The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-12-24

GGaiiaoian racine HID 29l. 600 40 $50
White Star. 79.478 6s5.545 1,o4o,64
Totals 49,. sS7. 2s2 50. us. 1872 50. 488, 8s4
THE senate bill $3.50 thus proposes to
offset $3,778,982 awarded under British
contracts with $3,4S883 awarded under
American contracts The proposition Is
not extravagant, nor does it mean a pot
OF money for the owners of fast Ameri-
can steamships. Were 1t not for two
facts, that Americans will obtain advan-
taSes for operating slow cargo boats in
conjunction with mail steamships, and
that our Pacific intercourse with Asia
is not subject to Suez canal tolls the bill
would probably fail to accomplish its
purpose.
''The last item in the table, which
shows a marked difference, calls for q
word. The United States has been pay
ing the Cunard and White Star lines an
nually $4,000 on the average for some
years (S225,00 in 1889 for carrying the
outward mails. Unless this amount be
added to the $685.. $40 paid these lines by
the British government it ought to be
deducted from the 81, 040,624 which cor
responding American vessels performing
the same service would receive under
senate bill $3.50, as being merely mail
pay and having nothing to do with ship
subsidies.
which I am familiar will show that such
| advantages as the Hanna-Payne bill
gives TO American shipping are as
much to the benefit of cargo vessels
as to mail steamships in spite of the
higher rates given to the latter class,
which have been computed on the basis
of efforts by other nations to maintain
fast ocean mall lines
Two-thirds Of the worlds sugar is now
produced from beets. Prior to 1912 the
worlds production of beet sugar had
| never reached 100000 tons; In the pres
ent crop year it is, according to latest
estimates, $4,000 tons. while the cane
sugar crop, which in 1912 was 1,599, 900
tons, IS in the present year 1904. 900 tons.
Thus cane sugar production has scarce
ly doubled during the period under con-
sideration, while that from beets has
more than quintupled. Meantime the
price has fallen more than one-haIf, the
average cost in foreign countries of all
sugar imported into the United States
in the fiscal year 1872 being 5.37c per
pound, and in 1899 239c per pound
No development of the worlds produc-
ton of foodstuffs has been more rapid
or striking than that with reference to
beet sugar. In 1S54-5 the total beet SUI
gar crop of the world was but $4,000
| tons; by 1S64-5 it had reached $50, 900 tons;
| In 1910 II was 1,ZlJ,UJ0 JOnSi In 18S4-5,
| 2,545, 600 tons; in 1915, 1872 1893 tons, and
in 1S99-1900. $4,000 tons. In 1915 beet
| sugar formed - per cent of the worlds
! total sugar crop, and in 1S99-190O 1t form
| ed IS per cent.
! Thus the sugar-producing area Of the
| world has in less than a half century
| been shifted from the tropics northWard
and the farmer of the temperate zone has
| shown his ability not only to compete
| with the low priced labor of the tropics,
| but in doing so to reduce by one-half
| the cost Of the article produced.
| A hundred million dollars year APP
| pears to be the present market offered to
| the people of the United States by Cuba,
! Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippines,
| provided we are able to supply the nor
| NAL demand in those islands for foreign
| products. This estimate is based upon
| their actual consumption in years of nor
| NAL conditions. How rapidly this will
| increase remains to be seen, but If the
( experience of the past year in Hawaii is
! an indication of what will happen else
| where, the increase must be very rapid.
| The exports from the United States to
4 Hawaii in the ten months of 1899 whose
| record is now complete are more than
| double those of the corresponding months
of 1898, while to Cuba they promise to
exceed in 1899 those of any preceding year,
even surprising that of the great reel
procity year 1898, when the exports to
that island were double the average Of
! earlier years. Van.