Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1897-04-06
Beet Sugar in Germany.

Beet Sugar in Germany.
One of the Consular Reports for
February, published by the State De-
partment, Washington. is from U. s.
Consul, Frank H. Mason, at Frank
fort, Germany, on the New Crisis in
German Sugar Production" and it
is very interesting reading in connec-
ton with the present beet sugar agi-
tation in this country. By reason of
foreign competition" it is stated
but really due to the general lower
ing of prices by increasing the value
of money-German cereals, meats and
other farm products became SO low
that sugar was declared to be the last
and only agricultural product in
which there remained any profit for
the farmer, and it was proposed to in
woke legislation to keep the breath of
life in that industry, and to make
German farmers rich, all of them, as
producers of sugar, as it is now pro-
posed to make our farmers rich by
the same process. So in May last an
act was passed by the German Reichs-
tag granting everything the sugar
growers demanded, even to the re-
strlction of production, which would
at once prevent all farmers from reali-
zing the promised wealth. The bonus
to factories was enlarged, but pro-
gressive tax on factories was imposed
to prevent the large from swallowing
up the small ones, since many of the
latter belonged to associations of
farmers; the export bounty was in
creased, and SO was the tax on the
consumption of sugar at home, to
provide the money for the export
bounty; in short, the growers of
sugar beets were granted everything,
except the restriction of quantity
was not quite what they asked; they
wanted the quantity limited to 1, AGO.
600 tons of raw sugsr, while it was
fixed at 100000 tons.
But one years experience with the
new, paternalistic, and ultra-protec-
ton policy has set its authors crying
out for somebody to come and help
them let go, has, in fact, produced
the "crisis" that inspires the report
under consideration. The restriction
of production did not work in prac-
tice; the export bounty did not in
crease prices at home but made them
cheaper abroad, SO that non-sugar
producing countries that were not
blessed with a sugar trust-like the
United States-not only bought Ger
man sugar at a lower price than Ger
mans could, but at the lowest price
ever known. The price of sugar fell
as low as $227 for 11O.23 pounds, the
government was sadly burdened to
pay bounty that enabled foreigners
to buy sugar at an unprecedented
price, the Germans were burdened to
pay the consumers tax on sugar, and
the whole affair is unsatisfactory,
improbable, and it's end is urgently
prayed for.
The situation in Germany shows
plainly that the sugar industry should
be treated as other staple agricultural
Industries are, be allowed to develop
through its own merits, and in coun-
tries whose soil, climate, price OF
labor, length of season and other con-
siderations will enable it to hold its
own against all competitors. The
100000 tons of sugar produced in all
Europe required about that many
acres of land to produce, or the equiv
alent of about 1911 townships of this
country. and giving such special
privileges to comparatively so few
farmers and sugar makers is as IN
just as giving them to any othe,
small class.-Farm, Stock, and Home