The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1907-06-07
What Has Crippled Beet Sugar
Industry.

Gently Ventureu 10 express Jue mop D
that ten years hence all the sugar con-
sumed would be produced in the Unit
ed States. The hope is one pardon
able, but to make it effective the ad-
ministration and party in power must
get back to Dingley tariff policies and
the time. honored principles of the
Republican doctrine of protection. The
policy favored by the administration
and which Secretary Taft, as the ad
ministration nominee for president a
year hence, will carry into execution,
will smite the American sugar industry
hip and thigh.
The Dingley tariff gave birth and
sustenance to the beet sugar industry
in the United States. 1t was not until
that document became the law that
any attempt was made to develop the
industry and the first pull back it
experienced in Michigan was the me-
gotiation and passage of the Cuban
reciprocity treaty which scared out
capitalists who had contemplated in
vestments in sugar plants. and placed a
limit on the development of the indus
try in Michigan. Two factories were
killed by this treaty and five modern
factories have been removed to other
localities.
| 1t is the apprehension as to the re-
newal of this treaty and the reduction
in duties on sugar imports from the
Philippines, that causes men to hest
tate. Both of these policies the ad-
ministration is thoroughly committed
to and it is only the senate of the
! United States that has stood in the
way of fixing rate Of duty on sugar
from the Philippines which will per-
nit it to make the American industry
look like thirty cents" in the slang
parlance of the street
1t has been shown in these columns
that the average price paid the farmer
for his beets is 1921 cwt., while the
entire cost of raising the cane and con-
verting it into sugar in the Philippines
is IA cents cwt. In other words at
a cost of $175 the Philippine sugar
producer raises the cane, converts it into
raw sugar and places it in sacks ready
for market the same amount of sugar
that the beet factories in this country
are able to extract from ton of beets
for which our beet growers are now
receiving So. And the sugar can be
produced there and laid down at the
ports of the United States at not to ex-
coed one cent and half pound
In the census year 1908, the Fill
pinos had 179,712 acres planted to
sugar cane from which they produced
III, 900 long, tons of sugar. The area
of cane formed but II per cent of the
total area in the islands under cultiva-
ton, 3,247 112 acres.
The avowed object of the admins
tration in asking for reduction of the
tariff on sugar brought from the Phil
ippines is to furnish an increased mar
ket in this country for the sugar pro-
duced in the islands. There can be no
other reason. With the cheap labor in
the islands, under the encouragement
OF the reduced tariff. in ten years the
Philippines alone would be able to
produce all the sugar used in the Uni
ted States, and at price not single
sugar producer here could complete
with.
1t is calculated that within five years
at the pr resent rate of development
Cuba will produce approximately g..
100000 tons of sugar, and under the
policy of the administration as ex-
emplified by the president and Mr..
Taft, the Cuban and Philippines i'm
ports of sugar would drive every pound
of home grown sugar out of the mar
ket.
Every ton of sugar from foreign
countries inevitably completes with the
home product, hence unless the home
sugar can be grown, manufactured and
sold at lower cost than the Cuban and
Philippines product, under the condi-
tions desired by the administration, our
home producers would be driven out
of the market.
The only safety in the future of the
American sugar industry lies in the
vigorous effort on the part of every
friend of the industry to not only pre-
vent any further concession to out
siders but as well to prevent the re-
newal of the Cuban treaty.
1t is up to the beet sugar industry
of the United States to get busy along
these lines before it is too late.
1t should demand of the Republican
administration the same square deal
and amount of consideration under the
Dingley law which is extended to iron,
steel, wool, tin and other industries
which were built up by the policy of
protection that started the sugar in
dustry.
The president is understood to de-
mand for every interest square deal
Through the efforts of himself, largely,
the sugar industry hasn't had it az
compared with other interests. and
still further assault upon it is sought.