West Virginia daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1894-1902, 1902-05-02
Havemeyer Explains Holdings
In Cuba to the Senate
Committee,
ADMITS LOWERING OF PRICES.
Reduction In Missouri Valley Was
Made to Regain Lost Trade, Which
He Declared Beet Sugar People Had
Secured by U flair Means.

Refining company, appeared before
the senate committee on Cuban rela-
tons yesterday. Accompanying Mr..
Havemeyec were Arthur Bonner,
treasurer of the company, and Henry
C. Mott, it's raw sugar buyer. His
testimony was in. part:
will you,' Senator Platt asked.
tell the committee how much Cuban
sugar, if any, has been purchased and
is now held by your company"
Since early in February last we
have purchased $4,000 tons or 256,
600 bags, or about 10 days supply"
replied Mr.. Havemeyer. "Of that
quantity $4,000 tons is now in process
of shipment from Cuba. The prices
paid had ranged from $1.75 to $1.93.
the highest price being paid on March
13 and the lowest on April %"
Does the $4,000 tons you mention
represent your entire purchases in
Cuba since the first of january"
"No; we have bought all told $4,000
tons of Cuban sugars during the pres
ent year, or about three-fourths of
months supply, our consumption be-
ing about $4,000 tons per week
Not Trying to Secure Crop Control.
ct has been stated that your or
ganization has been buying up or
seeking to control large proportion
of the Cuban sugar crop and that if
concessions are made to Cuba, prac-
tically all of the benefits would go TO
your"
There is no truth whatever in that
statement"
What difference would there be in
the price of Cuban sugar as compared
with the Hamburg market if the en-
tire Cuban crop was to be sold on a
congested market?"
About one-sixteenth of cent per
pound. That would be 6 cents per
hundred, as against 33 cents per hun
dred, which it is proposed to give the
Cubans on the basis Of 20 per cent
reduction in the tariff. The difference
would all go to the Cubans."
In reply to other questions he said
that the price of raw sugar in tn:
United States is fixed by the beet
market prices in Hamburg. The price
there fixes the selling price for the en-
tire world, said Mr.. Havemeyer. On
the subject Of the price of Cuban
sugars he said that his company
could not determine their price. I'VE
have" he said, mo control over them
whatever; they don't belong to us"
Cuba has to sell her sugar in this
market, hasn't she?"
mo, that is not true; she can Sell
in England, for instance, if she is de.
sirous to do so. England could take
the entire Cuban crop"
Continuing, Mr.. Havemeyer said
the entire Cuban sugar crop is about
100000 tons, but that much of it has
been withheld from the market in
view of possible tariff concessions tc
be made by congress. On this &C.
count his purchases had been only
about onerthird of the average of
other years.
Speaking of the capacity of his
company, he said that it refined IS
per cent of the American refined
product.
Mr.. Plat then asked: Suppose
the United States should make a con-
cession of say 20 or 25 per cent in the
tariff rates on Cuban sugar, couldn'
you refuse to buy the Cuban product
except at your own rates, and thus
secure the benefit of the concession? -
Not Obliged to Sell to Them.
I'm no way" was the reply. Cuba
would be under no obligations to sell
to us, because, as l have said, tho
Cuban producers could find other
markets."
He said that some five or six years
ago he had acquired half interes-
in sugar plantation at Tanamo bay.
but that when the owners had prepar-
ed to utilize the land their own i'm
provements had been obliterated by
the insurgents and that nothing has
since been done with it. Other inter-
ests held by him in Cuba were enum-
Grated as follows:
Forty per cent of the stock of a
central called the Trinidad, which has
no land connected with it but which
produces about 5000 tons annually;
20 per cent of a sugar factory at
Chappawa; a slight interest in an
other factory whose name he could
not recall; an interest in a plantation
at Santa Cruz in connection with n
Mr.. WEIGH, a Hawaiian planter.
which produces from 5000 to 10000
tons of sugar a year. All these inter-
ests had been acquired, he said. be-
fore there had teen any agitation OF
the question of reduction of the
tariff rates. He added that he knew
nothing about Cuban sugar land hold
ings by other Americans.
Mr.. HaVemeyer said that the
entire plant at Trinidad was owned
by Americans. Mr.. Atkins holding 81
per cent OF the stock; Mr.. Zomp. ca
the trust, 40 per cent. and himself
the other 30 per cent
Speaking of other sugar interests
in the United States, Mr.. Havemeyer