Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1897-06-14
SUGAR TRUST PROFITS

Jehn Ne witt Warner Makes seme
Estimates ana scores the Trust.
Ex-Congressman John De Witt War
aer is one Of the best posted men in this
country ON sugar tariffs. When In con-
gress he carried the house for free
sugar. In a recently published state
ment he estimates the net protection
to the trust given by the Aldrich sched-
ule at from IS cents to &1.14 ON every
100 pounds OF refined sugar.
Without attempting TO give his areN-
ment as to etich OF the ways in which |
the trust would be protected we give
his summary of trust profits ~ follows:
SPECIFIC diferentiai tpius). ;.-. - ls0eo %
Thirty-five per cent ad vslorem
otferential. ................. 1890. 10 q
CcuntervaiiIng duty. say. ds8 Is
Per sent al ~ Ssi'S for spe ea
duties In low grades............. o 0c0 o 10
In the vast majority OF cases. however.
the actual result IL between Is and 90 cents
per 100 pounds net protection to the trust.
and II is impracticable 30 TO combine cir
cumstances as to bring this below 20 cents
or above 60 cents for any considerable
amount.
As an item of tariff taxation the
sugar schedule is ideal from the pro-
tectionist standpoint. Sugar Is the one
article used by poor and rich to an
equal extent, and a tax on which there
fore falls most heavily on the poor In
proportion to their ability to pay Il.
Its production and distribution are con-
trolled by q concern which is at once
the greatest of our mean trusts and the
meanest of our great ones.
It is consistent therefore that on this
one article there should be levied more
than one-third Of our total tariff taxa
ton, and that our people should be bur-
dened by tax Of more than SOC, 000, 600
that realizes less than $4,000, 900 for
the treasury and more than $50, o00, 0eo
for the sugar refining combine, while
the same combine Is enabled to net
an additional SO, O0o, 900 by the oppor-
trnity given to it to import at present
duty rates raw sugars from which IL
can mako refined to be sold by 1t under
the enhanced price assured IL by the
proposed Aldrich schedule. The net
protection" of from IS to GO cents per
100 pounds given the trust on its refin-
ing process alone should be considered
as sufficient when we remember that
the labor cost of this process is slightly
less than 6H 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" a. 1t pays for all the labor in.
volved.
Next to the wage-earner the farmer
is dear to tho protectionist heart, end
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 goodstjams, pre-.
serves, etc.-in which we ought to sup
ply the world, the business of fruit rails
ing has, in it's turn, become almost
profitless. And poverty IL now assured
TO those who are dependent upon fruit
culture by the proposed tax of two
cents pound on sugar. This increases
by from so to IS per cent. the article
which would make up from 40 to 2;
per cent. Of the total weight of the jams
etc.. the export of which might insure
living prices for the surplus fruits, bu
which is now practically prohibited.
And this is "a government of thu
people. by the people and for the PEG
pie" Who are the 'people?"