The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-12-07
BEET SUGAR

BEET SUGAR.
over production is often cause Of
serious depression and this seems to
be the condition of the beet sugar
market at this present moment one
of the strongest estimates is that the
beet sugar crop for the year will be
$500 GOO tons The trouble rests in the
matter of production, The market in
Europe for beet sugar is very weak,
and the prices are extremely low. The
German beet sugar growers and manu-
facturers are going to be seriously
crippled, and the same is going to be
true of beet sugar growers outside OF
Germany, though their crops have been
magnificent, they are going to lose
money on the proposition, and this
means serious agrarian distress in
Pomerania and South Eastern Ger
many, that Germany of which Breslau
is the commercial capital.
During the winter several European
continental states will give great at
tention to this beet question. 1t SEEM
ed to them, a few decades back, as if
they had found the true Eldorado. The
philosophers of the new age hailed the
arrival of new industry and believed
that it might be a means of regenerat-
ing the world. But the practical beet
growers are now drawing in their
horns. They are beginning to look
about for restrictions to save the beet
sugar world, but they find it difficult.
Cane sugar is coming steadily in as
cargo and is much more satisfactory
in some of the uses.
Not only will there be consideration
of reducing the sowings, but there is
serious consideration of the abolition
of sugar bounties, The price of labor
is also troubling the German beet far
mer Unless he can get labor at the
miserable pittance which it has been
the custom to pay the Poles and Rus
slams who have replaced the migrating
German population in the Southern
Eastern beet fields, wages to which
those paid to our own laborers would
seem princely, the German beet far
mer cannot make money at cultivating
beets and delivering them to the fac
tory.
1t is curious that with the great dis
tress there is in Germany, and the inn
portation of food stuffs from the Unit
ed States which is constantly going on,
that there are not more food stuffs
raised there, The beet fields go for
sugar, which is mainly an export, and
as it is bounty fed export, the nations
which take their produce really receive
a premium for buying it. But other
products, which one might suppose
would go into the sum of the food
stuffs are side tracked for other pur-
poses. In SaXony, where there has
already commenced a contraction of
the beet industry, amounting to 20 per
cent in four years, the farmers have
taken to planting rye and potatoes
But these are crowns by no means for
food purposes, it is the distilleries
which buy them up in large quantities
for the purpose of manufacturing
cheap spirits.
There can be no doubt that the beet
industry of Europe is in very serious
straits. Every consular report that
bears upon the subject draws atten-
tiOn to it and the commercial papers
are full of communications upon the
subject. AS far as we are concerned
the whole beet industry might disap-
pear and we should never shed a tear.
What we are interested in, is how the
general sugar market is going to be
affected by the glut of beet sugar and
the low prices which will have to be
realized. These matters will come to
the surface in the early months of next
year. 1t is quite possible that cane SUI
gar may remain strong, even if beet
sugar does all go to pieces, and we
must devoutly hope that it will be so.
But there is a distant danger here
which should be watched with care by
our sugar raisers