The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-04-12
CUBAN SUGAR DUTYFREE
LARGE AMERICAN INVESTMENTS
IN THE ISLAND.
Can Produce Enough to Supply Ameri-
ca and Can Underbid Hawaii Except
on the Pacific Coast.

There is a certain political signif-
canoe in the report that American capt.
talists are planning for the consolida-
ton of the Cuban sugar industry under
one management The best known
American name connected with this
project is that of Theodore Havemeyer
of the American Sugar Refining Com
pany. The conclusion to be drawn from
the investment of a large amount of
money in Cuban sugar plantations is
that Cuban sugar will be admitted into
the United States either free of duty
or with the benefit of preferential rates.
Under conditions that have prevailed
for some years past, the BIban
sugar industry has been under a cloud.
A duty of 40 per cent ad valorem i'm
posed by the Dingley tariff cut down
the profits on Cuban Sugar to a low
point. Hawaiian sugar enters this
market free of duty. If Hawaii could
produce a considerable part of the su-
gar the United States imports, Cuban
sugar plantation would have small
value. Up to the present time, how
ever, the Hawaiian contribution has
not been sufficient to materially affect
the American price of sugar. But with
a prospect that sugar from the Philip
pine Islands and from Porto Rico would
be admitted free, it seems only a ques-
ton of time when the United States
would produce nearly or quite all the
sugar it consumes.
Large investments in Cuban sugar
plantations indicate that the investors
expect to compete with Hawaii, with
the Philippines, with Porto Rico and
with American beet sugar producers
on even terms. If this expectation
should be realized a Cuban sugar plan
tation would be as good an investment
as first-class gold mine. The island
can easily produce all the sugar the
United States can consume, and it can
place it's sugar in our market at less
cost for transportation than either Ha-
wall or the Philippines. Except for the
comparatively small quantity consum-
ed on the Pacific coast, sugar from Ha-
wall would be subject to the cost of
transportation across the continent or
by the Cape Horn route.
1t is we'll understood that the adVo-
Gates of the annexation of Cuba depend
upon the promise of the free admission
of Cuban sugar into the An. -rican mar
ket to reconcile the Cubans to the sac
rifice of their independence. The to-
bacco growers and manufacturers of
Cuba. have the same inducement to
consent to annexation. On the other
hand the beet-sugar growers and the
tobacco growers of the United States
do not propose to submit to Cuban
competition. 1t is pretty well under
stood that the protests of tobacco
growers and beet sugar producers
caused the sudden change in the tariff
policy in respect to Porto Rico.
The beet-sugar interest in the United
States represents an investment of
more than $20,000,000. There were
thirty-one beet-sugar factories in the
United States in 1900, distributed
among ten States and one Territory.
The value of the product that year
was S,32S,857 This is a small value
considering the amount of the invest
ment, but the year was not an average
one. Experiments in the production of
beet sugar in this country were gen.
orally failures up to about 1870 The
Alvarado factory is recorded in the De-
partment of Agriculture as the first
successful beet-sugar factory in the
United States. In several of the States
the industry has been assisted by
State bounties but there is a question
as to the constitutionality of laws tax
ing the people of "A State to establish
an industry which does not directly
benefit the mass of taxpayers in the
State.-San Francisco Bulletin.