Omaha daily bee., 1897-06-04
NO LONGER AN EXPERIMENT.
Past and Future Changes in the Sugar
Industry.


Herbert Myricli in Review OF Reviews.
European countries impose heavy tax
on sugar consumed at home in order to
raise the $25,O00,0OO they pay annually In
subsidies to promote their export trade in
sugar This and prohibitive tariffs account
for the high prices abroad. But our plan
of countervailing duties equal to foreign ex-
port bounties neutralizes the advantage here
tofore enjoyed in this market by export
bounty sugars BY this artificial stimulus
aided by science to a degree that Is Won
der and delight, Europe has nearly doubled
her beet sugar product since 1880, until it
is now about 5O0O,OOO long tons annually.
The worlds cane sugar supply, including
Cuba in a normal state, has grown only
half as fast of late years. and is now about
5000, 900 tons. 1t is quite likely that this
years production of sugar from beets Will
be twice as great as from cane, whereas
conditions were just the reverse about
twenty-five years go.
This accounts for United States imports of
sugar from Europe increasing from 100000
tons four years ago to $50, 900 tons last year,
meanwhile decreasing one-half from 1.-The
countries to the south of us"-from
100000 tons in 1892 to 100000 last year.
Indeed, only the yellow races have been
able to hold their own against Europe's
highly subsidized beet sugar industry. Yet
so quietly has this application gone on OF
degraded labor to the sugar cane that 1t
is astonishing to find United States imports
of sugar from Hawaii, the Orient and Egypt
jumped from about 900 tons in 1872 to
700 900 tons last year. The Sandwich Is
lands product has nearly doubled in the
four years, during which so enormous has
been their importation of coolie or yellow
labor that Chinese and Japanese now COM
prise more than half the male popu-
lation. This result has been los
tered by our treaty OF reciprocity
wifi HaU under
has had free admission to this market since
1876 While we have thus RENTED over
SCI 900, 900 in duties on her sugar-prac-
tically amounting to direct bounty OF this
sum to few Of her planters at the expense
of the United States treasury and the retard-
ing of our domestic sugar industry-we have
also paid the islands $140,0O0,000 for sugar,
while they have taken but $56,O0o,OO0 worth
of our exports. Such an absolutely one
sided and illogical treaty was never before
maintained by government of reputed
sanity. *tASl"
Results already achieved in field and fac
tory on a. commercial scale during the past
six years, to say nothing OF many thousands
of. farm and laboratory tests, demonstrate
beyond question two things: d That the
sugar beet can be grown in profitable guam
tity and quality over sufficient area IN the
United States to furnish the worlds supply
of sugar and ~ that the cane sugar IN
dustry can also be largely developed. SO
true is this that it Is now recognized by all
we'll informed about this new industry, that
California Iowa, Nebraska, and any one OF
several other states could alone supply the
United States with all the sugar she con-
sumes Once firmly established, American
genius will so improve upon present condi-
tions that in due time the United States
will he an exporter of sugar. For experience
has shown that, once established the beet
can more than compete with cane