Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1897-08-09
SUGAR TRUST PROFITS.
John De Witt Warner Makes Some EstI
mates and Scores the Trust.

John De Witt Warner Makes Some EstI.
mates and Scores the Trust.
Congressman John De Witt War
neI is one of the best posted men in this
country on sugar tariffs When in con-
gress, he carried the house for free suR-
ar In recently published statement
he estimates the net protection to the
trust given by the Aldrich schedule at
from 35 cents to $1.14 on every 100
pounds of refined sugar.
without attempting to give his argu-
ment as to each of the ways in which
the trust would be protected we give
his summary of trust profits as follows:
Specific differential. l............ 80. 18(0$O 4O+
Thirty-fve per cent nd valorem
d1nerential NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 0.14'O 0.2l
Countervailing duty, say..... 49,. 0.03t9 0S5
Additional by substitution of 20
per cent ad valorem for specific
duties in low grades ............. 0.00O 018
Total ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. .$J.S5d$l.l4
In the vast majority Of cases, however, the
actual result is between Is and ~ cents Per loo
pounds net protection to the trust and it is
impracticable so to combine circumstances as
70 bring this below 40 cents or above 90 cents
for any considerable amount
As an 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 ON which therefore
falls most heavily on the poor in pro-
portion to their ability to pay it. Its
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.
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 500 000,-
600 that realizes less than $40, ,000,- |
600 for the treasury and more than |
$40, 900, 600 for thc sugar refining COM |
bine, while the same combine is enabled |
to net an additional $40, eco, 900 by the |
opportunity given it to ini port at present |
duty rates raw sugars from which it |
can make refined to be sold by it under |
the enhanced price assured it by the |
proposed Aldrich schedule The net |
s'protection of from As to 60 cents per
100 pounds given the trust on its refn- |
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
fection" 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
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 goods-jams, 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-
fure by the proposed tax of two cents
q pound on sugar. This increases
BY from 90 to rs per cent the article
which would make up from 40 to 70
per cent of the total weight of the jams,
ftc., 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 and for the peo-
pie" Who are 1.-The peoplei"