The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-06-18
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
POSTAGE PREPAID.
D JUNE Ii, 1887.
WHAT THE SUGAR TRUST WILL
MAKE.

sneech in the senate for the commit
tees tariff bill, said that Sz2. 900, 900
must be raised from internal taxes and
from tea or the would be IN
sufficient. With these h receipts
would not exceed expenditures more
than So. 900, 900. But now IT is deter
mined by the republicans in the SELL
ate that neither the tax on beer nor
tobacco nor tea shall be increased.
The Messenger at once denounced the
tax on tea as it does the tax on sugar.
It is an outrage in both particulars De
cause it taxes the poor mans comforts
and even necessaries. 1t IL perfectly
right and proper to tax the needless
1uxuries-Whiskey, brandy, beer, ale'
wines. cigars, cigarettes. tobacco Iney
are the precise things to lax, ana not
shoes, Nannels, clothing, cheap carpets
mattings. medicines, etc. There ought
to be both common sense and common
fairness in levying taxes. Senator AID
rich said this.
Assuming hat the necessity for ad-
ditional revenue exists. there can be
no question:, no economic reason, anu
none that affects the public interests,
WHY beer and tobacco shOnh not bear
their share of additional taxation
Put the pressure was brought to bear
.17pon him and he backed square down.
The trusts must have their IS, 900, 900 or
SO 900, 900 of gain a year ana some
$40. 900, 900 more must be raised on SUI
gar. The beer saloons kicked, the
farmers who do not pay one cent or the
TAX on tobacco, etc, kicked, and there
was no possible trust gains to be
made on tea, so all have been abandon
ed save the huge tax on sugar by
which not far from ST., DOC, 900 will be
taken from the long suffering and heaV-
ily taxed people. nearly or quite one
fifth of which will go into the private
pocket of the sugar trust robbers.
The sugar tax is not SO high as Aid
rich favored and reported. The howl
against it in the and in the
senate was 80 loud and mgr the COM
mittee reduced the tax. Ut is still left
in a very avish condition for the ben
Slll vi lle Ioui
formed Philadelphia American says:
cit is far from a complete victory, the
favor extended to the trust, the gov
eminent aid granted to the trust and
which must serve to assist the trust
in eyacting a tribute from our people,
is far from being removed, but 1t is
reduced, and we must DE FOR
small things. And the new chedu
is. indeed, a considerable improvement
over the old. The Old would have as
sisted the trust in e11cCIng a tribute
from our people or from something less
than two-ffths of a cent a pound on
every pound of sugar sold, the new eX-
tends but half as governmental
aid. What is more, the new schedule
gives the protection to the sugar trust
is purports to give. 1t means what il
says. Just what the ~abandoned sched-
ule meant it took an expert to decl-
pher."
So something has been gained for
the people in the fight xaged against
such unblushing robbery under legal
enactment. The trust will make one
fifth of a pound, or 4.0oo,o co, 900 pounds
of sugar, but this is not all The Amer
lean shows how it VIII make 'big
money by the large imports of sugar
it has on hand. Ii says that the
trust is now estimated 10 have on
storage TIVE 60O. 0oo and zoo, 600 tons
of raw sugar, which it has recently
imported, paying h rates of duty
provided for in the Wilson PAW, or
about eighty to ninety cents a hum
dred pounds. Under h new sched-
ule the ate of duty wdn average about
$3.50 per hundred pounds So the pas
sage of the pending tariff would e
to an increase in the cost of raw sugar,
and, we may suppose. Of tine price, of 20
cents a hundred pounds, or $14 a ton
Thus it is evident that the trust
would profit from the passage OF the
tariff, and on the six or seven hun
dred thousand tons OF sugar 1T now has
on hand, by between $4,000 600 and
$40, 000, 000." ia
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