Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1897-03-17
SUGAR TRUSTS GREED.
IL Is UNSUITABLE AND ALL De.
VOURING.
II Its Profits Continue for Sixty Years it
VIII Amount to More Than all the
Money in Circulation at Present. Who
Pays it?

In the ten years of it's existence the
| sugar trust has taken from the people
of the United States s97 ,040, 600 in the
shape of excessive profits.
Its normal profits would have been
but s139, 800, 900 for the ten years. In
stead of being satisfied with such a re-
turn, the sugar trust has, during that
period, divided the enormous sum OF
1896, GAO, 900 in profits alone
If the sugar trust can keep on doing
this for sixty years, which is less than
the allotted span of one mans life. it
will have collected more toll from the
American people than there was
money in circulation in the entire
country last year.
These startling facts can be proven
from the testimony which has been
put in before the legislative committee
that is now investigating trusts, and
from testimony that has mainly been
given by the sugar magnates them
selves.
Both Henry o. Havemeyer. tho pres
ident of the sugar trust, and John F.
Searles, the secretary and treasurer,
testified under oath that the annual
output of refined sugar by the trust
was 100000 tons, or 2,4Oo, 900, 900
pounds year.
Henry o. Havemeycr testified that in
the year 1885, the year before the sugar
trust was organized, the margin of
profits to the sugar refner was SO of a
cent pound. This would make the
annual profit on an output of 2, 400, oOO,-
600 pounds $780, 900, or $3.50, 200, 900
in the ten years.
Called upon by the committee to fur
nish statement which would show
the margin of profit to the refners (the
sugar trust) from 1887, the year of It's
organization, to the present year, Mr..
Havemeyer gave table which showed
that the profit margin has ranged
from 1913 of cent a pound to /. 80
cents pound.
By striking an average of Mr. Have
meyers figures os to the margin of pro-
fit during the ten years, and multiply
ing it by 2,4Oo, 100000 pounds, which
both Mr. Havemeyer and Mr.. Searles
swore was the average output of the
trust, it is shown that the average pro-
fits per year earned by the sugar trust
have been $23, 1926, 900, or $3.50, 24o, 900
IN the ten years.
had the sugar trust not been organ
lied and had The sugar refiners contin-
ued to compete with each other on a
margin of SO of cent profit, as they
did before the organization of the mo-
nopoly, the sugar consumers would
therefore have saved SO, 7O4, 900 o year
or $97. O4o, 900 in the ten years.
Mr. Havemeycr has testified that the
number of laboring men who were
thrown out of employment by the clos
ing down Of refneries that followed
the organization of the sugar trust
might have been as high as 1900.
Others have testified that the number
Of men deprived of work was more than
1000.
From all the testimony it seems rea-
sonable to figure on the basis that not
less than 5000 men who were working
in sugar REFEREES that went out of bust.
ness when the trust organized lost
their places and have not been able to
find employment in that industry
since. The workingmen in sugar re-
fineries are well paid, as their labors
are OF the most trying character.
The 5000 men who lost their work in
the refinerles through the organization
of the trust certainly averaged not less
than 50 day each, making total of
$4,000 day for them ALL Working
300 days year on this basis, those
5000 men would have earned a total of
100000 year in wages, or $50, OOO,-
600 for the ten years.
Theodore Have1neyer, the vice-presi-
dent of the trust, said that one of the
obj cts of it's organization was to pre-
vent illegal combinations of organized
labor" There is no contention that
the 5000 men who lost their places
when the trust was organized con-
stituted IAN illegal combination of or
ganized labor
They were deprived of means of
earning their livelihood because it was
the policy of the sugar trust to shut
down refneries and profits by curtail-
ing production.-New York World.
Measures not Man