The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-02-21
Of SUGAR
The Situation In the
Tropics.
A Valuable Article on the Productive
Resources of Various Cane
Producing Centers.

ScrlDeS the present cOnQlIlOn OF me
cane sugar industry in tropical coun-
tries, with special reference to the
European competition of the beet SUI
gar product and to the probable effect
of the recent acquisition of the cane
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 about
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 su-
gar in 1899 from all the sources under
the control of the United States, in
Guiding cane, beet, maple and sor-
ghum, is barely 100000 tons, while
the country consumes 100000 tons
annually.
ulated under reciprocity arrangements
for the past twenty years, but all her
natural cane lands are now under cul-
tivation and probably the limit of pre-
duction has been reached. The aanual
product is now about 100000 TONS
The Philippines annually produce
about 100000 tons.
| Except in the Island of Negros,
where European mills exist, the meth
DDS of cultivation and of manufacture
are antiquated and therefore expens-
/ i've; and estates are small, not more
than a dozen producing 1000 tons Of
sugar per year, though this is the daily
product of many Cuban factories. 1.-THE
labor problem" says Professor Worces-
ter, SIS q. most serious one, because
of the ease with which the natives of
the tropics can get a livelihood and
THE consequent difficulty of holding
native labor to its contract. Importa-
Ition of Chinese labor into the Philip
pines is fraught with social dangers.
In Cuba the year before the insur-
ERECTION broke out, the product amount
ed to more than 100000 tons. Last
lyear is was 100000 tons
In Puerto Rico the sugar industry is
NEARER dead than alives for though it
lstill yields annually about $4,000 tons
it's methods are as backward as those
Iof most of the older cane sugar ISL
lands in the West Indies. The land sys-
tenn, the labor system, and the trans
iport facilities, as well as the methods
of manufacture, are such as, under
modern conditions of competition, mus
bankrupt any industry. The redeem
ing feature is the presence of the thou
sands of small peasant holdings, occu
lpied by households accustomed to cui
tivate canes.
In Puerto Rico, as in Cuba, the SUI
gar industry must be recognized on
sounder economic basis if it ever re
gains it's former prestige. And no ba
sis of development will be solid whicl
does not encourage native proprietor
ship in land as cornerstone. TIL
wage system cannot develop the nor
NAL degree of economic resources i
tropical labor. 1t may eXtinguish ma
tive labor, as has been done largely i
Hawaii in the interest of the sugar in
dustry, by importing migratory horde
from whatever country is willing
Ilend its subjects to such exploitation
But we are pledged to administer thes
islands in the interest of their natiy
peoples. OF all the difficulties in tn
way of Cuban restoration the Ian
problem and the labor problem al
, the most formidable We must nevt
forget that the collapse of Spanish d.
minion was equally the collapse of a
old economic regime, tottering on tt
verge of dissolution from the exhau
ton of capital and of labor, even
the time of its output of over 100000
tons of sugar year QS94-95).
There is as yet no adequate econor
ic analysis of Cuban conditions flu
nishing facts from which one cou
deduce the outlines of a rational sug
| policy for the United States to folio
j Yet the writer's of books on Cuba gi
\ glimpses of conditions that clip t
wings of prophecy, and force upon
the conclusion that nothing short of
thorough-going transformation OF t
relations of the people to the land W
suffice to develop the sugar resourC
of Cuba, under the quickening impul
of capital. If, therefore, the Unit
States proposes to administer her n,
territory in the interest of the natl
population, it will be necessary to MA
the permanent welfare of all econon
r interests above the speedy exploitati
VI 4ollh anu llDOi III tie interest
= immediate returns upon capital. Tt
policy will take time, policy and ia
= as the elements required to rel
). Alright the economic foundations of {
ricultural Cuba. For Cuba is far abe
all else agricultural not commercial
Industrial: and to agriculture must
look for the key to the tropical sus
situation, here as elsewhere.
'as AS things stand now, Germany CT
d tinues to control the worlds sus
TIC situation-nOt because of anv superi
ity over the tropics in machinery. I
'ck because of the advantage of fis
cir bounties over tropical resources of
soil, but because all the natural ,
& vantages under the prevailing sIipsf
methods of tropical cane cultiyatt
ne are more than counterbaIanced bv
no scientific methods of European agric
let ture applied to beet-farming. WI
y, the tropics apply to the cultivation
of canes (Which covers half of the g
of producing sugar. the same degree
scientific attention that has been gi,
TO the methods of manufacturing
canes into sugar, then--and not III