Omaha daily bee., 1896-11-30

Importance of Fostering Sugar rro-
duction in the Country.


An item of news from Mauritius states
that the sugar planters Of that island have
decided to join with these Of the British
West Indies in representations to the gov
ernmCnt of Great Britain regarding the
sugar bountes paid by foreign countries.
Tho object in view is to secure some counter
action to enable them to compete more fairly
with their foreign rivals.
The fact of it is that sugar raising io on
a radically different footing from any other
branch of agriculture. 1t was just about as
the present century was born that the teas
ibility of producing beet sugar was discovered
and the genius of Napoleon saw the interna-
tional importance of this rival to cane sugar.
He put a premium, in the form of a govern
mcnt bounty. on raising bCcts for sugar, and
that was adopted by the other great nations
of continental Europe and is in vogue to this
day. For a long time cane raiSers did not
suffer from this competition, but at last II
has become almost destructive. If beet rails
ing Europe hold to the bounty policy and
cane raising countries do not do the same.
the inevitable result will be to very nearly
destroy the raising of cane. The MauritiaUs
are justified in their demand, and Great
Britain must come to the rescue or see that
brancA of agriculture wither away.
The latest a, liable estimate of sugar
production gives the total per year as:
Beet. 3Sil 600 metric tons; cane, 2,9600
metric tons The metric ton is 2,20l.6 pounds,
almost the same as our long ton of 224O
pounds. OF this yield Mauritius is credited
With 125,OOO tons the United states 2G5O0O
tons, the same as the Philippine islands
There are no ess than eighteen countries in
the list of cane producers The four great
nations of continental Europe Germany
Australia Hungary, France and Russia, alone
produce just about the amount of beet sugar
as all the rest of the world does of cane sugar
and they are bounty countries.
The United States has the distinction, 50
vast H. our area of being adapted to the
raising of bUtn sugar beet and cane. If it
were not for the competition of bounty-eu-
cOuTaged beet sugar we would soon raise all
our own sugar Or If our country would
steadily Offset the bounty advantage of Euro
pean beet raissro by counter bounty on
home production. the same result would soon
be attained. Nearly all the cane sugar of
commerce Is produced in the new world, espe-
cially the tropical islands, and If the govern
ments of those Islands and mainlandS would
join the United States i'm kind of zoyerein.
all pooling In to protect their sugar interests
they could soon break up the bounty system.
for, in that case, the beet raising countries
of Europe would find the object of their
bounty policy defeated. 1t is probable thai
they would be willing then to cry quits Ger
many alone produces 1850. coo metric tons
nearly one-flth the total annual sugar product
of the world The United States has the
soil and climate to compete, and under the
Mckinley act, was beginning to be a fOrmid-
able rival. but the Wilson law took off the
bounty without making provision for any sort
of offset. The next congress should either
restore the bounty or put a tariff on impurta-
ton from bounty paying countries high
enough to be an offset to those bounties
The United states i9 the great sugar eating
country of tle world. Our consumption Of
it has considerably more than doubled per
capita 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 it would make a great
difference with our balance of trade At
cents a pound this exceeds 500 o0O. 600
year. Surely the Wilson law viewed simply
from this one saccharine point of view was
great national calamity.