The advocate., 1895-11-06
Of men that the Republican party
sends to the American house of lords

It is a Well-known fact chat the prin
ciple upon which railroad freights are
levied Is to take all the traffic will bear
The following is one Of the instances
where even this limit is exceeded:
There ere a5,OOOOOO gallons Of molasse
stored in tanks on the various sugar planta
tions throughout the State, says the New Or
leans Times Democrat, that is an elephant OF
the sugar.plsnters hands They do not know
what to do with It. They cannot sell 1t, fol
any profit in sight would he eaten up In trans
portation. Besides, IL would require COO
half million dollars to barrel It, and putting
this sum and freight charges together, when
the present price Of molSsses is taken into
consideration, the shipper would find that he
would be out Of pocket after his labor was
concluded.
The question Of what disposition to make OF
this molasses Is o knotty one to the sugar
planters, and at the last two meetings of theil
association no other subject has been dis
cussed The planters say that 1t Is q problem
that has to be solved, for before the next crop
is taken OF this surplus molasses has to be
got rid Of In order TO make room for the new
crop. Heretofore the stun has been dumped
into the river or sWamps. In the latter
method It has been found that the molasses
sours and makes life dissgreeable to those
living Ave miles awsywhile In dumping 1t into
the river or streams, people living ON the
banks complain Of It as q nuisance.
1t Is being fed TO stock, but from sta
tistics there is not enough stock by one.
third on the various plantations to con.
sumo It. Suggestions have been made
to distin 1t into alcohol. but the planters find
that IL would require such an outlay Of money
to erect distlllery to distill fine alcohol so as
to compete with the worlds markets, that 1t
would not pay. 1t has also been suggested
that, as molasses Is excellent stock food, 1t be
shipped to central distributing points whore
stock is raised in large numbers-Texas, for
instance-by means Of tank cars This sug-
gestiOn has met with favor, and some say the
experiment may be tried.
The only solution, however, in sight seems
TO be the discovery Of some way in which the
molasses can be burned Ss- fuel. When this
problem 10 solved the planters believe that
molasses will then be valuable. Experiments
have been tried In burning molasses as fuel,
and they have been successful, but 1t has been
on such small scale that 1t will not pay in its
present crude form. What the planters want
is for an invention which will successfully
allow molasses to enter the furnace In such a
manner that 1t will burn rapidly, viii not gum
the carrier, and, In fact do its duty without
injuring the furnace In any respect. There Ia
a fortune in sight for the man who works out
this invention. A system Of spraying the mo-
lAsses on the bagasse as 1t goes along with
carrier to the furnace is, from all accounts
the only system that will suffice.
Our system of production and dis
tribution is a dandy. Here is product
that millions Of people want which ia
going to waste because, after paying
the excessive freight charges demanded
by the railroads, "the shipper would
find that he would be out Of pocket
after his labor was concluded" The
writer of the above mentions the
former methods Of disposition of this
product and discusses the feasibility
of using it for fuel. AL of these meth.
DDS treat it purely as waste. Is it not
singular that it did not occur to hin
that government ownership of the rail
roads and the consequent establish
ment Of reasonable freight rates would
solve the whole difficulty and convert
this waste product into an important
article Of consumption as well as render
it q source of profit to the planter
Why is it that the people prefer to sup
port these giant monOpolies rather thar