Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1905-09-14
HIGH COST or SUGAR
How the Trust Is Enabled to
Advance Prices at Will.
TARIFF PROTECTION DOES IT
Extraordinary Provisions Of the
DinRlcy Law to Protect the Monop-
oily BnrOns-Permits an Arbitrary
Increase of Over Twenty Per Cent.
Concerning DiferentiaIs

Oily an .ArDttIary
Increase of Over Twenty Per Cent.
Concerning DifferentiaIs.
Housewives have no doubt noticed
at this fruit preserving season that
sugar is much dearer than it was q
year ago. Then it vas AZ or 5 cents q
pound; now it is 6 or G1a cents. No
disease has struck the sugar cane, and
just as much, if not more, sugar is be-
ing produced, but the robber barons
who control the sugar trust have Il
monopoly and so they advanced the
price 20 per cent. There is Il difference
Of about 213 cents a pound between the
price Of raw sugar and the refined, and
the cost of refining is less han half q
cent a pound. So it is easy to figure the
enormous profit that the trust makes
on the 2,579.G42 tons (or an average Of
seventy-one pounds for every man,
woman and child that are consumed
by the people of the United States.
II as you are making your preserves
you ponder over the reasons for this ar
bitrary increase in the price of sugar,
just bear in mind that the tariff is
what allows the trust barons to rob
you. If the complicated tariff sugar
schedule was simplified and reduced by
even what is known as the ''differential
duty" leaving the regular duty OF
about l cent a pound to be collected
the price of sugar would be consider
ably reduced, and if sugar was free il
would sell for % cents a pound. But
as the Republicans are running the
country in debt and there Is a large
deficit in receipts over expenditures il
the treasury it will be impossible tt
abolish all the tariff tax on sugar, az
the money is needed to run the govern
ment.
The duty on sugar varies accordin:
to its degree of purity. One hundred
degree sugar-that is, refined, such a.
the %granulated sugar generally used
pays 1 95-1O0 cents a pound, while {;
degree sugar-that is, raw brown suga
pays 95-10O of a cent a pound, ant
.O35 Of a cent is added for each add
tional degree Of purity. The duty OF
100 degree sugar is therefore 1.S2;
cents. But as 100 degree is pure suga
that is. r~eined-the law says til
duty on it shall be 1855 cents, or one
eighth Of a cent a pound more than tn
equivalent duty on sufficient raw t
make Il pound Of refined sugar. Thi
one-eighth of a cent is the "differen
tial." 1t is the amount per pound tn
reiners can collect from consumer
over and above the amount Of dut,
which the reiners have to pay on tn
raw sugar.
There is also protection hidden in th
graduated scale Of duties IN raw suga
which probably increases the differ
entail to one-fourth Of a cent a pound
or about S13,OOO,O0O a year, which i
the special protection the trust enjoy
and which you all have to help to pay
besides the regular tariff tax. Thi
protection prevents importation Of re
fined sugar and allows the trust to &C
vance the price at its own sweet vii
To stop this extortion from the Amer
can people the tariff must be so adjus'
ed that if the trust advances the pric
beyond a reasonable difference bt
tween raw and refined sugar foreig
redners will export their refined suga
here and compete with the trust.
The Republican party is opposed t
reducing the tariff taxes and especial
the sugar duties, so the housewife tia
is bordering over the increased cost
sugar will have to advise the voters i
her family to vote for the Democrat
!, candidates for congress OF be confer
to still pay the tariff tax and the eNtr
trust profit.