Omaha daily bee., 1896-11-19
suGAR BorvTr AND rLoUR BouNrY.

SUGAR BOUNTy AND flour BOUNTY.
Last wcck our crratc local contemporary
declared Itself point blank against all sugar
bountiCs, by which alone Nebraska could
hope to attract capital disposed TO venture
into beet sugar manufacturing. This week
1t calls for capital TO build great sugar
refinery at or near Omaha.-Omaha Bee.
Tho World-Herald Is opposed to sugar
bountes. If 1t favored a bounty on sugar
bees II would also favor a bounty on wheat
II It favored opening the public treasury for
the benefit OF beet factories It would object
to the treasury doors being closed against
the demands OF -four mill owners. But the
World Herald opposes bounty on wheat or
flour exactly as II opposes a bounty on beeta
or sugar-World-H Herald.
1t does not matter what the World
Herald is for or against excepting in
sorar as it diSscminatcs doctrines
which make fools Of some people who
have not brains enough to do their own
thinking. The man who talks about II
bounty on sugar being the same as II
bounty on wheat or -four is either II
monumental sap.head or q demagoEuc.
A country which produces several hun
dred million bushels more of wheat
than it can possibly consume would
scarcely want to offer n bonus to wheat
raiscrs nor would country which now
supplies % per cent of all the Hour that
is imported into Great Britain be so
dcmcnted as to pay bounty for Hour
making.
But country that pays $l2O,OOO.OOO
n year for sugar imported from foreign
countries which can he produced in the
United States would exhibit an un-
pardonablc lack of business sagacity If
It continued to drain its people of the
millions which are now pouringSinto
the laps of European sugar producers.
Germany and Austro-Iltingary alone
pay out over twenty million dollars Il
wear in bountiCS on beet sugar exported
into the United States and France Is
about to enact Il sugar bounty law tha'
will enable her to cope win GerhahS
in tho American market. ManifeStlS
the United States never can bulld UP
its beet sugar industry to proportions
that will supply the home market uh-
less it offsets the bOunties PAID by
foreign countries which in the long
run the consumers of sugar Ill 'he
United States are Obliged to pay.
Which would be more profitable. to
keep on paying over hundred millions
a wear to Europe for beet sugar or 10
foster and stimulate sugar beet falSlns
in this country until the industry is on
such n substantial footing rs Will en-
able us to distribute the millions we
now spend abroad among our own
people?
The World-Hcrald, which. as usual,
does not know what ii is talking ABOUT
handles this beet sugar bounty queS-
ton from the political standpoint Oh
the free trade theorist who can see no
good in stimulating any industry or
enterprisn by bounties or tariff duties, al
though all experience has proved the
theory destructive to Il new country
that boasts vast natural undeveloped
resources.
In opposing the sugar bounty "on
principle" our destructive contemporary
exhibits the most lnmentablc ignorance
of facts as well as its tendency to
cxaggcration and misstatement 1T
makes the assertion that the bounty in
Nebraska this year will mount up to
S125 600 when in fact it will scarcely
exceed $4,000. 1t sets up the Lehi,
Utah, factory as n model, and talks
glibly about the enormous profit of rails
ing sugar beets at 81 Il ton in Nebraska.
The Utah beet fields are worked by
Mormon women and children, very much
as the German and French beet fields
are. where women and children in
harness with trained dogs haul vegeta-
bles to market. Such culture" is not
practicable in Nebraska. The Lehi
factory sells all its product in Utah mt
from 81 to 50 hundred higher than
the jobbing price of beet sugar in
Nebraska. The Utah factory has the
advantage over Nebraska factories in
the higher freight rates from either the
Pacific or Atlantic coast.
1t costs less than so to raise an acre
OF sugar beets in Germany. 1t costs
from $25 to $50 an acre to raise sugar
bcets in Nebraska, excepting only where
Il very large tract is cultivated by
heavy moneyed concerns who have
special facilities for seeding, planting
and harvesting. On top of this diff
ference between first cost of beet rails
ing in Europe and in Nebraska comes
the export bounties of | To ~ cents
II pound paid by foreign nations which
must be met in this ma:Reu by Ameri-
can beet sugar producers.
The question we have to deal with is
not whether the state sugar bounty
contravenes pet theory, but whether
any other way of dealing with the
problem will meet the existing condi-
tons. on that subject an ounce of
good horse sense, based on experience
outweighs Il thousand tons of theory.
THE TRADE BALiNC