The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-09-08
rIIE BEET SUGAR Mn
,EE6iNG REDRESS from TIL
GOVERNMENT.
Legal Measures to be Taken to En-
force the bounty Act-Mill.
Ions involved.

The passage of the tariff bill promises
70 interfere considerably with the pro-
luction of beet sugar in California. On
asst Tuesday word was received from
he Secretary of the Treas ury by Inter.
II Il Revenue Collector Nelburn to re-.
all the inspectors stationed at the
,arious beet sugar manufactures This
means that the bounty of two cents a
pound on beet sugar has ceased, as the
Wilson bill il { ndtd that it should, but
the manufacturers of beet sugar do not
propose to surrender without fight,
md the United Strtes will find itself
with a big legal battle on ITS hands, or
Congress will be asked to remunerate
the sugar men for the money the latter
will lose by the operation OF the Wilson
Jaw. There are six beet sugar manu-
factories in the United States, one in
Lchigh, Utah, one in Norfolk, one in
Grand Island, Neb., and three in Cali
fornia. The three companies in this
state have engaged legal advice, and
Collector Welburn yesterday received
three protests against the removal of
the n ,pectoIs.
They protest against the withdrawal
# the United States Internal Revenue
officers from their works, b, cause it is
necessary that the said officers remain
nn duty for the purpose of ascertainin.
the amount of bounty to which such
company is entitled during the period
| covered by their licenses.
The three companies in California are
the Western Sugar Refinery, of which
j. ID. Spreckels and brother are at the
head: the Alameda Sugar Company. OF
which John l.. Howard is president
and the Chino Valley Beet.Sugar Com.
pany, which is controlled by the
OXhard Brothers. Between the three
companies there is invested over $50 0,
OO0. The Alameda company is the only
one of the trio which tnrns out refined
sugar, the other companies shipping
their raw sugar to this city to be rein
ed. The bounty on refined sugar was !
cents pound, and on the raw materia
over so and under 80 per cent. ~,
cents a pound.
1t was stated yesterday by severa
su4ar men that the protest was merely
the commencement of proceeding
against the Government and that il
meant much to California. Collector
Welburn said that his action in tn,
matter would end with the forwarding
of the protest of the sugar men to the
/ Commissioner of Internal Revenue al
Washington.
John ID. Spreckele who is at the head
of the Western Sugar Refinery, saic
that the Government must be held re,
sponsible for its acts just as a private in
dividual. The law was past in 1890,
he said, encouraged the production q
beet sugar by giving bounty of pei
cent pound on the output. This wa
a guarantee from the Government, an'
under such guarantee we went ah, a.
with the business, putting up an ex
pensive plant at Watsonville. In ad
iition to this we had to run iailroa,
from Watsonville to Salinas. We hav
invested altogether nearly Sl,00O,0OO
and have only been in operation tire
years. As early us last February W
had to make our contract with tn
farmers for beets, knowing nothing o
the coming legislation. Last year on
output was 7770 tons, and this year W
expect to produce between | 900 an,
10000 tons. We are licensed to pro
duce beet sugar at cents pound duty
yet the Government steps in now an
says that we are not to receive tina
bounty, and it has removed its il
Spectors, who were to keep track of tn
output. Our first step is to try an
have those inspectors returned.
IF this is not done we will take lega
proceedings. Just how the latter wi
he conducted we do not exactly know
We may be allowed to enter suit agains
United States in the Court of Claim,
or it may be necessary to enact specia
legislation in Congress.