The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1902-01-02
IHz BEET SUGAR INpusIRY

| country, appeared on the editorial passl
OF the New York Evening Post of Del
| eember 18th, 1901, and as every houss
hold in the land is interested in suga,,
the article will be of universal intereS
THE Evening Post bids the hea-ties,|
welcome to every American industyl
that can stand on Its own bottom and
make its way without leaning on Tia
| poor rates. Among these self-suppor.j
ing industries, weiare glad to know. Al
the production OF beet sugar. AT all
events, 1t was such two years ago. W.|
| publish elsewhere a letter written HI
1899, and signed by Mr.. Oxnard and
Mr.. Cutting, the chiefs of this indus
try on the eastern side OF the Rockr|
Mountains, showing that this was In.
happy condition OF the trade at thai
time If parties Incorporating as bed
sugar producers are besieging the Pres
ident and Congress at this moment
and pretending that they will be ruined
IL Cuban sugar Is admitted for sid
months ut half the present rates a
| duty, their false pretences ought TO b5|
! exposed.
THE letter OF Messrs. Oxnard and
/ Cutting was probably written for thj
purpose OF inducing the farmers OF tha
Mississippi valley to go more largely|
into the cultivation of beets for thI
sugar factories. This was laudabd
motive for telling the truth and showI
| ing the large profits which awaited
| both the beet-grower and the manufael
turer il the industry were perseveringl
ly and intelligently prosecuted. To th
END it was pointed out that farmersl
| could clear s65 per acre by cultivatind
beets, and might even make $780, Bud
in order to assure the cultivator thai
he would not be exposed to reverse
by possible changes in the tariff. the
proceeded to show that the INDUSTRY
stood in no need of protection.
"The beet sugar industry, these gen
tlemen say stands on as firm bass
as any business in the country" The
| point out the fact-a very importank
one-that their product comes out as
| finished article, refined and granulaE
| ed. 1t Is not, like cane-sugar crowd
in the West India Islands, black and
offensive paste, which must be carrie
in wagons to the seaboard and thenek
by ships to the United States, wheH
after another handling, Ii Is pU
through n costly refinery, and the
shipped by rail to the consumer, wh
| may possibly be in Nebraska alongsi&A
beet sugar factory which turns on
the refined and granulated article
| one fell swoop. Indeed, the advast
tages OF the producer of beet sugar IA
| supplying the domestic consumptio4
are very great. We have no doubt thai
Messrs oxnard and Cutting are witinL
bounds when they say that sugar cal
be produced here cheaper than it ca
be in Europe The reasons for thi Z
are that
The sugar industry is, after al
merely an agricultural one. We cad
! rndersell Europe in all other CROP
and sugar is no exception
1T follows as naturally as the max
ing OF flour from wheat. If we ca
produce wheat cheaper than Europ
then naturally we can produce fou
| cheaper, as we do.
But the writer's OF the letter do Nd
depend upon a-priori reasoning to prov
that they can make sugar at prot
without tariff protection. They point
the fact that under the Mckinley taria
Of 1890, when sugar was free OF dutys
/ the price of the article was cents pss
pound Yet net profit of SO per TO
was made by the beet-sugar factore
under those conditions, not countir~
any bounty on the home production q
sugar. They boast that they made thi
profit while working under absolute
free trade. and they have right to
proud of this result of their skill an
industry. Many beet-sugar factofias|
had been started in bygone years, bad
! in the sixties and seventies of the nindI
/ teenth century, and had failed becau4
the projectors did not understand C
business. Since then great progress HI
been made, both here and abroad. a
the cultivation and manipulation of ~
beet. What was impossible thirty yea1
ago Is now entirely feasible. The ~
dustry is already on solid and endrE
ing basis. There are factories in ~
United States, these gentlemen tell
in their letter, capable of using $500
tons OF beets per annum at a profit ~
| 80 per ton, and this would make
profit Of S1,05o,000 as the income
be earned under absolute free trade
ut must be plain to readers of d
letter, signed by the captains of w
beet-sugar industry, that the people 81
Washington who are declaimi
against the temporary measure VIII
the President of the United StaT
urges for the relief OF the Cuban p4
pie. are either grossly ignorant Of t
subject, or are practising gross dec
! ton. The tenable ground for them
/ to say: Other people are having pSs
] 30