The Hawaiian gazette., 1900-02-23
DATA OF SUGAR
The Situation In the
Tropics.
A Valuable Article on the Productive
Resources Of Various Cane
Producing Centers.

In the Political Science Quarterly fol
December Prof. John +. Crowel de
scrlbes the present condition of n,
cane sugar industry in tropical coun
tries, with special reference to III,
European competition of the beet su
gar product and to the probable effee
of the recent acquisition OF the can,
growing countries by the United
| States.
After reviewing the situation IN de-
tail In these various countries, the
writer considers the part which the
United States and her tropical depend.
encies are now playing. or are aboLl
to play, in the development OF the
cane industry. This, he admits, Is
problematic. 1t will probably be some
time before We shall be independent
of foreign supply in meeting domestic
consumption. The total product of SUI
gar In 1899 from all the sources under
the control of the United States, "a
Guiding cane, beet, maple and sor-
ghum, is barely 100000 tons, wh lie
the country consumes 100000 tons
annually.
Production in Hawaii has been sim
ulated under reciprocity arrangements
for the past twenty years, but all her
natural cane lands are now under Gull
tivation and probably the limit of pre-
duction has been reached. The alnEal
product is now about 100000 tons.
The Philippines annually produce
about 100000 tons.
Except in the Island of Negroes.
where European mills exist, the meth
DDS of cultivation and of manufacture
are Anticipated and therefore expens-
i've; and estates are small, not more
than a dozen producing 1000 tons CT
sugar per year, though this Is the daily
product of many Cuban factories. 1.-THE
labor problem" says Professor Worces-
ter, lis a most serious one, because
of the ease with which the natives of
the tropics can get livelihood and
the consequent difficulty of holding
native labor to its Contract Importa-
ton of Chinese labor into the Philip
pines is fraught with social dangers"
In Cuba the year before the insur-
rection broke out, the product amount
ed to more than 100000 tons. Last
year is was 100000 tons.
In Puerto Rico the sugar industry is
nearer dead than alive; for though 1t
still yields annually about $4,000 tons,
its methods are as backward as those
of most of the older cane sugar ISL
ands in the West Indies. The land sys-
TEN, the labor system, and the trans
port facilities, as we'll as the methods
of manufacture, are such as, under
modern conditions of competition, must
any industry. The redeem
ing feature Is the presence of the thou
sands of small peasant holdings, occu-
pied by households accustomed to cul-
tivate canes.
In Puerto Rico, as in Cuba, the SUI
gar industry must be recognized on a
sounder economic basis If it ever re-
gains its former prestige. And no ba-
sis of development will be solid which
does not encourage native proprietor
ship in land as cornerstone. The
wage system cannot develop the nor
NAL degree of economic resources in
tropical labor 1t may extinguish ma
tive labor, as has been done largely in
dustry by importing migratory hordes
from whatever country is willing to
lend its subjects to such exploitation.
But we are pledged to administer these
islands in the interest of their native
peoples. OF all the difficulties in the
way of Cuban restoration the land
problem and the labor problem are
the most formidable. We must never
forget that the collapse of Spanish do
minion was equally the collapse of an
old economic regime, tottering on the
verge of dissolution from the exhaus-
ton Of capital and of labor, even at
he time of its output of over 100000
ons Of sugar a year 1S94-95).
There is as yet no adequate econom-
c analysis of Cuban conditions fur
nishing facts from which one could
leduce the outlines of a rational sugar
policy for the United States to follow.
Yet the writers of books on Cuba give
slimpses of conditions that clip the
wings OF prophecy, and force upon us
he conclusion that nothing short of
horough-going transformation of the
OF the people to the land will
suffice TO develop the sugar RESOURCES
If Cuba, under the quickening impulse |
u capital. II, therefore, the United |
States proposes to administer her new
erritory in the interest of the native |
population, 1t will be necessary to place |
he permanent welfare of all economic |
above the speedy exploitation |
If land and labor in the interest of |
immediate returns upon capital. This |
,olicy will take time, policy and faith |
IS the elements required to relay |
right the economic foundations of ag- |
icultural Cuba. For Cuba Is far above |
III else agricultural, not commercial or
Industrial; and to agriculture must We
ook for the key to the tropical sugar |
ituatlon, here as elsewhere.
As things stand now, Germany con-
inues to control the worlds sugar |
because of any superior |
ty over the tropics In machinery, nor
because OF the advantage of fiscal
counties over tropical resources of the
0il, but because all the natural adj
Tantages under the prevailing slipshod
Methods of tropical cane cultivation
ka ubaI IL