The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1897-06-26
SUGAR TRUST PROFITS.


John DE Witt Warner Makes Some EST.
mates and Scores the Trust.
Congressman John De Witt War.
ner is one of the best posted men in this
country ON sugar tariffs. When in con.
gress, he carried the house for free sug.
ar. In recently published statement
he estimates the net protection to the
trust given by the Aldrich schedule al
from 35 cents to 81. IA ON every 100
pounds Of refined sugar
Without attempting to give his argu.
ment as to each of the ways In which
the trust would be protected we give
his summary of trust profits as follows:
Specific differential ............s 50. 1860. 40+
Thirty-hve per cent ad valorem
diffcrential. ...................... 0.141D 0.2l
Oountervailing duty, say, 80. 0.0S(9 OBS
Additional by substitution Of 75
per cent ad valorem for specific
duties In low grades. ..,.......... 000I@ OBS
Total ......................... S5,a$I Il
In the vast majority Of cascs, however, the
actual result Is between IS and 90 cents per 10C
pounds net protection to the trust and II Is
impracticable 20 to combine circumstances us
to bring this below 40 cents or above co cents
for any considerable amount.
As an item of tariff taxation the sug.
ar schedule is ideal from the projections
list standpoint. Sugar Is the one article
used by poor and rich to an equivalent
extent, and tax on which therefore
falls most heavily on the poor in pro
portion to their ability to pay it, Its
production and distribution are control
led by concern which Is at once the
greatest of our mean trusts and the
meanest of our great ones.
1t is consistent therefore that on this
one article there should be levied more
than one-third of our total tariff taxa
tion, and that our people should be bur
dened by a tax of more than 800, 000,
600 that realizes less than 100000,
600 for the treasury and more than
$50, 900, 900 for the sugar refining COM
bine, while the same combine is enabled
to net an additional $40, 600, 600 by the
opportunity given 1t to import at present
duty rates raw sugars from which Ii
can make refined to be sold by it under
the enhanced price assured it by the
proposed Aldrich schedule. The net
protection" of from As to 60 cents per
100 pounds given the trust on its REIN
ing process alone should be considered
as sufficient when we remember that
the labor cost of this process is slightly
less than So cents per 100 pounds--that
is to say, Senator Aldrich, IN behalf of
American labor, proposes unduly to tax
wage earners in order to give the trust
from five to seven times as much PRO
lection" as it pays for all the labor in
volved.
Next to the wage Garner the farmer
is dear to the protectionist heart, and
he is therefore equally favored by the
sugar schedule OF late years through
out the eastern and middle and many Of
the central states the competition CT th.
far west has driven our farmers from
grain raising into fruit culture. Thi
has now so developed that except for
exports of canned goods-jams, pre-
serves, etc.--in which we ought to sup
ply the world, the business of fruit rails
ing has in its turn, become almost profit
less. And poverty is now assured to
those who are dependent upon fruit Gull
ture by the proposed tax of two cents
pound on sugar. This increases
by from 80 to 70 per cent the arti, le
which would make up from 40 to 75
per cent of the total weight of the jams,
ETC., the export of which might ms
living prices for the surplus fruits,
which is now practically prohibited.
And this is "a government Of the
people, by the people and for the poo
ple" Who are "the peoplef"