The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1897-06-18

Ex-Congrezsman John De Witt War
ner is one OF tie best posted men IN this
country on sugar tariffs When in cCu-
gress, he carried the house for free sug-
ar. In a recently published statement
he estimates the net protection TO the
trust given by the Aldrich schedule at
from 35 cents to Sill on every 100
pounds of refined sugar.
Without attempting to give his argu-
ment as I. each of the ways in which
the trust would be protected we give
his summary of trust profits as follows:
Specific differentiaI. so. l3G$O. 10 r
Thirty five per cent ad valorem
diferential. ..-..-.-.-. OlHO O.ZI
Countervailing duty, say 80. O-Oeig OBS
Additional by substitution of 40
per cent ad valorem for specific
anties in low grades. .......... O.OO9 O.1s
Total O.S5d$l.I4
In the vast majority of cases, however, the
actual result Is between 45 and % cents per 100
pounds net protection 10 the trust, and II Is
impracticable TO combine circumstances as
10 bring this below AZ 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 i'll 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
1t is consistent therefore that on this
ono 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 $50, 0OO,-
600 that realizes less than $40, ,0OO,
600 for the treasury and more than
$50, 900, 600 for the sugar refining com
bine, while the same combine Is enabled
to net an additional $40, 900, 900 by the
opportunity given 1t to import at present
duty rates raw sugars from which 1t
can make refined TO be sold by it under
the enhanced price assured 1t by the
proposed Aldrich schedule. The net
protection" of from 40 TO 90 cents per
100 pounds given the trust on its retin-
ing process alone should be considered
as sufficient when we remember that
the labor cost of this process is slightly
less than n cents per 100 pounds-that
is to say, Senator Aldrich. III 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 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-
ture by the proposed tax of two cents
a pound on sugar. This increases
by from 30 to 75 per cent the article
which would make up from 40 TO 20
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 and for the peo-
pie. Who are 1.-The people!"