The herald., 1896-08-23
Local, Ea stern and Foreign
Commercial Dealings
WALL STREET SPECULATION
Shall We Grow Our Own Sugar
Its Cost
Very Low Prices East for California Pears.
Should Retail Merchants Charge In
tercst on Overdue Accounts?

In no direction now is there such an op-
portunity for replacing foreign supply by
domestic as there is in that of sugar. The
figures of our foreign sugar bill are not
yealized. We buy abroad every year in the
neighborhood of a hundred millions of dol
lars worth of sugar and molasses, paying
for 1t in gold The growth Of this account
is enormous. In 151 it was less than 81 ,000,
900; in 1896 1t had risen to more than s10l,
900 900. In the former year we took from
other countries $50, ,0O0, 900 pounds of sugar.
while in 1890 we took 1884, 900, 900. In value
the increase of 40 years has been about 400
per cent but in quantity about 700 per cent.
We can and we should raise our own SUI
gar. 1t must be done mainly from the
sugar beet. What has been accomplished
in Europe by the farmers of France and
Germany and other countries can be done
by our farmers also. The beginning has
been well made. In Nebraska, Utah and
California 1t has been demonstrated that
beets can be raised and sugar can be made
to commercial adVantage.-TOpeka Mer-
chants Journal.
California is particularly interested in
the above: As In fruit production SO in
state gave an advantage over other sec
tions of the country so great as in the end
for tsus sugar % Ana Southern e california s H viii
lead the other portions of the state if natur-
al advantages are to tell.
One of the features of the present season
in California fruit has been the extremely
low prices at which California Bartlett
pears have sold. This fruit has retailed
on the streets as low as IA cents apiece, and
the pears were of the best and largest. The
demand has been fair but the hot weather
has reduced it to point much lower than
1t should be. The ordinary box of pears
contains from $50 to 200, and the auction
price this year, considering this number,
has been very low. California. pears Of
fancy quality sold at auction this year at
a price which enabled the jobber to sell
them to the retailer at slips to S1.60 per box.
apiece and is unprecedentedly low for good
stock.-Philadelphi Grocery World.
ing the subject of retail grocers charging
interest on overdue accounts. Some are
urging merchants to adopt this scheme.
This 1t seems to us, would place the mer-
chant at the mercy of the debtor by seem
ingly agreeing to carry his accounts indefi-
nitely upon the payment of interest. Few
merchants are prepared to conduct a sue
cessful business on capital derived from
the. interest on the price for which they
sell their goods. The. merchant expects
to live off the profits which he makes on his
goods, and unless he has unlimited capital
he would surely find 1t hard to both live
and paw debts with the small legal interest
he would be allowed to charge, presuming
(as he most likely would be Obliged to add
the interest to the already incurred obliga-
tion of his debtors. AS one contemporary
very sensbly says. 1t would put the trade
security and enable his customers TO stave
him off indefinitely with the delusive sat
books."-Pittsburg Mercantile Journal.