The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-12-04
SUGAR BoUNTIEs.
IMPORTANCE OF FOSTERING SUGAR Production
IN THE COUNTRY.

IMPORTANCE OF FOSTERING SUGAR PRODUCTION
IN THE COUNTRY
Chicago Inter Ocean.
An item of news from Mauricus states tnat
the sugar planters of that island have oeclueo
to ioin with those of the British West lndles In
representations to the Government OF Great
britain regarding the sugar bounties paid by
foreIpn countries The object in view is to
secure some counter action to enable :hem TO
compete more fairly with their foreign rivals.
The fact of 1t is that sugar raising is on
radically different footing from any otner
branch of agriculture. 1t was just ABOUT as
the present century was born tnat the ieasi-
bIlity OF producing beet sugar was discoveIeu
and the genius OF Napoleon saw sne in .na
ma tional Importance oi~fhis riyaISto cane
sugar He put premium, In the iorm OF
Government bounty. on raising peets LOT sugar.
and that was adopted by me oiner greas
nations OF Continental Europe ana Is III vogue
y For orr a long time cane-raisers did not suffer
from this competition, but at last IL mas pc
come almost destructive. Ii DeetralslEe
Europe hold to the bounty policy and cane
raising countries do not do the same the NJ
eyitable result will be to very nearly destroy
the raising OF cane. Inc od Great BrItain must
come to the rescue or see that branch OF agri-
culture wither away.
The latest available estimate OF sugar plo
duction gives the total per year as: Beet,
3S41 900 metric tons, cane 2,9bO,OOO meIrlc
tons. The metric ton is 2204 . POUNDS, sImo 81
the same as our long ton OF zZ4o pounass. oo ~
this Weld Mauritius Is credited with 1zo,OOO
tons. the United States 265, 900 tons, the same
as the Philippine Islands. There are no less
than eighteen countries in the nst OF cane
producers. The four great nations OF Contl-
mental Europe, Germany, Austria Hungary,
France and Russia alone produced just ABOUT
the amount of beet sugar as all the rest oi the
world does of cane sugar, and they ale bounty
The United States has the distinction, so
vast is our area, of being adapted TO tne rals-
ing of both sugar beet ana cane. II ~ were
not for the competition of bounty encouraged
beet sugar we would soon raise all our own
sugar. Or, If our country would steadily on
set the bounty advantage OF European Deet-
raisers by counter bounty on nome proonc-
| ton, the same result would soon De attained.
Nearly all the cane sugar OF commerce Is pro-
duced In the New World, especially the tropl-
| cal islands, and if the Governments OF those
| islands and mainlands would join the united
States in kind of zollyerein, all pooling In to
protect their sugar interests, they could soon
| break up the bounty system, for, IN that case,
| the beet-ratsing countries of Europe would
| find the object of their bounty policy defeated.
| 1t is probable that they would be willing then
| 10 cry quits. Germany alone produces I,5oO-
| 600 metric tons, nearly one-ffth the total an
nual sugar product of the world
The United States has the soil and climate TO
| compete, and under the Mckinley act was be-
| ginning to be formida BILE rival, but the Will
son law took off the bounty without making
provision for any sort of Offset The next Con-
gresS should either restore the bounty oE put
q tariff on i'm portation from bounty-paylng
countries high enough to be an offset to those
bounties.
The United States is the great sugar-eating
country OF the world. Our consumption OF 1t
| has considerably more than doubled per cap
| ita since the war. The average annual amount
of sugar consumed by each person In this
country is nearer seventy than sixty pounds
If the money spent for sugar could all be kept
at home 1t would make great difference with
| our balance of trade: At 2 cents pound this
exceeds 100000 900 year. Surely the Will
son law, viewed simply from this one saccha-
rine point of view, was great National ca
lamitv