The Valentine Democrat. [volume] (Valentine, Cherry Co., Neb.) 1896-1898, 1897-06-24
SUGAR TRUST PROFITS.
John De Witt Warner Makes Some Esti.
mates and Scores the Trust.

mates and Scores the Trust.
x-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 recently published statement
he estimates the net protection to the
trust given by the Aldrich schedule at
from 35 cents to s1.14 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 differential .............sO so. 1880. 40+
Thirty five per cent ad valorem
differential. l........................0 0.149 O.2l
Countervaillng duty, say. .... O.OoC9 0.35
Additional by substitution of IS
per cent ad valorem for specific
duties in low grades. ............ 0.00t@ 0.19
Total. So .359Sl.l4
In the vast majority of cases, however, the
actual result is between 45 and 60 cents per 100
pounds net protection to the trust, and it is
impracticable so to combine circumstances
to bring this below 40 cents or above 20 cents
for any considerable amount.
AS all item of tariff taxation the sug-
ar schedule is ideal from the protection
ist standpoint Sugar is the one article
used by poor and rich to an equivalent
extent, and a tax Oh which therefore
falls most heavily on the poor in pro-
portion to their ability to pay it. It's
production and distribution are control
led by concern which is at once the
greatest of our mean trusts and the
meanest of our great ones,
1t is consistent therefore that Oh this
one article there should be levied more
than ne-third Of our total tariff taxa
tion. and that our people should be bur
dened by a tax of more than 500, 000,-
900 that realizes less than 0,O00,-
900 for the treasury and more than
$40, 900, 600 for the sugar refining COM
bine, while the same combine is enabled
to net an additional SO. 600, 900 by the
opportunity given it to import at present
duty rates raw sugars from which it
the enhanced price assured it by the
proposed Aldrich schedule The net
"protection" of from As to 60 cents per
100 pounds given the trust on its rein
ing process alone should be considered
as sufficient when we remember that
the labor cost of this process is slightly
less than 61a 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" as it pays for all the labor in
volved.
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 CT 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-jal0s 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 OF sugar This increases
by from so to 70 per cent the article
which would make up from 40 to IS
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 "a government Of the
people. by the people ana for the peo-
pie" Who are the people:'