The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-06-04
BILL BROUGHT UP
Senator AldriCh OPENS Discussion
in Senate.
EXPLAINS SUGAR SCHEDULE
Claims Hawaii Has Too
Great Benefits.
BelievesH United States Cannot
Fairly Abrogate the gN
Treaty.

WASHINGTON, May 25-The debate
on the tariff bill began in the Senate to-
day, with crowded galleries and large
attendance of Senators and tariff lead
ers of the House.
Minor business claimed attention until
D. m, when Senator Aldrich of Rhode
Island, in charge of the tariff BILL had
the measure laid before the Senate and
took the floor for the opening speech.
Aldrich spoke for almost an hour. His
speech was the official utterance of the
Finance Committee, and, in a sense, of
the Republican side of the chamber.
Without making invidious distinctions
between the two bills, Aldrich clearly
stated as the belief of the Senate Conn
mittee chat the House bill would not
yield revenue adequate for the needs of
the Government.
Vest of Missouri, Democratic member
of the Finance Committee, followed with
a statement in opposition to the bill. He
spoke of the futiIity of piling up taxes
on an over-burdened people, when there
was balance of 1929 900, 900 in the Treas
ury. He criticised the schedules in detail,
declaring that some of them We're design
ed to be prohibitive.
Senator Aldrich discussed the bill in
detail and referred to the policy of the
administration and the efforts of the FIJI
nance Committee to secure a sufficient
revenue. That portion of his address re-
lating to the sugar schedule and to Ha-
wall is as follows:
If the rates imposed by this bill on SUI
gar should be found to lead to the rapid
development of the beet sugar industry
in the United States, we may expect
large reductions year by year from the
contemplated revenue from sugar. Some
of the most sanguine advocates of the
of O.
ton in this country believe that we shah,
within 10 years, produce all our sugar.
The legitimate result of a protective pol
icy is to give the American market to
American producers. When this becomes
an accepted fact the revenue growing out
of protective duties disappears. 1t must
be evident, therefore, that we must look
for other sources of revenue. Whether
it should be along the line of an increase
have suggested, or whether some other
sources of revenue should be sought, it
is not necessary now to determine.
I'm the sugar schedule L we have Sug>
gested a change in rates and in the man
ner OF assessing the duties. AS the
schedule is very important one it
nitely the effect of the provisions we rec
ommend. The annual consumption OF
sugar in the United States is about 2,000,-
600 gross tons of :, 24O pounds each, with
Il value based on foreign prices approx
mating $50 O00, 600. If the high duties pro-
posed in either the House or Senate bin
gar to consumers would be more than
$160, 900. OF the consumption of 1896,
10000 tons, or per cent, were beet SUI
gars, produced in the United States, and
240. 600 or u per cent, We're domestic cane
sugars, and 151. 900 tons, or S per cent,
were sugars admitted from the Hawai-
ian Islands free of duty under our treaty
with the Hawaiian Government. The D.
900, 900 tons Of sugar consumed in the Uni
ted States constitute nearly so per cent
of the total consumption of the world,
total being a d.
proXimately 100000 tons, of which H.
100000, or about 81 1-2 per cent of the
whole, We're beet sugars.
The bill, it came to us from the
House of Represen tatives, contained pro-
visions which levied a specific duty, based
upon pOlarScOpic test, upon imported SUI
gar, varying from l cent per pound at
% degrees, to l rs cents per pound on all
sugars above No. Is Dutch standard in
color and refined sugars. The effect of
these rates as applied to the total inn
portations a the port of New York for
the iloAIh OF January 1855 Is SHOWN py
a table which / submit to the Senate.
which has been prepared by the customs
officers in New York. The rates suggest
ed show a range of ad valorem edufya-
Tents from 7S2 to 144.3 per cent.
"A careful examination of the tables
Will show that the scale of rates adopted
bears very unequally on all low-grade
sugars. The character and extent of this
led your committee to be-
lieve that the schedule should be modl-
fed. 2EgS
ITO exclude from the American mar
ket all the low-grade cane sugars from
the nearby countries and sugars of all
grades from distant countries would con-
fine American purchasers to beet sugar
and 10 Centrifugals from points nearest
the United States. and send all other
sugars TO free markets, like Canada and
England.
"Of the same sugars testing 81 degrees
very much the larger portions, as I have
already stated, are CentrifugalS testing
about So degrees. We were confronted
With the fact that these rates would dis
criminate in favor of the sugars of GER
tain localities and values against those of
others. The committee, after full consid-
Grafton, reached the conclusion that the
essential elements of a certainty of rev.