The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-06-01
Beet Sugar.

Beet Sugar.
To this feature OF the sugar schedule and
to the development Of the sugar beet tn
dustry, Republicans are unequivocally COM
mitted in the national platform at ST.
Louis. 1t says:
I'VE condemn the present administration
for not keeping faith with the sugar pro-
ducers of the United States. The Repub-
hcan party favors such protection as will
lead to the production on American soil
OF all the sugar which the American people
USE and for which We are sending abroad
annually more than $i00,000,000 to foreign
countries
In the above utterance the Republican
party distinctly puts itself down as the
friend of the sugar beet industry, and IL
has distinctly and in terms promised the
people to establish ehis industry. and it
Furthermore agreed that legislation in this
branch Of industry should be with that end
IN view. and not for the purpose OF raising
revenue. Beet sugar can be successfully
produced in ali the states Of the Upper Mis-
s.ssippi valley ard upon the Pacific coast
Why should no: these hundred millions
which we now send abroad every year to
buy our sugar be paid TO the farmers OF
that section of the United States. and TO
those of the caneproducing sections Of the
south?
In campaigning in Nebraska, In Wash
ington, IN Oregon and in California. the
farmers were distinctly told that the cleo
ton OF Mckinley meant the capture OF this
additional industry for them, and they Will
expect that this promise shall be redeemed.
We are altogether too apt to discuss mat
ter vital to the prosperity of thousands
with hardly thought beyond that this Is
the old beet sugar question again. This
merely means paying something out of the
ne tional treasury for the purpose of bene-
fitting some individuals. There is no
breath of craftsmanship nor patriotism III
such view as this. II IS simply the SELL
assurance of ignorance CT the subject and
an incapac:ty TO understand the magnitude
OF an industry capable of supplying COM
modify for which. as l have shown, the
people of the United States pay sl25, 900
per annum.
The benefits from such an industry would
be widespread, as nearly the whole OF this
vast expenditure represents labor, from the
growing of the beet until the sugar is re-
fined and ready for the market. Here is
a little table that may be injected with
profit that shows the amount Of money
that would be paid each year TO our farmers
and to each of the various trades and in
dustries if the sugar now imported were
produced in our own country:
To farmers for beets... 81, $1,000
To laborers in factories for payroll IL 59S.6o0
To miners for coal S5so, 1850
To quarrymen for lime rock. 2,9S,cO
To coke manufacturers for COKE. 1,72,2D
To textile manufacturers for Hitter
cloth, filter bags and sugar bags. 9ls,16O
To machine shops and repairers for
annual repairs ......-..........-.... 4,oOuVW
The above is what the farmers get out or
it. Where does the wage-earner come in?
His harvest would be in the construction
of these factories. The average cost OF
a beet sugar factory with a
of $50 tons day Is s400. 0Oo Sup
pose we had thousand such factories scat
tered over the western states. That would
represent 500, O0O, 900 OF invested capital,
money which would employ mechanics in
machine shops and the building trades.
This, again, represents to large extent
labor, and therefore 80 per cent of it at
least would go directly into the hands Of
our mechanics and laborers. Not to do this,
If we have the chance, is criminal folly,
from a national point of view, and absolute
" breaking faith with our farmers from
political point of view. 1t would be far
TO keep the money for sugar and employ |
this labor at home, as Lincoln would say, |
than to send these hundred millions in gold |
abroad to purchase the foreign article. If
We thus distributed our great sugar indus |
try and raised the raw material in our own
fields and allowed our own farmers to profit |
thereby, there would be no sugar trust, no |
more than there is a wheat trust, or cab |
age trust; it would be the best possible |
legislation to abolish the sugar trust and !!
give the people native sugar instead of for |
slgn. With the repeal Of the Hawai.a1 |
reaty, the beet sugar industry would be as |
we'll protected by the Dingley bill sugar |
schedule as by the proposed sugar schedule
If the senate committee. Under existing |
conditions the Sugar Trust are simply the |
-efners of foreign sugar The aim of the |
beet sugar industry is to change the policy |
Ind produce our raw sugar in thousands OF
actor!es dotted all over the United States.
Then, II the sugar refiners become unrea
'onabie. these producers Of raw sugar could
10 their own refining. The interests, there
ore, Of the beet sugar men and the Louisi-
ina planters are common. and both antago-
,!stic to the sugar refiners OF foreign raw
sugar. This has always been so, and Is
o this day.
ROBERT P. PORTER