The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-02-20

However. this may be, Oxnartt
proceeds to back up his plea against
the Beveridge child labor bill with
the statement that in Santo Domn-
go cane sugar can be made at a
cost of 81 ton. q,
Suppost 1t can. You know what
the labor Is in Santo Domingo. Ne.
grocs only stage removed from I'd
condition of primeval savagery. liv-
in6 In huts, clad in rags. feeding on
the fruits that a tropical clima+e
furnishes.
The complete answer to Oxnard's
proposition Is to be made in tiN
shape of question: Shall TN
Ichildren of America be employed In
competition with the half-nakel
and hardly half civilized negroes 6f
the West Indian Islands?
Oxnard says that il the Beveridgc
bill should become law. the labar
cost OF his product would be dou-
Dled. 1t would be better by far
that labor cost OF his product
should be doubled than that the
health, happiness. and character of
the children of America, or even 9f
any considerable number of those
children be halved.
WHERE THE PROFIT WOIJLD
GO. or
And after all what would be tbe
iinal meaning. To whom would ro
the final profit, If Oxnard's nlea 10
put American girlhood on plane
with West Indian savagery should he
granted? oi
When the beet sugar Industry was
iirst started it was. hailed 40 Il
pright promise OF relief for the corlii
Scmer an assurance of n great eYli
tension of the field of emplovme93t
Tor workingmen, and particularly n
PROJECT which would give IN tbd
farmer n new market for almost 4
new product. Beets as vegetables
hai their sale. but beets as the row
material for sugar were eypectel
10 engage much of the attention of
the farmer to his profit and 70 the
p7oht Of the farming community.
That was the theory. AS a matter
o. fact, the whole beet sugar busi-
ness has been stepped in corruptlon
All over the land went promotds
securing from State legislatures
Dcunties to be paid to the farmers
III proportion to the amount of sug-
ar Deets they raised; from counties
and from towns, bonds or other s,lk
ventions for sugar factories to be
erected. The promoters, the sellers
o. stock. the political agents took
their profits and disappeared.
Thereupon came the American
Beet Sugar Association, sometimes
called trust. It's president is
Mr.. OXnard, now lobbying here
against a bill for the protection of
American children. In n collection
o. biographies, most of which are
written by their subjects, | find that
Mr.. Oxnard admits that his asso.
citation comprises all the beet sugar
factories in the United States. ~
So the trust in the end reaped the
benefit. not merely of the labor of
the children. but Of the bounties and
subsidies voted by public bodies and
taken out Of the pockets of the tax
payers.
incidentally the price of sugar
was not reduced to the consumer.
NEXT THE SUGAR TRUST.
and then another trust appeared
on the field; one with which the
beet sugar association seems to haze
new perfect understanding.
Michigan was one of the States
tEat voted bounties to, establish the
sugar beet industry. Farmers laid
cut their fields in bect8, counties
cheerfully bonded themselves for
factories. All went well for time
until at the chief commercial city
OF that State 1t was apparent that
beet sugar made within thirty miIes
was being undersold in the open
market by sugar sent from the
Havermeyer refinerles at Brookljh,
N. Y. W
ANA why? One Of the good things
that William II. Hearst has done
was to discover contract which
showed that the New York Central
Road, the Michigan Central, and
The Lake Shore were giving eitiitt
ID the Sugar Trust, or to their ag-
'nts In Detroit, such rebates on ship
hcnts of sugar that the product of
ne Michigan farms, encouraged
by the taxation of the Michisnh
people, could be and was, undersold
In the market. or course. the beet
sugar business in Michigan lam
suished, and Is now practically dead.
Through his law department, Mr..
Hearst compelled the attention sHof
he Department of Justice of tie
United States to these rebates with
he result that the offending rail-
'oads were fined. But so far no
'allroad official has been sent Ito
all Fines are as little of a check
. railroad determinations as dam
lge srits are an assurance that
abroad accidents will not happeh
weekly.
So. Mr.. Oxnard comes here as THE |
read OF one trust. associated with
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