The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-09-17

The figures of America s enormous
sugar consumption have now reached a
significant stage. Forty-two per cent of
the total is now of domestic supply
made up Of the four great items OF
the Hawaiian. the Porto Rican. the
Louisiana and Texas cane, and our
widely scattered Western beet fields.
sumers without the payment of any
duty Cuba, which pays eighty per
cent of Dingley rates, now produces
forty-two per cent more of our total.
and the rest of the world, which pays
the full duty, furnishes the remaining
sixteen per cent. This element of our
production. is rapidly dxEindling, and
before many years viii drop out alto
gether, leaving the competition for our
markets between Cuba and the vari-
Gus domestic sources, and with the lat
ter the product of the Philippine Is
lands will have to be included.
There is always something fascinat-
ing about the American sugar situati On
with it's amending political compli "a
tions. Sugar viii not stay out of poll
ties. 1t is almost unique among com
modities in the persistent attention of
our lawmakers which it invites, in
volving serious partisan and sectional
struggles. Not since the days when
King Cotton was supposed to dominate
the political policy of the United
States, has there been sucsi an agricui-
tural crop. The reason for this, in
large part, is that each of the sources
of supply is permanently on the anxi 1us
seat, lest it be dislodged by one of ;he
others. To preserve 'Ethe balance of
power among our sources of sugar
production has thus become a momen-
tous problem Of national statesman
ship, and never more so than today.
Each contributing section must be con
stantly alert to see that it's line of de-
fences is unimpaired. The American
cane, from which three hundred and
thirty thousand tons of sugar were last
year raised in Louisiana and twelve
thousand tons in Texas, for example,
would be wiped out of existence We're
Cuba s sugar, through annexation or
otherwise, to come in free, because of
the great advantages which few de-
grees of latitude give the Antilles in
raising this crop. Porto Rico's sugar
comes in free. a condition
which has increased this small island g
production from seventy thousand tons
a year to over two hundred thousand.
But all is not ''velvet' for Porto
Rico. The same protective principle
1hSfa iaJ l.
vantage over it's West Indian COMPETE
tors IN selling sugar to some slight
extent increases Porto Rican prices of
other things. For example. it costs ff-
ty per cent more to bring sugar from
Porto Rico to the United States than
from Havana, because of the former
traffic s limitation to American bot
toms. Porto Ricans also have to pay
home prices on all the articles that
are sold at a lower rate in the export
trade, and as result Cuba gets it's
steel rails and sugar machinery to
better advantage But these extra
costs are but slight, compared to the
of a free admission of q
highly protected product.
The American beet industry, under
bur present sugar schedules is grow
ing rapidly, having last year supplied
slightly more than ten per cent. of the
American sugar consumption. The beet
has developed on the Pacific coast to
such an extent that the Hawaiian sugar
which formerly found a market there
is now obliged to come to our Eastern
coast, often travelling ABOUND the Horn,
4 trade necessity which is giving the
some apprehension, since
they feel that with the beet on one side
Of them, and the undeveloped Philip
pine cane on the other, should the lat
Ter secure free access to our markets,
hey might be bottled up Thus far,
he Philippines are not great sugar ex-
porters, and the quality of the sugar is
crude; but with the complete removal
IF the duty under straight free trade,
which is liable to come some day or
is reduction to twenty-five per cent of
he Dingley rates, as Secretary Taft
oerSlStently urges, capital might rush
nto the Philippines, developing a cane
there that would materially
affect our market conditions. Each of
-hese sources of supply thus has much |
o fear from the others. If Cuba should |
gain free ingress to our markets, under |
it would give all the other !,
sugar sources "a run for their Iives,'' |
by no means complete eXtinc- |
ion, since Cuba alone would probably |
lot be large enough to supply US. But |
is possibilities are such that the sugar |
'tate senator's both beet and Louisi- |
ma cane, can always be counted on !
o oppose Cuban annexation, which !
would be considered if at all. primarily |
Is tariff question. The saying, "a |
iespotism tempered by assassination"
uggests a certain analogy to our tariff
We have high protection
SIN tempered by annexatiCn'
The reciprocity treaty with Cuba Sc
ured in 1908, after such a struggle on
he part of the Administration. had five
ears to run. and We're it dependent
pon affirmative action of Congress for
eneWal the fight would be most seri-
us since every other sugar producing
interest would be against it. in addition
o the very considerable body of Amer
cans who look with growing disfavor
pom any reduction Of 9nV IA riff under