The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1897-07-30

1
l21 cents per hundred pounds greater
than the rates on raw sugar. OF
course, the rates on different grades of
raw sugar we're different, but taking
the number of pounds of any grade
which were required to make hun
dred pounds of refined sugar it was
found that the rates were on an
average of 124 cents per hundred
pounds less than those on refined
sugar. This means that the sugar re-
timers of the country, whether in the
trust or out of it, were allowed a diff
ference of 124 cents per hundred
pounds, or 3 of cent a pound, diff
ference between raw sugar when im-
ported and refined sugar when import
ed, thus giving them an opportunity
to import raw sugar at of a cent a
pound less than the rates at which
refined sugar can be imported. 1t is
generally conceded that the cost Of
refining sugar is not less than about /
of cent pound, so that the rates
really given to the sugar refiners are
simply the bare difference between
refined and unrefined sugars of the
cost of refining.
1t is we'll known that the rates adopt
ed by the Senate were more advantage
Gus to the sugar refners, but it is a
fact that the rates agreed upon by the
conferees made precisely the same diff
ference between raw and refined
sugars that the House bill made when
it was passed by that body. The con-
ference report did increase the rates
on refined sugar slightly, but it also
increased the rates on raw sugar, thus
making the difference in the rate of duty
between raw and refined, or the diff
erential," as it is called precisely what
the House bill made it originally, l24
cents per hundred pounds, or ! of a
cent pound.
But, says the objector, if the confer
ence report gave to the sugar trust no
advantage, why was it that sugar-trust
stock advanced during the time that
the bill was in consideration by the
conferees and after it was presented to
the public?
The answer to this is simple enough.
The sugar trust, knowing that the
bill would certainly advance the rate
of duty on sugars as n protection to
American producers, has been bring
ing into the country as rapidly as pos
slble sugar in enormous quantities,
getting it in, of course, under the COM
paratively low rates of the Wilson law.
1t has secured the world for sugar,
and had in stock by the time the con-
ference report was presented to the
public over 700 thousand tons of raw
sugar, or, in round numbers, 800 ,00O,-
000 pounds. Think of it Enough
sugar to load seventy thousand cars, or
to load three thousand five hundred
freight trains of twenty cars each, or
to make one continuous train over
fifty miles in length. On every pound
of this sugar which it had in stock it
was perfectly apparent that itwould
make whatever profit there was be-
tween the Wilson law and the in
creased tariff rates named by the
Dingley law, or an aggregate profit
calculated at u million dollars.
Is it surprising that sugar stock went
up in view of the fact that this organi-
zation would make upon the sugar
which it had brought into the country
II million dollars by the mere advance
which the trainers of this bill have
found it necessary to make in tariff
rates in order to protect the sugar pro-
ducers of the United States and bring
revenue to the Government?
But, the objector will say, everybody
familiar with this subject knew that
the sugar trust had all this sugar in
stock, and since this fact was we'll
known this does not account for the
sudden rise in sugar trust stock which
lOllONCu Juc duuOuuCelDeDI Oh inc
agreement of the conference COM
mittee.
This is true, but the explanation of
the sudden advance, which was caused
by the profit thus assured to the sugar
trust through the enormous stock on
hand, is found in the fact that Sec
rotary Gage had recommended to Con-
gress the placing of an internal rev.
enue tax of one cent per pound on all
unreined sugar in the United States
when the new tariff law should go into
effect, the object being to compel the
trust to pay to the Government tax
of one cent per pound on all this
1,500,000,0 900 pounds of sugar which it
had accumulated waiting the advance
which it could make by the new tariff.
Had Secretary Cages recommendation
been accepted by the conferees and by
Congress it would have compelled the
trust to pay in internal revenue taxes