The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-21
sUGAR1N THE WEST INDIES.
The Serious Problem That Confronts the Planters-Help Sought From England, but None in Sight-An Opportunity for tha TTnifad Gtafes

The Serious Problem That Confronts the |
 Planters-Help Sought From England,
 but None in Sight-An Opportunity for
 the United States. Bridgetown, Barbadoes, Dec. 2S, 1897. To the Editor of the Journal and Courier
 The fortunes of the West Indies have torian Froude visited them In 1888 he made the prediction that they would eventually be wholly given up to ne- groes. The European powers certainly at one time regarded their West Indian domains as the most valuable among their possessions England obtained islands which are scarcely more than burden to her now at an immense cost of life and treasure. Dominica, which Froude calls "the choicest gem in the necklace of the Antilles" three times conquered from France, is now practi- cally abandoned to the negroes. There are the ruins in St. Kitts of a fortifi- | cation which is said to have cost Great Britain more than million pounds sterling. The West India islands jus l tfied such expenditures, as the culti- vation of sugar at one time made them the most prosperous part of the New World. There were estates upon the islands which netted from ten to twen- ] ty thousand pounds year. It was natural that so lucrative an industry should drive all others out of the field I If we except Jamaica, sugar is substan- | ;aHx t0 Iox Irnts md one export of the British West Indies.
 Of course, such a profitable industry naturally invited competition. It is surprising that it came so late, but it did come at last, and for more than fifteen years the price of sugar has. steadily declined until at the present time, except on the most favorably sit uated estates, 1t does not repay the cost of production. On many estates the l cultivation of it Is fully abandoned, and l great financial depression everywhere prevails. These colonies are really on the brink of serious crisis.
 Barbadoes furnishes the most strik- ing example of the condition of the col onies, as it is perhaps the most extreme case. This island, only twenty-one miles long and fifteen miles wide has a population of over 100000, 1S0,000 of which are blacks, who live directly up- on the cultivation of sugar. All the business of the island rests upon this single industry. Most of the estates in Barbadoes are mortgaged. The plant CTS are generally without capital, and have to get advances upon the crops
 There are not more than two or three estates on the island where sugar at present repays the cost of production.
 The planters naturally will not ask for advances upon a crop which cannot repay the loan, and unless there can
 be some immediate relief the present growing crop seems to be the limit of employment for the negroes. Starva- tion and bread riots are likely to come suddenly upon the island. It will be re- membered that serious riot took place in St. Kitts in 1896, which was put down with considerable bloodshed.
 The condition of things in Antiqua, St. Vincent, St. Kitts and Tobago is substantially the same It is not quite as bad as Trinidad and Demerara, all though three-fourths of the product of these provinces is sugar. With the ex- ception of Jamaica and Dominica there are no British colonies in the West In-
 dies where the distress will not be ter rible after the harvesting of the pres ent crop, unless some relief can be ob-
 tained.
 The planters fully realize their con
 dition, and have, through their colonial
 governments, petitioned the British
 parliament for aid The prevalent idea
 among them is that the present low
 price of sugar is due to the competition of beet sugar in Europe, where boun-
 ties are paid to the manufacturers. : These bounties vary in amount at the
 present time from pounds and 10 shil- lings a ton in France to 1 pound and 5 shillings and 1 pound and 15 shillings
 on raw and refined sugar, respectively,
 in Germany According to the plant
 CTS, it is these bounties which make the f warfare between the cane and beet su- gar unequal. It seems to be their firm
 belief that if it were not for the boun- ties the cane would drive the beet root , out of the field. It is true that the West Indies have never sold their sugar, to
 any extent, in Europe; their market
 has always been in the United States and Canada. Nevertheless, the plant CTS believe that it is the bounty upon ] beet sugar which has put down the $ price. There is some Justification, per
 haps for their view. The total produc-
 tion of European bounty-fed sugar in
 1S95-6 is estimated to have been more
 than sixtyper cent. of the total pro- l duction of sugar of all kinds dealt with
 in the great markets of the world. The
 planters have petitioned the British par liament to impose countervailing duties
 upon beet sugar, so as to exclude it
 from the United Kingdom, or,%at least . so as to put the cane and the beet on
 equal footing.
 i, On December 22, 1896, the British gov
 ernment appointed Sir Henry Wylie Norman, Sir Edward Grey and Sir Da- , vid Barbour commissioners to examine
 into the condition of the sugar industry 6 | in the West Indies The royal commis- | siOners visited all the British colonies in I the West Indies, including Demerara examined a great number of witnesses : and submitted their report on August V 25, 1897. The majority report was un. , favorable to the planters, as it declines l to recommend to parliament the impo . sition of the countervailing duties asked e for. This report has recently been cir {: culated through the colonies. The con