The Topeka state journal., 1901-11-23
KING OF TRUSTS.
Germany Has Sugar Combine
That Is World Beater.
1t Takes in Everybody Inter-
ested in the Business.
DICTATES TO WORLD
The Price of Sugar Produced
From Beets.
DICTATES TO WORLD
The Consumer in Germany
Made to Pay the Freight.

London, Nov 23.-The sugar magnates
assert that their investigations have
revealed the existence in Germany of
great trust called the "Kartell," which
has been in existence about a year and
that it is chiefly owing to its agency
that sugar has been forced down to its
lowest points in the history and that
Germany today is enabled to dictate to
the world the price of that commodity.
The exact extent of the "kartel' was
discovered, they say, only quite recent
ly. The magnitude of its operations
supplies the missing factors in the pres
ent alarming condition of the sugar
market.
The abolition of this organization will
be one of the chief objects of the ma
tions, other than Germany, attending
the forthcoming Brussels conference
Already British firms have entered into
negotiations with leading American su-
gar interests and tables are now being
drawn up showing the transactions of
the "karteH," j" with a view of submitting
them to the authorities at Washington.
The British government will be urged
to empower its representatives at the
Brussels conference to threaten retail
atory countervailing measures unless
the "kartell'' is broken up, or at least
modified.
The latest figures available in London
show that Germany now produces one
third of the worlds supply of beet su-
gar, of which she exports no less than
1,250, coo tons after completely supply
ing her own population These exports
which are almost one-fifth of the
worlds available supply are sent out at
a loss to German manufacturers, but
thanks to the ''kartelI' plus the bounty,
they are able not only to make up for
this but to reap a handsome profit in
addition to gaining absolute control of
the sugar market.
The '.kartelI' is run very secretly but
from confidential reports shown to n
representative of the Associated Press
in London it is learned that it consists
of an iron clad combination of almost
all producers and retiners to keep up
the price of sugar in Germany. This is
done so successfully that German con-
sumers today pay thrice as much for
sugar as the Briton does for the same
article imported from Germany.
The members of the "kartelI' bind
themselves to buy from and sell to only
those affiliated with the combine. This
has worked so satisfactorily that the
''kartell' now includes practically every
factor of the sugar interests in Ger
many from the agricultural producer to
the refiner. The latter agrees always to
pay 12-75 marks per hundred weight for
the raw article, though natural condi-
tions might ordinarily allow him to buy
three marks cheaper. This however in
sures a permanently high price to the
consumer The enormous profits conse-
quent upon these methods are pooled
in the ''kartelP' and are divided upon an
elaborate and ingenious scale, and the
surplus product is disposed of at
slight loss in other European and Amer
lean markets though even this deficit
is often made up by the bounty that
Germany provides.
British sugar authorities are quoted
German
and bounty combined, will, within two
years ruin the beet and cane industry
in other countries, especially in Cuba
and the other West Indies.