Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1897-07-13
SUGAR TRUST PROFITS.
John De Witt Warner Makes Some Esti-
mates and Scores the Trust.

John De Witt Warner Makes Some Esti
mates and Scores the Trust.
Ex-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 a recently published statement
he estimates the net protection to the
trust given by the Aldrich schedule at
from 80 cents to $1.14 ON every 100
pounds of refined sugar.
Without attempting to give his argu-
ment as to each of the ways in which
the trust would be protected we give
his summary of trust profits as follows:
Specific difrerential l.........$O so. ISa so. 40 +
Thirty five per cent ad valorenI
differential. ...-...-.-...---....-. O.141 OIL
Counteryailing duty, say. -. O.0S,9 o.35
Additional by substitution of 20
per cent ad valorem for specific
duties in low grades ............. O.O09 OBS
Total. -SO-So;gSll4
In the vast majority of cases, however, the
actual result is between 45 and 90 cents per 1OC
pounds net protection to the trust, and it is
impracticable to combine circumstances as
to bring this below 10 cents or above GO cents
for any considerable amount.
As an item of tariff taxation the sug-
ar schedule is ideal from the projections
ist standpoint. Sugar is the one article
used by poor and rich to an equivalent
extent, and Il 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 a 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
ton, aud that our people should be bur
dened by tax of more than $50, 600,
600 that realizes less than $40, 600,
600 for the treasury and more than
$50, 200, 900 for the sugar refining COM
biue, while the same combine is enabled
to net an additional $40, 900, 900 by the
opportunity given it to import ut present
duty rates raw sugars from which it
can make refined to be sold by it under
the enhanced price assured it by the
proposed Aldrich schedule. The net
protection of from 40 to go cents per
100 pounds given the trust ON its retin-
ing process alone should be considered
as sufficient when we remember that
the labor cost of this process is slightly
ltSS lLdH SSbt1 INL Nv PNb-AiNS
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
yolved.
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 Of the
far west has driven our farmers from
grain raising into fruit culture This
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 cul-
ture by the proposed tax of two cents
pound on sugar. This increases
by from 90 to rs per cent the article
which would make up from 40 to 10
per cent of the total weight of the jams,
ETC., the export of which might insure
living prices for the surplus fruits, but
which is now practically prohibited.
And this is ga government of the
people, by the people and for the peo-
pie" Who are "the people?"