the other Republican
members of the Senate Finance Com
mittee when they framed the sugar
schedule of the Mckinley act? The
simple truth is that this is the only
example of Legislation in Congre ess in
the last 80 years in which the demands
of the sugar refners have been sub
ordinated to considerations of public
revenue and to the interests of con-
s,llnerS.